Weekly Thought Bonanza October 24

On Sunday, I produce a column called “The Weekly Thought Bonanza”. The column is based on all of the random thoughts that run through my head all week, and trust me there are a plethora of them. I will try to share as many of these thoughts as I can, so each one of my readers can think just a little bit extra over the coming week.
Rozanna al-Yami, is a Saudi Arabian journalist who participated in a interview about sex toys on Saudi television. She was charged with a crime and given a punishment of 60 lashes for doing the interview. Why in the world does this constitute a crime? Isn’t free speech something we as a citizen of this earth be entitled to. This is another example of how Islam is so out of date.

Boston College and Notre Dame are the only two Catholic Colleges that play division one football. It is an absolutely great rivalry and I look forward to the game every year. This game is how college football should be played. Two well coached teams that play the game hard with class. Absolutely awesome, in my opinion.

Utah has implemented a four day work week for its state and municipal employees to save taxpayer money. An added bonus to the plan is that overtime has been cut tremendously as workers do not tend to want to do any overtime work after a ten hour day. Every state should look into adopting this policy change. Getting government to work leaner and smarter is a great idea.

Another child was mauled by a Pit Bull this week, (read my column on Pit Bulls http://drcrischasse.blogspot.com/2009/09/poodles-not-pit-bulls.html ). What is it going to take to stop this madness? Where are the animal rights groups with their outrage? Oh wait, Pit Bulls are those warm and cuddly dogs that do no wrong, right? I am going to write about this until someone corrects the solution.
Combos are a tremendously underappreciated snack food. Wash it down with a Root Beer and you might have found a little glimpse of heaven.

The Baby Einstein videos and CD’s had their legitimacy challenged by several groups. Disney, the owner of the collection, has offered refunds to anyone who has bought the product since 2001. I do not understand why people buy all of this “junk”, for lack of a better word. Teach your child to explore yourself, teach them new things, and most importantly show you love to him or her. There is not a DVD out there that can do that.

Toronto’s annual Boobyball party to benefit the charity Rethink Breast Cancer, has had a few risqué ads to promote its charity. It’s just one of the edgier ways awareness is being promoted among younger women during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. With over three hundred thousand hits on You-Tube the campaign seems to be working. Of course, there are plenty of protesters because of the ads being run. I say awareness is awareness and if it raises monies for research, god bless.


If you have a nice salad for dinner does it defeat the purpose if you eat ice cream after the salad? My guess would be yes.


I just started to use Flickr from yahoo to post pictures of my family. It is very easy to use and well worth it. You can use it for free or it is 24.99 for the year for unlimited uploads.


Does anyone besides me feel that one day we will wake up in the morning and turn on our television to find the Israeli’s at war with Iran. I do not see Israel standing by while Iran tries to build nuclear weapons.


If I was not afraid to fly before, I just heard that two NWA pilots took a nap during their flight and missed their runway by one hundred and fifty miles. Thanks guys!!


The Weekly Thought Bonanza thought of the week; Apple picking has become the next best thing here in New England. My question is why? Isn’t it just as easy to go to the store and buy a bag? Half the people who go and pick the apples will not eat twenty five percent of what they pick anyway.

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I am not tough enough to be sick

There is not a care in the world that I have more than the health of my family. You never feel as powerless in your life when you cannot help someone you love get well. My family has been hit and hit hard by the sickness bug. It is how we persevere and how we step up to the plate for our love one’s that matters the most.
I am not great at being the strong one. I let my emotions, selfishly perhaps; dictate at times how I react to news that is not the best. I have to learn that this is not about me and my feelings; it is about the people I care about who need all the love and support I can give. Love and happiness is the best medicine of them all.

I ask myself often why this happens to good people. Isn’t this the same question everyone asks during a time in stress when things are not going well? We try to get reasons instead of looking at what is in front of us, the problem at hand.

The birth of my son has changed me in so many ways even as a PhD mathematician I cannot even count that high. He is my whole world wrapped up in his 19 pound frame. Even when he keeps me up all night, his precious little smile makes all my worries go away. I wish I could give that feeling to the people in my life who need it.

I know I dwell on the bad in my life and do not appreciate the good in it. I get way down when I cannot control the situation and I certainly cannot control the health and mental stability of my loved ones.

I had a rude awakening today as I did the unthinkable. I did not help someone in my family who needed me. I thought of my feelings first, and that I am ashamed of. I obviously had no malice in feelings today, I just wanted the person to be well. Can a person really be well without the support one needs? My thoughts always go back to one thing and one thing only, laughter.

I firmly believe that people who are ill do not need the self pity. They need to feel that they still have that self worth that they always had. They stay strong for us and not for themselves. That is the most selfless act there is.

When I started to write a column, I had hoped more than anything that my thoughts would help me to become not only a better person, but to be more understanding. I always hear that I am the one with the big heart and the one who will always be there for everyone. I am a workaholic, a believer in the good in everyone, (even though that has burned me over and over again, but that is a column for another day), and a positive thinker. I make all my decisions based on my heart and what comes out from my soul. That is what gets me into trouble.

I have to learn a balance between worrying too much and not worrying enough is all I can take from this column. Of course, I will always worry too much because that is what I do. I will have to pretend to not worry and that is where my worrying will show through and I will act stupidly and trip over my tongue, which I have become a master at.

I want to be the best I can be when the deck is stacked against my family. I wish the pain would go to me and I have always believed that. Except I do not believe I am even close to being as strong as the people in my family to handle it. I still would take that challenge any day though.

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A new President with new ideas

My best best friends love to tell people I am running for President of the United States, when we go out on business trips. I know I am the ex-CEO of a defense contractor and my friends even got me in a blurb on The Hill newspaper about me running for Congress. That one went over big at my house, not! Maybe or maybe not that run for office is in my future, but I have a few thoughts about what I would do if I were President of the United States in my first one hundred days of office. I thought I would share.


Number one on my list would be to get rid of all of the subsidies to any country that does not respect the people of the United States. Americans have always stepped up when there is a natural disaster, a food shortage, or a sick child. Americans step up. If you cannot respect us, then you cannot send monies to countries that that do not.

I would immediately ban all assault weapons in this country. There is not a reason that I can think of that would make them anything more than a danger to society.

Affordable healthcare would be a major task I would tackle immediately. I would start a think tank with all of the major players and come up with a plan that would be sensible for all Americans. With the best doctors in the world, and with the most groundbreaking technology in the world, every American would get to share in America’s great innovations.

America’s infrastructure has become old and tired. My administration would put taxpayer’s dollars to work on restoring the beauty of American. New highways, bridges, and public transportation would be key portions of a bill sent immediately to Congress.

We need to get Americans working again. Investing in new technologies would be key to getting us back to work. Our factories are being turned into condo’s, instead of making computers, wind turbines and synthetic materials used for everything from clothes to tires. Blue collar workers have always been the backbone of America and our backbone needs to get strengthened again.

America needs to invest in our schools. Our children’s Math and Science skills have not increased in this country over the last decade. The communities that have the monies can invest in new computers, planetariums and science labs. Every student should have the same opportunity to flourish in school. It will take some money that is for sure, but money can be saved in other places.

One of the places monies can be reallocated to schools is to stop pork barrel pork projects. Here are some specific pork barrel projects, along with their congressional sponsors. Some of them are just examples of traditional congressional excess. These include: $500,000 by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, (R-Texas) for a Manned Space Flight Education Foundation in Houston to create "a virtual space community for students"; $200,000 by Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) for the Providence Holy Cross Foundation tattoo removal violence prevention program in Mission Hills, Calif.; and $98,257 by Rep. James Moran (D-Va.) a member of the House Appropriations Committee, for funds from the Small Business Administration for the Georgetown Metro Connection, a bus service that runs from Georgetown in Washington, D.C. "to the neighborhood of Dupont Circle in D.C. and to Rosslyn, Va.," which, the group points out, happens to be in Moran's district. Cutting the fat, no pun intended, and using these monies on projects that will actually make America stronger and a better place to live would be an immediate priority.

The housing market is in the worst slump since the great depression. Tax credits have started to bring the market up a bit, but I have to make it a priority to do more. Tax credits, low interest loans and stricter regulation would only be a start. Every American should have the dream of owning a home. Being able to keep that home has to be the ultimate goal.

Maybe it is just a what we need a person willing to make the tough decisions and make decisions that might be outside of the proverbial box, but willing to do them. America needs to reinvent the way it does business from the ground up. America needs to be run like a well oiled corporation willing to take risks to benefit everyone.







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Voter fraud is correctable

With all the voter fraud going around I have a simple solution, show identification when you vote. When I drive I have to have my license, when I go to work I have to produce a social security card and I have to show identification at a bank to cash a check. Why would I not have to show identification when I vote?


Voter fraud has been an issue in several national, state, and local elections since democratic elections have taken place. Look at the 2000 election, where ACORN first was involved in getting people to the polls. Promises of cigarettes and money drove thousands of voters to the polls whether they were registered or not.

Look at the local election in New York that went astray. Brian Suozzo voted with an absentee ballot in the Working Families Party primary on Sept. 15 because, as his application stated, he was "at home recovering from medical procedure." Except Brian never voted.

Jessica Boomhower's application said she would be attending a "work conference in Boston." Jessica never voted.

Michael Ward couldn't vote in person because he was "taking care of elderly parent." Michael never voted.

Kimberlee Truell was on a "Bus trip to casino," as was Miguel Vazques. Neither of these individuals voted.

A special prosecutor is investigating the case and criminal charges are possible. New York State Supreme Court Judge Michael Lynch ruled that there were "significant election law violations that have compromised the rights of numerous voters and the integrity of the election process."

The only problem with these absentee ballot records at the Rensselaer County Board of Elections in Troy, N.Y., is that they're phony, voters and investigators say -- and they've prompted what's being called an unprecedented investigation of suspected voter fraud. A local election where voters voted and they had no idea they did.

Each political party has had complaints in various locations since two thousand. Both democrats and republicans alike have both used ‘get out” the vote drives. Over enthusiastic agents for each party have continually circumvented the rules to get their candidate elected, to me that is not democratic, that is downright wrong.

What scares me the most is that neither party wants to end this. Certainly the new administration will not go for the identification law as they have already shot down several proposals. Do we really want to live in a country were elections are bought? I have never ever believed that this country was perfect, but we have to correct certain wrongs to be great.

Realistically, this is a simple problem to fix. Identification, Identification, Identification, is all it takes to fix voter fraud. Our leaders in this country need to come together and set ground rules. While they are at it why can’t there be standardization on what a ballot should be? The hanging chad fiasco in Florida is a prime example of how voters have no standardization when they vote. We put a man on the moon, let’s fix the election process.





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Espionage

A scientist who worked for the Defense Department, a White House space council and other agencies was arrested Monday on charges of attempting to pass along classified information to an FBI agent posing as an Israeli intelligence officer.

Stewart David Nozette, 52, of Chevy Chase, Md., was charged in a criminal complaint with attempting to communicate, deliver and transmit classified information, the Justice Department said. The complaint does not allege that the government of Israel or anyone acting on its behalf violated U.S. law.

This is one of the worse forms of treason that can be done to the American people. Giving the precious secrets away that our government uses for the defense of its people is an utter shame.
Nozette had plenty of clearances that enabled him to access several databases that kept the nuclear capabilities of the United States. While Nozette tried to pass these secrets to a friendly government with the United States that is still no excuse on Nozette’s part or the Israeli government’s part. With a world that is forever changing, friends can be enemies very quickly.

The Russians, Chinese, the British, Cuba and Germany have all engaged is some type of espionage activity in the United States. Do not get me wrong the United States has returned the favor several times as well. Being proactive is one thing, but doing it and using the secrets gained has been around since the Roman days. The individuals that perpetrate these high crimes are nothing more than criminals regardless of which country they live in.

Following is a chronology of recent major espionage cases in the United States:

2000
GEORGE TROFIMOFF, a retired Army Reserve colonel, was accused of spying for the Soviet Union and Russia for a quarter of a century. He is the highest- ranking American military officer ever charged with espionage. He allegedly photographed documents and passed the film to KGB agents, and was later recruited into the KGB.

1997
EARL PITTS, who was stationed at the F.B.I. Academy in Quantico, Va., was sentenced to 27 years in prison after admitting he spied for Moscow.

1996
HAROLD JAMES NICHOLSON, a C.I.A. officer, was charged with committing espionage on behalf of Russia. At the time of his arrest at a Washington airport, he was carrying rolls of exposed film which contained Secret and Top Secret information. He pleaded guilty to the charges in 1997 and was sentenced to 23 years in prison.

1994
ALDRICH H. AMES, a CIA counterintelligence official, and his wife, Rosario, pleaded guilty to spying for the Soviet Union in what was characterized as the most damaging espionage case in the nation's history. He passed information to the Soviets from 1985 to 1994, including the identities of American agents. He is blamed for the deaths of at least nine United States agents in the Soviet Union, and for disclosing American counterintelligence techniques.

1989
FELIX BLOCH, Foreign Service officer, was suspended by the State Department after reportedly being monitored by video camera passing a suitcase to a Soviet agent in Paris. Mr. Bloch, who was once charge d'affaires at the Embassy in Vienna, was not charged with espionage, but was fired in 1990 on the grounds that he lied to investigators.

1986
JONATHAN JAY POLLARD, a civilian Navy intelligence analyst, pleaded guilty to spying for Israel. He is serving a life sentence, which President Clinton refused to commute despite pleas from the Israeli government.

1986
RONALD W. PELTON, a former National Security Agency employee, was convicted of selling top-secret signals intelligence information to the Soviet Union.

1985
LARRY WU-TAI CHIN, a retired C.I.A. analyst, was charged with selling American secrets to China for more than 30 years. He killed himself in his jail cell in 1986, two weeks after being convicted of espionage and tax violations.

EDWARD LEE HOWARD, a former C.I.A. officer, fled the country as the F.B.I. was investigating him for spying for the Soviet Union. He turned up in the Soviet Union in 1986, where he still lives.

A retired Navy warrant officer, JOHN A. WALKER JR., pleaded guilty along with his son, Seaman MICHAEL L. WALKER of the Navy, to charges of spying for the Soviet Union. The elder Walker admitted passing secrets to the Soviets while he was a shipboard communications officer and after his retirement by recruiting his son, brother and a friend to provide fresh information.

1984
RICHARD W. MILLER, an F.B.I. agent in Los Angeles, was arrested on spying charges and sentenced to 20 years in prison. The sentence was reduced to 13 years, and he was released in 1994.

1980
DAVID H. BARNETT, a former C.I.A. agent, pleaded guilty to spying for the Soviet Union between 1976 and 1979 while based in Indonesia. He admitted exposing the identities of 30 agents.

There can never be enough security around the DoD, CIA, or the National Security Agencies top secret information. As someone who has worked in this industry, I believe the government has not spent the monies needed to secure the information most vital to its defense. Until proper change control is put in place, our national secrets are at risk.

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Weekly thought Bonanza Oct 19th

On Sunday, I produce a column called “The Weekly Thought Bonanza”. The column is based on all of the random thoughts that run through my head all week, and trust me there are a plethora of them. I will try to share as many of these thoughts as I can, so each one of my readers can think just a little bit extra over the coming week.


How is it that a boy could make the nation’s heart stop, only to have everyone in America now feeling like they were scammed? Reality television star or not, stop making your children do things that will give them permanent scares for life.

When it snows during the American Championship series, then you know the season is too long and Al Gore is full of it.

Is there anything better than a Klondike bar?

I actually found a beer that is absolutely delightful. Harpoon’s Munich Fest is awesome.

I am so tired of hearing about the Rush Limbaugh not being able to buy the St. Louis Rams. He is what he is and to stop him from buying a business because of his political views is un-American.

Saturday Night Live has lost its fastball many years ago. It still is a huge money maker for NBC, but it is not what it once was.

People all over the world now use the information superhighway; i.e., the internet, to get their news. Newspaper circulation has dwindled because of this almost fifty percent, when you can read your newspaper on the internet so easily you can understand why. There is something still special to me about getting my paper home delivered, however. I will never ever give that up.

I keep seeing Viagra commercials over and over again on television. The thing that always sticks on my mind when the announcer states, ‘If you get an erection that lasts four hours contact your doctor immediately.” I would think that that would be a dream until I did a little research, only to find out that a four hour erection can cause gangrene. Ouch.

Thai food is so much better than greasy Chinese food. Try it if you get a chance.

Americans consume far too much junk food that is a given. Why the government has decided to ban trans fats is probably a good thing health wise, but realistically it is one more thing the government decides to take control of our lives. If I want trans fats in my diet, who are they to tell me differently?

As someone who is watching the healthcare debate with extreme interest because of my family I think this bill is being fast tracked because the Democrats believe their numbers will dwindle in the next election. When real life and politics mix, it is a recipe for disaster.

I have over two hundred channels on Direct Television and I still can never find anything to watch on it. Crappy television is now the norm.

The special I watched on Dateline about concussions in the National Football league was down right scary. While I am concerned about the pro players, what is being done for the college and high school football players? I know because of football my knees are shot and I know I had a concussion or two, but that was a choice I made and I would not change a thing. The question here is, if the medical community thinks there is something that could prevent the injuries, why are we not doing more?

And “The Weekly Thought Bonanza’ thought of the week is; A woman in New Jersey is trying to sue to find out the identity of the sperm donor who donated their sperm to a sperm bank so she could conceive. Listen dear, you knew what you were doing and do not cry about spilled milk now.

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