My plan for nation-building and war-ending...

Holy cow!

I just heard on TV that for each U.S. soldier sent to Afghanistan for one year, it will cost the United States $1 million. One million dollars for every soldier for one year! So, if Obama sends 30,000 more soldiers...oh, my goodness, what a tremendous waste of money. I have a better idea.

Instead of using that $1 million so that each good soldier can trudge around in sand, dodge bullets, and be put in danger, why not divide up the $1 million in a more effective war-ending way. Take some of it and buy off the Afghanistan warlords...yes, an annoying thought, but I have heard that we've been doing it anyway. Take some of it and raise the average incomes of impoverished Afghan citizens, so they don't want to join the Taliban for the tiny amount of money they offer. Take some of the money and build a new school there, to help employment, education, and the Afghan economy. Take some of the money and build a new school here, to help employment, education, and the American economy. And finally take some of the money and give it to the American soldier, with orders that he has to stay in America and spend it here, thereby helping the U.S. economy.

And copy that model for every other U.S. soldier, bringing them home, and better spending the billions of dollars.

There's my plan for nation-building and war-ending, and using the expense of $1 million per soldier per year in better, peaceful ways for the good of all. I say it is better than Obama's escalation plan and war expense.

Another box of "Peace on Earth" cards...

I purchased a box of Christmas cards today. Sometimes I will choose cards with a Nativity scene on the front, but usually I select cards that show a dove and an olive branch with a theme about "Peace of Earth."

You know, I sure would like to purchase my box of "Peace on Earth" holiday cards knowing that it is actually true, for once, that America is at peace and out of wars and that we can rejoice what should be a real gift of the holiday. Do you think America will ever achieve that goal? There was a short time, right after the end of the Cold War, when I was able to say that, within my lifetime, America was at peace. No wars! Wow! And conincidentally...or maybe not so coincidentally... at the time, there also developed an actual U.S. budget surplus and not a huge deficit. But it was not to last. It vanished, with the come and the go of politics and fear, without most of us getting the time to treasure it.

More war years went by--this time two wars rather than the usual one. I always thought the moment that summed up the George W. Bush years came at the end of it when a frustrated Iraqi journalist threw his two shoes at Bush when he was speaking in Iraq. The Iraqi was, of course, hauled off to jail to serve a sentence length that was way too harsh for its crime. But I always felt that the shoe-throwing, meant to reflect an Iraqi insult, reflected the view of many Americans, including mine, that our president then was misguided, reckless, oblivious, careless, stupid...about the wars, about the economy, about the social problems. That was Bush. That was then. Then there was the end to eight, long years of irresponsible governing. Inspired by hope, I voted for Barack Obama and change and hopeful, new paths.

This coming Tuesday, President Obama is supposed to tell us, according to clues from the media this week, why he thinks there is a need for troop escalation in Afghanistan, what the exit strategy will be, and how we are going to defeat an indigenous population like the pitiful religiously conservative Taliban within a nation that has never been stable and that is now led by a American-foisted leader whose termed corrupt and whose police system is considered even more corrupt. Well, Obama can give a pretty good speech, so I guess I will hope that he can pull it off, for the sake of all the American soldiers and their families and the Afghan civilians, all who will suffer the consequences of longer days of war.

Going back to the "shoe" theme, of how a shoe can matter in the course of a presidency, I think Obama has to worry about the dropping of two shoes. One shoe is the war. The Vietnam War offers a lot of lesson-learning comparisons. LBJ escalated and Nixon continued a war that cost way too much for too many people. It went on too long and it had little success. Too many Christmases went by with Bob Hope specials from war zones and "Peace on Earth" Christmas cards.

When Obama escalates the war effort on Tuesday, he opens the door for the emergence of an anti-war candidate who is also populist and also Main Street- and jobs-driven rather than Wall Street-aligned. He opens the door to the exit of his liberal base. But it is more than just an invitation to someone else who may actually supply the change that candidate Obama once symbolized. It means that Obama's journey, once hopeful in the shoes of FDR, was turned into a political "Waiting for Godot" with domestic policy that parroted Bush, foreign policy that didn't learn from LBJ, and an assortment of mediocre Clinton advisers keeping Obama from progressive steps.

Because of his polio paralysis, FDR couldn't even walk, but his shoes were his vision and action and they stepped boldly in ways that saved an economically depressed nation. The second shoe that Obama has to worry about is the economy and how it relates to all of America. His advisers followed the Poulson and Bush path with big bail-outs for Wall Street without responses of regulation for Wall Street transgressions. The bail-outs for Wall Street made Main Street feel forgotten. The banks made profits, did little for consumers, and continued business-as-greedy practices, jacking up credit card rates on the very people--the middle-class taxpayers whose money had saved them, and the young voters who were inspired by the prospects of change.

And yet, it could happen again. Wall Street could cave and tumble into another gigantic financial ruin with the least little financial collapse around the world, and then what would the Obama speech be? More economic stimulus for them because without them, we are lost, even though, with them, we were forgotten? I don't think even Bernanke at the Federal Reserve would be able to sell a second Wall Street bail-out. Certainly, that would mean a one-term presidency. A sad end to what could have been. And thus, the renewed need and arrival of that populist, now with an anti-war voice and a eye on Main Street and a jobs programs mentality.

Shoes thrown are an insult. Shoes that are led astray are wasted. Shoes make a difference because paths make a difference.

I look forward to the day when I send my "Peace on Earth" cards during a holiday season and the message truly reflects the American belief and the world reality.

Quotes...

Here are some interesting quotes...

• "I coached English for two seasons." --A coach tells students in the recent movie "The Assassination of a High School President."

I saw these two lines quoted by friend Doug Mellgren on Facebook:

• "I like life. It gives you something to do."
• "Some things you share with a loved one. Some things you eat before they get there."

I saw these quotes in the book "Boots on the Ground by Dusk, My Tribute to Pat Tillman" by Mary Tillman:

• "When it is dark enough, you can see the stars." --Charles A. Beard
• "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." --Martin Luther King Jr.
• "Action is the antidote for despair." --Joan Baez
• "We'll be friends until forever, just you wait and see." --Winnie the Pooh (A.A. Milne)

Many famous authors worked as journalists first. That was true for L. Frank Baum, author of "The Wizard of Oz." According to the December 2009 issue of American History magazine, Baum's first article for the Chicago Evening Post appeared on the front page on May 1, 1891, and was about the experience of relocating to a new home (what he had done in moving to Chicago). For that article, Baum wrote:

• "Many a proud man will sleep on the floor tonight for this is moving day. This is the day when man lives as it is written he shall, by the perspiration of his brow. Also it is the day when the wife...whispers in your ear the beauty of the poet's tip that there is no place like home."

The modern 51 apparently is 60...

I admit that I have never been very good in math. When I was young, the school systems forced modern math upon me, only to later abandon the experimental fad after, for me, the damage had been done.

But despite my problems with modern math, I always thought that 51 was a percentage majority for 100.

Let's do some figuring...There are 50 states. Each state has two senators. Fifty times two is 100. Fifty percent of 100 would be exactly half. So, 51 percent would be a majority. Right?

So, why do Senate leaders calculate a majority at 60 percent or 60 votes out of 100? That's nine points beyond an actual majority. Fifty-one votes should be what determines whether legislation passes or fails. Not 60. And not 56 plus trying to get goofball Blue Dogs like Blanche Lincoln, Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu, and Joe Lieberman to join for a total of 60 votes for health care reform legislation (which, of course, needs to include a public option program).

I think the Senate needs to respect the notion of a majority.

I realize the doggone electoral college messes around with presidential election--and I have never understood why that should usurp the majority popular vote, either.

Not always is majority rule the best choice. But it still means a majority has spoken, and that usually relates to democracy in action. When it comes to the Senate or the House, I like that concept. Modern math or not.

One of the seven percent...

I heard on TV that only seven percent of Americans don't have a cell phone...and I am one of them.

It's not that I am opposed to technology and electronic devices. If I need and want one, then I'll buy one. If you need or want one, then buy one.

But I honestly don't need one yet. I needed one way back when I was traveling weekly on snowy Wyoming roads, delivering my newspapers to a printer hundreds of miles away. But they didn't have them then.

Why should I get one now when my land-line phone is fine and adequate for my needs? (Relatives and friends know my number and how to reach me.) Why should I get one now when it will likely just add more expense to a phone bill? Why get one and risk even a long-term threat of possible brain tumors, if various research about "putting a microwave-like device against your head...and cooking" turns out to be correct?

About half of the time when I call someone who's using a cell phone, the reception is either bad (unless they are truly frying bacon) or the connection will suddenly end, as their batteries die, and we are cut off from our conversation.

If I were traveling a lot, I would want one. Maybe that will mean a summer purchase sometime. If I had children who were college students and traveling the roads to college, I would want them to have one, though I would encourage "emergency use" mainly.

I have told students that I will certainly get a cell phone when, not only do they come with Internet and photograph capabilities, but also work as a flashlight, a shaver, and a taser.

So, I still don't feel the need to rush out and buy a cell phone because 93 percent of Americans have them. I am fine being in the seven percent.

Three pop culture questions...

Three questions came to my mind today concerning pop culture in America:

• 1). There is a show on the Sci-Fi channel called "Ghost Hunters." Question: How long can an actual TV series exist with episodes wherein so-called ghost hunters jump or scream or say "What was that?" and there is never anything remotely close to a ghostly image apparent or captured on film?
• 2). I listened to only the start of the County Music Awards program tonight because it featured singer Taylor Swift and, as I had an earlier opinion about her singing, I wanted to see if my opinion was wrong. No...I still don't think she can sing. Is it just me?
• 3). Why in the world would someone spend more than five minutes per day on Facebook? After finding out that everyone is doing okay, usually in very mundane ways, I have found that even the dictionary reads with greater excitement--Oh, that's an interesting definition of mung beans...