SOME THOUGHTS ON MEMORIAL DAY, 2014

The following article caught my eye several months ago. Please take a minute to read it. I will rejoin you at the end of this short piece.

(CNN) -- Kevin Trudeau, the television pitchman and author who amassed a fortune telling consumers his secrets about how to get free money, how to lose weight and how to cure a number of illnesses the natural way, is headed to federal prison.

Trudeau, 51, was sentenced to 10 years on Monday for criminal contempt for violating a 2004 federal court order that prohibited him from making misleading infomercials and misrepresenting his weight-loss books.

During Monday's sentencing hearing he also got a tongue-lashing from U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago.

"Since the age of 25, (Trudeau) has attempted to cheat others for his own personal gain," Guzman said.

In a sentencing memo, prosecutors called Trudeau an "unrepentant, untiring, and uncontrollable huckster who has defrauded the unsuspecting for 30 years."

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Ultimately, Mr. Trudeau got what he deserved. One should be punished for dishonesty. When I think about this case, however, I think about greater crimes which not only have gone unpunished but have been rewarded. The Iraq War was based upon a completely fabricated lie. Do you remember weapons of mass destruction? Saddam supposedly was harboring everything from sarin gas to biological agents to nuclear materials. None were ever discovered. Colin Powell did a "tap dance" in front of the U.N. General Assembly showing satellite photos of the proof of Saddam's WMD. There were a few above-ground tanks with some trucks in the photos. The only ones who were convinced that it was proof were the Fox News cheerleaders.

In the end, the Bush administration's lies set us on a course for war. Ask the families of the 4,486 American troops who were killed there how they feel about their loved ones' sacrificing their lives for the sake of a lie.

Afghanistan is another falsehood. It was originally designed to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden....gee, he was killed a few years ago, wasn't he? And yet the war rages on perpetuated by President Barack Obama. American lives lost: 2,322 to date.

And the cost? A Harvard University study as reported in the Washington Post places the cost of both wars at between $4-6 trillion.

That's $4,000,000,000,000 to $6,000,000,000,000.

To circle back to Mr. Trudeau who lied about weight-loss, he received a penalty of 10 years in prison. By comparison, the George W. Bush presidential library opened in 2013 and Barack Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009.

My dream is that a hundred years from now we will live in a world of peace. Then, people of all nationalities will look back at the insanity of war and say "what were they thinking?"


Readers, enjoy your Memorial Day.

REAL ESTATE FOLLIES

One of the many things that drives me crazy is the selling of real estate. The actual selling is fairly easy - you call a Realtor, he/she pounds the sign in your front yard, then in a few weeks a buyer hands you over the dough and kicks you out of your home. Simple, really.

The annoyance comes when people walk by your home and you happen to be standing there in full view of the "for sale" sign. The curious passers-by cannot contain themselves and must ask a question. One would think that they would ask a question about the square footage or the number of baths or how many times the exterminator has been to your home to kill bugs and vermin.

Nope.

The ubiquitous question that is asked by passers-by is the most annoying thing that they can possibly ask and has to do with the sale rather than the character of your home. And, like a twenty minute drum solo played by your ten-year old nephew, here it comes and there's nothing you can do about it.

You see them approaching with a high level of curiosity on their faces. Soon their lips start to move. Here it comes:

"Any nibbles?"

Let's think for a moment about the meaning of the word "nibbles". A nibble is in one sense a fishing term to denote a fish that is stealing your bait with no intention of really commiting to chomping down on the hook and getting caught. In another sense "nibble" connotes someone taking a small bite of food. When I think of nibblers  I think of people who are at a buffet line picking up various items, taking small bites to sample them, deciding that they don't care for the taste, then putting them back in the buffet for the next nibbler to sample. Ewwwwwwww.

In any sense of the word, nibblers are an annoyance.

Now that I have had my daily rant, I'll tell you about my bike ride yesterday. It was a fabulous day and the tourists had not as yet made their yearly Memorial Day migration to the mountains. While riding the deserted trail I saw a lone fisherman rhythmically casting his dry fly along the clear blue waters of the river. I called out to him...

"Any nibbles?"

I couldn't resist.

Readers, enjoy your day.