The Blaisdell Blog

On this 4 th of July weekend, Time magazine published an entire issue on the United States Constitution.   Its headline asked, “Is it Still Relevant?”   Of course it not only is relevant, it is our anchor of stability in a turbulent world.   We can withstand a bad President and a petulant Congress (for the short term, at least) because our Constitution both guides and limits.   If someone asked me to provide proof of a loving God I would simply ask them how else so many geniuses in the matter of human governance could have been clustered together in the right time and place to create both our country and the means to govern it.    Our founding fathers had the vision to devise a way to not only govern themselves, but govern a country that they could not imagine, yet believed would prevail. The constitution of the United States is like a good parent.   It has allowed us to grow up as we have grown older, with the result that the United States of Amer...

What is happening to Congresswoman Michele Bachmann in the press just stinks, but I am impressed with how she is handling herself.   She is not my candidate, but there is a great deal about her that I like.   For starters, s he is a Norwegian Lutheran from Minnesota , and so am I.   My maternal grandfather was a Blaisdell.   His people have been in this country since 1635.   But, both of my grandmothers came from Norway , and as is typical, their’s was the culture I was raised in.   Minnesota is the only state I know where marrying into a different synod of the Lutheran church is referred to as marrying outside your faith.    It is a blue state (which adds considerable weight to the broad appeal of both Bachmann and Pawlenty) which has grown much of its political muscle within its university system.   I think those solid roots are helping Michele Bachmann confront the prejudice she is facing now in the media.   Rep. Bachmann is the f...

This Fourth of July weekend lots of people are going to be writing columns about the basic themes of patriotism, the sacrifice and bravery of our military, our best Presidents, bravest leaders and leading thinkers and innovators.   I approve of all of that.   I am a huge fan of studying history; it is our only human lab.    My theme for this week is a much over-looked aspect of the American character—our attitude toward making money.             I have never known a time when the traditional American economy was so much under attack from people committed to income redistribution.   These people are not motivated by a desire to alleviate want or suffering (which is humanitarian and laudable), but by a wish to homogenize the American economy.   These people are after power not equity.   The proof is that there is absolutely no example of a socialistic state that is classless.   There are always...

The Blaisdell Blog: Diabetes and Free Enterprise : "There are very few things that will make me bike 20 miles in the south Texas heat and wind, but last April I not only did that, but paid fo..."

There are very few things that will make me bike 20 miles in the south Texas heat and wind, but last April I not only did that, but paid for the privilege.   My husband is a great bicyclist, me, not so much.   But Tom loves biking and I love Tom so we are both part of a group that rides every Tuesday.   But that isn’t why I was on that 20 mile ride.   That reason was juvenile diabetes.   The ride was to raise money for Type I diabetes, also known as juvenile or early onset diabetes.   This is the insulin dependent form of the disease, usually acquired in childhood and totally unrelated to weight or lifestyle.   The American Diabetes Association is my charity of choice.   My youngest sister walks for breast cancer.    Two good friends work every Saturday at the local food bank.   A lady in my bridge club does accounting and legal work for the elderly.     Most of us have a charity of choice and it usually is one that stri...

There was a time when the grandest thing a person could say was, “Civus Romanus sum.”   I am a Roman citizen .   That time is gone.   There was a time when the sun never set upon the British flag.   That time is gone.   Right now, the United States of America is the strongest, wealthiest and wisest world power on the planet.   According to Nobel Prize winning economist Michael Spence, that time also will pass.   On Sunday I heard an interview with Michael Spence.   He has a new book, The Next Convergence , which, of course, is why an intellectual instead of a defense attorney was on the networks.               I have a master’s degree in economic education and put my daughters through college by teaching economics at night at the local community college.   So, while I am certainly not eating at the same table as Michael Spence, I can still read his menu.    Let me say tha...

I have said that I have no love for the hateful treatment of women and children in Afghanistan , and, indeed, much of the Islamic world.   Save your letters trying to promote Islamic, “elevation” and, “protection” of its women.   I don’t buy any part of it.   This is a culture where women can’t drive, can’t walk in public save in the company of a close male relative, and are routinely beheaded for reasons that gets prison time with probation in this country.    And then, of course, there are the ridiculous requirements of clothing that make my 90 year old mother look like a hussy.   Again, save your letters.   I am a religiously tolerant person.   You get to practice any religion you want and I get to have my opinion of its practices.               I have also said that I admire the work of Pulitzer Prize winning historian Frederick Jackson Turner.   His landmark work in detecting a...

So, the war in Afghanistan is going to be wound down as quickly as possible.   I don’t know anything about military strategy or what the best answer is here, but two things keep rolling around in my mind.   First, the more I read and see about Afghanistan the more I am disillusioned with their outlook on the world.   I can not find a single, pivotal, shared point of humanity with a culture that treats their women and children the way the people of Afghanistan do.   I simply do not believe that they are worth a single American life.               Second, I would like to think that we can bring civil behavior and the benefits of representative government and free market economies to the world, but I don’t believe it is possible.   History is against us.   The people of these marginal, flawed and fractured Middle Eastern countries are against us.   And an American historian once widely read a...

I’m trying to decide if I should rattle the cage of the crazies at the beginning or the end of the blog, but I’m on my second scotch tonight and am feeling feisty, so I’m starting with the tasty red meat.   I look forward to reading your e-mails.   From 1947 to 1957, in the midst of post World War II Communist paranoia, the halls of Congress were darkened by an alcoholic, unstable, miserable excuse for a man, Joseph R. McCarthy.   The intellectually stunted McCarthy, truly an example of mediocrity made manifest, performed in a predictably lackluster way until he decided to become the leading tout for anti-Communistic jingoism.             McCarthy used a nascent fear of the, “Red Menace” to acquire the one thing he could never garner through talent or intelligence—power.   Suddenly one of life’s perennial, “also ran’s” was the center of attention.   People who used to treat McCarthy as the occasional elect...

It turns out than while we are seriously concerned about global warming, a problem that no one can blame on Republicans is manifesting itself on our sun.   The 11 year solar sunspot cycle is collapsing.   The last time this happened, the decrease in solar radiation presaged the Little Ice Age.   First of all, global warming is occurring.   We are in an interglacial period of the last Ice Age, known in this country as the Wisconsin Ice Age.   There was a time when, had the St. Louis Arch been in existence at the time, you could have stood at the observation windows and seen the toe of the Laurentide Ice Sheet just to the north of St. Louis .   Glaciers have come that far south, retreated ahead of temperatures exceeding those today, and reappeared.   There is no doubt that this planet is warming, and there is no doubt that it is a natural, normal, totally uncontrollable action of nature, impacted more by radiation levels from the sun and long, slow cyc...

For those who love the stuff of science fiction movies, let me tell you that the 11 year solar cycle is collapsing.   Forget the Mayans and 2012, this is the real deal.   Before you head to the bomb shelter, lets talk about the solar cycle.   Most obviously, solar cycles produce sun spots.   The current cycle ( # 24) may produce only about half as many sun spots as is typical, and cycle # 25 may not produce any at all.   Sunspots, probably first discovered by Galileo in 1613, fascinate astronomers.   It has been long known that they occur in 11-year cycles and more recently we found that this also mirrors the Sun’s magnetic activity.   This magnetic activity produces solar flares and coronal eruptions (like the one that occurred last week, disrupting satellite activity around the world).    All of this activity on the sun’s surface blasts solar winds (proton ejections of intense energy) that bombard the earth causing radiation spikes and the...

One of my favorite authors is Ron Chernow.    He has written several very good historical biographies. I strongly recommend his book, Alexander Hamilton (818 pp. The Penguin Press, $23.10 hardcover from Amazon) Hamilton is frequently mistaken for a President because his face appears on the $10 bill.   Of course, Benjamin Franklin is on the $100 bill and he isn’t a President either.   The fact that these two illustrious and important Americans are confused with Presidents is a serious indictment of the teaching of American history in this country but that is a subject for another blog (and trust me, I will get to it).   Hamilton is my focus now because of our bloated national debt.   Hamilton is an often overlooked founding father.   He is a flamboyant, colorful and controversial character.   He would make good television material.   He was a member of the Constitutional Convention, our first Secretary of the Treasury and co-aut...

Last week I watched a 30 minute news program and counted the number of times each person featured in a story was mentioned.   The four top names are in the poll on this blog.   I thought I would do a blog on each person, which means I should to a column on Casey Anthony, but I can’t do it.   The story is too grim and, frankly, this woman is too guilty.   We could save the state a great deal of money, and all of us a parade of horrible details by simply packing this despicable brat off to prison and have her clean the toilets there for the rest of her miserable life.   I will never understand animals like her.   Enough said. What I really like to talk about are macro-problems.   These are problems that touch all of us—to the sixth generation.   I have a master’s degree in economic education and taught econ at the local community college at night to help put my girls through college.   The problem with economics is it just doesn’t tap dance. ...

This is my second blog which is not about Congressman Anthony Weiner.   The truth is, while I think he is a weasel, an embarrassment to what should be a sober and august body, and a singularly unattractive man (I like men on the beefy side—think Sean Connery, not Daniel Craig), his behavior is not my biggest problem.   This little squirrel seems to have some serious emotional baggage (not that obsessive narcissism is going to be cured by two weeks of spa treatment called rehab), but even that is not my biggest problem.    Even the fact that it would take less than an hour with Dr. Phil to figure out why this twit needs fawning females to wax rapturous over his equally waxed little body, is not my problem.    No, Anthony’s emotional bald spots aren’t my biggest problem.   My problem is the seeming lack of parity between how the Republicans and the Democrats react to the weasels in their own party.   Quite frankly, I think the Republicans, while ta...

First of all, Sarah Palin is not my candidate in the field of Republicans starting this electoral cycle.    In truth, while I desperately want to see a woman in the oval office—and will one day—she is not my choice.   That being said, I am wondering what the hopes and secret yearnings were of the people who sought the release of 24,000 pages of then Governor Palin’s e-mails.   Why her?   Why not all Republican candidates?   Why not all Democratic candidates?   Why not Sen. Clinton? Sen. Obama? Sen. Kerry? Are we going to see the requests for all e-mails of all incumbents running for higher office?   Fate save us, I hope not.   Whoever said that legislation was like sausage, you should never watch either being made, spoke the truth.     What makes my teeth itch about the Palin e-mails is that the media request for them is so blatantly self-serving.   The people who requested these documents and recruited the...

The Belmont Stakes, the final race in horse racings, “Triple Crown” will be run this Saturday.   Since I learned how to handicap horses at my father’s knee I enjoy following top tier horse racing, even though there is no chance for a Triple Crown winner this year.   Actually, the whole field, a hodge podge of horses that all seem to have a fair chance in a field not dominated by anyone, is remarkably similar to the Republican field of Presidential candidates.   Even the thought process of those thinking of entering the field seems to be about the same. President Obama was suddenly seen as unbeatable after his laudable strike against Osama bin Laden.   For a man who doesn’t seem to have high regard for the free market system, Obama followed the precepts perfectly in this Seal Team Six raid.   He took a great risk and subsequently reaped great reward.   And it did take courage to give that order, which I am convinced contained no option for surrender.  ...

Bob Schieffer signed off of the CBS evening news the other day.  He has been filling in the hiatus between the exit of Katie Couric and the entrance of her replacement.  As usual, he has done an excellent job--making hard work look easy and professionalism seem like common sense.  He represents the old guard of journalists who grew up in print.  These men, Erik Severied, Walter Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley may have been members of the good old boys club, but they still behaved like gentlemen and not spoiled brats.  In the case of Mr. Schieffer, his basic, inherent, good manners showed in how he acted off camera and to a person who meant absolutely nothing to him.  I met Bob Schieffer, ever so briefly, during the 1988 Presidential Election between George H. W. Bush and Michael Dukakis.  I worked for the White House Advance Staff, which essentially meant I could pass a security check and knew how to replace the toner cartridg...