A Majestic Symbol of Progress for Oklahoma

Today, 16,000 people watched the dedication of the 155-foot-tall dome that finally completed the 85-year-old Oklahoma Capitol building. Anyone who has visited the pre-dome Capitol and seen the new domed Capitol can appreciate what a difference there is. The dome gives the seat of our state government a majesty that can serve to raise our expectations of what our state can be. We owe our appreciation to Governor Frank Keating for leading the effort to raise the private money to fund the dome. We also owe appreciation to all the donors that made it a reality. All but $1.8 million of the $21 million cost came from private citizens and corporations. For decades our Legislature didn't have the backbone or vision to fund the completion of the Capitol. So, again, someone else had to do what the Legislature should have done.

We can't blame the decades of waiting entirely on the Legislature however. There's been a plentiful supply of crabby, vision-less citizens that frothed at the mouth every time someone talked of finishing the Capitol with a dome. It's these vociferous nay-sayers that Legislators run from. I was having a conversation with one such woman recently when the topic of the Capitol building came up. She suddenly launched into an epitaph-laden explosion of spitting emotion over the use of tax monies to build a dome. How dare the Governor spend money on "his dome" instead of on schools. She wasn't interested in the facts about private funding I tried to tell her about. She cared nothing about the kind of symbolism that lifts a people to a higher level, gives them a point on which to hang their pride, and shows the world that we are proud of who we are.

The Dome is that.

State Agriculture Commissioner Helping Cockfighters to Thwart Citizens' Will

This cockfighting war in Oklahoma just keeps getting more and more bizarre. The Daily Oklahoman reports today that Dennis Howard, the Commissioner of Agriculture in Oklahoma, announced he was considering becoming involved in the cockfighters attempt to weaken the anti-cockfighting law that was overwhelmingly passed by the electorate last week. According to the article, Howard is considering using the legal staff at the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture to try to help the cockfighters overturn the new law by joining in the effort to get a Little Dixie judge to declare the law unconstitutional. A few days after the law passed in a statewide vote cockfighters succeeded in getting District Judge Willard Driesel of Idabel to issue an injunction against enforcement of the ban pending consideration of whether it was unconstitutional. Some have speculated that cockfighters are taking this action in far southeast Oklahoma where their base is strongest in an effort to remove the contest from media view as much as possible.

Dennis Howard was an early opponent of the anti-cockfighting campaign. According to the Tulsa World, Howard, a state employee, traveled to cockfighter meetings in 1999 to advise them on how to stop the Oklahoma Coalition Against Cockfighting's initiative petition drive. In an October 10, 1999 Tulsa World article Dennis Howard was quoted as saying:

"I gave them a lesson in Politics 101," Dennis Howard said, describing his presentation to cockfighters at the Oklahoma Gamefowl Breeders Association's annual meeting in McAlester. "I told them, `You need to pick an election date when you can win.' "

The World said that Howard advised the cockfighters to do everything they could to challenge the signature process and postpone the cockfighting measure to an election date other than the presidential election of 2000. Howard said that the bigger the election turnout by voters the worse their chances of winning were.

After the cockfighters failed in their attempt to have enough signatures disqualified from the initiative petition Howard put his state agency to work to assist the cockfighters. In a letter on state stationery dated September 7, 2000, and widely used by the cockfighters, Burke L. Healey, DVM and director of Howard's Animal Industry Services Division said:

"The gamefowl industry is significant to Oklahoma's economy. There are millions of dollars pumped into the state through the retail sales of gamefowl out of our state to other states and other countries... Understand that I promote agriculture commerce and the gamefowl industry is a large part of our economy. I truely hope it will continue in the future."

During the cockfighter's campaign to defeat State Question 687 (that banned cockfighting) they sited estimates from Howard's Department of Agriculture that the "gamefowl" (cockfighting) industry "pumps $105 million into Oklahoma". Proponents of SQ 687 demanded the substantiating data for the supposed Agriculture study but the Department of Agriculture was not forthcoming. The state's media were also unable to obtain any information to support the Department of Agriculture's reported figures.

The cockfighters took the Ag chief's advice and through court challenges were able to delay the vote until November 2002. The people of Oklahoma finally got their chance to tell the politicians what they wanted. By a margin of well over 100,000 votes Oklahomans let Dennis Howard and the Legislature know that they wanted cockfighting banned and they wanted it to be a felony to engage in cockfighting. After three-years of support of the secretive cockfighter/gambling network Howard is trying to step in in the guise of an objective state official.

Citizens may rightly be asking if Dennis Howard (e-mail at: dennis.howard@gov.state.ok.us) has used state funds to support the much-disdained cockfighters' association in their efforts to keep Oklahomans from voting on the controversial issue and to distribute misleading information designed to support the cockfighting side. The media should now be asking why Howard wants to use the state's resources to try to overturn a resounding vote of the people to ban this third-world bloodsport in Oklahoma. Perhaps its time for the State Auditor and Inspector to look into whether Howard has inappropriately utilized state resources?

Thanks to J. Casey for contributing the above.

Partisans Take Over TV

I can't stand to turn on any of the news programs because all they talk about is what the President and Republicans did right and what the Democrats did wrong and who is in control. Party politics are the bane of democracy. There is hope however. More and more Americans are becoming independents and are voting for individuals and their stands on issues rather than for parties. This is generally good news. I qualify my statement with Gary Richardson in mind.

Jesse Ventura turned out better than I anticipated. It was refreshing to hear him say things that other politicians are too dishonest to say. It was great to see him walk out of the memorial service for Senator Wellstone when some of the Democrats turned it into a crass political rally. The Democrats paid for their base behavior when a Republican won the Senate race in Minnesota.

Now the Republican right controls the presidency, the Senate and the House. We will pay for this I'm sure.

Anyone want to guess how much we paid to get Russia, China and France to sign on to the United Nations' resolution on Iraq? I would guess a minimum of $10 billion - most of it to Russia.

Who's in the Cabinet?

The Daily Oklahoman today says that State Senator Dave Herbert and Senator Brooks Douglass are rumored to be in the running for the state Secretary of Commerce slot on Gov-elect Henry's cabinet. A radio station in Oklahoma City also said Steve Largent was under consideration as Commerce Secretary. Let's hope Brad Henry chooses wisely and does not surround himself with neophytes and political hacks. Many a governor has injured his standing because he did not seek out relevant experience for these jobs. Many a well-meaning and well-scrubbed 20 or 30-something political groupie have led their governor into a political morass. Just because one has been a state senator does not mean he/she has the relevant experience to manage a large state agency. Former Senator Brooks Douglas would be a poor choice for any position of responsibility in the Henry Cabinet or at any state agency. The Senator has a reputation at the Capitol for irresponsibility and a penchant for skipping important meetings at a whim. Largent would be a dramatic demonstration of inclusiveness by the Governor-elect.

I sense that someone is writing a $500,000 check


Sunday night I was skimming the cable channels when I happened across TBN, the Trinity Broadcasting Network, a Christian TV network. An attractive woman was gesticulating wildly at the camera and telling me that she knew I had $84 ready to give to the Lord and all I had to do was walk to the phone and call. Her style was mesmerizing. She rocked forwards and backwards into the camera lens, her long-nailed fingers wrapped around a large mike. Her arms moved with the smooth flow and rhythm of a Balinese dancer. Tall, thin and blond she was unlike any TV evangelist I had ever seen. Words flowed from between her lips in a non-stop stream begging me to give to the Lord via TBN. She promised that I'd realize a ten-fold increase as a result of my giving. In the background a couple of young men, one black, one white, mouthed inaudible words - of praise I assume.

Then I noticed another lady in the background. She had the biggest hair I've ever seen on a head. To know what that means you've got to know that I've been to a Jehovah's Witnesses convention AND to an Andy Williams performance. This lady still had the biggest hair I've ever seen. And more dark eye shadow than Tammy Faye Baker. I'd seen her on TV before. I think she is a co-founder of TBN. Five minutes of this was interesting but I moved on to other things.

A half-hour later I surf back to TBN and the tall blonde is still going non-stop. She's telling me that she senses that someone listening is going to give $500,000 today. Well now I'm sure she's not talking to me. Wait! Now she says she senses someone who is going to give $5,000. She's headed downmarket. I switch it off before we make a connection. This is dangerous stuff. She's good.

Brad Henry's Picks and State Chamber woes

The Capitol is abuzz with rumors of who will be in Governor-Elect Henry's cabinet. The most often heard version is that Senators Kelly Haney, Dave Herbert, and Brooks Douglas will be on the cabinet. Some say that Kelly Haney, who ran against Brad Henry for the Democrat nomination for Governor, will be Secretary of Commerce. Given Haney's experience in financing that would be a good move. Haney impressed many with his positive campaign.

The State Chamber is running scared. It was no secret that the State Chamber was close to Largent and fearful of trial lawyer-supported Henry. The State Chamber was a leader in the successful effort to bring Right-to-Work to Oklahoma earlier this year. The unions, which supported Henry, have it out for the State Chamber now and are expecting Henry to put the State Chamber in the doghouse. Relations between the State Chamber and Legislative Democrats was already so bad that most Democrat candidates refused to respond to the Chambers' voter surveys this fall.

Frank Shurden, Cockfighters and Castration

Just two days after the people of Oklahoma overwhelmingly passed a ballot measure to ban cockfighting Senator Frank Shurden Democrat of Henryetta told the Daily Oklahoman that he would introduce legislation next session to weaken the law the citizenry passed. Shurden said his objective was to reduce the penalties for the new law from a felony to a misdemeanor with no chance of jail time for cockfighters. Shurden was reported to have stated, erroneously, that the new law would make it illegal just to own gamefowl. Voters on Tuesday passed the question, 565,967 votes, or 56.2 percent, to 441,220, or 43.8 percent. A hefty margin in light of a campaign of disinformation by cockfighters whose advertising had tried to convince voters that the cockfighting ban would threaten hunting, rodeos and even raising chickens.

So who is this State Senator with so little regard for the voters of Oklahoma? He's the same Senator who tried every trick in the book to keep the vote on cockfighting off the ballot and then when those efforts failed, to put another question on the ballot to double the number of voters' needed to get any animal-related issue on the state ballot. The citizens of Oklahoma roundly defeated that attempt at creating two classes of voters when they defeated SQ 698 this week also. Among many others, the Daily Oklahoman and the Tulsa World had voiced their opposition to Shurden's attempt to make animal-related initiative petitions nearly impossible to get on a ballot. The Daily Oklahoman called the measure "the cockfighters' revenge" because it was introduced by Senator Shurden in an attempt to keep the cockfighting vote off the ballot. The Daily Oklahoman, a very conservative newspaper, had this to say about Shurden's bill:

Last spring the Legislature, not in one of its finest moments, placed the measure on the Nov. 5 ballot at the behest of Sen. Frank Shurden. The Henryetta Democrat was highly critical of the anti-cockfighting petition that circulated statewide, as an effort to outlaw cockfighting once and for all.

Shurden is also the Senator that introduced legislation last session to chemically castrate first offense rapists and sex offenders. When Governor Keating vetoed the bill because it clearly was a potential violation of the U.S. Constitution's 8th Amendment against cruel and unusual punishment Shurden called the Governor a "liar" and an "arrogant smart aleck". Keating responded:

"What would you do if Frank Shurden came up to you and said, 'Are you going to sign my castration bill?' You'd probably laugh and say, 'Oh sure, I'll sign your castration bill.' I mean it was considered by most (as) silly season then and it's silly season now," To have a castration law that could apply to a person who is found innocent years later "is reckless and not progressive criminal justice policy," the governor said.

Shurden had tried for several years to pass a castration bill but they had never reached the House floor until the 2002 Legislature finally passed his bill.

So, the question to Henryetta, Oklahoma is this: is Frank Shurden representative of Henryetta? I hope not.

America's Most Liberal Newspaper Right Here in River City?

The "Friends of Jim Inhofe" took out a full-page ad in the Tulsa World today to run a copy of the Daily Oklahoman's editorial endorsing Jim Inhofe for US Senate. The Tulsa World, endorsed former Governor David Walters for the Senate race. The Jim Inhofe ad reproduces the Daily Oklahoman editorial and takes a swipe at the Tulsa World by calling it "one of the most liberal newspapers in America" and refering to the Daily Oklahoman as "the largest newspaper in Oklahoma". Amazing that the World would even run such an ad, but it's admirable. It's something I cannot see the Daily Oklahoman doing.

Perhaps if you were a rightwing conservative like Jim Inhofe and his friends, and viewing the world from that extreme vantage point, you could call the Tulsa World "one of the most liberal newspapers in America". But not if you are a reasonable person. A look at the list of candidates that the World endorsed would put the lie to the Jim Inhofe ad. The World endorsed almost equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans this election cycle. They endorsed Republican Steve Largent for Governor, Democrat David Walters for US Senate, Republican John Sullivan for Congress, and Democrat Ed Edmondson for Attorney General. The Daily Oklahoman, in contrast, endorses Republicans straight down the line. Now tell me who is predictable? Who is more balanced?

Since being called "America's Worst Newspaper" by the Columbia Review of Journalism a couple of years ago, the Daily Oklahoman does seem to have improved a bit. They were ruthless in their attacks on Oklahoma Coalition Against Cockfighting founder Janet Halliburton a couple of years ago but the DO has since called for the banning of cockfighting and the defeat of SQ 698, the cockfighters attempt to change our constitution to their benefit. That editorial position could not have been expected a few years ago.

The Tulsa World, while still maintaining a moderate editorial position, does seem to have become a little more conservative lately. Let's hope for more pragmatic, independent moderation from both paper's editorial boards. Let's hope Jim Inhofe comes to moderation soon.

It's getting deep

As we wind up to the day of election the campaign ads are getting more negative. Jim Inhofe has a new one out that features a Bill Clinton lookalike that is pictured teaching a David Walters lookalike how to lie. It's pretty outrageous and childish - but it probably works with the nitwit portion of the audience. And Jim Inhofe is a devout Christian? Hey, I'm not surprised.

The cockfighters are beyond bad, they have begun to lie to the public with newspaper inserts that claim on the one hand that SQ 687 won't really ban cockfighting but on the otherhand it is somehow threatening hunting and fishing. Come on guys, you can't have it both ways. But of course, your strategy is to so confuse the public that they won't know what they are voting for or against. That's your only hope.

Cockfighter TV Ads

I just saw the first pro-cockfighting TV commercial! Of course the huckster in the ad doesn't even mention cockfighting - he says State Question 687 is really a ploy by "California radicals" to attack hunting, fishing and rodeos. Why are these miscreants lying like that? Because they have no case. The Oklahoma Gamefowl Breeders (cockfighters) strategy is to try to confuse the voters and hope the confusion will go their way in the election. Their strategy and tactics are an insult to Oklahomans. We aren't nearly as stupid as they treat us. Can we have a lottery on who gets to personally kick these idiots out of Oklahoma all the way to Louisiana?

Vacuum Cleaner Huckster

Ouch! The Claremore Progress newspaper doesn't mince words when evaluating candidate Gary Richardson:

Independent Gary Richardson is straight out of the good ol’ boys club, exhibiting the salesmanship of a vacuum cleaner huckster. If he weren’t such a successful lawyer, he would probably be a tent revival preacher performing miracles and leading repentant sinners away from perdition.

When the election is over, Richardson will return to his lucrative law practice in Tulsa and will continue to pay tolls when driving the Turner Turnpike to Oklahoma City.

They go on to endorse Steve Largent.

Oklahoman Victim in Moscow

Very sadly, an Oklahoman was the American hostage killed in the Moscow theatre when Russian troops tried to rescue hostages held by Chechens. The family of Sandy Booker was notified this morning that his body was identified as one of the more than 100 killed in the siege. The Daily Oklahoman reports that Sandy Booker had gone to Moscow to see his Russian-Kazakh fiance and her child and was in the theatre when Chechen terrorists took it over and demanded that Russian troops leave the breakaway region of Chechnya. Wire reports indicate most of the hostages died from a powerful mysterious gas used during Saturday morning's raid of the theater. Russian troops have been criticized for using a gas that they refused to identify to doctors who needed to treat the hostages felled by the gas.

Mr. Booker worked for 18 years as an electrician at the General Motors Plant in Oklahoma City. The Daily Oklahoman reports that workers at the Oklahoma City plant continued Monday to wear red, white and blue ribbons in support of Sandy Booker and his family.

118 innocent hostages died in the tragedy. 50 of 54 terrorists were killed by the Russian troops. The Russian troops may or may not be found to have made serious errors in their attempt to end the hostage situation but the Chechen terrorists who organized and instigated the hostage taking are the ones who bear direct responsibility for the heinous crime against innocent people. If they were planning on world sympathy for their cause they failed miserably.

My heart goes out to the family of Sandy Booker and to all the others who lost loved ones in this senseless crime.

What's going on?

Yulia Latynina, a Russian journalist, has an interesting viewpoint on how the Moscow tragedy fits into a bigger picture:

President Vladimir Putin kept his word and wasted the terrorists. Not in the outhouse as promised, it's true, but in the orchestra pit. The West expressed its support. The reason for this support was the West's unexpected discovery that it is waging a third world war against Islamic extremism. In that war, just as in World War II, wild and rather uncivilized Russia turns out to be an ally. I have no intention of indiscriminately knocking Islam, but for some reason we haven't seen Shintoist terrorists. The snipers captured in Washington had accepted Islam, not Buddhism.

Sullivan Gets Personal, Dodd Upset

Candidate for Congress, Doug Dodd, held a press conference today to call on his opponent, John Sullivan, to stop criticizing Dodd's children. Later, on KRMG radio in Tulsa Dodd claimed that Sullivan had been telling donors in telephone calls critical things about the Dodd children. In an interview on KRMG later, John Sullivan stopped short of a complete denial of Dodd's allegations. Dodd also complained that Sullivan had misrepresented Dodd's stand on guns to a crowd in Wagoner County. Dodd claimed to be just a cozy with the NRA as is Sullivan and blasted Sullivan for telling voters that Dodd was anti-gun. It's a shame neither of these candidates stands up against the NRA but it's also a shame that candidates bring their opponents children into the mud-slinging. It's reprehensible.

John Sullivan's tactics during the Republican primary contest with Oklahoma First Lady Cathy Keating last year were reportedly so underhanded that many of the Keating supporters couldn't support Sullivan in the general election. Many of them were rooting for Dodd when he faced off against Sullivan the first time to fill Congressman Steve Largent's vacated seat.

Years ago, when Inhofe was running against Jim Jones for Congress I went to a fundraiser for Inhofe. During Inhofe's talk I remember him telling mean-spirited jokes about Jim Jones' wife. I was so shocked at his mean-spiritedness that I not only didn't support Inhofe anymore, I've never voted for him since. We should punish this kind of candidate rather than reward them.

Despite Dodd's support of the NRA I will be voting for Doug Dodd this time.

Cockfighters State Their Case

A contact sent me a photo of a card some cockfighters left on his relative's car in an Owasso, Oklahoma parking lot this weekend. The anti-cockfighting group doesn't need to say anything. If they leave it up to the cockfighters to promote their "sport" the cockfighters will convince Oklahomans to not only ban their bloodsport but possibly go one step further and ban the cockfighters themselves.

Daily Oklahoman Wins Two Darts from CJR

As Dustbury points out, the Daily Oklahoman newspaper of Oklahoma City is awarded two of seven Darts from the Columbia Journalism Review. Seems that the Daily Oklahoman doesn't like to disclose when their owner has a financial interest in subjects they write and editorialize about.

Attacking candidate's families

Shame on JOHN M. WYLIE II who is publisher of the Oologah Lake Leader LLC. On a website for Oklahoma Democrats, Mr. Wylie posts a story with allegations against the children of governor candidate Steve Largent. I won't even go into the allegations for to do so would only play into Mr. Wylie's hands. The point to be made here is that such efforts to smear the children of candidates is reprehensible in the extreme. It's unethical, unfair and destructive of the public good. Many good people are either getting out of public service or refusing to enter public service because their families and children have become "fair game" for ruthless political hacks who will stoop very low to win at any cost - to others

You can criticize others for their beliefs, policies, and actions but don't tear down their families, especially their children - just for being related.

People With Big Brains Can't be Fooled

Further on in Mr. Wylie's post he attacks David Simpson of the Tulsa World for his political cartoon described in my October 18th post. In the cartoon Mr. Simpson shows Largent, Henry and Richardson supporters with small brains of varying sizes. Simpson's point in drawing small brains is that the supporters are not too bright (relatively speaking). However, in Mr. Wylie's post he accuses Simpson's cartoon of "stigmatizing mental illness and brain disease". This is no doubt because Mr. Wylie's candidate is shown with a smaller brain than Mr. Largent's. Any nitwit with half a brain can see that the cartoon has nothing at all to do with stigmatizing mental illness. This is an example of how partisan hacks try to tag their opponents with exagerated offenses, knowing full well that they are twisting their opponents meaning. It's a form of lying, nothing less and nothing more. Folks with Big Brains will see through it.

Tech Center Director Leaving?

Word on the street is that Dr. Randy Goldsmith, president of the state's Tech Center, is leaving the position in November. Goldsmith was a real find for Oklahoma and it's our loss that he is leaving. The street also says that the Alliance for Manufacturing Excellence and the Tech Center, both funded by the Oklahoma Center for Science and Technology (OCAST), will be combined into one organization. A group of economic developers are pushing for Greg Main, former Secretary of Commerce under David Walters and currently a venture capital leader, to take over the combined organizations.

Gary Richardson's Bad Ideas

Gary Richardson, independent candidate for governor, seems to be getting increasingly desperate as his poll numbers dip from 16% to 13% in recent days. His television ads in recent days have focused on attacking his opponents, Brad Henry and Steve Largent. Richardson's anti-Largent ad was in particularly poor taste as he sought to attack the Congressman for being on a hunting trip in Idaho on 9-11. The ad in question showed the twin towers ablaze and used music he had failed to get the musicians' permission to use. Richardson had to pull the ad when the artist threatened action. The point Richardson tries to make, that Largent should have stayed in DC for 9-11 is as nonsensical as the rest of his agenda. Was Largent supposed to put the upcoming 9-11 tragedy on his calendar?

Richardson has also called for drastic cuts in funding for the Oklahoma Department of Commerce, the state agency that is responsible for recruiting new business to come to Oklahoma. The 150-person department also operates a wide range of programs designed to assist Oklahoma businesses to grow, to export, and to stay in Oklahoma. The agency also oversees the funneling of federal money into communities in Oklahoma for infrastructure development. It's actually one of the better run agencies in the state and is widely reported to be doing a good job of growing the economy. What does Richardson want to do? For unknown reasons he wants to hand over the funding to chambers of commerce around the state. Richardson doesn't understand the different roles the Department of Commerce and chambers of commerce have. Chambers of commerce represent the interests of the businesses that are members while the Department of Commerce mission is to work for the economic development of the entire state, its communities and businesses. Sometimes their missions converge but sometimes they don't. Not infrequently, what's good for a small number of businesses is not necessarily good for the wider community. Existing businesses, for example, often don't want new competitors recruited to come into the state. Ironically, Richardson the populist, would hand over economic development to a minority of business interests. This is another of Richardson's plans that he has not thought through. That should be cause for concern for voters. Leaders need to be able to think through to unintended consequences.

The idea of an independent as governor is appealing and I hope someday we get a good independent non-partisan governor. Richardson isn't the right one. He would be a disaster for Oklahoma with his poorly researched ideas and shoot-from-the-hip policies.

He said, She said Diplomacy

Now that North Korea has admitted that they have already developed nuclear weapons in violation of the agreement of 1994 President Bush must decide how to handle two ends of the Axis of Evil simultaneously. The Administration is mulling over strategies to take on North Korea diplomatically while attacking Iraq with a "vast coalition" that they are cobbling together. I'm surprised the obvious hasn't occurred to them. This is actually a splendid opportunity and should be handled the way any high schooler would. Colin Powell should surprise everyone and make a trip to Baghdad to meet Saddam. After having lunch with the Iraqi dictator he should proceed on to Pyongyang to have dinner with Kim Jong-il, the alien life form that rules North Korea. While at dinner Powell should whisper in Kim's ear that Saddam thinks Kim's hair is positively the goofiest he's ever seen. And besides that, Saddam is telling all the other dictators that Kim can't keep any of his kidnapped Scandinavian hos satisfied. Powell should get Kim really pissed off before shuttling back to Baghdad to tell Saddam that Kim said that his lips were fat like a camel's and show him Kim's Little Red Book of Saddam Jokes that the CIA created in their fake documents lab. Powell should keep this up until Iraq and North Korea attack and annihilate each other. We won't have to fire a missile.

Supermarket Reading and Halloween Grocery Sacks

Who decides what magazines go on the racks at supermarkets? I want to know who this person or persons (it must be a conspiracy of at least a few) is/are. Whoever it is, they must be sex-crazed gun and auto nuts that are into planning weddings. Tonight at the Reasor's I had forgotten what I was looking for (happens often) when I found myself standing in front of the magazine racks. Well, while I'm here I might as well see if they have the latest issue of Scientific American. Ummm. Well, they have Guns & Ammo and American Metal over there. There's Rod and Steel, Soldier of Fortune, Heavy Metal, and Maxim there. No, it wouldn't be there. Up here are the women's magazines, Redbook, Home & Garden, Sixteen, etc, etc. Every one of them had a big headline about how to have super sex and satisfy their man. Who are these women who are obsessed with sex? Where are they? I know where they aren't - anywhere within sight. There must be over 100 publications before my eyes and not a one of them is the least bit cerebral in nature. Every magazine is designed to appeal to testosterone, homemaking, or the most mindless of pastimes. Forget Scientific American, they don't even carry Popular Science. Do college graduates not shop for groceries? Is there a secret food supply for the thinking part of society that I don't know about?

I was awakened from my fog by loud voices from the checkout stand. A portly lady in a sweatsuit was refusing to have her groceries bagged in a paper sack adorned with Halloween bats and ghosts. It was "unholy" she was telling the checkout lady. "God doesn't like Halloween!", she squealed. The checkout lady accommodated her with a plain, blank sack. How appropriate I thought.