Vile names and false accusations

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© 2007 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. “If you cannot answer a man’s argument, all it not lost, you can still call him vile names.” – Elbert Hubbard It is no longer possible for every citizen to become president of the United States or even a state or local politician. Many will not stand for the tactics of shouting vile names and false accusations. People who would be good leaders will not subject themselves and their families to this abuse. In this information age, people get their facts wrong only because they want to. They are increasingly not ashamed to shout lies, nor are they taken to task by the media. Continue Reading

Saluting the boys of World War II

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© 2007 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. Among the really great moments of our nation stands Dec. 8, 1941. On that Monday more young men volunteered to serve in our military than any other date. Each looked within and found a need to put country before self, even to the point of giving their lives. We remember Dec. Continue Reading

And deliver us from fat

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© 2007 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. “No diet will remove all the fat from your body because the brain is entirely fat. Without a brain, you might look good, but all you could do is run for public office.” – George Bernard Shaw In an announcement this week, Gov. Bill Richardson, the Haystacks Calhoun of the Democratic presidential race, said he will to take on obesity if elected president. Richardson vowed in a news release “to confront the American obesity crisis head-on as president.” He said at an Obesity Society conference that two out of every three Americans are overweight or, even worse, obese. That is not me. I am the right weight, but I’m six inches too short. Continue Reading

Those give-up artists

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© 2007 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things… The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature, and has no chance of being free unless made or kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. – John Stuart Mill Our nation is engaged in two great struggles in the War on Terror. One struggle is our military fighting for America’s long-term security; the other is politicians using this War on Terror to further their political fortunes. This is on both sides of the aisle, but I am especially disgusted with Democrats who pray for America’s defeat to further their political aspirations. Continue Reading

The ‘wait-until-next-year’ Aggie football team

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Editor’s note: I realize Michael is a little off-topic this week, but if you live in the Las Cruces area or are an Aggie, you will probably find this one interesting. © 2007 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. “The perfect football record is seven wins and four losses. The fans are happy, the alumni are sullen but not mutinous and the NCAA does not feel a need to investigate.” – Former coach Warren Woodson I was thinking of that quote as another four-flush, steer-jobbed, never-have-a-great-season New Mexico State Aggie football year begins. In fact, this is my 40th Aggie football season. My first year featured Woodson, the last successful NMSU football coach in his last year at NMSU. Continue Reading

Time to deal with the killers

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© 2007 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. A friend taking her sister-in-law to El Paso saw the Rio Grande and said, “That’s the same river next to your house in Albuquerque.” The woman looked doubtfully and said, “Nope.” My friend was upset that her brother’s wife could not be convinced the same river flowed by Albuquerque and El Paso. I feel the same way when I talk about the need to kill all of the mosquitoes in our area, and perhaps use DDT among other things to do it. People just say, “Nope.” Killing all the mosquitoes may seem too drastic to some, but these potentially deadly creatures are lurking silently in our neighborhoods, waiting for an unguarded moment. I am not fear-mongering. Mosquitoes bring the epidemic of West Nile virus and other diseases. Continue Reading

Looking for political fidelity

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© 2007 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. Last week I stirred a number of readers when I made fun of presidential candidates and possible drug use that allows them to campaign 20 hours a day. It was repeated to me that I did not give the proper respect since one of them will be elected president. I wonder why this society so reveres politicians, actors and musicians. While painting with a wide brush, politicians, actors and musicians tend to be mostly style with little substance. There are exceptions. Continue Reading

The 20-hour-a-day run for president

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© 2007 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. Ask any astronaut, even teacher astronaut Barbara Morgan on Space Shuttle Endeavour, what question he or she gets the most. Is it about the cosmos or dangers or what launch feels like? No. According to many astronauts, they’re most often asked how they use the biffy in space. Strange, but true. Continue Reading

No Child Left Behind: an overturned outhouse

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© 2007 by Michael Swickard, Ph.D. Years ago nothing was more fun than outhouse tipping, unless you happened to be in the outhouse when it tipped over. Well, it didn’t tip over, adolescent boys pushed it over when the moon was right and they caught Uncle Fester sitting down. He exclaimed, “How’d this happen?” Some readers may not know about outhouses. Before indoor plumbing, the “bathroom” was downwind from the house in a small structure also called a privy. Using it tested the need to go versus smell aversion, with spider and snake phobias thrown in. Continue Reading

Use better carrots and sticks

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© 2007 by Michael Swickard, Ph.D. It is odd that we Americans are so sensitive to battlefield deaths yet accept 40 times as many fatalities on our highways each year. Being killed suddenly and violently in combat is not much different than dying in a collision. I do not accept that it is inevitable that 40,000 people must die on our highways each year. They are killed and injured without much more than local notice. The carnage exists because we, as a society, are not providing the right carrots and sticks to control the behavior of drivers. Continue Reading

Wolves: good with teriyaki sauce

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© 2007 by Michael Swickard, Ph.D. One day this tough hombre stepped up to my school picture camera. He was a fourth grader who glared at me and announced, “I’ve got a constitutional right not to smile.” I shrugged and said “OK.” He sat down, looked relieved and I took a pretty good school picture. Fourth grade must be when we learn our constitutional rights. A right compels or precludes an action. We hear of animal rights. Continue Reading

We can make our health care worse

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© 2007 by Michael Swickard, Ph.D. I was talking with my dermatologist about all the new procedures and treatments that make our lives better. Many were not available even 10 years ago. Still, skin health always starts with wearing a hat. In the Southwest that advice is centuries old. The government may one day force us to wear hats. Continue Reading

Thank God for the atomic bomb

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© 2007 by Michael Swickard, Ph.D. “The Japanese government was by no means rational or ready to surrender… They were dictated to by Hirohito and the military, who believed they could inflict enough casualties to force the Americans to negotiate… As to the projected American casualties, they could have been higher than 800,000… Thank God for Harry Truman.” – Stephen E. Ambrose Nothing gets peaceniks like the United States dropping not one but two atomic bombs on Japan to end World War II. The 16th of July is the 62nd anniversary of the first test atomic explosion at the Trinity Site in New Mexico. This led to the bombing of two Japanese cities weeks later. In considering the decision to use the bomb, there are four core issues. Continue Reading

That Roswell Smirk

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© 2007 by Michael Swickard, Ph.D. Should there be an office of historical correctness in New Mexico? Highly officious experts would drive government vehicles with bumper stickers proclaiming, “If it isn’t true, you’re through.” They would assure that what the festival organizers say about our history is true, functioning as our historical Myth Busters. This week there is the world famous amazing Roswell UFO Festival. OK, I know we are not supposed to mess with anything that brings cold, hard credit cards into New Mexico. Still, when I question Roswellians, they look embarrassed, duck their head like they passed gas in church and then exhibit that Roswell Smirk which tells me they know it is bunk. Continue Reading

This era’s field of glory will be tax reform

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© 2007 by Michael Swickard, Ph.D. As a young man, Lincoln worried that the “field of glory” had been harvested by the founding fathers, that nothing had been left for his generation but modest ambitions. – Doris Kearns Goodwin Abraham Lincoln was wrong. Slavery and the resultant Civil War was his field of glory. In the years leading up to Lincoln’s time, no politician had been able to unite this county in the notion that slavery was fundamentally incompatible with the ideals of the United States of America. The slavery issue festered throughout most of our county’s first century. Continue Reading