Barney, Lyndon and other news

Thanks to CSPAN, I was able to hear the whole of Barney Frank's town hall meeting in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts, my old "stomping ground."

I think that Barney's question to ignorant remarks by one of the heckling questioners was "right on." He said, in effect: "What planet have you been living on?" I was pleased to hear that this remark got a lot of applause from the audience.

As each "questioner" got up, they told where they were from, and I was glad to hear that most were not persons who lived in the south coast of Massachusetts. Most were from the Boston area, and several were supporters of Lyndon Larouche.

Yes, Lyndon is still around and agitating, even though he is in his upper 80's. You remember Lyndon... he ran for President a couple of times and he does have a following. Lyndon began as a Marxist a long time ago, and later became a supporter of American capitalism. I always thought that he was extremely intelligent, and some of his views appeared to me to be very rational and well thought out.

However, he does have, what I consider, strange views on some subjects. For instance: he recognizes global warming.. but says that it is caused by emanations from the Crab Nebula.

He also believes that the Beatles were created by the British Government as psychological warfare. His views that the Queen of England and the Prince of Wales are conspirators in the takeover of the world have gotten him in trouble with the British Government.

Lyndon is very good at getting young people to buy into his ideas. Some say that he has fascist views and thinks that some of Hitler's advisors had good ideas. I don't know about that, and I also don't understand why some of his followers at the Frank town meeting carried signs showing President Obama with a Hitler moustache. Anyway, Barney was marvelous at putting down the ignorant folks who were attempting to disrupt his meeting. However, they will probably claim victory, and those who did not attend the meeting will no doubt praise them and call them "heroes".. Oh what we put up with for our freedom of speech, but thank God we have it.

Some other news:

01. DC Metrorail train riders will have a jerky ride for some time.. until the management feels that automation works perfectly again. This may take years.

02. A news photographer was wounded in Afghanistan and is being treated at the Maryland Shock Trauma site. Shock Trauma personnel saved both of my daughters' lives and I'm glad they are helping this guy. It just astounds me that they could get him from Afghanistan to Baltimore quickly enough to do their wonderful job.

03. Elaine saw a lot of Want Ads in the Yard Sales section of the local newspaper today. Does that mean something?

04. A cat named "CHEWY" is being held at a local vet's office. Since she was found, nobody has claimed her, I wonder why.

05. A Baltimore white supremacist and convicted child molester seriously beat a 76 year old black man. He is 28 years old and has a picture of Hitler tatooed on his stomach. He told police that he "did not like people who were different from him."

06. Robert Novack, political commentator, died last week at age 78. I don't think that I ever agreed with any of his views and I have always wondered why he didn't get "zapped" for outing Valerie Plame in a 2003 column.

07. Les Paul, guitar legend died last week at age 94. Besides guitar virtuosity, he implemented multiple-track recordings and teamed up with Mary Ford.

08. The Social Security Administration office in Baltimore, at Metro West is going to be replaced by a larger and more easily secured facility near Reisterstown Road Plaza. The Metro West building was ideally placed for people who liked to shop at the famous Lexington Market. From time to time, I have given presentations at that building and it is like "old home week" when I see people I was acquainted with years ago before they relocated "downtown."

09. A guy laid down in the road in Glen Burnie, Maryland and guess what? He got run over. There is no indication that he was drunk.. I guess he was just tired.

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