(1001,1,'2011-04-05 18:16:55','2011-04-06 01:16:55','I wonder why it is I seem to have become so emotional in my old age.\n\nI have always been a bit of a sentimental idiot, the kind who tears up when the moving denouement takes place in the movie or when the sad song touches something deep inside me.\n\nLately, though, it seems as if almost everything seems to strike a chord with me. The other night I was plowing through Season Three of <a title=\"Boston Legal\" href=\"http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0402711/\" target=\"_self\">\"Boston Legal\"</a> when I reached an episode called <a title=\"Son of the Defender\" href=\"http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0977321/\" target=\"_self\">\"Son Of the Defender.\"</a> Throughout several flashbacks, there were several haunting excerpts of music, and at the end, I heard some of the lyrics to the song.\n\n<em>\"And so it goes, and so it goes, and you\'re the only one who knows ...\"</em>\n\nhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHO6a2H-pqY\n\nI didn\'t recognize the singer, but I Googled the lyrics and found that they were from a song called \"And So it Goes,\" by Billy Joel, from 1989.\n\nWhen I found the song on YouTube, I saw that there were numerous versions of it performed a capella by various groups.\n\nhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGS1lo_aWww\n\nI bought the Billy Joel version on iTunes and loaded it onto my iPod. I have found myself listening to it a number of times since then','','','inherit','open','open','','1000-revision','','','2011-04-05 18:16:55','2011-04-06 01:16:55','',1000,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1001',0,'revision','',0),(1002,1,'2011-04-05 19:13:57','2011-04-06 02:13:57','I wonder why it is I seem to have become so emotional in my old age.\n\nI have always been a bit of a sentimental idiot, the kind who tears up when the moving denouement takes place in the movie or when the sad song touches something deep inside me.\n\nLately, though, it seems as if almost everything seems to strike a chord with me. The other night I was plowing through Season Three of <a title=\"Boston Legal\" href=\"http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0402711/\" target=\"_self\">\"Boston Legal\"</a> when I reached an episode called <a title=\"Son of the Defender\" href=\"http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0977321/\" target=\"_self\">\"Son Of the Defender.\"</a> Throughout several flashbacks, there were several haunting excerpts of music, and at the end, I heard some of the lyrics to the song.\n\n<em>\"And so it goes, and so it goes, and you\'re the only one who knows ...\"</em>\n\nhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHO6a2H-pqY\n\nI didn\'t recognize the singer, but I Googled the lyrics and found that they were from a song called \"And So it Goes,\" by Billy Joel, from 1989.\n\nWhen I found the song on YouTube, I saw that there were numerous versions of it performed a capella by various groups.\n\nhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGS1lo_aWww\n\nI bought the Billy Joel version on iTunes and loaded it onto my iPod. I have found myself listening to it a number of times since then, and it truly moves me.\n\nIt\'s a song about the hurt that we feel after failed relationships, and the courage that it takes to open up and give love another chance after being badly hurt. And it made me think about the various times my own heart has been hurt, and the time it took me to recover from those hurts.\n\nYes, there have been times in my life that I was in serious pain. But there have been other times at which taking a chance gave me the opportunity to feel wonderful. Maybe I am too emotional, but I can\'t imagine ever shutting myself off.\n\n<em>\"So I would choose to be with you, that\'s if the choice were mine to make. But you can make decisions too, and you can have this heart to break.\"</em>\n\nI certainly hope I never find myself looking for love again. I have had love for nearly 19 years now with the woman I consider the love of my life, and I would be devastated if anything happened to take that love from me.\n\nBut I would never want to be a person who didn\'t need love, who closed himself off.\n\n<em>\"And so it goes ...\"</em>','People need love, which means be','','inherit','open','open','','1000-revision-2','','','2011-04-05 19:13:57','2011-04-06 02:13:57','',1000,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1002',0,'revision','',0),(1003,1,'2011-04-07 19:49:39','2011-04-08 02:49:39','I\'m always surprised when people come up with what they think are amazing revelations that actually are anything but.\r\n\r\nMy friend Mick -- probably one of the few right-wingers in the world who is a really good person -- made a comment on Facebook in response to something I had written in which he said I had shown my true colors as a leftist.\r\n\r\nMy comment, in response to something on Huffington Post about the government shutdown negotiations, was this:\r\n\r\n<em>\"I used to disagree with Republicans, but with a  few exceptions, I didn\'t think they were bad people. Now it seems like  so many of them are real scumbags.\"</em>\r\n\r\nMy dear friend said that my \"bias and prejudice just flows.\"\r\n\r\nUh, duh.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/bagley.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1004\" title=\"bagley\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/bagley-300x205.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"205\" /></a>It isn\'t as if I have been a straight-ticket voter all my life. I have actually voted for Republicans at one time or another for both houses of Congress and twice for governor of California. I even voted in the Republican presidential primary in 2000, although that was as much a vote against George W. Bush as it was a vote for John McCain.\r\n\r\nBut those were the days when Republicans stood for more than just cutting government, privatizing everything and keeping taxes as low as possible for the mega-wealthy.\r\n\r\nI mean, face it. There are now Republicans in Congress -- in control of one of the two houses -- who basically want to eliminate Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.\r\n\r\nAm I a leftist?\r\n\r\nI\'m a proud leftist in some areas. I think we need single-payer, government-run health care in this country. I think we should cut our military budget by at least a third and maybe as much as half. I think the mega-wealthy ought to actually pay taxes, and indeed that they have the responsibility to pay for the tremendous benefits they have received from being Americans.\r\n\r\n<em>But isn\'t it unfair to call Republicans \"scumbags?\" Isn\'t that a little rough?</em>\r\n\r\nWell, let\'s start with the assumption that anyone who encourages the crazies to believe things that they know aren\'t true is a scumbag. Does anyone with a fighting chance at both sanity and a three-digit IQ really think that President Obama wasn\'t born in the United States? Yet there are plenty of people who ought to know better who are encouraging the tinfoil-hat set to keep after the president about his supposed birth in Kenya.\r\n\r\nWe used to live in a country where as long as you were willing to work hard, you could make a decent living and have a chance to give your kids a better life than you had. But ever since the advent of multinational corporations and the millions of lost jobs that they outsourced, now we live in a country where for many people the only jobs available involve paper hats and name tags. As George Carlin put it, the reason they call it the American Dream these days is that you have to be asleep to believe it.\r\n\r\nDo I think the government ought to do something about all that?\r\n\r\nYou bet I do. We can start by telling companies that if they want the benefits of being American companies, they need to keep their jobs in America and pay taxes in America.\r\n\r\nAm I a leftist? Not in everything. I depart from the folks on the left in some of the so-called \"life\" issues. I\'m against capital punishment, but I\'m also against euthanasia, assisted suicide and abortion. Throw in anti-war, and it pretty much adds up to saying that God is the only one allowed to take lives.\r\n\r\nBut on most of the other stuff, I\'m as far to the left as my good friend is to the right.\r\n\r\nAnd damned proud of it.','Yes, I\'ve been exposed as (gasp!) a liberal','','publish','open','open','','yes-ive-been-exposed-as-gasp-a-liberal','','','2011-04-07 19:49:39','2011-04-08 02:49:39','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1003',0,'post','',0),(1004,1,'2011-04-07 19:32:31','2011-04-08 02:32:31','','bagley','','inherit','open','open','','bagley','','','2011-04-07 19:32:31','2011-04-08 02:32:31','',1003,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/bagley.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1005,1,'2011-04-07 19:48:13','2011-04-08 02:48:13','I\'m always surprised when people come up with what they think are amazing revelations that actually are anything but.\n\nMy friend Mick -- probably one of the few right-wingers in the world who is a really good person -- made a comment on Facebook in response to something I had written in which he said I had shown my true colors as a leftist.\n\nMy comment, in response to something on Huffington Post about the government shutdown negotiations, was this:\n\n<em>\"I used to disagree with Republicans, but with a  few exceptions, I didn\'t think they were bad people. Now it seems like  so many of them are real scumbags.\"</em>\n\nMy dear friend said that my \"bias and prejudice just flows.\"\n\nUh, duh.\n\n<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/bagley.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1004\" title=\"bagley\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/bagley-300x205.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"205\" /></a>It isn\'t as if I have been a straight-ticket voter all my life. I have actually voted for Republicans at one time or another for both houses of Congress and twice for governor of California. I even voted in the Republican presidential primary in 2000, although that was as much a vote against George W. Bush as it was a vote for John McCain.\n\nBut those were the days when Republicans stood for more than just cutting government, privatizing everything and keeping taxes as low as possible for the mega-wealthy.\n\nI mean, face it. There are now Republicans in Congress -- in control of one of the two houses -- who basically want to eliminate Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.\n\nAm I a leftist?\n\nI\'m a proud leftist in some areas. I think we need single-payer, government-run health care in this country. I think we should cut our military budget by at least a third and maybe as much as half. I think the mega-wealthy ought to actually pay taxes, and indeed that they have the responsibility to pay for the tremendous benefits they have received from being Americans.\n\n<em>But isn\'t it unfair to call Republicans \"scumbags?\" Isn\'t that a little rough?</em>\n\nWell, let\'s start with the assumption that anyone who encourages the crazies to believe things that they know aren\'t true is a scumbag. Does anyone with a fighting chance at both sanity and a three-digit IQ really think that President Obama wasn\'t born in the United States? Yet there are plenty of people who ought to know better who are encouraging the tinfoil-hat set to keep after the president about his supposed birth in Kenya.\n\nWe used to live in a country where as long as you were willing to work hard, you could make a decent living and have a chance to give your kids a better life than you had. But ever since the advent of multinational corporations and the millions of lost jobs that they outsourced, now we live in a country where for many people the only jobs available involve paper hats and name tags. As George Carlin put it, the reason they call it the American Dream these days is that you have to be asleep to believe it.\n\nDo I think the government ought to do something about all that?\n\nYou bet I do. We can start by telling companies that if they want the benefits of being American companies, they need to keep their jobs in America and pay taxes in America.\n\nAm I a leftist? Not in everything. I depart from the folks on the left in some of the so-called \"life\" issues. I\'m against capital punishment, but I\'m also against euthanasia, assisted suicide and abortion. Throw in anti-war, and it pretty much adds up to saying that God is the only one allowed to take lives.\n\nBut on most of the other stuff, I\'m as far to the left as my good friend is to the right.\n\nAnd damned proud of it.','','','inherit','open','open','','1003-revision','','','2011-04-07 19:48:13','2011-04-08 02:48:13','',1003,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1005',0,'revision','',0),(1006,1,'2011-04-08 08:38:39','2011-04-08 15:38:39','','800__broadcast_news_blu-ray_9_','','inherit','open','open','','800__broadcast_news_blu-ray_9_','','','2011-04-08 08:38:39','2011-04-08 15:38:39','',923,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/800__broadcast_news_blu-ray_9_.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1007,1,'2011-04-08 08:43:12','2011-04-08 15:43:12','<em><a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/800__broadcast_news_blu-ray_9_.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1006\" title=\"800__broadcast_news_blu-ray_9_\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/800__broadcast_news_blu-ray_9_-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" /></a>\"It must be nice to always believe you know better, to always think you\'re the smartest person in the room.\"</em>\n\n<em>\"No. It\'s awful.\"</em>\n\nThis exchange from \"Broadcast News\" had two intelligent people either making or hearing a comment in two diametrically opposite ways. Peter Hackes\' television executive is being extremely sarcastic in making the remark to Holly Hunter\'s line producer, while Hunter -- who has pretty much always <em>been</em> the smartest person in whatever room she occupies -- answers with heartfelt sincerity.','','','inherit','open','open','','923-revision','','','2011-04-08 08:43:12','2011-04-08 15:43:12','',923,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1007',0,'revision','',0),(1008,1,'2011-04-09 20:46:27','2011-04-10 03:46:27','Could there be anything more wonderful when you\'re 61 years old than learning that you\'re going to have another grandchild?\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1009\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Wonderful Maddie\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/maddie4.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1009\" title=\"maddie4\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/maddie4-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nFor the last 2 1/2 years, I have been Madison Kastner\'s grandfather, and while it has been wonderful to be a husband and a parent, there is something so special about being \"Grandpa.\"\r\n\r\nMy daughter Pauline\'s plan all along was to have her second child about three years after the first, and it was a couple of months ago when she and Ryan started trying.\r\n\r\nLast week she called us from Surabaya, Indonesia, and told us that the bun, so to speak, was in the oven. Their second child, our second grandchild, is due November 11th. Since Pauline can\'t get the best hospital care where she\'s currently stationed, they will be returning to the United States at the end of September so that she can give birth in Seattle.\r\n\r\nThey will be in the U.S. for three months and return to Indonesia at the end of the calendar year.\r\n\r\nWe\'ll go out there in November, both to spend some time with Maddie and her parents and to meet our newest grandchild.\r\n\r\nIt has been a long time since I have looked forward to anything as much.\r\n\r\nCan there really be <em>two</em> Amazing Babies?','Coming soon: Another Amazing Baby','','publish','open','open','','coming-soon-another-amazing-baby','','','2011-04-09 20:46:27','2011-04-10 03:46:27','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1008',0,'post','',0),(1009,1,'2011-04-09 20:27:10','2011-04-10 03:27:10','','maddie4','Wonderful Maddie','inherit','open','open','','maddie4-2','','','2011-04-09 20:27:10','2011-04-10 03:27:10','',1008,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/maddie4.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1010,1,'2011-04-09 20:45:31','2011-04-10 03:45:31','Could there be anything more wonderful when you\'re 61 years old than learning that you\'re going to have another grandchild?\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1009\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Wonderful Maddie\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/maddie4.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1009\" title=\"maddie4\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/maddie4-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nFor the last 2 1/2 years, I have been Madison Kastner\'s grandfather, and while it has been wonderful to be a husband and a parent, there is something so special about being \"Grandpa.\"\n\nMy daughter Pauline\'s plan all along was to have her second child about three years after the first, and it was a couple of months ago when she and Ryan started trying.\n\nLast week she called us from Surabaya, Indonesia, and told us that the bun, so to speak, was in the oven. Their second child, our second grandchild, is due November 11th. Since Pauline can\'t get the best hospital care where she\'s currently stationed, they will be returning to the United States at the end of September so that she can give birth in Seattle.\n\nThey will be in the U.S. for three months and return to Indonesia at the end of the calendar year.\n\nWe\'ll go out there in November, both to spend some time with Maddie and her parents and to meet our newest grandchild.\n\nIt has been a long time since I have looked forward to anything as much.\n\nCan there really be <em>two</em> Amazing Babies?','','','inherit','open','open','','1008-revision','','','2011-04-09 20:45:31','2011-04-10 03:45:31','',1008,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1010',0,'revision','',0),(1011,1,'2011-04-09 20:46:39','2011-04-10 03:46:39','Could there be anything more wonderful when you\'re 61 years old than learning that you\'re going to have another grandchild?\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1009\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Wonderful Maddie\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/maddie4.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1009\" title=\"maddie4\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/maddie4-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nFor the last 2 1/2 years, I have been Madison Kastner\'s grandfather, and while it has been wonderful to be a husband and a parent, there is something so special about being \"Grandpa.\"\n\nMy daughter Pauline\'s plan all along was to have her second child about three years after the first, and it was a couple of months ago when she and Ryan started trying.\n\nLast week she called us from Surabaya, Indonesia, and told us that the bun, so to speak, was in the oven. Their second child, our second grandchild, is due November 11th. Since Pauline can\'t get the best hospital care where she\'s currently stationed, they will be returning to the United States at the end of September so that she can give birth in Seattle.\n\nThey will be in the U.S. for three months and return to Indonesia at the end of the calendar year.\n\nWe\'ll go out there in November, both to spend some time with Maddie and her parents and to meet our newest grandchild.\n\nIt has been a long time since I have looked forward to anything as much.\n\nCan there really be <em>two</em> Amazing Babies?','Coming soon: Another Amazing Baby','','inherit','open','open','','1008-autosave','','','2011-04-09 20:46:39','2011-04-10 03:46:39','',1008,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1011',0,'revision','',0),(1012,1,'2011-04-10 19:42:56','2011-04-11 02:42:56','I think I knew it was going to be a special day on the golf course on my second shot.\r\n\r\nI was about 170 yards out after a 200-yard drive, sitting on the left side of the fairway and looking toward the green. The flag was in the center of the green, with sand traps both to the left and right of the green and another one behind it.\r\n\r\nI\'ve never parred this hole.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1013\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"The first hole\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110324_1.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1013\" title=\"20110324_1\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110324_1-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nI tend to hit my approach shots either off to the right, or in the instances I do hit them straight, I leave them short. On the rare occasions I catch it well, I may hit the slick green only to run through and fall into the trap in the back.\r\n\r\nNot this time. I hit it straight and I hit it well enough that it stopped near the center of the green, about 20 feet from the cup.\r\n\r\nI putted to within a foot of the hole and then tapped in for par.\r\n\r\nI parred the third hole as well, but after five holes I was three over par and not doing anything spectacular. Still, I was hitting mostly good shots and feeling really good. I parred six and seven -- both short par fours -- and went into the par five eighth hole on a bit of a roll.\r\n\r\nMy first two shots weren\'t great on No. 8, and to attack the cup on my third shot I would have to hit about 170 yards directly over two sand traps. I caught it well and left it about 18 feet from the cup. I two-putted for par and suddenly realized that if I parred the short ninth hole, which I do more often than not, I would break 40 on the front nine.\r\n\r\nThe ninth hole is only about 105 yards long, depending on the pin placement, and I put my shot 11 feet from the pin.\r\n\r\nThen I really surprised myself and rolled in a birdie putt. I had completed the front nine with a 38, just two over par.\r\n\r\nWhen I began playing golf nearly 20 years ago, my dream was to someday break 100, and I remember the thrill it was for me at Empire Lakes in Rancho Cucamonga, California, to shoot 43 on the front nine, 55 on the back and finally score 98.\r\n\r\nThen my dream was to break 90. I remember reading somewhere that only about 10 percent of casual golfers in this country ever break 90, and it took me a few more years to be able to do that. The thought of someday breaking 80 was one of those \"impossible dreams.\" I shot an 83 once at Empire Lakes, and then in my best round ever, I shot 81 two weeks ago here at Sun City.\r\n\r\nI realized that as long as I didn\'t have any double bogeys, I only needed four pars on the back nine to shoot 79.\r\n\r\nI bogeyed 10 and 11, but I came back with pars on 12 and 13 and a bogey on the par five 14th, the only par five all day that I didn\'t par.\r\n\r\nWith four holes remaining, I needed two pars to break 80. The 15th hole has been an easy one for me -- I\'ve even birdied it once -- but I have never parred 16, 17 or 18.\r\n\r\nI got my par on 15, but bogeyed 16 and 17 to bring it all down to one hole. The 18th is only 325 yards, but there are a lot of trees on the right side of the fairway, which is where I usually end up. I hit a mediocre first shot, although it was decent enough distance to leave me only about 110 yards away -- behind a tree.\r\n\r\nI got my nine-iron shot into the air nicely, but to avoid the tree, I had to also avoid the green. I was off to the left about 20 yards away. If I could get up and down from there, I\'d have a par and my 79.\r\n\r\nI tried to picture the shot in my mind that I wanted to hit with my wedge. It doesn\'t always work that way, but I caught the ball just right and it caught the green and rolled to within a foot of the cup. I tapped in for 79 and felt wonderful.\r\n\r\nI had done something I never thought I would do on a golf course. I had broken 80.\r\n\r\nIt\'s not the longest course in the world. From the white tees it\'s about 5,850 yards, but what it lacks in length it makes up in extremely challenging greens.\r\n\r\nSo I broke 80. I hope I can do it again, and it would be especially wonderful to do it when I wasn\'t playing alone.\r\n\r\nGolf can be a really frustrating game, but I have been playing with enough frequency here that I actually think I am improving. I shot 81 two weeks ago, and 44 for nine holes (carrying my clubs on my back) Monday before shooting 79 today. In the last 45 holes I\'ve played, I have had one birdie, 20 pars, 23 bogeys and only one double bogey. It\'s that last number I\'m proudest of.\r\n\r\nOf course, the birdie was nice too.\r\n\r\nAnd the 79.','Wonder of wonders, a 79 on the scoreboard','','publish','open','open','','wonder-of-wonders-a-79-on-the-scoreboard','','','2011-04-10 19:42:56','2011-04-11 02:42:56','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1012',0,'post','',1),(1013,1,'2011-04-10 19:15:45','2011-04-11 02:15:45','','20110324_1','The first hole','inherit','open','open','','20110324_1','','','2011-04-10 19:15:45','2011-04-11 02:15:45','',1012,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110324_1.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1014,1,'2011-04-10 19:42:54','2011-04-11 02:42:54','I think I knew it was going to be a special day on the golf course on my second shot.\n\nI was about 170 yards out after a 200-yard drive, sitting on the left side of the fairway and looking toward the green. The flag was in the center of the green, with sand traps both to the left and right of the green and another one behind it.\n\nI\'ve never parred this hole.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1013\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"The first hole\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110324_1.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1013\" title=\"20110324_1\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110324_1-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nI tend to hit my approach shots either off to the right, or in the instances I do hit them straight, I leave them short. On the rare occasions I catch it well, I may hit the slick green only to run through and fall into the trap in the back.\n\nNot this time. I hit it straight and I hit it well enough that it stopped near the center of the green, about 20 feet from the cup.\n\nI putted to within a foot of the hole and then tapped in for par.\n\nI parred the third hole as well, but after five holes I was three over par and not doing anything spectacular. Still, I was hitting mostly good shots and feeling really good. I parred six and seven -- both short par fours -- and went into the par five eighth hole on a bit of a roll.\n\nMy first two shots weren\'t great on No. 8, and to attack the cup on my third shot I would have to hit about 170 yards directly over two sand traps. I caught it well and left it about 18 feet from the cup. I two-putted for par and suddenly realized that if I parred the short ninth hole, which I do more often than not, I would break 40 on the front nine.\n\nThe ninth hole is only about 105 yards long, depending on the pin placement, and I put my shot 11 feet from the pin.\n\nThen I really surprised myself and rolled in a birdie putt. I had completed the front nine with a 38, just two over par.\n\nWhen I began playing golf nearly 20 years ago, my dream was to someday break 100, and I remember the thrill it was for me at Empire Lakes in Rancho Cucamonga, California, to shoot 43 on the front nine, 55 on the back and finally score 98.\n\nThen my dream was to break 90. I remember reading somewhere that only about 10 percent of casual golfers in this country ever break 90, and it took me a few more years to be able to do that. The thought of someday breaking 80 was one of those \"impossible dreams.\" I shot an 83 once at Empire Lakes, and then in my best round ever, I shot 81 two weeks ago here at Sun City.\n\nI realized that as long as I didn\'t have any double bogeys, I only needed four pars on the back nine to shoot 79.\n\nI bogeyed 10 and 11, but I came back with pars on 12 and 13 and a bogey on the par five 14th, the only par five all day that I didn\'t par.\n\nWith four holes remaining, I needed two pars to break 80. The 15th hole has been an easy one for me -- I\'ve even birdied it once -- but I have never parred 16, 17 or 18.\n\nI got my par on 15, but bogeyed 16 and 17 to bring it all down to one hole. The 18th is only 325 yards, but there are a lot of trees on the right side of the fairway, which is where I usually end up. I hit a mediocre first shot, although it was decent enough distance to leave me only about 110 yards away -- behind a tree.\n\nI got my nine-iron shot into the air nicely, but to avoid the tree, I had to also avoid the green. I was off to the left about 20 yards away. If I could get up and down from there, I\'d have a par and my 79.\n\nI tried to picture the shot in my mind that I wanted to hit with my wedge. It doesn\'t always work that way, but I caught the ball just right and it caught the green and rolled to within a foot of the cup. I tapped in for 79 and felt wonderful.\n\nI had done something I never thought I would do on a golf course. I had broken 80.\n\nIt\'s not the longest course in the world. From the white tees it\'s about 5,850 yards, but what it lacks in length it makes up in extremely challenging greens.\n\nSo I broke 80. I hope I can do it again, and it would be especially wonderful to do it when I wasn\'t playing alone.\n\nGolf can be a really frustrating game, but I have been playing with enough frequency here that I actually think I am improving. I shot 81 two weeks ago, and 44 for nine holes (carrying my clubs on my back) Monday before shooting 79 today. In the last 45 holes I\'ve played, I have had one birdie, 20 pars, 23 bogeys and only one double bogey. It\'s that last number I\'m proudest of.\n\nOf course, the birdie was nice too.\n\nAnd the 79.','Wonder of wonders, a 79 on the scoreboard','','inherit','open','open','','1012-revision','','','2011-04-10 19:42:54','2011-04-11 02:42:54','',1012,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1014',0,'revision','',0),(1016,1,'2011-04-11 20:46:29','2011-04-12 03:46:29','','20101210_28','A long walk.','inherit','open','open','','20101210_28','','','2011-04-11 20:46:29','2011-04-12 03:46:29','',1015,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20101210_28.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1017,1,'2011-04-11 20:59:30','2011-04-12 03:59:30','It\'s getting hotter here, and more humid along with it.\n\nBut I am making the effort to get out and walk, and today I did it on the golf course. I spent about two hours lugging a bag on my back as I played nine holes. Of course that makes it tougher for me to concentrate on the golf, but it\'s good exercise.\n\nIf I hit a shot 200 yards off the tee, that means I carry a bag of golf clubs on my back for the equivalent of two football fields. On a hot day, that\'s actually pretty good exercise.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1016\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"A long walk.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20101210_28.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1016\" title=\"20101210_28\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20101210_28-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nOne thing that has been a pleasant surprise to me lately is that for whatever reason -- partly the fact that there are a number of downhill holes and partly just a better swing -- I have been hitting my tee shots farther and farther.\n\nToday on the fifth hole, which about 180 yards out slopes downhill, I actually found my shot in the middle of the fairway, 270 yards from the tee. I think that might be the longest tee shot I\'ve ever hit.\n\nI\'ve had a couple of others, particularly on 15, that have gone 250-260 yards.\n\nBut what\'s nicest for me anyway, is that where a good shot for me used to be 200 yards, now I\'m hitting at least half of my good tee shots nearly 225 yards.\n\nI\'m learning something I figured for a long time.\n\nThe more frequently I play, the better I get. I\'d say at least 75 percent of the time now, I\'m pretty happy with the shots I hit.\n\nBut what really makes me happy is that I\'m actually playing pretty well when I walk and carry my bag. Yesterday I shot 38 on the front nine en route to a 79, and today after eight holes I was in exactly the same place as yesterday -- three over par.\n\nToday at least, the ninth hole didn\'t go as well. Yesterday I rolled in an 11-footer for birdie and a 38. Today I didn\'t put my tee shot on the green, and it took me a chip and two putts for a bogey 4 and a nine-hole score of 40.\n\nIt actually says something that for the second best score I ever had, I was disappointed.','','','inherit','open','open','','1015-revision','','','2011-04-11 20:59:30','2011-04-12 03:59:30','',1015,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1017',0,'revision','',0),(1019,1,'2011-04-12 18:06:49','2011-04-13 01:06:49','It\'s still early, but the spring here has been really beautiful so far.\r\n\r\nIt rained last night, so today was cooler and fresher than yesterday. I have been getting out to walk this week, and for the third consecutive day, I was on the golf course. I could be wrong, but I think this was the first time in my life I have played golf three days in a row.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1020\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Beautiful blue skies.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110412_37.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1020\" title=\"20110412_37\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110412_37-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nLast night\'s storm blew away the clouds, except for a few wispy ones, and the skies seemed so clean and blue.\r\n\r\nI rode today, but I did a lot of walking around the course taking pictures. It\'s funny. When I\'m on the golf course I take dozens of pictures of nature, and when I look at them later, I hardly ever use them.\r\n\r\nBut I do enjoy looking at them. The course is getting greener and greener, and I can tell that by the time summer is here, it is going to be truly beautiful.\r\n\r\nIt started out to be a very frustrating round. The shots I had been making Sunday and Monday weren\'t going down today, and after eight holes, I had only one par and seven bogeys. I was looking at a score in the high 80s.\r\n\r\nBut things got better. On the ninth hole, I put my tee shot on the edge of the green and then two-putted for par and a 43 on the front nine.\r\n\r\nThen I started having fun. I parred the 10th, which I don\'t usually do, and the par five 12th hole. I birdied the par-five 14th when I rolled in a 22-foot putt from the edge of the green, and then parred 15 and 16, leaving me just one over par on the back nine.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1021\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Looking down to 16\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110412_43.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1021\" title=\"20110412_43\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110412_43-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nI\'m not sure why, but 16 has been a tough hole for me. This was the first time I parred it, and even then it wasn\'t easy. My first putt on the par three was from 35 feet, and to complete the par I had to knock in an eight-footer.\r\n\r\nI bogeyed 17, but came back and parred the last hole for the second day in a row. It gave me a 38 on the back nine -- the first time I\'ve broken 40 -- and it meant that I had played the last 10 holes in just two over par.\r\n\r\nDang, I\'m really having fun playing golf these days.\r\n\r\nThe 81 I shot meant that the last three rounds I\'ve played are 81, 79 and 81 -- the three best rounds of 18 holes on a full-length course I have ever shot.\r\n\r\nIt\'s going to be a great summer.','Out again on a really beautiful day','','publish','open','open','','out-again-on-a-really-beautiful-day','','','2011-04-12 18:06:49','2011-04-13 01:06:49','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1019',0,'post','',0),(1020,1,'2011-04-12 17:37:28','2011-04-13 00:37:28','','20110412_37','Beautiful blue skies.','inherit','open','open','','20110412_37','','','2011-04-12 17:37:28','2011-04-13 00:37:28','',1019,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110412_37.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1021,1,'2011-04-12 17:58:20','2011-04-13 00:58:20','','20110412_43','Looking down to 16','inherit','open','open','','20110412_43','','','2011-04-12 17:58:20','2011-04-13 00:58:20','',1019,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110412_43.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1022,1,'2011-04-12 18:06:01','2011-04-13 01:06:01','It\'s still early, but the spring here has been really beautiful so far.\n\nIt rained last night, so today was cooler and fresher than yesterday. I have been getting out to walk this week, and for the third consecutive day, I was on the golf course. I could be wrong, but I think this was the first time in my life I have played golf three days in a row.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1020\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Beautiful blue skies.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110412_37.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1020\" title=\"20110412_37\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110412_37-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nLast night\'s storm blew away the clouds, except for a few wispy ones, and the skies seemed so clean and blue.\n\nI rode today, but I did a lot of walking around the course taking pictures. It\'s funny. When I\'m on the golf course I take dozens of pictures of nature, and when I look at them later, I hardly ever use them.\n\nBut I do enjoy looking at them. The course is getting greener and greener, and I can tell that by the time summer is here, it is going to be truly beautiful.\n\nIt started out to be a very frustrating round. The shots I had been making Sunday and Monday weren\'t going down today, and after eight holes, I had only one par and seven bogeys. I was looking at a score in the high 80s.\n\nBut things got better. On the ninth hole, I put my tee shot on the edge of the green and then two-putted for par and a 43 on the front nine.\n\nThen I started having fun. I parred the 10th, which I don\'t usually do, and the par five 12th hole. I birdied the par-five 14th when I rolled in a 22-foot putt from the edge of the green, and then parred 15 and 16, leaving me just one over par on the back nine.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1021\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Looking down to 16\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110412_43.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1021\" title=\"20110412_43\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110412_43-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nI\'m not sure why, but 16 has been a tough hole for me. This was the first time I parred it, and even then it wasn\'t easy. My first putt on the par three was from 35 feet, and to complete the par I had to knock in an eight-footer.\n\nI bogeyed 17, but came back and parred the last hole for the second day in a row. It gave me a 38 on the back nine -- the first time I\'ve broken 40 -- and it meant that I had played the last 10 holes in just two over par.\n\nDang, I\'m really having fun playing golf these days.\n\nThe 81 I shot meant that the last three rounds I\'ve played are 81, 79 and 81 -- the three best rounds of 18 holes on a full-length course I have ever shot.\n\nIt\'s going to be a great summer.','','','inherit','open','open','','1019-revision','','','2011-04-12 18:06:01','2011-04-13 01:06:01','',1019,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1022',0,'revision','',0),(1023,1,'2011-04-13 16:28:37','2011-04-13 23:28:37','<em><a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/800__broadcast_news_blu-ray_9_.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1006\" title=\"800__broadcast_news_blu-ray_9_\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/800__broadcast_news_blu-ray_9_-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" /></a>\"It must be nice to always believe you know better, to always think you\'re the smartest person in the room.\"</em>\n\n<em>\"No. It\'s awful.\"</em>\n\nThis exchange from \"Broadcast News\" had two intelligent people either making or hearing a comment in two diametrically opposite ways. Peter Hackes\' television executive is being extremely sarcastic in making the remark to Holly Hunter\'s line producer, while Hunter -- who has pretty much always <em>been</em> the smartest person in whatever room she occupies -- answers with heartfelt sincerity.\n\nI have been fortunate in my life to know quite a few brilliant people, people who are legitimately the smartest person in most of the rooms they occupy.\n\nMy wife Nicole is definitely one of them.\n\nShe has doctorates in two different scientific disciplines, and there are things she knows in her area of specialization that no more than one or two other people in the world understand or even know.\n\nThe thing that is incredibly impressive about my wife is that while she may be one of the smartest people in the world, she doesn\'t lord it over me.','','','inherit','open','open','','923-revision-2','','','2011-04-13 16:28:37','2011-04-13 23:28:37','',923,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1023',0,'revision','',0),(1024,1,'2011-04-13 18:47:08','2011-04-14 01:47:08','<em><a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/800__broadcast_news_blu-ray_9_.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1006\" title=\"800__broadcast_news_blu-ray_9_\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/800__broadcast_news_blu-ray_9_-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" /></a>\"It must be nice to always believe you know better, to always think you\'re the smartest person in the room.\"</em>\n\n<em>\"No. It\'s awful.\"</em>\n\nThis exchange from \"Broadcast News\" had two intelligent people either making or hearing a comment in two diametrically opposite ways. Peter Hackes\' television executive is being extremely sarcastic in making the remark to Holly Hunter\'s line producer, while Hunter -- who has pretty much always <em>been</em> the smartest person in whatever room she occupies -- answers with heartfelt sincerity.\n\nI have been fortunate in my life to know quite a few brilliant people, people who are legitimately the smartest person in most of the rooms they occupy.\n\nMy wife Nicole is definitely one of them.\n\nShe has doctorates in two different scientific disciplines, and there are things she knows in her area of specialization that no more than one or two other people in the world understand or even know.\n\nThe thing that is incredibly impressive about my wife is that while she may be one of the smartest people in the world, she doesn\'t lord it over me.\n\nMy parents were also brilliant. When my dad was still alive, he was probably the smartest man I had ever know, and my mother (who is still alive) is at worst the second-smartest woman I know. I\'ve got some pretty smart siblings too, but that shouldn\'t come as any surprise.\n\nI have some intelligent friends too, but most of them suffer from the same syndrome that I do. We\'re not as smart as we think we are. In fact, I could describe one particular friend -- who I won\'t mention by name -- by saying that he\'s probably twice as smart as I think he is and half as smart as he thinks he is. I would have a lot more respect for his intellect if I had ever found one subject about which he admitted he didn\'t know much about it.\n\nBecause if there\'s one thing I have learned over the years, it\'s that sometimes the three most intelligent words you can say are there:\n\n<em>\"I don\'t know.\"</em>','Being intelligent isn\'t always about knowing the answer','','inherit','open','open','','923-revision-3','','','2011-04-13 18:47:08','2011-04-14 01:47:08','',923,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1024',0,'revision','',0),(1025,1,'2011-04-13 18:47:42','2011-04-14 01:47:42','<em><a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/800__broadcast_news_blu-ray_9_.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1006\" title=\"800__broadcast_news_blu-ray_9_\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/800__broadcast_news_blu-ray_9_-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" /></a>\"It must be nice to always believe you know better, to always think you\'re the smartest person in the room.\"</em>\r\n\r\n<em>\"No. It\'s awful.\"</em>\r\n\r\nThis exchange from \"Broadcast News\" had two intelligent people either making or hearing a comment in two diametrically opposite ways. Peter Hackes\' television executive is being extremely sarcastic in making the remark to Holly Hunter\'s line producer, while Hunter -- who has pretty much always <em>been</em> the smartest person in whatever room she occupies -- answers with heartfelt sincerity.\r\n\r\nI have been fortunate in my life to know quite a few brilliant people, people who are legitimately the smartest person in most of the rooms they occupy.\r\n\r\nMy wife Nicole is definitely one of them.\r\n\r\nShe has doctorates in two different scientific disciplines, and there are things she knows in her area of specialization that no more than one or two other people in the world understand or even know.\r\n\r\nThe thing that is incredibly impressive about my wife is that while she may be one of the smartest people in the world, she doesn\'t lord it over me.\r\n\r\nMy parents were also brilliant. When my dad was still alive, he was probably the smartest man I had ever know, and my mother (who is still alive) is at worst the second-smartest woman I know. I\'ve got some pretty smart siblings too, but that shouldn\'t come as any surprise.\r\n\r\nI have some intelligent friends too, but most of them suffer from the same syndrome that I do. We\'re not as smart as we think we are. In fact, I could describe one particular friend -- who I won\'t mention by name -- by saying that he\'s probably twice as smart as I think he is and half as smart as he thinks he is. I would have a lot more respect for his intellect if I had ever found one subject about which he admitted he didn\'t know much about it.\r\n\r\nBecause if there\'s one thing I have learned over the years, it\'s that sometimes the three most intelligent words you can say are there:\r\n\r\n<em>\"I don\'t know.\"</em>','Being intelligent isn\'t always about knowing the answer','','inherit','open','open','','923-revision-4','','','2011-04-13 18:47:42','2011-04-14 01:47:42','',923,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1025',0,'revision','',0),(1026,1,'2011-04-13 18:49:02','2011-04-14 01:49:02','<em><a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/800__broadcast_news_blu-ray_9_.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1006\" title=\"800__broadcast_news_blu-ray_9_\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/800__broadcast_news_blu-ray_9_-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" /></a>\"It must be nice to always believe you know better, to always think you\'re the smartest person in the room.\"</em>\r\n\r\n<em>\"No. It\'s awful.\"</em>\r\n\r\nThis exchange from \"Broadcast News\" had two intelligent people either making or hearing a comment in two diametrically opposite ways. Peter Hackes\' television executive is being extremely sarcastic in making the remark to Holly Hunter\'s line producer, while Hunter -- who has pretty much always <em>been</em> the smartest person in whatever room she occupies -- answers with heartfelt sincerity.\r\n\r\nI have been fortunate in my life to know quite a few brilliant people, people who are legitimately the smartest person in most of the rooms they occupy.\r\n\r\nMy wife Nicole is definitely one of them.\r\n\r\nShe has doctorates in two different scientific disciplines, and there are things she knows in her area of specialization that no more than one or two other people in the world understand or even know.\r\n\r\nThe thing that is incredibly impressive about my wife is that while she may be one of the smartest people in the world, she doesn\'t lord it over me.\r\n\r\nMy parents were also brilliant. When my dad was still alive, he was probably the smartest man I had ever know, and my mother (who is still alive) is at worst the second-smartest woman I know. I\'ve got some pretty smart siblings too, but that shouldn\'t come as any surprise. I should also mention my kids. Both of them are way up there.\r\n\r\nI have some intelligent friends too, but most of them suffer from the same syndrome that I do. We\'re not as smart as we think we are. In fact, I could describe one particular friend -- who I won\'t mention by name -- by saying that he\'s probably twice as smart as I think he is and half as smart as he thinks he is. I would have a lot more respect for his intellect if I had ever found one subject about which he admitted he didn\'t know much about it.\r\n\r\nBecause if there\'s one thing I have learned over the years, it\'s that sometimes the three most intelligent words you can say are there:\r\n\r\n<em>\"I don\'t know.\"</em>','Being intelligent isn\'t always about knowing the answer','','inherit','open','open','','923-revision-5','','','2011-04-13 18:49:02','2011-04-14 01:49:02','',923,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1026',0,'revision','',0),(1027,1,'2011-04-14 20:47:57','2011-04-15 03:47:57','[caption id=\"attachment_1028\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Dogwoods?\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110412_44.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1028\" title=\"20110412_44\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110412_44-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nI\'m not a big nature guy.\r\n\r\nI can\'t tell one type of tree from another, although I usually can recognize cedar trees or weeping willows. And when it comes to bushes or flowers, it gets really difficult. There were a couple of trees out near the entrance to Sun City that I thought might be cherry blossoms, but when I looked on the Internet, I think they might actually be pink dogwoods.\r\n\r\nDogwoods are big in Georgia.\r\n\r\nIn fact, there\'s a Dogwood Festival in Atlanta this weekend that I\'m hoping my wife and I can get up there to see. We didn\'t make it to Macon last month for the Cherry Blossom Festival. When Nicole is working, she works 10-12 hours a day, and now that she\'s working from home, there isn\'t a whole lot of difference between Saturday and Sunday and Monday and Tuesday.\r\n\r\nThe only days she has taken off for the last month or two have been for doctor\'s appointments, and for those rare times when she finally gets tired of working and decides to catch up on her sleep.\r\n\r\nSo we missed the cherry blossoms. Maybe next year.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1029\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Dogwoods!\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/slideshow_513439_Pink_Dogwood_Tree.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1029\" title=\"slideshow_513439_Pink_Dogwood_Tree\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/slideshow_513439_Pink_Dogwood_Tree-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nBut the dogwoods around here -- as well as most of the other foliage -- is really starting to look wonderful.\r\n\r\nI have actually been on the golf course five days in a row now, something I have never done in my life. Three of the five days, I have only played nine holes, but that\'s because I walk and carry my clubs on those days.\r\n\r\nIt\'s actually sort of annoying, because although I have a really great Tommy Bahama golf bag, the strap seems to want to keep sliding off my shoulder while I walk. And it\'s a lot heavier to carry the bag in my hand with the handle.\r\n\r\nPlaying every day is working wonders for my muscle memory. In the past, when I played once a month or so, it almost always took me five or six holes to get into a groove. But this week, I have hit 230-240 yards off the first tee and have parred the first two holes both of the last two days.\r\n\r\nThe funny thing is that walking and playing golf is about so much more than the golf.\r\n\r\nIt\'s wonderful to be outdoors for two hours or so, and carrying the bag makes it better exercise than just walking three or four miles. And of course I have my iPod with me the whole time, and I can listen to more than 7,000 musical selections on shuffle, or I can listen to one of the 50 or so audiobooks I have on disc.\r\n\r\nAs for the golf itself, just being out there every day doesn\'t mean I\'ll score better every day. I actually played my worst front nine of the last few days today, mostly because I couldn\'t seem to sink a putt to save my life. Of course, a bad score for me today was 42 -- three pars and six bogeys.\r\n\r\nThe more I play, the higher my standards get.\r\n\r\nAnd the better the dogwoods look.','So are they dogwoods or are they something else?','','publish','open','open','','so-are-they-dogwoods-or-are-they-something-else','','','2011-04-14 20:47:57','2011-04-15 03:47:57','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1027',0,'post','',0),(1028,1,'2011-04-14 20:13:59','2011-04-15 03:13:59','','20110412_44','Dogwoods?','inherit','open','open','','20110412_44','','','2011-04-14 20:13:59','2011-04-15 03:13:59','',1027,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110412_44.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1029,1,'2011-04-14 20:32:16','2011-04-15 03:32:16','','slideshow_513439_Pink_Dogwood_Tree','Dogwoods!','inherit','open','open','','slideshow_513439_pink_dogwood_tree','','','2011-04-14 20:32:16','2011-04-15 03:32:16','',1027,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/slideshow_513439_Pink_Dogwood_Tree.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1030,1,'2011-04-14 20:47:36','2011-04-15 03:47:36','[caption id=\"attachment_1028\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Dogwoods?\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110412_44.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1028\" title=\"20110412_44\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110412_44-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nI\'m not a big nature guy.\n\nI can\'t tell one type of tree from another, although I usually can recognize cedar trees or weeping willows. And when it comes to bushes or flowers, it gets really difficult. There were a couple of trees out near the entrance to Sun City that I thought might be cherry blossoms, but when I looked on the Internet, I think they might actually be pink dogwoods.\n\nDogwoods are big in Georgia.\n\nIn fact, there\'s a Dogwood Festival in Atlanta this weekend that I\'m hoping my wife and I can get up there to see. We didn\'t make it to Macon last month for the Cherry Blossom Festival. When Nicole is working, she works 10-12 hours a day, and now that she\'s working from home, there isn\'t a whole lot of difference between Saturday and Sunday and Monday and Tuesday.\n\nThe only days she has taken off for the last month or two have been for doctor\'s appointments, and for those rare times when she finally gets tired of working and decides to catch up on her sleep.\n\nSo we missed the cherry blossoms. Maybe next year.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1029\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Dogwoods!\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/slideshow_513439_Pink_Dogwood_Tree.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1029\" title=\"slideshow_513439_Pink_Dogwood_Tree\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/slideshow_513439_Pink_Dogwood_Tree-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nBut the dogwoods around here -- as well as most of the other foliage -- is really starting to look wonderful.\n\nI have actually been on the golf course five days in a row now, something I have never done in my life. Three of the five days, I have only played nine holes, but that\'s because I walk and carry my clubs on those days.\n\nIt\'s actually sort of annoying, because although I have a really great Tommy Bahama golf bag, the strap seems to want to keep sliding off my shoulder while I walk. And it\'s a lot heavier to carry the bag in my hand with the handle.\n\nPlaying every day is working wonders for my muscle memory. In the past, when I played once a month or so, it almost always took me five or six holes to get into a groove. But this week, I have hit 230-240 yards off the first tee and have parred the first two holes both of the last two days.\n\nThe funny thing is that walking and playing golf is about so much more than the golf.\n\nIt\'s wonderful to be outdoors for two hours or so, and carrying the bag makes it better exercise than just walking three or four miles. And of course I have my iPod with me the whole time, and I can listen to more than 7,000 musical selections on shuffle, or I can listen to one of the 50 or so audiobooks I have on disc.\n\nAs for the golf itself, just being out there every day doesn\'t mean I\'ll score better every day. I actually played my worst front nine of the last few days today, mostly because I couldn\'t seem to sink a putt to save my life. Of course, a bad score for me today was 42 -- three pars and six bogeys.\n\nThe more I play, the higher my standards get.\n\nAnd the better the dogwoods look.','So are they dogwoods or are they something else?','','inherit','open','open','','1027-revision','','','2011-04-14 20:47:36','2011-04-15 03:47:36','',1027,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1030',0,'revision','',0),(1059,1,'2011-04-23 18:16:30','2011-04-24 01:16:30','<strong><em>\"I don\'t know a soul who\'s not been battered, don\'t have a friend who feels at ease ...\"</em></strong>\r\n\r\nDo I know anyone who is truly happy, at least anyone my own age?\r\n\r\nEven folks who say they\'re content -- as I am pretty much of the time -- find themselves battling to shed the regrets of the things they did wrong, or the things they didn\'t do, or the bad decisions they made. That\'s all well and good. An important part of life is letting go of those regrets and not living in the past.\r\n\r\nBut what about people whose problems aren\'t their own fault? Or even a result of their own limitations?\r\n\r\nWhat about the people who had stuff done to them?\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1060\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"150\" caption=\"Mind control at its worst\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/ManchurianCandidate.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1060\" title=\"ManchurianCandidate\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/ManchurianCandidate.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"200\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nIn the middle of the last century, the American military and intelligence communities became absolutely obsessed with mind control. There were stories coming out of the Korean War about how enemy scientists were perfecting brainwashing techniques that could send people home seeming perfectly normal yet actually anything but normal. Richard Condon\'s book <a title=\"Manchurian Candidate\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Manchurian_Candidate\" target=\"_self\">\"The Manchurian Candidate\"</a> and the movie that was made from it did a lot to frighten Americans.\r\n\r\nAnd because the \'50s might have been the peak of American arrogance, we apparently decided that anything those godless Commies could do, we could do better -- or worse, depending on your perspective.\r\n\r\nThere were all sorts of government programs, the most famous of which was the Central Intelligence Agency\'s <a title=\"MK ULTRA\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MKULTRA\" target=\"_self\">MK ULTRA</a>. It\'s difficult to say anything is the \"worst\" thing Americans ever did. When you start with slavery and genocide, you\'re setting the bar pretty high, but the 20th century brought us forced sterilization of retarded people, medical experiments where syphilis was given to black men and a number of other cute little tricks like prefrontal lobotomies.\r\n\r\nStill, MK ULTRA was pretty awful. It went on for nearly 20 years, and maybe the worst thing about it was that an awful lot of the subjects or its experiments had no idea they were being used. The Rasputin of the project was a man named Sidney Gottlieb, who started out as a speech therapist and wound up as a maestro of mind control.\r\n\r\nGottlieb was the life of the party in an evil sort of way. He loved giving large doses of LSD to people without their knowledge to see how they would react. He also ran a program that tested large numbers of schoolchildren, many of whom have no memory of the testing even to this day.\r\n\r\nHere\'s the problem with all that.\r\n\r\nIt\'s really quite simple.\r\n\r\nHow dare they? How dare they perform experiments on people without their knowledge, particularly people who hadn\'t committed any crimes or breached any laws?\r\n\r\nIt seems to me that one place this country went seriously off track was once we had a ruling class -- whether in government, in business or in academia -- that decided they were somehow more important than other Americans. Once some captain of industry, or professor, or government official decided that his life was more important than a guy who worked at Walmart, we were headed down the slipperiest of slopes.\r\n\r\nAnd when experiments were performed, and subjects don\'t know who they were performed on, people also don\'t know that they <em>weren\'t</em> subjects.\r\n\r\nAt least one of my friends -- and maybe more -- was probably a subject of those experiments. For all I know, there was testing done on me\r\n\r\nI know too many people who don\'t feel comfortable in their own skin, and they aren\'t people that you would look at and automatically call them nerds or losers. And too many of them had at least loose connections with people and families who were involved with the CIA.\r\n\r\nWhat frustrates me the most about this is that I don\'t have a conclusion to bring this to. I don\'t have a point to draw from this, other than the fact that corrupt people have gone a long way toward destroying what was most special about our country. How dare they have picked people -- American people -- at random and destroyed their lives in the name of protecting America from communism?\r\n\r\nI hope they are burning in the deepest circles of Hell.\r\n\r\n<strong><em>\"... and so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.\"</em></strong>','You can call it America, but it wasn\'t American','','publish','open','open','','you-can-call-it-america-but-it-wasnt-american','','','2011-04-23 18:17:13','2011-04-24 01:17:13','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1059',0,'post','',0),(1032,1,'2011-04-15 21:40:35','2011-04-16 04:40:35','<em>Mentsch tracht, Gott lacht.</em>\n\nThere have been numerous versions of this Yiddish proverb, but this one is my favorite.\n\n\"Man plans, God laughs.\"\n\n<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/heart-breaking.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-930\" title=\"heart-breaking\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/heart-breaking.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"218\" height=\"176\" /></a>Any time you work and work to get your life in order, so that there won\'t be any nasty surprises, you can figure something will happen to throw off your well-laid plans.\n\nIt isn\'t as if anything in particular has happened, but for some reason, my 62nd year on this planet has been getting exceedingly weird. I\'m accomplishing very few of the things I really wanted to accomplish this year, and I am making tremendous progress in areas that really don\'t matter very much.\n\nI have no trouble blogging or writing witty remarks on political sites, but it has been three or four months since I have done any serious writing at all.\n\nAdd to that the fact that my golf game -- which really doesn\'t matter all that much to me -- has been improving more than I really ever dreamed it would. Every time I play now, I\'m shooting in the low 80s or even better.\n\nSo what?\n\nI broke 80 on the golf course, something I figured might take me years, but I have an important book project that is sitting there, two-thirds done, and not progressing at all.\n\nMy emotions are weirdly close to the surface in a way I don\'t remember them ever being. Almost every sentimental song or emotional moment in a movie brings me almost to tears, which feels very strange.\n\nMy sleep schedule is way off what I wish it were. Instead of sleeping from about 11 p.m. till 7 a.m. and then getting a good start on the day, I\'m getting to sleep around 2 or 3 a.m. and waking up late in the morning.\n\nIt can\'t be jet lag.\n\nI have been in the Eastern Time Zone for nearly six months now.\n\nI love it here in Georgia, but I find myself getting sad when I realize I can\'t get into my car and drive down to Santa Monica or Huntington Beach. I find myself mourning the fact that I may never see the sun set out over the Pacific Ocean again.\n\nYeah, I know.\n\nI wanted to be here. But part of it is that we moved to Georgia so that we could be closer to our children during the time they spend in Washington, D.C., between tours. Well, it will be another year and a couple of months before Pauline\'s tour in Indonesia will be finished and a little longer than that before Virgile is done in Athens.\n\nActually, I\'m excited that it looks like we\'re going to Europe for three weeks this summer, and two weeks of that time will be spent visiting Virgile and our daughter-in-law Sterling in Greece.\n\nI do love it here.\n\nI do love my life.\n\nI just feel weird.','','','inherit','open','open','','929-revision-2','','','2011-04-15 21:40:35','2011-04-16 04:40:35','',929,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1032',0,'revision','',0),(1033,1,'2011-04-16 17:01:36','2011-04-17 00:01:36','[caption id=\"attachment_1034\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Maddie\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110416_3.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1034\" title=\"20110416_3\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110416_3-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nWhenever I boot my computer up, this is what I see.\r\n\r\nMy screensaver picture, which changes from time to time, almost always is a picture of my granddaughter Maddie, who is now 2 1/2 going on 3.\r\n\r\nMaddie has one thing in common with her lovely mother, which is that they are both extremely photogenic and both have wonderful smiles.\r\n\r\nI hadn\'t even realized it, because I see her courtesy of Skype just about every weekend, but it has actually been more than 15 months -- Christmas 2009 -- since I have seen her in person, and it will likely be this fall before I see her again.\r\n\r\nThat makes me sad, but it\'s strange. Just the idea of Maddie makes me happy. Just the idea that there is a wonderful little girl out there who calls me \"Grandpa\" gives me a really good feeling.\r\n\r\nI never knew Pauline or Virgile when they were 2 going on 3, but I have seen the pictures and it\'s pretty obvious to me that both of them were adorable. One of the shortcomings of being a stepfather is that you usually don\'t get to be there from the beginning. You get there in the middle of the movie and all you can do is enjoy it for what it is.\r\n\r\nAnd what it is, is wonderful.','My computer always shows me her smiling face','','publish','open','open','','my-computer-always-shows-me-her-smiling-face','','','2011-04-16 17:01:36','2011-04-17 00:01:36','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1033',0,'post','',0),(1034,1,'2011-04-16 16:31:15','2011-04-16 23:31:15','','20110416_3','Maddie','inherit','open','open','','20110416_3','','','2011-04-16 16:31:15','2011-04-16 23:31:15','',1033,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110416_3.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1035,1,'2011-04-16 17:00:57','2011-04-17 00:00:57','[caption id=\"attachment_1034\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Maddie\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110416_3.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1034\" title=\"20110416_3\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110416_3-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nWhenever I boot my computer up, this is what I see.\n\nMy screensaver picture, which changes from time to time, almost always is a picture of my granddaughter Maddie, who is now 2 1/2 going on 3.\n\nMaddie has one thing in common with her lovely mother, which is that they are both extremely photogenic and both have wonderful smiles.\n\nI hadn\'t even realized it, because I see her courtesy of Skype just about every weekend, but it has actually been more than 15 months -- Christmas 2009 -- since I have seen her in person, and it will likely be this fall before I see her again.\n\nThat makes me sad, but it\'s strange. Just the idea of Maddie makes me happy. Just the idea that there is a wonderful little girl out there who calls me \"Grandpa\" gives me a really good feeling.\n\nI never knew Pauline or Virgile when they were 2 going on 3, but I have seen the pictures and it\'s pretty obvious to me that both of them were adorable. One of the shortcomings of being a stepfather is that you usually don\'t get to be there from the beginning. You get there in the middle of the movie and all you can do is enjoy it for what it is.\n\nAnd what it is, is wonderful.','','','inherit','open','open','','1033-revision','','','2011-04-16 17:00:57','2011-04-17 00:00:57','',1033,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1035',0,'revision','',0),(1036,1,'2011-04-17 18:36:47','2011-04-18 01:36:47','Every time I start to think I know what I\'m doing on a golf course, I get my comeuppance.\r\n\r\nI played golf today for the seventh time in eight days, which is really enjoyable. And until today, I had been playing very well. I broke 80 for the first time in my life, and I had played the equivalent of 4 1/2 rounds -- 81 holes -- without a single double bogey. That\'s about as well as I can play, and since I\'ve been parring between a third and half of the holes I play, my scores gave generally been down around 80.\r\n\r\nI\'m really happy to be playing that well, and it has especially been wonderful to have developed enough muscle memory that when I step on the first tee, I can hit the ball 220 yards right down the middle on my very first swing.\r\n\r\nThat\'s what happened today, and even though I didn\'t put my second shot on the green, I still managed to par the hole by rolling in a 20-foot putt.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1037\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"A beautiful day\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110416_4.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1037\" title=\"20110416_4\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110416_4-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nAt that point, I took the wrong lesson from that hole. Instead of realizing I had hit two fairly crummy approach shots, I figured the putt was a good thing.\r\n\r\nI parred the fourth hole as well, but I had to make a 15-foot putt there as well. So after six holes, I had just two pars and four bogeys.\r\n\r\nThen things got really bad.\r\n\r\nA bad approach shot on 7 -- a hole I usually par -- left me with a double bogey, and another bad approach shot on 8 gave me another double bogey. I recovered on the ninth hole and got a par, but that was the last good hole of the day and left me with a 44 on the front nine.\r\n\r\nThings went all to hell on the back nine. I double-bogeyed 10 and bogeyed 11. I started out really strong on the par 5 12th hole, with two good shots that left me 50 feet from the green. But a crummy chip left me on the green 60 feet away, and then I <em>four-putted</em> for the first time in more than 10 years. Another double bogey.\r\n\r\nAt that point, I quit.\r\n\r\nThirteen over par for 12 holes.\r\n\r\nBut hey, the weather was beautiful.\r\n\r\nI\'ll do better tomorrow.','Just when I thought I was getting good ...','','publish','open','open','','just-when-i-thought-i-was-getting-good','','','2011-04-17 18:36:47','2011-04-18 01:36:47','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1036',0,'post','',0),(1037,1,'2011-04-17 18:25:05','2011-04-18 01:25:05','','20110416_4','A beautiful day','inherit','open','open','','20110416_4','','','2011-04-17 18:25:05','2011-04-18 01:25:05','',1036,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110416_4.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1038,1,'2011-04-17 18:36:09','2011-04-18 01:36:09','Every time I start to think I know what I\'m doing on a golf course, I get my comeuppance.\n\nI played golf today for the seventh time in eight days, which is really enjoyable. And until today, I had been playing very well. I broke 80 for the first time in my life, and I had played the equivalent of 4 1/2 rounds -- 81 holes -- without a single double bogey. That\'s about as well as I can play, and since I\'ve been parring between a third and half of the holes I play, my scores gave generally been down around 80.\n\nI\'m really happy to be playing that well, and it has especially been wonderful to have developed enough muscle memory that when I step on the first tee, I can hit the ball 220 yards right down the middle on my very first swing.\n\nThat\'s what happened today, and even though I didn\'t put my second shot on the green, I still managed to par the hole by rolling in a 20-foot putt.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1037\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"A beautiful day\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110416_4.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1037\" title=\"20110416_4\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110416_4-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nAt that point, I took the wrong lesson from that hole. Instead of realizing I had hit two fairly crummy approach shots, I figured the putt was a good thing.\n\nI parred the fourth hole as well, but I had to make a 15-foot putt there as well. So after six holes, I had just two pars and four bogeys.\n\nThen things got really bad.\n\nA bad approach shot on 7 -- a hole I usually par -- left me with a double bogey, and another bad approach shot on 8 gave me another double bogey. I recovered on the ninth hole and got a par, but that was the last good hole of the day and left me with a 44 on the front nine.\n\nThings went all to hell on the back nine. I double-bogeyed 10 and bogeyed 11. I started out really strong on the par 5 12th hole, with two good shots that left me 50 feet from the green. But a crummy chip left me on the green 60 feet away, and then I <em>four-putted</em> for the first time in more than 10 years. Another double bogey.\n\nAt that point, I quit.\n\nThirteen over par for 12 holes.\n\nBut hey, the weather was beautiful.\n\nI\'ll do better tomorrow.','','','inherit','open','open','','1036-revision','','','2011-04-17 18:36:09','2011-04-18 01:36:09','',1036,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1038',0,'revision','',0),(1039,1,'2011-04-18 16:06:35','2011-04-18 23:06:35','[caption id=\"attachment_1040\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"The first tomato plant of 2011\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110418_22.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1040\" title=\"20110418_22\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110418_22-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nAbout 10 years ago, I decided to have a garden. I cleared out a fairly large space in our backyard in La Canada and planted everything from tomatoes to strawberries.\r\n\r\nSome of the plants did well, others didn\'t. I worked pretty hard at it, and that summer I grew 240 tomatoes on my six tomato plants. The next year my work schedule changed and I didn\'t have the time to spend gardening. I never got around to it again for as long as we lived in California.\r\n\r\nOne of the things that excited me about moving to Georgia was the thought of planting a garden and really working it. We don\'t have the biggest backyard, but I was thinking of devoting at least a third of it to plants and fruit trees.\r\n\r\nIt turned out I couldn\'t, though. We live under some fairly restrictive rules as to what we\'re allowed to do with landscaping, and it  turns out the only planting I can do is right around the patio. So I went to Home Depot today and bought a hose, a shovel, some dirt, some fertilizer and a few tomato plants.\r\n\r\nI dug a hole and planted my first tomato plant of 2011.\r\n\r\nThis could possibly be a big mistake. The plant takes about 73 days to mature, which would make it mature at about June 30 or July 1. The problem is that\'s just about the time we\'ll be getting back from three weeks in Europe, so I\'m going to miss taking care of the plant for the last three weeks before it matures.\r\n\r\nThat\'s all right, though. What\'s important about this is establishing good habits, getting into the habit of having a garden again. So tomorrow I\'ll dig another hole for another tomato plant, and the day after that I\'ll dig another one. I haven\'t decided about Thursday yet; I need to figure whether there\'s space for three plants or four. I\'m also thinking of buying a couple of pots in which I can grow some spices or herbs. I want to do as much as I can with the small amount of space I\'m going to have.\r\n\r\nWhatever I do or don\'t grow, I want to get out there and get my hands dirty every day. It has taken me far too long to get into a good routine here in Georgia, and I really don\'t want to waste any more time.','Every garden starts with one single plant','','publish','open','open','','every-garden-starts-with-one-single-plant','','','2011-04-18 16:06:35','2011-04-18 23:06:35','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1039',0,'post','',0),(1040,1,'2011-04-18 15:08:20','2011-04-18 22:08:20','','20110418_22','The first tomato plant of 2011','inherit','open','open','','20110418_22','','','2011-04-18 15:08:20','2011-04-18 22:08:20','',1039,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110418_22.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1041,1,'2011-04-18 16:06:03','2011-04-18 23:06:03','[caption id=\"attachment_1040\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"The first tomato plant of 2011\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110418_22.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1040\" title=\"20110418_22\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110418_22-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nAbout 10 years ago, I decided to have a garden. I cleared out a fairly large space in our backyard in La Canada and planted everything from tomatoes to strawberries.\n\nSome of the plants did well, others didn\'t. I worked pretty hard at it, and that summer I grew 240 tomatoes on my six tomato plants. The next year my work schedule changed and I didn\'t have the time to spend gardening. I never got around to it again for as long as we lived in California.\n\nOne of the things that excited me about moving to Georgia was the thought of planting a garden and really working it. We don\'t have the biggest backyard, but I was thinking of devoting at least a third of it to plants and fruit trees.\n\nIt turned out I couldn\'t, though. We live under some fairly restrictive rules as to what we\'re allowed to do with landscaping, and it  turns out the only planting I can do is right around the patio. So I went to Home Depot today and bought a hose, a shovel, some dirt, some fertilizer and a few tomato plants.\n\nI dug a hole and planted my first tomato plant of 2011.\n\nThis could possibly be a big mistake. The plant takes about 73 days to mature, which would make it mature at about June 30 or July 1. The problem is that\'s just about the time we\'ll be getting back from three weeks in Europe, so I\'m going to miss taking care of the plant for the last three weeks before it matures.\n\nThat\'s all right, though. What\'s important about this is establishing good habits, getting into the habit of having a garden again. So tomorrow I\'ll dig another hole for another tomato plant, and the day after that I\'ll dig another one. I haven\'t decided about Thursday yet; I need to figure whether there\'s space for three plants or four. I\'m also thinking of buying a couple of pots in which I can grow some spices or herbs. I want to do as much as I can with the small amount of space I\'m going to have.\n\nWhatever I do or don\'t grow, I want to get out there and get my hands dirty every day. It has taken me far too long to get into a good routine here in Georgia, and I really don\'t want to waste any more time.','','','inherit','open','open','','1039-revision','','','2011-04-18 16:06:03','2011-04-18 23:06:03','',1039,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1041',0,'revision','',0),(1043,1,'2011-04-19 15:26:04','2011-04-19 22:26:04','','20110419_23','The garden grows','inherit','open','open','','20110419_23','','','2011-04-19 15:26:04','2011-04-19 22:26:04','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110419_23.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1152,1,'2011-05-22 19:10:56','2011-05-23 02:10:56','','storyimages_1294964073_classwar.jpg_640x640_310x220','Class war?','inherit','open','open','','storyimages_1294964073_classwar-jpg_640x640_310x220','','','2011-05-22 19:10:56','2011-05-23 02:10:56','',1150,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/storyimages_1294964073_classwar.jpg_640x640_310x220.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1044,1,'2011-04-19 16:08:22','2011-04-19 23:08:22','','20110419_14','No golf today','inherit','open','open','','20110419_14','','','2011-04-19 16:08:22','2011-04-19 23:08:22','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110419_14.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1151,1,'2011-05-22 18:36:27','2011-05-23 01:36:27','','index','Free market horrors','inherit','open','open','','index-2','','','2011-05-22 18:36:27','2011-05-23 01:36:27','',1150,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/index.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1073,1,'2011-04-27 19:26:37','2011-04-28 02:26:37','Wouldn\'t politics be a lot more pleasant if we focused on issues?\r\n\r\nSome years back, I suggested that our country would be better off if there were a fail-safe built into Congress so that anytime someone brought up something that was total bullshit -- like flag burning -- that Congress would automatically adjourn.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1074\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"250\" caption=\"The real deal\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/barack-obama-releases-long-form-birth-certificate-300x200-250x200.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1074\" title=\"barack-obama-releases-long-form-birth-certificate-300x200-250x200\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/barack-obama-releases-long-form-birth-certificate-300x200-250x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"200\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nOf course, there\'s no rule like that, and there\'s no way to deal with it when people bring up things that are totally ridiculous just to interfere with the ability of the other side to govern.\r\n\r\nThat\'s what some of the folks who hate President Obama have been doing ever since 2008 with their efforts to convince the gullible among us that the president wasn\'t born in the United States and hence was not eligible to be president.\r\n\r\nOf course it was a joke all along, and it became even more ridiculous when Donald Trump got involved in it. That left the usual cast of idiots -- Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and all the rest -- all attacking Obama, and apparently the White House decided they would rather have the hubbub than have it settled.\r\n\r\nUntil today, when the president finally released what is known as his long form birth certificate, which of course settles the issue for everyone it would ever be settled for.\r\n\r\nNow we can get back to flag burning.','Now the \'birthers\' can go back to planet Whacko','','publish','open','open','','now-the-birthers-can-go-back-to-planet-whacko','','','2011-04-27 19:26:37','2011-04-28 02:26:37','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1073',0,'post','',0),(1153,1,'2011-05-22 19:17:00','2011-05-23 02:17:00','[caption id=\"attachment_1151\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"259\" caption=\"Free market horrors\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/index.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1151\" title=\"index\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/index.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"259\" height=\"194\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nWho was it who decided that completely unfettered free markets were the best thing for people?\n\nWhen did we vote to privatize so many different parts of our government, including even parts of the military?\n\nMost of it started with Ronald Reagan, who was one of the leading political disciples of Milton Friedman, the ultimate free marketeer. Of course Reagan wasn\'t able to do everything Friedman believed, which was basically that any interference by the government in the economy was not only wrong, but evil.\n\nSome folks worship Jesus.\n\nFriedman worshipped the free market from his position at the University of Chicago School of Economics.\n\nNow free markets have some advantages in bringing goods to people, but what we saw, first under Reagan and then under George W. Bush, is that they will always result in a small class of fabulously wealthy people and a massive amount of folks who just manage to get by.\n\nDuring World War II, when President Roosevelt told industry he didn\'t want people getting rich off providing what the military needed, the chief executive officers of companies made an average of 14 times that of their typical worker as America was headed toward the smallest income disparity in modern history.\n\nBy 1981, when Reagan took office and started implementing Friedman\'s ideas, the gap between CEO and worker was 43-1. And ever since then, the gap has been widening and widening to the point where in 2005, CEOs earned 411 times as much as their workers.\n\nThat means if a company\'s workers were making $10 an hour, or a little less than $21,000 a year, the CEO of that same company was making about $8.6 million.\n\nThe most amazing this is, this is all intentional. Whether it\'s Friedman or Ayn Rand, too many people today have somehow decided that there\'s a superior class among us that deserves to have it all and the rest of us should be happy with their scraps.\n\nRead Naomi Klein\'s amazing book, <a title=\"The Shock Doctrine\" href=\"http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine\">\"The Shock Doctrine,\"</a> if you want to know more about all this. Klein\'s subtitle is \"The Rise of Disaster Capitalism,\" and she provides numerous examples of how the folks behind it have used things like 911 and Hurricane Katrina to remake our society in its own image.\n\nTwo things to consider:\n\nAfter 911, companies like Halliburton and Blackwater got billions in contracts to take over functions the military used to do, and it didn\'t even make economic sense. What it did accomplish was that those running the government were able to keep the army small so that folks wouldn\'t complain about the wars.\n\nKatrina was even slimier. When New Orleans was rebuilt, nearly the entire school system was privatized and turned into charter schools.\n\nNo one ever voted for that.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1152\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Class war?\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/storyimages_1294964073_classwar.jpg_640x640_310x220.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1152\" title=\"storyimages_1294964073_classwar.jpg_640x640_310x220\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/storyimages_1294964073_classwar.jpg_640x640_310x220-300x212.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"212\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nThese folks pretty well control the media, and whenever someone suggests that maybe continually cutting taxes for the mega-rich might be a bad thing, they say isn\'t it a shame when people make an appeal to class envy.\n\nWhy is it that they can take whatever they want, which is essentially declaring war on the poor and the middle class, but when people fight back there\'s something shameful about it?\n\nThe fact is, rich people are either extremely stupid or extremely greedy -- because they never get enough.\n\nAnd in the end, when enough people are hurting, maybe we can rebuild the middle class.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','Why is it only class war when we fight back?','','inherit','open','open','','1150-revision','','','2011-05-22 19:17:00','2011-05-23 02:17:00','',1150,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1153',0,'revision','',0),(1150,1,'2011-05-22 19:17:04','2011-05-23 02:17:04','[caption id=\"attachment_1151\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"259\" caption=\"Free market horrors\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/index.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1151\" title=\"index\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/index.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"259\" height=\"194\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nWho was it who decided that completely unfettered free markets were the best thing for people?\r\n\r\nWhen did we vote to privatize so many different parts of our government, including even parts of the military?\r\n\r\nMost of it started with Ronald Reagan, who was one of the leading political disciples of Milton Friedman, the ultimate free marketeer. Of course Reagan wasn\'t able to do everything Friedman believed, which was basically that any interference by the government in the economy was not only wrong, but evil.\r\n\r\nSome folks worship Jesus.\r\n\r\nFriedman worshipped the free market from his position at the University of Chicago School of Economics.\r\n\r\nNow free markets have some advantages in bringing goods to people, but what we saw, first under Reagan and then under George W. Bush, is that they will always result in a small class of fabulously wealthy people and a massive amount of folks who just manage to get by.\r\n\r\nDuring World War II, when President Roosevelt told industry he didn\'t want people getting rich off providing what the military needed, the chief executive officers of companies made an average of 14 times that of their typical worker as America was headed toward the smallest income disparity in modern history.\r\n\r\nBy 1981, when Reagan took office and started implementing Friedman\'s ideas, the gap between CEO and worker was 43-1. And ever since then, the gap has been widening and widening to the point where in 2005, CEOs earned 411 times as much as their workers.\r\n\r\nThat means if a company\'s workers were making $10 an hour, or a little less than $21,000 a year, the CEO of that same company was making about $8.6 million.\r\n\r\nThe most amazing this is, this is all intentional. Whether it\'s Friedman or Ayn Rand, too many people today have somehow decided that there\'s a superior class among us that deserves to have it all and the rest of us should be happy with their scraps.\r\n\r\nRead Naomi Klein\'s amazing book, <a title=\"The Shock Doctrine\" href=\"http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine\">\"The Shock Doctrine,\"</a> if you want to know more about all this. Klein\'s subtitle is \"The Rise of Disaster Capitalism,\" and she provides numerous examples of how the folks behind it have used things like 911 and Hurricane Katrina to remake our society in its own image.\r\n\r\nTwo things to consider:\r\n\r\nAfter 911, companies like Halliburton and Blackwater got billions in contracts to take over functions the military used to do, and it didn\'t even make economic sense. What it did accomplish was that those running the government were able to keep the army small so that folks wouldn\'t complain about the wars.\r\n\r\nKatrina was even slimier. When New Orleans was rebuilt, nearly the entire school system was privatized and turned into charter schools.\r\n\r\nNo one ever voted for that.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1152\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Class war?\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/storyimages_1294964073_classwar.jpg_640x640_310x220.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1152\" title=\"storyimages_1294964073_classwar.jpg_640x640_310x220\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/storyimages_1294964073_classwar.jpg_640x640_310x220-300x212.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"212\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nThese folks pretty well control the media, and whenever someone suggests that maybe continually cutting taxes for the mega-rich might be a bad thing, they say isn\'t it a shame when people make an appeal to class envy.\r\n\r\nWhy is it that they can take whatever they want, which is essentially declaring war on the poor and the middle class, but when people fight back there\'s something shameful about it?\r\n\r\nThe fact is, rich people are either extremely stupid or extremely greedy -- because they never get enough.\r\n\r\nAnd in the end, when enough people are hurting, maybe we can rebuild the middle class.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Why is it only class war when we fight back?','','publish','open','open','','why-is-it-only-class-war-when-we-fight-back','','','2011-05-22 19:17:04','2011-05-23 02:17:04','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1150',0,'post','',1),(1048,1,'2011-04-20 16:54:56','2011-04-20 23:54:56','[caption id=\"attachment_1049\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"The garden grows.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110420_2.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1049\" title=\"20110420_2\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110420_2-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nMy garden is growing.\r\n\r\nWhen I started on Monday, I planted one tomato plant. Yesterday I planted another one as well as two pots of Impatiens. I also bought a dwarf peach tree that I have yet to decide where to plant in the back yard.\r\n\r\nAnd today I bought a third tomato plant.\r\n\r\nI\'m not sure why it is the focus of my garden always seems to be tomato plants. It isn\'t as if tomatoes are anywhere near my favorite garden plants. I think it\'s because when you\'re growing something, it\'s really important to get positive feedback, even if it is just from a plant. Tomato plants grow quickly, and once the fruit starts to appear, it grows pretty quickly as well.\r\n\r\nEventually I will plant other stuff, but since we\'re going to be away for three weeks in June, I think I will wait until July so that I can at least tend my garden faithfully.\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">*****</p>\r\nI have walked for an hour or more each of the last three days, but I haven\'t been able to get onto the golf course.\r\n\r\nI missed Monday, and then the last two days, the course has been closed while they aerate the greens.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1050\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Where&#39;s the hole?\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110419_15.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1050\" title=\"20110419_15\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110419_15-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nAfter my fiasco Sunday, which was the worst I\'ve played in months, it probably wasn\'t the worst thing for me to take a few days off from golf.\r\n\r\nBecause I\'m an idiot when it comes to golf, I always look for reasons that I played badly. I figure it might have been that I was using white golf balls, largely because the last time I went to Walmart they were out of the yellow Top Flite balls I prefer.\r\n\r\nI\'m not sure when it was I switched to yellow balls, but I have been using them for at least a few years and I really do prefer them.\r\n\r\nAt any rate, I haven\'t been able to find them the last few times I\'ve looked, but I did find something really interesting the last time I looked.\r\n\r\nThe company is called Eclipse, and they might make the goofiest, coolest-looking golf balls I have ever seen.\r\n\r\nI bought three dozen and will try them out tomorrow.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1051\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"150\" caption=\"Goofy golf balls\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/asst-detail.jpg\"><img class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-1051\" title=\"asst-detail\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/asst-detail-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nIt\'s possible they\'ll be too weird looking to hit.\r\n\r\nBut I doubt it.\r\n\r\nStill, it gives me another excuse if I play badly.','My garden is growing, and golf balls are goofy','','publish','open','open','','my-garden-is-growing-and-golf-balls-are-goofy','','','2011-04-20 16:54:56','2011-04-20 23:54:56','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1048',0,'post','',1),(1049,1,'2011-04-20 16:04:22','2011-04-20 23:04:22','','20110420_2','The garden grows.','inherit','open','open','','20110420_2','','','2011-04-20 16:04:22','2011-04-20 23:04:22','',1048,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110420_2.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1050,1,'2011-04-20 16:26:55','2011-04-20 23:26:55','','20110419_15','Where\'s the hole?','inherit','open','open','','20110419_15','','','2011-04-20 16:26:55','2011-04-20 23:26:55','',1048,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110419_15.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1051,1,'2011-04-20 16:51:24','2011-04-20 23:51:24','','asst-detail','Goofy golf balls','inherit','open','open','','asst-detail','','','2011-04-20 16:51:24','2011-04-20 23:51:24','',1048,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/asst-detail.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1052,1,'2011-04-20 16:54:21','2011-04-20 23:54:21','[caption id=\"attachment_1049\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"The garden grows.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110420_2.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1049\" title=\"20110420_2\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110420_2-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nMy garden is growing.\n\nWhen I started on Monday, I planted one tomato plant. Yesterday I planted another one as well as two pots of Impatiens. I also bought a dwarf peach tree that I have yet to decide where to plant in the back yard.\n\nAnd today I bought a third tomato plant.\n\nI\'m not sure why it is the focus of my garden always seems to be tomato plants. It isn\'t as if tomatoes are anywhere near my favorite garden plants. I think it\'s because when you\'re growing something, it\'s really important to get positive feedback, even if it is just from a plant. Tomato plants grow quickly, and once the fruit starts to appear, it grows pretty quickly as well.\n\nEventually I will plant other stuff, but since we\'re going to be away for three weeks in June, I think I will wait until July so that I can at least tend my garden faithfully.\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">*****</p>\nI have walked for an hour or more each of the last three days, but I haven\'t been able to get onto the golf course.\n\nI missed Monday, and then the last two days, the course has been closed while they aerate the greens.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1050\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Where&#39;s the hole?\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110419_15.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1050\" title=\"20110419_15\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110419_15-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nAfter my fiasco Sunday, which was the worst I\'ve played in months, it probably wasn\'t the worst thing for me to take a few days off from golf.\n\nBecause I\'m an idiot when it comes to golf, I always look for reasons that I played badly. I figure it might have been that I was using white golf balls, largely because the last time I went to Walmart they were out of the yellow Top Flite balls I prefer.\n\nI\'m not sure when it was I switched to yellow balls, but I have been using them for at least a few years and I really do prefer them.\n\nAt any rate, I haven\'t been able to find them the last few times I\'ve looked, but I did find something really interesting the last time I looked.\n\nThe company is called Eclipse, and they might make the goofiest, coolest-looking golf balls I have ever seen.\n\nI bought three dozen and will try them out tomorrow.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1051\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"150\" caption=\"Goofy golf balls\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/asst-detail.jpg\"><img class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-1051\" title=\"asst-detail\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/asst-detail-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nIt\'s possible they\'ll be too weird looking to hit.\n\nBut I doubt it.\n\nStill, it gives me another excuse if I play badly.','','','inherit','open','open','','1048-revision','','','2011-04-20 16:54:21','2011-04-20 23:54:21','',1048,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1052',0,'revision','',0),(1053,1,'2011-04-21 18:35:05','2011-04-22 01:35:05','[caption id=\"attachment_1054\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"It doesn&#39;t just go away.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110419_20.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1054\" title=\"20110419_20\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110419_20-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nWhen I went out walking today, I did it with my golf clubs on my back.\r\n\r\nAt first I thought I was going to regret it. It was hot -- in the 80s -- and humid when I went out a little after 4 p.m. I hadn\'t been on the links since Sunday, when I played very badly, so I wanted to see if that was just a fluke.\r\n\r\nThere was one thing I hadn\'t expected, though. The course was closed Tuesday and Wednesday so the greens could be aerated, and when I went out this afternoon there was still quite a bit of sand on the greens, not to mention all those little holes.\r\n\r\nI found out pretty quickly that it was very difficult to putt. Putts were traveling about half as far as they usually did, and even though I was hitting really good shots off the tee and pretty good approach shots, the scores at first weren\'t so good.\r\n\r\nI bogeyed the first three holes and double-bogeyed the fourth after having a shot knocked down by a tree branch. I wasn\'t scoring well, but I wasn\'t unhappy because I was playing pretty well.\r\n\r\nOn five I hit a 250-yard drive, a mediocre approach shot and a really good chip that left me a foot from the hole. Par.\r\n\r\nOn six I hit my approach shot through trees from 90 yards away and put it eight feet from the hole. Missed the birdie, made the par.\r\n\r\nOn seven my approach shot from 105 yards landed 15 feet from the hole.  My birdie putt was <em>way</em> short thanks to the sand, but I rolled in a five-footer for par. Three in a row.\r\n\r\nOn eight -- the par 5 -- I put my second shot within 50 yards and then hit a beautiful chip 11 feet from the hole. Missed the birdie, made the par.\r\n\r\nThat left me feeling really great, because I usually play the ninth hole very well. Only this time I hit my tee shot almost straight up and left it 40 yards short on a 100-yard hole. I didn\'t want to leave my chip short, but I hit it 25 feet past the hole. I looked through the sand and somehow curved a perfect putt downhill and right into the cup. Five straight pars and a 41 for nine holes.\r\n\r\nThe best part of it all is that I didn\'t take any mulligans or do any shots over.\r\n\r\nI really and truly shot a 41.\r\n\r\nCool.','Back on the links for a really good time','','publish','open','open','','back-on-the-links-for-a-really-good-time','','','2011-04-21 18:35:05','2011-04-22 01:35:05','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1053',0,'post','',0),(1054,1,'2011-04-21 18:02:15','2011-04-22 01:02:15','','20110419_20','It doesn\'t just go away.','inherit','open','open','','20110419_20','','','2011-04-21 18:02:15','2011-04-22 01:02:15','',1053,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110419_20.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1055,1,'2011-04-21 18:34:49','2011-04-22 01:34:49','[caption id=\"attachment_1054\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"It doesn&#39;t just go away.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110419_20.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1054\" title=\"20110419_20\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110419_20-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nWhen I went out walking today, I did it with my golf clubs on my back.\n\nAt first I thought I was going to regret it. It was hot -- in the 80s -- and humid when I went out a little after 4 p.m. I hadn\'t been on the links since Sunday, when I played very badly, so I wanted to see if that was just a fluke.\n\nThere was one thing I hadn\'t expected, though. The course was closed Tuesday and Wednesday so the greens could be aerated, and when I went out this afternoon there was still quite a bit of sand on the greens, not to mention all those little holes.\n\nI found out pretty quickly that it was very difficult to putt. Putts were traveling about half as far as they usually did, and even though I was hitting really good shots off the tee and pretty good approach shots, the scores at first weren\'t so good.\n\nI bogeyed the first three holes and double-bogeyed the fourth after having a shot knocked down by a tree branch. I wasn\'t scoring well, but I wasn\'t unhappy because I was playing pretty well.\n\nOn five I hit a 250-yard drive, a mediocre approach shot and a really good chip that left me a foot from the hole. Par.\n\nOn six I hit my approach shot through trees from 90 yards away and put it eight feet from the hole. Missed the birdie, made the par.\n\nOn seven my approach shot from 105 yards landed 15 feet from the hole.  My birdie putt was <em>way</em> short thanks to the sand, but I rolled in a five-footer for par. Three in a row.\n\nOn eight -- the par 5 -- I put my second shot within 50 yards and then hit a beautiful chip 11 feet from the hole. Missed the birdie, made the par.\n\nThat left me feeling really great, because I usually play the ninth hole very well. Only this time I hit my tee shot almost straight up and left it 40 yards short on a 100-yard hole. I didn\'t want to leave my chip short, but I hit it 25 feet past the hole. I looked through the sand and somehow curved a perfect putt downhill and right into the cup. Five straight pars and a 41 for nine holes.\n\nThe best part of it all is that I didn\'t take any mulligans or do any shots over.\n\nI really and truly shot a 41.\n\nCool.','','','inherit','open','open','','1053-revision','','','2011-04-21 18:34:49','2011-04-22 01:34:49','',1053,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1055',0,'revision','',0),(1157,1,'2011-05-23 21:08:58','2011-05-24 04:08:58','I wish I knew why I have always been fascinated with the portion of American history that happened in the two decades before I was born.\n\nI was born in December of 1949, and the 20 years or so before I was born includes the Great Depression, World War II and the beginning of the Cold War. I learned a lot about it in 1977, when I first read William Manchester\'s amazing social history, \"The Glory and the Dream,\" which covered the years 1932-72.\n\n<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/glory.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1155\" title=\"glory\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/glory-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" /></a>I still have the two-volume set on the shelf behind me, and I have read it at least 15-20 times over the years. It\'s a much better historical document when it covers the first half of the period, and when you look at Manchester\'s work on say, Richard Nixon\'s first term, there probably isn\'t enough historical perspective for it to be really valuable.\n\nI learned things about American history that I had never even heard of, like the massive hurricane that hit the East Coast during the Munich Conference and so was almost unknown in other parts of the country.\n\nIt was after reading that book that I started collecting other books on that period of history, and when I started taping movies and later collecting DVDs, I honed in on works about that time. Some of my very favorite movies -- as I\'ve written here before -- were about the home front.\n\nFilms such as \"The Human Comedy\" and \"Since You Went Away,\" as well as the classic of the British home front, \"Mrs. Miniver,\" have found their way into my DVD player time and again..\n\nOf course it\'s easy to put aside an hour and a half or two hours to watch a movie. It\'s a whole different thing to devote 38 hours or so to the largest portrayal ever of World War II. I\'m talking about two of the last great TV miniseries, Herman Wouk\'s \"The Winds of War\" and \"War and Remembrance.\" Both were based on books I have loved again and again, and both were released as miniseries in the 1980s and as DVDs about 15 years later.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1156\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"237\" caption=\"War and Remembrance\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/index1.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1156\" title=\"index\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/index1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"237\" height=\"110\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nI watched both at the time I purchased them, and when we moved from California to Georgia and I weeded through my collection to reduce it by about a third, I decided to keep them.\n\nThe other night I started watching \"Winds of War,\" and now I\'m up to part two (of 12) of \"War and Remembrance.\"\n\nIt\'s actually fortunate that they were made when they were, because the scope of Wouk\'s novels would be far too great for anyone to tackle in television or film these days.\n\nOf course the portrayal of the war focuses far more on the ETO than on the war in the Pacific. As a Jew, Wouk felt it crucial to tell the story of the Holocaust, and I\'m not sure it was ever done better -- or more comprehensively -- in popular entertainment.\n\nOnce I finish watching, I\'ll put the DVDs away on a back shelf. Maybe eight or 10 years from now I\'ll want to see them again. I\'m pretty sure I\'ll read Wouk\'s books again, and I\'m getting pretty close to another reading of \"Glory and the Dream.\"\n\nI love history, and I really am fascinated by this particular time. I suppose if I had to speculate on why, maybe it\'s that it was a time when everything seemed to matter so much, when the whole world was up for grabs.\n\nThat\'s all I\'ve got for now.','L','','inherit','open','open','','1154-revision','','','2011-05-23 21:08:58','2011-05-24 04:08:58','',1154,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1157',0,'revision','',0);
INSERT INTO `wp_posts` VALUES (1154,1,'2011-05-23 21:09:12','2011-05-24 04:09:12','I wish I knew why I have always been fascinated with the portion of American history that happened in the two decades before I was born.\r\n\r\nI was born in December of 1949, and the 20 years or so before I was born includes the Great Depression, World War II and the beginning of the Cold War. I learned a lot about it in 1977, when I first read William Manchester\'s amazing social history, \"The Glory and the Dream,\" which covered the years 1932-72.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/glory.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1155\" title=\"glory\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/glory-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" /></a>I still have the two-volume set on the shelf behind me, and I have read it at least 15-20 times over the years. It\'s a much better historical document when it covers the first half of the period, and when you look at Manchester\'s work on say, Richard Nixon\'s first term, there probably isn\'t enough historical perspective for it to be really valuable.\r\n\r\nI learned things about American history that I had never even heard of, like the massive hurricane that hit the East Coast during the Munich Conference and so was almost unknown in other parts of the country.\r\n\r\nIt was after reading that book that I started collecting other books on that period of history, and when I started taping movies and later collecting DVDs, I honed in on works about that time. Some of my very favorite movies -- as I\'ve written here before -- were about the home front.\r\n\r\nFilms such as \"The Human Comedy\" and \"Since You Went Away,\" as well as the classic of the British home front, \"Mrs. Miniver,\" have found their way into my DVD player time and again..\r\n\r\nOf course it\'s easy to put aside an hour and a half or two hours to watch a movie. It\'s a whole different thing to devote 38 hours or so to the largest portrayal ever of World War II. I\'m talking about two of the last great TV miniseries, Herman Wouk\'s \"The Winds of War\" and \"War and Remembrance.\" Both were based on books I have loved again and again, and both were released as miniseries in the 1980s and as DVDs about 15 years later.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1156\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"237\" caption=\"War and Remembrance\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/index1.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1156\" title=\"index\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/index1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"237\" height=\"110\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nI watched both at the time I purchased them, and when we moved from California to Georgia and I weeded through my collection to reduce it by about a third, I decided to keep them.\r\n\r\nThe other night I started watching \"Winds of War,\" and now I\'m up to part two (of 12) of \"War and Remembrance.\"\r\n\r\nIt\'s actually fortunate that they were made when they were, because the scope of Wouk\'s novels would be far too great for anyone to tackle in television or film these days.\r\n\r\nOf course the portrayal of the war focuses far more on the ETO than on the war in the Pacific. As a Jew, Wouk felt it crucial to tell the story of the Holocaust, and I\'m not sure it was ever done better -- or more comprehensively -- in popular entertainment.\r\n\r\nOnce I finish watching, I\'ll put the DVDs away on a back shelf. Maybe eight or 10 years from now I\'ll want to see them again. I\'m pretty sure I\'ll read Wouk\'s books again, and I\'m getting pretty close to another reading of \"Glory and the Dream.\"\r\n\r\nI love history, and I really am fascinated by this particular time. I suppose if I had to speculate on why, maybe it\'s that it was a time when everything seemed to matter so much, when the whole world was up for grabs.\r\n\r\nThat\'s all I\'ve got for now.','Looking again and again at fascinating times','','publish','open','open','','looking-again-and-again-at-fascinating-times','','','2011-05-23 21:09:12','2011-05-24 04:09:12','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1154',0,'post','',0),(1060,1,'2011-04-23 12:52:21','2011-04-23 19:52:21','','ManchurianCandidate','Mind control at its worst','inherit','open','open','','manchuriancandidate','','','2011-04-23 12:52:21','2011-04-23 19:52:21','',1059,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/ManchurianCandidate.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1061,1,'2011-04-23 18:16:15','2011-04-24 01:16:15','<strong><em>\"I don\'t know a soul who\'s not been battered, don\'t have a friend who feels at ease ...\"</em></strong>\n\nDo I know anyone who is truly happy, at least anyone my own age?\n\nEven folks who say they\'re content -- as I am pretty much of the time -- find themselves battling to shed the regrets of the things they did wrong, or the things they didn\'t do, or the bad decisions they made. That\'s all well and good. An important part of life is letting go of those regrets and not living in the past.\n\nBut what about people whose problems aren\'t their own fault? Or even a result of their own limitations?\n\nWhat about the people who had stuff done to them?\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1060\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"150\" caption=\"Mind control at its worst\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/ManchurianCandidate.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1060\" title=\"ManchurianCandidate\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/ManchurianCandidate.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"200\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nIn the middle of the last century, the American military and intelligence communities became absolutely obsessed with mind control. There were stories coming out of the Korean War about how enemy scientists were perfecting brainwashing techniques that could send people home seeming perfectly normal yet actually anything but normal. Richard Condon\'s book <a title=\"Manchurian Candidate\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Manchurian_Candidate\" target=\"_self\">\"The Manchurian Candidate\"</a> and the movie that was made from it did a lot to frighten Americans.\n\nAnd because the \'50s might have been the peak of American arrogance, we apparently decided that anything those godless Commies could do, we could do better -- or worse, depending on your perspective.\n\nThere were all sorts of government programs, the most famous of which was the Central Intelligence Agency\'s <a title=\"MK ULTRA\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MKULTRA\" target=\"_self\">MK ULTRA</a>. It\'s difficult to say anything is the \"worst\" thing Americans ever did. When you start with slavery and genocide, you\'re setting the bar pretty high, but the 20th century brought us forced sterilization of retarded people, medical experiments where syphilis was given to black men and a number of other cute little tricks like prefrontal lobotomies.\n\nStill, MK ULTRA was pretty awful. It went on for nearly 20 years, and maybe the worst thing about it was that an awful lot of the subjects or its experiments had no idea they were being used. The Rasputin of the project was a man named Sidney Gottlieb, who started out as a speech therapist and wound up as a maestro of mind control.\n\nGottlieb was the life of the party in an evil sort of way. He loved giving large doses of LSD to people without their knowledge to see how they would react. He also ran a program that tested large numbers of schoolchildren, many of whom have no memory of the testing even to this day.\n\nHere\'s the problem with all that.\n\nIt\'s really quite simple.\n\nHow dare they? How dare they perform experiments on people without their knowledge, particularly people who hadn\'t committed any crimes or breached any laws?\n\nIt seems to me that one place this country went seriously off track was once we had a ruling class -- whether in government, in business or in academia -- that decided they were somehow more important than other Americans. Once some captain of industry, or professor, or government official decided that his life was more important than a guy who worked at Walmart, we were headed down the slipperiest of slopes.\n\nAnd when experiments were performed, and subjects don\'t know who they were performed on, people also don\'t know that they <em>weren\'t</em> subjects.\n\nAt least one of my friends -- and maybe more -- was probably a subject of those experiments. For all I know, there was testing done on me\n\nI know too many people who don\'t feel comfortable in their own skin, and they aren\'t people that you would look at and automatically call them nerds or losers. And too many of them had at least loose connections with people and families who were involved with the CIA.\n\nWhat frustrates me the most about this is that I don\'t have a conclusion to bring this to. I don\'t have a point to draw from this, other than the fact that corrupt people have gone a long way toward destroying what was most special about our country. How dare they have picked people -- American people -- at random and destroyed their lives in the name of protecting America from communism?\n\nI hope they are burning in the deepest circles of Hell.\n<div></div>','You can call it America, but it wasn\'t','','inherit','open','open','','1059-revision','','','2011-04-23 18:16:15','2011-04-24 01:16:15','',1059,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1061',0,'revision','',0),(1062,1,'2011-04-23 18:16:30','2011-04-24 01:16:30','<strong><em>\"I don\'t know a soul who\'s not been battered, don\'t have a friend who feels at ease ...\"</em></strong>\r\n\r\nDo I know anyone who is truly happy, at least anyone my own age?\r\n\r\nEven folks who say they\'re content -- as I am pretty much of the time -- find themselves battling to shed the regrets of the things they did wrong, or the things they didn\'t do, or the bad decisions they made. That\'s all well and good. An important part of life is letting go of those regrets and not living in the past.\r\n\r\nBut what about people whose problems aren\'t their own fault? Or even a result of their own limitations?\r\n\r\nWhat about the people who had stuff done to them?\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1060\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"150\" caption=\"Mind control at its worst\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/ManchurianCandidate.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1060\" title=\"ManchurianCandidate\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/ManchurianCandidate.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"200\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nIn the middle of the last century, the American military and intelligence communities became absolutely obsessed with mind control. There were stories coming out of the Korean War about how enemy scientists were perfecting brainwashing techniques that could send people home seeming perfectly normal yet actually anything but normal. Richard Condon\'s book <a title=\"Manchurian Candidate\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Manchurian_Candidate\" target=\"_self\">\"The Manchurian Candidate\"</a> and the movie that was made from it did a lot to frighten Americans.\r\n\r\nAnd because the \'50s might have been the peak of American arrogance, we apparently decided that anything those godless Commies could do, we could do better -- or worse, depending on your perspective.\r\n\r\nThere were all sorts of government programs, the most famous of which was the Central Intelligence Agency\'s <a title=\"MK ULTRA\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MKULTRA\" target=\"_self\">MK ULTRA</a>. It\'s difficult to say anything is the \"worst\" thing Americans ever did. When you start with slavery and genocide, you\'re setting the bar pretty high, but the 20th century brought us forced sterilization of retarded people, medical experiments where syphilis was given to black men and a number of other cute little tricks like prefrontal lobotomies.\r\n\r\nStill, MK ULTRA was pretty awful. It went on for nearly 20 years, and maybe the worst thing about it was that an awful lot of the subjects or its experiments had no idea they were being used. The Rasputin of the project was a man named Sidney Gottlieb, who started out as a speech therapist and wound up as a maestro of mind control.\r\n\r\nGottlieb was the life of the party in an evil sort of way. He loved giving large doses of LSD to people without their knowledge to see how they would react. He also ran a program that tested large numbers of schoolchildren, many of whom have no memory of the testing even to this day.\r\n\r\nHere\'s the problem with all that.\r\n\r\nIt\'s really quite simple.\r\n\r\nHow dare they? How dare they perform experiments on people without their knowledge, particularly people who hadn\'t committed any crimes or breached any laws?\r\n\r\nIt seems to me that one place this country went seriously off track was once we had a ruling class -- whether in government, in business or in academia -- that decided they were somehow more important than other Americans. Once some captain of industry, or professor, or government official decided that his life was more important than a guy who worked at Walmart, we were headed down the slipperiest of slopes.\r\n\r\nAnd when experiments were performed, and subjects don\'t know who they were performed on, people also don\'t know that they <em>weren\'t</em> subjects.\r\n\r\nAt least one of my friends -- and maybe more -- was probably a subject of those experiments. For all I know, there was testing done on me\r\n\r\nI know too many people who don\'t feel comfortable in their own skin, and they aren\'t people that you would look at and automatically call them nerds or losers. And too many of them had at least loose connections with people and families who were involved with the CIA.\r\n\r\nWhat frustrates me the most about this is that I don\'t have a conclusion to bring this to. I don\'t have a point to draw from this, other than the fact that corrupt people have gone a long way toward destroying what was most special about our country. How dare they have picked people -- American people -- at random and destroyed their lives in the name of protecting America from communism?\r\n\r\nI hope they are burning in the deepest circles of Hell.\r\n<div></div>','You can call it America, but it wasn\'t American','','inherit','open','open','','1059-revision-2','','','2011-04-23 18:16:30','2011-04-24 01:16:30','',1059,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1062',0,'revision','',0),(1063,1,'2011-04-24 19:41:58','2011-04-25 02:41:58','[caption id=\"attachment_1064\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"180\" caption=\"Duck Chang&#39;s\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/405344_ratio4x3_width180.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1064\" title=\"405344_ratio4x3_width180\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/405344_ratio4x3_width180.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"135\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nI had completely forgotten about Duck Chang\'s Chinese restaurant until a friend mentioned it on Facebook earlier today.\r\n\r\nIt\'s strange for me to remember, but I didn\'t eat Chinese food at all until I was 26 years old. I don\'t remember why I was such a limited eater when I was younger, but I think I was 14 or 15 before I even ate pizza. I remember I started eating Chinese food in Vienna in the summer of 1976, when Leslie and I were living in Austria. I started out eating <em>langusten mit champignon</em>s, which translates as lobster with mushrooms but was actually prawns with mushrooms.\r\n\r\nStill, it was pretty good, and I started enjoying Chinese food.\r\n\r\nI don\'t know when I first heard about <a title=\"Duck Chang\'s\" href=\"http://dc.metromix.com/restaurants/asian/duck-changs-annandale/405344/content\" target=\"_self\">Duck Chang\'s</a>, which was very well-known in the Washington, D.C., area for its Peking Duck, and all these years later, I don\'t remember how many times I went there. I\'m pretty sure I never had the Duck.\r\n\r\nIn fact, if I hadn\'t seen it mentioned on Facebook, I\'m pretty sure I would never have thought about the restaurant again in all my remaining years.\r\n\r\nBut I had a very pleasant evening there in February 1980, when I took a lovely young lady out to dinner a few weeks after my first wife and I separated. It was our first date, and we spent the entire evening talking. I believe we were the last ones to leave the restaurant, and most of the other tables already had the chairs stacked on them.\r\n\r\nWe hit it off, and we dated on and off for several years. We\'re both married to other people now, but we remain friends.\r\n\r\nWhen I thought about that night, I realized it had been more than 31 years since it happened.\r\n\r\nHalf a lifetime ago.\r\n\r\nI finally did have the Duck.\r\n\r\nIn October 2008.\r\n\r\nIn Beijing.','Memories of good Chinese food and good friends','','publish','open','open','','memories-of-good-chinese-food-and-good-friends','','','2011-04-24 19:41:58','2011-04-25 02:41:58','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1063',0,'post','',0),(1064,1,'2011-04-24 19:05:23','2011-04-25 02:05:23','','405344_ratio4x3_width180','Duck Chang\'s','inherit','open','open','','405344_ratio4x3_width180','','','2011-04-24 19:05:23','2011-04-25 02:05:23','',1063,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/405344_ratio4x3_width180.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1065,1,'2011-04-24 19:41:55','2011-04-25 02:41:55','[caption id=\"attachment_1064\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"180\" caption=\"Duck Chang&#39;s\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/405344_ratio4x3_width180.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1064\" title=\"405344_ratio4x3_width180\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/405344_ratio4x3_width180.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"180\" height=\"135\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nI had completely forgotten about Duck Chang\'s Chinese restaurant until a friend mentioned it on Facebook earlier today.\n\nIt\'s strange for me to remember, but I didn\'t eat Chinese food at all until I was 26 years old. I don\'t remember why I was such a limited eater when I was younger, but I think I was 14 or 15 before I even ate pizza. I remember I started eating Chinese food in Vienna in the summer of 1976, when Leslie and I were living in Austria. I started out eating <em>langusten mit champignon</em>s, which translates as lobster with mushrooms but was actually prawns with mushrooms.\n\nStill, it was pretty good, and I started enjoying Chinese food.\n\nI don\'t know when I first heard about <a title=\"Duck Chang\'s\" href=\"http://dc.metromix.com/restaurants/asian/duck-changs-annandale/405344/content\" target=\"_self\">Duck Chang\'s</a>, which was very well-known in the Washington, D.C., area for its Peking Duck, and all these years later, I don\'t remember how many times I went there. I\'m pretty sure I never had the Duck.\n\nIn fact, if I hadn\'t seen it mentioned on Facebook, I\'m pretty sure I would never have thought about the restaurant again in all my remaining years.\n\nBut I had a very pleasant evening there in February 1980, when I took a lovely young lady out to dinner a few weeks after my first wife and I separated. It was our first date, and we spent the entire evening talking. I believe we were the last ones to leave the restaurant, and most of the other tables already had the chairs stacked on them.\n\nWe hit it off, and we dated on and off for several years. We\'re both married to other people now, but we remain friends.\n\nWhen I thought about that night, I realized it had been more than 31 years since it happened.\n\nHalf a lifetime ago.\n\nI finally did have the Duck.\n\nIn October 2008.\n\nIn Beijing.','Memories of good Chinese food and good friends','','inherit','open','open','','1063-revision','','','2011-04-24 19:41:55','2011-04-25 02:41:55','',1063,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1065',0,'revision','',0),(1066,1,'2011-04-25 18:59:30','2011-04-26 01:59:30','[caption id=\"attachment_1067\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"The road goes on.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110425_12.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1067\" title=\"20110425_12\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110425_12-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nI have been writing too much about golf recently. Of course, that may be because I\'ve been playing too much golf recently.\r\n\r\nOr not.\r\n\r\nI am certainly enjoying myself.\r\n\r\nIn the last 16 days, I have played 12 times. There have been some <em>years</em> in the last 15 when I didn\'t play much more than 12 times, so yes, I\'m having fun.\r\n\r\nI am definitely improving too. It\'s not at all unusual for me to hit 230-240 yards off the tee, and the other day I actually hit a 295-yard shot -- with a three-wood.\r\n\r\nOne thing I\'m enjoying the heck out of is that two of the shortest par fours -- one 280 yards to the green from the white tees and another one 310 yards -- I have hit shots that stopped within five or 10 yards of the green. I\'m confident that eventually I\'ll improve a little more and be able to put my tee shots on these two holes onto the green.\r\n\r\nToday might have been the strangest <em>good</em> round I\'ve ever played. The course was pretty much wide open when I got on at 5:30 p.m. for the sundown rate, and I played 18 holes in just over two hours. I was hitting great off the tees, and nearly as well from the fairways with my approach shots. Except for the fact that my putting was still mediocre on the recently aerated greens, I would have had a score that would have been better than I ever dreamed of shooting.\r\n\r\nI missed four or five putts of 12 feet or less -- some for birdies, some for pars -- but hit my other shots well enough that I broke 80 for the second time in a little more than a week, and actually improved my best-ever score from 79 to 78.\r\n\r\nIt\'s funny. I would have figured that to shoot 78, I would practically have to have played perfectly. But today I shot 78 and was disappointed that it wasn\'t 75 or 76.\r\n\r\nI had eight bogeys, eight pars and two birdies.\r\n\r\nI\'ve never had two birdies in a round before. I rolled in a 13-footer on the seventh hole, and chipped to within five feet on the 15th hole and made the putt.\r\n\r\nI was in a position to break 80 without parring any of the last three holes, and the proverbial icing on the cake for this round was that I actually parred the 17th hole for the first time ever. That means that after five months playing here, I have now parred every hole on the course at least once.\r\n\r\nI\'ve learned something else that I didn\'t know when I moved here. I had hoped that playing more often would make me a better player, but I didn\'t know if it would or not.\r\n\r\nIt has -- and it\'s great.\r\n\r\n78.\r\n\r\nWow.','Golf just keeps getting better and better','','publish','open','open','','golf-just-keeps-getting-better-and-better','','','2011-04-25 18:59:30','2011-04-26 01:59:30','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1066',0,'post','',0),(1067,1,'2011-04-25 18:16:17','2011-04-26 01:16:17','','20110425_12','The road goes on.','inherit','open','open','','20110425_12','','','2011-04-25 18:16:17','2011-04-26 01:16:17','',1066,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110425_12.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1068,1,'2011-04-25 18:58:40','2011-04-26 01:58:40','[caption id=\"attachment_1067\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"The road goes on.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110425_12.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1067\" title=\"20110425_12\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110425_12-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nI have been writing too much about golf recently. Of course, that may be because I\'ve been playing too much golf recently.\n\nOr not.\n\nI am certainly enjoying myself.\n\nIn the last 16 days, I have played 12 times. There have been some <em>years</em> in the last 15 when I didn\'t play much more than 12 times, so yes, I\'m having fun.\n\nI am definitely improving too. It\'s not at all unusual for me to hit 230-240 yards off the tee, and the other day I actually hit a 295-yard shot -- with a three-wood.\n\nOne thing I\'m enjoying the heck out of is that two of the shortest par fours -- one 280 yards to the green from the white tees and another one 310 yards -- I have hit shots that stopped within five or 10 yards of the green. I\'m confident that eventually I\'ll improve a little more and be able to put my tee shots on these two holes onto the green.\n\nToday might have been the strangest <em>good</em> round I\'ve ever played. The course was pretty much wide open when I got on at 5:30 p.m. for the sundown rate, and I played 18 holes in just over two hours. I was hitting great off the tees, and nearly as well from the fairways with my approach shots. Except for the fact that my putting was still mediocre on the recently aerated greens, I would have had a score that would have been better than I ever dreamed of shooting.\n\nI missed four or five putts of 12 feet or less -- some for birdies, some for pars -- but hit my other shots well enough that I broke 80 for the second time in a little more than a week, and actually improved my best-ever score from 79 to 78.\n\nIt\'s funny. I would have figured that to shoot 78, I would practically have to have played perfectly. But today I shot 78 and was disappointed that it wasn\'t 75 or 76.\n\nI had eight bogeys, eight pars and two birdies.\n\nI\'ve never had two birdies in a round before. I rolled in a 13-footer on the seventh hole, and chipped to within five feet on the 15th hole and made the putt.\n\nI was in a position to break 80 without parring any of the last three holes, and the proverbial icing on the cake for this round was that I actually parred the 17th hole for the first time ever. That means that after five months playing here, I have now parred every hole on the course at least once.\n\nI\'ve learned something else that I didn\'t know when I moved here. I had hoped that playing more often would make me a better player, but I didn\'t know if it would or not.\n\nIt has -- and it\'s great.\n\n78.\n\nWow.','','','inherit','open','open','','1066-revision','','','2011-04-25 18:58:40','2011-04-26 01:58:40','',1066,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1068',0,'revision','',0),(1069,1,'2011-04-25 19:00:34','2011-04-26 02:00:34','[caption id=\"attachment_1067\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"The road goes on.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110425_12.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1067\" title=\"20110425_12\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110425_12-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nI have been writing too much about golf recently. Of course, that may be because I\'ve been playing too much golf recently.\n\nOr not.\n\nI am certainly enjoying myself.\n\nIn the last 16 days, I have played 12 times. There have been some <em>years</em> in the last 15 when I didn\'t play much more than 12 times, so yes, I\'m having fun.\n\nI am definitely improving too. It\'s not at all unusual for me to hit 230-240 yards off the tee, and the other day I actually hit a 295-yard shot -- with a three-wood.\n\nOne thing I\'m enjoying the heck out of is that two of the shortest par fours -- one 280 yards to the green from the white tees and another one 310 yards -- I have hit shots that stopped within five or 10 yards of the green. I\'m confident that eventually I\'ll improve a little more and be able to put my tee shots on these two holes onto the green.\n\nToday might have been the strangest <em>good</em> round I\'ve ever played. The course was pretty much wide open when I got on at 5:30 p.m. for the sundown rate, and I played 18 holes in just over two hours. I was hitting great off the tees, and nearly as well from the fairways with my approach shots. Except for the fact that my putting was still mediocre on the recently aerated greens, I would have had a score that would have been better than I ever dreamed of shooting.\n\nI missed four or five putts of 12 feet or less -- some for birdies, some for pars -- but hit my other shots well enough that I broke 80 for the second time in a little more than a week, and actually improved my best-ever score from 79 to 78.\n\nIt\'s funny. I would have figured that to shoot 78, I would practically have to have played perfectly. But today I shot 78 and was disappointed that it wasn\'t 75 or 76.\n\nI had eight bogeys, eight pars and two birdies.\n\nI\'ve never had two birdies in a round before. I rolled in a 13-footer on the seventh hole, and chipped to within five feet on the 15th hole and made the putt.\n\nI was in a position to break 80 without parring any of the last three holes, and the proverbial icing on the cake for this round was that I actually parred the 17th hole for the first time ever. That means that after five months playing here, I have now parred every hole on the course at least once.\n\nI\'ve learned something else that I didn\'t know when I moved here. I had hoped that playing more often would make me a better player, but I didn\'t know if it would or not.\n\nIt has -- and it\'s great.\n\n78.\n\nWow.','Golf just keeps getting better and better','','inherit','open','open','','1066-autosave','','','2011-04-25 19:00:34','2011-04-26 02:00:34','',1066,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1069',0,'revision','',0),(1070,1,'2011-04-26 19:51:20','2011-04-27 02:51:20','For a lot of years, from about age 27 or 28 until my early 40s, my main mode of decorating my apartment was movie posters.\r\n\r\nMost of them were the regular poster size known as \"one sheets,\" which measure 27 inches by 41 inches and were affixed to my walls by push pins. It was sort of a glorified college dorm-room look. I decorated my apartments the way a lot of single men did, although fairly light on the cheesecake photos and centerfolds.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1071\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"199\" caption=\"Two new posters\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110425_10.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1071\" title=\"20110425_10\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110425_10-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nWhen I married Nicole, though, I had to be a grownup when it came to decorations. We had lovely prints on the walls, and there was no place anywhere for movie posters.\r\n\r\nA couple of years ago, though, I discovered these wonderful little 11x17 framed movie posters on Amazon. Since I knew I was going to have one room to decorate in our retirement home, I started looking at them. I\'ve got 12 of them on the walls now, and my only disappointment is that my two favorite movies -- \"Love Actually\" and \"Animal House\" -- aren\'t available.\r\n\r\nWhat I really enjoy is that I\'ve found a couple of posters of old favorites of mine that aren\'t even available on DVD. \"3 in the Attic\" is one of them, although I do have a bootleg DVD of it. I also have one of \"The Strawberry Statement,\" which isn\'t available on DVD but which I got off Amazon\'s Video on Demand.\r\n\r\nThe one I really like is the one under \"3 in the Attic.\" It\'s the French version of \"To Kill a Mockingbird,\" and it translates as \"The Silence and the Shadows.\"\r\n\r\nI like the posters a lot. They have a nice, clean feel to them and they look good on the wall with all my sports memorabilia and family photos. I have two more coming, which should just about fill up the last empty spots on my walls.\r\n\r\nMy one little room is very different from the sparse way my lovely wife likes to decorate the house, but almost every direction I turn, almost everything I see on the walls, makes me happy.\r\n\r\nThat\'s worth a lot.','My walls are filling up and so is my heart','','publish','open','open','','my-walls-are-filling-up-and-so-is-my-heart','','','2011-04-26 19:51:20','2011-04-27 02:51:20','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1070',0,'post','',0),(1071,1,'2011-04-26 19:26:49','2011-04-27 02:26:49','','20110425_10','Two new posters','inherit','open','open','','20110425_10','','','2011-04-26 19:26:49','2011-04-27 02:26:49','',1070,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110425_10.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1072,1,'2011-04-26 19:50:53','2011-04-27 02:50:53','For a lot of years, from about age 27 or 28 until my early 40s, my main mode of decorating my apartment was movie posters.\n\nMost of them were the regular poster size known as \"one sheets,\" which measure 27 inches by 41 inches and were affixed to my walls by push pins. It was sort of a glorified college dorm-room look. I decorated my apartments the way a lot of single men did, although fairly light on the cheesecake photos and centerfolds.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1071\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"199\" caption=\"Two new posters\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110425_10.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1071\" title=\"20110425_10\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110425_10-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nWhen I married Nicole, though, I had to be a grownup when it came to decorations. We had lovely prints on the walls, and there was no place anywhere for movie posters.\n\nA couple of years ago, though, I discovered these wonderful little 11x17 framed movie posters on Amazon. Since I knew I was going to have one room to decorate in our retirement home, I started looking at them. I\'ve got 12 of them on the walls now, and my only disappointment is that my two favorite movies -- \"Love Actually\" and \"Animal House\" -- aren\'t available.\n\nWhat I really enjoy is that I\'ve found a couple of posters of old favorites of mine that aren\'t even available on DVD. \"3 in the Attic\" is one of them, although I do have a bootleg DVD of it. I also have one of \"The Strawberry Statement,\" which isn\'t available on DVD but which I got off Amazon\'s Video on Demand.\n\nThe one I really like is the one under \"3 in the Attic.\" It\'s the French version of \"To Kill a Mockingbird,\" and it translates as \"The Silence and the Shadows.\"\n\nI like the posters a lot. They have a nice, clean feel to them and they look good on the wall with all my sports memorabilia and family photos. I have two more coming, which should just about fill up the last empty spots on my walls.\n\nMy one little room is very different from the sparse way my lovely wife likes to decorate the house, but almost every direction I turn, almost everything I see on the walls, makes me happy.\n\nThat\'s worth a lot.','','','inherit','open','open','','1070-revision','','','2011-04-26 19:50:53','2011-04-27 02:50:53','',1070,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1072',0,'revision','',0),(1074,1,'2011-04-27 19:14:47','2011-04-28 02:14:47','','barack-obama-releases-long-form-birth-certificate-300x200-250x200','The real deal','inherit','open','open','','barack-obama-releases-long-form-birth-certificate-300x200-250x200','','','2011-04-27 19:14:47','2011-04-28 02:14:47','',1073,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/barack-obama-releases-long-form-birth-certificate-300x200-250x200.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1075,1,'2011-04-27 19:26:09','2011-04-28 02:26:09','Wouldn\'t politics be a lot more pleasant if we focused on issues?\n\nSome years back, I suggested that our country would be better off if there were a fail-safe built into Congress so that anytime someone brought up something that was total bullshit -- like flag burning -- that Congress would automatically adjourn.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1074\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"250\" caption=\"The real deal\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/barack-obama-releases-long-form-birth-certificate-300x200-250x200.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1074\" title=\"barack-obama-releases-long-form-birth-certificate-300x200-250x200\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/barack-obama-releases-long-form-birth-certificate-300x200-250x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"200\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nOf course, there\'s no rule like that, and there\'s no way to deal with it when people bring up things that are totally ridiculous just to interfere with the ability of the other side to govern.\n\nThat\'s what some of the folks who hate President Obama have been doing ever since 2008 with their efforts to convince the gullible among us that the president wasn\'t born in the United States and hence was not eligible to be president.\n\nOf course it was a joke all along, and it became even more ridiculous when Donald Trump got involved in it. That left the usual cast of idiots -- Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and all the rest -- all attacking Obama, and apparently the White House decided they would rather have the hubbub than have it settled.\n\nUntil today, when the president finally released what is known as his long form birth certificate, which of course settles the issue for everyone it would ever be settled for.\n\nNow we can get back to flag burning.','','','inherit','open','open','','1073-revision','','','2011-04-27 19:26:09','2011-04-28 02:26:09','',1073,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1075',0,'revision','',0),(1098,1,'2011-05-07 18:39:13','2011-05-08 01:39:13','When I was 13, I met two of the most interesting people I have ever known.\r\n\r\nWe had moved from Ohio to Virginia earlier in the year, and I had been lost for the better part of eight months when I started high school in September. It\'s difficult to comprehend now how much difference there was between Dayton, Ohio, and Fairfax, Virginia, in 1963. I don\'t think I had ever heard anyone refer to the Civil War as anything but a historical event in Ohio, yet in Virginia it somehow mattered to people that I had just moved there from the North.\r\n\r\nI don\'t think I\'d had that many friends in Ohio, but starting high school a year younger than most of the other kids in the class -- I had skipped second grade -- and then being what Dave Barry would call \"puberty challenged\" left me feeling totally out of place. Couple that with the fact that I was totally uncomfortable in my own skin and didn\'t know what to do about it, and I was not a happy kid.\r\n\r\nBut the first week of high school introduced me to two fascinating people in my Freshman English class. Tracy Antley was a military brat, a girl who was intelligent, outspoken and funny. She wound up being the first really good female friend I ever had, although to my shame, I struggled with the idea of a girl as a friend in those days. Alan Singer was every bit as interesting, but what impressed me so much about him was that he seemed even more puberty challenged than I was, and he was short and not at all athletic, yet was totally comfortable with what he was. Which was smart and funny, with a stinging wit.\r\n\r\nI seem to remember him being in our school only for one year, although it might have been two. His picture isn\'t in our sophomore yearbook. Tracy was with us for three years until her father was transferred after our 11th grade year.\r\n\r\nI lost touch with both of them. Ironically, I later learned that Tracy spent her first two years of college at Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va., a school I visited numerous times for dates during the three semesters I spent at the University of Virginia.\r\n\r\nOf Alan, I had no clue.\r\n\r\nBut as one turned to another, and barely pubescent kids became middle-aged and then older, I learned some things. It didn\'t surprise me much to learn that Tracy and Alan had married, and it surprised me just as little to learn that they had divorced. Tracy had become an attorney, and Alan a writer and an English professor. She lives on one coast, he on another. He has published numerous books, none of which have been touted by Oprah, made into a movie or found an audience among folks who read Tom Clancy, Stephen King or Nora Roberts.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1099\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"150\" caption=\"Alan Singer\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/singer.jpg\"><img class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-1099\" title=\"singer\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/singer-150x123.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"123\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nIt\'s a pretty safe bet that none of those things were goals of his when he wrote the books. Tracy told me that Alan was the only person she knew who completely understood \"Finnegan\'s Wake\" the first time he read it.\r\n\r\nI ordered two of his books through Amazon. \"The Charnel Imp\" has been sitting on my bookshelf for six or eight months. It\'s not a long book, but for some reason, I find myself intimidated by it. It contains possibly the most <em>dense</em> prose I have ever seen, and I don\'t mean dense in a negative way. Wading through the first page or two leaves me feeling like I\'m chopping my way through a rain forest with a dull machete.\r\n\r\nJust this week, I got his first novel, \"The Ox-Breadth,\" from a used bookseller in Philadelphia. I haven\'t read it yet, even though it\'s only 129 pages long. I did glance fondly at the dedication page.\r\n\r\n<em>For Tracy.</em>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/charnel.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1100\" title=\"charnel\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/charnel-194x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"194\" height=\"300\" /></a>That made me smile.\r\n\r\nI found his e-mail address on his university\'s Website, and after I read the two books, I think I will send him an e-mail and tell him what I think of them.\r\n\r\nI\'m not sure he\'ll remember me. As I said, our lives touched for just one year. But I do think when you come across someone you knew as a child who accomplished something, you ought to let them know you noticed.\r\n\r\nI also promised Tracy I would let her know what I thought.\r\n\r\nSo I guess I had better put down Tom Clancy, Stephen King and Nora Roberts and tackle his books.\r\n\r\nActually, I don\'t think I\'ve ever read Nora Roberts.\r\n\r\nI\'m more of a Danielle Steel fan.','Two old friends who have had pretty good lives','','publish','open','open','','two-old-friends-who-have-had-pretty-good-lives','','','2011-05-07 18:39:13','2011-05-08 01:39:13','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1098',0,'post','',0),(1078,1,'2011-04-29 17:05:12','2011-04-30 00:05:12','[caption id=\"attachment_1081\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Five miles from here.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110429_31.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1081\" title=\"20110429_3\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110429_31-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nWhen the South was hit by storms the other day, most of the news -- the bad news anyway -- came from Alabama and points west of here.\r\n\r\nSince I don\'t watch television, listen to radio news or subscribe to a newspaper that has news less than 48 hours old, I had no idea that any of the tornadoes has hit near here. But yesterday, when we were heading north to Atlanta for a couple of doctor\'s appointments, I caught sight of the view in the accompanying photograph.\r\n\r\nIt is -- or was -- a flimsy warehouse a little more than five miles from our home in Sun City Peachtree. It isn\'t easy to see in the photo, but there were at least five or six recreational vehicles from a lot next door that were also destroyed.\r\n\r\nThat\'s a little too close for comfort.\r\n\r\nI\'m certainly not complaining. As of this evening, the death toll across the South is reported at more than 300 people, and as least as far as I can see, there was no damage at all here in Sun City.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1083\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"199\" caption=\"My little peach tree\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110429_1.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1083\" title=\"20110429_1\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110429_1-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nSo today, with the sun out and with only a few clouds in the sky, I dug a hole and planted my peach tree.\r\n\r\nI don\'t know how big it will get -- technically it\'s only a dwarf peach tree -- but living in Georgia, there was no way in the world I would plant anything other than a peach tree as my first fruit tree.\r\n\r\nSo now I\'ve got three tomato plants, one peach tree and two flower pots containing impatiens.\r\n\r\nI\'m going to have to depend on the kindness of neighbors when we go to Europe this summer. I\'m pretty sure my tomato plants wouldn\'t thrive during three weeks without watering, although I have hopes for the tree.\r\n\r\nStill, if the tornadoes come to call, I have a hunch my ltitle tree may not fare too well.','Tornadoes came fairly close, but no damage here','','publish','open','open','','1078','','','2011-11-15 16:04:57','2011-11-16 00:04:57','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1078',0,'post','',0),(1079,1,'2011-04-29 17:03:19','2011-04-30 00:03:19','','20110429_3','Five miles from here.','inherit','open','open','','20110429_3','','','2011-04-29 17:03:19','2011-04-30 00:03:19','',1078,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110429_3.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1080,1,'2011-04-29 17:04:40','2011-04-30 00:04:40','[caption id=\"attachment_1079\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"1024\" caption=\"Five miles from here.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110429_3.jpg\"><img class=\"size-large wp-image-1079\" title=\"20110429_3\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110429_3-1024x680.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"680\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nWhen the South was hit by storms the other day, most of the news','','','inherit','open','open','','1078-revision','','','2011-04-29 17:04:40','2011-04-30 00:04:40','',1078,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1080',0,'revision','',0),(1081,1,'2011-04-29 17:06:21','2011-04-30 00:06:21','','20110429_3','Five miles from here.','inherit','open','open','','20110429_3-2','','','2011-04-29 17:06:21','2011-04-30 00:06:21','',1078,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110429_31.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1082,1,'2011-04-29 17:59:30','2011-04-30 00:59:30','[caption id=\"attachment_1081\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Five miles from here.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110429_31.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1081\" title=\"20110429_3\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110429_31-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nWhen the South was hit by storms the other day, most of the news -- the bad news anyway -- came from Alabama and points west of here.\n\nSince I don\'t watch television, listen to radio news or subscribe to a newspaper that has news less than 48 hours old, I had no idea that any of the tornadoes has hit near here. But yesterday, when we were heading north to Atlanta for a couple of doctor\'s appointments, I caught sight of the view in the accompanying photograph.\n\nIt is -- or was -- a flimsy warehouse a little more than five miles from our home in Sun City Peachtree. It isn\'t easy to see in the photo, but there were at least five or six recreational vehicles from a lot next door that were also destroyed.\n\nThat\'s a little too close for comfort.\n\nI\'m certainly not complaining. As of this evening, the death toll across the South is reported at more than 300 people, and as least as far as I can see, there was no damage at all here in Sun City.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1083\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"199\" caption=\"My little peach tree\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110429_1.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1083\" title=\"20110429_1\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110429_1-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nSo today, with the sun out and with only a few clouds in the sky, I dug a hole and planted my peach tree.\n\nI don\'t know how big it will get -- technically it\'s only a dwarf peach tree -- but living in Georgia, there was no way in the world I would plant anything other than a peach tree as my first fruit tree.\n\nSo now I\'ve got three tomato plants, one peach tree and two flower pots containing impatiens.\n\nI\'m going to have to depend on the kindness of neighbors when we go to Europe this summer. I\'m pretty sure my tomato plants wouldn\'t thrive during three weeks without watering, although I have hopes for the tree.\n\nStill, if the tornadoes come to call, I have a hunch my ltitle tree may not fare too well.','Torandoes came fairly close, but n','','inherit','open','open','','1078-autosave','','','2011-04-29 17:59:30','2011-04-30 00:59:30','',1078,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1082',0,'revision','',0),(1083,1,'2011-04-29 17:27:31','2011-04-30 00:27:31','','20110429_1','My little peach tree','inherit','open','open','','20110429_1','','','2011-04-29 17:27:31','2011-04-30 00:27:31','',1078,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110429_1.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1084,1,'2011-04-29 17:05:12','2011-04-30 00:05:12','[caption id=\"attachment_1079\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"1024\" caption=\"Five miles from here.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110429_3.jpg\"><img class=\"size-large wp-image-1079\" title=\"20110429_3\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110429_3-1024x680.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"680\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nWhen the South was hit by storms the other day, most of the news -- the bad news anyway -- came from Alabama and points west of here.','','','inherit','open','open','','1078-revision-2','','','2011-04-29 17:05:12','2011-04-30 00:05:12','',1078,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1084',0,'revision','',0),(1085,1,'2011-04-29 17:59:39','2011-04-30 00:59:39','[caption id=\"attachment_1081\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Five miles from here.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110429_31.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1081\" title=\"20110429_3\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110429_31-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nWhen the South was hit by storms the other day, most of the news -- the bad news anyway -- came from Alabama and points west of here.\r\n\r\nSince I don\'t watch television, listen to radio news or subscribe to a newspaper that has news less than 48 hours old, I had no idea that any of the tornadoes has hit near here. But yesterday, when we were heading north to Atlanta for a couple of doctor\'s appointments, I caught sight of the view in the accompanying photograph.\r\n\r\nIt is -- or was -- a flimsy warehouse a little more than five miles from our home in Sun City Peachtree. It isn\'t easy to see in the photo, but there were at least five or six recreational vehicles from a lot next door that were also destroyed.\r\n\r\nThat\'s a little too close for comfort.\r\n\r\nI\'m certainly not complaining. As of this evening, the death toll across the South is reported at more than 300 people, and as least as far as I can see, there was no damage at all here in Sun City.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1083\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"199\" caption=\"My little peach tree\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110429_1.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1083\" title=\"20110429_1\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110429_1-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nSo today, with the sun out and with only a few clouds in the sky, I dug a hole and planted my peach tree.\r\n\r\nI don\'t know how big it will get -- technically it\'s only a dwarf peach tree -- but living in Georgia, there was no way in the world I would plant anything other than a peach tree as my first fruit tree.\r\n\r\nSo now I\'ve got three tomato plants, one peach tree and two flower pots containing impatiens.\r\n\r\nI\'m going to have to depend on the kindness of neighbors when we go to Europe this summer. I\'m pretty sure my tomato plants wouldn\'t thrive during three weeks without watering, although I have hopes for the tree.\r\n\r\nStill, if the tornadoes come to call, I have a hunch my ltitle tree may not fare too well.','Torandoes came fairly close, but no damage done here','','inherit','open','open','','1078-revision-3','','','2011-04-29 17:59:39','2011-04-30 00:59:39','',1078,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1085',0,'revision','',0),(1086,1,'2011-05-02 12:01:15','2011-05-02 19:01:15','<strong><em>Editor\'s note: I wrote this in September 2002 on the first anniversary of the 911 attacks. I was looking back at it and found it still relevant. Hope you enjoy it.</em></strong>\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/america.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1087\" title=\"america\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/america-234x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"234\" height=\"300\" /></a>I made one promise to myself this week that I was able to keep.\r\n\r\nOn Sept. 11, even though it was difficult, I managed to avoid completely the wall-to-wall coverage television gave to the one-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.\r\n\r\nI went to work and then I went to a special Wednesday evening Mass to commemorate the anniversary.\r\n\r\nI enjoy going to Mass under any circumstances, because it\'s one of the few times during a busy week that I actually get the chance to sit and think about things greater than my mundane concerns. That was especially important this week, I think, as our country looked back at terrorism and ahead to a possible war with Iraq.\r\n\r\nI\'m sure there were eloquent moments in the ceremonies at Ground Zero in New York, at the Pentagon in Washington or in the field near Shanksville, Pa., where Flight 93 went down. I didn\'t see any of them, though, and I don\'t feel as though I missed anything.\r\n\r\nI prayed, both alone and with the congregation, for the souls of those who died on Sept. 11 and for the families they left behind. I prayed for guidance for those misguided fools who think murder of innocents is any sort of path to salvation. I prayed that our own leaders would see that war – an unprovoked war of the type America has never fought - is rarely the road to any meaningful sort of peace.\r\n\r\nOne of the responsorial prayers was particularly illuminating.\r\n\r\n<em>\"I believe I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.\"</em>\r\n\r\nStrangely enough, I do believe exactly that. I believe it is possible for men and women to learn, to gain enlightenment and to be good to one another.\r\n\r\nIt would be difficult to explain where I get that feeling. Our culture is in a shambles, with the quest to appeal to the lowest common denominator the only goal most people in charge of media companies seem to have. Our films are soaked in blood and sex; our television shows smothered in innuendo. If there is a lowest common denominator, it appears to be that everyone can be degraded if they\'re offered enough money and that there are no real heroes anywhere anymore.\r\n\r\nPeople who run businesses are seen as maximizing profits at the expense of all else, while those who run for office are seen as being willing to sink to any level to win their\r\nelection.\r\n\r\nOne thought that people had in the wake of Sept. 11 last year was that what had happened would somehow mark an end to cynicism and irony in this country. Ironically, both seem to be stronger than ever. We have become more cynical, more ironic, in the days since the planes hit the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. I have no doubt that individual families, especially those touched by the tragedy, might be living their lives differently, but I don\'t see any sign of a sea change in our national psyche.\r\n\r\nDo we see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living?\r\n\r\nI would like to believe so. I know people who devote their weekends to working at food banks or building houses for the poor through Habitat for Humanity. I know others who devote time they really don\'t have to coaching youth sports or working with the Boy Scouts.\r\n\r\nIt may be a slow process, but I believe race relations are getting better. I believe my children look at people without immediately pigeonholing them by race or ethnic group,\r\nand I see more mixed couples with multiracial children all the time.\r\n\r\nI believe we are seeing less hatred toward people of different ethnicities, religions or sexual preferences. Again, a slow process. Again, real progress.\r\n\r\nDuring the Wednesday evening mass, one of the hymns we sang was Katherine Lee Bates\' lovely \"America the Beautiful,\" the song many people feel should be our national anthem. I love the melody and the words, particularly the fourth verse.\r\n\r\n<em>\"O beautiful for patriot dream that sees beyond the years, Thine alabaster cities gleam undimmed by human tears ...\"</em>\r\n\r\nWhen Bates wrote the final version of her song in 1913, I doubt it would have been possible to imagine the Twin Towers that climbed so far toward the skies above New York City. Even though I didn\'t watch the television coverage the other day, I seriously doubt New York was \"undimmed by human tears.\"\r\n\r\nWe didn\'t sing the fourth verse, which is my favorite. We sang the third, the most overlooked one.\r\n\r\n<em>\"O beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife, Who more than self their country loved and mercy more than life! America! America! May God thy gold refine till all success be nobleness and every gain divine!\"</em>\r\n\r\nI know we see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. I know it when I read of firefighters, police officers and medical personnel who ran into the Twin Towers and up the stairs, all the while knowing there was a very good chance they would never make it out. I know it when I read of the people who devoted days, weeks and months to the search for the missing after Sept. 11, those who rededicated themselves to working for more than just their own personal gain.\r\n\r\nWe have been through a terrible time in this country, a time that started long before the planes hit. For several decades, we have made money and success our twin gods and have used whatever means necessary to achieve them.\r\n\r\nGreed was never good, despite what Gordon Gekko said, but we convinced ourselves that maybe it wasn\'t really one of the Seven Deadly Sins. While we were at it, lust and gluttony were sort of fun too.\r\n\r\nWell, no matter how much we may rationalize, good remains good and evil remains evil. And whether you believe in a higher power or not, whether you take your philosophy of life from the Bible or from \"Bill and Ted\'s Excellent Adventure,\" life all boils down to one thing. Call it \"love your neighbor as yourself\" or \"be excellent to each other.\" It\'s really the same thing. If you live your life for your own happiness, you probably won\'t see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. If you live for others and the good of your community, you\'ll be part of the solution.\r\n\r\nI don\'t know if there\'s any great lesson to be gleaned as we start the second year after the attacks, but part of that one verse keeps going through my mind.\r\n\r\n<em>\"... who more than self their country loved and mercy more than life.\"</em>\r\n\r\nTwenty years after completing her first version of the song, Bates commented on its success. \"That the hymn has gained, in these twenty odd years, such a hold as it has upon\r\nour people, is clearly due to the fact that Americans are at heart idealists, with a fundamental faith in human brotherhood.\"\r\n\r\nI don\'t believe giants ever walked the earth in this country. I don\'t believe the patriots who founded America were somehow better men and women than we are in 2002.\r\n\r\nI do believe we have taken the easy road for far too long.\r\n\r\nIt\'s time we stop selling ourselves short and really look for the goodness of the Lord ... in the land of the living.','Seeking goodness in the land of the living','','publish','open','open','','seeking-goodness-in-the-land-of-the-living','','','2011-05-02 12:01:15','2011-05-02 19:01:15','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1086',0,'post','',0),(1087,1,'2011-05-02 12:00:14','2011-05-02 19:00:14','','america','','inherit','open','open','','america','','','2011-05-02 12:00:14','2011-05-02 19:00:14','',1086,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/america.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1088,1,'2011-05-02 12:00:39','2011-05-02 19:00:39','<strong><em>Editor\'s note: I wrote this in September 2002 on the first anniversary of the 911 attacks. I was looking back at it and found it still relevant. Hope you enjoy it.</em></strong>\n\n<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/america.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1087\" title=\"america\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/america-234x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"234\" height=\"300\" /></a>I made one promise to myself this week that I was able to keep.\n\nOn Sept. 11, even though it was difficult, I managed to avoid completely the wall-to-wall coverage television gave to the one-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.\n\nI went to work and then I went to a special Wednesday evening Mass to commemorate the anniversary.\n\nI enjoy going to Mass under any circumstances, because it\'s one of the few times during a busy week that I actually get the chance to sit and think about things greater than my mundane concerns. That was especially important this week, I think, as our country looked back at terrorism and ahead to a possible war with Iraq.\n\nI\'m sure there were eloquent moments in the ceremonies at Ground Zero in New York, at the Pentagon in Washington or in the field near Shanksville, Pa., where Flight 93 went down. I didn\'t see any of them, though, and I don\'t feel as though I missed anything.\n\nI prayed, both alone and with the congregation, for the souls of those who died on Sept. 11 and for the families they left behind. I prayed for guidance for those misguided fools who think murder of innocents is any sort of path to salvation. I prayed that our own leaders would see that war – an unprovoked war of the type America has never fought - is rarely the road to any meaningful sort of peace.\n\nOne of the responsorial prayers was particularly illuminating.\n\n<em>\"I believe I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.\"</em>\n\nStrangely enough, I do believe exactly that. I believe it is possible for men and women to learn, to gain enlightenment and to be good to one another.\n\nIt would be difficult to explain where I get that feeling. Our culture is in a shambles, with the quest to appeal to the lowest common denominator the only goal most people in charge of media companies seem to have. Our films are soaked in blood and sex; our television shows smothered in innuendo. If there is a lowest common denominator, it appears to be that everyone can be degraded if they\'re offered enough money and that there are no real heroes anywhere anymore.\n\nPeople who run businesses are seen as maximizing profits at the expense of all else, while those who run for office are seen as being willing to sink to any level to win their\nelection.\n\nOne thought that people had in the wake of Sept. 11 last year was that what had happened would somehow mark an end to cynicism and irony in this country. Ironically, both seem to be stronger than ever. We have become more cynical, more ironic, in the days since the planes hit the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. I have no doubt that individual families, especially those touched by the tragedy, might be living their lives differently, but I don\'t see any sign of a sea change in our national psyche.\n\nDo we see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living?\n\nI would like to believe so. I know people who devote their weekends to working at food banks or building houses for the poor through Habitat for Humanity. I know others who devote time they really don\'t have to coaching youth sports or working with the Boy Scouts.\n\nIt may be a slow process, but I believe race relations are getting better. I believe my children look at people without immediately pigeonholing them by race or ethnic group,\nand I see more mixed couples with multiracial children all the time.\n\nI believe we are seeing less hatred toward people of different ethnicities, religions or sexual preferences. Again, a slow process. Again, real progress.\n\nDuring the Wednesday evening mass, one of the hymns we sang was Katherine Lee Bates\' lovely \"America the Beautiful,\" the song many people feel should be our national anthem. I love the melody and the words, particularly the fourth verse.\n\n<em>\"O beautiful for patriot dream that sees beyond the years, Thine alabaster cities gleam undimmed by human tears ...\"</em>\n\nWhen Bates wrote the final version of her song in 1913, I doubt it would have been possible to imagine the Twin Towers that climbed so far toward the skies above New York City. Even though I didn\'t watch the television coverage the other day, I seriously doubt New York was \"undimmed by human tears.\"\n\nWe didn\'t sing the fourth verse, which is my favorite. We sang the third, the most overlooked one.\n\n<em>\"O beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife, Who more than self their country loved and mercy more than life! America! America! May God thy gold refine till all success be nobleness and every gain divine!\"</em>\n\nI know we see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. I know it when I read of firefighters, police officers and medical personnel who ran into the Twin Towers and up the stairs, all the while knowing there was a very good chance they would never make it out. I know it when I read of the people who devoted days, weeks and months to the search for the missing after Sept. 11, those who rededicated themselves to working for more than just their own personal gain.\n\nWe have been through a terrible time in this country, a time that started long before the planes hit. For several decades, we have made money and success our twin gods and have used whatever means necessary to achieve them.\n\nGreed was never good, despite what Gordon Gekko said, but we convinced ourselves that maybe it wasn\'t really one of the Seven Deadly Sins. While we were at it, lust and gluttony were sort of fun too.\n\nWell, no matter how much we may rationalize, good remains good and evil remains evil. And whether you believe in a higher power or not, whether you take your philosophy of life from the Bible or from \"Bill and Ted\'s Excellent Adventure,\" life all boils down to one thing. Call it \"love your neighbor as yourself\" or \"be excellent to each other.\" It\'s really the same thing. If you live your life for your own happiness, you probably won\'t see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. If you live for others and the good of your community, you\'ll be part of the solution.\n\nI don\'t know if there\'s any great lesson to be gleaned as we start the second year after the attacks, but part of that one verse keeps going through my mind.\n\n<em>\"... who more than self their country loved and mercy more than life.\"</em>\n\nTwenty years after completing her first version of the song, Bates commented on its success. \"That the hymn has gained, in these twenty odd years, such a hold as it has upon\nour people, is clearly due to the fact that Americans are at heart idealists, with a fundamental faith in human brotherhood.\"\n\nI don\'t believe giants ever walked the earth in this country. I don\'t believe the patriots who founded America were somehow better men and women than we are in 2002.\n\nI do believe we have taken the easy road for far too long.\n\nIt\'s time we stop selling ourselves short and really look for the goodness of the Lord ... in the land of the living.','Seeking goodness in the land of the l','','inherit','open','open','','1086-revision','','','2011-05-02 12:00:39','2011-05-02 19:00:39','',1086,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1088',0,'revision','',0),(1089,1,'2011-05-02 16:55:16','2011-05-02 23:55:16','Why is it that they hate us so much?\r\n\r\nThat\'s a question I\'ve heard a lot of times over the last 10 years, ever since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and it\'s one that has been on my mind since the news about Osama bin Laden came in late last evening.\r\n\r\n<em>They hate us because of our freedoms.</em>\r\n\r\nI\'m sure we have all heard that one, and I imagine we\'ve heard the reason that can be summed up in what basketball player Wilt Chamberlain said about the way people viewed him.\r\n\r\n<em>Nobody loves Goliath.</em>\r\n\r\nI don\'t believe the first one at all -- it\'s just mindless national chauvinism -- but I think there probably is some truth to the second one.\r\n\r\nBut let me posit a third reason that probably encompasses both of the first two and adds a little more.\r\n\r\n<em>We turn everything we touch into crap these days, and we\'re so big we turn everybody else\'s culture into crap too.</em>\r\n\r\nComedian Patton Oswalt said it perfectly when he said America was like a giant retarded trust fund baby with nuclear weapons. If we want Disney World in France, France had damn well better build a Disney World. Whether they want it or not.\r\n\r\nWhen I lived in Austria in 1977, it was a really big deal when Vienna -- a city with nearly 2 million people -- got its first McDonald\'s. Three years ago I visited Beijing and there were American fast food outlets all over the place.\r\n\r\nA couple of years ago, some politicians were talking about progress in American Samoa. They agreed that Samoans were becoming mature enough and sophisticated enough economically to join the modern consumer society.\r\n\r\nOh, joy. Kiss Samoa goodbye.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1090\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Our new capitol\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/mall_of_america.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1090\" title=\"mall_of_america\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/mall_of_america-300x183.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"183\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nWhen did we become a society that started judging men and women by what they owned instead of what they believed or what they accomplished? When did we start measuring everything by money?\r\n\r\n<em>Greed is good.</em>\r\n\r\nNot really, although the argument that greed makes people work harder is an understandable one. The problem is that the highest paying jobs of all these days don\'t make anything or create art. They just move money around. As Tom Wolfe had his character Sherman McCoy explain in \"The Bonfire of the Vanities,\" his job was to help people bake a cake, and his pay was a few crumbs that fell off when the cake was sold.\r\n\r\nGreat book, crummy movie.\r\n\r\nWhich brings us to our culture. Go anywhere in the world these days and you\'ll find American movies, American television, American music, and let me clue you in. We\'re not talking about \"Casablanca,\" \"I Love Lucy\" or Cole Porter. When it comes to movies in particular, studios have decided that what sells worldwide is action movies. So the world sees us at our worst -- heads exploding, nude bodies, plots thinner than tissue paper and actors that won\'t make anyone forget, heck, even Arnold Schwarzenegger.\r\n\r\nWhen\'s the last time you saw an American movie that uplifted you or taught you something? Or a television show that didn\'t push the envelope for smut? Or music you could sing along with ... or dance to?\r\n\r\nYou\'ll note I haven\'t even mentioned books.\r\n\r\nWe pretty much don\'t do books anymore.\r\n\r\nIf Hollywood made \"Gone With the Wind\" today, Scarlett would have a nude scene in the first 20 minutes, Ashley would be a closeted homosexual and Rhett would teach us the joys of miscegenation. Was \"Casablanca\" a more limited film because Bogey couldn\'t call Major Strasser a cocksucker? Were we disappointed that \"The Wizard of Oz\" didn\'t include Dorothy realizing that she was becoming a woman?\r\n\r\nDo you see my point? I hope so, because it\'s not a particularly subtle one. You go to the movies these days and you leave feeling slimy. Imagine how someone who didn\'t grow up in our culture feels when they\'re first exposed to it.\r\n\r\nWe\'ve come a long way from Gilbert Stuart\'s portrait of George Washington to that Mapplethorpe guy shoving a bullwhip up some guy\'s rectum and taking pictures of it.\r\n\r\nDon\'t get me wrong. I\'m not for burkas. Hell, I think even our own Bible-thumpers go too far. But if you\'re wondering why our murder rate is so high and you want a reason for it other than guns, you might look at the fact that we seem to be running a national experiment to see just how much we can overload people\'s senses.\r\n\r\nOscar Wilde once said that a cynic was someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. It seems to me we\'re a long way down that particular highway. It\'s probably a cheap shot after all this time to pick on George W. Bush, but I\'ll never forget that after September 2001 and the attacks, he urged us to get back to normal.\r\n\r\nOur president told us to go shopping.\r\n\r\nI think I know why they hate us so much.\r\n\r\nI think all you need to do is look at how many countries <em>don\'t</em> have Walmart, or McDonald\'s or KFC or a host of other American companies.\r\n\r\nThere aren\'t many.','Why do they hate us? It\'s not about freedom','','publish','open','open','','why-do-they-hate-us-its-not-about-freedom','','','2011-05-02 16:55:16','2011-05-02 23:55:16','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1089',0,'post','',1),(1090,1,'2011-05-02 16:53:24','2011-05-02 23:53:24','','mall_of_america','Our new capitol','inherit','open','open','','mall_of_america','','','2011-05-02 16:53:24','2011-05-02 23:53:24','',1089,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/mall_of_america.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1091,1,'2011-05-02 16:54:55','2011-05-02 23:54:55','Why is it that they hate us so much?\n\nThat\'s a question I\'ve heard a lot of times over the last 10 years, ever since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and it\'s one that has been on my mind since the news about Osama bin Laden came in late last evening.\n\n<em>They hate us because of our freedoms.</em>\n\nI\'m sure we have all heard that one, and I imagine we\'ve heard the reason that can be summed up in what basketball player Wilt Chamberlain said about the way people viewed him.\n\n<em>Nobody loves Goliath.</em>\n\nI don\'t believe the first one at all -- it\'s just mindless national chauvinism -- but I think there probably is some truth to the second one.\n\nBut let me posit a third reason that probably encompasses both of the first two and adds a little more.\n\n<em>We turn everything we touch into crap these days, and we\'re so big we turn everybody else\'s culture into crap too.</em>\n\nComedian Patton Oswalt said it perfectly when he said America was like a giant retarded trust fund baby with nuclear weapons. If we want Disney World in France, France had damn well better build a Disney World. Whether they want it or not.\n\nWhen I lived in Austria in 1977, it was a really big deal when Vienna -- a city with nearly 2 million people -- got its first McDonald\'s. Three years ago I visited Beijing and there were American fast food outlets all over the place.\n\nA couple of years ago, some politicians were talking about progress in American Samoa. They agreed that Samoans were becoming mature enough and sophisticated enough economically to join the modern consumer society.\n\nOh, joy. Kiss Samoa goodbye.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1090\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Our new capitol\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/mall_of_america.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1090\" title=\"mall_of_america\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/mall_of_america-300x183.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"183\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nWhen did we become a society that started judging men and women by what they owned instead of what they believed or what they accomplished? When did we start measuring everything by money?\n\n<em>Greed is good.</em>\n\nNot really, although the argument that greed makes people work harder is an understandable one. The problem is that the highest paying jobs of all these days don\'t make anything or create art. They just move money around. As Tom Wolfe had his character Sherman McCoy explain in \"The Bonfire of the Vanities,\" his job was to help people bake a cake, and his pay was a few crumbs that fell off when the cake was sold.\n\nGreat book, crummy movie.\n\nWhich brings us to our culture. Go anywhere in the world these days and you\'ll find American movies, American television, American music, and let me clue you in. We\'re not talking about \"Casablanca,\" \"I Love Lucy\" or Cole Porter. When it comes to movies in particular, studios have decided that what sells worldwide is action movies. So the world sees us at our worst -- heads exploding, nude bodies, plots thinner than tissue paper and actors that won\'t make anyone forget, heck, even Arnold Schwarzenegger.\n\nWhen\'s the last time you saw an American movie that uplifted you or taught you something? Or a television show that didn\'t push the envelope for smut? Or music you could sing along with ... or dance to?\n\nYou\'ll note I haven\'t even mentioned books.\n\nWe pretty much don\'t do books anymore.\n\nIf Hollywood made \"Gone With the Wind\" today, Scarlett would have a nude scene in the first 20 minutes, Ashley would be a closeted homosexual and Rhett would teach us the joys of miscegenation. Was \"Casablanca\" a more limited film because Bogey couldn\'t call Major Strasser a cocksucker? Were we disappointed that \"The Wizard of Oz\" didn\'t include Dorothy realizing that she was becoming a woman?\n\nDo you see my point? I hope so, because it\'s not a particularly subtle one. You go to the movies these days and you leave feeling slimy. Imagine how someone who didn\'t grow up in our culture feels when they\'re first exposed to it.\n\nWe\'ve come a long way from Gilbert Stuart\'s portrait of George Washington to that Mapplethorpe guy shoving a bullwhip up some guy\'s rectum and taking pictures of it.\n\nDon\'t get me wrong. I\'m not for burkas. Hell, I think even our own Bible-thumpers go too far. But if you\'re wondering why our murder rate is so high and you want a reason for it other than guns, you might look at the fact that we seem to be running a national experiment to see just how much we can overload people\'s senses.\n\nOscar Wilde once said that a cynic was someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. It seems to me we\'re a long way down that particular highway. It\'s probably a cheap shot after all this time to pick on George W. Bush, but I\'ll never forget that after September 2001 and the attacks, he urged us to get back to normal.\n\nOur president told us to go shopping.\n\nI think I know why they hate us so much.\n\nI think all you need to do is look at how many countries don\'t have Walmart, or McDonald\'s or KFC or a h','Why do they hate us? It\'s not about freedom','','inherit','open','open','','1089-revision','','','2011-05-02 16:54:55','2011-05-02 23:54:55','',1089,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1091',0,'revision','',0),(1092,1,'2011-05-03 19:47:28','2011-05-04 02:47:28','Have you ever had a nightmare in which you were trying to do something that wasn\'t that difficult, something you had done many times before but for some reason just couldn\'t do?\r\n\r\nIt happened to me -- a nightmare of sorts -- on the golf course this afternoon.\r\n\r\nI was playing the par four seventh hole, which is a fairly straightforward short par four -- about 300 yards from the white tees, but uphill for the last 100 yards or so. I was playing reasonably well -- one over through six holes -- and my drive was a mediocre but OK 190-yarder, leaving me behind a fairway bunker about 110 yards from the hole.\r\n\r\nI\'m not a big hitter, so I figured the distance and the fact that it was uphill and took out my seven iron. It has been a long time since I\'ve been psyched out at having to hit over traps, so I lined up my shot, swung and dribbled it right into the trap.\r\n\r\nI had lifted my head.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1093\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"No. 7\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20101210_18.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1093\" title=\"20101210_18\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20101210_18-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nI used to do that a lot, but it hasn\'t been a major problem for a long time.\r\n\r\nSince there was no one behind me, I decided to take the opportunity to practice the shot and get it right.\r\n\r\nI dropped a ball, lined up my shot and dribbled it into the trap again. And again. And again.\r\n\r\nAfter four times, I figured maybe I wasn\'t confident in the seven iron and hence was over-swinging. I switched to the six, dropped a ball and did exactly the same thing. Four times.\r\n\r\nBy now I was wondering what was going on. I changed my stance a little and managed to avoid the trap -- by hitting the ball off the end of the club and sending it completely sideways. Twice.\r\n\r\nTen horrible shots in a row.\r\n\r\nI wasn\'t going to go on to my first ball and complete my round until I hit a decent shot, so I switched to my eight iron, which I have been hitting pretty well, and finally got one into the air. It headed toward the hole, but come up five yards short of even reaching the green.\r\n\r\nWhen I went back to my first ball and hit it out of the bunker, I managed to get up and down after that for a bogey five.\r\n\r\nAs I said, I had been playing well, but I bogeyed eight and nine to finish four over par. On nine, which is only about 100 yards, I used my eight and wound up pulling my head up and topping the ball. I tried a couple more practice shots after that and did the same thing.\r\n\r\nSo I left the course feeling like I had completely forgotten how to play golf.\r\n\r\nIt was a shame, too, because except for that I had a great memory. On the fifth hole, which past about 170 yards is downhill all the way, I had totally creamed a drive that went about 315 yards. When I walked up to my second shot, I was 20 yards from the cup. I chipped with my seven and watched as the ball rolled to within three inches of the hole. I\'ve still never had an eagle, but a three-inch birdie tap-in was a nice substitute.\r\n\r\nSorry, though.\r\n\r\nFor all that, today\'s memory is of 10 consecutive shots in which I told myself to keep my damn head down -- and didn\'t.\r\n\r\nIt\'s a hellishly frustrating game at times.\r\n\r\nThat\'s why I love it.','Golf can be a hellishly frustrating game','','publish','open','open','','golf-can-be-a-hellishly-frustrating-game','','','2011-05-03 19:47:28','2011-05-04 02:47:28','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1092',0,'post','',1),(1093,1,'2011-05-03 19:21:00','2011-05-04 02:21:00','','20101210_18','No. 7','inherit','open','open','','20101210_18','','','2011-05-03 19:21:00','2011-05-04 02:21:00','',1092,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20101210_18.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1094,1,'2011-05-03 19:47:08','2011-05-04 02:47:08','Have you ever had a nightmare in which you were trying to do something that wasn\'t that difficult, something you had done many times before but for some reason just couldn\'t do?\n\nIt happened to me -- a nightmare of sorts -- on the golf course this afternoon.\n\nI was playing the par four seventh hole, which is a fairly straightforward short par four -- about 300 yards from the white tees, but uphill for the last 100 yards or so. I was playing reasonably well -- one over through six holes -- and my drive was a mediocre but OK 190-yarder, leaving me behind a fairway bunker about 110 yards from the hole.\n\nI\'m not a big hitter, so I figured the distance and the fact that it was uphill and took out my seven iron. It has been a long time since I\'ve been psyched out at having to hit over traps, so I lined up my shot, swung and dribbled it right into the trap.\n\nI had lifted my head.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1093\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"No. 7\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20101210_18.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1093\" title=\"20101210_18\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20101210_18-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nI used to do that a lot, but it hasn\'t been a major problem for a long time.\n\nSince there was no one behind me, I decided to take the opportunity to practice the shot and get it right.\n\nI dropped a ball, lined up my shot and dribbled it into the trap again. And again. And again.\n\nAfter four times, I figured maybe I wasn\'t confident in the seven iron and hence was over-swinging. I switched to the six, dropped a ball and did exactly the same thing. Four times.\n\nBy now I was wondering what was going on. I changed my stance a little and managed to avoid the trap -- by hitting the ball off the end of the club and sending it completely sideways. Twice.\n\nTen horrible shots in a row.\n\nI wasn\'t going to go on to my first ball and complete my round until I hit a decent shot, so I switched to my eight iron, which I have been hitting pretty well, and finally got one into the air. It headed toward the hole, but come up five yards short of even reaching the green.\n\nWhen I went back to my first ball and hit it out of the bunker, I managed to get up and down after that for a bogey five.\n\nAs I said, I had been playing well, but I bogeyed eight and nine to finish four over par. On nine, which is only about 100 yards, I used my eight and wound up pulling my head up and topping the ball. I tried a couple more practice shots after that and did the same thing.\n\nSo I left the course feeling like I had completely forgotten how to play golf.\n\nIt was a shame, too, because except for that I had a great memory. On the fifth hole, which past about 170 yards is downhill all the way, I had totally creamed a drive that went about 315 yards. When I walked up to my second shot, I was 20 yards from the cup. I chipped with my seven and watched as the ball rolled to within three inches of the hole. I\'ve still never had an eagle, but a three-inch birdie tap-in was a nice substitute.\n\nSorry, though.\n\nFor all that, today\'s memory is of 10 consecutive shots in which I told myself to keep my damn head down -- and didn\'t.\n\nIt\'s a hellishly frustrating game at times.\n\nThat\'s why I love it.','','','inherit','open','open','','1092-revision','','','2011-05-03 19:47:08','2011-05-04 02:47:08','',1092,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1094',0,'revision','',0),(1095,1,'2011-05-05 20:28:07','2011-05-06 03:28:07','As I wrote the other day, the part of Georgia where I live was hit by the recent tornadoes, and as the news comes out, it was apparently hit worse than I had thought.\r\n\r\nAccording to a story in today\'s <em>Griffin Daily News</em>, a member of the Spalding County commissioners said that 381 homes were damaged, and nearly a third of them basically will be condemned. Nearly 20 businesses were destroyed and two people were killed.\r\n\r\nNow to some people, it will look like Spalding County got off easy, and I didn\'t even know the tornadoes had touched down here until a couple of days later. (That\'s what I get for not watching television anymore) But if I were one of the folks who lost their home ... or their business ... or their life ... I\'m sure I wouldn\'t have thought we got off easy.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1096\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Tornado damage\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110429_2.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1096\" title=\"20110429_2\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110429_2-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nBut I wonder how some of the folks who lost their homes last week felt about the news we had killed Osama bin Laden.\r\n\r\nTruthfully, they were probably pleased. Patriotism seems to ride a little closer to the surface here in the South, and that\'s not necessarily a bad thing. Taking pride in your country is usually a positive act; it helps make you feel good about yourself to be part of a bigger whole.\r\n\r\nStill, as bin Laden fades into history, someone who is without a home or a business still has to deal with that reality. What happened in Pakistan really has no tangible effect -- lasting or otherwise -- on their life.\r\n\r\nForeign policy successes don\'t solve domestic policy problems. In fact, billions spent on foreign policy probably actually exacerbate domestic policy problems by leaving fewer resources available to be used.\r\n\r\nThat isn\'t always easy to see, and it isn\'t even always true.\r\n\r\nIn the early \'70s, people asked why we were spending money to go to the Moon when there were so many slums that needed to be cleaned up.\r\n\r\nSo we stopped going to the Moon, but we didn\'t clean up the slums either.\r\n\r\nI didn\'t live here then, but I would be willing to bet plenty of folks here in Spalding County were proud we went to the Moon.\r\n\r\nIronically, there\'s a fairly large percentage of folks in this country now who don\'t believe we ever really went to the Moon. I don\'t know what that says, but it isn\'t good.\r\n\r\nI believe we did go. Heck, I met the second man ever to walk on the Moon, and I don\'t believe Buzz Aldrin would have lied to me.\r\n\r\nI believe we actually did kill bin Laden too.','Did getting Osama make anyone\'s life any better?','','publish','open','open','','did-getting-osama-make-anyones-life-any-better','','','2011-05-05 20:28:07','2011-05-06 03:28:07','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1095',0,'post','',2),(1096,1,'2011-05-05 18:41:31','2011-05-06 01:41:31','','20110429_2','Tornado damage','inherit','open','open','','20110429_2','','','2011-05-05 18:41:31','2011-05-06 01:41:31','',1095,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110429_2.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1097,1,'2011-05-05 20:27:56','2011-05-06 03:27:56','As I wrote the other day, the part of Georgia where I live was hit by the recent tornadoes, and as the news comes out, it was apparently hit worse than I had thought.\n\nAccording to a story in today\'s <em>Griffin Daily News</em>, a member of the Spalding County commissioners said that 381 homes were damaged, and nearly a third of them basically will be condemned. Nearly 20 businesses were destroyed and two people were killed.\n\nNow to some people, it will look like Spalding County got off easy, and I didn\'t even know the tornadoes had touched down here until a couple of days later. (That\'s what I get for not watching television anymore) But if I were one of the folks who lost their home ... or their business ... or their life ... I\'m sure I wouldn\'t have thought we got off easy.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1096\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Tornado damage\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110429_2.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1096\" title=\"20110429_2\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110429_2-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nBut I wonder how some of the folks who lost their homes last week felt about the news we had killed Osama bin Laden.\n\nTruthfully, they were probably pleased. Patriotism seems to ride a little closer to the surface here in the South, and that\'s not necessarily a bad thing. Taking pride in your country is usually a positive act; it helps make you feel good about yourself to be part of a bigger whole.\n\nStill, as bin Laden fades into history, someone who is without a home or a business still has to deal with that reality. What happened in Pakistan really has no tangible effect -- lasting or otherwise -- on their life.\n\nForeign policy successes don\'t solve domestic policy problems. In fact, billions spent on foreign policy probably actually exacerbate domestic policy problems by leaving fewer resources available to be used.\n\nThat isn\'t always easy to see, and it isn\'t even always true.\n\nIn the early \'70s, people asked why we were spending money to go to the Moon when there were so many slums that needed to be cleaned up.\n\nSo we stopped going to the Moon, but we didn\'t clean up the slums either.\n\nI didn\'t live here then, but I would be willing to bet plenty of folks here in Spalding County were proud we went to the Moon.\n\nIronically, there\'s a fairly large percentage of folks in this country now who don\'t believe we ever really went to the Moon. I don\'t know what that says, but it isn\'t good.\n\nI believe we did go. Heck, I met the second man ever to walk on the Moon, and I don\'t believe Buzz Aldrin would have lied to me.\n\nI believe we actually did kill bin Laden too.','Did getti','','inherit','open','open','','1095-revision','','','2011-05-05 20:27:56','2011-05-06 03:27:56','',1095,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1097',0,'revision','',0),(1099,1,'2011-05-07 18:17:51','2011-05-08 01:17:51','','singer','Alan Singer','inherit','open','open','','singer','','','2011-05-07 18:17:51','2011-05-08 01:17:51','',1098,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/singer.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1100,1,'2011-05-07 18:26:11','2011-05-08 01:26:11','','charnel','','inherit','open','open','','charnel','','','2011-05-07 18:26:11','2011-05-08 01:26:11','',1098,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/charnel.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1101,1,'2011-05-07 18:38:13','2011-05-08 01:38:13','When I was 13, I met two of the most interesting people I have ever known.\n\nWe had moved from Ohio to Virginia earlier in the year, and I had been lost for the better part of eight months when I started high school in September. It\'s difficult to comprehend now how much difference there was between Dayton, Ohio, and Fairfax, Virginia, in 1963. I don\'t think I had ever heard anyone refer to the Civil War as anything but a historical event in Ohio, yet in Virginia it somehow mattered to people that I had just moved there from the North.\n\nI don\'t think I\'d had that many friends in Ohio, but starting high school a year younger than most of the other kids in the class -- I had skipped second grade -- and then being what Dave Barry would call \"puberty challenged\" left me feeling totally out of place. Couple that with the fact that I was totally uncomfortable in my own skin and didn\'t know what to do about it, and I was not a happy kid.\n\nBut the first week of high school introduced me to two fascinating people in my Freshman English class. Tracy Antley was a military brat, a girl who was intelligent, outspoken and funny. She wound up being the first really good female friend I ever had, although to my shame, I struggled with the idea of a girl as a friend in those days. Alan Singer was every bit as interesting, but what impressed me so much about him was that he seemed even more puberty challenged than I was, and he was short and not at all athletic, yet was totally comfortable with what he was. Which was smart and funny, with a stinging wit.\n\nI seem to remember him being in our school only for one year, although it might have been two. His picture isn\'t in our sophomore yearbook. Tracy was with us for three years until her father was transferred after our 11th grade year.\n\nI lost touch with both of them. Ironically, I later learned that Tracy spent her first two years of college at Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va., a school I visited numerous times for dates during the three semesters I spent at the University of Virginia.\n\nOf Alan, I had no clue.\n\nBut as one turned to another, and barely pubescent kids became middle-aged and then older, I learned some things. It didn\'t surprise me much to learn that Tracy and Alan had married, and it surprised me just as little to learn that they had divorced. Tracy had become an attorney, and Alan a writer and an English professor. She lives on one coast, he on another. He has published numerous books, none of which have been touted by Oprah, made into a movie or found an audience among folks who read Tom Clancy, Stephen King or Nora Roberts.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1099\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"150\" caption=\"Alan Singer\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/singer.jpg\"><img class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-1099\" title=\"singer\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/singer-150x123.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"123\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nIt\'s a pretty safe bet that none of those things were goals of his when he wrote the books. Tracy told me that Alan was the only person she knew who completely understood \"Finnegan\'s Wake\" the first time he read it.\n\nI ordered two of his books through Amazon. \"The Charnel Imp\" has been sitting on my bookshelf for six or eight months. It\'s not a long book, but for some reason, I find myself intimidated by it. It contains possibly the most <em>dense</em> prose I have ever seen, and I don\'t mean dense in a negative way. Wading through the first page or two leaves me feeling like I\'m chopping my way through a rain forest with a dull machete.\n\nJust this week, I got his first novel, \"The Ox-Breadth,\" from a used bookseller in Philadelphia. I haven\'t read it yet, even though it\'s only 129 pages long. I did glance fondly at the dedication page.\n\n<em>For Tracy.</em>\n\n<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/charnel.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1100\" title=\"charnel\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/charnel-194x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"194\" height=\"300\" /></a>That made me smile.\n\nI found his e-mail address on his university\'s Website, and after I read the two books, I think I will send him an e-mail and tell him what I think of them.\n\nI\'m not sure he\'ll remember me. As I said, our lives touched for just one year. But I do think when you come across someone you knew as a child who accomplished something, you ought to let them know you noticed.\n\nI also promised Tracy I would let her know what I thought.\n\nSo I guess I had better put down Tom Clancy, Stephen King and Nora Roberts and tackle his books.\n\nActually, I don\'t think I\'ve ever read Nora Roberts.\n\nI\'m more of a Danielle Steel fan.','','','inherit','open','open','','1098-revision','','','2011-05-07 18:38:13','2011-05-08 01:38:13','',1098,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1101',0,'revision','',0),(1102,1,'2011-05-07 18:39:13','2011-05-08 01:39:13','When I was 13, I met two of the most interesting people I have ever known.\n\nWe had moved from Ohio to Virginia earlier in the year, and I had been lost for the better part of eight months when I started high school in September. It\'s difficult to comprehend now how much difference there was between Dayton, Ohio, and Fairfax, Virginia, in 1963. I don\'t think I had ever heard anyone refer to the Civil War as anything but a historical event in Ohio, yet in Virginia it somehow mattered to people that I had just moved there from the North.\n\nI don\'t think I\'d had that many friends in Ohio, but starting high school a year younger than most of the other kids in the class -- I had skipped second grade -- and then being what Dave Barry would call \"puberty challenged\" left me feeling totally out of place. Couple that with the fact that I was totally uncomfortable in my own skin and didn\'t know what to do about it, and I was not a happy kid.\n\nBut the first week of high school introduced me to two fascinating people in my Freshman English class. Tracy Antley was a military brat, a girl who was intelligent, outspoken and funny. She wound up being the first really good female friend I ever had, although to my shame, I struggled with the idea of a girl as a friend in those days. Alan Singer was every bit as interesting, but what impressed me so much about him was that he seemed even more puberty challenged than I was, and he was short and not at all athletic, yet was totally comfortable with what he was. Which was smart and funny, with a stinging wit.\n\nI seem to remember him being in our school only for one year, although it might have been two. His picture isn\'t in our sophomore yearbook. Tracy was with us for three years until her father was transferred after our 11th grade year.\n\nI lost touch with both of them. Ironically, I later learned that Tracy spent her first two years of college at Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va., a school I visited numerous times for dates during the three semesters I spent at the University of Virginia.\n\nOf Alan, I had no clue.\n\nBut as one turned to another, and barely pubescent kids became middle-aged and then older, I learned some things. It didn\'t surprise me much to learn that Tracy and Alan had married, and it surprised me just as little to learn that they had divorced. Tracy had become an attorney, and Alan a writer and an English professor. She lives on one coast, he on another. He has published numerous books, none of which have been touted by Oprah, made into a movie or found an audience among folks who read Tom Clancy, Stephen King or Nora Roberts.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1099\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"150\" caption=\"Alan Singer\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/singer.jpg\"><img class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-1099\" title=\"singer\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/singer-150x123.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"123\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nIt\'s a pretty safe bet that none of those things were goals of his when he wrote the books. Tracy told me that Alan was the only person she knew who completely understood \"Finnegan\'s Wake\" the first time he read it.\n\nI ordered two of his books through Amazon. \"The Charnel Imp\" has been sitting on my bookshelf for six or eight months. It\'s not a long book, but for some reason, I find myself intimidated by it. It contains possibly the most <em>dense</em> prose I have ever seen, and I don\'t mean dense in a negative way. Wading through the first page or two leaves me feeling like I\'m chopping my way through a rain forest with a dull machete.\n\nJust this week, I got his first novel, \"The Ox-Breadth,\" from a used bookseller in Philadelphia. I haven\'t read it yet, even though it\'s only 129 pages long. I did glance fondly at the dedication page.\n\n<em>For Tracy.</em>\n\n<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/charnel.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1100\" title=\"charnel\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/charnel-194x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"194\" height=\"300\" /></a>That made me smile.\n\nI found his e-mail address on his university\'s Website, and after I read the two books, I think I will send him an e-mail and tell him what I think of them.\n\nI\'m not sure he\'ll remember me. As I said, our lives touched for just one year. But I do think when you come across someone you knew as a child who accomplished something, you ought to let them know you noticed.\n\nI also promised Tracy I would let her know what I thought.\n\nSo I guess I had better put down Tom Clancy, Stephen King and Nora Roberts and tackle his books.\n\nActually, I don\'t think I\'ve ever read Nora Roberts.\n\nI\'m more of a Danielle Steel fan.','Two old friends who have had pretty good lives','','inherit','open','open','','1098-autosave','','','2011-05-07 18:39:13','2011-05-08 01:39:13','',1098,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1102',0,'revision','',0),(1131,1,'2011-05-15 18:54:44','2011-05-16 01:54:44','I don\'t know how to explain it, but there is something so <em>genuine</em> about living in Georgia.\r\n\r\nI\'ve written before about how impressed Nicole was with the people when we were here twice in March 2010 buying our house, but it seems like every week I see some little thing that makes me realize this is a pretty great place to live.\r\n\r\nI know I have already mentioned that Griffin -- a city of only about 20,000 people -- has more than 50 different Baptist churches, and I know I\'ve posted pictures of some of the signs I see advertising services. One in particular seems to be pretty good at coming up with different aphorisms.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1132\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Funny church\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110515_18.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1132\" title=\"20110515_18\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110515_18-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nSince I\'m Roman Catholic, I doubt I\'ll ever go to a service at Vineyard Baptist Church, but I would like those folks to know they have brightened my day a few times with their sense of humor.\r\n\r\nWe\'ve been barreling along toward summer recently, with temperatures in the 80s and fairly high humidity as well, but today was a big surprise. It was supposed to rain, and it might yet, but the temperature was only in the mid 60s and it was cloudy with something of a cold wind.\r\n\r\nI thought it might be a good day to play 18 holes, and since I didn\'t want to be caught a long way out on the course walking, I took a cart today. My game has slipped recently, and I\'m not sure why. After playing 21 times in 31 days, I\'ve only been out three days of the last seven. I shot a 44 on Tuesday and a 43 on Friday, and I didn\'t start out well today either.\r\n\r\nAt the turn, I had a 43 -- three pars and one double bogey.\r\n\r\nFor some reason, I\'m getting a lot less distance off the tee lately, and I\'m reaching far fewer greens in regulation. Where I was driving 220-230 yards off the tee, I seem to be down to 170-180 the last few times out. And where I was reaching the greens with my approach shots, I seem to be either coming up short or landing off to one side or another.\r\n\r\nBut what I now consider bad scores -- 43 or 44 for nine holes -- are scores that once would have been very good for me, so I don\'t want to get <em>too</em> discouraged.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1133\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Cloudy day\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110515_4.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1133\" title=\"20110515_4\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110515_4-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nThe course wasn\'t real crowded, and most of the people I came across were Georgia Nice. We chatted, and since I was playing alone, they let me play through.\r\n\r\nAfter I bogeyed the 10th hole, I started getting it together. A couple of pars and a couple more bogeys left me 10 over after 14 holes, and then I went for the big finish. I did something I\'ve never done before. I parred the last four holes, including rolling in a 23-foot putt on the 17th hole.\r\n\r\nI shot 39 on the back nine and finished with an 82.\r\n\r\nI didn\'t realize it until this minute, because I\'ve had at least half a dozen rounds better than that, but 82 is still better than I had ever shot for 18 holes until about two months ago.\r\n\r\nI still miss playing with Chuck and Mickey, my two golfing partners for the last 15 years or so in California. Playing alone was strange at first, but as I said, I\'ve gotten used to it and I can actually complete most of my swings now without pulling the headphone wires out of my iPod.\r\n\r\nI really do love it here, and so does Nicole. Because she is working so hard on her research, we haven\'t gotten involved in any activities in the community yet. So it isn\'t at all surprising for us to go through the day without talking to anyone except each other.\r\n\r\nThat\'s OK for now.\r\n\r\nIn fact, it\'s better than OK.\r\n\r\nWe both love it here, and that\'s wonderful.','We\'re genuinely enjoying ourselves in Georgia','','publish','open','open','','were-genuinely-enjoying-ourselves-in-georgia','','','2011-05-15 18:54:44','2011-05-16 01:54:44','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1131',0,'post','',0),(1104,1,'2011-05-08 08:42:58','2011-05-08 15:42:58','I am really proud of my daughter.\r\n\r\nI have written that before, but for different reasons. Pauline has a wonderful career and a great marriage, she\'s a good mother to Maddie and she\'s got another one on the way. She seems to balance everything in her life really well, which is impressive.\r\n\r\nBut what makes me really proud is that this morning, when I signed onto Facebook, I found a comment from her:\r\n\r\n<em>\"You wrote a really stupid, uneducated, insulting blog.\"</em>\r\n\r\nSay what?\r\n\r\nThe thing is, I did, but she left out one word. Sloppy. I looked back and read the particular blog she disliked so much, and I realized that I had said something I didn\'t intend to say at all. I was writing about the killing of Osama bin Laden and the aftermath of the tornadoes that hit the South. This is what I said:\r\n\r\n<em>\"What happened in Pakistan really has no tangible effect — lasting or otherwise — on their life. </em>\r\n\r\n<em>\"Foreign policy successes don’t solve domestic policy problems. In  fact, billions spent on foreign policy probably actually exacerbate  domestic policy problems by leaving fewer resources available to be  used.\"</em>\r\n\r\nForeign policy? But that wasn\'t what I meant. I am not an isolationist, and I certainly believe in America engaging with the rest of the world.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1105\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Military, not foreign policy\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/104414_f520.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1105\" title=\"104414_f520\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/104414_f520-300x224.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nI meant \"military.\" Killing bin Laden had nothing to do with foreign policy. It had everything to do with us flexing our military muscles and telling the rest of the world that you don\'t mess with the big dog.\r\n\r\nPrecisely the kind of thing I\'ve always hated.\r\n\r\nBut because I wrote imprecisely, because something may have been on my mind that caused me to say it wrong, because of all that or maybe just because I\'m getting old, I said something stupid. Of course Pauline jumped to a conclusion from that and thought I was attacking <em>foreign aid</em>. I certainly wasn\'t, and I have always understood that we spend less on foreign aid that most critics think.\r\n\r\nWhen I spoke about exacerbating problems, I was referring to the fact that building one less stealth bomber could probably fund some worthwhile domestic program for a year. I\'m not an isolationist and never have been.\r\n\r\nSo, <em>mea culpa. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa</em>.\r\n\r\nAnd Pauline, thanks for holding my feet to the fire.\r\n\r\nThanks for calling me a dumbass.\r\n\r\nI hope this clears that up.','When the stupid fits, it\'s time to own up to it','','publish','open','open','','when-the-stupid-fits-its-time-to-own-up-to-it','','','2011-05-08 08:42:58','2011-05-08 15:42:58','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1104',0,'post','',2),(1105,1,'2011-05-08 08:41:33','2011-05-08 15:41:33','','104414_f520','Military, not foreign policy','inherit','open','open','','104414_f520','','','2011-05-08 08:41:33','2011-05-08 15:41:33','',1104,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/104414_f520.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1106,1,'2011-05-08 08:42:06','2011-05-08 15:42:06','I am really proud of my daughter.\n\nI have written that before, but for different reasons. Pauline has a wonderful career and a great marriage, she\'s a good mother to Maddie and she\'s got another one on the way. She seems to balance everything in her life really well, which is impressive.\n\nBut what makes me really proud is that this morning, when I signed onto Facebook, I found a comment from her:\n\n<em>\"You wrote a really stupid, uneducated, insulting blog.\"</em>\n\nSay what?\n\nThe thing is, I did, but she left out one word. Sloppy. I looked back and read the particular blog she disliked so much, and I realized that I had said something I didn\'t intend to say at all. I was writing about the killing of Osama bin Laden and the aftermath of the tornadoes that hit the South. This is what I said:\n\n<em>\"What happened in Pakistan really has no tangible effect — lasting or otherwise — on their life. </em>\n\n<em>\"Foreign policy successes don’t solve domestic policy problems. In  fact, billions spent on foreign policy probably actually exacerbate  domestic policy problems by leaving fewer resources available to be  used.\"</em>\n\nForeign policy? But that wasn\'t what I meant. I am not an isolationist, and I certainly believe in America engaging with the rest of the world.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1105\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Military, not foreign policy\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/104414_f520.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1105\" title=\"104414_f520\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/104414_f520-300x224.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nI meant \"military.\" Killing bin Laden had nothing to do with foreign policy. It had everything to do with us flexing our military muscles and telling the rest of the world that you don\'t mess with the big dog.\n\nPrecisely the kind of thing I\'ve always hated.\n\nBut because I wrote imprecisely, because something may have been on my mind that caused me to say it wrong, because of all that or maybe just because I\'m getting old, I said something stupid. Of course Pauline jumped to a conclusion from that and thought I was attacking <em>foreign aid</em>. I certainly wasn\'t, and I have always understood that we spend less on foreign aid that most critics think.\n\nWhen I spoke about exacerbating problems, I was referring to the fact that building one less stealth bomber could probably fund some worthwhile domestic program for a year. I\'m not an isolationist and never have been.\n\nSo, <em>mea culpa. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa</em>.\n\nAnd Pauline, thanks for holding my feet to the fire.\n\nThanks for calling me a dumbass.\n\nI hope this clears that up.','','','inherit','open','open','','1104-revision','','','2011-05-08 08:42:06','2011-05-08 15:42:06','',1104,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1106',0,'revision','',0),(1107,1,'2011-05-08 17:18:11','2011-05-09 00:18:11','When I walked off the golf course today, I felt like I was about 14 years old.\r\n\r\nNot in a good way, either. I did something really goofy on the 18th hole, and it was pretty embarrassing to have to go into the pro shop and admit it.\r\n\r\nI hit a mediocre tee shot on the 18th hole, and even though I fully intended to play it, I did what I often do when I\'m playing alone and there\'s no one behind me. I hit a few more balls to try and get the shot right. Two of the balls went into some tall grass off the fairway, and I decided to go in after them -- in my golf cart.\r\n\r\nUh huh. I have no idea why the middle part of the grass was muddy -- it has been days since we had any rain -- but whatever the reason, I reached a point where the cart wouldn\'t go forward and it wouldn\'t go back. It was stuck in the mud, and when I decided to abandon the cart and carry my bag the rest of the way, I stepped into some fairly deep mud myself.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1108\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"My right foot\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110508_43.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1108\" title=\"20110508_43\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110508_43-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nAs you can see from the accompanying photo, at one point my entire right shoe was submerged in mud. The left foot wasn\'t quite as bad, but I still felt like sort of an idiot. Couple that with the fact that my lovely daughter had called me a dumbass earlier in the day (see previous post) and I was definitely not enjoying myself on Mother\'s Day.\r\n\r\nThey actually thanked me when I came in and told them about the stuck cart. Apparently it isn\'t all that uncommon for people to get their cart stuck somewhere and just abandon it without letting anyone know.\r\n\r\nThe irony of it was that when I walked in my muddy shoes to where my first shot had landed, I saw that I was about 130 yards from the pin, although a tight group of about a dozen trees was directly in my way.\r\n\r\nI figured what the heck and hit a seven-wood directly at the trees. Amazingly -- they<em> do</em> say trees are 90 percent air -- the ball passed through unmolested, hit on the green and scooted through, just off at the back. I chipped to within five feet of the hole and then made the putt for par, finishing an amazing round.\r\n\r\nI had gotten off to a slow start, bogeying the first four holes. I parred four of the next five to finish the front nine with a 41, although I bogeyed the seventh hole, one of my more consistent par holes.\r\n\r\nI started the back nine with two bogeys, so I was seven over after 11 holes. My only chance at breaking 80 would be to par the last seven holes, which I have never done. Not even close.\r\n\r\nI parred the par-five 12th, the par-four 13th and the par-five 14th, but I bogeyed the easy 15th hole when I three-putted. That meant that even if I parred the last three -- three of the toughest holes on the course for me -- the best I could do was an 80.\r\n\r\nI parred 16 thanks to a terrific chip, and I put my second shot on the par-four 17th 15 feet from the hole from 160 yards out. Then I stunned myself -- I have been putting horribly lately -- by rolling in a 15-footer for my first birdie ever on that hole.\r\n\r\nWhen I parred 18, I had shot 38 on the back nine and walked away in my squishy, muddy shoes with a 79.\r\n\r\nSo I felt stupid, but happy.\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">***</p>\r\n<em>Just a note at the end. It\'s the third time in the last month that I\'ve broken 80, and I\'m sure a lot of it is that I\'m improving because I\'m playing a lot of golf. I added it up, and I believe I have played golf 21 times in the last 31 days, including seven times in the last eight days.</em>\r\n\r\n<em>In other words, I have played more golf in the last month that I usually played in a year when I was living in California.</em>\r\n\r\n<em>\r\n</em>','Golf leaves me feeling goofy, squishy and happy','','publish','open','open','','golf-leaves-me-feeling-goofy-squishy-and-happy','','','2011-05-08 17:18:11','2011-05-09 00:18:11','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1107',0,'post','',1),(1108,1,'2011-05-08 16:45:05','2011-05-08 23:45:05','','20110508_43','My right foot','inherit','open','open','','20110508_43','','','2011-05-08 16:45:05','2011-05-08 23:45:05','',1107,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110508_43.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1109,1,'2011-05-08 17:17:47','2011-05-09 00:17:47','When I walked off the golf course today, I felt like I was about 14 years old.\n\nNot in a good way, either. I did something really goofy on the 18th hole, and it was pretty embarrassing to have to go into the pro shop and admit it.\n\nI hit a mediocre tee shot on the 18th hole, and even though I fully intended to play it, I did what I often do when I\'m playing alone and there\'s no one behind me. I hit a few more balls to try and get the shot right. Two of the balls went into some tall grass off the fairway, and I decided to go in after them -- in my golf cart.\n\nUh huh. I have no idea why the middle part of the grass was muddy -- it has been days since we had any rain -- but whatever the reason, I reached a point where the cart wouldn\'t go forward and it wouldn\'t go back. It was stuck in the mud, and when I decided to abandon the cart and carry my bag the rest of the way, I stepped into some fairly deep mud myself.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1108\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"My right foot\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110508_43.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1108\" title=\"20110508_43\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110508_43-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nAs you can see from the accompanying photo, at one point my entire right shoe was submerged in mud. The left foot wasn\'t quite as bad, but I still felt like sort of an idiot. Couple that with the fact that my lovely daughter had called me a dumbass earlier in the day (see previous post) and I was definitely not enjoying myself on Mother\'s Day.\n\nThey actually thanked me when I came in and told them about the stuck cart. Apparently it isn\'t all that uncommon for people to get their cart stuck somewhere and just abandon it without letting anyone know.\n\nThe irony of it was that when I walked in my muddy shoes to where my first shot had landed, I saw that I was about 130 yards from the pin, although a tight group of about a dozen trees was directly in my way.\n\nI figured what the heck and hit a seven-wood directly at the trees. Amazingly -- they<em> do</em> say trees are 90 percent air -- the ball passed through unmolested, hit on the green and scooted through, just off at the back. I chipped to within five feet of the hole and then made the putt for par, finishing an amazing round.\n\nI had gotten off to a slow start, bogeying the first four holes. I parred four of the next five to finish the front nine with a 41, although I bogeyed the seventh hole, one of my more consistent par holes.\n\nI started the back nine with two bogeys, so I was seven over after 11 holes. My only chance at breaking 80 would be to par the last seven holes, which I have never done. Not even close.\n\nI parred the par-five 12th, the par-four 13th and the par-five 14th, but I bogeyed the easy 15th hole when I three-putted. That meant that even if I parred the last three -- three of the toughest holes on the course for me -- the best I could do was an 80.\n\nI parred 16 thanks to a terrific chip, and I put my second shot on the par-four 17th 15 feet from the hole from 160 yards out. Then I stunned myself -- I have been putting horribly lately -- by rolling in a 15-footer for my first birdie ever on that hole.\n\nWhen I parred 18, I had shot 38 on the back nine and walked away in my squishy, muddy shoes with a 79.\n\nSo I felt stupid, but happy.\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">***</p>\n<em>Just a note at the end. It\'s the third time in the last month that I\'ve broken 80, and I\'m sure a lot of it is that I\'m improving because I\'m playing a lot of golf. I added it up, and I believe I have played golf 21 times in the last 31 days, including seven times in the last eight days.</em>\n\n<em>In other words, I have played more golf in the last month that I usually played in a year when I was living in California.</em>\n\n<em>\n</em>','','','inherit','open','open','','1107-revision','','','2011-05-08 17:17:47','2011-05-09 00:17:47','',1107,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1109',0,'revision','',0),(1110,1,'2011-05-10 19:48:39','2011-05-11 02:48:39','One thing that has become popular in recent years is creating something called a \"bucket list.\"\r\n\r\nI know my daughter has one, and I know she has a lot of things she hopes to do and accomplish in her life. Of course, Pauline is young and still has a lot of time to accomplish her goals.\r\n\r\nI don\'t have as much time as she does, and while there are still many things I hope to do, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of the things I have already done, things that might wind up on someone\'s \"bucket list.\"\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1111\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Windows on the World\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Windows_on_the_world_window_seats.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1111\" title=\"Windows_on_the_world_window_seats\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Windows_on_the_world_window_seats-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\n-- I have been up in the tallest building in the world. Twice. Two different buildings. The Empire State Building in New York in 1957 and the Windows on the World restaurant in the Twin Towers in New York in 1979. Sadly, that\'s a place no one will ever visit again.\r\n\r\nAnyone who knows me knows that heights kind of creep me out, so I\'m not ashamed to say we didn\'t have window seats when we went there.\r\n\r\n-- I have walked on the Great Wall of China. It wasn\'t a long walk, at least partly because it was a rainy day, but it was still impressive to realize I was standing on one of the only man-made creations that can be seen from outer space.\r\n\r\n-- I have been to three of the seven continents, and I don\'t know how likely I am to visit too many more since travel isn\'t the priority for me that it was for my parents. I would like to see Australia, but I honestly don\'t know if I\'ll make it to South America, Africa or Antarctica. In fact, I have only been south of the Equator once in my life, in 1999 when Nicole and I visited Tahiti and Moorea.\r\n\r\nVisiting Moorea is to me a real highlight of my life\'s travels. Cook\'s Bay in Moorea, named after Captain Cook, is considered by some people the single most beautiful place in the world. From my limited experience, I can\'t disagree.\r\n\r\n-- I have attended political conventions of both parties, Democrats in 1980 and 2000, Republicans in 1996, although almost all the reporting I did came outside the convention halls.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1112\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Cook&#39;s Bay, Moorea\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/1866662-Cooks_Bay-Moorea.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1112\" title=\"1866662-Cooks_Bay-Moorea\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/1866662-Cooks_Bay-Moorea-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\n-- I have attended a World Series game (1985), a Super Bowl (1993), two Final Fours (1985-86), two baseball all-star games (1969, 1992) and a game in the NBA Finals (1975). I have watched an amazing number of top-flight athletes play, and I have interviewed more of them than I care to admit.\r\n\r\n-- I have made appearances on radio and television and in fact was profiled for a story on television in Southern California.\r\n\r\n-- In 2001 my face was on a billboard, a nice followup to January 1987 when my picture appeared in <em>Sports Illustrated </em>in a photograph with John Elway.\r\n\r\n-- I have seen Broadway shows, plays in the West End of London, film premieres and the taping of at least one television show. When it comes to theater, I saw \"A Chorus Line\" in New York, London, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, although my favorite play among all the ones I\'ve seen is \"Miss Saigon.\"\r\n\r\n-- I have traveled to every state in the union except Alaska, North Dakota, Mississippi and Arkansas. And someday I hope to get to the remaining ones, except maybe North Dakota. The most amazing sights I have seen in my travels are an erupting volcano on the big island of Hawaii and Yosemite National Park. I\'ve been to Tucson and Tucumcari, to Tehachapi and Tonopah, for those who remember the song.\r\n\r\n-- I\'ve seen an amazing number of wonderful concerts, from the Lovin\' Spoonful in 1967 (for a $3 ticket) to Bob Dylan and the Band, the Rolling Stones (twice), the Beach Boys (four times), the Eagles, Crosby Stills Nash &amp; Young, Loggins &amp; Messina, Billy Joel and a host of others, including one Beatle (sadly, it was Ringo).\r\n\r\n-- I\'ve met and interviewed some wonderful people who are no longer with us, among others Catfish Hunter, Peter Ustinov and my good friend Walter Masterson.\r\n\r\n-- I stood in front of an audience once and did six minutes of stand-up comedy. I could have been better, but I got some laughs and didn\'t bomb.\r\n\r\n-- I have been blessed to have some truly wonderful friendships, including several of the type that would qualify as lifelong. Mick Curran in California and Bill Madden in Florida have been my friends for 46 and 38 years, respectively, and I hope to know them till I die.\r\n\r\n-- I was blessed to have good parents who loved me, and three sisters and a brother who somehow tolerate me despite my many flaws as an older brother when they were growing up.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1120\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"225\" caption=\"An old picture, but I love it.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/DSCF3356.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1120\" title=\"DSCF3356\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/DSCF3356-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\n-- I have a wonderful grandchild who makes me smile every time I think about her, and one of the happiest days of my life was holding her on my chest as she slept when she was just 10 days old. Maddie will be 3 this September, and God willing, she will have a little brother or sister come November.\r\n\r\n-- I have two amazing children who have never given me any reason to feel anything but loving toward them and proud of them. Being a part of raising Pauline and Virgile ranks in my mind as the greatest accomplishment of my life.\r\n\r\n-- And most of all, I have a wife who entered my life when I was 42 and changed it from mundane to spectacular. There truly are no words to do justice to Nicole. All I can say without sounding trite or cliched is that meeting her was the best thing that ever happened to me.\r\n\r\nAnyway, that\'s pretty much my bucket list of accomplishments. I left out some things that mattered a lot to me once, like awards I won or the five years I spent writing a newspaper column, but don\'t matter much anymore.\r\n\r\nI still hope to accomplish more. I know I\'ve got at least a publishable book or two in me. It\'s just a case of making myself write them.\r\n\r\nI left out breaking 80 on the golf course. I\'ve written enough about that lately. I guess my only real goal now for golf is for once in my life, maybe to shoot par.\r\n\r\nBut that stuff doesn\'t really matter.\r\n\r\nAll that really matters in our lives is what we do to make the lives of the people we love better.\r\n\r\nI think I can still accomplish a lot more in that area in whatever time I have left.','On the \'bucket list,\' love is what matters most','','publish','open','open','','on-the-bucket-list-love-is-what-matters-most','','','2011-05-10 19:48:39','2011-05-11 02:48:39','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1110',0,'post','',0),(1111,1,'2011-05-08 19:57:52','2011-05-09 02:57:52','','Windows_on_the_world_window_seats','Windows on the World','inherit','open','open','','windows_on_the_world_window_seats','','','2011-05-08 19:57:52','2011-05-09 02:57:52','',1110,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Windows_on_the_world_window_seats.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1112,1,'2011-05-08 20:06:09','2011-05-09 03:06:09','','1866662-Cooks_Bay-Moorea','Cook\'s Bay, Moorea','inherit','open','open','','1866662-cooks_bay-moorea','','','2011-05-08 20:06:09','2011-05-09 03:06:09','',1110,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/1866662-Cooks_Bay-Moorea.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1113,1,'2011-05-08 20:06:33','2011-05-09 03:06:33','One thing that has become popular in recent years is creating something called a \"bucket list.\"\n\nI know my daughter has one, and I know she has a lot of things she hopes to do and accomplish in her life. Of course, Pauline is young and still has a lot of time to accomplish her goals.\n\nI don\'t have as much time as she does, and while there are still many things I hope to do, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of the things I have already done, things that might wind up on someone\'s \"bucket list.\"\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1111\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Windows on the World\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Windows_on_the_world_window_seats.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1111\" title=\"Windows_on_the_world_window_seats\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Windows_on_the_world_window_seats-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\n-- I have been up in the tallest building in the world. Twice. Two different buildings. The Empire State Building in New York in 1957 and the Windows on the World restaurant in the Twin Towers in New York in 1979. Sadly, that\'s a place no one will ever visit again.\n\nAnyone who knows me knows that heights kind of creep me out, so I\'m not ashamed to say we didn\'t have window seats when we went there.\n\n-- I have walked on the Great Wall of China. It wasn\'t a long walk, at least partly because it was a rainy day, but it was still impressive to realize I was standing on one of the only man-made creations that can be seen from outer space.\n\n-- I have only been to three of the seven continents, and I don\'t know how likely I am to visit too many more since travel isn\'t the priority for me that it was for my parents. I would like to see Australia, but I honestly don\'t know if I\'ll make it to South America, Africa or Antarctica. In fact, I have only been south of the Equator once in my life, in 1999 when Nicole and I visited Tahiti and Moorea.\n\nVisiting Moorea is to me a real highlight of my life\'s travels. Cook\'s Bay in Moorea, named after Captain Cook, is considered by some people the single most beautiful place in the world. From my limited experience, I can\'t disagree.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1112\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Cook&#39;s Bay, Moorea\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/1866662-Cooks_Bay-Moorea.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1112\" title=\"1866662-Cooks_Bay-Moorea\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/1866662-Cooks_Bay-Moorea-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>[/caption]','','','inherit','open','open','','1110-revision','','','2011-05-08 20:06:33','2011-05-09 03:06:33','',1110,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1113',0,'revision','',0),(1114,1,'2011-05-09 22:00:53','2011-05-10 05:00:53','One thing that has become popular in recent years is creating something called a \"bucket list.\"\n\nI know my daughter has one, and I know she has a lot of things she hopes to do and accomplish in her life. Of course, Pauline is young and still has a lot of time to accomplish her goals.\n\nI don\'t have as much time as she does, and while there are still many things I hope to do, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of the things I have already done, things that might wind up on someone\'s \"bucket list.\"\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1111\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Windows on the World\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Windows_on_the_world_window_seats.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1111\" title=\"Windows_on_the_world_window_seats\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Windows_on_the_world_window_seats-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\n-- I have been up in the tallest building in the world. Twice. Two different buildings. The Empire State Building in New York in 1957 and the Windows on the World restaurant in the Twin Towers in New York in 1979. Sadly, that\'s a place no one will ever visit again.\n\nAnyone who knows me knows that heights kind of creep me out, so I\'m not ashamed to say we didn\'t have window seats when we went there.\n\n-- I have walked on the Great Wall of China. It wasn\'t a long walk, at least partly because it was a rainy day, but it was still impressive to realize I was standing on one of the only man-made creations that can be seen from outer space.\n\n-- I have only been to three of the seven continents, and I don\'t know how likely I am to visit too many more since travel isn\'t the priority for me that it was for my parents. I would like to see Australia, but I honestly don\'t know if I\'ll make it to South America, Africa or Antarctica. In fact, I have only been south of the Equator once in my life, in 1999 when Nicole and I visited Tahiti and Moorea.\n\nVisiting Moorea is to me a real highlight of my life\'s travels. Cook\'s Bay in Moorea, named after Captain Cook, is considered by some people the single most beautiful place in the world. From my limited experience, I can\'t disagree.\n\n-- I have attended political conventions of both parties, Democrats in 1980 and 2000, Republicans in 1996, although almost all the reporting I did came outside the convention halls.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1112\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Cook&#39;s Bay, Moorea\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/1866662-Cooks_Bay-Moorea.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1112\" title=\"1866662-Cooks_Bay-Moorea\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/1866662-Cooks_Bay-Moorea-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>[/caption]\n\n-- I have attended a World Series game, a Super Bowl, two Final Fours, two baseball all-star games and a game in the NBA Finals. I have watched an amazing number of top-flight athletes play, and I have interviewed more of them than I care to admit.\n\n-- I have made appearances on radio and television and in fact was profiled for a story on television in Southern California.\n\n-- In January','','','inherit','open','open','','1110-revision-2','','','2011-05-09 22:00:53','2011-05-10 05:00:53','',1110,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1114',0,'revision','',0),(1115,1,'2011-05-09 23:47:28','2011-05-10 06:47:28','One thing that has become popular in recent years is creating something called a \"bucket list.\"\n\nI know my daughter has one, and I know she has a lot of things she hopes to do and accomplish in her life. Of course, Pauline is young and still has a lot of time to accomplish her goals.\n\nI don\'t have as much time as she does, and while there are still many things I hope to do, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of the things I have already done, things that might wind up on someone\'s \"bucket list.\"\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1111\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Windows on the World\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Windows_on_the_world_window_seats.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1111\" title=\"Windows_on_the_world_window_seats\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Windows_on_the_world_window_seats-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\n-- I have been up in the tallest building in the world. Twice. Two different buildings. The Empire State Building in New York in 1957 and the Windows on the World restaurant in the Twin Towers in New York in 1979. Sadly, that\'s a place no one will ever visit again.\n\nAnyone who knows me knows that heights kind of creep me out, so I\'m not ashamed to say we didn\'t have window seats when we went there.\n\n-- I have walked on the Great Wall of China. It wasn\'t a long walk, at least partly because it was a rainy day, but it was still impressive to realize I was standing on one of the only man-made creations that can be seen from outer space.\n\n-- I have only been to three of the seven continents, and I don\'t know how likely I am to visit too many more since travel isn\'t the priority for me that it was for my parents. I would like to see Australia, but I honestly don\'t know if I\'ll make it to South America, Africa or Antarctica. In fact, I have only been south of the Equator once in my life, in 1999 when Nicole and I visited Tahiti and Moorea.\n\nVisiting Moorea is to me a real highlight of my life\'s travels. Cook\'s Bay in Moorea, named after Captain Cook, is considered by some people the single most beautiful place in the world. From my limited experience, I can\'t disagree.\n\n-- I have attended political conventions of both parties, Democrats in 1980 and 2000, Republicans in 1996, although almost all the reporting I did came outside the convention halls.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1112\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Cook&#39;s Bay, Moorea\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/1866662-Cooks_Bay-Moorea.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1112\" title=\"1866662-Cooks_Bay-Moorea\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/1866662-Cooks_Bay-Moorea-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>[/caption]\n\n-- I have attended a World Series game, a Super Bowl, two Final Fours, two baseball all-star games and a game in the NBA Finals. I have watched an amazing number of top-flight athletes play, and I have interviewed more of them than I care to admit.\n\n-- I have made appearances on radio and television and in fact was profiled for a story on television in Southern California.\n\n-- In 2001 my face was on a billboard, a nice followup to January 1987 when my picture appeared in <em>Sports Illustrated</em>.\n\n-- I have seen Broadway shows, plays in the West End of London, film premieres and the taping of at least one television show.\n\n-- I have traveled to every state in the union except Alaska, North Dakota, Mississippi and Arkansas.','','','inherit','open','open','','1110-revision-3','','','2011-05-09 23:47:28','2011-05-10 06:47:28','',1110,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1115',0,'revision','',0),(1116,1,'2011-05-10 18:07:17','2011-05-11 01:07:17','Progress means more than just moving forward.\r\n\r\nIn 1944, when America was in the middle of its biggest ever collective action -- fighting World War II on two different fronts -- President Franklin D. Roosevelt used his State of the Union address to talk about what the United States should be like after the war.\r\n\r\n<em> </em>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1117\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"259\" caption=\"A second Bill of Rights\"]<em><em><a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/images.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1117\" title=\"images\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/images.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"259\" height=\"195\" /></a></em></em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n<em>\"This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength,  under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them  the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury,  freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to  life and liberty. As our nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our  industrial economy expanded—these political rights proved inadequate to  assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.</em>\r\n\r\n<em>\"We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence.  \'Necessitous men are not free men\' People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made. In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all — regardless of station, race, or creed.</em>\r\n\r\n<em>\"Among these are:</em>\r\n\r\n<em>\"The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;</em>\r\n\r\n<em>\"The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;</em>\r\n\r\n<em>\"The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;</em>\r\n\r\n<em>\"The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;</em>\r\n\r\n<em>\"The right of every family to a decent home;</em>\r\n\r\n<em>\"The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;</em>\r\n\r\n<em>\"The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;</em>\r\n\r\n<em>\"The right to a good education.</em>\r\n\r\n<em>\"All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of  these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.</em>\r\n\r\n<em>\"America\'s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for all our citizens.</em>\r\n\r\n<em>\"For unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace in the world.\"</em>\r\n\r\nMaybe if he hadn\'t died before he had a chance to implement some of these things, this would be a very different country right now. Imagine an America in which the government helped people who really need help, not one where low taxes and government subsidies go to people who are already rich and powerful.\r\n\r\nIt\'s a pretty good bet FDR wouldn\'t recognize today\'s Democrats. I\'m pretty sure the last vote I cast for an FDR Democrat for president came when I voted for Walter Mondale in 1984. Most of today\'s Democrats would be in about the same place Dewey/Eisenhower Republicans were in the \'40s and \'50s.\r\n\r\nI list my own political affiliation on Facebook as \"Social Democrat,\" which doesn\'t really exist in this country. My own politics are more European these days, I suppose. I believe that Americans (we can argue about non-citizens another time) should have certain basic rights, among them:\r\n\r\n-- The right to a job for those willing and able to work.\r\n\r\n-- The right to a roof over their heads.\r\n\r\n-- The right to adequate nutrition.\r\n\r\n-- The right to basic health care.\r\n\r\n-- The right to basic disability and retirement income.\r\n\r\nI\'m not talking about an equality of results, about <em>\"from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.\"</em> I really don\'t have a problem with people getting rich, but I think everyone -- no matter how poor they are -- ought to have a basic right to a certain level of living. Food, shelter, education, health care.\r\n\r\nIf you don\'t, think about this:\r\n\r\nWas it through something you did -- or earned -- that you were born into a family that could provide for you and give you a chance to get ahead. Was it through your basic goodness that you were born middle class ... or even white?\r\n\r\nThe children of rich people are always going to have it easy, but the children of poor people shouldn\'t have to work 10 times as hard just to be middle class.\r\n\r\nWhere do I stand?\r\n\r\nI stand with the greatest American of the last 100 years -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt.','America needs FDR\'s \'Second Bill of Rights\'','','publish','open','open','','america-needs-fdrs-secopnd-bill-of-rights','','','2011-05-10 18:07:49','2011-05-11 01:07:49','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1116',0,'post','',1),(1117,1,'2011-05-10 17:47:49','2011-05-11 00:47:49','','images','A second Bill of Rights','inherit','open','open','','images-5','','','2011-05-10 17:47:49','2011-05-11 00:47:49','',1116,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/images.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1118,1,'2011-05-10 18:07:13','2011-05-11 01:07:13','Progress means more than just moving forward.\n\nIn 1944, when America was in the middle of its biggest ever collective action -- fighting World War II on two different fronts -- President Franklin D. Roosevelt used his State of the Union address to talk about what the United States should be like after the war.\n\n<em>\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1117\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"259\" caption=\"A second Bill of Rights\"]<em><a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/images.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1117\" title=\"images\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/images.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"259\" height=\"195\" /></a></em>[/caption]\n\n\"This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength,  under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them  the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury,  freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to  life and liberty. As our nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our  industrial economy expanded—these political rights proved inadequate to  assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.</em>\n\n<em>\"We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence.  \'Necessitous men are not free men\' People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made. In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all — regardless of station, race, or creed.</em>\n\n<em>\"Among these are:</em>\n\n<em>\"The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;</em>\n\n<em>\"The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;</em>\n\n<em>\"The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;</em>\n\n<em>\"The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;</em>\n\n<em>\"The right of every family to a decent home;</em>\n\n<em>\"The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;</em>\n\n<em>\"The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;</em>\n\n<em>\"The right to a good education.</em>\n\n<em>\"All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of  these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.</em>\n\n<em>\"America\'s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for all our citizens.</em>\n\n<em>\"For unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace in the world.\"</em>\n\nMaybe if he hadn\'t died before he had a chance to implement some of these things, this would be a very different country right now. Imagine an America in which the government helped people who really need help, not one where low taxes and government subsidies go to people who are already rich and powerful.\n\nIt\'s a pretty good bet FDR wouldn\'t recognize today\'s Democrats. I\'m pretty sure the last vote I cast for an FDR Democrat for president came when I voted for Walter Mondale in 1984. Most of today\'s Democrats would be in about the same place Dewey/Eisenhower Republicans were in the \'40s and \'50s.\n\nI list my own political affiliation on Facebook as \"Social Democrat,\" which doesn\'t really exist in this country. My own politics are more European these days, I suppose. I believe that Americans (we can argue about non-citizens another time) should have certain basic rights, among them:\n\n-- The right to a job for those willing and able to work.\n\n-- The right to a roof over their heads.\n\n-- The right to adequate nutrition.\n\n-- The right to basic health care.\n\n-- The right to basic disability and retirement income.\n\nI\'m not talking about an equality of results, about <em>\"from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.\"</em> I really don\'t have a problem with people getting rich, but I think everyone -- no matter how poor they are -- ought to have a basic right to a certain level of living. Food, shelter, education, health care.\n\nIf you don\'t, think about this:\n\nWas it through something you did -- or earned -- that you were born into a family that could provide for you and give you a chance to get ahead. Was it through your basic goodness that you were born middle class ... or even white?\n\nThe children of rich people are always going to have it easy, but the children of poor people shouldn\'t have to work 10 times as hard just to be middle class.\n\nWhere do I stand?\n\nI stand with the greatest American of the last 100 years -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt.','America needs FDR\'s \'Secopnd Bill o','','inherit','open','open','','1116-revision','','','2011-05-10 18:07:13','2011-05-11 01:07:13','',1116,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1118',0,'revision','',0),(1119,1,'2011-05-10 18:07:17','2011-05-11 01:07:17','Progress means more than just moving forward.\r\n\r\nIn 1944, when America was in the middle of its biggest ever collective action -- fighting World War II on two different fronts -- President Franklin D. Roosevelt used his State of the Union address to talk about what the United States should be like after the war.\r\n\r\n<em>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1117\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"259\" caption=\"A second Bill of Rights\"]<em><a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/images.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1117\" title=\"images\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/images.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"259\" height=\"195\" /></a></em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n\"This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength,  under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them  the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury,  freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to  life and liberty. As our nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our  industrial economy expanded—these political rights proved inadequate to  assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.</em>\r\n\r\n<em>\"We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence.  \'Necessitous men are not free men\' People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made. In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all — regardless of station, race, or creed.</em>\r\n\r\n<em>\"Among these are:</em>\r\n\r\n<em>\"The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;</em>\r\n\r\n<em>\"The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;</em>\r\n\r\n<em>\"The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;</em>\r\n\r\n<em>\"The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;</em>\r\n\r\n<em>\"The right of every family to a decent home;</em>\r\n\r\n<em>\"The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;</em>\r\n\r\n<em>\"The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;</em>\r\n\r\n<em>\"The right to a good education.</em>\r\n\r\n<em>\"All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of  these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.</em>\r\n\r\n<em>\"America\'s own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for all our citizens.</em>\r\n\r\n<em>\"For unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace in the world.\"</em>\r\n\r\nMaybe if he hadn\'t died before he had a chance to implement some of these things, this would be a very different country right now. Imagine an America in which the government helped people who really need help, not one where low taxes and government subsidies go to people who are already rich and powerful.\r\n\r\nIt\'s a pretty good bet FDR wouldn\'t recognize today\'s Democrats. I\'m pretty sure the last vote I cast for an FDR Democrat for president came when I voted for Walter Mondale in 1984. Most of today\'s Democrats would be in about the same place Dewey/Eisenhower Republicans were in the \'40s and \'50s.\r\n\r\nI list my own political affiliation on Facebook as \"Social Democrat,\" which doesn\'t really exist in this country. My own politics are more European these days, I suppose. I believe that Americans (we can argue about non-citizens another time) should have certain basic rights, among them:\r\n\r\n-- The right to a job for those willing and able to work.\r\n\r\n-- The right to a roof over their heads.\r\n\r\n-- The right to adequate nutrition.\r\n\r\n-- The right to basic health care.\r\n\r\n-- The right to basic disability and retirement income.\r\n\r\nI\'m not talking about an equality of results, about <em>\"from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.\"</em> I really don\'t have a problem with people getting rich, but I think everyone -- no matter how poor they are -- ought to have a basic right to a certain level of living. Food, shelter, education, health care.\r\n\r\nIf you don\'t, think about this:\r\n\r\nWas it through something you did -- or earned -- that you were born into a family that could provide for you and give you a chance to get ahead. Was it through your basic goodness that you were born middle class ... or even white?\r\n\r\nThe children of rich people are always going to have it easy, but the children of poor people shouldn\'t have to work 10 times as hard just to be middle class.\r\n\r\nWhere do I stand?\r\n\r\nI stand with the greatest American of the last 100 years -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt.','America needs FDR\'s \'Secopnd Bill of Rights\'','','inherit','open','open','','1116-revision-2','','','2011-05-10 18:07:17','2011-05-11 01:07:17','',1116,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1119',0,'revision','',0),(1120,1,'2011-05-10 19:42:49','2011-05-11 02:42:49','','DSCF3356','An old picture, but I love it.','inherit','open','open','','dscf3356','','','2011-05-10 19:42:49','2011-05-11 02:42:49','',1110,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/DSCF3356.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1121,1,'2011-05-10 19:48:30','2011-05-11 02:48:30','One thing that has become popular in recent years is creating something called a \"bucket list.\"\n\nI know my daughter has one, and I know she has a lot of things she hopes to do and accomplish in her life. Of course, Pauline is young and still has a lot of time to accomplish her goals.\n\nI don\'t have as much time as she does, and while there are still many things I hope to do, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of the things I have already done, things that might wind up on someone\'s \"bucket list.\"\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1111\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Windows on the World\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Windows_on_the_world_window_seats.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1111\" title=\"Windows_on_the_world_window_seats\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Windows_on_the_world_window_seats-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\n-- I have been up in the tallest building in the world. Twice. Two different buildings. The Empire State Building in New York in 1957 and the Windows on the World restaurant in the Twin Towers in New York in 1979. Sadly, that\'s a place no one will ever visit again.\n\nAnyone who knows me knows that heights kind of creep me out, so I\'m not ashamed to say we didn\'t have window seats when we went there.\n\n-- I have walked on the Great Wall of China. It wasn\'t a long walk, at least partly because it was a rainy day, but it was still impressive to realize I was standing on one of the only man-made creations that can be seen from outer space.\n\n-- I have been to three of the seven continents, and I don\'t know how likely I am to visit too many more since travel isn\'t the priority for me that it was for my parents. I would like to see Australia, but I honestly don\'t know if I\'ll make it to South America, Africa or Antarctica. In fact, I have only been south of the Equator once in my life, in 1999 when Nicole and I visited Tahiti and Moorea.\n\nVisiting Moorea is to me a real highlight of my life\'s travels. Cook\'s Bay in Moorea, named after Captain Cook, is considered by some people the single most beautiful place in the world. From my limited experience, I can\'t disagree.\n\n-- I have attended political conventions of both parties, Democrats in 1980 and 2000, Republicans in 1996, although almost all the reporting I did came outside the convention halls.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1112\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Cook&#39;s Bay, Moorea\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/1866662-Cooks_Bay-Moorea.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1112\" title=\"1866662-Cooks_Bay-Moorea\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/1866662-Cooks_Bay-Moorea-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>[/caption]\n\n-- I have attended a World Series game (1985), a Super Bowl (1993), two Final Fours (1985-86), two baseball all-star games (1969, 1992) and a game in the NBA Finals (1975). I have watched an amazing number of top-flight athletes play, and I have interviewed more of them than I care to admit.\n\n-- I have made appearances on radio and television and in fact was profiled for a story on television in Southern California.\n\n-- In 2001 my face was on a billboard, a nice followup to January 1987 when my picture appeared in <em>Sports Illustrated </em>in a photograph with John Elway.\n\n-- I have seen Broadway shows, plays in the West End of London, film premieres and the taping of at least one television show. When it comes to theater, I saw \"A Chorus Line\" in New York, London, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, although my favorite play among all the ones I\'ve seen is \"Miss Saigon.\"\n\n-- I have traveled to every state in the union except Alaska, North Dakota, Mississippi and Arkansas. And someday I hope to get to the remaining ones, except maybe North Dakota. The most amazing sights I have seen in my travels are an erupting volcano on the big island of Hawaii and Yosemite National Park. I\'ve been to Tucson and Tucumcari, to Tehachapi and Tonopah, for those who remember the song.\n\n-- I\'ve seen an amazing number of wonderful concerts, from the Lovin\' Spoonful in 1967 (for a $3 ticket) to Bob Dylan and the Band, the Rolling Stones (twice), the Beach Boys (four times), the Eagles, Crosby Stills Nash &amp; Young, Loggins &amp; Messina, Billy Joel and a host of others, including one Beatle (sadly, it was Ringo).\n\n-- I\'ve met and interviewed some wonderful people who are no longer with us, among others Catfish Hunter, Peter Ustinov and my good friend Walter Masterson.\n\n-- I stood in front of an audience once and did six minutes of stand-up comedy. I could have been better, but I got some laughs and didn\'t bomb.\n\n-- I have been blessed to have some truly wonderful friendships, including several of the type that would qualify as lifelong. Mick Curran in California and Bill Madden in Florida have been my friends for 46 and 38 years, respectively, and I hope to know them till I die.\n\n-- I was blessed to have good parents who loved me, and three sisters and a brother who somehow tolerate me despite my many flaws as an older brother when they were growing up.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1120\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"225\" caption=\"An old picture, but I love it.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/DSCF3356.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1120\" title=\"DSCF3356\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/DSCF3356-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\n\n-- I have a wonderful grandchild who makes me smile every time I think about her, and one of the happiest days of my life was holding her on my chest as she slept when she was just 10 days old. Maddie will be 3 this September, and God willing, she will have a little brother or sister come November.\n\n-- I have two amazing children who have never given me any reason to feel anything but loving toward them and proud of them. Being a part of raising Pauline and Virgile ranks in my mind as the greatest accomplishment of my life.\n\n-- And most of all, I have a wife who entered my life when I was 42 and changed it from mundane to spectacular. There truly are no words to do justice to Nicole. All I can say without sounding trite or cliched is that meeting her was the best thing that ever happened to me.\n\nAnyway, that\'s pretty much my bucket list of accomplishments. I left out some things that mattered a lot to me once, like awards I won or the five years I spent writing a newspaper column, but don\'t matter much anymore.\n\nI still hope to accomplish more. I know I\'ve got at least a publishable book or two in me. It\'s just a case of making myself write them.\n\nI left out breaking 80 on the golf course. I\'ve written enough about that lately. I guess my only real goal now for golf is for once in my life, maybe to shoot par.\n\nBut that stuff doesn\'t really matter.\n\nAll that really matters in our lives is what we do to make the lives of the people we love better.\n\nI think I can still accomplish a lot more in that area in whatever time I have left.','On the ','','inherit','open','open','','1110-revision-4','','','2011-05-10 19:48:30','2011-05-11 02:48:30','',1110,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1121',0,'revision','',0),(1122,1,'2011-05-14 20:50:45','2011-05-15 03:50:45','[caption id=\"attachment_1123\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Wow\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110429_5.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1123\" title=\"20110429_5\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110429_5-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nWhen I first moved to California in 1990, I spent the spring, summer and fall putting miles on my car. I was covering professional and college sports, often two events a day, and I\'m pretty sure I was putting gas in my car two or three times a week.\r\n\r\nI honestly don\'t remember what we paid for gas then. I know when I got my license in the spring of 1967, regular was about 35 cents a gallon, and the price shocks of \'73 and \'74 bumped it up, first to 55-60 cents and then to about a dollar. Ever since then, gas goes up a lot, down a little, up a lot, down a little and the oil companies get rich.\r\n\r\nThe first cars I ever owned were a Ford Pinto and a Chevy Camaro. I loved the Camaro. It was a \'73, one of the last of the real \"muscle\" models, with a V-8 engine and a 350 under the hood. It got 10 miles to the gallon, 12-13 in highway driving. Filling the tank usually cost me $10-12.\r\n\r\nBy 1990 in California, I was driving a Pontiac Fiero. It was the first new car I ever bought myself, an \'87 that I got at Weld County Motors in Greeley, Colorado, and I drove it all over Colorado, all over Nevada when I lived in Reno and by the time I got to Los Angeles, it already had about 80,000 miles on it.\r\n\r\nI owned numerous cars during the 20-plus years I lived in California, and one thing I became accustomed to was paying more for gas than people almost anywhere else in the country. When I moved to Georgia last November, one of the first things I noticed was that gas was 30-30 cents a gallon cheaper here than it had been out there.\r\n\r\nOf course lately, everybody is paying a lot for gas. Some folks argue that if you factor inflation into it, we\'re really only paying a little more than we did 30 or 40 years ago, but that\'s sort of fatuous. Yes, inflation has made everything more expensive, but the biggest thing that has caused all that inflation is the increase in gas prices.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1129\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Prices are climbing\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110429_4.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1129\" title=\"20110429_4\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110429_4-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nAnd what is really ridiculous about it all is that while cars have certainly become more fuel efficient since I started driving 44 years ago this month, we should have moved on to an entirely different kind of technology by now. When you look at amazing advances made in so many other areas, the fact that we\'re still dependent on the internal combustion engine is totally silly.\r\n\r\nOf course you know why this is true.\r\n\r\nThere\'s still plenty of money to be made using up the rest of the oil, so we probably won\'t move on to the new technology till the oil is just about gone.\r\n\r\nThe only good news for me, at least, is that being retired, I don\'t drive as much. Yeah, I paid $54 for a fill-up a couple of weeks ago, but I\'m really only buying gas a couple of times a month.\r\n\r\nFact is, if we didn\'t go to Atlanta every other week or so, I would hardly be driving at all.\r\n\r\nAnd wouldn\'t that be wonderful.','Will we ever stop spending so much on gasoline?','','publish','open','open','','will-we-ever-stop-spending-so-much-on-gasoline','','','2011-05-14 20:50:45','2011-05-15 03:50:45','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1122',0,'post','',2),(1123,1,'2011-05-11 19:46:13','2011-05-12 02:46:13','','20110429_5','Wow','inherit','open','open','','20110429_5','','','2011-05-11 19:46:13','2011-05-12 02:46:13','',1122,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110429_5.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1124,1,'2011-05-11 19:55:53','2011-05-12 02:55:53','[caption id=\"attachment_1123\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Wow\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110429_5.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1123\" title=\"20110429_5\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110429_5-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nWhen I first moved to California in 1990, I spent the spring, summer and fall putting miles on my car. I was covering professional and college sports, often two events a day, and I\'m pretty sure I was putting gas in my car two or three times a week.\n\nI honestly don\'t remember what we paid for gas then. I know when I got my license in the spring of 1967, regular was about 35 cents a gallon, and the price shocks of \'73 and \'74 bumped it up, first to 55-60 cents and then to about a dollar. Ever since then, gas goes up a lot, down a little, up a lot, down a little and the oil companies get rich.\n\nThe first cars I ever owned were a Ford Pinto and a Chevy Camaro. I loved the Camaro. It was a \'73, one of the last of the real \"muscle\" models, with a V-8 engine and a 350 under the hood. It got 10 miles to the gallon, 12-13 in highway driving. Filling the tank usually cost me $10-12.\n\nBy 1990 in California, I was driving a Pontiac Fiero. It was the first new car I ever bought myself, an \'87 that I got at Weld County Motors in Greeley, Colorado, and I drove it all over Colorado, all over Nevada when I lived in Reno and by the time I got to Los Angeles, it alr','','','inherit','open','open','','1122-revision','','','2011-05-11 19:55:53','2011-05-12 02:55:53','',1122,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1124',0,'revision','',0),(1125,1,'2011-05-12 19:28:41','2011-05-13 02:28:41','A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about a restaurant in Annandale, Va., that I had visited with an old friend 31 years ago.\r\n\r\nIt\'s strange when I think of that time, and for some reason, it brings to mind a couple of lines from an old Bob Dylan song:\r\n\r\n<em>\"Ah, but I was so much older then. I\'m younger than that now.\"</em>\r\n\r\nIt\'s strange. I had just completed one of the two or three worst years of my life. I have no fond memories at all of 1979. It was the year my first marriage imploded, and though I spent nine months trying to make it work again, there was never really any chance.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/gazette.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1126\" title=\"gazette\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/gazette.jpg\" alt=\"Not 29, but close -- Me at 30.\" width=\"91\" height=\"130\" /></a>The thing I remember most about that year was that I felt so incredibly old. December of 1979 was when I turned 30, and I reached that point feeling as if I had accomplished nothing at all during my 20s.\r\n\r\nThe next year was better. For one thing, I got the first full-time job -- at the <em>Gazette</em> -- that started my career. For another, maybe equally important, I finally gave up on the marriage in January and started to rebuild my life.\r\n\r\nBut my 20s were over and I felt damned old.\r\n\r\nThe irony of it all was that it was so long ago. I\'m 61 now and will be eligible to start collecting Social Security in December, but I don\'t feel all that old anymore.\r\n\r\nI have a daughter who is 30 and a son 26. Both of them have already accomplished wonderful things in their lives, and I take so much pride in them. There are few people in the world who I admire more than Pauline and Virgile, and I would do anything in the world that I could to help them be happy.\r\n\r\nI don\'t know how many more years I have to live. I\'d be happy with 20 or 30, but if it all ended tomorrow, I certainly wouldn\'t feel cheated.\r\n\r\nI would like to live long enough to shoot my age on a golf course. Since my best score at this point is 78, I\'m a long way off. But I figure if I can improve to 73 or 74, maybe that can be a place where age and golf scores meet.\r\n\r\nI want to finish my book about my graduating class, and once I do that, maybe finish a novel that could finally be published.\r\n\r\nIt\'s nice to have dreams, but it\'s even nicer to feel young and vital enough to plan to accomplish them.','\'Ah, but I was so much older then ...\'','','publish','open','open','','ah-but-i-was-so-much-older-then','','','2011-05-12 19:28:41','2011-05-13 02:28:41','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1125',0,'post','',0),(1126,1,'2011-05-12 19:15:47','2011-05-13 02:15:47','','gazette','','inherit','open','open','','gazette','','','2011-05-12 19:15:47','2011-05-13 02:15:47','',1125,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/gazette.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1127,1,'2011-05-12 19:28:24','2011-05-13 02:28:24','A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about a restaurant in Annandale, Va., that I had visited with an old friend 31 years ago.\n\nIt\'s strange when I think of that time, and for some reason, it brings to mind a couple of lines from an old Bob Dylan song:\n\n<em>\"Ah, but I was so much older then. I\'m younger than that now.\"</em>\n\nIt\'s strange. I had just completed one of the two or three worst years of my life. I have no fond memories at all of 1979. It was the year my first marriage imploded, and though I spent nine months trying to make it work again, there was never really any chance.\n\n<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/gazette.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1126\" title=\"gazette\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/gazette.jpg\" alt=\"Not 29, but close -- Me at 30.\" width=\"91\" height=\"130\" /></a>The thing I remember most about that year was that I felt so incredibly old. December of 1979 was when I turned 30, and I reached that point feeling as if I had accomplished nothing at all during my 20s.\n\nThe next year was better. For one thing, I got the first full-time job -- at the <em>Gazette</em> -- that started my career. For another, maybe equally important, I finally gave up on the marriage in January and started to rebuild my life.\n\nBut my 20s were over and I felt damned old.\n\nThe irony of it all was that it was so long ago. I\'m 61 now and will be eligible to start collecting Social Security in December, but I don\'t feel all that old anymore.\n\nI have a daughter who is 30 and a son 26. Both of them have already accomplished wonderful things in their lives, and I take so much pride in them. There are few people in the world who I admire more than Pauline and Virgile, and I would do anything in the world that I could to help them be happy.\n\nI don\'t know how many more years I have to live. I\'d be happy with 20 or 30, but if it all ended tomorrow, I certainly wouldn\'t feel cheated.\n\nI would like to live long enough to shoot my age on a golf course. Since my best score at this point is 78, I\'m a long way off. But I figure if I can improve to 73 or 74, maybe that can be a place where age and golf scores meet.\n\nI want to finish my book about my graduating class, and once I do that, maybe finish a novel that could finally be published.\n\nIt\'s nice to have dreams, but it\'s even nicer to feel young and vital enough to plan to accomplish them.','','','inherit','open','open','','1125-revision','','','2011-05-12 19:28:24','2011-05-13 02:28:24','',1125,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1127',0,'revision','',0),(1128,1,'2011-05-13 12:59:10','2011-05-13 19:59:10','[caption id=\"attachment_1123\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Wow\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110429_5.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1123\" title=\"20110429_5\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110429_5-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nWhen I first moved to California in 1990, I spent the spring, summer and fall putting miles on my car. I was covering professional and college sports, often two events a day, and I\'m pretty sure I was putting gas in my car two or three times a week.\n\nI honestly don\'t remember what we paid for gas then. I know when I got my license in the spring of 1967, regular was about 35 cents a gallon, and the price shocks of \'73 and \'74 bumped it up, first to 55-60 cents and then to about a dollar. Ever since then, gas goes up a lot, down a little, up a lot, down a little and the oil companies get rich.\n\nThe first cars I ever owned were a Ford Pinto and a Chevy Camaro. I loved the Camaro. It was a \'73, one of the last of the real \"muscle\" models, with a V-8 engine and a 350 under the hood. It got 10 miles to the gallon, 12-13 in highway driving. Filling the tank usually cost me $10-12.\n\nBy 1990 in California, I was driving a Pontiac Fiero. It was the first new car I ever bought myself, an \'87 that I got at Weld County Motors in Greeley, Colorado, and I drove it all over Colorado, all over Nevada when I lived in Reno and by the time I got to Los Angeles, it already had about 80,000 miles on it.','','','inherit','open','open','','1122-revision-2','','','2011-05-13 12:59:10','2011-05-13 19:59:10','',1122,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1128',0,'revision','',0),(1129,1,'2011-05-14 20:48:50','2011-05-15 03:48:50','','20110429_4','Prices are climbing','inherit','open','open','','20110429_4','','','2011-05-14 20:48:50','2011-05-15 03:48:50','',1122,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110429_4.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1130,1,'2011-05-14 20:50:34','2011-05-15 03:50:34','[caption id=\"attachment_1123\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Wow\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110429_5.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1123\" title=\"20110429_5\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110429_5-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nWhen I first moved to California in 1990, I spent the spring, summer and fall putting miles on my car. I was covering professional and college sports, often two events a day, and I\'m pretty sure I was putting gas in my car two or three times a week.\n\nI honestly don\'t remember what we paid for gas then. I know when I got my license in the spring of 1967, regular was about 35 cents a gallon, and the price shocks of \'73 and \'74 bumped it up, first to 55-60 cents and then to about a dollar. Ever since then, gas goes up a lot, down a little, up a lot, down a little and the oil companies get rich.\n\nThe first cars I ever owned were a Ford Pinto and a Chevy Camaro. I loved the Camaro. It was a \'73, one of the last of the real \"muscle\" models, with a V-8 engine and a 350 under the hood. It got 10 miles to the gallon, 12-13 in highway driving. Filling the tank usually cost me $10-12.\n\nBy 1990 in California, I was driving a Pontiac Fiero. It was the first new car I ever bought myself, an \'87 that I got at Weld County Motors in Greeley, Colorado, and I drove it all over Colorado, all over Nevada when I lived in Reno and by the time I got to Los Angeles, it already had about 80,000 miles on it.\n\nI owned numerous cars during the 20-plus years I lived in California, and one thing I became accustomed to was paying more for gas than people almost anywhere else in the country. When I moved to Georgia last November, one of the first things I noticed was that gas was 30-30 cents a gallon cheaper here than it had been out there.\n\nOf course lately, everybody is paying a lot for gas. Some folks argue that if you factor inflation into it, we\'re really only paying a little more than we did 30 or 40 years ago, but that\'s sort of fatuous. Yes, inflation has made everything more expensive, but the biggest thing that has caused all that inflation is the increase in gas prices.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1129\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Prices are climbing\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110429_4.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1129\" title=\"20110429_4\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110429_4-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nAnd what is really ridiculous about it all is that while cars have certainly become more fuel efficient since I started driving 44 years ago this month, we should have moved on to an entirely different kind of technology by now. When you look at amazing advances made in so many other areas, the fact that we\'re still dependent on the internal combustion engine is totally silly.\n\nOf course you know why this is true.\n\nThere\'s still plenty of money to be made using up the rest of the oil, so we probably won\'t move on to the new technology till the oil is just about gone.\n\nThe only good news for me, at least, is that being retired, I don\'t drive as much. Yeah, I paid $54 for a fill-up a couple of weeks ago, but I\'m really only buying gas a couple of times a month.\n\nFact is, if we didn\'t go to Atlanta every other week or so, I would hardly be driving at all.\n\nAnd wouldn\'t that be wonderful.','Wi','','inherit','open','open','','1122-revision-3','','','2011-05-14 20:50:34','2011-05-15 03:50:34','',1122,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1130',0,'revision','',0),(1132,1,'2011-05-15 18:15:45','2011-05-16 01:15:45','','20110515_18','Funny church','inherit','open','open','','20110515_18','','','2011-05-15 18:15:45','2011-05-16 01:15:45','',1131,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110515_18.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1133,1,'2011-05-15 18:29:12','2011-05-16 01:29:12','','20110515_4','Cloudy day','inherit','open','open','','20110515_4','','','2011-05-15 18:29:12','2011-05-16 01:29:12','',1131,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110515_4.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1134,1,'2011-05-15 18:54:24','2011-05-16 01:54:24','I don\'t know how to explain it, but there is something so <em>genuine</em> about living in Georgia.\n\nI\'ve written before about how impressed Nicole was with the people when we were here twice in March 2010 buying our house, but it seems like every week I see some little thing that makes me realize this is a pretty great place to live.\n\nI know I have already mentioned that Griffin -- a city of only about 20,000 people -- has more than 50 different Baptist churches, and I know I\'ve posted pictures of some of the signs I see advertising services. One in particular seems to be pretty good at coming up with different aphorisms.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1132\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Funny church\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110515_18.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1132\" title=\"20110515_18\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110515_18-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nSince I\'m Roman Catholic, I doubt I\'ll ever go to a service at Vineyard Baptist Church, but I would like those folks to know they have brightened my day a few times with their sense of humor.\n\nWe\'ve been barreling along toward summer recently, with temperatures in the 80s and fairly high humidity as well, but today was a big surprise. It was supposed to rain, and it might yet, but the temperature was only in the mid 60s and it was cloudy with something of a cold wind.\n\nI thought it might be a good day to play 18 holes, and since I didn\'t want to be caught a long way out on the course walking, I took a cart today. My game has slipped recently, and I\'m not sure why. After playing 21 times in 31 days, I\'ve only been out three days of the last seven. I shot a 44 on Tuesday and a 43 on Friday, and I didn\'t start out well today either.\n\nAt the turn, I had a 43 -- three pars and one double bogey.\n\nFor some reason, I\'m getting a lot less distance off the tee lately, and I\'m reaching far fewer greens in regulation. Where I was driving 220-230 yards off the tee, I seem to be down to 170-180 the last few times out. And where I was reaching the greens with my approach shots, I seem to be either coming up short or landing off to one side or another.\n\nBut what I now consider bad scores -- 43 or 44 for nine holes -- are scores that once would have been very good for me, so I don\'t want to get <em>too</em> discouraged.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1133\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Cloudy day\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110515_4.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1133\" title=\"20110515_4\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110515_4-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nThe course wasn\'t real crowded, and most of the people I came across were Georgia Nice. We chatted, and since I was playing alone, they let me play through.\n\nAfter I bogeyed the 10th hole, I started getting it together. A couple of pars and a couple more bogeys left me 10 over after 14 holes, and then I went for the big finish. I did something I\'ve never done before. I parred the last four holes, including rolling in a 23-foot putt on the 17th hole.\n\nI shot 39 on the back nine and finished with an 82.\n\nI didn\'t realize it until this minute, because I\'ve had at least half a dozen rounds better than that, but 82 is still better than I had ever shot for 18 holes until about two months ago.\n\nI still miss playing with Chuck and Mickey, my two golfing partners for the last 15 years or so in California. Playing alone was strange at first, but as I said, I\'ve gotten used to it and I can actually complete most of my swings now without pulling the headphone wires out of my iPod.\n\nI really do love it here, and so does Nicole. Because she is working so hard on her research, we haven\'t gotten involved in any activities in the community yet. So it isn\'t at all surprising for us to go through the day without talking to anyone except each other.\n\nThat\'s OK for now.\n\nIn fact, it\'s better than OK.\n\nWe both love it here, and that\'s wonderful.','','','inherit','open','open','','1131-revision','','','2011-05-15 18:54:24','2011-05-16 01:54:24','',1131,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1134',0,'revision','',0),(1158,1,'2011-05-26 22:24:15','2011-05-27 05:24:15','One of the best things about living in a free country is that to a certain extent, we get to decide what sort of country we want it to be.\r\n\r\nThrough our votes, we select the people who will run the government, and at least theoretically, they will represent our general philosophy in doing so.\r\n\r\nThe wonderful thing, particularly in the past, was that this country was a land of amazing opportunity. If you couldn\'t succeed in one place, you could move to another place and have a chance to make it there.\r\n\r\nYou had the opportunity to be as successful as you wanted to be. All you had to do was work harder, and if you couldn\'t succeed working for someone, you had the opportunity to start your own business. At the time of the American Revolution, 90 percent of white men in the 13 colonies worked for themselves, most of them either farmers or artisans.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1161\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"242\" caption=\"Independence Hall\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/img-US-01.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1161\" title=\"img-US-01\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/img-US-01-242x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"242\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nAnd of course, there was always the frontier, where cheap land and hard work could enable almost anyone to be successful.\r\n\r\nOf course the Industrial Revolution changed all that and the end of the Second World War, when the government decided to discourage returning soldiers from returning to their farms, made things even more difficult for a lot of people. All of a sudden, there were millions of people working at laborer-type jobs with little or no control over their own work.\r\n\r\nIf they were willing to work hard, they could still support their families and see to it that their children had the opportunity to have better lives than they themselves had had.\r\n\r\nBut 30 years ago, when Ronald Reagan came to power, all of a sudden corporations started sending manufacturing jobs overseas, and most of the well-paying jobs for folks without college educations disappeared.\r\n\r\nRepublicans started attacking the social programs that had been implemented under Presidents Roosevelt and Johnson, and it often seemed that the only two priorities the government had were building up the military and cutting taxes for the rich.\r\n\r\nIn the process, they questioned what for decades had been the accepted civic wisdom, that one of the things that worked best for our country was a progressive income tax. All of a sudden right-wingers were arguing for a flat tax, and barring that, trying to lower taxes on the top bracket to as low as 25 percent.\r\n\r\nNow we have a country where the top 2 percent have as much wealth as the bottom 50 percent of the people, and what\'s worse, the opportunities for that bottom 50 percent just aren\'t there they way they once were.  Unless you\'re 6-foot-10 and gifted, or have the abilities and charisma to be a pop star, it\'s tough to work your way out of poverty anymore.\r\n\r\nEventually, of course, things will change. A tipping point will be reached when too many people will decide the system doesn\'t work for them, and the system will change. In part that\'s because we have the stupidest rich people in the world in our country. They never seem to know when enough is enough, and they\'re never satisfied with how much they have.\r\n\r\nIn the end, you see, we do get to decide.','We can have whatever country we want','','publish','open','open','','we-can-have-whatever-country-we-want','','','2011-05-26 22:24:15','2011-05-27 05:24:15','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1158',0,'post','',2),(1136,1,'2011-05-17 19:49:42','2011-05-18 02:49:42','It was D-Day 1988, the 44th anniversary of the Normandy landing, when I met Harmon Killebrew for the one and only time in my life.\r\n\r\nI drove down from Greeley for an exhibition at Mile High Stadium, one of my favorite sports palaces ever. Denver didn\'t have major league baseball yet, but we had a touring group of Old Timers -- including several Hall of Famers -- for something called the Cracker Jack Old Timers Game. I wasn\'t covering the game. I was there to write a column, and the subject I chose was former Baltimore great Boog Powell.\r\n\r\nPowell had done a great Miller Lite commercial, the one in which the umpire put on his glasses, focused his eyes, and delivered the punchline:\r\n\r\n<em>\"Hey, you\'re Boog Powell.\"</em>\r\n\r\nIf you\'re old enough to remember that commercial, you\'ve got a fighting chance of being old enough to remember Killebrew, who retired from baseball after the 1975 season as the fifth-leading home run hitter of all time. He hit 573, and at the time he retired, that was more home runs than anyone in the American League other than Babe Ruth ever hit.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1137\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"244\" caption=\"Hammerin&#39; Harmon\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/harmonkillebrew.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1137\" title=\"harmonkillebrew\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/harmonkillebrew-244x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"244\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nKillebrew was there that day in Denver, and all I remembered was how small he seemed next to Powell. The record books say that he played at 5-foot-11, 210 pounds, but that summer he was three weeks shy of his 52nd birthday and he was smaller than I was. I was 5-11 and weighed about 210 that summer, and if he was 5-8, I\'d be surprised.\r\n\r\nHe had Popeye-type forearms when he played, and while he was never much of a hitter for average (.256 for his career), no one else in baseball hit as many home runs as he did in the \'60s.\r\n\r\nHe was beloved in Washington as a star for the original Washington Senators, and he was beloved in Minnesota when the Senators moved north in 1961 and became the Twins.\r\n\r\nBut he retired and then was voted to the Baseball Hall of Fame, and he became pretty much a local celebrity in Minneapolis. He wasn\'t flashy. If you want to compare him to current athletes, you\'ll love the quote he gave when someone asked him what he did for fun.\r\n\r\n\"I like to wash dishes,\" he said.\r\n\r\nThere\'s a statue of him in Minnesota, just outside Target Field, where the Twins play now. He played his games and hit his home runs in a park that no longer exists except as the Mall of America.\r\n\r\nMaybe the best quote about Killebrew ever came from Baltimore manager Paul Richards, who praised his power. \"Killebrew can hit the ball out of any park,\" he said. \"Including Yellowstone.\"\r\n\r\nIn recent years he hadn\'t been in the spotlight much, although Twins fans were well aware that he had been battling esophageal cancer.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1138\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Killebrew in his final days\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/harmon_killebrew_98486597.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1138\" title=\"harmon_killebrew_98486597\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/harmon_killebrew_98486597-300x217.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"217\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nHe made the news just a couple of days ago when he announced he would no longer undergo chemotherapy or radiation treatment and instead would avail himself of hospice care for what time he had left. He may have known at the time that he wasn\'t going to last long or it may have come as a surprise, but he died today at age 74.\r\n\r\nI don\'t remember what he did in that game I saw in Denver in 1988, but that didn\'t really matter. I\'m pretty sure I only saw him play once in person during his illustrious career. It was the 1969 All-Star Game in Washington, D.C., and he flied out as a pinch-hitter in the third inning.\r\n\r\nIt\'s funny.\r\n\r\nI could have talked to him in 1988, and I wish I had, but when you\'re writing a column, you look for one good subject and then focus on it. I looked back and read the Boog Powell column again and it holds up well, so I can\'t complain.\r\n\r\nAnyway, if I want to end on a maudlin note, I\'ll just say I figure they\'re writing Hammerin\' Harmon into the American League lineup up there, probably playing third base and hitting sixth behind Lou Gehrig.\r\n\r\nIf I get up to Cooperstown this summer, as I\'m hoping, I\'ll definitely check out his plaque.','Killebrew looked ordinary, but he was anything but','','publish','open','open','','killebrew-looked-ordinary-but-he-was-anything-but','','','2011-05-17 19:49:42','2011-05-18 02:49:42','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1136',0,'post','',0),(1137,1,'2011-05-17 19:20:09','2011-05-18 02:20:09','','harmonkillebrew','Hammerin\' Harmon','inherit','open','open','','harmonkillebrew','','','2011-05-17 19:20:09','2011-05-18 02:20:09','',1136,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/harmonkillebrew.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1138,1,'2011-05-17 19:31:18','2011-05-18 02:31:18','','harmon_killebrew_98486597','Killebrew in his final days','inherit','open','open','','harmon_killebrew_98486597','','','2011-05-17 19:31:18','2011-05-18 02:31:18','',1136,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/harmon_killebrew_98486597.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1139,1,'2011-05-17 19:48:45','2011-05-18 02:48:45','It was D-Day 1988, the 44th anniversary of the Normandy landing, when I met Harmon Killebrew for the one and only time in my life.\n\nI drove down from Greeley for an exhibition at Mile High Stadium, one of my favorite sports palaces ever. Denver didn\'t have major league baseball yet, but we had a touring group of Old Timers -- including several Hall of Famers -- for something called the Cracker Jack Old Timers Game. I wasn\'t covering the game. I was there to write a column, and the subject I chose was former Baltimore great Boog Powell.\n\nPowell had done a great Miller Lite commercial, the one in which the umpire put on his glasses, focused his eyes, and delivered the punchline:\n\n<em>\"Hey, you\'re Boog Powell.\"</em>\n\nIf you\'re old enough to remember that commercial, you\'ve got a fighting chance of being old enough to remember Killebrew, who retired from baseball after the 1975 season as the fifth-leading home run hitter of all time. He hit 573, and at the time he retired, that was more home runs than anyone in the American League other than Babe Ruth ever hit.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1137\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"244\" caption=\"Hammerin&#39; Harmon\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/harmonkillebrew.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1137\" title=\"harmonkillebrew\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/harmonkillebrew-244x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"244\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nKillebrew was there that day in Denver, and all I remembered was how small he seemed next to Powell. The record books say that he played at 5-foot-11, 210 pounds, but that summer he was three weeks shy of his 52nd birthday and he was smaller than I was. I was 5-11 and weighed about 210 that summer, and if he was 5-8, I\'d be surprised.\n\nHe had Popeye-type forearms when he played, and while he was never much of a hitter for average (.256 for his career), no one else in baseball hit as many home runs as he did in the \'60s.\n\nHe was beloved in Washington as a star for the original Washington Senators, and he was beloved in Minnesota when the Senators moved north in 1961 and became the Twins.\n\nBut he retired and then was voted to the Baseball Hall of Fame, and he became pretty much a local celebrity in Minneapolis. He wasn\'t flashy. If you want to compare him to current athletes, you\'ll love the quote he gave when someone asked him what he did for fun.\n\n\"I like to wash dishes,\" he said.\n\nThere\'s a statue of him in Minnesota, just outside Target Field, where the Twins play now. He played his games and hit his home runs in a park that no longer exists except as the Mall of America.\n\nMaybe the best quote about Killebrew ever came from Baltimore manager Paul Richards, who praised his power. \"Killebrew can hit the ball out of any park,\" he said. \"Including Yellowstone.\"\n\nIn recent years he hadn\'t been in the spotlight much, although Twins fans were well aware that he had been battling esophageal cancer.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1138\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Killebrew in his final days\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/harmon_killebrew_98486597.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1138\" title=\"harmon_killebrew_98486597\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/harmon_killebrew_98486597-300x217.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"217\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nHe made the news just a couple of days ago when he announced he would no longer undergo chemotherapy or radiation treatment and instead would avail himself of hospice care for what time he had left. He may have known at the time that he wasn\'t going to last long or it may have come as a surprise, but he died today at age 74.\n\nI don\'t remember what he did in that game I saw in Denver in 1988, but that didn\'t really matter. I\'m pretty sure I only saw him play once in person during his illustrious career. It was the 1969 All-Star Game in Washington, D.C., and he flied out as a pinch-hitter in the third inning.\n\nIt\'s funny.\n\nI could have talked to him in 1988, and I wish I had, but when you\'re writing a column, you look for one good subject and then focus on it. I looked back and read the Boog Powell column again and it holds up well, so I can\'t complain.\n\nAnyway, if I want to end on a maudlin note, I\'ll just say I figure they\'re writing Hammerin\' Harmon into the American League lineup up there, probably playing third base and hitting sixth behind Lou Gehrig.','','','inherit','open','open','','1136-revision','','','2011-05-17 19:48:45','2011-05-18 02:48:45','',1136,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1139',0,'revision','',0),(1140,1,'2011-05-18 21:20:27','2011-05-19 04:20:27','[caption id=\"attachment_1141\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Tara all around.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110515_2.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1141\" title=\"20110515_2\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110515_2-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nIn case you\'re wondering, Tara is more than just a state of mind.\r\n\r\nI\'ve got to figure that after the White House, the lovely antebellum plantation in \"Gone With the Wind\" might be the single most famous private residence in America, fictional or otherwise. Although I was sort of stunned when I entered \"Tara\" into a Google image search and got five pages of pictures of Tara Reid before I adjusted the search and got what I needed.\r\n\r\nI\'m not sure if the movie is all that specific about where the O\'Hara plantation was, although we know that a dying mule was able to get Scarlett, Melanie and Prissy there when Sherman burned Atlanta.\r\n\r\nThe tourist attraction that is supposed to be Tara -- I haven\'t seen it yet -- is south of Atlanta about 10-15 miles, which leaves it 10-15 miles north of us.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1142\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Tara\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/TaraScarlett.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1142\" title=\"TaraScarlett\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/TaraScarlett-300x250.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nWhen we head north to Atlanta on State Route 19-41, it\'s called Expressway when it leaves Griffin and becomes Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. But about 10 miles north of Griffin, it becomes Tara Boulevard.\r\n\r\nOf course there are all sorts of businesses named Tara, and there\'s even an elementary school with the name.\r\n\r\nThe really special <a title=\"GWTW Museum\" href=\"http://www.mariettaga.gov/gwtw/\" target=\"_self\">\"Gone With the Wind\" museum</a> is in Marietta, which is one of those cities that I still have to search a map to have any idea where it is.\r\n\r\nI\'ve got Atlanta, Macon, Savannah and Augusta figured out, and I think I could find Athens too. But past that, I\'m mostly local with Griffin, McDonough, Jonesboro and one or two others. I know where Zebulon is (10 miles south) and I\'m dying to get down there because there\'s a barbecue joint with a great name -- the <a title=\"Oink Joint\" href=\"http://www.theoinkjoint.com/\" target=\"_self\">Oink Joint</a>.\r\n\r\nI don\'t know how good it is. It only opened last year, so it\'s hardly a local institution, but barbecue is like pizza and sex. Or maybe I should say pizza or sex. Even bad is good.\r\n\r\nBut I\'m digressing from my Tara topic.\r\n\r\nI have been meaning to write this for my good friend Tara Johnson, who worked with me on my college newspaper at George Mason. I just wanted her to know that I live in the land of Tara.','Way down South, I live in the land of Tara','','publish','open','open','','way-down-south-i-live-in-the-land-of-tara','','','2011-05-18 21:20:27','2011-05-19 04:20:27','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1140',0,'post','',3),(1141,1,'2011-05-18 20:58:46','2011-05-19 03:58:46','','20110515_2','Tara all around.','inherit','open','open','','20110515_2','','','2011-05-18 20:58:46','2011-05-19 03:58:46','',1140,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110515_2.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1142,1,'2011-05-18 21:06:06','2011-05-19 04:06:06','','TaraScarlett','Tara','inherit','open','open','','tarascarlett','','','2011-05-18 21:06:06','2011-05-19 04:06:06','',1140,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/TaraScarlett.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1143,1,'2011-05-18 21:17:01','2011-05-19 04:17:01','[caption id=\"attachment_1141\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Tara all around.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110515_2.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1141\" title=\"20110515_2\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110515_2-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nIn case you\'re wondering, Tara is more than just a state of mind.\n\nI\'ve got to figure that after the White House, the lovely antebellum plantation in \"Gone With the Wind\" might be the single most famous private residence in America, fictional or otherwise. Although I was sort of stunned when I entered \"Tara\" into a Google image search and got five pages of pictures of Tara Reid before I adjusted the search and got what I needed.\n\nI\'m not sure if the movie is all that specific about where the O\'Hara plantation was, although we know that a dying mule was able to get Scarlett, Melanie and Prissy there when Sherman burned Atlanta.\n\nThe tourist attraction that is supposed to be Tara -- I haven\'t seen it yet -- is south of Atlanta about 10-15 miles, which leaves it 10-15 miles north of us.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1142\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Tara\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/TaraScarlett.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1142\" title=\"TaraScarlett\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/TaraScarlett-300x250.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nWhen we head north to Atlanta on State Route 19-41, it\'s called Expressway when it leaves Griffin and becomes Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. But about 10 miles north of Griffin, it becomes Tara Boulevard.\n\nOf course there are all sorts of businesses named Tara, and there\'s even an elementary school with the name.\n\nThe really special <a title=\"GWTW Museum\" href=\"http://www.mariettaga.gov/gwtw/\" target=\"_self\">\"Gone With the Wind\" museum</a> is in Marietta, which is one of those cities that I still have to search a map to have any idea where it is.\n\nI\'ve got Atlanta, Macon, Savannah and Augusta figured out, and I think I could find Athens too. But past that, I\'m mostly local with Griffin, McDonough, Jonesboro and one or two others. I know where Zebulon is (10 miles south) and I\'m dying to get down there because there\'s a barbecue joint with a great name -- the <a title=\"Oink Joint\" href=\"http://www.theoinkjoint.com/\" target=\"_self\">Oink Joint</a>.\n\nI don\'t know how good it is. It only opened last year, so it\'s hardly a local institution, but barbecue is like pizza and sex. Or maybe I should say pizza or sex. Even bad is good.\n\nBut I\'m digressing from my Tara topic.\n\nI have been meaning to write this for my good friend Tara Johnson, who worked with me on my college newspaper at George Mason. I just wanted her to know that I live in the land of Tara.','Way down South, I live in the land of Tara','','inherit','open','open','','1140-revision','','','2011-05-18 21:17:01','2011-05-19 04:17:01','',1140,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1143',0,'revision','',0),(1189,1,'2011-06-04 13:38:16','2011-06-04 20:38:16','[caption id=\"attachment_1190\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Unemployment can be permanent.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/jobless-men.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1190\" title=\"jobless-men\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/jobless-men-300x182.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"182\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nThe employment contract used to be a two-way deal.\r\n\r\nAn employer hired someone to do a job, and as long as the person worked hard and did the job well, he would have a paycheck for as long as his employer continued to run a profitable business.\r\n\r\nIt wasn\'t at all unusual for someone to work for the same company for his entire career. Many businesses were owned and operated by people who lived in the same community, and they saw themselves not only as part of the community but as having a responsibility to the local population.\r\n\r\nNo one became fabulously wealthy, but the folks in management lived comfortably and their employees -- even the ones in blue-collar jobs -- were able to support their families and live with a certain degree of security and certainty.\r\n\r\nThat\'s certainly not the way things were in this country under unfettered <em>laissez-faire</em> economics as we practiced in this country in the late 19th century.  Those were the days when men like J.P. Morgan said they were under no obligation to pay a man what he was worth, and men like Jay Gould said he could hire half of the working class to kill the other half.\r\n\r\nThe Morgans and Goulds and others like them acted as if they were rich because they were favored by God, and that they were doing God\'s work by providing jobs in the community, and with no income tax or inheritance tax, the game was pretty well rigged in their favor.\r\n\r\nOf course, things changed. Workers unionized and the government decided that intervention in the economy was necessary to see that people were treated fairly. And through the middle part of the 20th century, the American economy boomed.\r\n\r\nOf course the descendants -- both literally and figuratively -- of the Robber Barons didn\'t like that, and whether it was through political contributions or other means, they really never stopped fighting against government intervention in the economy. They said that if the government left business alone, profits would be higher and everyone would be better off.\r\n\r\nThey were half right.\r\n\r\nProfits were higher, but wealth began gravitating toward the people who owned the companies. While middle class wages  stagnated, the rich got richer and richer.\r\n\r\nIn the interest of greater efficiency, bigger businesses began gobbling up smaller ones. Fewer and fewer companies were owned locally, so fewer and fewer employers actually knew the people who were working for them.\r\n\r\nUltimately, more and more American businesses weren\'t even owned by Americans.\r\n\r\nAnd it became tougher and tougher to be an employee. Where in the past, jobs were safe unless the company was losing money, now things became shaky if profits were lower than expected.\r\n\r\nAnother problem was that many people found themselves working for different companies than the ones that had hired them. Indeed, some folks had employers they never would have chosen to work for.\r\n\r\nThat was what happened to me. I had been working for a Southern California newspaper for nine years and was pretty much at the top of the totem pole as a columnist, editorial writer and film reviewer. My company didn\'t pay particularly well, but it did things right in terms of the product we delivered to our readers.\r\n\r\nThen our company sold the paper to another company, which had entirely different priorities. Our new owner cared only about the bottom line, and within weeks of taking over, he began cutting jobs. When the new company took over our newspaper in 1999, there were 99 newsroom employees -- editors, writers and photographers. I believe there are now about 30.\r\n\r\nAlmost everything we were told by our new employer turned out to be a lie, but there really wasn\'t anything we could do about it.\r\n\r\nAnd once the massive cuts came in 2008 and after, the most vulnerable employees were the oldest and best-paid.\r\n\r\nThat\'s the way it is in a lot of places now, and when you\'re older and accustomed to making a good income, losing a job often turns into permanent unemployment. Most American businesses have shed jobs in recent years -- that\'s why we\'ve got 9 percent unemployment -- and even though business is bouncing back for some, few if any have rehired as many people as they laid off.\r\n\r\nThis is what happens when the government stops \"interfering\" with business.\r\n\r\nAmazingly, one thing that has been reported lately is that many businesses that <em>are</em> hiring are refusing to hire people who are currently unemployed. There seems to be a stigma attached to unemployment, particularly for the so-called \"99ers\" who have been out of work for more than two years.\r\n\r\nThis is what happens when the employment contract becomes a one-way deal.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','It\'s bad when employment is a one-way contract','','publish','open','open','','its-bad-when-employment-is-a-one-way-contract','','','2011-06-04 13:38:16','2011-06-04 20:38:16','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1189',0,'post','',0),(1145,1,'2011-05-19 21:01:39','2011-05-20 04:01:39','Ah, timing.\r\n\r\nWe moved to Georgia last November, and I went in for my driver\'s license picture and my Sun City ID badge at a time when I was at my thinnest in more than 20 years. The pictures weren\'t bad, but I noticed that with my face as thin as it was and my hair really short, I looked old.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1146\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"My passport photo\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110519_370.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1146\" title=\"20110519_370\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110519_370-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nI gained some weight over the winter, so when I realized that my passport was going to expire a week before our trip to Europe next month, I wasn\'t thrilled about the idea of having a passport photo taken.\r\n\r\nI actually found an old picture that I liked, but it was <em>too</em> old. I think it was taken at least 10-12 years ago, and I had my hair permed. I figured it would be silly to color the gray out of my hair and get a perm just to look like my passport photo.\r\n\r\nSo I combed my hair and went to Wal-Mart to have a passport picture taken. The result is the picture you see here, and it actually came as a pleasant surprise to me. The biggest surprise, something I have noticed only in the last couple of days, is that playing so much golf this spring has enabled me to get some color in my complexion.\r\n\r\nAt any rate, I\'ll be looking at this picture in my passport until I\'m 71, God willing.\r\n\r\nI can live with that.\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">***</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Nicole has gone on sort of a decorating spree the last couple of days, so we\'ve got more rugs, chairs, etc., coming. In fact, once that stuff arrives, I think we\'ll be about 98 percent done with what we want to do with the house.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">I actually got a minor injury the other night carrying in a UPS package containing a chair for the sun room. I whacked my index finger -- the lower half of it -- against something and I have a fairly painful bone bruise on my right hand.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1147\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"There&#39;s a tomato in there.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110519_360.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1147\" title=\"20110519_360\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110519_360-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Thankfully, it hasn\'t stopped me from watering my tomato plants. If you look closely at the left side of the photo, about halfway up, you\'ll see the beginning of one of the first tomatoes of the season.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Yeah, I know. Big deal.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">My choice is to write about my golf game, which has gone south this week. I had an extremely weird 18 holes Tuesday, in which I was five over for the first four holes, then had seven pars out of the next 10 and finished six over for the final four holes for an overall score of 86.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">It got worse Wednesday. I played only nine holes, and was three over after five before I went double bogey, bogey, double bogey and bogey to finish with a 45.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Those are my worst scores in a while, and my biggest problem is that I\'m not reaching greens in regulation. Where a few weeks ago I was driving 210-220 yards consistently, most of my drives this week have been in the 160-170 range.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">I\'ve decided I might be getting a little stale. I didn\'t play today and I might try to stay off the course till Monday.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">If that doesn\'t work, I might have to sacrifice a chicken.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">You think I\'m kidding?</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">&nbsp;</p>','Fear not the passport photo; golf is scary though','','publish','open','open','','fear-not-the-passport-photo-it-looks-ok','','','2011-05-19 21:02:07','2011-05-20 04:02:07','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1145',0,'post','',0),(1146,1,'2011-05-19 19:48:33','2011-05-20 02:48:33','','20110519_370','My passport photo','inherit','open','open','','20110519_370','','','2011-05-19 19:48:33','2011-05-20 02:48:33','',1145,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110519_370.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1147,1,'2011-05-19 20:54:28','2011-05-20 03:54:28','','20110519_360','There\'s a tomato in there.','inherit','open','open','','20110519_360','','','2011-05-19 20:54:28','2011-05-20 03:54:28','',1145,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110519_360.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1148,1,'2011-05-19 21:00:46','2011-05-20 04:00:46','Ah, timing.\n\nWe moved to Georgia last November, and I went in for my driver\'s license picture and my Sun City ID badge at a time when I was at my thinnest in more than 20 years. The pictures weren\'t bad, but I noticed that with my face as thin as it was and my hair really short, I looked old.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1146\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"My passport photo\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110519_370.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1146\" title=\"20110519_370\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110519_370-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nI gained some weight over the winter, so when I realized that my passport was going to expire a week before our trip to Europe next month, I wasn\'t thrilled about the idea of having a passport photo taken.\n\nI actually found an old picture that I liked, but it was <em>too</em> old. I think it was taken at least 10-12 years ago, and I had my hair permed. I figured it would be silly to color the gray out of my hair and get a perm just to look like my passport photo.\n\nSo I combed my hair and went to Wal-Mart to have a passport picture taken. The result is the picture you see here, and it actually came as a pleasant surprise to me. The biggest surprise, something I have noticed only in the last couple of days, is that playing so much golf this spring has enabled me to get some color in my complexion.\n\nAt any rate, I\'ll be looking at this picture in my passport until I\'m 71, God willing.\n\nI can live with that.\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">***</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Nicole has gone on sort of a decorating spree the last couple of days, so we\'ve got more rugs, chairs, etc., coming. In fact, once that stuff arrives, I think we\'ll be about 98 percent done with what we want to do with the house.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">I actually got a minor injury the other night carrying in a UPS package containing a chair for the sun room. I whacked my index finger -- the lower half of it -- against something and I have a fairly painful bone bruise on my right hand.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1147\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"There&#39;s a tomato in there.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110519_360.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1147\" title=\"20110519_360\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110519_360-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\n</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Thankfully, it hasn\'t stopped me from watering my tomato plants. If you look closely at the left side of the photo, about halfway up, you\'ll see the beginning of one of the first tomatoes of the season.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Yeah, I know. Big deal.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">My choice is to write about my golf game, which has gone south this week. I had an extremely weird 18 holes Tuesday, in which I was five over for the first four holes, then had seven pars out of the next 10 and finished six over for the final four holes for an overall score of 86.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">It got worse Wednesday. I played only nine holes, and was three over after five before I went double bogey, bogey, double bogey and bogey to finish with a 45.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Those are my worst scores in a while, and my biggest problem is that I\'m not reaching greens in regulation. Where a few weeks ago I was driving 210-220 yards consistently, most of my drives this week have been in the 160-170 range.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">I\'ve decided I might be getting a little stale. I didn\'t play today and I might try to stay off the course till Monday.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">If that doesn\'t work, I might have to sacrifice a chicken.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">You think I\'m kidding?</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">&nbsp;</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">&nbsp;</p>','','','inherit','open','open','','1145-revision','','','2011-05-19 21:00:46','2011-05-20 04:00:46','',1145,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1148',0,'revision','',0),(1149,1,'2011-05-19 21:01:39','2011-05-20 04:01:39','Ah, timing.\r\n\r\nWe moved to Georgia last November, and I went in for my driver\'s license picture and my Sun City ID badge at a time when I was at my thinnest in more than 20 years. The pictures weren\'t bad, but I noticed that with my face as thin as it was and my hair really short, I looked old.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1146\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"My passport photo\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110519_370.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1146\" title=\"20110519_370\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110519_370-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nI gained some weight over the winter, so when I realized that my passport was going to expire a week before our trip to Europe next month, I wasn\'t thrilled about the idea of having a passport photo taken.\r\n\r\nI actually found an old picture that I liked, but it was <em>too</em> old. I think it was taken at least 10-12 years ago, and I had my hair permed. I figured it would be silly to color the gray out of my hair and get a perm just to look like my passport photo.\r\n\r\nSo I combed my hair and went to Wal-Mart to have a passport picture taken. The result is the picture you see here, and it actually came as a pleasant surprise to me. The biggest surprise, something I have noticed only in the last couple of days, is that playing so much golf this spring has enabled me to get some color in my complexion.\r\n\r\nAt any rate, I\'ll be looking at this picture in my passport until I\'m 71, God willing.\r\n\r\nI can live with that.\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">***</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Nicole has gone on sort of a decorating spree the last couple of days, so we\'ve got more rugs, chairs, etc., coming. In fact, once that stuff arrives, I think we\'ll be about 98 percent done with what we want to do with the house.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">I actually got a minor injury the other night carrying in a UPS package containing a chair for the sun room. I whacked my index finger -- the lower half of it -- against something and I have a fairly painful bone bruise on my right hand.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1147\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"There&#39;s a tomato in there.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110519_360.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1147\" title=\"20110519_360\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110519_360-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\n</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Thankfully, it hasn\'t stopped me from watering my tomato plants. If you look closely at the left side of the photo, about halfway up, you\'ll see the beginning of one of the first tomatoes of the season.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Yeah, I know. Big deal.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">My choice is to write about my golf game, which has gone south this week. I had an extremely weird 18 holes Tuesday, in which I was five over for the first four holes, then had seven pars out of the next 10 and finished six over for the final four holes for an overall score of 86.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">It got worse Wednesday. I played only nine holes, and was three over after five before I went double bogey, bogey, double bogey and bogey to finish with a 45.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Those are my worst scores in a while, and my biggest problem is that I\'m not reaching greens in regulation. Where a few weeks ago I was driving 210-220 yards consistently, most of my drives this week have been in the 160-170 range.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">I\'ve decided I might be getting a little stale. I didn\'t play today and I might try to stay off the course till Monday.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">If that doesn\'t work, I might have to sacrifice a chicken.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">You think I\'m kidding?</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">&nbsp;</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">&nbsp;</p>','Fear not the passport photo; it looks OK','','inherit','open','open','','1145-revision-2','','','2011-05-19 21:01:39','2011-05-20 04:01:39','',1145,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1149',0,'revision','',0),(1159,1,'2011-05-24 18:19:35','2011-05-25 01:19:35','One of the best things about living in a free country is that to a certain extent, we get to decide what sort of country we want it to be.\n\nThrough our votes, we select the people who will run the government, and at least theoretically, they will represent our general philosophy in doing so.\n\nThe wonderful thing, particularly in the past, was that this country was a land of amazing opportunity. If you couldn\'t succeed in one place, you could move to another place and have a chance to make it there.\n\nYou had the opportunity to be as successful as you wanted to be. All you had to do was work harder, and if you couldn\'t succeed working for someone, you had the opportunity to start your own business. At the time of the American Revolution, 90 percent of white men in the 13 colonies worked for themselves.\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1158-revision','','','2011-05-24 18:19:35','2011-05-25 01:19:35','',1158,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1159',0,'revision','',0),(1176,1,'2011-05-31 18:48:52','2011-06-01 01:48:52','<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/AmericanGraffiti.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1177\" title=\"AmericanGraffiti\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/AmericanGraffiti-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" /></a>So much has happened since <a title=\"American Graffiti\" href=\"http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069704/\">\"American Graffiti</a>\" was released in the summer of 1973 that it\'s often difficult to remember just how much of an effect George Lucas\' first mainstream movie had on both movies and music.\r\n\r\nIn 1973, videocassette recorders weren\'t on the market yet and cable television was still a few years away, so if you wanted to see a film more than once you had to pay to see it again and again. It was the first movie of note to use a \"golden oldies\" soundtrack. In fact, while this might be really hard to believe, there really weren\'t radio stations focusing on oldies until after this movie was a hit.\r\n\r\nI think I saw it seven different times. What was most interesting about that was that it was released at a time when movies didn\'t open at 3,000 different theatres the same weekend. In 1973, \"American Graffiti\" played its first couple of months at only one theatre in the Washington, D.C., area.\r\n\r\nAt least two or three of the times I went were for midnight shows on Saturday night, and what I seem to remember was that some of the so-called \"midnight\" shows would start as late as 1 a.m., so that when we left the movie it was nearly 3 o\'clock in the morning.\r\n\r\n<em>\"Where were you in \'62?\"</em>\r\n\r\nThat was the tagline associated with the movie, and 1962 was in some ways a final year of America\'s postwar innocence. It was before most of us had ever heard of Vietnam, but even more important, it was the year before John F. Kennedy went to Dallas.\r\n\r\nI remember taping it on my first VCR, and then buying the videocassette when it finally came out at a reasonable price. When I switched to DVDs, I bought it as one of the first ones in my collection. I don\'t think I had watched it for at least 10 years, but today it came out on Blu Ray. I figure this will be the last time I buy it.\r\n\r\nIt probably won\'t be the last time I watch it.','Some things change, but some things never really do','','publish','open','open','','some-things-change-but-some-things-never-really-do','','','2011-05-31 18:48:52','2011-06-01 01:48:52','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1176',0,'post','',0),(1161,1,'2011-05-24 18:46:45','2011-05-25 01:46:45','','img-US-01','Independence Hall','inherit','open','open','','img-us-01','','','2011-05-24 18:46:45','2011-05-25 01:46:45','',1158,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/img-US-01.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1162,1,'2011-05-24 19:10:54','2011-05-25 02:10:54','One of the best things about living in a free country is that to a certain extent, we get to decide what sort of country we want it to be.\n\nThrough our votes, we select the people who will run the government, and at least theoretically, they will represent our general philosophy in doing so.\n\nThe wonderful thing, particularly in the past, was that this country was a land of amazing opportunity. If you couldn\'t succeed in one place, you could move to another place and have a chance to make it there.\n\nYou had the opportunity to be as successful as you wanted to be. All you had to do was work harder, and if you couldn\'t succeed working for someone, you had the opportunity to start your own business. At the time of the American Revolution, 90 percent of white men in the 13 colonies worked for themselves, most of them either farmers or artisans.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1161\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"242\" caption=\"Independence Hall\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/img-US-01.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1161\" title=\"img-US-01\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/img-US-01-242x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"242\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nAnd of course, there was always the frontier, where cheap land and hard work could enable almost anyone to be successful.\n\nOf course the Industrial Revolution changed all that and the end of the Second World War, when the government decided to discourage returning soldiers from returning to their farms, made things even more difficult for a lot of people. All of a sudden, there were millions of people working at laborer-type jobs with little or no control over their own work.\n\nIf they were willing to work hard, they could still support their families and see to it that their children had the opportunity to have better lives than they themselves had had.\n\nBut 30 years ago, when Ronald Reagan came to power, all of a sudden corporations started sending manufacturing jobs overseas, and most of the well-paying jobs for folks without college educations disappeared.\n\nRepublicans started attacking the social programs that had been implemented under Presidents Roosevelt and Johnson, and it often seemed that the only two priorities the government had were building up the military and cutting taxes for the rich.\n\nIn the process, they questioned what for decades had been the accepted civic wisdom, that one of the things that worked best for our country was a progressive income tax. All of a sudden right-wingers were arguing for a flat tax, and barring that,\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1158-revision-2','','','2011-05-24 19:10:54','2011-05-25 02:10:54','',1158,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1162',0,'revision','',0),(1163,1,'2011-05-24 21:21:58','2011-05-25 04:21:58','I was working my way through \"War and Remembrance\" tonight when I came across a scene that was particularly poignant, even though it didn\'t have a lot to do with the main plot.\r\n\r\nRhoda Henry, the long-time wife of the main character, is having trouble sleeping, so she goes downstairs and puts a record on the phonograph. While she smokes a cigarette and looks at faded pictures from when she was a young wife, she listens to a scratchy recording of a song she loved when she was still young and full of dreams. At this point in the story, she has lost one of her two sons in the war and her marriage is falling apart.\r\n\r\nYou can almost see her thinking that things really didn\'t turn out the way she always thought they would.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1164\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Rhoda with Palmer Kirby\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/402954.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1164\" title=\"402954\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/402954-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nDo they for anyone?\r\n\r\nDoes anyone reach 50 anymore and look back to see the steps of their life lined up exactly the way they planned them when they were 17?\r\n\r\nWhen I look at the lives of my closest friends, I\'m pretty certain that most of them didn\'t quite wind up with what they planned.\r\n\r\nI have one friend who may be the most talented person I know. He works as hard as anyone I know, but he hasn\'t had a full-time job with benefits for more than 10 years. I have written this before, but I\'ll say it again. Three of my four closest friends have gone through personal bankruptcies. Nobody plans for that.\r\n\r\nTwo of my closest friends never had children, and I can only imagine how much less wonderful my life would have been without Pauline and Virgile.\r\n\r\nAt least none of my friends are alone in the world. All either have wives or are living with women in committed relationships. I certainly can\'t even imagine at this point what it would be like to be alone at age 61 and beyond.\r\n\r\nI was certainly disappointed that after about 20 good years, my career as a journalist suffered through setbacks and then termination because I wound up working for people who weren\'t competent.I was out of work at 58, right at the worst time possible to be out of work. I became one of the 99ers, the folks who collected unemployment for nearly two years but couldn\'t find work.\r\n\r\nGo figure.\r\n\r\nBut it\'s still too early for a retrospective. There are still things I hope to accomplish, people I want to meet, places I want to go.\r\n\r\nJust because little of it was what I planned when I was young, that doesn\'t make it worse.\r\n\r\nIt just means maybe I didn\'t have the best plan back then.\r\n\r\nHey, who does?\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','What was that about the best-laid plans ...','','publish','open','open','','what-was-that-about-the-best-laid-plans','','','2011-05-24 21:21:58','2011-05-25 04:21:58','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1163',0,'post','',1),(1164,1,'2011-05-24 20:46:49','2011-05-25 03:46:49','','402954','Rhoda with Palmer Kirby','inherit','open','open','','402954','','','2011-05-24 20:46:49','2011-05-25 03:46:49','',1163,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/402954.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1165,1,'2011-05-24 20:56:59','2011-05-25 03:56:59','I was working my way through \"War and Remembrance\" tonight when I came across a scene that was particularly poignant, even though it didn\'t have a lot to do with the main plot.\n\nRhoda Henry, the long-time wife of the main character, is having trouble sleeping, so she goes downstairs and puts a record on the phonograph. While she smokes a cigarette and looks at faded pictures from when she was a young wife, she listens to a scratchy recording of a song she loved when she was still young and full of dreams. At this point in the story, she has lost one of her two sons in the war and her marriage is falling apart.\n\nYou can almost see her thinking that things really didn\'t turn out the way she always thought they would.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1164\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Rhoda with Palmer Kirby\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/402954.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1164\" title=\"402954\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/402954-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nDo they for anyone?\n\nDoes anyone reach 50 anymore and look back to see the steps of their life lined up exactly the way they planned them when they were 17?\n\nWhen I look at the lives of my closest friends, I\'m pretty certain that most of them didn\'t quite wind up with what they planned.\n\nI have one friend who may be the most talented person I know. He works as hard as anyone I know, but he hasn\'t had a full-time job with benefits for more than 10 years. I have written this before, but I\'ll say it again. Three of my four closest friends have gone through personal bankruptcies. Nobody plans for that.\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1163-revision','','','2011-05-24 20:56:59','2011-05-25 03:56:59','',1163,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1165',0,'revision','',0),(1166,1,'2011-05-24 21:21:14','2011-05-25 04:21:14','I was working my way through \"War and Remembrance\" tonight when I came across a scene that was particularly poignant, even though it didn\'t have a lot to do with the main plot.\n\nRhoda Henry, the long-time wife of the main character, is having trouble sleeping, so she goes downstairs and puts a record on the phonograph. While she smokes a cigarette and looks at faded pictures from when she was a young wife, she listens to a scratchy recording of a song she loved when she was still young and full of dreams. At this point in the story, she has lost one of her two sons in the war and her marriage is falling apart.\n\nYou can almost see her thinking that things really didn\'t turn out the way she always thought they would.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1164\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Rhoda with Palmer Kirby\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/402954.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1164\" title=\"402954\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/402954-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nDo they for anyone?\n\nDoes anyone reach 50 anymore and look back to see the steps of their life lined up exactly the way they planned them when they were 17?\n\nWhen I look at the lives of my closest friends, I\'m pretty certain that most of them didn\'t quite wind up with what they planned.\n\nI have one friend who may be the most talented person I know. He works as hard as anyone I know, but he hasn\'t had a full-time job with benefits for more than 10 years. I have written this before, but I\'ll say it again. Three of my four closest friends have gone through personal bankruptcies. Nobody plans for that.\n\nTwo of my closest friends never had children, and I can only imagine how much less wonderful my life would have been without Pauline and Virgile.\n\nAt least none of my friends are alone in the world. All either have wives or are living with women in committed relationships. I certainly can\'t even imagine at this point what it would be like to be alone at age 61 and beyond.\n\nI was certainly disappointed that after about 20 good years, my career as a journalist suffered through setbacks and then termination because I wound up working for people who weren\'t competent.I was out of work at 58, right at the worst time possible to be out of work. I became one of the 99ers, the folks who collected unemployment for nearly two years but couldn\'t find work.\n\nGo figure.\n\nBut it\'s still too early for a retrospective. There are still things I hope to accomplish, people I want to meet, places I want to go.\n\nJust because little of it was what I planned when I was young, that doesn\'t make it worse.\n\nIt just means maybe I didn\'t have the best plan back then.\n\nHey, who does?\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1163-revision-2','','','2011-05-24 21:21:14','2011-05-25 04:21:14','',1163,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1166',0,'revision','',0),(1167,1,'2011-05-25 18:59:12','2011-05-26 01:59:12','When I look at the walls of my office, I can see so much of my life.\r\n\r\nThere are dozens of pictures of the people I love, shadow boxes with press passes from places I\'ve been and all sorts of other mementos.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1168\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"199\" caption=\"10, maybe 11, Hall of Famers\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110110_14.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1168\" title=\"20110110_14\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110110_14-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nI\'ve written before about my prize collection of baseballs, and also about my 14 framed movie posters from films I love. The rest of our home looks elegant, and my office is anything but, with all sorts of different things covering nearly every inch of wall space.\r\n\r\nIt all makes me happy, but at times I find myself wondering why memories of things past seem to matter so much to me. I also wish I had started saving mementos from earlier times in my life. The oldest things I have go back for the most part to about 1980 and the beginning of my career in journalism.\r\n\r\nThere were so many things I did and so many places I\'ve been that I have nothing in the way of artifacts. I lived in Europe for two years in the mid \'70s. I attended the New York World\'s Far in 1964 and \'65, and Expo \'67 in Montreal a couple of years later.\r\n\r\nIt\'s all right, though. Any additional things I had would mean getting rid of some of the things on my walls.\r\n\r\nOne room worth of memories is more than enough for one man.','One life means one room full of memories','','publish','open','open','','one-life-means-one-room-full-of-memories','','','2011-05-25 18:59:12','2011-05-26 01:59:12','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1167',0,'post','',0),(1168,1,'2011-05-25 18:40:09','2011-05-26 01:40:09','','20110110_14','10, maybe 11, Hall of Famers','inherit','open','open','','20110110_14-2','','','2011-05-25 18:40:09','2011-05-26 01:40:09','',1167,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110110_14.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1169,1,'2011-05-25 18:58:23','2011-05-26 01:58:23','When I look at the walls of my office, I can see so much of my life.\n\nThere are dozens of pictures of the people I love, shadow boxes with press passes from places I\'ve been and all sorts of other mementos.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1168\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"199\" caption=\"10, maybe 11, Hall of Famers\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110110_14.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1168\" title=\"20110110_14\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110110_14-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nI\'ve written before about my prize collection of baseballs, and also about my 14 framed movie posters from films I love. The rest of our home looks elegant, and my office is anything but, with all sorts of different things covering nearly every inch of wall space.\n\nIt all makes me happy, but at times I find myself wondering why memories of things past seem to matter so much to me. I also wish I had started saving mementos from earlier times in my life. The oldest things I have go back for the most part to about 1980 and the beginning of my career in journalism.\n\nThere were so many things I did and so many places I\'ve been that I have nothing in the way of artifacts. I lived in Europe for two years in the mid \'70s. I attended the New York World\'s Far in 1964 and \'65, and Expo \'67 in Montreal a couple of years later.\n\nIt\'s all right, though. Any additional things I had would mean getting rid of some of the things on my walls.\n\nOne room worth of memories is more than enough for one man.','','','inherit','open','open','','1167-revision','','','2011-05-25 18:58:23','2011-05-26 01:58:23','',1167,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1169',0,'revision','',0),(1171,1,'2011-05-26 22:23:25','2011-05-27 05:23:25','One of the best things about living in a free country is that to a certain extent, we get to decide what sort of country we want it to be.\n\nThrough our votes, we select the people who will run the government, and at least theoretically, they will represent our general philosophy in doing so.\n\nThe wonderful thing, particularly in the past, was that this country was a land of amazing opportunity. If you couldn\'t succeed in one place, you could move to another place and have a chance to make it there.\n\nYou had the opportunity to be as successful as you wanted to be. All you had to do was work harder, and if you couldn\'t succeed working for someone, you had the opportunity to start your own business. At the time of the American Revolution, 90 percent of white men in the 13 colonies worked for themselves, most of them either farmers or artisans.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1161\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"242\" caption=\"Independence Hall\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/img-US-01.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1161\" title=\"img-US-01\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/img-US-01-242x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"242\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nAnd of course, there was always the frontier, where cheap land and hard work could enable almost anyone to be successful.\n\nOf course the Industrial Revolution changed all that and the end of the Second World War, when the government decided to discourage returning soldiers from returning to their farms, made things even more difficult for a lot of people. All of a sudden, there were millions of people working at laborer-type jobs with little or no control over their own work.\n\nIf they were willing to work hard, they could still support their families and see to it that their children had the opportunity to have better lives than they themselves had had.\n\nBut 30 years ago, when Ronald Reagan came to power, all of a sudden corporations started sending manufacturing jobs overseas, and most of the well-paying jobs for folks without college educations disappeared.\n\nRepublicans started attacking the social programs that had been implemented under Presidents Roosevelt and Johnson, and it often seemed that the only two priorities the government had were building up the military and cutting taxes for the rich.\n\nIn the process, they questioned what for decades had been the accepted civic wisdom, that one of the things that worked best for our country was a progressive income tax. All of a sudden right-wingers were arguing for a flat tax, and barring that, trying to lower taxes on the top bracket to as low as 25 percent.\n\nNow we have a country where the top 2 percent have as much wealth as the bottom 50 percent of the people, and what\'s worse, the opportunities for that bottom 50 percent just aren\'t there they way they once were.  Unless you\'re 6-foot-10 and gifted, or have the abilities and charisma to be a pop star, it\'s tough to work your way out of poverty anymore.\n\nEventually, of course, things will change. A tipping point will be reached when too many people will decide the system doesn\'t work for them, and the system will change. In part that\'s because we have the stupidest rich people in the world in our country. They never seem to know when enough is enough, and they\'re never satisfied with how much they have.\n\nIn the end, you see, we do get\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1158-revision-3','','','2011-05-26 22:23:25','2011-05-27 05:23:25','',1158,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1171',0,'revision','',0),(1172,1,'2011-05-29 12:04:47','2011-05-29 19:04:47','When did we all start hating each other so much?\r\n\r\nWhen did we become a country where the folks on the other side of arguments from us were not only wrong, they were stupid ... and ultimately evil? Because if you think about it, that\'s the real problem. Too many of us -- myself included at times -- are so sure of our basic <em>rightness</em> that anyone who isn\'t with us is someone to be ignored, ridiculed, defeated and humiliated.\r\n\r\nGeorge W. Bush couldn\'t just be a bad president. He had to be the worst president in American history, or as I actually heard one person on the left say a couple of years ago, the worst person ever elected to run a country anywhere.\r\n\r\nBarack Obama couldn\'t just be less than effective at getting things done. He had to be unfit to run a Dairy Queen, let alone a country.\r\n\r\nAnd in perhaps the height of irony, after liberals spent years comparing Bush to Adolf Hitler, conservatives started using the same comparison for Obama when he took office.\r\n\r\nSomeone has to be wrong.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1173\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"231\" caption=\"Playing the Hitler card.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/obama-as-hitler.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1173\" title=\"obama-as-hitler\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/obama-as-hitler-231x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"231\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nThe fact is, they both are. It\'s impossible to study Hitler and not realize that he took evil far beyond anything anyone in this country has ever done. Even the true villains in our history -- who will remain unnamed in this piece -- fall far short of what happened in the Third Reich.\r\n\r\nI\'m not sure there are many people in the mainstream in this country -- or even outside it -- who would countenance sending their enemies to the ovens. But there certainly are people both in the media and in politics who are using more and more apocalyptic language about what will happen if we don\'t follow their path.\r\n\r\nToo many of those same people have stopped appealing to our better angels and are focusing on our fears. This often happens during difficult times, especially involving complex issues, when demagogues on both sides tell us that complicated problems can have simple solutions.\r\n\r\nI don\'t know if the hatred conservatives seem to feel toward Obama is exacerbated by the fact that he is African-American or if it\'s just that the president\'s mixed race has brought a different group of haters out from the damp, dark places they usually inhabit. But when I hear people on the right say that they don\'t know if America can survive four more years of Obama, I remember people on the left saying some of the same things about Bush leading up to the 2004 elections.\r\n\r\nThe heart of the problem is that folks on the left don\'t seem to accept the fact that folks on the right might love America just as much as they do, and vice versa. You don\'t have to be liberal or conservative to be a good American, but you do have to accept the fact that other people have the same rights as you do as Americans.\r\n\r\nYou can ridicule Rush Limbaugh or Michael Moore, but that doesn\'t do anything to make this country a better place for anyone. Not one person was very fed by a nasty call to a talk show, and not one child was ever educated by someone calling someone else un-American.\r\n\r\nWe may be at a critical point in our history, where we either have to find ways to pay for things we want -- like Medicare -- or watch them fall apart and fade away. There is certainly a movement on one side to eliminate government programs that form what we call our \"safety net,\" but it doesn\'t have to be an either-or situation.\r\n\r\nIt does have to be a debate in which each side accepts the other\'s American-ness.\r\n\r\nOtherwise, we all lose.','It\'s difficult to negotiate when folks hate each other','','publish','open','open','','its-difficult-to-negotiate-when-folks-hate-each-other','','','2011-05-29 12:04:47','2011-05-29 19:04:47','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1172',0,'post','',0),(1173,1,'2011-05-29 10:25:25','2011-05-29 17:25:25','','obama-as-hitler','Playing the Hitler card.','inherit','open','open','','obama-as-hitler','','','2011-05-29 10:25:25','2011-05-29 17:25:25','',1172,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/obama-as-hitler.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1174,1,'2011-05-29 11:02:15','2011-05-29 18:02:15','When did we all start hating each other so much?\n\nWhen did we become a country where the folks on the other side of arguments from us were not only wrong, they were stupid ... and ultimately evil? Because if you think about it, that\'s the real problem. Too many of us -- myself included at times -- are so sure of our basic <em>rightness</em> that anyone who isn\'t with us is someone to be ignored, ridiculed, defeated and humiliated.\n\nGeorge W. Bush couldn\'t just be a bad president. He had to be the worst president in American history, or as I actually heard one person on the left say a couple of years ago, the worst person ever elected to run a country anywhere.\n\nBarack Obama couldn\'t just be less than effective at getting things done. He had to be unfit to run a Dairy Queen, let alone a country.\n\nAnd in perhaps the height of irony, after liberals spent years comparing Bush to Adolf Hitler, conservatives started using the same comparison for Obama when he took office.\n\nSomeone has to be wrong.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1173\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"231\" caption=\"Playing the Hitler card.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/obama-as-hitler.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1173\" title=\"obama-as-hitler\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/obama-as-hitler-231x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"231\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nThe fact is, they both are. It\'s impossible to study Hitler and not realize that he took evil far beyond anything anyone in this country has ever done. Even the true villains in our history -- who will remain unnamed in this piece -- fall far short of what happened in the Third Reich.\n\nI\'m not sure there are many people in the mainstream in this country -- or even outside it -- who would countenance sending their enemies to the ovens. But there certainly are people both in the media and in politics who are using more and more apocalyptic language about what will happen if we don\'t follow their path.\n\nToo many of those same people have stopped appealing to our better angels and are focusing on our fears. This often happens during difficult times, especially involving complex issues, when demagogues on both sides tell us that complicated problems can have simple solutions.\n\nI don\'t know if the hatred conservatives seem to feel toward Obama is exacerbated by the fact that he is African-American or if it\'s just that the president\'s mixed race has brought a different group of haters out from the damp, dark places they usually inhabit. But when I hear people on the right say that they don\'t know if America can survive four more years of Obama, I remember people on the left saying some of the same things about Bush leading up to the 2004 elections.\n\nThe heart of the problem','','','inherit','open','open','','1172-revision','','','2011-05-29 11:02:15','2011-05-29 18:02:15','',1172,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1174',0,'revision','',0),(1175,1,'2011-05-29 12:03:54','2011-05-29 19:03:54','When did we all start hating each other so much?\n\nWhen did we become a country where the folks on the other side of arguments from us were not only wrong, they were stupid ... and ultimately evil? Because if you think about it, that\'s the real problem. Too many of us -- myself included at times -- are so sure of our basic <em>rightness</em> that anyone who isn\'t with us is someone to be ignored, ridiculed, defeated and humiliated.\n\nGeorge W. Bush couldn\'t just be a bad president. He had to be the worst president in American history, or as I actually heard one person on the left say a couple of years ago, the worst person ever elected to run a country anywhere.\n\nBarack Obama couldn\'t just be less than effective at getting things done. He had to be unfit to run a Dairy Queen, let alone a country.\n\nAnd in perhaps the height of irony, after liberals spent years comparing Bush to Adolf Hitler, conservatives started using the same comparison for Obama when he took office.\n\nSomeone has to be wrong.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1173\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"231\" caption=\"Playing the Hitler card.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/obama-as-hitler.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1173\" title=\"obama-as-hitler\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/obama-as-hitler-231x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"231\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nThe fact is, they both are. It\'s impossible to study Hitler and not realize that he took evil far beyond anything anyone in this country has ever done. Even the true villains in our history -- who will remain unnamed in this piece -- fall far short of what happened in the Third Reich.\n\nI\'m not sure there are many people in the mainstream in this country -- or even outside it -- who would countenance sending their enemies to the ovens. But there certainly are people both in the media and in politics who are using more and more apocalyptic language about what will happen if we don\'t follow their path.\n\nToo many of those same people have stopped appealing to our better angels and are focusing on our fears. This often happens during difficult times, especially involving complex issues, when demagogues on both sides tell us that complicated problems can have simple solutions.\n\nI don\'t know if the hatred conservatives seem to feel toward Obama is exacerbated by the fact that he is African-American or if it\'s just that the president\'s mixed race has brought a different group of haters out from the damp, dark places they usually inhabit. But when I hear people on the right say that they don\'t know if America can survive four more years of Obama, I remember people on the left saying some of the same things about Bush leading up to the 2004 elections.\n\nThe heart of the problem is that folks on the left don\'t seem to accept the fact that folks on the right might love America just as much as they do, and vice versa. You don\'t have to be liberal or conservative to be a good American, but you do have to accept the fact that other people have the same rights as you do as Americans.\n\nYou can ridicule Rush Limbaugh or Michael Moore, but that doesn\'t do anything to make this country a better place for anyone. Not one person was very fed by a nasty call to a talk show, and not one child was ever educated by someone calling someone else un-American.\n\nWe may be at a critical point in our history, where we either have to find ways to pay for things we want -- like Medicare -- or watch them fall apart and fade away. There is certainly a movement on one side to eliminate government programs that form what we call our \"safety net,\" but it doesn\'t have to be an either-or situation.\n\nIt does have to be a debate in which each side accepts the other\'s American-ness.\n\nOtherwise, we all lose.','','','inherit','open','open','','1172-revision-2','','','2011-05-29 12:03:54','2011-05-29 19:03:54','',1172,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1175',0,'revision','',0),(1177,1,'2011-05-31 18:21:27','2011-06-01 01:21:27','','AmericanGraffiti','','inherit','open','open','','americangraffiti','','','2011-05-31 18:21:27','2011-06-01 01:21:27','',1176,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/AmericanGraffiti.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1178,1,'2011-05-31 18:48:28','2011-06-01 01:48:28','<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/AmericanGraffiti.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1177\" title=\"AmericanGraffiti\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/AmericanGraffiti-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" /></a>So much has happened since <a title=\"American Graffiti\" href=\"http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069704/\">\"American Graffiti</a>\" was released in the summer of 1973 that it\'s often difficult to remember just how much of an effect George Lucas\' first mainstream movie had on both movies and music.\n\nIn 1973, videocassette recorders weren\'t on the market yet and cable television was still a few years away, so if you wanted to see a film more than once you had to pay to see it again and again. It was the first movie of note to use a \"golden oldies\" soundtrack. In fact, while this might be really hard to believe, there really weren\'t radio stations focusing on oldies until after this movie was a hit.\n\nI think I saw it seven different times. What was most interesting about that was that it was released at a time when movies didn\'t open at 3,000 different theatres the same weekend. In 1973, \"American Graffiti\" played its first couple of months at only one theatre in the Washington, D.C., area.\n\nAt least two or three of the times I went were for midnight shows on Saturday night, and what I seem to remember was that some of the so-called \"midnight\" shows would start as late as 1 a.m., so that when we left the movie it was nearly 3 o\'clock in the morning.\n\n<em>\"Where were you in \'62?\"</em>\n\nThat was the tagline associated with the movie, and 1962 was in some ways a final year of America\'s postwar innocence. It was before most of us had ever heard of Vietnam, but even more important, it was the year before John F. Kennedy went to Dallas.\n\nI remember taping it on my first VCR, and then buying the videocassette when it finally came out at a reasonable price. When I switched to DVDs, I bought it as one of the first ones in my collection. I don\'t think I had watched it for at least 10 years, but today it came out on Blu Ray. I figure this will be the last time I buy it.\n\nIt probably won\'t be the last time I watch it.','','','inherit','open','open','','1176-revision','','','2011-05-31 18:48:28','2011-06-01 01:48:28','',1176,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1178',0,'revision','',0),(1180,1,'2011-06-01 20:50:33','2011-06-02 03:50:33','The story of the goose that laid the golden eggs is one of  the best known of Aesop\'s fables, but people rarely seem to discuss it in terms of the modern world.\r\n\r\nThe fact is, though, that one could easily see the goose as the American middle class, and the fools who killed it as America\'s mega-rich.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1181\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"The goose is dead.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/dream.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1181\" title=\"dream\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/dream-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nOn one of his final albums, the late George Carlin said that we call it the American Dream, because we\'ve reached a point where you have to be asleep to believe in it.\r\n\r\nAll of us who grew up middle class and suburban in this country during the baby boom years were told that as long as you worked hard and did your best, you could make a success of yourself. And in addition, your children would have the opportunity to have a better life than you did.\r\n\r\nOf course, that\'s not true any more, although you won\'t find anyone running for president in either party who will tell you the truth about that. There is no question that our best days are behind us as a nation, and a large part of that is because the truly rich in our country decided about 30 years ago that no matter how much money they had, it was never enough.\r\n\r\nIt used to be a big deal to be a millionaire. As of 2010, according to Forbes magazine, there were 410 <em>billionaires</em> in the United States alone. As of 2009, there were 4.7 million millionaire households in our country. Admittedly a lot of that is tied up in home equity and retirement accounts for some people, but that\'s still a helluva lot of wealth.\r\n\r\nThat sort of means that if you\'re not a millionaire, you\'re pretty much screwed these days. So much of our national capital is just being accumulated as wealth that we have official unemployment of 9 percent and probably double that number are either unemployed, enderemployed or have just stopped looking.\r\n\r\nAnd if you lose your job and you\'re past 50, you are well and truly fucked. Pardon my language, but nothing else seems to express the problem as accurately. Lose your job and unless you\'re a rare bird, you\'ll fall behind on your bills, use up what savings you have and God forbid if you have mortgage payments.\r\n\r\nOne of my closest friends in the world just learned that in all probability, she will be losing her job at the end of the summer. She has worked and worked hard for 30 years since she graduated from college, and at times has been pretty successful. But the last few years have been tough, and the odds are pretty good that if she is out of work for any length of time, she\'ll have to sell her house.\r\n\r\nThis is where things really get evil. Not just in my friend\'s case, but all over the country. There are so many houses on the market -- both from foreclosures and just people who need to sell -- that the market is badly depressed in most parts of the country. That means first, that people who sell for less than they thought their house was worth will come away with a lot less money than they should, and second, that rich people who have been sitting on their money can grab properties for really good prices.\r\n\r\nThe rich get richer and everyone else loses.\r\n\r\nFor all the talk about fortunes wiped out by the Great Depression, most people who were truly wealthy in 1929 because even more wealthy during the down years. But we have a greater disparity of wealth between the rich and the middle class now than we have since the days before the federal income tax. The richest people in our country have been stealing -- morally if not legally -- from the rest of us for the last 30 years.\r\n\r\nWe are probably in a position where too much has happened to get back to any kind of balance under the present system. We are either going to slide into an oligarchy where tens of millions of people are on subsistence wages while a comparative handful live like sultans or we will have some sort of revolutionary upheaval.\r\n\r\nFor all the talk about change from the Tea Party types, they have it completely wrong. Most of what they support only makes things even better for the mega-rich. We need people who are willing to tear things down and start all over again.\r\n\r\nRight now, all we are is a dead goose.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','\'American Dream\' is little more than a dead goose','','publish','open','open','','american-dream-is-little-more-than-a-dead-goose','','','2011-06-01 20:50:33','2011-06-02 03:50:33','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1180',0,'post','',0),(1181,1,'2011-06-01 20:14:58','2011-06-02 03:14:58','','dream','The goose is dead.','inherit','open','open','','dream-2','','','2011-06-01 20:14:58','2011-06-02 03:14:58','',1180,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/dream.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1182,1,'2011-06-01 20:49:43','2011-06-02 03:49:43','The story of the goose that laid the golden eggs is one of  the best known of Aesop\'s fables, but people rarely seem to discuss it in terms of the modern world.\n\nThe fact is, though, that one could easily see the goose as the American middle class, and the fools who killed it as America\'s mega-rich.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1181\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"The goose is dead.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/dream.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1181\" title=\"dream\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/dream-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nOn one of his final albums, the late George Carlin said that we call it the American Dream, because we\'ve reached a point where you have to be asleep to believe in it.\n\nAll of us who grew up middle class and suburban in this country during the baby boom years were told that as long as you worked hard and did your best, you could make a success of yourself. And in addition, your children would have the opportunity to have a better life than you did.\n\nOf course, that\'s not true any more, although you won\'t find anyone running for president in either party who will tell you the truth about that. There is no question that our best days are behind us as a nation, and a large part of that is because the truly rich in our country decided about 30 years ago that no matter how much money they had, it was never enough.\n\nIt used to be a big deal to be a millionaire. As of 2010, according to Forbes magazine, there were 410 <em>billionaires</em> in the United States alone. As of 2009, there were 4.7 million millionaire households in our country. Admittedly a lot of that is tied up in home equity and retirement accounts for some people, but that\'s still a helluva lot of wealth.\n\nThat sort of means that if you\'re not a millionaire, you\'re pretty much screwed these days. So much of our national capital is just being accumulated as wealth that we have official unemployment of 9 percent and probably double that number are either unemployed, enderemployed or have just stopped looking.\n\nAnd if you lose your job and you\'re past 50, you are well and truly fucked. Pardon my language, but nothing else seems to express the problem as accurately. Lose your job and unless you\'re a rare bird, you\'ll fall behind on your bills, use up what savings you have and God forbid if you have mortgage payments.\n\nOne of my closest friends in the world just learned that in all probability, she will be losing her job at the end of the summer. She has worked and worked hard for 30 years since she graduated from college, and at times has been pretty successful. But the last few years have been tough, and the odds are pretty good that if she is out of work for any length of time, she\'ll have to sell her house.\n\nThis is where things really get evil. Not just in my friend\'s case, but all over the country. There are so many houses on the market -- both from foreclosures and just people who need to sell -- that the market is badly depressed in most parts of the country. That means first, that people who sell for less than they thought their house was worth will come away with a lot less money than they should, and second, that rich people who have been sitting on their money can grab properties for really good prices.\n\nThe rich get richer and everyone else loses.\n\nFor all the talk about fortunes wiped out by the Great Depression, most people who were truly wealthy in 1929 because even more wealthy during the down years. But we have a greater disparity of wealth between the rich and the middle class now than we have since the days before the federal income tax. The richest people in our country have been stealing -- morally if not legally -- from the rest of us for the last 30 years.\n\nWe are probably in a position where too much has happened to get back to any kind of balance under the present system. We are either going to slide into an oligarchy where tens of millions of people are on subsistence wages while a comparative handful live like sultans or we will have some sort of revolutionary upheaval.\n\nFor all the talk about change from the Tea Party types, they have it completely wrong. Most of what they support only makes things even better for the mega-rich. We need people who are willing to tear things down and start all over again.\n\nRight now, all we are is a dead goose.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1180-revision','','','2011-06-01 20:49:43','2011-06-02 03:49:43','',1180,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1182',0,'revision','',0),(1183,1,'2011-06-02 19:11:44','2011-06-03 02:11:44','<em>\"This is the way the world ends, this is the way the world ends, this is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.\"</em>\r\n<strong>-- T.S. ELIOT</strong>\r\n\r\n<em>\"It\'s the end of the world as we know it, the end of the world as we know it.\"</em>\r\n<strong>-- R.E.M.</strong>\r\n\r\nIt may be slightly premature to write this, much like writing an obituary for a terminal patient who is still breathing, but I think the American middle class has pretty well had it.\r\n\r\nIt\'s difficult to place the blame on one culprit, but I can tell you when and where it started. In the mid-to-late 1970s, when all of a sudden there were credit cards, car loans and easy mortgages for almost everyone, and the idea wasn\'t how much you owed but whether you could afford the monthly payments. Shortly after that, saving money in banks or credit unions became passe and the idea was to put it in the stock market and watch it grow.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1187\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"How things change.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/ill_pho_port_bw_1_pic_american_way_life_blacks_1937-1.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1187\" title=\"ill_pho_port_bw_1_pic_american_way_life_blacks_1937-1\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/ill_pho_port_bw_1_pic_american_way_life_blacks_1937-1-300x215.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"215\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nThen the good jobs for blue-collar workers began disappearing, and all of a sudden it wasn\'t really possible for men with high-school educations to make enough money to support their families. The $20 an hour job in a steel mill became $4 an hour at McDonald\'s or some other fast-food outlet.\r\n\r\nMiddle-class wages have essentially been stagnant since 1972, which was pretty much when the federal government stopped caring about the middle class. More and more companies stopped paying pensions, and fewer and fewer businesses provided health care for their employees.\r\n\r\nThe people running things sold this as a good thing. They called it an \"ownership society,\" and said we had control over our own retirement and our own health care.\r\n\r\nOf course, we had to pay for it.\r\n\r\nAnd I don\'t know one person anywhere who had a better retirement with his own self-financed 401(k) than he would have with a company pension, just as I don\'t know one person anywhere who was better off paying for his own health care.\r\n\r\nBut where things really got evil was when people with mortgages were encouraged to refinance or take out home equity loans to support a higher standard of consuming. When the housing market collapsed, something like 40 percent of all homeowners found that they owed more money on their homes than they were worth.\r\n\r\nCouple that with 9 percent unemployment that is actually probably closer to 20 percent when you add in the underemployed, a housing market with millions of properties sitting unsold and a staggering economy that isn\'t making anyone feel confident, and you\'ve got a middle class on the proverbial respirator.\r\n\r\nAsk yourself this:\r\n\r\nWhy would anyone of middle class status -- and middle class insecurities -- even think about buying a house right now? For one thing, there is absolutely no guarantee it will hold its current value, let alone appreciate in value. For another, how many people have jobs these days that they\'re confident they\'ll have long enough to make the payments?\r\n\r\nSo who killed the middle class? Or what?\r\n\r\nI suppose we could say it\'s partially self-inflicted. Too many people thought that they should be rich and took too many chances.\r\n\r\nBut Wall Street encouraged it, and a Republican Party that never saw a rich person it wouldn\'t bend over backward for is to blame too. As are the Democrats, who forgot who their constituency was and bent over backwards for those same rich folks.\r\n\r\nSo the middle class is dying, and who knows what will replace it? If our corporate masters expect us to be happy little serfs, they had damn well improve the level of television programming.\r\n\r\nOtherwise, since we started with Eliot, we might ask ourselves what rough beast slouches toward Bethlehem, ready to be born?','Say a prayer for the dying U.S. middle class','','publish','open','open','','say-a-prayer-for-the-dying-u-s-middle-class','','','2011-06-02 19:11:44','2011-06-03 02:11:44','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1183',0,'post','',0),(1184,1,'2011-06-02 16:42:42','2011-06-02 23:42:42','','trenton makes the world takes','Once we made things','inherit','open','open','','trenton-makes-the-world-takes','','','2011-06-02 16:42:42','2011-06-02 23:42:42','',1183,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/trenton-makes-the-world-takes.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1185,1,'2011-06-02 16:54:20','2011-06-02 23:54:20','','america-decline2','America the beautiful','inherit','open','open','','america-decline2','','','2011-06-02 16:54:20','2011-06-02 23:54:20','',1183,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/america-decline2.jpeg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1187,1,'2011-06-02 18:42:23','2011-06-03 01:42:23','','ill_pho_port_bw_1_pic_american_way_life_blacks_1937-1','How things change.','inherit','open','open','','ill_pho_port_bw_1_pic_american_way_life_blacks_1937-1','','','2011-06-02 18:42:23','2011-06-03 01:42:23','',1183,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/ill_pho_port_bw_1_pic_american_way_life_blacks_1937-1.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1188,1,'2011-06-02 19:11:13','2011-06-03 02:11:13','<em>\"This is the way the world ends, this is the way the world ends, this is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.\"</em>\n<strong>-- T.S. ELIOT</strong>\n\n<em>\"It\'s the end of the world as we know it, the end of the world as we know it.\"</em>\n<strong>-- R.E.M.</strong>\n\nIt may be slightly premature to write this, much like writing an obituary for a terminal patient who is still breathing, but I think the American middle class has pretty well had it.\n\nIt\'s difficult to place the blame on one culprit, but I can tell you when and where it started. In the mid-to-late 1970s, when all of a sudden there were credit cards, car loans and easy mortgages for almost everyone, and the idea wasn\'t how much you owed but whether you could afford the monthly payments. Shortly after that, saving money in banks or credit unions became passe and the idea was to put it in the stock market and watch it grow.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1187\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"How things change.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/ill_pho_port_bw_1_pic_american_way_life_blacks_1937-1.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1187\" title=\"ill_pho_port_bw_1_pic_american_way_life_blacks_1937-1\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/ill_pho_port_bw_1_pic_american_way_life_blacks_1937-1-300x215.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"215\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nThen the good jobs for blue-collar workers began disappearing, and all of a sudden it wasn\'t really possible for men with high-school educations to make enough money to support their families. The $20 an hour job in a steel mill became $4 an hour at McDonald\'s or some other fast-food outlet.\n\nMiddle-class wages have essentially been stagnant since 1972, which was pretty much when the federal government stopped caring about the middle class. More and more companies stopped paying pensions, and fewer and fewer businesses provided health care for their employees.\n\nThe people running things sold this as a good thing. They called it an \"ownership society,\" and said we had control over our own retirement and our own health care.\n\nOf course, we had to pay for it.\n\nAnd I don\'t know one person anywhere who had a better retirement with his own self-financed 401(k) than he would have with a company pension, just as I don\'t know one person anywhere who was better off paying for his own health care.\n\nBut where things really got evil was when people with mortgages were encouraged to refinance or take out home equity loans to support a higher standard of consuming. When the housing market collapsed, something like 40 percent of all homeowners found that they owed more money on their homes than they were worth.\n\nCouple that with 9 percent unemployment that is actually probably closer to 20 percent when you add in the underemployed, a housing market with millions of properties sitting unsold and a staggering economy that isn\'t making anyone feel confident, and you\'ve got a middle class on the proverbial respirator.\n\nAsk yourself this:\n\nWhy would anyone of middle class status -- and middle class insecurities -- even think about buying a house right now? For one thing, there is absolutely no guarantee it will hold its current value, let alone appreciate in value. For another, how many people have jobs these days that they\'re confident they\'ll have long enough to make the payments?\n\nSo who killed the middle class? Or what?\n\nI suppose we could say it\'s partially self-inflicted. Too many people thought that they should be rich and took too many chances.\n\nBut Wall Street encouraged it, and a Republican Party that never saw a rich person it wouldn\'t bend over backward for is to blame too. As are the Democrats, who forgot who their constituency was and bent over backwards for those same rich folks.\n\nSo the middle class is dying, and who knows what will replace it? If our corporate masters expect us to be happy little serfs, they had damn well improve the level of television programming.\n\nOtherwise, since we started with Eliot, we might ask ourselves what rough beast slouches toward Bethlehem, ready to be born?','','','inherit','open','open','','1183-revision-2','','','2011-06-02 19:11:13','2011-06-03 02:11:13','',1183,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1188',0,'revision','',0),(1186,1,'2011-06-02 17:01:31','2011-06-03 00:01:31','<em>\"This is the way the world ends, this is the way the world ends, this is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.\"</em>\n<strong>-- T.S. ELIOT</strong>\n\nWhen historians write the story of the Decline and Fall of the American Empire, it will be amazing how many parallels there will be between the present and what happened to the Roman Empire in ancient times. The bread and circuses, the mediocre leaders, the loss of national purpose -- all these things and more were true both then and now. From just 60 years ago, when we strode the Earth like the proverbial Colossus after winning World War II and rebuilding Europe, we have slipped to a position where we\'re broke, deeply in debt and we don\'t even make anything anymore.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1184\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Once we made things\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/trenton-makes-the-world-takes.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1184\" title=\"trenton makes the world takes\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/trenton-makes-the-world-takes-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nAs recently as 2000, according to the International Monetary Fund, 32 percent of the world\'s gross domestic product was made in the USA. By 2010, that had slipped to 24 percent, the largest drop any country ever suffered in 10 years.\n\nActually, I found myself having to think for a moment or two about what it was we still made.\n\nOf course, it\'s food.\n\nWe still feed a good portion of the world, but if they want the plates to serve it on or the refrigerators to store it in, most of that stuff is made elsewhere now.\n\nWhat do we create?\n\nFat.\n\nOver the last 25-30 years, we have become the fattest nation in history, with two out of every three adults overweight and half of those qualifying as obese. And let\'s not even get started on fat kids.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1185\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"294\" caption=\"America the beautiful\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/america-decline2.jpeg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1185\" title=\"america-decline2\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/america-decline2-294x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"294\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nDuring the times in my life I have struggled with my own weight, I learned one thing about eating too much. We don\'t overeat to fill a hole in our stomachs, we overeat to fill a hole in our hearts. Millions of Americans are so disgusted -- or depressed -- about their own lives that all they can do is eat, eat and eat.\n\nThe thing is, it\'s tough to blame them. So much has happened in the working world in the last 30 years that millions of people either hate their jobs or are scared to death they\'ll lose their jobs.\n\nAdd to that the fact that two-thirds of all jobs in this country are now in what\'s classified as the service sector -- \"Would you like fries with that?\" -- and self-esteem is sinking faster than the housing market.\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1183-revision','','','2011-06-02 17:01:31','2011-06-03 00:01:31','',1183,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1186',0,'revision','',0),(1190,1,'2011-06-04 12:01:47','2011-06-04 19:01:47','','jobless-men','Unemployment can be permanent.','inherit','open','open','','jobless-men','','','2011-06-04 12:01:47','2011-06-04 19:01:47','',1189,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/jobless-men.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1191,1,'2011-06-04 13:38:13','2011-06-04 20:38:13','[caption id=\"attachment_1190\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Unemployment can be permanent.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/jobless-men.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1190\" title=\"jobless-men\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/jobless-men-300x182.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"182\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nThe employment contract used to be a two-way deal.\n\nAn employer hired someone to do a job, and as long as the person worked hard and did the job well, he would have a paycheck for as long as his employer continued to run a profitable business.\n\nIt wasn\'t at all unusual for someone to work for the same company for his entire career. Many businesses were owned and operated by people who lived in the same community, and they saw themselves not only as part of the community but as having a responsibility to the local population.\n\nNo one became fabulously wealthy, but the folks in management lived comfortably and their employees -- even the ones in blue-collar jobs -- were able to support their families and live with a certain degree of security and certainty.\n\nThat\'s certainly not the way things were in this country under unfettered <em>laissez-faire</em> economics as we practiced in this country in the late 19th century.  Those were the days when men like J.P. Morgan said they were under no obligation to pay a man what he was worth, and men like Jay Gould said he could hire half of the working class to kill the other half.\n\nThe Morgans and Goulds and others like them acted as if they were rich because they were favored by God, and that they were doing God\'s work by providing jobs in the community, and with no income tax or inheritance tax, the game was pretty well rigged in their favor.\n\nOf course, things changed. Workers unionized and the government decided that intervention in the economy was necessary to see that people were treated fairly. And through the middle part of the 20th century, the American economy boomed.\n\nOf course the descendants -- both literally and figuratively -- of the Robber Barons didn\'t like that, and whether it was through political contributions or other means, they really never stopped fighting against government intervention in the economy. They said that if the government left business alone, profits would be higher and everyone would be better off.\n\nThey were half right.\n\nProfits were higher, but wealth began gravitating toward the people who owned the companies. While middle class wages  stagnated, the rich got richer and richer.\n\nIn the interest of greater efficiency, bigger businesses began gobbling up smaller ones. Fewer and fewer companies were owned locally, so fewer and fewer employers actually knew the people who were working for them.\n\nUltimately, more and more American businesses weren\'t even owned by Americans.\n\nAnd it became tougher and tougher to be an employee. Where in the past, jobs were safe unless the company was losing money, now things became shaky if profits were lower than expected.\n\nAnother problem was that many people found themselves working for different companies than the ones that had hired them. Indeed, some folks had employers they never would have chosen to work for.\n\nThat was what happened to me. I had been working for a Southern California newspaper for nine years and was pretty much at the top of the totem pole as a columnist, editorial writer and film reviewer. My company didn\'t pay particularly well, but it did things right in terms of the product we delivered to our readers.\n\nThen our company sold the paper to another company, which had entirely different priorities. Our new owner cared only about the bottom line, and within weeks of taking over, he began cutting jobs. When the new company took over our newspaper in 1999, there were 99 newsroom employees -- editors, writers and photographers. I believe there are now about 30.\n\nAlmost everything we were told by our new employer turned out to be a lie, but there really wasn\'t anything we could do about it.\n\nAnd once the massive cuts came in 2008 and after, the most vulnerable employees were the oldest and best-paid.\n\nThat\'s the way it is in a lot of places now, and when you\'re older and accustomed to making a good income, losing a job often turns into permanent unemployment. Most American businesses have shed jobs in recent years -- that\'s why we\'ve got 9 percent unemployment -- and even though business is bouncing back for some, few if any have rehired as many people as they laid off.\n\nThis is what happens when the government stops \"interfering\" with business.\n\nAmazingly, one thing that has been reported lately is that many businesses that <em>are</em> hiring are refusing to hire people who are currently unemployed. There seems to be a stigma attached to unemployment, particularly for the so-called \"99ers\" who have been out of work for more than two years.\n\nThis is what happens when the employment contract becomes a one-way deal.\n\n&nbsp;','It\'s bad when employment is a one-way contract','','inherit','open','open','','1189-revision','','','2011-06-04 13:38:13','2011-06-04 20:38:13','',1189,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1191',0,'revision','',0),(1192,1,'2011-06-04 20:26:52','2011-06-05 03:26:52','I\'m afraid I am becoming schizophrenic.\r\n\r\nNot seriously. I\'m probably the same old neurotic I\'ve always been, but when it comes to writing for this site, I find myself torn in two different directions. On the one hand, I really don\'t want to write about politics. I honestly believe that politically, we have reached a point of no return in this country and that it is essentially all downhill from here. I don\'t think anything I do or say can stop that.\r\n\r\nWe have had so much mediocre leadership in this country the last 30 years that we no longer expect anything better. People run for president who should be laughed at, but they are somehow taken seriously. And no one gets anything done because as soon as one party takes control, the other party digs in to block them until the next election.\r\n\r\nThere isn\'t anything I can do to stop that. In nearly two years writing for this Website, I have received maybe 15-20 comments that didn\'t come from someone who was related to me. Of course, I have received nearly 2,800 comments I marked as spam and deleted, because all they were about were linking to something someone was trying to sell. It\'s just one reason the Internet is at best a mixed blessing.\r\n\r\nI\'m sure I reach more people by linking to this site from Facebook than anything else, but I don\'t know if anything I have written about politics has changed anyone\'s opinion. And believe me, writing about politics does not appeal to my own personal better angels. It only makes me angry ... or sometimes sad. Angry that things are so messed up and I can\'t change them, sad because maybe if I had had the ability and the drive to write like this 40 years ago, I could have accomplished something.\r\n\r\nI have been thinking a lot lately about what my purpose was -- or is -- and whether I have accomplished anything of any real merit in this world. I suppose guys like me think thoughts like this when they know the end of the road is going to be in sight soon. It isn\'t that I can see the end of the road from here at age 61, but there are times I think I can see a place from where I will be able to see the end of the road. If that makes any sense at all.\r\n\r\nIn the last few days, I have been reading a wonderful book -- W. Bruce Cameron\'s \"A Dog\'s Purpose.\"\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/NEbHUkbYXAXgfh_1_2.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1196\" title=\"NEbHUkbYXAXgfh_1_2\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/NEbHUkbYXAXgfh_1_2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"159\" height=\"192\" /></a>\r\n\r\nThis book has made me laugh a few times, but it has brought tears to my eyes more often than that. But the fascinating thought that dog\'s live many lives, that their souls survive from one body to the next, fills me with wonder. I always thought that one of Dan Jenkins\' best lines in his many funny books was that God\'s biggest mistake in creating the world was that dogs live such short lives.\r\n\r\nI don\'t know what comes after this for me, but I\'m pretty sure I won\'t be reborn as an infant yet still carry the memories of this life with me. Not that I think that would be a good thing. So much of my life has been governed by fear, insecurity and guilt that I will not miss not being Michael Rappaport when the time comes.\r\n\r\nIn fact, I don\'t think I would mind being a dog. Living and gaining happiness from making someone else happy -- and being simple enough for that to be enough -- doesn\'t sound like such a bad thing.\r\n\r\nI haven\'t been a <em>bad</em> person.\r\n\r\nI might have been a better dog.','Maybe we could accomplish more in other bodies','','publish','open','open','','maybe-we-could-accomplish-more-in-different-bodies','','','2011-06-04 20:32:27','2011-06-05 03:32:27','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1192',0,'post','',0),(1193,1,'2011-06-04 20:26:06','2011-06-05 03:26:06','I\'m afraid I am becoming schizophrenic.\n\nNot seriously. I\'m probably the same old neurotic I\'ve always been, but when it comes to writing for this site, I find myself torn in two different directions. On the one hand, I really don\'t want to write about politics. I honestly believe that politically, we have reached a point of no return in this country and that it is essentially all downhill from here. I don\'t think anything I do or say can stop that.\n\nWe have had so much mediocre leadership in this country the last 30 years that we no longer expect anything better. People run for president who should be laughed at, but they are somehow taken seriously. And no one gets anything done because as soon as one party takes control, the other party digs in to block them until the next election.\n\nThere isn\'t anything I can do to stop that. In nearly two years writing for this Website, I have received maybe 15-20 comments that didn\'t come from someone who was related to me. Of course, I have received nearly 2,800 comments I marked as spam and deleted, because all they were about were linking to something someone was trying to sell. It\'s just one reason the Internet is at best a mixed blessing.\n\nI\'m sure I reach more people by linking to this site from Facebook than anything else, but I don\'t know if anything I have written about politics has changed anyone\'s opinion. And believe me, writing about politics does not appeal to my own personal better angels. It only makes me angry ... or sometimes sad. Angry that things are so messed up and I can\'t change them, sad because maybe if I had had the ability and the drive to write like this 40 years ago, I could have accomplished something.\n\nI have been thinking a lot lately about what my purpose was -- or is -- and whether I have accomplished anything of any real merit in this world. I suppose guys like me think thoughts like this when they know the end of the road is going to be in sight soon. It isn\'t that I can see the end of the road from here at age 61, but there are times I think I can see a place from where I will be able to see the end of the road. If that makes any sense at all.\n\nIn the last few days, I have been reading a wonderful book -- W. Bruce Cameron\'s \"A Dog\'s Purpose.\"\n\nhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRPoH1o_5NA\n\nThis book has made me laugh a few times, but it has brought tears to my eyes more often than that. But the fascinating thought that dog\'s live many lives, that their souls survive from one body to the next, fills me with wonder. I always thought that one of Dan Jenkins\' best line in his many funny books was that God\'s biggest mistake in creating the world was that dogs live such short lives.\n\nI don\'t know what comes after this for me, but I\'m pretty sure I won\'t be reborn as an infant yet still carry the memories of this life with me. Not that I think that would be a good thing. So much of my life has been governed by fear, insecurity and guilt that I will not miss not being Michael Rappaport when the time comes.\n\nIn fact, I don\'t think I would mind being a dog. Living and gaining happiness from making someone else happy -- and being simple enough for that to be enough -- doesn\'t sound like such a bad thing.\n\nI haven\'t been a <em>bad</em> person.\n\nI might have been a better dog.','','','inherit','open','open','','1192-revision','','','2011-06-04 20:26:06','2011-06-05 03:26:06','',1192,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1193',0,'revision','',0),(1194,1,'2011-06-04 20:26:52','2011-06-05 03:26:52','I\'m afraid I am becoming schizophrenic.\r\n\r\nNot seriously. I\'m probably the same old neurotic I\'ve always been, but when it comes to writing for this site, I find myself torn in two different directions. On the one hand, I really don\'t want to write about politics. I honestly believe that politically, we have reached a point of no return in this country and that it is essentially all downhill from here. I don\'t think anything I do or say can stop that.\r\n\r\nWe have had so much mediocre leadership in this country the last 30 years that we no longer expect anything better. People run for president who should be laughed at, but they are somehow taken seriously. And no one gets anything done because as soon as one party takes control, the other party digs in to block them until the next election.\r\n\r\nThere isn\'t anything I can do to stop that. In nearly two years writing for this Website, I have received maybe 15-20 comments that didn\'t come from someone who was related to me. Of course, I have received nearly 2,800 comments I marked as spam and deleted, because all they were about were linking to something someone was trying to sell. It\'s just one reason the Internet is at best a mixed blessing.\r\n\r\nI\'m sure I reach more people by linking to this site from Facebook than anything else, but I don\'t know if anything I have written about politics has changed anyone\'s opinion. And believe me, writing about politics does not appeal to my own personal better angels. It only makes me angry ... or sometimes sad. Angry that things are so messed up and I can\'t change them, sad because maybe if I had had the ability and the drive to write like this 40 years ago, I could have accomplished something.\r\n\r\nI have been thinking a lot lately about what my purpose was -- or is -- and whether I have accomplished anything of any real merit in this world. I suppose guys like me think thoughts like this when they know the end of the road is going to be in sight soon. It isn\'t that I can see the end of the road from here at age 61, but there are times I think I can see a place from where I will be able to see the end of the road. If that makes any sense at all.\r\n\r\nIn the last few days, I have been reading a wonderful book -- W. Bruce Cameron\'s \"A Dog\'s Purpose.\"\r\n\r\nhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRPoH1o_5NA\r\n\r\nThis book has made me laugh a few times, but it has brought tears to my eyes more often than that. But the fascinating thought that dog\'s live many lives, that their souls survive from one body to the next, fills me with wonder. I always thought that one of Dan Jenkins\' best line in his many funny books was that God\'s biggest mistake in creating the world was that dogs live such short lives.\r\n\r\nI don\'t know what comes after this for me, but I\'m pretty sure I won\'t be reborn as an infant yet still carry the memories of this life with me. Not that I think that would be a good thing. So much of my life has been governed by fear, insecurity and guilt that I will not miss not being Michael Rappaport when the time comes.\r\n\r\nIn fact, I don\'t think I would mind being a dog. Living and gaining happiness from making someone else happy -- and being simple enough for that to be enough -- doesn\'t sound like such a bad thing.\r\n\r\nI haven\'t been a <em>bad</em> person.\r\n\r\nI might have been a better dog.','Maybe we could accomplish more in different bodies','','inherit','open','open','','1192-revision-2','','','2011-06-04 20:26:52','2011-06-05 03:26:52','',1192,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1194',0,'revision','',0),(1195,1,'2011-06-04 20:30:58','2011-06-05 03:30:58','I\'m afraid I am becoming schizophrenic.\n\nNot seriously. I\'m probably the same old neurotic I\'ve always been, but when it comes to writing for this site, I find myself torn in two different directions. On the one hand, I really don\'t want to write about politics. I honestly believe that politically, we have reached a point of no return in this country and that it is essentially all downhill from here. I don\'t think anything I do or say can stop that.\n\nWe have had so much mediocre leadership in this country the last 30 years that we no longer expect anything better. People run for president who should be laughed at, but they are somehow taken seriously. And no one gets anything done because as soon as one party takes control, the other party digs in to block them until the next election.\n\nThere isn\'t anything I can do to stop that. In nearly two years writing for this Website, I have received maybe 15-20 comments that didn\'t come from someone who was related to me. Of course, I have received nearly 2,800 comments I marked as spam and deleted, because all they were about were linking to something someone was trying to sell. It\'s just one reason the Internet is at best a mixed blessing.\n\nI\'m sure I reach more people by linking to this site from Facebook than anything else, but I don\'t know if anything I have written about politics has changed anyone\'s opinion. And believe me, writing about politics does not appeal to my own personal better angels. It only makes me angry ... or sometimes sad. Angry that things are so messed up and I can\'t change them, sad because maybe if I had had the ability and the drive to write like this 40 years ago, I could have accomplished something.\n\nI have been thinking a lot lately about what my purpose was -- or is -- and whether I have accomplished anything of any real merit in this world. I suppose guys like me think thoughts like this when they know the end of the road is going to be in sight soon. It isn\'t that I can see the end of the road from here at age 61, but there are times I think I can see a place from where I will be able to see the end of the road. If that makes any sense at all.\n\nIn the last few days, I have been reading a wonderful book -- W. Bruce Cameron\'s \"A Dog\'s Purpose.\"\n\nThis book has made me laugh a few times, but it has brought tears to my eyes more often than that. But the fascinating thought that dog\'s live many lives, that their souls survive from one body to the next, fills me with wonder. I always thought that one of Dan Jenkins\' best line in his many funny books was that God\'s biggest mistake in creating the world was that dogs live such short lives.\n\nI don\'t know what comes after this for me, but I\'m pretty sure I won\'t be reborn as an infant yet still carry the memories of this life with me. Not that I think that would be a good thing. So much of my life has been governed by fear, insecurity and guilt that I will not miss not being Michael Rappaport when the time comes.\n\nIn fact, I don\'t think I would mind being a dog. Living and gaining happiness from making someone else happy -- and being simple enough for that to be enough -- doesn\'t sound like such a bad thing.\n\nI haven\'t been a <em>bad</em> person.\n\nI might have been a better dog.','Maybe we could accomplish more in other bodies','','inherit','open','open','','1192-autosave','','','2011-06-04 20:30:58','2011-06-05 03:30:58','',1192,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1195',0,'revision','',0),(1196,1,'2011-06-04 20:31:37','2011-06-05 03:31:37','','NEbHUkbYXAXgfh_1_2','','inherit','open','open','','nebhukbyxaxgfh_1_2','','','2011-06-04 20:31:37','2011-06-05 03:31:37','',1192,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/NEbHUkbYXAXgfh_1_2.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1197,1,'2011-06-04 20:27:43','2011-06-05 03:27:43','<p>I\'m afraid I am becoming schizophrenic.</p>\r\n<p>Not seriously. I\'m probably the same old neurotic I\'ve always been, but when it comes to writing for this site, I find myself torn in two different directions. On the one hand, I really don\'t want to write about politics. I honestly believe that politically, we have reached a point of no return in this country and that it is essentially all downhill from here. I don\'t think anything I do or say can stop that.</p>\r\n<p>We have had so much mediocre leadership in this country the last 30 years that we no longer expect anything better. People run for president who should be laughed at, but they are somehow taken seriously. And no one gets anything done because as soon as one party takes control, the other party digs in to block them until the next election.</p>\r\n<p>There isn\'t anything I can do to stop that. In nearly two years writing for this Website, I have received maybe 15-20 comments that didn\'t come from someone who was related to me. Of course, I have received nearly 2,800 comments I marked as spam and deleted, because all they were about were linking to something someone was trying to sell. It\'s just one reason the Internet is at best a mixed blessing.</p>\r\n<p>I\'m sure I reach more people by linking to this site from Facebook than anything else, but I don\'t know if anything I have written about politics has changed anyone\'s opinion. And believe me, writing about politics does not appeal to my own personal better angels. It only makes me angry ... or sometimes sad. Angry that things are so messed up and I can\'t change them, sad because maybe if I had had the ability and the drive to write like this 40 years ago, I could have accomplished something.</p>\r\n<p>I have been thinking a lot lately about what my purpose was -- or is -- and whether I have accomplished anything of any real merit in this world. I suppose guys like me think thoughts like this when they know the end of the road is going to be in sight soon. It isn\'t that I can see the end of the road from here at age 61, but there are times I think I can see a place from where I will be able to see the end of the road. If that makes any sense at all.</p>\r\n<p>In the last few days, I have been reading a wonderful book -- W. Bruce Cameron\'s \"A Dog\'s Purpose.\"</p>\r\n<p>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRPoH1o_5NA</p>\r\n<p>This book has made me laugh a few times, but it has brought tears to my eyes more often than that. But the fascinating thought that dog\'s live many lives, that their souls survive from one body to the next, fills me with wonder. I always thought that one of Dan Jenkins\' best line in his many funny books was that God\'s biggest mistake in creating the world was that dogs live such short lives.</p>\r\n<p>I don\'t know what comes after this for me, but I\'m pretty sure I won\'t be reborn as an infant yet still carry the memories of this life with me. Not that I think that would be a good thing. So much of my life has been governed by fear, insecurity and guilt that I will not miss not being Michael Rappaport when the time comes.</p>\r\n<p>In fact, I don\'t think I would mind being a dog. Living and gaining happiness from making someone else happy -- and being simple enough for that to be enough -- doesn\'t sound like such a bad thing.</p>\r\n<p>I haven\'t been a <em>bad</em> person.</p>\r\n<p>I might have been a better dog.</p>\r\n','Maybe we could accomplish more in other bodies','','inherit','open','open','','1192-revision-3','','','2011-06-04 20:27:43','2011-06-05 03:27:43','',1192,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1197',0,'revision','',0),(1198,1,'2011-06-04 20:31:52','2011-06-05 03:31:52','I\'m afraid I am becoming schizophrenic.\r\n\r\nNot seriously. I\'m probably the same old neurotic I\'ve always been, but when it comes to writing for this site, I find myself torn in two different directions. On the one hand, I really don\'t want to write about politics. I honestly believe that politically, we have reached a point of no return in this country and that it is essentially all downhill from here. I don\'t think anything I do or say can stop that.\r\n\r\nWe have had so much mediocre leadership in this country the last 30 years that we no longer expect anything better. People run for president who should be laughed at, but they are somehow taken seriously. And no one gets anything done because as soon as one party takes control, the other party digs in to block them until the next election.\r\n\r\nThere isn\'t anything I can do to stop that. In nearly two years writing for this Website, I have received maybe 15-20 comments that didn\'t come from someone who was related to me. Of course, I have received nearly 2,800 comments I marked as spam and deleted, because all they were about were linking to something someone was trying to sell. It\'s just one reason the Internet is at best a mixed blessing.\r\n\r\nI\'m sure I reach more people by linking to this site from Facebook than anything else, but I don\'t know if anything I have written about politics has changed anyone\'s opinion. And believe me, writing about politics does not appeal to my own personal better angels. It only makes me angry ... or sometimes sad. Angry that things are so messed up and I can\'t change them, sad because maybe if I had had the ability and the drive to write like this 40 years ago, I could have accomplished something.\r\n\r\nI have been thinking a lot lately about what my purpose was -- or is -- and whether I have accomplished anything of any real merit in this world. I suppose guys like me think thoughts like this when they know the end of the road is going to be in sight soon. It isn\'t that I can see the end of the road from here at age 61, but there are times I think I can see a place from where I will be able to see the end of the road. If that makes any sense at all.\r\n\r\nIn the last few days, I have been reading a wonderful book -- W. Bruce Cameron\'s \"A Dog\'s Purpose.\"\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/NEbHUkbYXAXgfh_1_2.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1196\" title=\"NEbHUkbYXAXgfh_1_2\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/NEbHUkbYXAXgfh_1_2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"159\" height=\"192\" /></a>\r\n\r\nThis book has made me laugh a few times, but it has brought tears to my eyes more often than that. But the fascinating thought that dog\'s live many lives, that their souls survive from one body to the next, fills me with wonder. I always thought that one of Dan Jenkins\' best line in his many funny books was that God\'s biggest mistake in creating the world was that dogs live such short lives.\r\n\r\nI don\'t know what comes after this for me, but I\'m pretty sure I won\'t be reborn as an infant yet still carry the memories of this life with me. Not that I think that would be a good thing. So much of my life has been governed by fear, insecurity and guilt that I will not miss not being Michael Rappaport when the time comes.\r\n\r\nIn fact, I don\'t think I would mind being a dog. Living and gaining happiness from making someone else happy -- and being simple enough for that to be enough -- doesn\'t sound like such a bad thing.\r\n\r\nI haven\'t been a <em>bad</em> person.\r\n\r\nI might have been a better dog.','Maybe we could accomplish more in other bodies','','inherit','open','open','','1192-revision-4','','','2011-06-04 20:31:52','2011-06-05 03:31:52','',1192,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1198',0,'revision','',0),(1199,1,'2011-06-05 15:01:07','2011-06-05 22:01:07','You can tell a lot about a society by the entertainment it chooses.\r\n\r\nOnce was the time we watched movies about the conquest of the West, or war stories in which Americans helped save the world from fascism. We were fat and sassy -- well, not too fat -- and we believed that old saying that while an Englishman might walk the world as if he owned it, an American walked the world as if he didn\'t give a damn who owned it.\r\n\r\nEven in our movies about corruption, good won out over evil in the end. Our heroes were, well, heroes.\r\n\r\nThat changed in the \'70s, when movies like \"Three Days of the Condor,\" \"The Conversation\" and \"The Parallax View\" fed our fear of conspiracies and told us that one person couldn\'t really be a hero anymore. By the \'80s, when we literally began worshiping money, we even had a movie hero tell us that \"Greed is good.\"\r\n\r\nYes, you can tell a lot about a society by how it chooses to entertain itself.\r\n\r\nSo what entertains us now?\r\n\r\nZombies.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1200\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Our heroes\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/tumblr_l5b1yeIpjF1qzktngo1_500.png\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1200\" title=\"tumblr_l5b1yeIpjF1qzktngo1_500\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/tumblr_l5b1yeIpjF1qzktngo1_500-300x225.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nIt started in 1968, with George Romero\'s low-budget classic, \"Night of the Living Dead.\" A lot of people didn\'t know it, but Romero was laying a message in between the lines. He couldn\'t come right out and say it, but by that time, television and consumerism had already started turning Americans into, well, zombies.\r\n\r\nIt was more than just a coincidence that \'68 was the first year Madison Avenue sold us a president with the same techniques it used to sell us toothpaste. In fact, that\'s pretty much the way elections have been run ever since then in Zombie America.\r\n\r\nBooks are just about extinct now, but books about zombies sell pretty well. Movies get made and remade, and one of the best-reviewed new television shows of 2010 was \"Walking Dead\" on American Movie Classics.\r\n\r\nIt isn\'t that zombies are the heroes of the stories. It\'s more that a dwindling number of human beings fight desperately to hold out against a world in which more and more people have lost their humanity.\r\n\r\nSound familiar?\r\n\r\nThink about how much less of a premium we put on intelligence anymore. Look at how many people running for president -- usually Republicans -- deny believing in proven scientific things like evolution, archaeology and climate change. I\'d like to believe they\'re lying, that they\'re only doing what they must to get votes from the right-wing base, but I have my doubts.\r\n\r\nLook at how callous we have become toward people who are really struggling to get by. We\'ve got the feelings of zombies.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1201\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"211\" caption=\"Earth Day 1970\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/280px-Kellyposter1970.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1201\" title=\"280px-Kellyposter1970\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/280px-Kellyposter1970-211x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"211\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nI remember the classic old line from Walt Kelly\'s wonderful strip \"Pogo,\" in which he said, \"We have met the enemy and he is us.\"\r\n\r\nKelly wrote that for the first Earth Day in 1970, and if you wonder how much less zombified we were then, consider that it was a Republican president, Richard Nixon, who basically created what government intervention there is in the environment.\r\n\r\nThink about this, too: \"Pogo\" was a fairly intelligent little comic strip that appeared in 500 newspapers for 25 years. Then try to picture someone like Sarah Palin <em>getting</em> \"Pogo.\"\r\n\r\nNope.\r\n\r\nWe have met the zombies and they are us.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','We don\'t just like zombies; we are zombies','','publish','open','open','','we-dont-just-like-zombies-we-are-zombies','','','2011-06-05 15:01:07','2011-06-05 22:01:07','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1199',0,'post','',3),(1200,1,'2011-06-05 14:19:18','2011-06-05 21:19:18','','tumblr_l5b1yeIpjF1qzktngo1_500','Our heroes','inherit','open','open','','tumblr_l5b1yeipjf1qzktngo1_500','','','2011-06-05 14:19:18','2011-06-05 21:19:18','',1199,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/tumblr_l5b1yeIpjF1qzktngo1_500.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(1201,1,'2011-06-05 14:49:39','2011-06-05 21:49:39','','280px-Kellyposter1970','Earth Day 1970','inherit','open','open','','280px-kellyposter1970','','','2011-06-05 14:49:39','2011-06-05 21:49:39','',1199,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/280px-Kellyposter1970.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1202,1,'2011-06-05 15:00:54','2011-06-05 22:00:54','You can tell a lot about a society by the entertainment it chooses.\n\nOnce was the time we watched movies about the conquest of the West, or war stories in which Americans helped save the world from fascism. We were fat and sassy -- well, not too fat -- and we believed that old saying that while an Englishman might walk the world as if he owned it, an American walked the world as if he didn\'t give a damn who owned it.\n\nEven in our movies about corruption, good won out over evil in the end. Our heroes were, well, heroes.\n\nThat changed in the \'70s, when movies like \"Three Days of the Condor,\" \"The Conversation\" and \"The Parallax View\" fed our fear of conspiracies and told us that one person couldn\'t really be a hero anymore. By the \'80s, when we literally began worshiping money, we even had a movie hero tell us that \"Greed is good.\"\n\nYes, you can tell a lot about a society by how it chooses to entertain itself.\n\nSo what entertains us now?\n\nZombies.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1200\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Our heroes\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/tumblr_l5b1yeIpjF1qzktngo1_500.png\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1200\" title=\"tumblr_l5b1yeIpjF1qzktngo1_500\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/tumblr_l5b1yeIpjF1qzktngo1_500-300x225.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nIt started in 1968, with George Romero\'s low-budget classic, \"Night of the Living Dead.\" A lot of people didn\'t know it, but Romero was laying a message in between the lines. He couldn\'t come right out and say it, but by that time, television and consumerism had already started turning Americans into, well, zombies.\n\nIt was more than just a coincidence that \'68 was the first year Madison Avenue sold us a president with the same techniques it used to sell us toothpaste. In fact, that\'s pretty much the way elections have been run ever since then in Zombie America.\n\nBooks are just about extinct now, but books about zombies sell pretty well. Movies get made and remade, and one of the best-reviewed new television shows of 2010 was \"Walking Dead\" on American Movie Classics.\n\nIt isn\'t that zombies are the heroes of the stories. It\'s more that a dwindling number of human beings fight desperately to hold out against a world in which more and more people have lost their humanity.\n\nSound familiar?\n\nThink about how much less of a premium we put on intelligence anymore. Look at how many people running for president -- usually Republicans -- deny believing in proven scientific things like evolution, archaeology and climate change. I\'d like to believe they\'re lying, that they\'re only doing what they must to get votes from the right-wing base, but I have my doubts.\n\nLook at how callous we have become toward people who are really struggling to get by. We\'ve got the feelings of zombies.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1201\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"211\" caption=\"Earth Day 1970\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/280px-Kellyposter1970.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1201\" title=\"280px-Kellyposter1970\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/280px-Kellyposter1970-211x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"211\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nI remember the classic old line from Walt Kelly\'s wonderful strip \"Pogo,\" in which he said, \"We have met the enemy and he is us.\"\n\nKelly wrote that for the first Earth Day in 1970, and if you wonder how much less zombified we were then, consider that it was a Republican president, Richard Nixon, who basically created what government intervention there is in the environment.\n\nThink about this, too: \"Pogo\" was a fairly intelligent little comic strip that appeared in 500 newspapers for 25 years. Then try to picture someone like Sarah Palin <em>getting</em> \"Pogo.\"\n\nNope.\n\nWe have met the zombies and they are us.\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1199-revision','','','2011-06-05 15:00:54','2011-06-05 22:00:54','',1199,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1202',0,'revision','',0),(1203,1,'2011-06-06 19:10:55','2011-06-07 02:10:55','If there\'s one thing I don\'t do often enough anymore, it\'s just getting out there and talking to average folks.\r\n\r\nToday I took my wife to the doctor\'s office in Atlanta, and while we were waiting for her appointment, I found myself talking to two other people about health care. I would estimate that each of them was no better off than middle class, and might probably have been lower middle class. One was a middle-aged woman who had undergone four different spinal fusions and the other was a young man who was out of pocket $300 a month for pain control medication.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/world-accordign-to-USA.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1204\" title=\"world-accordign-to-USA\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/world-accordign-to-USA-300x192.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"192\" /></a>Neither has health insurance.\r\n\r\nBoth are Georgia voters, the type who at first glance might be fans of Newt Gingrich or Sarah Palin, but not so surprisingly, neither of them thinks America has the \"best health care system in the world.\"\r\n\r\nMy wife and I are spending about $1,000 a month on health care, the bulk of that for really good health insurance. We\'re actually very fortunate in that we have a back-up plan as well; if anything ever goes wrong with our insurance here, we also have coverage in France.\r\n\r\nFrance has the system that has been rated as the world\'s best, and Americans might be surprised to learn that it\'s actually a mixture of public and private coverages. Government insurance covers 70 percent of the cost, while people can buy supplemental (private) coverage for 20 percent of the cost. That leaves people paying no more than 10 percent of their costs.\r\n\r\nBoth of the people I discussed things with today said they thought we would be much better off with a system like Canada has, and both seemed to understand that most of the negatives they have been hearing on radio and television about so-called \"socialized\" medicine were politically motivated.\r\n\r\nMy only question when it comes to insurance is why something that people really have to have should be governed by the profit motive.\r\n\r\nI\'ve never heard a good answer to that one.\r\n\r\nI doubt I ever will.','\'Real folks\' seem pretty smart on health care','','publish','open','open','','real-folks-seem-pretty-smart-on-health-care','','','2011-06-06 19:10:55','2011-06-07 02:10:55','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1203',0,'post','',0),(1204,1,'2011-06-06 19:01:06','2011-06-07 02:01:06','','world-accordign-to-USA','','inherit','open','open','','world-accordign-to-usa','','','2011-06-06 19:01:06','2011-06-07 02:01:06','',1203,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/world-accordign-to-USA.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1205,1,'2011-06-06 19:10:16','2011-06-07 02:10:16','If there\'s one thing I don\'t do often enough anymore, it\'s just getting out there and talking to average folks.\n\nToday I took my wife to the doctor\'s office in Atlanta, and while we were waiting for her appointment, I found myself talking to two other people about health care. I would estimate that each of them was no better off than middle class, and might probably have been lower middle class. One was a middle-aged woman who had undergone four different spinal fusions and the other was a young man who was out of pocket $300 a month for pain control medication.\n\n<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/world-accordign-to-USA.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1204\" title=\"world-accordign-to-USA\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/world-accordign-to-USA-300x192.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"192\" /></a>Neither has health insurance.\n\nBoth are Georgia voters, the type who at first glance might be fans of Newt Gingrich or Sarah Palin, but not so surprisingly, neither of them thinks America has the \"best health care system in the world.\"\n\nMy wife and I are spending about $1,000 a month on health care, the bulk of that for really good health insurance. We\'re actually very fortunate in that we have a back-up plan as well; if anything ever goes wrong with our insurance here, we also have coverage in France.\n\nFrance has the system that has been rated as the world\'s best, and Americans might be surprised to learn that it\'s actually a mixture of public and private coverages. Government insurance covers 70 percent of the cost, while people can buy supplemental (private) coverage for 20 percent of the cost. That leaves people paying no more than 10 percent of their costs.\n\nBoth of the people I discussed things with today said they thought we would be much better off with a system like Canada has, and both seemed to understand that most of the negatives they have been hearing on radio and television about so-called \"socialized\" medicine were politically motivated.\n\nMy only question when it comes to insurance is why something that people really have to have should be governed by the profit motive.\n\nI\'ve never heard a good answer to that one.\n\nI doubt I ever will.','','','inherit','open','open','','1203-revision','','','2011-06-06 19:10:16','2011-06-07 02:10:16','',1203,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1205',0,'revision','',0),(1206,1,'2011-06-07 20:06:13','2011-06-08 03:06:13','Within the next couple of weeks, I will be spending time in two countries I have never visited before.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1207\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Noordwijk\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/noordwijk1.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1207\" title=\"noordwijk1\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/noordwijk1-300x196.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"196\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nThis Saturday, assuming that Delta is ready when we are, Nicole and I will be flying to Amsterdam for a scientific conference (her, not me) in the Netherlands. We will actually be in <a title=\"Noordwijk\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noordwijk\">Noordwijk</a>, which is in the western part of the country on the North Sea. I have never been to the Netherlands, but we will only be there for a week until the conference ends and we hop on a couple of Lufthansa flights and head down to Greece.\r\n\r\nThat\'s the vacation part of the trip. We\'ll be in Athens visiting our son and his wife. Virgile and Sterling have been in Greece a little less than a year on their first tour with the Foreign Service.\r\n\r\nI\'m actually fairly excited about going to Greece, which I figure is one of the most interesting countries in the world that I have yet to visit. So much of western history, so much of our philosophy and our politics, comes from the ancient Greeks.\r\n\r\nI\'m not a world traveler. If you compare me to my parents, I come off as one of those old-fashioned hillbillies who never went more than 100 miles from where they were born. On the other hand, if you compare me to my friend Mick, who has never been outside North America, I\'m Phileas Fogg.\r\n\r\nThere are still places in the world I would like to see before I die. Australia is at the top of my list, with Egypt and Israel next and possibly Brazil and/or Argentina after that. But really, I almost feel like I would rather return to some of the places I love -- London, Paris, Venice, a few others.\r\n\r\nWell, traveling is fun.\r\n\r\nBut after three weeks away, I know I\'ll be glad to get home.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Back to Europe this month for two new countries','','publish','open','open','','back-to-europe-this-month-for-two-new-countries','','','2011-06-07 20:06:13','2011-06-08 03:06:13','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1206',0,'post','',1),(1207,1,'2011-06-07 19:55:39','2011-06-08 02:55:39','','noordwijk1','Noordwijk','inherit','open','open','','noordwijk1','','','2011-06-07 19:55:39','2011-06-08 02:55:39','',1206,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/noordwijk1.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1208,1,'2011-06-07 20:05:59','2011-06-08 03:05:59','Within the next couple of weeks, I will be spending time in two countries I have never visited before.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1207\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Noordwijk\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/noordwijk1.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1207\" title=\"noordwijk1\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/noordwijk1-300x196.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"196\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nThis Saturday, assuming that Delta is ready when we are, Nicole and I will be flying to Amsterdam for a scientific conference (her, not me) in the Netherlands. We will actually be in <a title=\"Noordwijk\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noordwijk\">Noordwijk</a>, which is in the western part of the country on the North Sea. I have never been to the Netherlands, but we will only be there for a week until the conference ends and we hop on a couple of Lufthansa flights and head down to Greece.\n\nThat\'s the vacation part of the trip. We\'ll be in Athens visiting our son and his wife. Virgile and Sterling have been in Greece a little less than a year on their first tour with the Foreign Service.\n\nI\'m actually fairly excited about going to Greece, which I figure is one of the most interesting countries in the world that I have yet to visit. So much of western history, so much of our philosophy and our politics, comes from the ancient Greeks.\n\nI\'m not a world traveler. If you compare me to my parents, I come off as one of those old-fashioned hillbillies who never went more than 100 miles from where they were born. On the other hand, if you compare me to my friend Mick, who has never been outside North America, I\'m Phileas Fogg.\n\nThere are still places in the world I would like to see before I die. Australia is at the top of my list, with Egypt and Israel next and possibly Brazil and/or Argentina after that. But really, I almost feel like I would rather return to some of the places I love -- London, Paris, Venice, a few others.\n\nWell, traveling is fun.\n\nBut after three weeks away, I know I\'ll be glad to get home.\n\n&nbsp;','Back to Europe this month for two new countries','','inherit','open','open','','1206-revision','','','2011-06-07 20:05:59','2011-06-08 03:05:59','',1206,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1208',0,'revision','',0),(1210,1,'2011-06-08 15:19:08','2011-06-08 22:19:08','','20110525_1','Green green grass of home','inherit','open','open','','20110525_1','','','2011-06-08 15:19:08','2011-06-08 22:19:08','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/20110525_1.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1568,1,'2012-02-19 19:58:31','2012-02-20 03:58:31','<strong><em>“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.\"\n</em>-- NEIL POSTMAN</strong>\n\n<strong><em><a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/amuse.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1567\" title=\"amuse\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/amuse-195x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"195\" height=\"300\" /></a>\n</em></strong>Do you know what the two most destructive words in the English language are?\n\n<em>\"Now ... this.\"</em>\n\nNeil Postman wrote books that are literally painful to read, and none are more painful than \"Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business.\"\n\nIn a way, he says, Aldous Huxley turned out to be far more correct than George Orwell was. And while it may surprise anyone under the age of 40 to learn that prior to 1974, there were no mainstream magazines devoted to news of celebrities and their lives. That was when <em>People</em> made its debut, with Mia Farrow on the cover. And prior to 1981, there were no television shows devoted to news of the entertainment industry. <em>ET</em> (Entertainment Tonight) made its appearance one year before ET (the extraterrestrial).\n\nEven then, though, we hadn\'t gone one toke over the line. Shows like <em>ET</em> and magazines like <em>People</em> were what they were and no one was looking to either of them for serious news of the world. But with the advent of hour-long local newscasts and newspapers like <em>USA Today</em>, the line kept getting farther and farther from real news.\n\nIt would be difficult for anyone who spent nearly 30 years as a print journalist not to think <em>USA Today</em> was a slippery slope all in itself. One can argue chicken/egg here as to whether the shorter stories and bigger photos filled a desire of readers or whether the format dumbed down readers all by itself.\n\nBut there\'s no arguing the disaster most local newscasts have been.\n\nPostman describes \"Now ... this\" as a way of informing viewers that it\'s time to stop thinking about the previous story and move on to something else. Yes, that school fire that killed eight children was sad, but 45 seconds is enough time for that. And we\'ve got Sally out at the zoo to report on the baby hippo that was just born.\n\nI gave up on local television news in 1994 when I watched an entire 30-minute late news show on one of the major networks. There wasn\'t one story that didn\'t involve either car chases, celebrities, crime or some local scandal. Then we had a couple minutes of weather, a few minutes of sports and some happy-talk feature to finish with.\n\nIs it any wonder we have the attention span of hummingbirds?\n\nNow ... this.\n\nYou hear me? Stop thinking about the hummingbirds. Lindsay Lohan had another meltdown, the governator fathered an illegitimate child and there\'s a new <em>\"Star Wars\"</em> movie coming out.\n\nAgainst all odds against people hearing foreign news, Iran has been in the news lately. How many of you know the language they speak in Iran? How many of you know the ethnic background or Iranians? <em>Hint: They\'re not Arabs.</em> How many of you know who the real leader of the country is? <em>Hint: It\'s not Ahmadinejad.</em>\n\nFace it. We\'ve got the neo-con chorus screaming for war with Iran, and 80 percent of us couldn\'t even find it on a map.\n\nOrwell was wrong. The year 1984 came and went.\n\nHuxley was right, even if there isn\'t much that\'s brave about our new world.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1566-revision','','','2012-02-19 19:58:31','2012-02-20 03:58:31','',1566,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1568',0,'revision','',0),(1212,1,'2011-06-08 19:13:35','2011-06-09 02:13:35','<em>\"The good die first. And they whose hearts are dry as summer dust burn to the socket.\"</em>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1214\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Since you went away.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/since-you-went-away-4.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1214\" title=\"since you went away 4\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/since-you-went-away-4-300x222.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"222\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nThe line is from one of my favorite movies, the World War II home-front classic, \"Since You Went Away.\" It\'s the reaction of a grandfather on learning that his estranged grandson has been killed in battle, from a time when all Americans pulled together for the good of the country and the world.\r\n\r\nSo whether it\'s William O. Selznick or Billy Joel, one of the common themes in our culture seems to be that only the good die young. That seems especially true in a world where our political leaders on both sides of the aisle just seem to get sleazier and sleazier. It really does almost seem that we have reached a point in our society where anyone who spends their time thinking about politics is just wasting their time.\r\n\r\nBut one thing really is true, and that is that we get the government we deserve. We don\'t keep up with things the way we used to, and too many of us have become selfish and only concerned with ourselves.\r\n\r\nToday I was driving past one of the dozens and dozens of churches here in Griffin, and I saw something that really impressed me. Rather than speaking of what God can do for us, it spoke of what we can do for others.\r\n\r\n<em>\"God helps those who help others.\"</em>\r\n\r\nAn interesting thought in these days of selfishness, of Ayn Rand-style Libertarianism. God wants us to be good to each other.\r\n\r\nWhen I was re-watching \"Since You Went Away\" tonight, I was reminded of the wonderful words written on the tablet of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. Most of us have heard the famous words that make up the last few lines of Emma Lazarus\' sonnet, \"The New Colossus,\" but I think the entire 14 lines say something wonderful about our country.\r\n\r\n<em>\"Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,</em>\r\n<em> \"With conquering limbs astride from land to land;</em>\r\n<em> \"Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand</em>\r\n<em> \"A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame</em>\r\n<em> \"Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name</em>\r\n<em> \"Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand</em>\r\n<em> \"Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command</em>\r\n<em> \"The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.</em>\r\n<em> \"\'Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!\' cries she</em>\r\n<em> \"With silent lips. \'Give me your tired, your poor,</em>\r\n<em> Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,</em>\r\n<em> The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.</em>\r\n<em> Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,</em>\r\n<em> I lift my lamp beside the golden door!\'\"</em>\r\n\r\nI don\'t know how to say this, but we need to get our country back. We need to regain the feeling that problems are solvable if we can work together. That might mean getting rid of the people who are running things now and letting folks who really care about the common good get to work.\r\n\r\nIt would help if we realized that how much money we make or how big a house we own isn\'t really what life is all about. Yes, we have lost too many good leaders -- people who could have made a difference -- who died young. In the end, though, I think where we went off track was when each of us started thinking we were more important than we really are.\r\n\r\nThe last shot of \"Since You Went Away,\" as the camera pulls back from the typical American home, gives some pretty good advice with a quote on the screen.\r\n\r\n<em>\"Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord.\"</em>\r\n\r\nWe don\'t need to tell other people how to live their lives, or see God as someone who hates people who don\'t follow some narrow path. We don\'t even need to tell people that God is on our side. He isn\'t.\r\n\r\nAbraham Lincoln, another good man who died too young, said it best when he said we shouldn\'t worry whether God is on our side.\r\n\r\nWe should be more concerned, Lincoln said, with whether we are on God\'s side.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Time to start looking for positive solutions','','publish','open','open','','time-to-start-looking-for-positive-solutions','','','2011-06-08 19:13:35','2011-06-09 02:13:35','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1212',0,'post','',0),(1213,1,'2011-06-08 17:57:03','2011-06-09 00:57:03','<em>\"The good die first. And they whose hearts are dry as summer dust burn to the socket.\"</em>\n\nThe line is from one of my favorite movies, the World War II home-front classic, \"Since You Went Away.\" It\'s the reaction of a grandfather on learning that his estranged grandson has been killed in battle, from a time when all Americans pulled together for the good of the country and the world.\n\nSo whether it\'s William O. Selznick or Billy Joel, one of the common themes in our culture seems to be that only the good die young. That seems especially true in a world where our political leaders on both sides of the aisle just seem to get sleazier and sleazier. It really does almost seem that we have reached a point in our society where anyone who spends their time thinking about politics','','','inherit','open','open','','1212-revision','','','2011-06-08 17:57:03','2011-06-09 00:57:03','',1212,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1213',0,'revision','',0),(1214,1,'2011-06-08 18:02:13','2011-06-09 01:02:13','','since you went away 4','Since you went away.','inherit','open','open','','since-you-went-away-4','','','2011-06-08 18:02:13','2011-06-09 01:02:13','',1212,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/since-you-went-away-4.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1215,1,'2011-06-08 18:08:58','2011-06-09 01:08:58','<em>\"The good die first. And they whose hearts are dry as summer dust burn to the socket.\"</em>\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1214\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Since you went away.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/since-you-went-away-4.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1214\" title=\"since you went away 4\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/since-you-went-away-4-300x222.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"222\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nThe line is from one of my favorite movies, the World War II home-front classic, \"Since You Went Away.\" It\'s the reaction of a grandfather on learning that his estranged grandson has been killed in battle, from a time when all Americans pulled together for the good of the country and the world.\n\nSo whether it\'s William O. Selznick or Billy Joel, one of the common themes in our culture seems to be that only the good die young. That seems especially true in a world where our political leaders on both sides of the aisle just seem to get sleazier and sleazier. It really does almost seem that we have reached a point in our society where anyone who spends their time thinking about politics is just wasting their time.\n\nBut one thing really is true, and that is that we get the government we deserve. We don\'t keep up with things the way we used to, and too many of us have become selfish and only concerned with ourselves.\n\nToday I was driving past one of the dozens and dozens of churches here in Griffin, and I saw something that really impressed me. Rather than\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1212-revision-2','','','2011-06-08 18:08:58','2011-06-09 01:08:58','',1212,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1215',0,'revision','',0),(1216,1,'2011-06-08 18:27:51','2011-06-09 01:27:51','<em>\"The good die first. And they whose hearts are dry as summer dust burn to the socket.\"</em>\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1214\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Since you went away.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/since-you-went-away-4.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1214\" title=\"since you went away 4\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/since-you-went-away-4-300x222.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"222\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nThe line is from one of my favorite movies, the World War II home-front classic, \"Since You Went Away.\" It\'s the reaction of a grandfather on learning that his estranged grandson has been killed in battle, from a time when all Americans pulled together for the good of the country and the world.\n\nSo whether it\'s William O. Selznick or Billy Joel, one of the common themes in our culture seems to be that only the good die young. That seems especially true in a world where our political leaders on both sides of the aisle just seem to get sleazier and sleazier. It really does almost seem that we have reached a point in our society where anyone who spends their time thinking about politics is just wasting their time.\n\nBut one thing really is true, and that is that we get the government we deserve. We don\'t keep up with things the way we used to, and too many of us have become selfish and only concerned with ourselves.\n\nToday I was driving past one of the dozens and dozens of churches here in Griffin, and I saw something that really impressed me. Rather than speaking of what God can do for us, it spoke of what we can do for others.\n\n<em>\"God helps those who help others.\"</em>\n\nAn interesting thought in these days of selfishness, of Ayn Rand-style Libertarianism\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1212-revision-3','','','2011-06-08 18:27:51','2011-06-09 01:27:51','',1212,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1216',0,'revision','',0),(1217,1,'2011-06-08 19:13:28','2011-06-09 02:13:28','<em>\"The good die first. And they whose hearts are dry as summer dust burn to the socket.\"</em>\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1214\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Since you went away.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/since-you-went-away-4.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1214\" title=\"since you went away 4\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/since-you-went-away-4-300x222.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"222\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nThe line is from one of my favorite movies, the World War II home-front classic, \"Since You Went Away.\" It\'s the reaction of a grandfather on learning that his estranged grandson has been killed in battle, from a time when all Americans pulled together for the good of the country and the world.\n\nSo whether it\'s William O. Selznick or Billy Joel, one of the common themes in our culture seems to be that only the good die young. That seems especially true in a world where our political leaders on both sides of the aisle just seem to get sleazier and sleazier. It really does almost seem that we have reached a point in our society where anyone who spends their time thinking about politics is just wasting their time.\n\nBut one thing really is true, and that is that we get the government we deserve. We don\'t keep up with things the way we used to, and too many of us have become selfish and only concerned with ourselves.\n\nToday I was driving past one of the dozens and dozens of churches here in Griffin, and I saw something that really impressed me. Rather than speaking of what God can do for us, it spoke of what we can do for others.\n\n<em>\"God helps those who help others.\"</em>\n\nAn interesting thought in these days of selfishness, of Ayn Rand-style Libertarianism. God wants us to be good to each other.\n\nWhen I was re-watching \"Since You Went Away\" tonight, I was reminded of the wonderful words written on the tablet of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. Most of us have heard the famous words that make up the last few lines of Emma Lazarus\' sonnet, \"The New Colossus,\" but I think the entire 14 lines say something wonderful about our country.\n\n<em>\"Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,</em>\n<em> \"With conquering limbs astride from land to land;</em>\n<em> \"Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand</em>\n<em> \"A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame</em>\n<em> \"Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name</em>\n<em> \"Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand</em>\n<em> \"Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command</em>\n<em> \"The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.</em>\n<em> \"\'Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!\' cries she</em>\n<em> \"With silent lips. \'Give me your tired, your poor,</em>\n<em> Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,</em>\n<em> The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.</em>\n<em> Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,</em>\n<em> I lift my lamp beside the golden door!\'\"</em>\n\nI don\'t know how to say this, but we need to get our country back. We need to regain the feeling that problems are solvable if we can work together. That might mean getting rid of the people who are running things now and letting folks who really care about the common good get to work.\n\nIt would help if we realized that how much money we make or how big a house we own isn\'t really what life is all about. Yes, we have lost too many good leaders -- people who could have made a difference -- who died young. In the end, though, I think where we went off track was when each of us started thinking we were more important than we really are.\n\nThe last shot of \"Since You Went Away,\" as the camera pulls back from the typical American home, gives some pretty good advice with a quote on the screen.\n\n<em>\"Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord.\"</em>\n\nWe don\'t need to tell other people how to live their lives, or see God as someone who hates people who don\'t follow some narrow path. We don\'t even need to tell people that God is on our side. He isn\'t.\n\nAbraham Lincoln, another good man who died too young, said it best when he said we shouldn\'t worry whether God is on our side.\n\nWe should be more concerned, Lincoln said, with whether we are on God\'s side.\n\n&nbsp;','Time to start looking for positive solutions','','inherit','open','open','','1212-revision-4','','','2011-06-08 19:13:28','2011-06-09 02:13:28','',1212,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1217',0,'revision','',0),(1566,1,'2012-02-19 19:59:23','2012-02-20 03:59:23','<strong><em>“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.\"\r\n</em>-- NEIL POSTMAN</strong>\r\n\r\n<strong><em><a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/amuse.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1567\" title=\"amuse\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/amuse-195x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"195\" height=\"300\" /></a>\r\n</em></strong>Do you know what the two most destructive words in the English language are?\r\n\r\n<em>\"Now ... this.\"</em>\r\n\r\nNeil Postman wrote books that are literally painful to read, and none are more painful than \"Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business.\"\r\n\r\nIn a way, he says, Aldous Huxley turned out to be far more correct than George Orwell was. And while it may surprise anyone under the age of 40 to learn that prior to 1974, there were no mainstream magazines devoted to news of celebrities and their lives. That was when <em>People</em> made its debut, with Mia Farrow on the cover. And prior to 1981, there were no television shows devoted to news of the entertainment industry. <em>ET</em> (Entertainment Tonight) made its appearance one year before ET (the extraterrestrial).\r\n\r\nEven then, though, we hadn\'t gone one toke over the line. Shows like <em>ET</em> and magazines like <em>People</em> were what they were and no one was looking to either of them for serious news of the world. But with the advent of hour-long local newscasts and newspapers like <em>USA Today</em>, the line kept getting farther and farther from real news.\r\n\r\nIt would be difficult for anyone who spent nearly 30 years as a print journalist not to think <em>USA Today</em> was a slippery slope all in itself. One can argue chicken/egg here as to whether the shorter stories and bigger photos filled a desire of readers or whether the format dumbed down readers all by itself.\r\n\r\nBut there\'s no arguing the disaster most local newscasts have been.\r\n\r\nPostman describes \"Now ... this\" as a way of informing viewers that it\'s time to stop thinking about the previous story and move on to something else. Yes, that school fire that killed eight children was sad, but 45 seconds is enough time for that. And we\'ve got Sally out at the zoo to report on the baby hippo that was just born.\r\n\r\nI gave up on local television news in 1994 when I watched an entire 30-minute late news show on one of the major networks. There wasn\'t one story that didn\'t involve either car chases, celebrities, crime or some local scandal. Then we had a couple minutes of weather, a few minutes of sports and some happy-talk feature to finish with.\r\n\r\nIs it any wonder we have the attention span of hummingbirds?\r\n\r\nNow ... this.\r\n\r\nYou hear me? Stop thinking about the hummingbirds. Lindsay Lohan had another meltdown, the governator fathered an illegitimate child and there\'s a new <em>\"Star Wars\"</em> movie coming out.\r\n\r\nAgainst all odds against people hearing foreign news, Iran has been in the news lately. How many of you know the language they speak in Iran? How many of you know the ethnic background or Iranians? <em>Hint: They\'re not Arabs.</em> How many of you know who the real leader of the country is? <em>Hint: It\'s not Ahmadinejad.</em>\r\n\r\nFace it. We\'ve got the neo-con chorus screaming for war with Iran, and 80 percent of us couldn\'t even find it on a map.\r\n\r\nOrwell was wrong. The year 1984 came and went.\r\n\r\nHuxley was right, even if there isn\'t much that\'s brave about our new world.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','It\'s really scary how \'amusing\' our culture is now','','publish','open','open','','its-really-scary-how-amusing-our-culture-has-become','','','2012-02-19 19:59:45','2012-02-20 03:59:45','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1566',0,'post','',0),(1567,1,'2012-02-19 19:27:24','2012-02-20 03:27:24','','amuse','','inherit','open','open','','amuse','','','2012-02-19 19:27:24','2012-02-20 03:27:24','',1566,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/amuse.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1224,1,'2011-07-02 15:47:33','2011-07-02 22:47:33','I don\'t know what impressed me the most about Greece, whether it was the 2,500-year-old relics that remind us democracy was born here or the angry demonstrators who remind us that it isn\'t completely dead yet.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1225\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Old Socrates sure built him some purty buildings.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/20110702_42.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1225\" title=\"20110702_42\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/20110702_42-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nThe three weeks I just spent in Europe on my sixth trip to the mother continent probably weren\'t the most exciting. Indeed, once or twice this trip tended to take on \"vacation from hell\" characteristics, and I was pretty sure I saw Clark Griswold at least once. But these days, any opportunity to escape the land of Dancing With the Stars, Double Whoppers and the Kardashians is a welcome one and after all, I had never been to Athens.\r\n\r\nGreece, that is.\r\n\r\n<em>Swimming pools and movie stars ...</em>\r\n\r\nSorry, wrong segue.\r\n\r\nI have been to Athens, Georgia, on a football Saturday in October, and if life gets any better than that in Greece, I\'m pretty sure it involves Ouzo.\r\n\r\nWe spent two weeks in Greece, and the best part of it was spending time with our wonderful son Virgile and his lovely wife Sterling. They took us to a beach near Marathon one weekend and to the Temple of Poseidon on the southern tip of that part of the country the next weekend. Since they worked during the week, we did some sightseeing on our own the rest of the time.\r\n\r\nIt was wonderful to climb the Acropolis and see the Parthenon, although I was a little disappointed that the sight didn\'t move me as viscerally as when I turned a street corner in Rome in 1977 and saw the Colosseum. Of course, I think that might be the fact that my sense of wonder isn\'t as strong at age 61 as it was when I was 27.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1226\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Even the Greeks protest in English.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/20110702_116.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1226\" title=\"20110702_116\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/20110702_116-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nI was thrilled to see the young Greeks trying to stand up to the combined wrath of their own government, the IMF and the European Union. The spirit of the folks in <a title=\"Syntagma Square\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntagma_Square\">Syntagma Square</a> is something we could really use in the land of the dollar bill, intelligent design and best-selling author Bristol Palin.\r\n\r\nIt\'s definitely nice to see people standing up around the world and saying to rich folks, \"No, you don\'t get to have <em>all</em> the money.\"\r\n\r\nAnd in Greece, they don\'t respond by saying that Mitch McConnell told them it was OK.\r\n\r\nYes, it was definitely nice to be in Athens, but after three weeks on the road, it is good to be home.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Some folks still standing up for democracy','','publish','open','open','','some-folks-still-standing-yp-for-democracy','','','2011-07-02 15:47:55','2011-07-02 22:47:55','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1224',0,'post','',0),(1221,1,'2011-06-10 20:08:02','2011-06-11 03:08:02','In the summer of 1977, I was as removed from baseball as I\'ve ever been. The summer that was portrayed in \"The Bronx is Burning\" found me living in Vienna, Austria, and traveling around Europe on a EurailPass.\r\n\r\nMeanwhile, New York was being terrorized by the Son of Sam killer and George Steinbrenner\'s Yankees were in turmoil during Reggie Jackson\'s first season in New York.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1222\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"217\" caption=\"The Bronx was burning.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/john-turturro-daniel-sunjata-autographed-signed-the-bronx-is-burning-dvd_838c137c28083abbd0dc9ebf9c749f27.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1222\" title=\"john-turturro-daniel-sunjata-autographed-signed-the-bronx-is-burning-dvd_838c137c28083abbd0dc9ebf9c749f27\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/john-turturro-daniel-sunjata-autographed-signed-the-bronx-is-burning-dvd_838c137c28083abbd0dc9ebf9c749f27-217x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"217\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nI didn\'t watch the eight-part miniseries about that summer on ESPN -- I really don\'t watch television anymore -- but when I saw the DVD in the $5 bin at Walmart, I couldn\'t resist the chance to check it out. I won\'t be able to watch all eight parts between now and the time we leave for Europe, but I expect to get halfway through it.\r\n\r\nFrom what I\'ve seen of the series so far, it\'s pretty obvious that the unsung hero of the story was Yankee catcher Thurman Munson. One of the saddest moments I remember came two summers later. We were driving from Washington, D.C., to Montreal on the first leg of our vacation when we heard on the radio that Munson had been killed when his private plane crashed near Canton, Ohio.\r\n\r\nI was just 29 that summer, and I\'m not sure I ever felt so old when I was actually so young. That was the summer my marriage was falling apart, and two weeks in Montreal, Boston and New York didn\'t help a bit. The worst part of it was, we didn\'t see a single baseball game.\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">***</p>\r\nI don\'t think I\'ll be writing for this site for the rest of the month. We\'ll be in Europe and I\'m not sure what my computer access will be like.\r\n\r\nSee you in July.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','\'Bronx is Burning\' brings back memories of \'77','','publish','open','open','','bronx-is-burning-brings-back-memories-of-77','','','2011-06-10 20:08:02','2011-06-11 03:08:02','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1221',0,'post','',0),(1222,1,'2011-06-10 19:36:00','2011-06-11 02:36:00','','john-turturro-daniel-sunjata-autographed-signed-the-bronx-is-burning-dvd_838c137c28083abbd0dc9ebf9c749f27','The Bronx was burning.','inherit','open','open','','john-turturro-daniel-sunjata-autographed-signed-the-bronx-is-burning-dvd_838c137c28083abbd0dc9ebf9c749f27','','','2011-06-10 19:36:00','2011-06-11 02:36:00','',1221,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/john-turturro-daniel-sunjata-autographed-signed-the-bronx-is-burning-dvd_838c137c28083abbd0dc9ebf9c749f27.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1223,1,'2011-06-10 20:07:59','2011-06-11 03:07:59','In the summer of 1977, I was as removed from baseball as I\'ve ever been. The summer that was portrayed in \"The Bronx is Burning\" found me living in Vienna, Austria, and traveling around Europe on a EurailPass.\n\nMeanwhile, New York was being terrorized by the Son of Sam killer and George Steinbrenner\'s Yankees were in turmoil during Reggie Jackson\'s first season in New York.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1222\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"217\" caption=\"The Bronx was burning.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/john-turturro-daniel-sunjata-autographed-signed-the-bronx-is-burning-dvd_838c137c28083abbd0dc9ebf9c749f27.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1222\" title=\"john-turturro-daniel-sunjata-autographed-signed-the-bronx-is-burning-dvd_838c137c28083abbd0dc9ebf9c749f27\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/john-turturro-daniel-sunjata-autographed-signed-the-bronx-is-burning-dvd_838c137c28083abbd0dc9ebf9c749f27-217x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"217\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nI didn\'t watch the eight-part miniseries about that summer on ESPN -- I really don\'t watch television anymore -- but when I saw the DVD in the $5 bin at Walmart, I couldn\'t resist the chance to check it out. I won\'t be able to watch all eight parts between now and the time we leave for Europe, but I expect to get halfway through it.\n\nFrom what I\'ve seen of the series so far, it\'s pretty obvious that the unsung hero of the story was Yankee catcher Thurman Munson. One of the saddest moments I remember came two summers later. We were driving from Washington, D.C., to Montreal on the first leg of our vacation when we heard on the radio that Munson had been killed when his private plane crashed near Canton, Ohio.\n\nI was just 29 that summer, and I\'m not sure I ever felt so old when I was actually so young. That was the summer my marriage was falling apart, and two weeks in Montreal, Boston and New York didn\'t help a bit. The worst part of it was, we didn\'t see a single baseball game.\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">***</p>\nI don\'t think I\'ll be writing for this site for the rest of the month. We\'ll be in Europe and I\'m not sure what my computer access will be like.\n\nSee you in July.\n\n&nbsp;','\'Bronx is Burning\' brings back memories of','','inherit','open','open','','1221-revision','','','2011-06-10 20:07:59','2011-06-11 03:07:59','',1221,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1223',0,'revision','',0),(1225,1,'2011-07-02 15:18:58','2011-07-02 22:18:58','','20110702_42','Old Socrates sure built him some purty buildings.','inherit','open','open','','20110702_42','','','2011-07-02 15:18:58','2011-07-02 22:18:58','',1224,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/20110702_42.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1226,1,'2011-07-02 15:28:37','2011-07-02 22:28:37','','20110702_116','Even the Greeks protest in English.','inherit','open','open','','20110702_116','','','2011-07-02 15:28:37','2011-07-02 22:28:37','',1224,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/20110702_116.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1227,1,'2011-07-02 15:47:25','2011-07-02 22:47:25','I don\'t know what impressed me the most about Greece, whether it was the 2,500-year-old relics that remind us democracy was born here or the angry demonstrators who remind us that it isn\'t completely dead yet.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1225\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Old Socrates sure built him some purty buildings.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/20110702_42.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1225\" title=\"20110702_42\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/20110702_42-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nThe three weeks I just spent in Europe on my sixth trip to the mother continent probably weren\'t the most exciting. Indeed, once or twice this trip tended to take on \"vacation from hell\" characteristics, and I was pretty sure I saw Clark Griswold at least once. But these days, any opportunity to escape the land of Dancing With the Stars, Double Whoppers and the Kardashians is a welcome one and after all, I had never been to Athens.\n\nGreece, that is.\n\n<em>Swimming pools and movie stars ...</em>\n\nSorry, wrong segue.\n\nI have been to Athens, Georgia, on a football Saturday in October, and if life gets any better than that in Greece, I\'m pretty sure it involves Ouzo.\n\nWe spent two weeks in Greece, and the best part of it was spending time with our wonderful son Virgile and his lovely wife Sterling. They took us to a beach near Marathon one weekend and to the Temple of Poseidon on the southern tip of that part of the country the next weekend. Since they worked during the week, we did some sightseeing on our own the rest of the time.\n\nIt was wonderful to climb the Acropolis and see the Parthenon, although I was a little disappointed that the sight didn\'t move me as viscerally as when I turned a street corner in Rome in 1977 and saw the Colosseum. Of course, I think that might be the fact that my sense of wonder isn\'t as strong at age 61 as it was when I was 27.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1226\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Even the Greeks protest in English.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/20110702_116.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1226\" title=\"20110702_116\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/20110702_116-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nI was thrilled to see the young Greeks trying to stand up to the combined wrath of their own government, the IMF and the European Union. The spirit of the folks in <a title=\"Syntagma Square\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntagma_Square\">Syntagma Square</a> is something we could really use in the land of the dollar bill, intelligent design and best-selling author Bristol Palin.\n\nIt\'s definitely nice to see people standing up around the world and saying to rich folks, \"No, you don\'t get to have <em>all</em> the money.\"\n\nAnd in Greece, they don\'t respond by saying that Mitch McConnell told them it was OK.\n\nYes, it was definitely nice to be in Athens, but after three weeks on the road, it is good to be home.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','Some folks still sta','','inherit','open','open','','1224-revision','','','2011-07-02 15:47:25','2011-07-02 22:47:25','',1224,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1227',0,'revision','',0),(1228,1,'2011-07-02 15:47:33','2011-07-02 22:47:33','I don\'t know what impressed me the most about Greece, whether it was the 2,500-year-old relics that remind us democracy was born here or the angry demonstrators who remind us that it isn\'t completely dead yet.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1225\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Old Socrates sure built him some purty buildings.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/20110702_42.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1225\" title=\"20110702_42\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/20110702_42-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nThe three weeks I just spent in Europe on my sixth trip to the mother continent probably weren\'t the most exciting. Indeed, once or twice this trip tended to take on \"vacation from hell\" characteristics, and I was pretty sure I saw Clark Griswold at least once. But these days, any opportunity to escape the land of Dancing With the Stars, Double Whoppers and the Kardashians is a welcome one and after all, I had never been to Athens.\r\n\r\nGreece, that is.\r\n\r\n<em>Swimming pools and movie stars ...</em>\r\n\r\nSorry, wrong segue.\r\n\r\nI have been to Athens, Georgia, on a football Saturday in October, and if life gets any better than that in Greece, I\'m pretty sure it involves Ouzo.\r\n\r\nWe spent two weeks in Greece, and the best part of it was spending time with our wonderful son Virgile and his lovely wife Sterling. They took us to a beach near Marathon one weekend and to the Temple of Poseidon on the southern tip of that part of the country the next weekend. Since they worked during the week, we did some sightseeing on our own the rest of the time.\r\n\r\nIt was wonderful to climb the Acropolis and see the Parthenon, although I was a little disappointed that the sight didn\'t move me as viscerally as when I turned a street corner in Rome in 1977 and saw the Colosseum. Of course, I think that might be the fact that my sense of wonder isn\'t as strong at age 61 as it was when I was 27.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1226\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Even the Greeks protest in English.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/20110702_116.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1226\" title=\"20110702_116\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/20110702_116-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nI was thrilled to see the young Greeks trying to stand up to the combined wrath of their own government, the IMF and the European Union. The spirit of the folks in <a title=\"Syntagma Square\" href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntagma_Square\">Syntagma Square</a> is something we could really use in the land of the dollar bill, intelligent design and best-selling author Bristol Palin.\r\n\r\nIt\'s definitely nice to see people standing up around the world and saying to rich folks, \"No, you don\'t get to have <em>all</em> the money.\"\r\n\r\nAnd in Greece, they don\'t respond by saying that Mitch McConnell told them it was OK.\r\n\r\nYes, it was definitely nice to be in Athens, but after three weeks on the road, it is good to be home.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Some folks still standing yp for democracy','','inherit','open','open','','1224-revision-2','','','2011-07-02 15:47:33','2011-07-02 22:47:33','',1224,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1228',0,'revision','',0),(1312,1,'2011-07-28 21:50:44','2011-07-29 04:50:44','I have a friend who says he is against big government, big labor and big business, not necessarily in that order.\r\n\r\nMy response is that you can\'t be against all three of those things, yet still live in a big country. The nation that our founders came up with in 1787 had about one one-hundredth as many people as the one we now inhabit, and they all lived in the same time zone.Most of them worked for themselves, mostly as farmers or artisans, and nearly all of them were literate and involved with what was happening in the new nation.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/colonies.gif\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1313\" title=\"colonies\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/colonies-300x169.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" /></a>Since the government wanted to settle the West (which at that time meant Ohio), there was plenty of land available to anyone who wanted it. All they had to do was agree to homestead it for a certain length of time.\r\n\r\nEverybody worked.\r\n\r\nAnd if you couldn\'t make it where you were, all you had to do was keep moving west -- to the frontier.\r\n\r\nMost people didn\'t have debts, and except for purchasing land, most people wouldn\'t have dreamed of incurring debt unless it was absolutely necessary.\r\n\r\nThey worked for themselves, their families and their neighbors to make their community a better place. They weren\'t working to drive someone\'s stock portfolio upward. There were two things that are killing our society now that just weren\'t major factors then.\r\n\r\nOne is mass media and the other is corporations.\r\n\r\nSure, there were newspapers to get information to people, but not only wasn\'t there television, radio, movies or Internet, most folks didn\'t even own books.\r\n\r\nYes, there were some corporations, but none like the ones that came along with the Industrial Revolution. None like the ones that practically demanded we change the way we educate people so that they could have plenty of obedient workers.\r\n\r\nEducator John Taylor Gatto, one of the foremost critics of the way we run our educational factories, aka schools, had a lot of interesting quotes, but this is one of my favorites:\r\n\r\n<em>\"...good things happen to the human spirit when it is left alone.\"</em>\r\n\r\nIt has been a long time since we were free people in control of our own destinies, but what the right-wing Teabaggers want in terms of government won\'t make us any more free.\r\n\r\nFace it, most of our lack of freedom has nothing to do with big government. Most people\'s chains are forged by their employers and their creditors.\r\n\r\nBig business.\r\n\r\nBig rich.\r\n\r\nAs for big labor, it never competed on an even field, and most of the sectors in which it once mattered either don\'t exist anymore -- or are no longer unionized.\r\n\r\nIf you want to be free, tell yourself you\'re not going to participate in the consumer society except when absolutely necessary.\r\n\r\nIn other words, stop buying their crap.\r\n\r\nThen you\'ve taken a big step in the right direction.\r\n\r\nLive for love and happiness, not for a new car or a bigger television.\r\n\r\nIf you buy only what you need and not what you merely want, you\'re on your way to true freedom.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Want to be free? Then stop buying their crap','','publish','open','open','','want-to-be-free-then-stop-buying-their-crap','','','2011-07-28 21:50:44','2011-07-29 04:50:44','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1312',0,'post','',1),(1230,1,'2011-07-04 09:42:22','2011-07-04 16:42:22','<strong><em>\"It\'s not that we will have equal  outcome. In fact, the American dream is that those who work harder and  those who merit it will have unequal outcomes, that they will gain more  of whatever the American dream is.\"</em></strong>\r\n<strong>-- Sen. RAND PAUL</strong>\r\n\r\nActually, that isn\'t it at all, and I would be willing to bet that even John Calvin --from whom the idea behind this came -- would understand that. Even if he was the one who codified and stated the idea that success in life was all about working hard and that God loved those most who worked the hardest.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1231\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"It&#39;s not everyone&#39;s dream.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/American_Dream_Just_add_money.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1231\" title=\"American_Dream_Just_add_money\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/American_Dream_Just_add_money-300x213.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"213\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nThe American Dream?\r\n\r\nIt\'s not really about \"more\" at all. When English philosopher John Locke -- a Calvinist himself for much of his life -- wrote of the rights of man, he said that they were life, liberty and property. Thomas Jefferson rejected that, at least in part, when he said in 1776 that men were endowed by their Creator with the rights to \"life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.\"\r\n\r\nMany of us have forgotten how radical that idea was, especially the part where Jefferson argued that all men were created equal. That\'s true even if he only meant <em>men</em> men and <em>white</em> men. It\'s important to remember that much of the civilized world in 1776 still believed that kings, czars and their ilk had a divine right to rule. The idea that a poor peasant could be created by God as the equal of a king was extremely radical for the time.\r\n\r\nThat\'s what makes our recent obesiance toward the wealthy so ironic. Sixty years ago, after the end of World War II, there was a wonderful statement that summed up Americans so well. I have used it before on this site, so please bear with me for using it again.\r\n\r\n<em>\"An Englishman walks the world as if he owns it. An American walks the world as if he didn\'t give a damn who owns it.\"</em>\r\n\r\nWhen did we lose that? When did we become so obseqious? When did we become bitter and mean instead of cocky and friendly?\r\n\r\nIt\'s hard to believe that everything changed so much in less than half a century. Just half a century ago we had a progressive tax system, a government that was the envy of the world for what it could accomplish and a people who looked to the future and really expected it to be better for their children than it was for them.\r\n\r\nWe balanced our budgets, both nationally and at home. We had jobs that may not have been our dream jobs, but at least we didn\'t stay awake at night worrying how long we would have those jobs.\r\n\r\nMaybe the most ironic thing of all is how we came to mistrust our government. In the years after the war, we rebuilt Europe through the Marshall Plan, an action Winston Churchill called the most unselfish act by any great power in history. At home we built the interstate highway system, a task so massive it could never have been done by private industry.\r\n\r\nWe sent a generation of men to college on the G.I. Bill and we ended American apartheid with the passage of the Civil Rights Act.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1233\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"My country used to be ...\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/capitol-fireworks021.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1233\" title=\"capitol-fireworks021\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/capitol-fireworks021-300x213.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"213\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nYet within a generation we had a significant number of people among us who swore that government couldn\'t do anything as well as private business, and people we had called \"civil servants\" now were being called \"bureaucrats\" and worse.\r\n\r\nAnd by the way, Ronald Reagan never said that government wasn\'t the solution, it was the problem. The quote by the amiable old actor was from his <a title=\"Reagan\'s 1981 inaugural address\" href=\"http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres61.html\">1981 inaugural</a>. Here\'s what he said about the sustained inflation that had been plaguing the country for more than a decade:\r\n\r\n<em>\"The economic ills we suffer have come upon us over several  decades. They will not go away in days, weeks, or months, but they will  go away. They will go away because we, as Americans, have the capacity  now, as we have had in the past, to do whatever needs to be done to  preserve this last and greatest bastion of freedom.</em>\r\n\r\n<em>\"In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem.\"</em>\r\n\r\nThat one quote, so often distorted and misquoted, has fueled an attack on our government by 30 years of conservatives. In fact, many of them have become more Catholic than the Pope when it comes to Reagan. The 40th president may have been the classic example of style trumping substance, but he did after all want to propose to Mikhail Gorbachev that both the U.S. and the USSR eliminate <em>all</em> their nuclear weapons.\r\n\r\nSounds like a pretty good American Dream to me.\r\n\r\nI may be overly optimistic after all we have been through, but I honestly still believe in the goodness of average people in this country. I don\'t think most Americans dream of being millionaires or billionaires, and I\'m pretty sure most folks wouldn\'t want to screw their co-workers or their neighbors if that\'s what it took to get ahead. I think most people are basically moral, at least to the point where they want to earn their success and not steal it.\r\n\r\nIt\'s on July 4th that we seem to remember our ideals a little more than we do on other days of the year. We didn\'t come to America in the 17th and 18th centuries because of the right to bear arms or for a free-market economic system. We came here to speak freely, to worship freely.\r\n\r\nIn 1800, Jefferson wrote that \"I have sworn upon the altar of god, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.\"\r\n\r\nThat\'s a really big part of what our country is all about. I would argue with Jefferson as my bulwark against Rand Paul that when he speaks of those work harder gaining \"more of whatever the American Dream is,\" he\'s dead wrong.\r\n\r\nThe American Dream has never been about \"more.\"\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Sorry, Rand, the American Dream isn\'t about \"more\"','','publish','open','open','','sorry-rand-the-american-dream-isnt-about-more','','','2011-07-04 09:42:22','2011-07-04 16:42:22','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1230',0,'post','',0),(1231,1,'2011-07-04 06:06:29','2011-07-04 13:06:29','','American_Dream_Just_add_money','It\'s not everyone\'s dream.','inherit','open','open','','american_dream_just_add_money','','','2011-07-04 06:06:29','2011-07-04 13:06:29','',1230,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/American_Dream_Just_add_money.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1232,1,'2011-07-04 06:33:51','2011-07-04 13:33:51','<strong><em>\"It\'s not that we will have equal  outcome. In fact, the American dream is that those who work harder and  those who merit it will have unequal outcomes, that they will gain more  of whatever the American dream is.\"</em></strong>\n<strong>-- Sen. RAND PAUL</strong>\n\nActually, that isn\'t it at all, and I would be willing to bet that even John Calvin --from whom the idea behind this came -- would understand that. Even if he was the one who codified and stated the idea that success in life was all about working hard and that God loved those most who worked the hardest.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1231\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"It&#39;s not everyone&#39;s dream.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/American_Dream_Just_add_money.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1231\" title=\"American_Dream_Just_add_money\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/American_Dream_Just_add_money-300x213.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"213\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nThe American Dream?\n\nIt\'s not really about \"more\" at all. When English philosopher John Locke -- a Calvinist himself for much of his life -- wrote of the rights of man, he said that they were life, liberty and property. Thomas Jefferson rejected that, at least in part, when he said in 1776 that men were endowed by their Creator with the rights to \"life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.\"\n\nMany of us have forgotten how radical that idea was, especially the part where Jefferson argued that all men were created equal. That\'s true even if he only meant <em>men</em> men and <em>white</em> men. It\'s important to remember that much of the civilized world in 1776 still believed that kings, czars and their ilk had a divine right to rule. The idea that a poor peasant could be created by God as the equal of a king was extremely radical for the time.\n\nThat\'s what makes our recent obesiance toward the wealthy so ironic. Sixty years ago, after the end of World War II, there was a wonderful statement that summed up Americans so well. I have used it before on this site, so please bear with me for using it again.\n\n<em>\"An Englishman walks the world as if he owns it. An American walks the world as if he didn\'t give a damn who owns it.\"</em>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1230-revision','','','2011-07-04 06:33:51','2011-07-04 13:33:51','',1230,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1232',0,'revision','',0),(1233,1,'2011-07-04 09:11:57','2011-07-04 16:11:57','','capitol-fireworks021','My country used to be ...','inherit','open','open','','capitol-fireworks021','','','2011-07-04 09:11:57','2011-07-04 16:11:57','',1230,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/capitol-fireworks021.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1234,1,'2011-07-04 09:41:52','2011-07-04 16:41:52','<strong><em>\"It\'s not that we will have equal  outcome. In fact, the American dream is that those who work harder and  those who merit it will have unequal outcomes, that they will gain more  of whatever the American dream is.\"</em></strong>\n<strong>-- Sen. RAND PAUL</strong>\n\nActually, that isn\'t it at all, and I would be willing to bet that even John Calvin --from whom the idea behind this came -- would understand that. Even if he was the one who codified and stated the idea that success in life was all about working hard and that God loved those most who worked the hardest.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1231\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"It&#39;s not everyone&#39;s dream.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/American_Dream_Just_add_money.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1231\" title=\"American_Dream_Just_add_money\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/American_Dream_Just_add_money-300x213.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"213\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nThe American Dream?\n\nIt\'s not really about \"more\" at all. When English philosopher John Locke -- a Calvinist himself for much of his life -- wrote of the rights of man, he said that they were life, liberty and property. Thomas Jefferson rejected that, at least in part, when he said in 1776 that men were endowed by their Creator with the rights to \"life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.\"\n\nMany of us have forgotten how radical that idea was, especially the part where Jefferson argued that all men were created equal. That\'s true even if he only meant <em>men</em> men and <em>white</em> men. It\'s important to remember that much of the civilized world in 1776 still believed that kings, czars and their ilk had a divine right to rule. The idea that a poor peasant could be created by God as the equal of a king was extremely radical for the time.\n\nThat\'s what makes our recent obesiance toward the wealthy so ironic. Sixty years ago, after the end of World War II, there was a wonderful statement that summed up Americans so well. I have used it before on this site, so please bear with me for using it again.\n\n<em>\"An Englishman walks the world as if he owns it. An American walks the world as if he didn\'t give a damn who owns it.\"</em>\n\nWhen did we lose that? When did we become so obseqious? When did we become bitter and mean instead of cocky and friendly?\n\nIt\'s hard to believe that everything changed so much in less than half a century. Just half a century ago we had a progressive tax system, a government that was the envy of the world for what it could accomplish and a people who looked to the future and really expected it to be better for their children than it was for them.\n\nWe balanced our budgets, both nationally and at home. We had jobs that may not have been our dream jobs, but at least we didn\'t stay awake at night worrying how long we would have those jobs.\n\nMaybe the most ironic thing of all is how we came to mistrust our government. In the years after the war, we rebuilt Europe through the Marshall Plan, an action Winston Churchill called the most unselfish act by any great power in history. At home we built the interstate highway system, a task so massive it could never have been done by private industry.\n\nWe sent a generation of men to college on the G.I. Bill and we ended American apartheid with the passage of the Civil Rights Act.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1233\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"My country used to be ...\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/capitol-fireworks021.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1233\" title=\"capitol-fireworks021\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/capitol-fireworks021-300x213.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"213\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nYet within a generation we had a significant number of people among us who swore that government couldn\'t do anything as well as private business, and people we had called \"civil servants\" now were being called \"bureaucrats\" and worse.\n\nAnd by the way, Ronald Reagan never said that government wasn\'t the solution, it was the problem. The quote by the amiable old actor was from his <a title=\"Reagan\'s 1981 inaugural address\" href=\"http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres61.html\">1981 inaugural</a>. Here\'s what he said about the sustained inflation that had been plaguing the country for more than a decade:\n\n<em>\"The economic ills we suffer have come upon us over several  decades. They will not go away in days, weeks, or months, but they will  go away. They will go away because we, as Americans, have the capacity  now, as we have had in the past, to do whatever needs to be done to  preserve this last and greatest bastion of freedom.</em>\n\n<em>\"In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem.\"</em>\n\nThat one quote, so often distorted and misquoted, has fueled an attack on our government by 30 years of conservatives. In fact, many of them have become more Catholic than the Pope when it comes to Reagan. The 40th president may have been the classic example of style trumping substance, but he did after all want to propose to Mikhail Gorbachev that both the U.S. and the USSR eliminate <em>all</em> their nuclear weapons.\n\nSounds like a pretty good American Dream to me.\n\nI may be overly optimistic after all we have been through, but I honestly still believe in the goodness of average people in this country. I don\'t think most Americans dream of being millionaires or billionaires, and I\'m pretty sure most folks wouldn\'t want to screw their co-workers or their neighbors if that\'s what it took to get ahead. I think most people are basically moral, at least to the point where they want to earn their success and not steal it.\n\nIt\'s on July 4th that we seem to remember our ideals a little more than we do on other days of the year. We didn\'t come to America in the 17th and 18th centuries because of the right to bear arms or for a free-market economic system. We came here to speak freely, to worship freely.\n\nIn 1800, Jefferson wrote that \"I have sworn upon the altar of god, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.\"\n\nThat\'s a really big part of what our country is all about. I would argue with Jefferson as my bulwark against Rand Paul that when he speaks of those work harder gaining \"more of whatever the American Dream is,\" he\'s dead wrong.\n\nThe American Dream has never been about \"more.\"\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1230-revision-2','','','2011-07-04 09:41:52','2011-07-04 16:41:52','',1230,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1234',0,'revision','',0),(1235,1,'2011-07-04 12:31:22','2011-07-04 19:31:22','It was 50 years ago today.\r\n\r\nI was 11 years old, and my dad and I rode the subway from his parents\' neighborhood in Brooklyn across Manhattan and up to the Bronx to see an Independence Day doubleheader between the Yankees and the Detroit Tigers. There were 74,246 fans at Yankee Stadium that day, and I remember to this day where we sat. We were in the second deck down the right-field line, where we could look down and see Roger Maris in right field and Mickey Mantle in center.\r\n\r\nThat Detroit team was one of the best in history <em>not</em> to win the pennant; indeed, the Tigers\' 101 victories left them <em>eight</em> games behind what might have been the best team in baseball history at the end of the season. Frank Lary, who had a reputation as a \"Yankee killer,\" pitched the Tigers to a 4-3, 10-inning victory in the first game, but Whitey Ford cruised to a 6-2 victory and the split in the second game. Ford, who improved his record to 15-2, would win 25 games and lose only four that year.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1236\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Maris, batting, and Mantle in 1961\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/yankee-stadium-006.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1236\" title=\"yankee-stadium-006\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/yankee-stadium-006-300x180.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"180\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nI didn\'t remember who had pitched that day -- I had to look it up -- but I did remember that Roger Maris hit his 31st home run on the way to his record 61 off Lary in the eighth inning.\r\n\r\nIt\'s funny. I don\'t remember a whole lot of holidays specifically anymore. I remember Thanksgiving 1974 for the horrible memory of Clint Longley\'s late-game touchdown pass that lifted the hated Dallas Cowboys over the Washington Redskins, but except  for that and Independence Day 1961, not so many memories have lasted.\r\n\r\nI have a wonderful memory of Maris, of sitting in nearly empty stands in Gastonia, N.C., in August 1982, of watching his son Kevin play while I interviewed him.\r\n\r\nHe was dead at the age of 51 a little more than three years later.\r\n\r\nCancer.\r\n\r\nWhen I\'m asked to describe myself, I always say I love my wife, I love my kids and my granddaughter, my friends and family and I love baseball. It\'s that simple. I have numerous interests, but none of them will ever surpass my love of baseball. Nothing has ever provided me with as many memorable experiences as baseball, or introduced me to as many fascinating people.\r\n\r\nI have interviewed Maris, Henry Aaron, Jim Palmer, Catfish Hunter, Boog Powell, Vida Blue, Pete Rose, Don Drysdale and numerous others one-on-one. I have covered minor-league teams managed by former big leaguers Lloyd Merritt, Tim Flannery and Marty Barrett. I had great relationships with all three, and one of the friendships that I treasure the most was with Walter Masterson, who pitched 15 seasons in the majors and died three years ago at age 87.\r\n\r\nSo many memories.\r\n\r\nI remember swearing after the 1994-95 strike that if there was ever another one, I would never attend another ballgame for the rest of my life. It hasn\'t happened yet, but I don\'t think I could keep that promise. My grandfather loved baseball to the end of his life and so did my dad. I\'m pretty sure I\'ll be exactly the same in that respect.\r\n\r\nhttp://youtu.be/9mjgUK9UAzA\r\n\r\nI wouldn\'t be so selfish as to say that when I die, I\'d like it to be at a ballpark. It\'s kind of selfish to ask people to take your body somewhere. But I certainly wouldn\'t mind falling asleep for the last time with a game -- preferably late at night from the West Coast -- on the radio.\r\n\r\n<em>Strike three, you\'re out?</em>\r\n\r\nNot at all.\r\n\r\nSafe at home.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Wonderful memories from (gulp!) 50 years ago','','publish','open','open','','wonderful-memories-from-gulp-50-years-ago','','','2011-07-04 12:32:56','2011-07-04 19:32:56','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1235',0,'post','',0),(1236,1,'2011-07-04 11:30:14','2011-07-04 18:30:14','','yankee-stadium-006','Maris, batting, and Mantle in 1961','inherit','open','open','','yankee-stadium-006','','','2011-07-04 11:30:14','2011-07-04 18:30:14','',1235,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/yankee-stadium-006.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),