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BTR: In My Opinion…

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In this week’s episode of “Celebrity Presidential Apprentice”, possible GOP Presidential candidate Donald Trump’s task was to act and sound like a “Birther”. Now I have introduced you to the Birthers in an earlier column (http://beyondtheregion.wordpress.com/2011/03/18/btr-in-my-opinion-6/) but to refresh your memory, they are the folks who are convinced that President Obama was not born in this country. Trump, I must say, took up his task with gusto, beginning with a tease on “The View” last week, in which he taunted the President to produce his birth certificate. And then as his political “Trump” card, this week “The Donald” released his birth certificate. The only problem was this…it turned out to actually be a hospital issued “certificate of birth” that is given to parents saying their child was born (http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0311/Trump_fails_to_produce_birth_certificate.html)… Oops…he later got it right on the second try…but as Project Manager of this task, he failed…so that means…Donald Trump…You’re fired!

On his limo ride away from the show, Trump tried again by telling Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly that the President doesn’t want to produce his birth certificate because it may say he is a Muslim…sorry Donald, trying to convince America again that the President is a Muslim is next week’s task. Besides, I know when I was born, I grabbed a pen and filled out my own birth certificate and wrote in that I was Lutheran…I guess I just knew…I was gifted.

FX Network this week announced that they are renewing the show Archer for a third season. Now I am a late-comer to this show, which is a spy spoof cartoon for “mature audiences” (don’t ask how I got to watch it). The main character is super (dysfunctional) spy, Sterling Archer, who tries not to destroy the world while saving it, pistol with a silencer in one hand and his fifth martini in the other. He and his supporting cast of characters are so crazy and so politically incorrect that I really should not describe them in this column. You have to watch it Thursday nights to believe it. And speaking of believe…I believe Archer was the agent that reported that he found WMD in Iraq… Washington thought he meant “weapons of mass destruction”, when he really meant was “women, martinis and drugs”. See more about the show at http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/originals/archer/index.php

This week, it was reported that President Obama signed a secret Executive Order authorizing the U.S. to begin supplying the rebels in Libya… wait…”secret?”…doesn’t that mean no one is supposed to know…ARCHER!!!

While we are on the subject of Libya, now that we have apparently decided to move forward with regime change, it would seem to me that there has to be a more direct, economical way to achieve this…how about this?… Step 1: Ask Colonel Khaddafi nicely to leave the country…heck, even offer him a plane…if he says yes, sweet…game over, thanks for playing…if no…Step 2: Launch an armed Predator drone to fly over his compound (or the office of his plastic surgeon…talk about your war crimes!)…Step 3: Fire the Predator missile…if you get him, everyone goes home…if not, repeat Steps 1 through 3 as many times as necessary…I think I prefer this approach than handing over a lot of our sophisticated weapons to a group of rebels, who I am still not convinced we know enough about.

I have promised myself I won’t put an April Fool’s joke in this column.

Well, the dust is beginning to settle after the Indiana House Democrats have returned to the Capitol and all of the pundits are being to assess who won and who lost. I look at it this way: politically, the Democrats had nothing to lose by walking out. They were going to get rolled on vote after vote, issue after issue from now until the end of April. They weren’t going to take over the Senate next year and with the Republicans in charge of re-districting (despite some crazy talk about the process being non-partisan) things didn’t look good for the House either. You top that with Representative Mike Pence being the overwhelming frontrunner for Governor to succeed Mitch Daniels, who himself could very well be on the Republican Presidential ticket in 2012 and that adds up to a train wreck for the Democrats next year. So, the only hope was a “Hail Mary” attempt at a game changer. It is too early to tell, but with all of the concessions they got coming back, along with firing up their base big time, I declare “winning” for the Dems.

We are beginning a new baseball season and I can say that I am still absolutely, positively indifferent.

BAD CAREER ADVICE OF THE WEEK: Actually, it was from last week after I finished my column, but it certainly stands the test of time. Carlos Lam, a Deputy Prosecutor from Johnson County, was forced to resign last week after admitting to sending an e-mail suggesting Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker stage some type of fake assault incident in order to discredit the state’s labor unions (http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011103250346). Lam thought it would be even better if the fake assailant used a gun. Wow, the commitment to law and order gives me goose bumps…no…that is more like a skin crawl…my bad.

On Monday, there was a very disturbing article in the Los Angeles Times, highlighting the vulnerability of this country’s infrastructure to a future “cyber attack” (http://beyondtheregion.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/cyber-war-a-real-threat-to-u-s-latimes-com/). The article states that our power grids, chemical plants, pipelines and other infrastructure could be subject to attacks by computer hacking and viruses from such countries as China and Russia. In fact, the article states that “…U.S. officials say China already has laced the U.S. power grid and other systems with hidden malware that could be activated to devastating effect…” Sooner or later, this country has to realize that we are rotting from the inside out and finally make the investments we need in our national infrastructure. In the warfare of the 21st Century, this country is more vulnerable to the “ENTER” key than tanks and bombers. After all, it is hard to fight back if we are sitting in the dark.

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court began hearing arguments on a massive discrimination class-action lawsuit filed against Walmart. Court observers are describing this case as a decision which will determine if the retail giant is in effect “too big to sue”. Why not, we already have banks and other companies that have been deemed “too big to fail”. It does to me beg the “bigger” question: at what point do we begin to deal with things that are just “too big”.

Today’s Post Tribune had a very interesting article about the growth of the wind energy industry (http://beyondtheregion.wordpress.com/2011/04/01/wind-energy-picks-up-speed-post-tribune/).  Anyone who has driven south on I-65 cannot help but be impressed by the wind turbine fields scattered all along central Indiana. According to the article, there are possible projects proposed right here in south Lake County. With our ongoing addition to foreign oil (and the foreign policy dilemmas that go with it), as well as the recently highlighted dangers of nuclear power, we have to stay with a push for things like wind and solar. To me, it is quite literally a national security priority.

THE CUBS WIN THE WORLD SERIES…oops…sorry…enjoy your April Fool’s Day…will be back next week.



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