(1726,1,'2012-06-04 18:53:32','2012-06-05 01:53:32','If I could putt, I don\'t think I\'d have anything to worry about.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1725\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"My favorite green? If only I could putt.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/20120604_25.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1725\" title=\"20120604_25\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/20120604_25-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nI\'m getting fairly consistent at hitting my drives a decent distance and keeping them in the middle of the fairway, and my approach shots from off the green are getting better and better.\n\nIf only I could putt. The other day I wrote about the shot on the 17th hole that felt almost perfect. In the two times I have played since then, I have had similar results on that same hole, putting shots first within 15 feet and then within six feet. My putting was bad both times, a three-putt for bogey and then a two-putt for par.\n\nYesterday I missed at least five putts from six feet or less, and if I had made the last one -- on the 18th green -- I would have broken 80.\n\nIt\'s a very strange feeling. I\'m hitting good shots more consistently than I ever have  in my life, and even though I take a few shots over since I play alone, I would probably still be good enough here to get a 12 or 13 handicap.That\'s not bad at all for somebody who used to have a really tough time breaking 90.\n\nIn fact, when I first started playing full-length courses about 18 years ago, breaking 130 was a big deal for me.\n\nI miss my friends, though. Playing with Chuck and Mickey for more than 15 years meant that a day on the golf course was about more than just golf. As I\'ve written before, we were lucky to be able to play twice a month, which made it tough to improve. Playing two or three times a week has shown me the difference.\n\nWho knows? Maybe someday I\'ll play with them again.\n\nFriendship matters.\n\n&nbsp;','If I co','','inherit','open','open','','1724-revision','','','2012-06-04 18:53:32','2012-06-05 01:53:32','',1724,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1726',0,'revision','',0),(1727,1,'2012-06-05 19:32:20','2012-06-06 02:32:20','When you\'re young and you marry, it\'s all about the good times.\n\nUnless you\'re somehow forced by circumstances, you marry someone because you are happier with them than without them and you are optimistic that things will get even better the longer you two are together.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1721\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"In sickness and in health\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/couples480-blog480.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1721\" title=\"couples480-blog480\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/couples480-blog480-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nWhen you\'re young, marriage is maybe the ultimate act of belief in the future.\n\nYou say the vows -- better or worse, richer or poorer, sickness or health -- but you don\'t really believe anything bad will happen. You\'re in it for better, for richer, for health and if any of that bad stuff happens, you\'ll deal with it with all the invincibility of youth.\n\nIt\'s different when you\'re older. When you marry past 40, you carry the baggage of previous failure and the awareness that bad things happen as well as good things and you may not be able to control very much about either.\n\nIf your life has gone at all according to plan, richer or poorer may not be as much of a factor as when you\'re younger, but health is much more likely to come into play. My good friend Mick and his wife have been married for nearly 33 years and both are dealing with health problems.\n\nFor the last six years of my father\'s life, my mother was his 24/7 caregiver. She was only a year younger than he was and not in the best health herself, but she gave everything she had to help him. I don\'t think there\'s any better way to show love for someone than that, and I wonder how many of us could do something like that for as long as she did.\n\nI know I couldn\'t. I have such admiration for her efforts, and also for the help my sisters and my brother gave her. But I also know none of them considered it a chore, an imposition or even hard work. When someone you dearly love needs your help, there really isn\'t any question whether or not you will help them.\n\nSickness or health never came into play in my first marriage. I was 25 and she was 21 when we took our vows, and I wasn\'t even 30 when it all fell apart for reasons that had nothing to do with health. It was 30 years ago this spring that we spoke for the last time, nearly half a lifetime ago for me.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1720-revision-3','','','2012-06-05 19:32:20','2012-06-06 02:32:20','',1720,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1727',0,'revision','',0),(1728,1,'2012-06-08 17:50:29','2012-06-09 00:50:29','I haven\'t written much about my diet lately, mostly because I think it\'s boring to read about.\r\n\r\nThe one thing that tends to freak me out about it is how ridiculously unhealthy it is to spend six months losing 112 pounds one year, gain it all back and then some the next year and then start losing it again the very next spring.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1729\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Part of my six miles.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/20120604_19.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1729\" title=\"20120604_19\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/20120604_19-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nThe only thing dumber would be not to lose it, to be stumbling around the house weighing 284 pounds and counting down to a damn heart attack.\r\n\r\nAs I mentioned in an earlier post, I started on March 1 and lost 34 pounds the first month. Then it got difficult. I lost 11 the second month, 10 the third and I made it through three months without getting halfway to my goal of 168.\r\n\r\nI have lost two more pounds so far in June, which leaves me at 227. I\'m only 10 or 15 pounds from all the great shirts I bought two years ago -- including four Tommy Bahamas that I paid $75 each for at a<em> half-price</em> sale -- fitting me really well. I probably need to get down to 190 or so for my pants (33 waist) to fit me well.\r\n\r\nI\'m exercising pretty much every day, either walking 5-6 miles or playing 18 holes of golf. My favorite walk is waiting until dusk and then spending a little more than two hours walking the entire golf course. Last week I got caught out on the course during a surprise downpour and walked home completely soaked.\r\n\r\nIt has been a strange spring.','It\'s tough to do it twice in just three years','','publish','open','open','','its-tough-to-do-it-twice-in-just-three-years','','','2012-06-08 17:50:29','2012-06-09 00:50:29','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1728',0,'post','',0),(1729,1,'2012-06-08 17:28:43','2012-06-09 00:28:43','','20120604_19','Part of my six miles.','inherit','open','open','','20120604_19','','','2012-06-08 17:28:43','2012-06-09 00:28:43','',1728,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/20120604_19.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1730,1,'2012-06-08 17:49:59','2012-06-09 00:49:59','I haven\'t written much about my diet lately, mostly because I think it\'s boring to read about.\n\nThe one thing that tends to freak me out about it is how ridiculously unhealthy it is to spend six months losing 112 pounds one year, gain it all back and then some the next year and then start losing it again the very next spring.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1729\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Part of my six miles.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/20120604_19.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1729\" title=\"20120604_19\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/20120604_19-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nThe only thing dumber would be not to lose it, to be stumbling around the house weighing 284 pounds and counting down to a damn heart attack.\n\nAs I mentioned in an earlier post, I started on March 1 and lost 34 pounds the first month. Then it got difficult. I lost 11 the second month, 10 the third and I made it through three months without getting halfway to my goal of 168.\n\nI have lost two more pounds so far in June, which leaves me at 227. I\'m only 10 or 15 pounds from all the great shirts I bought two years ago -- including four Tommy Bahamas that I paid $75 each for at a<em> half-price</em> sale -- fitting me really well. I probably need to get down to 190 or so for my pants (33 waist) to fit me well.\n\nI\'m exercising pretty much every day, either walking 5-6 miles or playing 18 holes of golf. My favorite walk is waiting until dusk and then spending a little more than two hours walking the entire golf course. Last week I got caught out on the course during a surprise downpour and walked home completely soaked.\n\nIt has been a strange spring.','','','inherit','open','open','','1728-revision','','','2012-06-08 17:49:59','2012-06-09 00:49:59','',1728,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1730',0,'revision','',0),(1731,1,'2012-06-16 20:55:43','2012-06-17 03:55:43','When you\'re young and you marry, it\'s all about the good times.\n\nUnless you\'re somehow forced by circumstances, you marry someone because you are happier with them than without them and you are optimistic that things will get even better the longer you two are together.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1721\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"In sickness and in health\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/couples480-blog480.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1721\" title=\"couples480-blog480\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/couples480-blog480-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nWhen you\'re young, marriage is maybe the ultimate act of belief in the future.\n\nYou say the vows -- better or worse, richer or poorer, sickness or health -- but you don\'t really believe anything bad will happen. You\'re in it for better, for richer, for health and if any of that bad stuff happens, you\'ll deal with it with all the invincibility of youth.\n\nIt\'s different when you\'re older. When you marry past 40, you carry the baggage of previous failure and the awareness that bad things happen as well as good things and you may not be able to control very much about either.\n\nIf your life has gone at all according to plan, richer or poorer may not be as much of a factor as when you\'re younger, but health is much more likely to come into play. My good friend Mick and his wife have been married for nearly 33 years and both are dealing with health problems.\n\nFor the last six years of my father\'s life, my mother was his 24/7 caregiver. She was only a year younger than he was and not in the best health herself, but she gave everything she had to help him. I don\'t think there\'s any better way to show love for someone than that, and I wonder how many of us could do something like that for as long as she did.\n\nI know I couldn\'t. I have such admiration for her efforts, and also for the help my sisters and my brother gave her. But I also know none of them considered it a chore, an imposition or even hard work. When someone you dearly love needs your help, there really isn\'t any question whether or not you will help them.\n\nSickness or health never came into play in my first marriage. I was 25 and she was 21 when we took our vows, and I wasn\'t even 30 when it all fell apart for reasons that had nothing to do with health. It was 30 years ago this spring that we spoke for the last time, nearly half a lifetime ago for me. Of course, I\'m 62 now and health problems are becoming a reality both for me and for my lovely wife.\n\nFor me it\'s mostly aches and pains, as well as elevated blood pressure as my weight fluctuates. I take glucosamine for my incipient arthritis, pills for my blood pressure and over-the-counter sleep aids to help me nod off at night. My wife is dealing with much more significant issues, most of them involving anxiety. At times during the last year or so, things have been extremely difficult for her.\n\nI do what I can to help, and we seems to have made at least some progress. I\'ll be damned if I give myself any credit for it. When you have one failed marriage in your past, all you\'re really trying to do is get even. I love her, though, and I\'ll be here as long as she wants me and I\'m stil\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1720-revision-4','','','2012-06-16 20:55:43','2012-06-17 03:55:43','',1720,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1731',0,'revision','',0),(1733,1,'2012-06-17 20:18:22','2012-06-18 03:18:22','','DSC_0055','Virgile and his wife Sterling','inherit','open','open','','dsc_0055','','','2012-06-17 20:18:22','2012-06-18 03:18:22','',1732,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/DSC_0055.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1734,1,'2012-06-17 20:29:32','2012-06-18 03:29:32','','387226_10150524004317122_838372121_8760500_573618796_n','Pauline, Lexington and Madison','inherit','open','open','','387226_10150524004317122_838372121_8760500_573618796_n-3','','','2012-06-17 20:29:32','2012-06-18 03:29:32','',1732,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/387226_10150524004317122_838372121_8760500_573618796_n.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1735,1,'2012-06-17 20:31:13','2012-06-18 03:31:13','I have two children who think I\'m a wonderful dad.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1733\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Virgile and his wife Sterling\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/DSC_0055.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1733\" title=\"DSC_0055\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/DSC_0055-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nI keep telling them that it\'s easy to be a good father when you have maybe the two best children in the world. Of course it has been a long time since they were children. Pauline is 31 and already has two children of her own, and Virgile is 27. Both have good marriages and great career-type jobs. Most important, both of them give every indication of being very happy with their lives.\n\nWhatever contribution I have made to them is pretty much overrated. All I really had to do was stay out of their way and provide support when they asked for it.\n\nI mean really. When your son gets an evaluation from his boss calling him the best young officer he has seen in 20 years, all you can do is shake your head and smile.\n\nAs for Pauline, I think the sky is the absolute limit for her. The only thing that might limit her career is that she insists that whenever a choice has to be made between job and family, she will always put her family first. I admire her so much for that.\n\nSomehow, though, I have a hunch she\'s going to find a way to do both well. Simply put, she is the most impressive young woman I have ever known.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1734\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Pauline, Lexington and Madison\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/387226_10150524004317122_838372121_8760500_573618796_n.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1734\" title=\"387226_10150524004317122_838372121_8760500_573618796_n\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/387226_10150524004317122_838372121_8760500_573618796_n-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nI used to know two other men for whom Father\'s Day was a holiday that meant something. Both of them are gone now -- my grandfather passed on in 1985 and my own father died four years ago. As the years go by, I miss each of them more and more.\n\nIt may sound like a cliche to say it, but they are the two men who more than anyone else, taught me what it means to be a man.\n\nI don\'t know how much longer I\'ll be around\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1732-revision','','','2012-06-17 20:31:13','2012-06-18 03:31:13','',1732,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1735',0,'revision','',0),(1736,1,'2012-06-17 20:35:53','2012-06-18 03:35:53','I have two children who think I\'m a wonderful dad.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1733\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Virgile and his wife Sterling\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/DSC_0055.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1733\" title=\"DSC_0055\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/DSC_0055-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nI keep telling them that it\'s easy to be a good father when you have maybe the two best children in the world. Of course it has been a long time since they were children. Pauline is 31 and already has two children of her own, and Virgile is 27. Both have good marriages and great career-type jobs. Most important, both of them give every indication of being very happy with their lives.\n\nWhatever contribution I have made to them is pretty much overrated. All I really had to do was stay out of their way and provide support when they asked for it.\n\nI mean really. When your son gets an evaluation from his boss calling him the best young officer he has seen in 20 years, all you can do is shake your head and smile.\n\nAs for Pauline, I think the sky is the absolute limit for her. The only thing that might limit her career is that she insists that whenever a choice has to be made between job and family, she will always put her family first. I admire her so much for that.\n\nSomehow, though, I have a hunch she\'s going to find a way to do both well. Simply put, she is the most impressive young woman I have ever known.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1734\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Pauline, Lexington and Madison\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/387226_10150524004317122_838372121_8760500_573618796_n.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1734\" title=\"387226_10150524004317122_838372121_8760500_573618796_n\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/387226_10150524004317122_838372121_8760500_573618796_n-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nI used to know two other men for whom Father\'s Day was a holiday that meant something. Both of them are gone now -- my grandfather passed on in 1985 and my own father died four years ago. As the years go by, I miss each of them more and more.\n\nIt may sound like a cliche to say it, but they are the two men who more than anyone else, taught me what it means to be a man.\n\nI don\'t know how much longer I\'ll be around. My own grandfather died when I was 35. If I\'m going to live till Maddie is 35, I will be 93 years old. I\'m not sure why, but there is something that horrifies me about being 93. Heck, I\'m already half falling apart at 62.\n\nI do hope to have many more Father\'s Days, though, and even though Virgile and his wife aren\'t currently planning to have kids, I hope they will change their mind because I think my son would be a wonderful father.\n\nHe has a good example in his own generation. My son-in-law -- Virgile\'s brother-in-law -- has been a great husband to Pauline and a terrific dad to Maddie and Lex.\n\nSo Happy Father\'s Day, Ryan. I didn\'t forget you.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1732-revision-2','','','2012-06-17 20:35:53','2012-06-18 03:35:53','',1732,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1736',0,'revision','',0),(1746,1,'2012-07-27 18:38:59','2012-07-28 01:38:59','Sometimes it seems like every time I turn around, a month slips away.\r\n\r\nI was horrified to see that it had been more than a month since the last time I wrote anything here, but I\'ll be honest. Sometimes I feel like a lot of the stuff I write has no effect at all, at least beyond the people who know me and love me.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1747\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Maddie in action.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/20120706_75.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1747\" title=\"20120706_75\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/20120706_75-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nAnd even with them, I feel like I\'m off there in space somewhere and not connecting with them.\r\n\r\nEarlier this month, Pauline finished her two-year tour in Surabaya, Indonesia, and came through Georgia on a the second leg of a six-part vacation that will end in mid-August with the beginning of a three-year tour in Kingston, Jamaica. We had a wonderful week with our grandchildren. Maddie is nearly 4 years old now, and little Lex is coming up on 9 months.\r\n\r\nWe had only seen him before at an age of about 5 weeks, so this summer was really the first time his personality is starting to emerge.\r\n\r\nAs you can see from the picture, taken only a couple of hours after they flew in from Spain (and boy, were their arms tired), Maddie had all sorts of exuberance and energy. Jet lag really is much easier when you travel west.\r\n\r\nIt wasn\'t an easy week. My lovely Nicole has been struggling with her health for several months, and having a week when we were going somewhere almost every day was stressful to say the least.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1748\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Lex is almost crawling.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/20120711_3.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1748\" title=\"20120711_3\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/20120711_3-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nThey\'re gone now, first to New Mexico and then to Seattle. They\'ll spend a few days in Southern California before returning to Washington, D.C., for a few days of work-related things for Pauline.\r\n\r\nThen it\'s on to Jamaica.\r\n\r\nIt\'s pretty amazing when you realize how little most Americans ever see of the world -- my best friend Mickey has never been outside North America -- to think that my grandson won\'t be a year old until November and he has already completely circumnavigated the globe.\r\n\r\nOne thing he has seen plenty of is hot weather. Surabaya is pretty close to the Equator, and Georgia feels like it is a lot closer than it really is. We had one day in the last month when the temperature in Atlanta hit 106 -- an all-time high.\r\n\r\nMaybe it\'s the hot weather that has been getting me down, or maybe it\'s the fact that we are in an election year at a time when America just seems to have gone completely insane. Enough said about that for now. I make enough disparaging remarks about Mitt Romney on Facebook to get them out of my system, at least for the present.\r\n\r\nWhat do I want?\r\n\r\nI want my children and grandchildren to be happy and healthy, and more than anything I want Nicole happy and healthy again. It has been a long time.\r\n\r\nIf I could have those things, I would feel blessed.\r\n\r\nI might even start writing more often.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','A long summer without much reason to write','','publish','open','open','','a-long-summer-without-much-reason-to-write','','','2012-07-27 18:38:59','2012-07-28 01:38:59','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1746',0,'post','',0),(1738,1,'2012-06-19 19:49:55','2012-06-20 02:49:55','There is something so great about getting into a good routine.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1739\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"My six-mile walk.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/20120604_21.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1739\" title=\"20120604_21\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/20120604_21-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nTwo years ago, I established a regimen in which I walked for at least two hours every day. Along with eating sensibly, I managed to get into the best shape I had been in more than 20 years.\r\n\r\nUnfortunately, I let it slip away from me once we moved to Georgia, and it is a lot more difficult to re-establish a good regimen than it is to maintain one. When I started again this spring, it was everything I could do to walk for one hour -- three miles -- on a flat surface.\r\n\r\nWell, I\'m back.\r\n\r\nI go out at about 7:45 p.m. and walk the golf course from beginning to end, all the ups and downs or a fairly hilly course. I walk for two and a quarter hours and I come home feeling great.\r\n\r\nI still have a lot of weight I want to lose, but I know I will get there.\r\n\r\nNo matter how long it takes.\r\n\r\nYou see, I know I\'m doing it right, which is really all that matters.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','In the long term, doing it right is what matters','','publish','open','open','','in-the-long-term-doing-it-right-is-what-matters','','','2012-06-19 19:49:55','2012-06-20 02:49:55','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1738',0,'post','',0),(1739,1,'2012-06-19 19:42:22','2012-06-20 02:42:22','','20120604_21','My six-mile walk.','inherit','open','open','','20120604_21','','','2012-06-19 19:42:22','2012-06-20 02:42:22','',1738,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/20120604_21.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1740,1,'2012-06-19 19:49:26','2012-06-20 02:49:26','There is something so great about getting into a good routine.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1739\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"My six-mile walk.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/20120604_21.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1739\" title=\"20120604_21\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/20120604_21-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nTwo years ago, I established a regimen in which I walked for at least two hours every day. Along with eating sensibly, I managed to get into the best shape I had been in more than 20 years.\n\nUnfortunately, I let it slip away from me once we moved to Georgia, and it is a lot more difficult to re-establish a good regimen than it is to maintain one. When I started again this spring, it was everything I could do to walk for one hour -- three miles -- on a flat surface.\n\nWell, I\'m back.\n\nI go out at about 7:45 p.m. and walk the golf course from beginning to end, all the ups and downs or a fairly hilly course. I walk for two and a quarter hours and I come home feeling great.\n\nI still have a lot of weight I want to lose, but I know I will get there.\n\nNo matter how long it takes.\n\nYou see, I know I\'m doing it right, which is really all that matters.\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1738-revision','','','2012-06-19 19:49:26','2012-06-20 02:49:26','',1738,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1740',0,'revision','',0),(1741,1,'2012-06-24 19:45:59','2012-06-25 02:45:59','I\'m really looking forward to the next few weeks.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1742\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Lake Jackson\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/LakeJackson.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1742\" title=\"LakeJackson\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/LakeJackson-300x214.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"214\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nIn two weeks, we will be getting our first visitors here in Georgia. Pauline and Ryan and their two children, Maddie and Lex, will finish their tour in Indonesia late this week. They\'re going to Spain for a week on the way back to the United States and they will arrive in Atlanta the Friday evening after that.\r\n\r\nThey\'ll be here for a week, staying at Lake Jackson, about 45 minutes from here.\r\n\r\nI really like the way Pauline plans her vacations. Instead of renting hotel rooms, wherever possible she rents vacation houses so that her husband and children have plenty of room to move around and enjoy themselves.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1743\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Lexington\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/581325_10150965415582122_918129211_n.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1743\" title=\"581325_10150965415582122_918129211_n\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/581325_10150965415582122_918129211_n-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nThe wonderful part of it is that at nearly 4 years old, Maddie is starting to be more and more aware of what\'s around her and ought to be at an age where she will remember her experiences. As for Lex, when we first saw him in Seattle in November, he was little more than a month old. By the time he arrives in Georgia, he will be a little more than eight months old.\r\n\r\nHe\'s not really walking or talking yet, but he sits up, he moves around and he has a big smile.\r\n\r\nOne of the things Ryan wants to do with Maddie at Lake Jackson is take her fishing. I think I\'ll probably go along, even though I have never been fishing in my entire life. I don\'t know if I will catch anything, but it will be fun to see my granddaughter\'s reaction to a new experience.\r\n\r\nIt\'s going to be a great summer.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Fun is coming soon to our part of Georgia','','publish','open','open','','fun-is-coming-soon-to-our-part-of-georgia','','','2012-06-24 19:45:59','2012-06-25 02:45:59','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1741',0,'post','',0),(1742,1,'2012-06-24 18:37:55','2012-06-25 01:37:55','','LakeJackson','Lake Jackson','inherit','open','open','','lakejackson','','','2012-06-24 18:37:55','2012-06-25 01:37:55','',1741,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/LakeJackson.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1743,1,'2012-06-24 18:47:06','2012-06-25 01:47:06','','581325_10150965415582122_918129211_n','Lexington','inherit','open','open','','581325_10150965415582122_918129211_n','','','2012-06-24 18:47:06','2012-06-25 01:47:06','',1741,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/581325_10150965415582122_918129211_n.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1744,1,'2012-06-24 19:45:02','2012-06-25 02:45:02','I\'m really looking forward to the next few weeks.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1742\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Lake Jackson\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/LakeJackson.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1742\" title=\"LakeJackson\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/LakeJackson-300x214.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"214\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nIn two weeks, we will be getting our first visitors here in Georgia. Pauline and Ryan and their two children, Maddie and Lex, will finish their tour in Indonesia late this week. They\'re going to Spain for a week on the way back to the United States and they will arrive in Atlanta the Friday evening after that.\n\nThey\'ll be here for a week, staying at Lake Jackson, about 45 minutes from here.\n\nI really like the way Pauline plans her vacations. Instead of renting hotel rooms, wherever possible she rents vacation houses so that her husband and children have plenty of room to move around and enjoy themselves.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1743\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Lexington\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/581325_10150965415582122_918129211_n.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1743\" title=\"581325_10150965415582122_918129211_n\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/581325_10150965415582122_918129211_n-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nThe wonderful part of it is that at nearly 4 years old, Maddie is starting to be more and more aware of what\'s around her and ought to be at an age where she will remember her experiences. As for Lex, when we first saw him in Seattle in November, he was little more than a month old. By the time he arrives in Georgia, he will be a little more than eight months old.\n\nHe\'s not really walking or talking yet, but he sits up, he moves around and he has a big smile.\n\nOne of the things Ryan wants to do with Maddie at Lake Jackson is take her fishing. I think I\'ll probably go along, even though I have never been fishing in my entire life. I don\'t know if I will catch anything, but it will be fun to see my granddaughter\'s reaction to a new experience.\n\nIt\'s going to be a great summer.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1741-revision','','','2012-06-24 19:45:02','2012-06-25 02:45:02','',1741,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1744',0,'revision','',0),(1745,1,'2012-06-24 19:45:38','2012-06-25 02:45:38','I\'m really looking forward to the next few weeks.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1742\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Lake Jackson\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/LakeJackson.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1742\" title=\"LakeJackson\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/LakeJackson-300x214.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"214\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nIn two weeks, we will be getting our first visitors here in Georgia. Pauline and Ryan and their two children, Maddie and Lex, will finish their tour in Indonesia late this week. They\'re going to Spain for a week on the way back to the United States and they will arrive in Atlanta the Friday evening after that.\r\n\r\nThey\'ll be here for a week, staying at Lake Jackson, about 45 minutes from here.\r\n\r\nI really like the way Pauline plans her vacations. Instead of renting hotel rooms, wherever possible she rents vacation houses so that her husband and children have plenty of room to move around and enjoy themselves.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1743\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Lexington\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/581325_10150965415582122_918129211_n.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1743\" title=\"581325_10150965415582122_918129211_n\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/581325_10150965415582122_918129211_n-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nThe wonderful part of it is that at nearly 4 years old, Maddie is starting to be more and more aware of what\'s around her and ought to be at an age where she will remember her experiences. As for Lex, when we first saw him in Seattle in November, he was little more than a month old. By the time he arrives in Georgia, he will be a little more than eight months old.\r\n\r\nHe\'s not really walking or talking yet, but he sits up, he moves around and he has a big smile.\r\n\r\nOne of the things Ryan wants to do with Maddie at Lake Jackson is take her fishing. I think I\'ll probably go along, even though I have never been fishing in my entire life. I don\'t know if I will catch anything, but it will be fun to see my granddaughter\'s reaction to a new experience.\r\n\r\nIt\'s going to be a great summer.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Fun is coming soon to our part of ','','inherit','open','open','','1741-revision-2','','','2012-06-24 19:45:38','2012-06-25 02:45:38','',1741,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1745',0,'revision','',0),(1747,1,'2012-07-27 18:15:32','2012-07-28 01:15:32','','20120706_75','Maddie in action.','inherit','open','open','','20120706_75','','','2012-07-27 18:15:32','2012-07-28 01:15:32','',1746,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/20120706_75.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1748,1,'2012-07-27 18:23:59','2012-07-28 01:23:59','','20120711_3','Lex is almost crawling.','inherit','open','open','','20120711_3','','','2012-07-27 18:23:59','2012-07-28 01:23:59','',1746,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/20120711_3.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1749,1,'2012-07-27 18:38:18','2012-07-28 01:38:18','Sometimes it seems like every time I turn around, a month slips away.\n\nI was horrified to see that it had been more than a month since the last time I wrote anything here, but I\'ll be honest. Sometimes I feel like a lot of the stuff I write has no effect at all, at least beyond the people who know me and love me.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1747\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Maddie in action.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/20120706_75.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1747\" title=\"20120706_75\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/20120706_75-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nAnd even with them, I feel like I\'m off there in space somewhere and not connecting with them.\n\nEarlier this month, Pauline finished her two-year tour in Surabaya, Indonesia, and came through Georgia on a the second leg of a six-part vacation that will end in mid-August with the beginning of a three-year tour in Kingston, Jamaica. We had a wonderful week with our grandchildren. Maddie is nearly 4 years old now, and little Lex is coming up on 9 months.\n\nWe had only seen him before at an age of about 5 weeks, so this summer was really the first time his personality is starting to emerge.\n\nAs you can see from the picture, taken only a couple of hours after they flew in from Spain (and boy, were their arms tired), Maddie had all sorts of exuberance and energy. Jet lag really is much easier when you travel west.\n\nIt wasn\'t an easy week. My lovely Nicole has been struggling with her health for several months, and having a week when we were going somewhere almost every day was stressful to say the least.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1748\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Lex is almost crawling.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/20120711_3.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1748\" title=\"20120711_3\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/20120711_3-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nThey\'re gone now, first to New Mexico and then to Seattle. They\'ll spend a few days in Southern California before returning to Washington, D.C., for a few days of work-related things for Pauline.\n\nThen it\'s on to Jamaica.\n\nIt\'s pretty amazing when you realize how little most Americans ever see of the world -- my best friend Mickey has never been outside North America -- to think that my grandson won\'t be a year old until November and he has already completely circumnavigated the globe.\n\nOne thing he has seen plenty of is hot weather. Surabaya is pretty close to the Equator, and Georgia feels like it is a lot closer than it really is. We had one day in the last month when the temperature in Atlanta hit 106 -- an all-time high.\n\nMaybe it\'s the hot weather that has been getting me down, or maybe it\'s the fact that we are in an election year at a time when America just seems to have gone completely insane. Enough said about that for now. I make enough disparaging remarks about Mitt Romney on Facebook to get them out of my system, at least for the present.\n\nWhat do I want?\n\nI want my children and grandchildren to be happy and healthy, and more than anything I want Nicole happy and healthy again. It has been a long time.\n\nIf I could have those things, I would feel blessed\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1746-revision','','','2012-07-27 18:38:18','2012-07-28 01:38:18','',1746,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1749',0,'revision','',0),(1754,1,'2012-08-06 19:54:53','2012-08-07 02:54:53','I read a sad story the other day. It said that nearly half of all Americans die with no significant financial assets, that a ridiculously high number wind up with nothing more than Social Security to fund their golden years.\r\n\r\nI wish it surprised me, and I wish I thought it was going to get better anytime soon.\r\n\r\nOh, it may eventually. I\'m not holding my children up as typical -- they are anything but -- when it comes to being prepared, but both of them have made saving for retirement a priority since their first jobs after college. If anyone who didn\'t inherit a million dollars will be prepared, they will.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1755\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"259\" caption=\"Bigger and better toys.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/images.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1755\" title=\"images\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/images.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"259\" height=\"194\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nOf course, they aren\'t living the typical \"American Dream,\" which these days seem to mean buying a bigger television with more bells and whistles every time one becomes available and gobbling up every new, trendy you that comes along. I\'m not sure it is still true -- I\'ve not seen the numbers recently -- but for years, the percentage of their salaries that typical Americans were saving slipped<em> below</em> zero.\r\n\r\nIt\'s ironic. I saw a question asked by a pollster a few years ago asking Americans their opinion of which of the following three occurrences would be most disastrous for the American economy:\r\n\r\n<em>1. A $1 per gallon increase in the price of gasoline.</em>\r\n\r\n<em>2. Ten percent inflation.</em>\r\n\r\n<em>3. A 10 percent increase in the personal savings rate.</em>\r\n\r\nIt\'s stunning to realize that the worst possible occurrence for the economy would be the third choice, because if people started saving 10 percent more of their money, it would be that were spending 10 percent less. A 10 percent decline in consumer spending would be disastrous. In fact, a decline in consumer spending is one reason the 2007-09 recession has hung around for as long as it has.\r\n\r\nMy grandparents had one television in their house for the entire time I knew them. They didn\'t watch TV in bed, or in the kitchen, or out on the porch. Their TV set was in the living room, and they didn\'t change it because a newer, better model came along. They only time they changed sets -- with the exception of switching from black and white to color -- was when one of their sets wore out.\r\n\r\nMy parents were pretty much the same. They had more than one set, but they didn\'t change for trendy reasons or in response to advertising. They changed when a set wore out.\r\n\r\nMy neighbors -- and I hate to single them out, so I won\'t mention names -- have a big-screen, HD television on their<em> patio</em>.\r\n\r\nGod bless the consumer society.\r\n\r\nOf course, we live in a community of relatively well-off senior citizens. There aren\'t many people here who will die with nothing, God willing and the creek don\'t rise.\r\n\r\nAs for me, I wish I could be proud of myself. Any prosperity I have has had little to do with me and everything to do with my wife. I look around my office and I see a wall of books and hundreds of movies on DVD. I see souvenirs of my career and all sorts of other stuff. I wonder if I would have been happier had I led a more ascetic life, but I suppose I will never know.\r\n\r\nI didn\'t rise above my culture.\r\n\r\nI wallowed in it.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Seniors without money a sad product of our culture','','publish','open','open','','seniors-without-money-a-sad-product-of-our-culture','','','2012-08-06 19:54:53','2012-08-07 02:54:53','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1754',0,'post','',0),(1751,1,'2012-07-30 18:16:17','2012-07-31 01:16:17','I\'m beginning to think I may be losing my mind.\r\n\r\nI have lived here in Georgia for nearly 20 months, and not only haven\'t I made a single new friend, I find myself losing touch with my old ones. I have been doing a great deal of reading and have been watching quite a few movies, but I find that I\'m using Amazon (for movies) and Alibris (for books) to track down old movies and books that I haven\'t seen or read for a long time.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1752\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"194\" caption=\"Hornstein&#39;s Boy\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/images.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1752\" title=\"images\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/images.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"194\" height=\"259\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nSome of the books in particular have been wonderful to rediscover, like Robert Traver\'s wonderful \"Hornstein\'s Boy,\" the story of a campaign for the U.S. Senate that I read when I was in the ninth grade 48 years ago.\r\n\r\nOthers, not so much. Jacqueline Briskin\'s \"California Generation\" is just as trashy as it was when I first read it decades ago.\r\n\r\nI have plenty of new movies I still haven\'t watched, but I have favorites -- guilty pleasures, most of them -- that I\'ve viewed again and again.\r\n\r\nMy iPod is jammed full of music and audiobooks. I\'ve listened to almost the entire Travis McGee series, and for some reason I have become fascinated with end-of-the-world type stories involving zombies.\r\n\r\nI spend too much time on Facebook making snarky comments about Mitt Romney, Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the cast of characters in our national decline into greed and stupidity (of which I fit in quite well, thank you very much).  I have told people I am disgusted enough with this country that if I were 20 years younger I would emigrate and if I were 40 years younger I would be a revolutionary. Of course, that\'s bullshit. I was always too much of a coward to do more than just complain.\r\n\r\nA few years ago, I was actually thinking of running for office. But if I didn\'t do it in California, where my politics fit in quite well, I\'m sure as hell not going to do it in Georgia.\r\n\r\nThis is the summer of my discontent, I suppose. A lot of my effort goes into taking care of my lovely wife, but there has to be more to me than just that.\r\n\r\nIt may be time to stop whining and start working. It isn\'t as if I\'m 80 years old.\r\n\r\nI should still have quite a lot left.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Time to get off the sidelines and start living again','','publish','open','open','','time-to-get-off-the-sidelines-and-start-living-again','','','2012-07-30 18:16:17','2012-07-31 01:16:17','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1751',0,'post','',0),(1752,1,'2012-07-30 18:03:33','2012-07-31 01:03:33','','images','Hornstein\'s Boy','inherit','open','open','','images-9','','','2012-07-30 18:03:33','2012-07-31 01:03:33','',1751,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/images.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1753,1,'2012-07-30 18:15:49','2012-07-31 01:15:49','I\'m beginning to think I may be losing my mind.\n\nI have lived here in Georgia for nearly 20 months, and not only haven\'t I made a single new friend, I find myself losing touch with my old ones. I have been doing a great deal of reading and have been watching quite a few movies, but I find that I\'m using Amazon (for movies) and Alibris (for books) to track down old movies and books that I haven\'t seen or read for a long time.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1752\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"194\" caption=\"Hornstein&#39;s Boy\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/images.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1752\" title=\"images\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/images.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"194\" height=\"259\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nSome of the books in particular have been wonderful to rediscover, like Robert Traver\'s wonderful \"Hornstein\'s Boy,\" the story of a campaign for the U.S. Senate that I read when I was in the ninth grade 48 years ago.\n\nOthers, not so much. Jacqueline Briskin\'s \"California Generation\" is just as trashy as it was when I first read it decades ago.\n\nI have plenty of new movies I still haven\'t watched, but I have favorites -- guilty pleasures, most of them -- that I\'ve viewed again and again.\n\nMy iPod is jammed full of music and audiobooks. I\'ve listened to almost the entire Travis McGee series, and for some reason I have become fascinated with end-of-the-world type stories involving zombies.\n\nI spend too much time on Facebook making snarky comments about Mitt Romney, Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the cast of characters in our national decline into greed and stupidity (of which I fit in quite well, thank you very much).  I have told people I am disgusted enough with this country that if I were 20 years younger I would emigrate and if I were 40 years younger I would be a revolutionary. Of course, that\'s bullshit. I was always too much of a coward to do more than just complain.\n\nA few years ago, I was actually thinking of running for office. But if I didn\'t do it in California, where my politics fit in quite well, I\'m sure as hell not going to do it in Georgia.\n\nThis is the summer of my discontent, I suppose. A lot of my effort goes into taking care of my lovely wife, but there has to be more to me than just that.\n\nIt may be time to stop whining and start working. It isn\'t as if I\'m 80 years old.\n\nI should still have quite a lot left.\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1751-revision','','','2012-07-30 18:15:49','2012-07-31 01:15:49','',1751,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1753',0,'revision','',0),(1755,1,'2012-08-06 19:35:20','2012-08-07 02:35:20','','images','Bigger and better toys.','inherit','open','open','','images-10','','','2012-08-06 19:35:20','2012-08-07 02:35:20','',1754,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/images.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1756,1,'2012-08-06 19:54:25','2012-08-07 02:54:25','I read a sad story the other day. It said that nearly half of all Americans die with no significant financial assets, that a ridiculously high number wind up with nothing more than Social Security to fund their golden years.\n\nI wish it surprised me, and I wish I thought it was going to get better anytime soon.\n\nOh, it may eventually. I\'m not holding my children up as typical -- they are anything but -- when it comes to being prepared, but both of them have made saving for retirement a priority since their first jobs after college. If anyone who didn\'t inherit a million dollars will be prepared, they will.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1755\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"259\" caption=\"Bigger and better toys.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/images.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1755\" title=\"images\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/images.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"259\" height=\"194\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nOf course, they aren\'t living the typical \"American Dream,\" which these days seem to mean buying a bigger television with more bells and whistles every time one becomes available and gobbling up every new, trendy you that comes along. I\'m not sure it is still true -- I\'ve not seen the numbers recently -- but for years, the percentage of their salaries that typical Americans were saving slipped<em> below</em> zero.\n\nIt\'s ironic. I saw a question asked by a pollster a few years ago asking Americans their opinion of which of the following three occurrences would be most disastrous for the American economy:\n\n<em>1. A $1 per gallon increase in the price of gasoline.</em>\n\n<em>2. Ten percent inflation.</em>\n\n<em>3. A 10 percent increase in the personal savings rate.</em>\n\nIt\'s stunning to realize that the worst possible occurrence for the economy would be the third choice, because if people started saving 10 percent more of their money, it would be that were spending 10 percent less. A 10 percent decline in consumer spending would be disastrous. In fact, a decline in consumer spending is one reason the 2007-09 recession has hung around for as long as it has.\n\nMy grandparents had one television in their house for the entire time I knew them. They didn\'t watch TV in bed, or in the kitchen, or out on the porch. Their TV set was in the living room, and they didn\'t change it because a newer, better model came along. They only time they changed sets -- with the exception of switching from black and white to color -- was when one of their sets wore out.\n\nMy parents were pretty much the same. They had more than one set, but they didn\'t change for trendy reasons or in response to advertising. They changed when a set wore out.\n\nMy neighbors -- and I hate to single them out, so I won\'t mention names -- have a big-screen, HD television on their<em> patio</em>.\n\nGod bless the consumer society.\n\nOf course, we live in a community of relatively well-off senior citizens. There aren\'t many people here who will die with nothing, God willing and the creek don\'t rise.\n\nAs for me, I wish I could be proud of myself. Any prosperity I have has had little to do with me and everything to do with my wife. I look around my office and I see a wall of books and hundreds of movies on DVD. I see souvenirs of my career and all sorts of other stuff. I wonder if I would have been happier had I led a more ascetic life, but I suppose I will never know.\n\nI didn\'t rise above my culture.\n\nI wallowed it it.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1754-revision','','','2012-08-06 19:54:25','2012-08-07 02:54:25','',1754,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1756',0,'revision','',0),(1764,1,'2012-09-10 20:36:00','2012-09-11 03:36:00','<strong><em>\"These times are so uncertain, there\'s a yearning undefined and people filled with rage. We all need a little tenderness, how can love survive in such a graceless age?\"\r\n-- DON HENLEY, \"Heart of the Matter</em></strong>\r\n\r\nPeople who know me know I have been writing about this verse from this song for more than 20 years. Until recently I always focused on the last part of it, writing about what a graceless age in which we live. An age of trashy culture, disposable relationships and a ridiculous lust for wealth.\r\n\r\nLately I have been thinking more and more about the rage.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1765\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Jim Gaffigan in &quot;The Great New Wonderful&quot;\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/005GNW_Jim_Gaffigan_002.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1765\" title=\"005GNW_Jim_Gaffigan_002\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/005GNW_Jim_Gaffigan_002-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nEveryone seems so angry all the time. Whether it\'s the economy, or politics, or people furious that someone might want to practice a different religion than they do, even people who seem pretty happy have things that piss them off.\r\n\r\nDanny Leiner\'s underrated 2005 film, <a title=\"The Great New Wonderful\" href=\"http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0402230/\">\"The Great New Wonderful,\"</a> tells five intertwining stories about New Yorkers exactly one year after Sept. 11, 2001. In Sandie\'s Story, Jim Gaffigan plays a man who worked in the Twin Towers and survived the day. His superiors have asked survivors to meet with a psychologist to make sure they are recovering.\r\n\r\nSandie says over and over again that he is fine, while the psychologist says that when he looks at Sandie, he sees a man completely full of repressed rage.\r\n\r\nIn the end, Sandie hits the psychologist over the head with a chair, runs out of the office and keeps running all the way to Connecticut.\r\n\r\n\"I think I\'m lost,\" he says when he finally stops running.\r\n\r\nA lot of people are angry these days -- filled with rage -- and I blame an awful lot of it on our misbegotten culture and values that have gotten so far out of whack I\'m not sure Americans from 100 years ago would even recognize our country.\r\n\r\nThe concept of \"news\" has all but vanished, and nearly everything is presented to us now -- whether left or right -- as both what happened and what it \"really means,\" courtesy of the agenda of whoever is paying the presenter. Watch Fox News and you\'ll see that the agenda is to fill people with rage about what those awful people on the left are trying to do. Watch MSNBC and they\'ll tell you the same stories but the villains are those on the right.\r\n\r\nTruth has all but vanished. Candidates for president can tell literally hundreds of out-and-out lies and have them passed of as \"differences of opinion.\" A candidate for vice president can lie again and again about what his proposals would do, but the only time people really make a fuss is when he lies about how fast he ran a marathon.\r\n\r\nWhen people don\'t know what to believe, they get angry.\r\n\r\nSeventy percent of American families are -- at best -- just getting by. It\'s a constant struggle to pay bills, and the chance really to get ahead just doesn\'t exist. Fear of losing everything makes people angry.\r\n\r\nWatch movies or television and there is little that is ennobling or uplifting. Most of what we get from our culture is cynicism. That makes people angry.\r\n\r\nOur economic system is failing most of us. Our political system serves no one except major campaign contributors. More and more people seem to be buying into old, discredited beliefs about how the only truly noble thing in the world is self-interest.\r\n\r\nThat makes me angry. There are few people less noble than those who live their lives based only on their own interest. And with all due respect to my conservative friends, that\'s nothing that Ronald Reagan ever preached.\r\n\r\nYeah, I\'m angry. I might even be full of rage, but most of it isn\'t about politics. I\'m coming up on my 20th wedding anniversary, and my wife has been suffering serious health problems for more than a year now. A great deal of my time goes into caring for her, and there are times it doesn\'t seem to do any good at all.\r\n\r\nAll I can do is get up each morning and try to make that day as good as possible.\r\n\r\nThen again, that\'s really all any of us can do, and maybe -- with God\'s grace -- things will get a little better and we\'ll feel a little less angry.\r\n\r\nOtherwise, what\'s the use?\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n<strong><em>\r\n</em></strong>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Are we becoming a rage-fueled society?','','publish','open','open','','are-we-becoming-a-rage-fueled-society','','','2012-09-10 20:36:00','2012-09-11 03:36:00','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1764',0,'post','',0),(1758,1,'2012-09-13 18:21:22','2012-09-14 01:21:22','I was thinking recently about conversations I\'ve had with my best friend Mick Curran.\r\n\r\nMick and I have known each other since June 1965, when we met at the swimming pool in our neighborhood in Fairfax, Va. We have had so many conversations in the last 47 years that I might have spent as much time talking with him as any other three people in my life combined.\r\n\r\nWe\'ve had serious conversations and silly ones, conversations about the best things in our lives and the worst.\r\n\r\nWe had some interesting ones of the type that guys who are playing the back nine of life have a couple of years ago. The ones that start with \"If you could change anything ...\"\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1759\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Stepping back in time ...\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/time-tunnel.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1759\" title=\"time-tunnel\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/time-tunnel-300x237.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"237\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nMy question was this:\r\n\r\nLet\'s say you had the opportunity for five minutes to go back in time to an earlier point in your life -- let\'s say just before puberty -- and meet your younger self. You can tell yourself one thing, give one piece of advice, but it can\'t be something serious like study hard, don\'t take that job, make that investment or don\'t marry that girl.\r\n\r\nIn fact, it can\'t be anything that an adult would tell a child that the child might not believe. My mother told me time and again about things that mattered and things that didn\'t matter, but I don\'t think her advice changed anything I did or didn\'t do. My mistake.\r\n\r\nIdeally, you would tell yourself something that would be useful to you later that had never crossed your mind at that point.\r\n\r\nSo if I could step back into time for five minutes in the summer of 1962, the summer when I was 12 years old, I would have two words to say to my younger self:\r\n\r\n<strong><em>\"Lift weights.\"</em></strong>\r\n\r\nI was reasonably athletic as a teenager, but I was not physically strong. I was skinny but flabby, which is not a great combination. I was never a 99-pound weakling, but I certainly found myself intimidated by guys my own age who were in really good shape physically. When I was in 10th or 11th grade -- I forget which -- we were doing a three-week unit of wrestling in gym class.  I was pitted against a kid who was one of the top wrestlers in the school. He joked to his friends that he would pin me in less than 15 seconds. My greatest hope was to last longer than that.\r\n\r\nIt took him about 40 seconds to pin me, but I was on my back trying to keep my shoulders off the mat right from the beginning.\r\n\r\nI\'m not sure there is any worse feeling for a teenage boy than to be weak, and when you\'re a year younger than all your classmates -- as I was -- it just adds to the feeling of insecurity. And when a teenage boy feels insecure, too often his feelings come across as neediness.\r\n\r\nTaking care of yourself, building at least a certain level of physical strength, really would work wonders.','What if you could travel back for a little advice?','','publish','open','open','','what-if-you-could-travel-back-for-a-little-advice','','','2012-09-13 18:21:22','2012-09-14 01:21:22','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1758',0,'post','',0),(1759,1,'2012-08-26 17:18:01','2012-08-27 00:18:01','\"The Time Tunnel\"\r\nJames Darren and Robert Colbert\r\nc. 1966 / ** I.A.\r\n© Irwin Allen Properties, LLC and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved','time-tunnel','Stepping back in time ...','inherit','open','open','','time-tunnel','','','2012-08-26 17:18:01','2012-08-27 00:18:01','',1758,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/time-tunnel.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1760,1,'2012-08-26 17:32:35','2012-08-27 00:32:35','I was thinking recently about conversations I\'ve had with my best friend Mick Curran.\n\nMick and I have known each other since June 1965, when we met at the swimming pool in our neighborhood in Fairfax, Va. We have had so many conversations in the last 47 years that I might have spent as much time talking with him as any other three people in my life combined.\n\nWe\'ve had serious conversations and silly ones, conversations about the best things in our lives and the worst.\n\nWe had some interesting ones of the type that guys who are playing the back nine of life have a couple of years ago. The ones that start with \"If you could change anything ...\"\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1759\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Stepping back in time ...\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/time-tunnel.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1759\" title=\"time-tunnel\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/time-tunnel-300x237.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"237\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nMy question was this:\n\nLet\'s say you had the opportunity for five minutes to go back in time to an earlier point in your life and meet your younger self. You can tell yourself one thing, give one piece of advice, but it can\'t be something serious like study hard, don\'t take that job or don\'t marry that girl.\n\nIn fact, it can\'t be anything that an adult would tell a child that the child might not believe. My mother told me time and again about things that mattered and things that didn\'t matter, but I don\'t think her advice changed anything I did or didn\'t do. My mistake.\n\nIdeally, you would tell yourself something that would be useful to you later that had never crossed your mind at that point.','','','inherit','open','open','','1758-revision','','','2012-08-26 17:32:35','2012-08-27 00:32:35','',1758,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1760',0,'revision','',0),(1761,1,'2012-08-26 17:53:35','2012-08-27 00:53:35','I was thinking recently about conversations I\'ve had with my best friend Mick Curran.\n\nMick and I have known each other since June 1965, when we met at the swimming pool in our neighborhood in Fairfax, Va. We have had so many conversations in the last 47 years that I might have spent as much time talking with him as any other three people in my life combined.\n\nWe\'ve had serious conversations and silly ones, conversations about the best things in our lives and the worst.\n\nWe had some interesting ones of the type that guys who are playing the back nine of life have a couple of years ago. The ones that start with \"If you could change anything ...\"\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1759\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Stepping back in time ...\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/time-tunnel.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1759\" title=\"time-tunnel\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/time-tunnel-300x237.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"237\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nMy question was this:\n\nLet\'s say you had the opportunity for five minutes to go back in time to an earlier point in your life -- let\'s say just before puberty -- and meet your younger self. You can tell yourself one thing, give one piece of advice, but it can\'t be something serious like study hard, don\'t take that job, make that investment or don\'t marry that girl.\n\nIn fact, it can\'t be anything that an adult would tell a child that the child might not believe. My mother told me time and again about things that mattered and things that didn\'t matter, but I don\'t think her advice changed anything I did or didn\'t do. My mistake.\n\nIdeally, you would tell yourself something that would be useful to you later that had never crossed your mind at that point.\n\nSo if I could step back into time for five minutes in the summer of 1962, the summer when I was 12 years old, I would have two words to say to my younger self:\n\n<strong><em>\"Lift weights.\"</em></strong>\n\nI was reasonably athletic as a teenager, but I was not phy\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1758-revision-2','','','2012-08-26 17:53:35','2012-08-27 00:53:35','',1758,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1761',0,'revision','',0),(1762,1,'2012-08-26 17:55:17','2012-08-27 00:55:17','I was thinking recently about conversations I\'ve had with my best friend Mick Curran.\n\nMick and I have known each other since June 1965, when we met at the swimming pool in our neighborhood in Fairfax, Va. We have had so many conversations in the last 47 years that I might have spent as much time talking with him as any other three people in my life combined.\n\nWe\'ve had serious conversations and silly ones, conversations about the best things in our lives and the worst.\n\nWe had some interesting ones of the type that guys who are playing the back nine of life have a couple of years ago. The ones that start with \"If you could change anything ...\"\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1759\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Stepping back in time ...\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/time-tunnel.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1759\" title=\"time-tunnel\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/time-tunnel-300x237.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"237\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nMy question was this:\n\nLet\'s say you had the opportunity for five minutes to go back in time to an earlier point in your life -- let\'s say just before puberty -- and meet your younger self. You can tell yourself one thing, give one piece of advice, but it can\'t be something serious like study hard, don\'t take that job, make that investment or don\'t marry that girl.\n\nIn fact, it can\'t be anything that an adult would tell a child that the child might not believe. My mother told me time and again about things that mattered and things that didn\'t matter, but I don\'t think her advice changed anything I did or didn\'t do. My mistake.\n\nIdeally, you would tell yourself something that would be useful to you later that had never crossed your mind at that point.\n\nSo if I could step back into time for five minutes in the summer of 1962, the summer when I was 12 years old, I would have two words to say to my younger self:\n\n<strong><em>\"Lift weights.\"</em></strong>\n\nI was reasonably athletic as a teenager, but I was not physically strong. I was skinny but flabby, which is not a great combination.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1758-revision-3','','','2012-08-26 17:55:17','2012-08-27 00:55:17','',1758,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1762',0,'revision','',0),(1763,1,'2012-09-10 16:38:21','2012-09-10 23:38:21','I was thinking recently about conversations I\'ve had with my best friend Mick Curran.\n\nMick and I have known each other since June 1965, when we met at the swimming pool in our neighborhood in Fairfax, Va. We have had so many conversations in the last 47 years that I might have spent as much time talking with him as any other three people in my life combined.\n\nWe\'ve had serious conversations and silly ones, conversations about the best things in our lives and the worst.\n\nWe had some interesting ones of the type that guys who are playing the back nine of life have a couple of years ago. The ones that start with \"If you could change anything ...\"\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1759\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Stepping back in time ...\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/time-tunnel.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1759\" title=\"time-tunnel\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/time-tunnel-300x237.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"237\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nMy question was this:\n\nLet\'s say you had the opportunity for five minutes to go back in time to an earlier point in your life -- let\'s say just before puberty -- and meet your younger self. You can tell yourself one thing, give one piece of advice, but it can\'t be something serious like study hard, don\'t take that job, make that investment or don\'t marry that girl.\n\nIn fact, it can\'t be anything that an adult would tell a child that the child might not believe. My mother told me time and again about things that mattered and things that didn\'t matter, but I don\'t think her advice changed anything I did or didn\'t do. My mistake.\n\nIdeally, you would tell yourself something that would be useful to you later that had never crossed your mind at that point.\n\nSo if I could step back into time for five minutes in the summer of 1962, the summer when I was 12 years old, I would have two words to say to my younger self:\n\n<strong><em>\"Lift weights.\"</em></strong>\n\nI was reasonably athletic as a teenager, but I was not physically strong. I was skinny but flabby, which is not a great combination.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1758-revision-4','','','2012-09-10 16:38:21','2012-09-10 23:38:21','',1758,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1763',0,'revision','',0),(1765,1,'2012-09-10 19:05:51','2012-09-11 02:05:51','','005GNW_Jim_Gaffigan_002','Jim Gaffigan in \"The Great New Wonderful\"','inherit','open','open','','005gnw_jim_gaffigan_002','','','2012-09-10 19:05:51','2012-09-11 02:05:51','',1764,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/005GNW_Jim_Gaffigan_002.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1766,1,'2012-09-10 20:35:39','2012-09-11 03:35:39','<strong><em>\"These times are so uncertain, there\'s a yearning undefined and people filled with rage. We all need a little tenderness, how can love survive in such a graceless age?\"\n-- DON HENLEY, \"Heart of the Matter</em></strong>\n\nPeople who know me know I have been writing about this verse from this song for more than 20 years. Until recently I always focused on the last part of it, writing about what a graceless age in which we live. An age of trashy culture, disposable relationships and a ridiculous lust for wealth.\n\nLately I have been thinking more and more about the rage.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1765\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Jim Gaffigan in &quot;The Great New Wonderful&quot;\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/005GNW_Jim_Gaffigan_002.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1765\" title=\"005GNW_Jim_Gaffigan_002\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/005GNW_Jim_Gaffigan_002-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nEveryone seems so angry all the time. Whether it\'s the economy, or politics, or people furious that someone might want to practice a different religion than they do, even people who seem pretty happy have things that piss them off.\n\nDanny Leiner\'s underrated 2005 film, <a title=\"The Great New Wonderful\" href=\"http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0402230/\">\"The Great New Wonderful,\"</a> tells five intertwining stories about New Yorkers exactly one year after Sept. 11, 2001. In Sandie\'s Story, Jim Gaffigan plays a man who worked in the Twin Towers and survived the day. His superiors have asked survivors to meet with a psychologist to make sure they are recovering.\n\nSandie says over and over again that he is fine, while the psychologist says that when he looks at Sandie, he sees a man completely full of repressed rage.\n\nIn the end, Sandie hits the psychologist over the head with a chair, runs out of the office and keeps running all the way to Connecticut.\n\n\"I think I\'m lost,\" he says when he finally stops running.\n\nA lot of people are angry these days -- filled with rage -- and I blame an awful lot of it on our misbegotten culture and values that have gotten so far out of whack I\'m not sure Americans from 100 years ago would even recognize our country.\n\nThe concept of \"news\" has all but vanished, and nearly everything is presented to us now -- whether left or right -- as both what happened and what it \"really means,\" courtesy of the agenda of whoever is paying the presenter. Watch Fox News and you\'ll see that the agenda is to fill people with rage about what those awful people on the left are trying to do. Watch MSNBC and they\'ll tell you the same stories but the villains are those on the right.\n\nTruth has all but vanished. Candidates for president can tell literally hundreds of out-and-out lies and have them passed of as \"differences of opinion.\" A candidate for vice president can lie again and again about what his proposals would do, but the only time people really make a fuss is when he lies about how fast he ran a marathon.\n\nWhen people don\'t know what to believe, they get angry.\n\nSeventy percent of American families are -- at best -- just getting by. It\'s a constant struggle to pay bills, and the chance really to get ahead just doesn\'t exist. Fear of losing everything makes people angry.\n\nWatch movies or television and there is little that is ennobling or uplifting. Most of what we get from our culture is cynicism. That makes people angry.\n\nOur economic system is failing most of us. Our political system serves no one except major campaign contributors. More and more people seem to be buying into old, discredited beliefs about how the only truly noble thing in the world is self-interest.\n\nThat makes me angry. There are few people less noble than those who live their lives based only on their own interest. And with all due respect to my conservative friends, that\'s nothing that Ronald Reagan ever preached.\n\nYeah, I\'m angry. I might even be full of rage, but most of it isn\'t about politics. I\'m coming up on my 20th wedding anniversary, and my wife has been suffering serious health problems for more than a year now. A great deal of my time goes into caring for her, and there are times it doesn\'t seem to do any good at all.\n\nAll I can do is get up each morning and try to make that day as good as possible.\n\nThen again, that\'s really all any of us can do, and maybe -- with God\'s grace -- things will get a little better and we\'ll feel a little less angry.\n\nOtherwise, what\'s the use?\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n<strong><em>\n</em></strong>\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1764-revision','','','2012-09-10 20:35:39','2012-09-11 03:35:39','',1764,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1766',0,'revision','',0),(1769,1,'2012-10-06 20:53:43','2012-10-07 03:53:43','When you reach a certain point in your life, the world stops giving you things and starts taking them away.\r\n\r\nIn the last couple of years, I have gotten several rude surprises in the form of bad news about former friends and colleagues. In April 2009, my former roommate David Poole of the Charlotte Observer died at age 50. I hadn\'t seen him for more than 25 years, but he had been morbidly obese when I knew him and I don\'t think that had changed. The bad news in that case was a surprise but hardly a shock.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1770\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"280\" caption=\"Andrew Cseplo, upper right\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/559458_4576933263050_1583489405_n.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1770\" title=\"559458_4576933263050_1583489405_n\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/559458_4576933263050_1583489405_n.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"254\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nThe news I got this morning was truly a shock. My friend Andrew Cseplo, who preceded me as editor in chief of the campus newspaper at George Mason University, was found dead in his cab Thursday night at 13th and Constitution in Washington, D.C. Emergency medical technicians tried to revive him, but were unable. It looks like he had a heart attack, which came as a shock to the friends who actually see him from time to time.\r\n\r\nHe was 53, and at least during the last two years on Facebook, he seemed to be having a really good time. He had one of the best senses of humor I have ever seen; I would have thought he might have been able to make it as a stand-up comic.\r\n\r\nAnd now he\'s gone. It is depressing to lose a friend, but it is especially depressing when the friends you lose are younger than you are.\r\n\r\nI have been blessed in my life. I had three grandparents alive till I was 35 years old, and I was 58 before I lost one of my parents. I have only lost one relative -- a cousin -- at a shockingly young age, but he had a medical condition that made it certain he wasn\'t going to make it past adolescence.\r\n\r\nIt\'s strange, though. Relationships end all the time, and some end with a finality that resembles death. For five years or so, I was closer to my first wife than I had ever been to anyone else. But we split up in 1980 and haven\'t seen or spoken to each other in more than 30 years. We might as well be dead to each other.\r\n\r\nStill, for all the friends and relatives we lose along the way, occasionally they come back. Some years back, I was able to re-establish contact with my friend Walter Masterson. We stayed in touch for the last three or four years of his life. When he died at age 87, our renewed friendship had made both our lives more pleasant.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1771\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"130\" caption=\"Billie Johnson\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/211651_100000130070627_618590210_n.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1771\" title=\"211651_100000130070627_618590210_n\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/211651_100000130070627_618590210_n-130x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"130\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nFriday on Facebook, I got a pleasant surprise. A woman that I knew for only one year -- my senior year in high school -- sent me a message. Billie Johnson was my government teacher in 12th grade, one of the two or three finest teachers I had in my many years getting educated.\r\n\r\nShe taught government at my high school until she retired in 1994, and she is still actively working for teachers -- both active and retired -- to protect their rights. In a challenging time when the far right seems to see teachers as the villains for everything that\'s wrong with our country, it\'s important for people to stand up and say no to them.\r\n\r\nIt made me very happy to hear from her. I have never forgotten something she said to me at the end of 12th grade. She apologized to me for not being able to make the class more interesting. She said she knew I would have benefitted from a more advanced class, but government was a required subject for every high school senior in Virginia. She had to teach a class that would get as many kids through as possible.\r\n\r\nHer apology embarrassed me. Sure, what she said was true, but I hadn\'t even gotten an \"A\" in the class. I didn\'t think I had the right to a more challenging class.\r\n\r\nGood teachers are like that, and she was one of the best. It\'s strange to go from a teacher-student relationship to a friendship between two retired adults.\r\n\r\nIt\'s kind of nice, though.\r\n\r\nNot all the surprises we get at this point in life are bad ones.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Friends pass away and others sometimes come back','','publish','open','open','','friends-pass-away-and-others-sometimes-come-back','','','2012-10-06 20:53:43','2012-10-07 03:53:43','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1769',0,'post','',0),(1768,1,'2012-09-13 18:20:45','2012-09-14 01:20:45','I was thinking recently about conversations I\'ve had with my best friend Mick Curran.\n\nMick and I have known each other since June 1965, when we met at the swimming pool in our neighborhood in Fairfax, Va. We have had so many conversations in the last 47 years that I might have spent as much time talking with him as any other three people in my life combined.\n\nWe\'ve had serious conversations and silly ones, conversations about the best things in our lives and the worst.\n\nWe had some interesting ones of the type that guys who are playing the back nine of life have a couple of years ago. The ones that start with \"If you could change anything ...\"\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1759\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Stepping back in time ...\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/time-tunnel.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1759\" title=\"time-tunnel\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/time-tunnel-300x237.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"237\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nMy question was this:\n\nLet\'s say you had the opportunity for five minutes to go back in time to an earlier point in your life -- let\'s say just before puberty -- and meet your younger self. You can tell yourself one thing, give one piece of advice, but it can\'t be something serious like study hard, don\'t take that job, make that investment or don\'t marry that girl.\n\nIn fact, it can\'t be anything that an adult would tell a child that the child might not believe. My mother told me time and again about things that mattered and things that didn\'t matter, but I don\'t think her advice changed anything I did or didn\'t do. My mistake.\n\nIdeally, you would tell yourself something that would be useful to you later that had never crossed your mind at that point.\n\nSo if I could step back into time for five minutes in the summer of 1962, the summer when I was 12 years old, I would have two words to say to my younger self:\n\n<strong><em>\"Lift weights.\"</em></strong>\n\nI was reasonably athletic as a teenager, but I was not physically strong. I was skinny but flabby, which is not a great combination. I was never a 99-pound weakling, but I certainly found myself intimidated by guys my own age who were in really good shape physically. When I was in 10th or 11th grade -- I forget which -- we were doing a three-week unit of wrestling in gym class.  I was pitted against a kid who was one of the top wrestlers in the school. He joked to his friends that he would pin me in less than 15 seconds. My greatest hope was to last longer than that.\n\nIt took him about 40 seconds to pin me, but I was on my back trying to keep my shoulders off the mat right from the beginning.\n\nI\'m not sure there is any worse feeling for a teenage boy than to be weak, and when you\'re a year younger than all your classmates -- as I was -- it just adds to the feeling of insecurity. And when a teenage boy feels insecure, too often his feelings come across as neediness.\n\nTaking care of yourself, building at least a certain level of physical strength, really would work wonders.','','','inherit','open','open','','1758-revision-5','','','2012-09-13 18:20:45','2012-09-14 01:20:45','',1758,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1768',0,'revision','',0),(1770,1,'2012-10-06 19:34:41','2012-10-07 02:34:41','','559458_4576933263050_1583489405_n','Andrew Cseplo, upper right','inherit','open','open','','559458_4576933263050_1583489405_n','','','2012-10-06 19:34:41','2012-10-07 02:34:41','',1769,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/559458_4576933263050_1583489405_n.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1771,1,'2012-10-06 20:39:56','2012-10-07 03:39:56','','211651_100000130070627_618590210_n','Billie Johnson','inherit','open','open','','211651_100000130070627_618590210_n','','','2012-10-06 20:39:56','2012-10-07 03:39:56','',1769,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/211651_100000130070627_618590210_n.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1772,1,'2012-10-06 20:52:47','2012-10-07 03:52:47','When you reach a certain point in your life, the world stops giving you things and starts taking them away.\n\nIn the last couple of years, I have gotten several rude surprises in the form of bad news about former friends and colleagues. In April 2009, my former roommate David Poole of the Charlotte Observer died at age 50. I hadn\'t seen him for more than 25 years, but he had been morbidly obese when I knew him and I don\'t think that had changed. The bad news in that case was a surprise but hardly a shock.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1770\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"280\" caption=\"Andrew Cseplo, upper right\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/559458_4576933263050_1583489405_n.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1770\" title=\"559458_4576933263050_1583489405_n\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/559458_4576933263050_1583489405_n.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"254\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nThe news I got this morning was truly a shock. My friend Andrew Cseplo, who preceded me as editor in chief of the campus newspaper at George Mason University, was found dead in his cab Thursday night at 13th and Constitution in Washington, D.C. Emergency medical technicians tried to revive him, but were unable. It looks like he had a heart attack, which came as a shock to the friends who actually see him from time to time.\n\nHe was 53, and at least during the last two years on Facebook, he seemed to be having a really good time. He had one of the best senses of humor I have ever seen; I would have thought he might have been able to make it as a stand-up comic.\n\nAnd now he\'s gone. It is depressing to lose a friend, but it is especially depressing when the friends you lose are younger than you are.\n\nI have been blessed in my life. I had three grandparents alive till I was 35 years old, and I was 58 before I lost one of my parents. I have only lost one relative -- a cousin -- at a shockingly young age, but he had a medical condition that made it certain he wasn\'t going to make it past adolescence.\n\nIt\'s strange, though. Relationships end all the time, and some end with a finality that resembles death. For five years or so, I was closer to my first wife than I had ever been to anyone else. But we split up in 1980 and haven\'t seen or spoken to each other in more than 30 years. We might as well be dead to each other.\n\nStill, for all the friends and relatives we lose along the way, occasionally they come back. Some years back, I was able to re-establish contact with my friend Walter Masterson. We stayed in touch for the last three or four years of his life. When he died at age 87, our renewed friendship had made both our lives more pleasant.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1771\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"130\" caption=\"Billie Johnson\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/211651_100000130070627_618590210_n.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1771\" title=\"211651_100000130070627_618590210_n\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/211651_100000130070627_618590210_n-130x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"130\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nFriday on Facebook, I got a pleasant surprise. A woman that I knew for only one year -- my senior year in high school -- sent me a message. Billie Johnson was my government teacher in 12th grade, one of the two or three finest teachers I had in my many years getting educated.\n\nShe taught government at my high school until she retired in 1994, and she is still actively working for teachers -- both active and retired -- to protect their rights. In a challenging time when the far right seems to see teachers as the villains for everything that\'s wrong with our country, it\'s important for people to stand up and say no to them.\n\nIt made me very happy to hear from her. I have never forgotten something she said to me at the end of 12th grade. She apologized to me for not being able to make the class more interesting. She said she knew I would have benefitted from a more advanced class, but government was a required subject for every high school senior in Virginia. She had to teach a class that would get as many kids through as possible.\n\nHer apology embarrassed me. Sure, what she said was true, but I hadn\'t even gotten an \"A\" in the class. I didn\'t think I had the right to a more challenging class.\n\nGood teachers are like that, and she was one of the best. It\'s strange to go from a teacher-student relationship to a friendship between two retired adults.\n\nIt\'s kind of nice, though.\n\nNot all the surprises we get at this point in life are bad ones.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1769-revision','','','2012-10-06 20:52:47','2012-10-07 03:52:47','',1769,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1772',0,'revision','',0),(1785,1,'2012-10-28 19:44:09','2012-10-29 02:44:09','It has been at least 10 or 15 years since I have watched an episode of \"Saturday Night Live.\"\r\n\r\nIn fact, I don\'t think I have watched it regularly since Dana Carvey was doing impressions of George H.W. Bush. Partly it was because the show didn\'t seem particularly funny  anymore, and part of it was that 11:30 p.m. on Saturdays wasn\'t exactly prime time fun time for me with a wife and kids.\r\n\r\nOh, I watch clips on the Internet, especially during election campaigns. I got as much of a kick as anyone out of Tina Fey\'s spot-on Sarah Palin impression, and I certainly enjoyed Will Ferrell as George Dubya Bush.\r\n\r\nBut not enough to watch the show.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1786\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Season One, 1975-76\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/00012676-436121_catl_348.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1786\" title=\"00012676-436121_catl_348\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/00012676-436121_catl_348-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nStill, once was the time I wouldn\'t have missed it. I was 25 when SNL came on the air in October 1975, and I don\'t think I could possibly explain what a big deal it was in those final years before cable TV and the decades before home video and the Internet.\r\n\r\nThree television networks plus PBS and local independent stations, and very few stations stayed on the air all night. Late night music shows had been successful earlier in the decade -- \"Midnight Special\" and \"In Concert\" had drawn young audiences to see musical acts they loved.\r\n\r\nNBC lost the right to show \"Tonight Show\" reruns on weekends, so the network decided to put together a live comedy/music show that would run for 90 minutes. Lorne Michael assembled a cast of unknowns. got some stars to host and perform and went to work. A look back at the first show demonstrates how different the original premise was from what followed. George Carlin was the host, and he didn\'t participate in any skits or interact at all with the cast members. All he did was perform parts of his standup comedy act at various points in the show.\r\n\r\nIf you look at that first season, there were oddities. Candice Bergen hosted twice in the first eight weeks, and Elliott Gould (remember him?) hosted in January and again in May. There were two shows in the middle of summer, which was also strange.\r\n\r\nMost people who are familiar with the show know the names of the seven original Not Quite Ready for Prime Time Players -- Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Garrett Morris, Jane Curtin, Gilda Radner and Larraine Newman. But most don\'t remember -- I certainly didn\'t -- that the first cast included two additional names, Michael O\'Donoghue and George Coe. I still have no idea who George Coe is.\r\n\r\nIt\'s strange to look at that first show and realize how many of the people who played major roles are no longer with us. Belushi died in 1982, Radner in 1989 and O\'Donoghue in 1994. Musical guest Billy Preston died in 2006 and Carlin himself died in 2008. Of the still living members of the cast, except for maybe Chase and Curtin, they never surpassed their SNL work, and Chase only spent one season on the show.\r\n\r\nIn these days of hundreds of entertainment choices, with Tivo and DVRs and all sorts of other ways to time-shift shows, it\'s tough to understand that in the fall of 1975, a lot of us in our 20s went out on Saturday night and made sure we were home by 11:30 so that we could watch SNL.\r\n\r\nBoy, things really do change.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Strange to remember what SNL once meant','','publish','open','open','','strange-to-remember-what-snl-meant-back-in-the-day','','','2012-10-28 19:44:44','2012-10-29 02:44:44','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1785',0,'post','',0),(1774,1,'2012-11-03 17:15:53','2012-11-04 00:15:53','<strong><em>\"God watches out for drunks, little children and the United States of America.\"</em></strong>\r\n\r\nI don\'t remember the first time I heard that, but it made me laugh knowingly. All throughout our country\'s history, in its hour of greatest need, there have been great presidents. In the beginning, when we weren\'t even sure what kind of country we would have, there was George Washington to refuse a crown and set precedent after precedent for the way presidents should behave. In 1860, with the Union falling apart, there was Abraham Lincoln to hold it together.\r\n\r\nAt the end of the Gilded Age, when the robber barons had all but raped the country, there was Theodore Roosevelt to step up with his big stick and shut them down.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1775\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"199\" caption=\"The unfinished portrait\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/20121007_17.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1775\" title=\"20121007_17\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/20121007_17-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nAnd then there was FDR.\r\n\r\nEver since the age of Reagan, conservatives have done their worst to downplay the effect of Franklin Delano Roosevelt\'s 12 years in the White House. They claim the New Deal did nothing to lift the United States out of the Great Depression, that the economy didn\'t really turn around until World War II started. They call him a socialist or even a fascist, but the one thing none of them seem to want to admit is that if Roosevelt hadn\'t done what he did, it\'s likely we would have gone down the same road as Germany, Italy or even Russia.\r\n\r\nHe was a wealthy man, no doubt, but his own misfortune -- he contracted polio when he was nearly 40 years old -- gave him great empathy for all the people who were suffering during the Depression.\r\n\r\nContrary to what you\'ll hear from right wingers these days, Roosevelt didn\'t start the welfare state. The money people got from the government so they could eat was money they worked for. Sure, maybe some were only doing things like sweeping the sidewalks, but FDR understood that people needed to do something to feel that they had earned the money.\r\n\r\nYes, there was another recession in 1937, but that was because Roosevelt -- a traditionalist at heart -- tried to keep a campaign promise and balance the federal budget. Austerity was the last thing the economy needed.\r\n\r\nIt was his true empathy for the poor and suffering that made the Democrats a majority party for a generation. That they don\'t really seem to be one anymore speaks more to the fact that they have tried to cater to the wealthy, and as Harry Truman once said, give the voters a choice between a Republican and a Republican and they\'ll vote for the Republican every time.\r\n\r\nFDR had a real connection with the people, and he did a better job of communicating with them in his Fireside Chats than any other president before him or since him. He was the one man who could make a reluctant nation prepare for a war he knew would one day come to them, and he was the one who led them through the dark days after Pearl Harbor all the way up to his death on April 12, 1945.\r\n\r\nThe <em>New York Times</em> said it best in a eulogy editorial, telling its readers that a hundred years in the future, Americans would get down on their knees and thank God that Franklin Roosevelt had been in the White House when America had to stand up to barbarism.\r\n\r\nSome will, of course, but what amazes me more than 67 years after his death is how much his legacy has been subjected to revisionist history by the descendants of the people on the far right who hated him beyond all reason. Oh, they don\'t say the same things the haters did while he was alive. For one thing, all the ridiculous lies about how Roosevelt was secretly a Jew wouldn\'t fly anymore. What anti-semitism that remains in this country is pretty much underground these days.\r\n\r\nBut the whole idea that we should help people who are down on their luck has come under attack. It\'s amazing how many people treat a third-rate thinker like Ayn Rand as if she were a philosophical equal to Christ himself. People talk about makers and takers and look at the people who are struggling as if they were somehow morally inferior to those who are successful. When a major party candidate talks of 47 percent of Americans as people he could never convince to take responsibility for their own lives, it says as much about our country as it does about the man who said it.\r\n\r\nFifty years ago, Mitt Romney would have condemned himself to the far right fringe with that remark.\r\n\r\nToday he\'s probably got one chance in three of being elected president on Tuesday.\r\n\r\nAmerica has certainly changed.\r\n\r\nWe certainly are pressing our luck.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Boy, could we really use another FDR these days','','publish','open','open','','boy-could-we-really-use-another-fdr-these-days','','','2012-11-03 17:16:25','2012-11-04 00:16:25','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1774',0,'post','',0),(1775,1,'2012-10-07 18:36:57','2012-10-08 01:36:57','','20121007_17','The unfinished portrait','inherit','open','open','','20121007_17','','','2012-10-07 18:36:57','2012-10-08 01:36:57','',1774,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/20121007_17.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1776,1,'2012-10-07 19:12:26','2012-10-08 02:12:26','<strong><em>\"God watches out for drunks, little children and the United States of America.\"</em></strong>\n\nI don\'t remember the first time I heard that, but it made me laugh knowingly. All throughout our country\'s history, in its hour of greatest need, there have been great presidents. In the beginning, when we weren\'t even sure what kind of country we would have, there was George Washington to refuse a crown and set precedent after precedent for the way presidents should behave. In 1860, with the Union falling apart, there was Abraham Lincoln to hold it together.\n\nAt the end of the Gilded Age, when the robber barons had all but raped the country, there was Theodore Roosevelt to step up with his big stick and shut them down.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1775\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"199\" caption=\"The unfinished portrait\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/20121007_17.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1775\" title=\"20121007_17\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/20121007_17-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nAnd then there was FDR.\n\nEver since the age of Reagan, conservatives have done their worst to downplay the effect of Franklin Delano Roosevelt\'s 12 years in the White House. They claim the New Deal did nothing to lift the United States out of the Great Depression, that the economy didn\'t really turn around until World War II started. They call him a socialist or even a fascist, but the one thing none of them seem to want to admit is that if Roosevelt hadn\'t done what he did, it\'s likely we would have gone down the same road as Germany, Italy or even Russia.\n\nHe was a wealthy man, no doubt, but his own misfortune -- he contracted polio when he was nearly 40 years old -- gave him great empathy for all the people who were suffering during the Depression.\n\nContrary to what you\'ll hear from right wingers these days, Roosevelt didn\'t start the welfare state. The money people got from the government so they could eat was money they worked for. Sure, maybe some were only doing things like sweeping the sidewalks, but FDR understood that people needed to do something to feel that they had earned the money.\n\nYes, there was another recession in 1937, but that was because Roosevelt -- a traditionalist at heart -- tried to keep a campaign promise and balance the federal budget. Austerity was the last thing the economy needed.\n\nIt was his true empathy for the poor and suffering that made the Democrats a majority party for a generation. That they don\'t really seem to be one anymore speaks more to the fact that they have tried to cater to the wealthy, and as Harry Truman once said, give the voters a choice between a Republican and a Republican and they\'ll vote for the Republican every time.\n\nFDR had a real connection with the people, and he did a better job of communicating with them in his Fireside Chats than any other president before him or since him. He was the one man who could make a reluctant nation prepare for a war he knew would one day come to them, and he was the one who led them through the dark days after Pearl Harbor all the way up to his death on April 12, 1945.\n\nThe <em>New York Times</em> said it best in a eulogy editorial, telling its readers that a hundred years in the future, Americans would get down on their knees and thank God that Franklin Roosevelt had been in the White House when America h\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1774-revision','','','2012-10-07 19:12:26','2012-10-08 02:12:26','',1774,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1776',0,'revision','',0),(1777,1,'2012-10-10 17:38:12','2012-10-11 00:38:12','<strong><em>\"People will come. The one constant through all the years has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it\'s a part of our past. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come. People will most definitely come.\"\r\n-- TERRENCE MANN in \"Field of Dreams\"</em></strong>\r\n\r\nI\'m really not sure that there is anything better about America -- anything that has lasted across the centuries, from one America to another to another and another -- than baseball and the feelings so many people have for it.\r\n\r\nI\'m not sure why, but I\'m a lot more likely to divide the world into people who love baseball and bad people than into liberals and conservatives. Someone can be totally opposed to me politically, but if they love baseball, I have a hard time thinking too badly of them. As much as I disliked George W. Bush\'s politics, they fact that he had once said his real dream job was to be commissioner of baseball was definitely a point in his favor.\r\n\r\nThere isn\'t anything that connects the generations -- fathers and sons -- more effectively. At the height of the Sixties, when my father and I couldn\'t talk about much without disagreeing, we could usually talk about baseball. My earliest memories of my dad were of baseball games at Crosley Field in Cincinnati and Yankee Stadium in New York, and my most wonderful memories of my own son are of the four years I coached him in youth league baseball.\r\n\r\nWe had some wonderful times and some other times when I found myself embarrassed at my own actions. In our final season, when we lost every game, we were trying to protect a small lead in one of our last games. The bases were loaded and the batter hit a line-drive into the gap in left-center. The center fielder moved over and cut the ball off, but he froze on where to throw the ball and before he threw it, all four runners had scored.\r\n\r\n<em>\"What are you, brain dead?\"</em>\r\n\r\nThat was what the most laid-back coach in the league yelled -- at his own son.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1778\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"259\" caption=\"Fathers and sons, Field of Dreams\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/images-1.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1778\" title=\"images (1)\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/images-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"259\" height=\"194\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nBut Virgile understood. Back then, although I don\'t think he loved baseball as much as I did, he seemed to get it. We went to a number of ballgames together in Los Angeles and Anaheim. When he was 8 years old, we skipped school and went to the Angels\' home opener. When he was 9, in only the second game he ever attended, we saw the Braves\' Kent Mercker pitch a no-hitter against the Dodgers.\r\n\r\nMaybe my favorite time with him was in 2001, when I got to do something for the very first time at age 51 -- sit in the very first row of box seats on the third base side just past the Dodgers\' dugout. I had been going to ballgames for more than 40 years without ever having a foul ball hit to me, but on this day, Virgile got three in the first five innings.\r\n\r\nMy son\'s interest in baseball has faded. The whole steroid thing bothered him a lot, and he has become an outstanding performer in Ironman Triathlons. We have still managed to go to an occasional ballgame together, and it wouldn\'t surprise me if someday we got out our old gloves and played catch one more time.\r\n\r\nI forget where I wrote this -- maybe on Facebook -- but describing the things that really matter in the world to me, I said that I love my family, I love my friends and I love baseball.\r\n\r\nThat\'s me.\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"http://www.youtube.com/embed/b_wnD6jxREU\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\"></iframe>','From one generation to the next, there\'s baseball','','publish','open','open','','from-one-generation-to-the-next-theres-baseball','','','2012-10-10 17:38:12','2012-10-11 00:38:12','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1777',0,'post','',0),(1778,1,'2012-10-10 17:09:39','2012-10-11 00:09:39','','images (1)','Fathers and sons, Field of Dreams','inherit','open','open','','images-1-2','','','2012-10-10 17:09:39','2012-10-11 00:09:39','',1777,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/images-1.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1779,1,'2012-10-10 17:37:17','2012-10-11 00:37:17','<strong><em>\"People will come. The one constant through all the years has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it\'s a part of our past. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come. People will most definitely come.\"\n-- TERRENCE MANN in \"Field of Dreams\"</em></strong>\n\nI\'m really not sure that there is anything better about America -- anything that has lasted across the centuries, from one America to another to another and another -- than baseball and the feelings so many people have for it.\n\nI\'m not sure why, but I\'m a lot more likely to divide the world into people who love baseball and bad people than into liberals and conservatives. Someone can be totally opposed to me politically, but if they love baseball, I have a hard time thinking too badly of them. As much as I disliked George W. Bush\'s politics, they fact that he had once said his real dream job was to be commissioner of baseball was definitely a point in his favor.\n\nThere isn\'t anything that connects the generations -- fathers and sons -- more effectively. At the height of the Sixties, when my father and I couldn\'t talk about much without disagreeing, we could usually talk about baseball. My earliest memories of my dad were of baseball games at Crosley Field in Cincinnati and Yankee Stadium in New York, and my most wonderful memories of my own son are of the four years I coached him in youth league baseball.\n\nWe had some wonderful times and some other times when I found myself embarrassed at my own actions. In our final season, when we lost every game, we were trying to protect a small lead in one of our last games. The bases were loaded and the batter hit a line-drive into the gap in left-center. The center fielder moved over and cut the ball off, but he froze on where to throw the ball and before he threw it, all four runners had scored.\n\n<em>\"What are you, brain dead?\"</em>\n\nThat was what the most laid-back coach in the league yelled -- at his own son.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1778\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"259\" caption=\"Fathers and sons, Field of Dreams\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/images-1.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1778\" title=\"images (1)\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/images-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"259\" height=\"194\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nBut Virgile understood. Back then, although I don\'t think he loved baseball as much as I did, he seemed to get it. We went to a number of ballgames together in Los Angeles and Anaheim. When he was 8 years old, we skipped school and went to the Angels\' home opener. When he was 9, in only the second game he ever attended, we saw the Braves\' Kent Mercker pitch a no-hitter against the Dodgers.\n\nMaybe my favorite time with him was in 2001, when I got to do something for the very first time at age 51 -- sit in the very first row of box seats on the third base side just past the Dodgers\' dugout. I had been going to ballgames for more than 40 years without ever having a foul ball hit to me, but on this day, Virgile got three in the first five innings.\n\nMy son\'s interest in baseball has faded. The whole steroid thing bothered him a lot, and he has become an outstanding performer in Ironman Triathlons. We have still managed to go to an occasional ballgame together, and it wouldn\'t surprise me if someday we got out our old gloves and played catch one more time.\n\nI forget where I wrote this -- maybe on Facebook -- but describing the things that really matter in the world to me, I said that I love my family, I love my friends and I love baseball.\n\nThat\'s me.\n\n<iframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"http://www.youtube.com/embed/b_wnD6jxREU\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen></iframe>','','','inherit','open','open','','1777-revision','','','2012-10-10 17:37:17','2012-10-11 00:37:17','',1777,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1779',0,'revision','',0),(1780,1,'2012-10-14 19:45:42','2012-10-15 02:45:42','There are two kinds of people in this country ...\r\n\r\n<em>Wow, there\'s an original thought. You can divide people in about a billion ways, starting with men and women and finishing with who watches Honey Boo Boo and who doesn\'t.</em>\r\n\r\nGive me a minute. I\'m hoping to be a little more profound than that. The way I would divide the country is into people who think that if you\'re honest, work hard and treat other people well, you\'ll get ahead, and people who would call folks like that \"suckers.\"\r\n\r\nMaybe they are, although I think that\'s a little like blaming the victim for the crime. There have certainly been plenty of American workers whose companies made good products and turned a profit who absolutely couldn\'t understand why people would close their factory and send the jobs to China -- just to<em> increase</em> profits.\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"http://www.youtube.com/embed/grQTuIYnreg\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\"></iframe>\r\n\r\nAverage folks simply look at money differently than the <em>uber</em>-entitled rich. People living from paycheck to paycheck and deciding which bills will have to wait till next month might say that if they had a million dollars, all their problems would be solved. The main reason that isn\'t true is that lifestyles expand to fit incomes. When I got my first full-time newspaper job in 1979, I was getting paid $180 a week. Less than $10,000 a year. I remember thinking if I could make $20,000 or even $30,000, that would solve my problems. Well, I had nicer apartments and a better car, and I paid my bills on time, but I knew I hadn\'t exactly reached tall cotton.\r\n\r\nBut in general, if a working-class person comes into a windfall, they don\'t all of a sudden step up and buy a Learjet or a Bentley. The ones who do are the ones who generally lose it all in the end.\r\n\r\nThe other side of the coin is the really wealthy, the ones who insist they built everything they have on their own without any help from anyone else. It\'s funny, the ones who inherited their wealth are the ones who seem to be the most obnoxious about it. The four children of Walmart founder Sam Walton have spend tens of millions in campaign contributions to try and eliminate the estate tax. The sons of Fred Koch, who made billions in energy and then helped found the John Birch Society, have provided much of the funding for right-wing political groups in recent years.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1781\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"250\" caption=\"Australia&#39;s $19 billion woman.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/gina-rinehart-wonkette-250x166.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1781\" title=\"gina-rinehart-wonkette-250x166\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/gina-rinehart-wonkette-250x166.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"166\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nBut the worst person of all isn\'t even an American. Australian <a title=\"Gina Rinehart\" href=\"http://wonkette.com/483309/forbes-explains-why-you-people-need-more-horrible-rich-ladies-like-gina-rinehart\">Gina Rinehart</a>, who is worth about $19 billion, is the world\'s richest woman. Her money comes from mining, and she has been whining about how much she has to pay Australians to work in her mines. She also had some good advice about class envy:\r\n\r\n<em>\"There is no monopoly on becoming a millionaire. If you’re jealous of those with more money, don’t just sit there and complain. Do something to make more money yourself — spend less time drinking, or smoking and socializing and more time working.\"</em>\r\n\r\nOf course, Rinehart didn\'t have to worry about any of those things. She inherited her money.\r\n\r\nNow if you\'re like me, you find yourself wondering why anyone would need $19 billion. I went through a thing with my friend Mick a few years back where we were talking about an insurance CEO who had made about $110 million the year before. Even figuring about half of it would go in taxes, the executive would still have more than $1 million a week.\r\n\r\nSo try this:\r\n\r\nYou get $1 million every Friday. The first Friday you buy a nice house. The second Friday you buy a nice car and set up college accounts for your kids. The third Friday ...\r\n\r\nYou get the picture. Very soon, you\'ve got more money piling up than you can spend -- unless you decide you need four or five houses, 10 or 12 cars and all the other things that go along with being fabulously wealthy.\r\n\r\nSome people read stuff like this and accuse me of hating rich people. That\'s just not true. I\'ve always been a fan of the \"build a better mousetrap\" types who come up with a product that improves our lives. But in the last 30 years or so we have seen the advent of jobs where people get rich just by moving money around. And when they move the money around, they try to increase the return on their investment.\r\n\r\nThat\'s why there aren\'t steel mills in Pennsylvania anymore, and why most of the textile mills have left the South for South Asia. Not because they can\'t be profitable here, but because the profit margin is higher when the labor costs are lower. A business can be running a 10 percent profit margin, but if the \"experts\" think it should be making 12 percent, then something has to be cut somewhere.\r\n\r\nWhat annoys me the most about it is the people who see unfettered capitalism -- what former French President Jacques Chirac called<em> \"capitalisme sauvage\"</em> --  as the purest of all human motives. It\'s as if we\'re fine with assuming the worst of people. At least that way we can\'t be disappointed.\r\n\r\nThe true irony is that a lot of these people who seem to worship at the altar of Ayn Rand and rugged individualism also claim to be Christians. It seems amazing to me that in this era that has lasted for about 30 years -- back to Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority -- the one part of Jesus\' teachings they seem to ignore is the most important part.\r\n\r\nHelping the poor.\r\n\r\nWe don\'t judge nations by the quality of their rich people. Nobody thinks America is a wonderful country because we have Donald Trump. The true measure of a country is the quality of life of, for lack of a better term, its middle class. And the real irony is that after doing pretty well in the post-war era, for the last few decades the American middle class has been on life support.\r\n\r\nAverage folks used to have pensions. Not anymore.\r\n\r\nAverage folks used to have healthcare through work. Not so much anymore.\r\n\r\nFor all the ridicule thrown at European \"socialism,\"  middle-class workers in Germany, Sweden or France generally aren\'t filled with anxiety over medical bills, they aren\'t wondering if they\'ll ever be able to retire and they\'re getting more than twice as much vacation time as American workers.\r\n\r\nThe one thing about the middle class in both Europe and here is that most folks play by the rules. They don\'t look at other people as potential victims, or suckers, or steps along the road to getting rich.\r\n\r\nThere\'s really nothing wrong with this country that better rich people couldn\'t fix.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','If you work and treat people well, are you a sucker?','','publish','open','open','','if-you-work-hard-and-treat-people-well-are-you-a-sucker','','','2012-10-14 19:47:23','2012-10-15 02:47:23','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1780',0,'post','',0),(1781,1,'2012-10-14 13:11:47','2012-10-14 20:11:47','','gina-rinehart-wonkette-250x166','Australia\'s $19 billion woman.','inherit','open','open','','gina-rinehart-wonkette-250x166','','','2012-10-14 13:11:47','2012-10-14 20:11:47','',1780,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/gina-rinehart-wonkette-250x166.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1782,1,'2012-10-14 14:31:13','2012-10-14 21:31:13','There are two kinds of people in this country ...\n\n<em>Wow, there\'s an original thought. You can divide people in about a billion ways, starting with men and women and finishing with who watches Honey Boo Boo and who doesn\'t.</em>\n\nGive me a minute. I\'m hoping to be a little more profound than that. The way I would divide the country is into people who think that if you\'re honest, work hard and treat other people well, you\'ll get ahead, and people who would call folks like that \"suckers.\"\n\nMaybe they are, although I think that\'s a little like blaming the victim for the crime. There have certainly been plenty of American workers whose companies made good products and turned a profit who absolutely couldn\'t understand why people would close their factory and send the jobs to China -- just to<em> increase</em> profits.\n\n<iframe src=\"http://www.youtube.com/embed/grQTuIYnreg\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\"></iframe>\n\nAverage folks simply look at money differently than the <em>uber</em>-entitled rich. People living from paycheck to paycheck and deciding which bills will have to wait till next month might say that if they had a million dollars, all their problems would be solved. The main reason that isn\'t true is that lifestyles expand to fit incomes. When I got my first full-time newspaper job in 1979, I was getting paid $180 a week. Less than $10,000 a year. I remember thinking if I could make $20,000 or even $30,000, that would solve my problems. Well, I had nicer apartments and a better car, and I paid my bills on time, but I knew I hadn\'t exactly reached tall cotton.\n\nBut in general, if a working-class person comes into a windfall, they don\'t all of a sudden step up and buy a Learjet or a Bentley. The ones who do are the ones who generally lose it all in the end.\n\nThe other side of the coin is the really wealthy, the ones who insist they built everything they have on their own without any help from anyone else. It\'s funny, the ones who inherited their wealth are the ones who seem to be the most obnoxious about it. The four children of Walmart founder Sam Walton have spend tens of millions in campaign contributions to try and eliminate the estate tax. The sons of Fred Koch, who made billions in energy and then helped found the John Birch Society, have provided much of the funding for right-wing political groups in recent years.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1781\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"250\" caption=\"Australia&#39;s $19 billion woman.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/gina-rinehart-wonkette-250x166.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1781\" title=\"gina-rinehart-wonkette-250x166\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/gina-rinehart-wonkette-250x166.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"166\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nBut the worst person of all isn\'t even an American. Australian <a title=\"Gina Rinehart\" href=\"http://wonkette.com/483309/forbes-explains-why-you-people-need-more-horrible-rich-ladies-like-gina-rinehart\">Gina Rinehart</a>, who is worth about $19 billion, is the world\'s richest woman. Her money comes from mining, and she has been whining about how much she has to pay Australians to work in her mines. She also had some good advice about class envy:\n\n<em>\"There is no monopoly on becoming a millionaire. If you’re jealous of those with more money, don’t just sit there and complain. Do something to make more money yourself — spend less time drinking, or smoking and socializing and more time working.\"</em>\n\nOf course, Rinehart didn\'t have to worry about any of those things. She inherited her money.\n\nNow if you\'re like me, you find yourself wondering why anyone would need $19 billion. I went through a thing with my friend Mick a few years back where we were talking about an insurance CEO who had made about $110 million the year before. Even figuring about half of it would go in taxes, the executive would still have more than $1 million a week.\n\nSo try this:\n\nYou get $1 million every Friday. The first Friday you buy a nice house. The second Friday you buy a nice car and set up college accounts for your kids. The third Friday ...\n\nYou get the picture. Very soon, you\'ve got more money piling up than you can spend -- unless you decide you need four or five houses, 10 or 12 cars and all the other things that go along with being fabulously wealthy.\n\nSome people read stuff like this and accuse me of hating rich people. That\'s just not true. I\'ve always been a fan of the \"build a better mousetrap\" types who come up with a product that improves our lives. But in the last 30 years or so we have seen the advent of jobs where people get rich just by moving money around. And when they move the money around, they try to increase the return on their investment.\n\nThat\'s why there aren\'t steel mills in Pennsylvania anymore, and why most of the textile mills have left the South for South Asia. Not because they can\'t be profitable here, but because the profit margin is higher when the labor costs are lower. A business can be running a 10 percent profit margin, but if the \"experts\" think it should be making 12 percent, then something has to be cut somewhere.\n\nWhat annoys me the most about it is the people who see unfettered capitalism -- what former French President Jacques Chirac called<em> \"capitalisme sauvage\"</em> --  as the purest of all human motives. It\'s as if we\'re fine with assuming the worst of people. At least that way we can\'t be disappointed.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1780-revision','','','2012-10-14 14:31:13','2012-10-14 21:31:13','',1780,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1782',0,'revision','',0),(1783,1,'2012-10-14 19:40:52','2012-10-15 02:40:52','There are two kinds of people in this country ...\n\n<em>Wow, there\'s an original thought. You can divide people in about a billion ways, starting with men and women and finishing with who watches Honey Boo Boo and who doesn\'t.</em>\n\nGive me a minute. I\'m hoping to be a little more profound than that. The way I would divide the country is into people who think that if you\'re honest, work hard and treat other people well, you\'ll get ahead, and people who would call folks like that \"suckers.\"\n\nMaybe they are, although I think that\'s a little like blaming the victim for the crime. There have certainly been plenty of American workers whose companies made good products and turned a profit who absolutely couldn\'t understand why people would close their factory and send the jobs to China -- just to<em> increase</em> profits.\n\n<iframe src=\"http://www.youtube.com/embed/grQTuIYnreg\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\"></iframe>\n\nAverage folks simply look at money differently than the <em>uber</em>-entitled rich. People living from paycheck to paycheck and deciding which bills will have to wait till next month might say that if they had a million dollars, all their problems would be solved. The main reason that isn\'t true is that lifestyles expand to fit incomes. When I got my first full-time newspaper job in 1979, I was getting paid $180 a week. Less than $10,000 a year. I remember thinking if I could make $20,000 or even $30,000, that would solve my problems. Well, I had nicer apartments and a better car, and I paid my bills on time, but I knew I hadn\'t exactly reached tall cotton.\n\nBut in general, if a working-class person comes into a windfall, they don\'t all of a sudden step up and buy a Learjet or a Bentley. The ones who do are the ones who generally lose it all in the end.\n\nThe other side of the coin is the really wealthy, the ones who insist they built everything they have on their own without any help from anyone else. It\'s funny, the ones who inherited their wealth are the ones who seem to be the most obnoxious about it. The four children of Walmart founder Sam Walton have spend tens of millions in campaign contributions to try and eliminate the estate tax. The sons of Fred Koch, who made billions in energy and then helped found the John Birch Society, have provided much of the funding for right-wing political groups in recent years.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1781\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"250\" caption=\"Australia&#39;s $19 billion woman.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/gina-rinehart-wonkette-250x166.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1781\" title=\"gina-rinehart-wonkette-250x166\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/gina-rinehart-wonkette-250x166.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"166\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nBut the worst person of all isn\'t even an American. Australian <a title=\"Gina Rinehart\" href=\"http://wonkette.com/483309/forbes-explains-why-you-people-need-more-horrible-rich-ladies-like-gina-rinehart\">Gina Rinehart</a>, who is worth about $19 billion, is the world\'s richest woman. Her money comes from mining, and she has been whining about how much she has to pay Australians to work in her mines. She also had some good advice about class envy:\n\n<em>\"There is no monopoly on becoming a millionaire. If you’re jealous of those with more money, don’t just sit there and complain. Do something to make more money yourself — spend less time drinking, or smoking and socializing and more time working.\"</em>\n\nOf course, Rinehart didn\'t have to worry about any of those things. She inherited her money.\n\nNow if you\'re like me, you find yourself wondering why anyone would need $19 billion. I went through a thing with my friend Mick a few years back where we were talking about an insurance CEO who had made about $110 million the year before. Even figuring about half of it would go in taxes, the executive would still have more than $1 million a week.\n\nSo try this:\n\nYou get $1 million every Friday. The first Friday you buy a nice house. The second Friday you buy a nice car and set up college accounts for your kids. The third Friday ...\n\nYou get the picture. Very soon, you\'ve got more money piling up than you can spend -- unless you decide you need four or five houses, 10 or 12 cars and all the other things that go along with being fabulously wealthy.\n\nSome people read stuff like this and accuse me of hating rich people. That\'s just not true. I\'ve always been a fan of the \"build a better mousetrap\" types who come up with a product that improves our lives. But in the last 30 years or so we have seen the advent of jobs where people get rich just by moving money around. And when they move the money around, they try to increase the return on their investment.\n\nThat\'s why there aren\'t steel mills in Pennsylvania anymore, and why most of the textile mills have left the South for South Asia. Not because they can\'t be profitable here, but because the profit margin is higher when the labor costs are lower. A business can be running a 10 percent profit margin, but if the \"experts\" think it should be making 12 percent, then something has to be cut somewhere.\n\nWhat annoys me the most about it is the people who see unfettered capitalism -- what former French President Jacques Chirac called<em> \"capitalisme sauvage\"</em> --  as the purest of all human motives. It\'s as if we\'re fine with assuming the worst of people. At least that way we can\'t be disappointed.\n\nThe true irony is that a lot of these people who seem to worship at the altar of Ayn Rand and rugged individualism also claim to be Christians. It seems amazing to me that in this era that has lasted for about 30 years -- back to Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority -- the one part of Jesus\' teachings they seem to ignore is the most important part.\n\nHelping the poor.\n\nWe don\'t judge nations by the quality of their rich people. Nobody thinks America is a wonderful country because we have Donald Trump. The true measure of a country is the quality of life of, for lack of a better term, its middle class. And the real irony is that after doing pretty well in the post-war era, for the last few decades the American middle class has been on life support.\n\nAverage folks used to have pensions. Not anymore.\n\nAverage folks used to have healthcare through work. Not so much anymore.\n\nFor all the ridicule thrown at European \"socialism,\"  middle-class workers in Germany, Sweden or France generally aren\'t filled with anxiety over medical bills, they aren\'t wondering if they\'ll ever be able to retire and they\'re getting more than twice as much vacation time as American workers.\n\nThe one thing about the middle class in both Europe and here is that most folks play by the rules. They don\'t look at other people as potential victims, or suckers, or steps along the road to getting rich.\n\nThere\'s really nothing wrong with this country that better rich people couldn\'t fix.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1780-revision-2','','','2012-10-14 19:40:52','2012-10-15 02:40:52','',1780,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1783',0,'revision','',0),(1784,1,'2012-10-14 19:45:42','2012-10-15 02:45:42','There are two kinds of people in this country ...\r\n\r\n<em>Wow, there\'s an original thought. You can divide people in about a billion ways, starting with men and women and finishing with who watches Honey Boo Boo and who doesn\'t.</em>\r\n\r\nGive me a minute. I\'m hoping to be a little more profound than that. The way I would divide the country is into people who think that if you\'re honest, work hard and treat other people well, you\'ll get ahead, and people who would call folks like that \"suckers.\"\r\n\r\nMaybe they are, although I think that\'s a little like blaming the victim for the crime. There have certainly been plenty of American workers whose companies made good products and turned a profit who absolutely couldn\'t understand why people would close their factory and send the jobs to China -- just to<em> increase</em> profits.\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"http://www.youtube.com/embed/grQTuIYnreg\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\"></iframe>\r\n\r\nAverage folks simply look at money differently than the <em>uber</em>-entitled rich. People living from paycheck to paycheck and deciding which bills will have to wait till next month might say that if they had a million dollars, all their problems would be solved. The main reason that isn\'t true is that lifestyles expand to fit incomes. When I got my first full-time newspaper job in 1979, I was getting paid $180 a week. Less than $10,000 a year. I remember thinking if I could make $20,000 or even $30,000, that would solve my problems. Well, I had nicer apartments and a better car, and I paid my bills on time, but I knew I hadn\'t exactly reached tall cotton.\r\n\r\nBut in general, if a working-class person comes into a windfall, they don\'t all of a sudden step up and buy a Learjet or a Bentley. The ones who do are the ones who generally lose it all in the end.\r\n\r\nThe other side of the coin is the really wealthy, the ones who insist they built everything they have on their own without any help from anyone else. It\'s funny, the ones who inherited their wealth are the ones who seem to be the most obnoxious about it. The four children of Walmart founder Sam Walton have spend tens of millions in campaign contributions to try and eliminate the estate tax. The sons of Fred Koch, who made billions in energy and then helped found the John Birch Society, have provided much of the funding for right-wing political groups in recent years.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1781\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"250\" caption=\"Australia&#39;s $19 billion woman.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/gina-rinehart-wonkette-250x166.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1781\" title=\"gina-rinehart-wonkette-250x166\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/gina-rinehart-wonkette-250x166.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"166\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nBut the worst person of all isn\'t even an American. Australian <a title=\"Gina Rinehart\" href=\"http://wonkette.com/483309/forbes-explains-why-you-people-need-more-horrible-rich-ladies-like-gina-rinehart\">Gina Rinehart</a>, who is worth about $19 billion, is the world\'s richest woman. Her money comes from mining, and she has been whining about how much she has to pay Australians to work in her mines. She also had some good advice about class envy:\r\n\r\n<em>\"There is no monopoly on becoming a millionaire. If you’re jealous of those with more money, don’t just sit there and complain. Do something to make more money yourself — spend less time drinking, or smoking and socializing and more time working.\"</em>\r\n\r\nOf course, Rinehart didn\'t have to worry about any of those things. She inherited her money.\r\n\r\nNow if you\'re like me, you find yourself wondering why anyone would need $19 billion. I went through a thing with my friend Mick a few years back where we were talking about an insurance CEO who had made about $110 million the year before. Even figuring about half of it would go in taxes, the executive would still have more than $1 million a week.\r\n\r\nSo try this:\r\n\r\nYou get $1 million every Friday. The first Friday you buy a nice house. The second Friday you buy a nice car and set up college accounts for your kids. The third Friday ...\r\n\r\nYou get the picture. Very soon, you\'ve got more money piling up than you can spend -- unless you decide you need four or five houses, 10 or 12 cars and all the other things that go along with being fabulously wealthy.\r\n\r\nSome people read stuff like this and accuse me of hating rich people. That\'s just not true. I\'ve always been a fan of the \"build a better mousetrap\" types who come up with a product that improves our lives. But in the last 30 years or so we have seen the advent of jobs where people get rich just by moving money around. And when they move the money around, they try to increase the return on their investment.\r\n\r\nThat\'s why there aren\'t steel mills in Pennsylvania anymore, and why most of the textile mills have left the South for South Asia. Not because they can\'t be profitable here, but because the profit margin is higher when the labor costs are lower. A business can be running a 10 percent profit margin, but if the \"experts\" think it should be making 12 percent, then something has to be cut somewhere.\r\n\r\nWhat annoys me the most about it is the people who see unfettered capitalism -- what former French President Jacques Chirac called<em> \"capitalisme sauvage\"</em> --  as the purest of all human motives. It\'s as if we\'re fine with assuming the worst of people. At least that way we can\'t be disappointed.\r\n\r\nThe true irony is that a lot of these people who seem to worship at the altar of Ayn Rand and rugged individualism also claim to be Christians. It seems amazing to me that in this era that has lasted for about 30 years -- back to Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority -- the one part of Jesus\' teachings they seem to ignore is the most important part.\r\n\r\nHelping the poor.\r\n\r\nWe don\'t judge nations by the quality of their rich people. Nobody thinks America is a wonderful country because we have Donald Trump. The true measure of a country is the quality of life of, for lack of a better term, its middle class. And the real irony is that after doing pretty well in the post-war era, for the last few decades the American middle class has been on life support.\r\n\r\nAverage folks used to have pensions. Not anymore.\r\n\r\nAverage folks used to have healthcare through work. Not so much anymore.\r\n\r\nFor all the ridicule thrown at European \"socialism,\"  middle-class workers in Germany, Sweden or France generally aren\'t filled with anxiety over medical bills, they aren\'t wondering if they\'ll ever be able to retire and they\'re getting more than twice as much vacation time as American workers.\r\n\r\nThe one thing about the middle class in both Europe and here is that most folks play by the rules. They don\'t look at other people as potential victims, or suckers, or steps along the road to getting rich.\r\n\r\nThere\'s really nothing wrong with this country that better rich people couldn\'t fix.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','If you work hard and treat people well, are you a sucker?','','inherit','open','open','','1780-revision-3','','','2012-10-14 19:45:42','2012-10-15 02:45:42','',1780,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1784',0,'revision','',0),(1786,1,'2012-10-28 17:42:04','2012-10-29 00:42:04','','00012676-436121_catl_348','Season One, 1975-76','inherit','open','open','','00012676-436121_catl_348','','','2012-10-28 17:42:04','2012-10-29 00:42:04','',1785,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/00012676-436121_catl_348.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1787,1,'2012-10-28 19:43:23','2012-10-29 02:43:23','It has been at least 10 or 15 years since I have watched an episode of \"Saturday Night Live.\"\n\nIn fact, I don\'t think I have watched it regularly since Dana Carvey was doing impressions of George H.W. Bush. Partly it was because the show didn\'t seem particularly funny  anymore, and part of it was that 11:30 p.m. on Saturdays wasn\'t exactly prime time fun time for me with a wife and kids.\n\nOh, I watch clips on the Internet, especially during election campaigns. I got as much of a kick as anyone out of Tina Fey\'s spot-on Sarah Palin impression, and I certainly enjoyed Will Ferrell as George Dubya Bush.\n\nBut not enough to watch the show.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1786\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Season One, 1975-76\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/00012676-436121_catl_348.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1786\" title=\"00012676-436121_catl_348\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/00012676-436121_catl_348-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nStill, once was the time I wouldn\'t have missed it. I was 25 when SNL came on the air in October 1975, and I don\'t think I could possibly explain what a big deal it was in those final years before cable TV and the decades before home video and the Internet.\n\nThree television networks plus PBS and local independent stations, and very few stations stayed on the air all night. Late night music shows had been successful earlier in the decade -- \"Midnight Special\" and \"In Concert\" had drawn young audiences to see musical acts they loved.\n\nNBC lost the right to show \"Tonight Show\" reruns on weekends, so the network decided to put together a live comedy/music show that would run for 90 minutes. Lorne Michael assembled a cast of unknowns. got some stars to host and perform and went to work. A look back at the first show demonstrates how different the original premise was from what followed. George Carlin was the host, and he didn\'t participate in any skits or interact at all with the cast members. All he did was perform parts of his standup comedy act at various points in the show.\n\nIf you look at that first season, there were oddities. Candice Bergen hosted twice in the first eight weeks, and Elliott Gould (remember him?) hosted in January and again in May. There were two shows in the middle of summer, which was also strange.\n\nMost people who are familiar with the show know the names of the seven original Not Quite Ready for Prime Time Players -- Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Garrett Morris, Jane Curtin, Gilda Radner and Larraine Newman. But most don\'t remember -- I certainly didn\'t -- that the first cast included two additional names, Michael O\'Donoghue and George Coe. I still have no idea who George Coe is.\n\nIt\'s strange to look at that first show and realize how many of the people who played major roles are no longer with us. Belushi died in 1982, Radner in 1989 and O\'Donoghue in 1994. Musical guest Billy Preston died in 2006 and Carlin himself died in 2008. Of the still living members of the cast, except for maybe Chase and Curtin, they never surpassed their SNL work, and Chase only spent one season on the show.\n\nIn these days of hundreds of entertainment choices, with Tivo and DVRs and all sorts of other ways to time-shift shows, it\'s tough to understand that in the fall of 1975, a lot of us in our 20s went out on Saturday night and made sure we were home by 11:30 so that we could watch SNL.\n\nBoy, things really do change.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1785-revision','','','2012-10-28 19:43:23','2012-10-29 02:43:23','',1785,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1787',0,'revision','',0),(1788,1,'2012-10-28 19:44:09','2012-10-29 02:44:09','It has been at least 10 or 15 years since I have watched an episode of \"Saturday Night Live.\"\r\n\r\nIn fact, I don\'t think I have watched it regularly since Dana Carvey was doing impressions of George H.W. Bush. Partly it was because the show didn\'t seem particularly funny  anymore, and part of it was that 11:30 p.m. on Saturdays wasn\'t exactly prime time fun time for me with a wife and kids.\r\n\r\nOh, I watch clips on the Internet, especially during election campaigns. I got as much of a kick as anyone out of Tina Fey\'s spot-on Sarah Palin impression, and I certainly enjoyed Will Ferrell as George Dubya Bush.\r\n\r\nBut not enough to watch the show.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1786\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Season One, 1975-76\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/00012676-436121_catl_348.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1786\" title=\"00012676-436121_catl_348\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/00012676-436121_catl_348-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nStill, once was the time I wouldn\'t have missed it. I was 25 when SNL came on the air in October 1975, and I don\'t think I could possibly explain what a big deal it was in those final years before cable TV and the decades before home video and the Internet.\r\n\r\nThree television networks plus PBS and local independent stations, and very few stations stayed on the air all night. Late night music shows had been successful earlier in the decade -- \"Midnight Special\" and \"In Concert\" had drawn young audiences to see musical acts they loved.\r\n\r\nNBC lost the right to show \"Tonight Show\" reruns on weekends, so the network decided to put together a live comedy/music show that would run for 90 minutes. Lorne Michael assembled a cast of unknowns. got some stars to host and perform and went to work. A look back at the first show demonstrates how different the original premise was from what followed. George Carlin was the host, and he didn\'t participate in any skits or interact at all with the cast members. All he did was perform parts of his standup comedy act at various points in the show.\r\n\r\nIf you look at that first season, there were oddities. Candice Bergen hosted twice in the first eight weeks, and Elliott Gould (remember him?) hosted in January and again in May. There were two shows in the middle of summer, which was also strange.\r\n\r\nMost people who are familiar with the show know the names of the seven original Not Quite Ready for Prime Time Players -- Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Garrett Morris, Jane Curtin, Gilda Radner and Larraine Newman. But most don\'t remember -- I certainly didn\'t -- that the first cast included two additional names, Michael O\'Donoghue and George Coe. I still have no idea who George Coe is.\r\n\r\nIt\'s strange to look at that first show and realize how many of the people who played major roles are no longer with us. Belushi died in 1982, Radner in 1989 and O\'Donoghue in 1994. Musical guest Billy Preston died in 2006 and Carlin himself died in 2008. Of the still living members of the cast, except for maybe Chase and Curtin, they never surpassed their SNL work, and Chase only spent one season on the show.\r\n\r\nIn these days of hundreds of entertainment choices, with Tivo and DVRs and all sorts of other ways to time-shift shows, it\'s tough to understand that in the fall of 1975, a lot of us in our 20s went out on Saturday night and made sure we were home by 11:30 so that we could watch SNL.\r\n\r\nBoy, things really do change.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Strange to remember what SNL meant back in the day','','inherit','open','open','','1785-revision-2','','','2012-10-28 19:44:09','2012-10-29 02:44:09','',1785,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1788',0,'revision','',0),(1802,1,'2012-11-13 13:33:33','2012-11-13 21:33:33','[caption id=\"attachment_1805\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Traditional America?\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/article-new_ehow_images_a07_5d_si_mens-fashion-1950s-1.1-800x800.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1805\" title=\"article-new_ehow_images_a07_5d_si_mens-fashion-1950s-1.1-800x800\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/article-new_ehow_images_a07_5d_si_mens-fashion-1950s-1.1-800x800-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\n<strong><em>\"Is traditional America gone for good?\"</em></strong>\r\n<strong>-- BILL O\'REILLY</strong>\r\n\r\nTo answer that question, the first thing we have to do is determine exactly what \"traditional America\" was. When O\'Reilly used the question above for an explanation of why the Republican Party\'s message didn\'t resonate with voters in the recent election, he was referring to a lack of personal discipline.\r\n\r\n\"People want free stuff,\" he said.\r\n\r\nUnlike traditional America, where people would rather die than accept welfare. People worked hard in those days and made an honest dollar for an honest day\'s work.\r\n\r\nBut which traditional America does O\'Reilly mean? Could it be 1789, when only white men voted, when black people were slaves and when 95 percent of all working people were their own bosses? Or how about 1880, when the Industrial Revolution had changed everything and people were expected to do menial jobs for low pay? That was the era in which robber baron Jay Gould famously said he could hire half of the working class to kill the other half.\r\n\r\nI doubt he meant the 1930s, when much of our present-day safety net was created. Since many people tend to see the \"good old days\" as the years when they were young, let\'s say for the sake of argument that he means the 1950s. The \'50s are perhaps the most misunderstood of all decades, loved by the right primarily because they were the last \"normal\" decade before everything changes.\r\n\r\nLet\'s look at the \'50s for a moment:\r\n\r\n-- According to the 1950 census, there were 150,697,361 people in the United States. That\'s less than half of our current population of 309.2 million. Our three most populous states -- California, Texas and Florida -- had as combined population of just over 21 million then, as opposed to 81.5 million today.\r\n\r\n-- Unemployment in the \'50s was as low as 3 percent in 1952 and peaked at 6.8 percent during the recession of 1958. By 1966 it was back to 3.8 percent.\r\n\r\n-- In 1950, American CEOs made 50-60 times as much as the average worker. In 2011, the ratio was 380-1.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1806\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"263\" caption=\"House for everyone\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/images-1.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1806\" title=\"images (1)\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/images-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"263\" height=\"192\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\n-- In the 1950s, it was still possible for a man with an eighth-grade education to get an entry-level blue collar job and work his way up to a position where he could support a family, own a home and live the American Dream.\r\n\r\nIt was a time when anyone who wanted to work could find a decent job, something that certainly isn\'t true anymore. There are a couple of things that didn\'t exist in the \'50s that made all that possible.\r\n\r\nFirst, many businesses were locally owned and nearly all businesses that operated in the United States were American-owned. We didn\'t have multi-national corporations doing business in the U.S. then, so the people who owned businesses felt a certain responsibility to their community and their country.\r\n\r\nSecond, financial speculation wasn\'t anywhere near what it became starting in the \'80s. Far fewer people were in the stock market, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was around 500 for most of the decade.\r\n\r\nSo the biggest difference was that our rich people were a lot less wealthy than they are today, but average folks lived a lot better. Far more jobs included meaningful benefits like pensions, and even people who didn\'t have medical insurance could usually afford doctor visits and other preventative medical care.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1807\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"200\" caption=\"&#39;50s ladies\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/kirche-kinder-kuche.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1807\" title=\"kirche-kinder-kuche\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/kirche-kinder-kuche-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nNow the last thing I want to do is say the \'50s were wonderful for everyone. They weren\'t. We still had a system of apartheid every bit as rigid as South Africa in parts of the country, and women who wanted to have anything other than the traditional <em>\"kinder kueche kirche\"</em> life that came from the old country (children, kitchen and church), could expect to have a difficult time of it. As for those of different sexual proclivities, they were firmly closeted and could expect to be called nothing much better than \"degenerates.\"\r\n\r\nBut most folks knew their neighbors, and they had enough local networks that there were people they could rely on to help them if they needed it.\r\n\r\nAnd they took pride in their families and their neighborhoods. General Colin Powell, who grew up in a poor neighborhood in New York, said that people behaved well even in bad neighborhoods because they didn\'t want to bring shame to their families.\r\n\r\n\"A sense of shame is not a bad moral compass,\" Powell said.\r\n\r\nThat\'s a good thing, and certainly it\'s one of the things to which O\'Reilly refers when he speaks of traditional America. But if you want tradition, you\'ve got to have it on both sides. You can\'t criticize people for behaving badly when you have taken away all their options.\r\n\r\nAnd when you live in a country where the population has more than doubled in 60 years, and where the population of the three largest states has nearly quadrupled, you really can\'t be all that surprised when things change.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n--\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Is \'traditional America\' really gone for good?','','publish','open','open','','is-traditional-america-really-gone-for-good','','','2012-11-13 13:33:33','2012-11-13 21:33:33','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1802',0,'post','',0),(1790,1,'2012-10-31 19:34:05','2012-11-01 02:34:05','I haven\'t owned a bicycle for nearly fifty years.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1791\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"My old bike (sort of)\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/bike_huffy_radiobike1a_550-300x186.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1791\" title=\"bike_huffy_radiobike1a_550-300x186\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/bike_huffy_radiobike1a_550-300x186.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"186\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nI had one when I was a kid, a basic one-speed Huffy bike (not the one in the picture, but close). I don\'t know how much it cost, because my parents bought it for me, but the kid in Stephen King\'s \"Hearts in Atlantis\" was saving for a similar bike and it was $25.\r\n\r\nIt was a relatively simple bike. You pedaled to go forward and pushed back on the pedal to slow down or stop. There weren\'t any gears, so there were plenty of times I had to dismount and walk my bike to the top of the hill.\r\n\r\nBy the time I was in my teens -- the mid 1960s -- 10-speed bikes were starting to come on the market. We called them \"English racers,\" but I\'m not sure why. I doubt that the UK was the only place people were riding them.\r\n\r\nI guess I rode my bike for the last time when I was 13 or 14, and as best as I can recall, the only time I have been on a bicycle since was three years or so ago when Nicole and I rode a tandem bike at Huntington Beach.\r\n\r\nThat might have been the end of it, except that my son started doing triathlons. Running, swimming, cycling. He was good at it and he stretched out to where he ran in the L.A. Marathon -- breaking 3:30 his first time out -- and eventually working up to where he was doing Ironman Triathlons. In May 2009, at the age of 24, he swam 2.2 miles in the Mediterranean Sea, raced for 115 miles in the mountains just outside Nice, France, and then ran 26.2 miles along the beach.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1792\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Virgile in Nice\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/CSC_0089.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1792\" title=\"CSC_0089\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/CSC_0089-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nThis kid isn\'t just a man, he\'s a horse.\r\n\r\nVirgile started with a fairly nice bike, moved up to a really nice one and finally stepped up to one he assembled himself from components. My guess is that it would probably cost him three or four thousand dollars in a store. Plus he\'s got all kinds of great clothes, helmets and other stuff.\r\n\r\nBut it\'s pretty obvious that it has been worth every penny. Virgile is 27 years old, has a sedentary job and doesn\'t have an ounce of fat anywhere on his body. He has formed good habits that became a good lifestyle. I couldn\'t be more proud of him.\r\n\r\nAnyone who follows this Website  knows that two years ago, I spent six months getting into great shape. Then I spent the next year losing all the progress I had made. Now I have to figure out how to get back to where I once belonged.\r\n\r\nI had a small windfall recently. I played a few fantasy baseball leagues online and I actually won two of them for a total of $1,300.\r\n\r\nI had been thinking for a while about getting a bike, and I priced some at Walmart. The most expensive one was $499, but I knew I wasn\'t going to buy anything without discussing it with my son. When it had looked for a while as though I might win only one of the leagues (and take second place in the other), I figured maybe I could spend $600 or so on a bike.\r\n\r\nWhen I won the second league, though, I started thinking a little bigger. Virgile pointed me to the <a title=\"Performance Bicycle\" href=\"http://www.performancebike.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/TopCategories_10052_10551_-1?\">Performance Bicycle Website</a> and I realized there were some amazing bicycles out there. In the category of Road Bikes -- which is what I wanted -- I saw one on sale for $5,999, marked down from $6,899. Wow! I actually bought a nearly new Camaro in 1975 for less than half that amount.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1794\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"My new bike\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/31-0464-WHI-ANGLE.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1794\" title=\"31-0464-WHI-ANGLE\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/31-0464-WHI-ANGLE-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nOf course I wasn\'t buying anything in that price range, but Virgile recommended a really nice-looking bike for $1,319 that was on sale for $999.\r\n\r\nI ordered it online, and it\'s going to be delivered to the Performance Bicycle store on the north side of Atlanta in a couple of weeks. They will assemble it, although it\'s actually going to cost me a little more than I thought because it comes without pedals.\r\n\r\nThere\'s an old expression that basically says once you learn to ride a bike, you never lose that skill. I\'m not sure that applies to me here. Not so much because of age, but look at the differences between the two bicycles pictured. On the Huffy, you ride sitting up and you brake by pushing back on the pedal.\r\n\r\nOn this Fuji Roubaix 2.0 road bike, you sit high and lean way down to hold the handles. There are gears that give the bike 20 different settings, something I\'m going to have to learn from the beginning. And the brakes are hand brakes. All I will be doing with the pedals is pumping.\r\n\r\nIt\'s going to take time, but I am going to learn how to do it. Cycling will give me an extra tool in working to get myself back into shape.\r\n\r\nIt\'s also a challenge, and at this point in my life, challenges are good for me.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Can this old dog learn some new cycling tricks?','','publish','open','open','','can-this-old-dog-learn-some-new-cycling-tricks','','','2012-10-31 19:34:05','2012-11-01 02:34:05','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1790',0,'post','',0),(1791,1,'2012-10-31 11:19:28','2012-10-31 18:19:28','','bike_huffy_radiobike1a_550-300x186','My old bike (sort of)','inherit','open','open','','bike_huffy_radiobike1a_550-300x186','','','2012-10-31 11:19:28','2012-10-31 18:19:28','',1790,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/bike_huffy_radiobike1a_550-300x186.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1792,1,'2012-10-31 12:00:28','2012-10-31 19:00:28','','CSC_0089','Virgile in Nice','inherit','open','open','','csc_0089','','','2012-10-31 12:00:28','2012-10-31 19:00:28','',1790,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/CSC_0089.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1793,1,'2012-10-31 12:10:41','2012-10-31 19:10:41','I haven\'t owned a bicycle for nearly fifty years.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1791\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"My old bike (sort of)\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/bike_huffy_radiobike1a_550-300x186.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1791\" title=\"bike_huffy_radiobike1a_550-300x186\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/bike_huffy_radiobike1a_550-300x186.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"186\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nI had one when I was a kid, a basic one-speed Huffy bike (not the one in the picture, but close). I don\'t know how much it cost, because my parents bought it for me, but the kid in Stephen King\'s \"Hearts in Atlantis\" was saving for a similar bike and it was $25.\n\nIt was a relatively simple bike. You pedaled to go forward and pushed back on the pedal to slow down or stop. There weren\'t any gears, so there were plenty of times I had to dismount and walk my bike to the top of the hill.\n\nBy the time I was in my teens -- the mid 1960s -- 10-speed bikes were starting to come on the market. We called them \"English racers,\" but I\'m not sure why. I doubt that the UK was the only place people were riding them.\n\nI guess I rode my bike for the last time when I was 13 or 14, and as best as I can recall, the only time I have been on a bicycle since was three years or so ago when Nicole and I rode a tandem bike at Huntington Beach.\n\nThat might have been the end of it, except that my son started doing triathlons. Running, swimming, cycling. He was good at it and he stretched out to where he ran in the L.A. Marathon -- breaking 3:30 his first time out -- and eventually working up to where he was doing Ironman Triathlons. In May 2009, at the age of 24, he swam 2.2 miles in the Mediterranean Sea, raced for 115 miles in the mountains just outside Nice, France, and then ran 26.2 miles along the beach.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1792\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Virgile in Nice\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/CSC_0089.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1792\" title=\"CSC_0089\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/CSC_0089-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nThis kid isn\'t just a man, he\'s a horse.\n\nVirgile started with a fairly nice bike, moved up to a really nice one and finally stepped up to one he assembled himself\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1790-revision','','','2012-10-31 12:10:41','2012-10-31 19:10:41','',1790,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1793',0,'revision','',0),(1794,1,'2012-10-31 19:12:41','2012-11-01 02:12:41','','31-0464-WHI-ANGLE','My new bike','inherit','open','open','','31-0464-whi-angle','','','2012-10-31 19:12:41','2012-11-01 02:12:41','',1790,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/31-0464-WHI-ANGLE.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1795,1,'2012-10-31 19:32:39','2012-11-01 02:32:39','I haven\'t owned a bicycle for nearly fifty years.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1791\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"My old bike (sort of)\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/bike_huffy_radiobike1a_550-300x186.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1791\" title=\"bike_huffy_radiobike1a_550-300x186\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/bike_huffy_radiobike1a_550-300x186.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"186\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nI had one when I was a kid, a basic one-speed Huffy bike (not the one in the picture, but close). I don\'t know how much it cost, because my parents bought it for me, but the kid in Stephen King\'s \"Hearts in Atlantis\" was saving for a similar bike and it was $25.\n\nIt was a relatively simple bike. You pedaled to go forward and pushed back on the pedal to slow down or stop. There weren\'t any gears, so there were plenty of times I had to dismount and walk my bike to the top of the hill.\n\nBy the time I was in my teens -- the mid 1960s -- 10-speed bikes were starting to come on the market. We called them \"English racers,\" but I\'m not sure why. I doubt that the UK was the only place people were riding them.\n\nI guess I rode my bike for the last time when I was 13 or 14, and as best as I can recall, the only time I have been on a bicycle since was three years or so ago when Nicole and I rode a tandem bike at Huntington Beach.\n\nThat might have been the end of it, except that my son started doing triathlons. Running, swimming, cycling. He was good at it and he stretched out to where he ran in the L.A. Marathon -- breaking 3:30 his first time out -- and eventually working up to where he was doing Ironman Triathlons. In May 2009, at the age of 24, he swam 2.2 miles in the Mediterranean Sea, raced for 115 miles in the mountains just outside Nice, France, and then ran 26.2 miles along the beach.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1792\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Virgile in Nice\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/CSC_0089.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1792\" title=\"CSC_0089\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/CSC_0089-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nThis kid isn\'t just a man, he\'s a horse.\n\nVirgile started with a fairly nice bike, moved up to a really nice one and finally stepped up to one he assembled himself from components. My guess is that it would probably cost him three or four thousand dollars in a store. Plus he\'s got all kinds of great clothes, helmets and other stuff.\n\nBut it\'s pretty obvious that it has been worth every penny. Virgile is 27 years old, has a sedentary job and doesn\'t have an ounce of fat anywhere on his body. He has formed good habits that became a good lifestyle. I couldn\'t be more proud of him.\n\nAnyone who follows this Website  knows that two years ago, I spent six months getting into great shape. Then I spent the next year losing all the progress I had made. Now I have to figure out how to get back to where I once belonged.\n\nI had a small windfall recently. I played a few fantasy baseball leagues online and I actually won two of them for a total of $1,300.\n\nI had been thinking for a while about getting a bike, and I priced some at Walmart. The most expensive one was $499, but I knew I wasn\'t going to buy anything without discussing it with my son. When it had looked for a while as though I might win only one of the leagues (and take second place in the other), I figured maybe I could spend $600 or so on a bike.\n\nWhen I won the second league, though, I started thinking a little bigger. Virgile pointed me to the <a title=\"Performance Bicycle\" href=\"http://www.performancebike.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/TopCategories_10052_10551_-1?\">Performance Bicycle Website</a> and I realized there were some amazing bicycles out there. In the category of Road Bikes -- which is what I wanted -- I saw one on sale for $5,999, marked down from $6,899. Wow! I actually bought a nearly new Camaro in 1975 for less than half that amount.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1794\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"My new bike\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/31-0464-WHI-ANGLE.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1794\" title=\"31-0464-WHI-ANGLE\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/31-0464-WHI-ANGLE-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nOf course I wasn\'t buying anything in that price range, but Virgile recommended a really nice-looking bike for $1,319 that was on sale for $999.\n\nI ordered it online, and it\'s going to be delivered to the Performance Bicycle store on the north side of Atlanta in a couple of weeks. They will assemble it, although it\'s actually going to cost me a little more than I thought because it comes without pedals.\n\nThere\'s an old expression that basically says once you learn to ride a bike, you never lose that skill. I\'m not sure that applies to me here. Not so much because of age, but look at the differences between the two bicycles pictured. On the Huffy, you ride sitting up and you brake by pushing back on the pedal.\n\nOn this Fuji Roubaix 2.0 road bike, you sit high and lean way down to hold the handles. There are gears that give the bike 20 different settings, something I\'m going to have to learn from the beginning. And the brakes are hand brakes. All I will be doing with the pedals is pumping.\n\nIt\'s going to take time, but I am going to learn how to do it. Cycling will give me an extra tool in working to get myself back into shape.\n\nIt\'s also a challenge, and at this point in my life, challenges are good for me.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1790-revision-2','','','2012-10-31 19:32:39','2012-11-01 02:32:39','',1790,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1795',0,'revision','',0),(1796,1,'2012-11-03 17:14:54','2012-11-04 00:14:54','<strong><em>\"God watches out for drunks, little children and the United States of America.\"</em></strong>\n\nI don\'t remember the first time I heard that, but it made me laugh knowingly. All throughout our country\'s history, in its hour of greatest need, there have been great presidents. In the beginning, when we weren\'t even sure what kind of country we would have, there was George Washington to refuse a crown and set precedent after precedent for the way presidents should behave. In 1860, with the Union falling apart, there was Abraham Lincoln to hold it together.\n\nAt the end of the Gilded Age, when the robber barons had all but raped the country, there was Theodore Roosevelt to step up with his big stick and shut them down.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1775\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"199\" caption=\"The unfinished portrait\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/20121007_17.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1775\" title=\"20121007_17\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/20121007_17-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nAnd then there was FDR.\n\nEver since the age of Reagan, conservatives have done their worst to downplay the effect of Franklin Delano Roosevelt\'s 12 years in the White House. They claim the New Deal did nothing to lift the United States out of the Great Depression, that the economy didn\'t really turn around until World War II started. They call him a socialist or even a fascist, but the one thing none of them seem to want to admit is that if Roosevelt hadn\'t done what he did, it\'s likely we would have gone down the same road as Germany, Italy or even Russia.\n\nHe was a wealthy man, no doubt, but his own misfortune -- he contracted polio when he was nearly 40 years old -- gave him great empathy for all the people who were suffering during the Depression.\n\nContrary to what you\'ll hear from right wingers these days, Roosevelt didn\'t start the welfare state. The money people got from the government so they could eat was money they worked for. Sure, maybe some were only doing things like sweeping the sidewalks, but FDR understood that people needed to do something to feel that they had earned the money.\n\nYes, there was another recession in 1937, but that was because Roosevelt -- a traditionalist at heart -- tried to keep a campaign promise and balance the federal budget. Austerity was the last thing the economy needed.\n\nIt was his true empathy for the poor and suffering that made the Democrats a majority party for a generation. That they don\'t really seem to be one anymore speaks more to the fact that they have tried to cater to the wealthy, and as Harry Truman once said, give the voters a choice between a Republican and a Republican and they\'ll vote for the Republican every time.\n\nFDR had a real connection with the people, and he did a better job of communicating with them in his Fireside Chats than any other president before him or since him. He was the one man who could make a reluctant nation prepare for a war he knew would one day come to them, and he was the one who led them through the dark days after Pearl Harbor all the way up to his death on April 12, 1945.\n\nThe <em>New York Times</em> said it best in a eulogy editorial, telling its readers that a hundred years in the future, Americans would get down on their knees and thank God that Franklin Roosevelt had been in the White House when America had to stand up to barbarism.\n\nSome will, of course, but what amazes me more than 67 years after his death is how much his legacy has been subjected to revisionist history by the descendants of the people on the far right who hated him beyond all reason. Oh, they don\'t say the same things the haters did while he was alive. For one thing, all the ridiculous lies about how Roosevelt was secretly a Jew wouldn\'t fly anymore. What anti-semitism that remains in this country is pretty much underground these days.\n\nBut the whole idea that we should help people who are down on their luck has come under attack. It\'s amazing how many people treat a third-rate thinker like Ayn Rand as if she were a philosophical equal to Christ himself. People talk about makers and takers and look at the people who are struggling as if they were somehow morally inferior to those who are successful. When a major party candidate talks of 47 percent of Americans as people he could never convince to take responsibility for their own lives, it says as much about our country as it does about the man who said it.\n\nFifty years ago, Mitt Romney would have condemned himself to the far right fringe with that remark.\n\nToday he\'s probably got one chance in three of being elected president on Tuesday.\n\nAmerica has certainly changed.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1774-revision-2','','','2012-11-03 17:14:54','2012-11-04 00:14:54','',1774,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1796',0,'revision','',0),(1797,1,'2012-11-03 17:15:55','2012-11-04 00:15:55','<strong><em>\"God watches out for drunks, little children and the United States of America.\"</em></strong>\n\nI don\'t remember the first time I heard that, but it made me laugh knowingly. All throughout our country\'s history, in its hour of greatest need, there have been great presidents. In the beginning, when we weren\'t even sure what kind of country we would have, there was George Washington to refuse a crown and set precedent after precedent for the way presidents should behave. In 1860, with the Union falling apart, there was Abraham Lincoln to hold it together.\n\nAt the end of the Gilded Age, when the robber barons had all but raped the country, there was Theodore Roosevelt to step up with his big stick and shut them down.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1775\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"199\" caption=\"The unfinished portrait\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/20121007_17.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1775\" title=\"20121007_17\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/20121007_17-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nAnd then there was FDR.\n\nEver since the age of Reagan, conservatives have done their worst to downplay the effect of Franklin Delano Roosevelt\'s 12 years in the White House. They claim the New Deal did nothing to lift the United States out of the Great Depression, that the economy didn\'t really turn around until World War II started. They call him a socialist or even a fascist, but the one thing none of them seem to want to admit is that if Roosevelt hadn\'t done what he did, it\'s likely we would have gone down the same road as Germany, Italy or even Russia.\n\nHe was a wealthy man, no doubt, but his own misfortune -- he contracted polio when he was nearly 40 years old -- gave him great empathy for all the people who were suffering during the Depression.\n\nContrary to what you\'ll hear from right wingers these days, Roosevelt didn\'t start the welfare state. The money people got from the government so they could eat was money they worked for. Sure, maybe some were only doing things like sweeping the sidewalks, but FDR understood that people needed to do something to feel that they had earned the money.\n\nYes, there was another recession in 1937, but that was because Roosevelt -- a traditionalist at heart -- tried to keep a campaign promise and balance the federal budget. Austerity was the last thing the economy needed.\n\nIt was his true empathy for the poor and suffering that made the Democrats a majority party for a generation. That they don\'t really seem to be one anymore speaks more to the fact that they have tried to cater to the wealthy, and as Harry Truman once said, give the voters a choice between a Republican and a Republican and they\'ll vote for the Republican every time.\n\nFDR had a real connection with the people, and he did a better job of communicating with them in his Fireside Chats than any other president before him or since him. He was the one man who could make a reluctant nation prepare for a war he knew would one day come to them, and he was the one who led them through the dark days after Pearl Harbor all the way up to his death on April 12, 1945.\n\nThe <em>New York Times</em> said it best in a eulogy editorial, telling its readers that a hundred years in the future, Americans would get down on their knees and thank God that Franklin Roosevelt had been in the White House when America had to stand up to barbarism.\n\nSome will, of course, but what amazes me more than 67 years after his death is how much his legacy has been subjected to revisionist history by the descendants of the people on the far right who hated him beyond all reason. Oh, they don\'t say the same things the haters did while he was alive. For one thing, all the ridiculous lies about how Roosevelt was secretly a Jew wouldn\'t fly anymore. What anti-semitism that remains in this country is pretty much underground these days.\n\nBut the whole idea that we should help people who are down on their luck has come under attack. It\'s amazing how many people treat a third-rate thinker like Ayn Rand as if she were a philosophical equal to Christ himself. People talk about makers and takers and look at the people who are struggling as if they were somehow morally inferior to those who are successful. When a major party candidate talks of 47 percent of Americans as people he could never convince to take responsibility for their own lives, it says as much about our country as it does about the man who said it.\n\nFifty years ago, Mitt Romney would have condemned himself to the far right fringe with that remark.\n\nToday he\'s probably got one chance in three of being elected president on Tuesday.\n\nAmerica has certainly changed.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','Boy, could we really use another FDR these days','','inherit','open','open','','1774-autosave','','','2012-11-03 17:15:55','2012-11-04 00:15:55','',1774,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1797',0,'revision','',0),(1798,1,'2012-11-03 17:15:53','2012-11-04 00:15:53','<strong><em>\"God watches out for drunks, little children and the United States of America.\"</em></strong>\r\n\r\nI don\'t remember the first time I heard that, but it made me laugh knowingly. All throughout our country\'s history, in its hour of greatest need, there have been great presidents. In the beginning, when we weren\'t even sure what kind of country we would have, there was George Washington to refuse a crown and set precedent after precedent for the way presidents should behave. In 1860, with the Union falling apart, there was Abraham Lincoln to hold it together.\r\n\r\nAt the end of the Gilded Age, when the robber barons had all but raped the country, there was Theodore Roosevelt to step up with his big stick and shut them down.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1775\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"199\" caption=\"The unfinished portrait\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/20121007_17.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1775\" title=\"20121007_17\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/20121007_17-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nAnd then there was FDR.\r\n\r\nEver since the age of Reagan, conservatives have done their worst to downplay the effect of Franklin Delano Roosevelt\'s 12 years in the White House. They claim the New Deal did nothing to lift the United States out of the Great Depression, that the economy didn\'t really turn around until World War II started. They call him a socialist or even a fascist, but the one thing none of them seem to want to admit is that if Roosevelt hadn\'t done what he did, it\'s likely we would have gone down the same road as Germany, Italy or even Russia.\r\n\r\nHe was a wealthy man, no doubt, but his own misfortune -- he contracted polio when he was nearly 40 years old -- gave him great empathy for all the people who were suffering during the Depression.\r\n\r\nContrary to what you\'ll hear from right wingers these days, Roosevelt didn\'t start the welfare state. The money people got from the government so they could eat was money they worked for. Sure, maybe some were only doing things like sweeping the sidewalks, but FDR understood that people needed to do something to feel that they had earned the money.\r\n\r\nYes, there was another recession in 1937, but that was because Roosevelt -- a traditionalist at heart -- tried to keep a campaign promise and balance the federal budget. Austerity was the last thing the economy needed.\r\n\r\nIt was his true empathy for the poor and suffering that made the Democrats a majority party for a generation. That they don\'t really seem to be one anymore speaks more to the fact that they have tried to cater to the wealthy, and as Harry Truman once said, give the voters a choice between a Republican and a Republican and they\'ll vote for the Republican every time.\r\n\r\nFDR had a real connection with the people, and he did a better job of communicating with them in his Fireside Chats than any other president before him or since him. He was the one man who could make a reluctant nation prepare for a war he knew would one day come to them, and he was the one who led them through the dark days after Pearl Harbor all the way up to his death on April 12, 1945.\r\n\r\nThe <em>New York Times</em> said it best in a eulogy editorial, telling its readers that a hundred years in the future, Americans would get down on their knees and thank God that Franklin Roosevelt had been in the White House when America had to stand up to barbarism.\r\n\r\nSome will, of course, but what amazes me more than 67 years after his death is how much his legacy has been subjected to revisionist history by the descendants of the people on the far right who hated him beyond all reason. Oh, they don\'t say the same things the haters did while he was alive. For one thing, all the ridiculous lies about how Roosevelt was secretly a Jew wouldn\'t fly anymore. What anti-semitism that remains in this country is pretty much underground these days.\r\n\r\nBut the whole idea that we should help people who are down on their luck has come under attack. It\'s amazing how many people treat a third-rate thinker like Ayn Rand as if she were a philosophical equal to Christ himself. People talk about makers and takers and look at the people who are struggling as if they were somehow morally inferior to those who are successful. When a major party candidate talks of 47 percent of Americans as people he could never convince to take responsibility for their own lives, it says as much about our country as it does about the man who said it.\r\n\r\nFifty years ago, Mitt Romney would have condemned himself to the far right fringe with that remark.\r\n\r\nToday he\'s probably got one chance in three of being elected president on Tuesday.\r\n\r\nAmerica has certainly changed.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Boy, could we really use another FDR these days','','inherit','open','open','','1774-revision-3','','','2012-11-03 17:15:53','2012-11-04 00:15:53','',1774,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1798',0,'revision','',0),(1799,1,'2012-11-05 22:08:05','2012-11-06 06:08:05','Short takes from a journey through a disorganized mind:\r\n\r\nI\'m pretty fed up with these idiots who keep insisting that President Obama wasn\'t born in the United States and thus should not have been eligible to serve the last four years as president. I mean, he had three major obstacles to overcome if he were hiding something. I find it impossible to believe that if there was something to the claims, Hillary Clinton wouldn\'t have used it against him in the primaries. Then Republicans certainly would have used it in the general election campaign. Finally, the \"birthers\" filed suits in court after court that were thrown out.\r\n\r\nTo believe that Obama really was ineligible, you almost have to believe that everyone is in on it, including numerous Republicans.\r\n\r\nThe whole thing is ridiculous anyway. The idea that a president had to be native-born was an 18th century fear of European royalty ruling our country. The American people should be the ones to make the decision, and if at various times people might have wanted to vote for Republicans Arnold Schwarzenegger (Austrian born) or Henry Kissinger (German born) or for Democrat Jennifer Grantholm (Canadian born), they should have had that opportunity.\r\n\r\nAdmittedly, I\'m prejudiced. I have a daughter who I honestly believe could have a great career in politics should she so desire, but even though she has been in this country since she was 7, she wasn\'t born here. I shudder to think of a world where brilliant, personable people can\'t run for president, but Michelle Bachman can.\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">***</p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1800\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"241\" caption=\"Halloween in Jamaica\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/523651_10151281582872122_1074508464_n.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1800\" title=\"523651_10151281582872122_1074508464_n\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/523651_10151281582872122_1074508464_n-241x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"241\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Speaking of my daughter Pauline, aka the mother of my grandchildren, she and husband Ryan made a big deal out of Halloween in their first year of three stationed in Jamaica. They ordered costumes online. Ryan was something called a Tauntaun, which is a character I failed to remember from the \"Star Wars\" movie, while Pauline and little Lex have costumes from \"Star Trek\" and Maddie is a princess.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">I get a kick out of the look on Lex\'s face. Halloween is three months before his birthday, and he is 1 year old now.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">***</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">I am very impressed by Performance Bicycle. As I wrote last week, I ordered a road bike online. I was told it would be shipped from North Carolina and I would be able to pick it up from the Atlanta store in three weeks.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">They cut 16 days off the time.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">My bike arrived last Thursday -- 16 days ahead of schedule.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">I picked it up Saturday, and while I haven\'t been on it yet, it\'s only a matter of time.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">It\'s a lot different from my first bike -- no basket on the back to carry things, for one thing.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">But damned if it isn\'t beautiful.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">***</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Tuesday is election day. Exercise your right to vote, whether you\'re supporting the guy I like or the guy I don\'t like.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Later.</p>\r\n&nbsp;','Of birthers, bicycles and wonderful Trick or Treaters','','publish','open','open','','of-birthers-bicycles-and-wonderful-trick-or-treaters','','','2012-11-05 22:08:05','2012-11-06 06:08:05','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1799',0,'post','',0),(1800,1,'2012-11-05 21:53:03','2012-11-06 05:53:03','','523651_10151281582872122_1074508464_n','Halloween in Jamaica','inherit','open','open','','523651_10151281582872122_1074508464_n','','','2012-11-05 21:53:03','2012-11-06 05:53:03','',1799,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/523651_10151281582872122_1074508464_n.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1801,1,'2012-11-05 22:07:41','2012-11-06 06:07:41','Short takes from a journey through a disorganized mind:\n\nI\'m pretty fed up with these idiots who keep insisting that President Obama wasn\'t born in the United States and thus should not have been eligible to serve the last four years as president. I mean, he had three major obstacles to overcome if he were hiding something. I find it impossible to believe that if there was something to the claims, Hillary Clinton wouldn\'t have used it against him in the primaries. Then Republicans certainly would have used it in the general election campaign. Finally, the \"birthers\" filed suits in court after court that were thrown out.\n\nTo believe that Obama really was ineligible, you almost have to believe that everyone is in on it, including numerous Republicans.\n\nThe whole thing is ridiculous anyway. The idea that a president had to be native-born was an 18th century fear of European royalty ruling our country. The American people should be the ones to make the decision, and if at various times people might have wanted to vote for Republicans Arnold Schwarzenegger (Austrian born) or Henry Kissinger (German born) or for Democrat Jennifer Grantholm (Canadian born), they should have had that opportunity.\n\nAdmittedly, I\'m prejudiced. I have a daughter who I honestly believe could have a great career in politics should she so desire, but even though she has been in this country since she was 7, she wasn\'t born here. I shudder to think of a world where brilliant, personable people can\'t run for president, but Michelle Bachman can.\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">***</p>\n\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1800\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"241\" caption=\"Halloween in Jamaica\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/523651_10151281582872122_1074508464_n.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1800\" title=\"523651_10151281582872122_1074508464_n\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/523651_10151281582872122_1074508464_n-241x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"241\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Speaking of my daughter Pauline, aka the mother of my grandchildren, she and husband Ryan made a big deal out of Halloween in their first year of three stationed in Jamaica. They ordered costumes online. Ryan was something called a Tauntaun, which is a character I failed to remember from the \"Star Wars\" movie, while Pauline and little Lex have costumes from \"Star Trek\" and Maddie is a princess.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">I get a kick out of the look on Lex\'s face. Halloween is three months before his birthday, and he is 1 year old now.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">***</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">I am very impressed by Performance Bicycle. As I wrote last week, I ordered a road bike online. I was told it would be shipped from North Carolina and I would be able to pick it up from the Atlanta store in three weeks.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">They cut 16 days off the time.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">My bike arrived last Thursday -- 16 days ahead of schedule.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">I picked it up Saturday, and while I haven\'t been on it yet, it\'s only a matter of time.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">It\'s a lot different from my first bike -- no basket on the back to carry things, for one thing.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">But damned if it isn\'t beautiful.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">***</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Tuesday is election day. Exercise your right to vote, whether you\'re supporting the guy I like or the guy I don\'t like.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Later.</p>\n&nbsp;','Of birthers, bicyc','','inherit','open','open','','1799-revision','','','2012-11-05 22:07:41','2012-11-06 06:07:41','',1799,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1801',0,'revision','',0),(1803,1,'2012-11-13 10:12:12','2012-11-13 18:12:12','<strong><em>\"Is traditional America gone for good?\"</em></strong>\n<strong>-- BILL O\'REILLY</strong>\n\nTo answer that question, the first thing we have to do is determine exactly what \"traditional America\" was. When O\'Reilly used the question above for an explanation of why the Republican Party\'s message didn\'t resonate with voters in the recent election, he was referring to a lack of personal discipline.\n\n\"People want free stuff,\" he said.\n\nUnlike traditional America, where people would rather die than accept welfare. People worked hard in those days and made an honest dollar for an honest day\'s work.\n\nBut which traditional America does O\'Reilly mean? Could it be 1789, when only white men voted, when black people were slaves and when 95 percent of all working people were their own bosses? Or how about 1880, when the Industrial Revolution had changed everything and people were expected to do menial jobs for low pay? That was the era in which robber baron Jay Gould famously said he could hire half of the working class to kill the other half.\n\nI doubt he meant the 1930s, when much of our present-day safety net was created. Since many people tend to see the \"good old days\" as the years when they were young, let\'s say for the sake of argument that he means the 1950s. The \'50s are perhaps the most misunderstood of all decades, loved by the right primarily because they were the last \"normal\" decade before everything changes.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1802-revision','','','2012-11-13 10:12:12','2012-11-13 18:12:12','',1802,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1803',0,'revision','',0),(1815,1,'2012-11-22 17:49:03','2012-11-23 01:49:03','I\'m not sure there is anything that says more about what this country has become in recent years than the concept of \"Black Friday.\"\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1816\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Black Friday\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/medium_riotblackfriday.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1816\" title=\"medium_riotblackfriday\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/medium_riotblackfriday.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"201\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nBargain hunters line up in front of stores waiting for them to open on the Friday after Thanksgiving so that they can get fantastic bargains on limited numbers of items for sale. My first experience with it was 11 years ago, when I found myself outside a Walmart in Upland, California, at 5 a.m., looking at a line of 1,500 people waiting for the store to open at 6 a.m.\r\n\r\nI don\'t remember exactly what the bargains were, although I do remember that DVD players were new enough that they were still selling for $125 or so and Walmart had several hundred of them for $50 each. The other stuff was pretty much the same as it is now -- game systems, computers, big screen televisions. I know there were very small numbers of items at incredible bargains -- $1,500 televisions for $500, $1,000 computers for $300. Enough to make some folks really aggressive when the doors opened.\r\n\r\nIf that sounds like a recipe for disaster, it\'s because you\'re looking at it from 2012 and not 2001. You\'ve read the stories in intervening years about the weaker shoppers who got knocked down and trampled, or the Walmart employee on Long Island who actually was knocked down and died from his injuries. My own favorite horror story was about the woman who made sure she got one of the real bargains by using pepper spray to get the competition out of her way.\r\n\r\n<em>Hey, is this a great country or what?</em>\r\n\r\nActually, Black Friday keeps edging forward on the calendar. Instead of 6 a.m. Friday, the Walmarts are starting their sales at 8 p.m. tonight and going through the night. I won\'t be anywhere near any of the sales. We got most of the things we\'ll be giving our grandchildren last weekend, and our kids and their spouses are old enough that gift cards seem to be best for them.\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">***</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">It has actually been sort of a strange Thanksgiving. My wife is in the hospital for the third time in less than a year, although I\'m hopeful she will be home on Saturday. When we lived in California, we went to a wonderful restaurant -- Twin Palms in Pasadena -- every Thanksgiving. They had a delicious dinner buffet just for the holiday, and while it was pretty expensive ($35-40 a person), they did something nice by letting everyone fill a styrofoam container with more food to take home as leftovers.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">They were wonderful dinners, but as I get older and more sentimental, what I remember the most was home special the days were when our kids were still at home. Our Thanksgiving tradition for some years was to go to a matinee, then have dinner and then go to another movie.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Happy days.</p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"></p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','\'Black Friday\' says nothing good about America','','publish','open','open','','black-friday-says-nothing-good-about-america','','','2012-11-22 17:49:03','2012-11-23 01:49:03','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1815',0,'post','',0),(1805,1,'2012-11-13 12:31:22','2012-11-13 20:31:22','','article-new_ehow_images_a07_5d_si_mens-fashion-1950s-1.1-800x800','Traditional America?','inherit','open','open','','article-new_ehow_images_a07_5d_si_mens-fashion-1950s-1-1-800x800','','','2012-11-13 12:31:22','2012-11-13 20:31:22','',1802,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/article-new_ehow_images_a07_5d_si_mens-fashion-1950s-1.1-800x800.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1806,1,'2012-11-13 13:10:07','2012-11-13 21:10:07','','images (1)','House for everyone','inherit','open','open','','images-1-3','','','2012-11-13 13:10:07','2012-11-13 21:10:07','',1802,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/images-1.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1807,1,'2012-11-13 13:18:34','2012-11-13 21:18:34','','kirche-kinder-kuche','\'50s ladies','inherit','open','open','','kirche-kinder-kuche','','','2012-11-13 13:18:34','2012-11-13 21:18:34','',1802,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/kirche-kinder-kuche.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1808,1,'2012-11-13 13:31:57','2012-11-13 21:31:57','[caption id=\"attachment_1805\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Traditional America?\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/article-new_ehow_images_a07_5d_si_mens-fashion-1950s-1.1-800x800.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1805\" title=\"article-new_ehow_images_a07_5d_si_mens-fashion-1950s-1.1-800x800\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/article-new_ehow_images_a07_5d_si_mens-fashion-1950s-1.1-800x800-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\n<strong><em>\"Is traditional America gone for good?\"</em></strong>\n<strong>-- BILL O\'REILLY</strong>\n\nTo answer that question, the first thing we have to do is determine exactly what \"traditional America\" was. When O\'Reilly used the question above for an explanation of why the Republican Party\'s message didn\'t resonate with voters in the recent election, he was referring to a lack of personal discipline.\n\n\"People want free stuff,\" he said.\n\nUnlike traditional America, where people would rather die than accept welfare. People worked hard in those days and made an honest dollar for an honest day\'s work.\n\nBut which traditional America does O\'Reilly mean? Could it be 1789, when only white men voted, when black people were slaves and when 95 percent of all working people were their own bosses? Or how about 1880, when the Industrial Revolution had changed everything and people were expected to do menial jobs for low pay? That was the era in which robber baron Jay Gould famously said he could hire half of the working class to kill the other half.\n\nI doubt he meant the 1930s, when much of our present-day safety net was created. Since many people tend to see the \"good old days\" as the years when they were young, let\'s say for the sake of argument that he means the 1950s. The \'50s are perhaps the most misunderstood of all decades, loved by the right primarily because they were the last \"normal\" decade before everything changes.\n\nLet\'s look at the \'50s for a moment:\n\n-- According to the 1950 census, there were 150,697,361 people in the United States. That\'s less than half of our current population of 309.2 million. Our three most populous states -- California, Texas and Florida -- had as combined population of just over 21 million then, as opposed to 81.5 million today.\n\n-- Unemployment in the \'50s was as low as 3 percent in 1952 and peaked at 6.8 percent during the recession of 1958. By 1966 it was back to 3.8 percent.\n\n-- In 1950, American CEOs made 50-60 times as much as the average worker. In 2011, the ratio was 380-1.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1806\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"263\" caption=\"House for everyone\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/images-1.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1806\" title=\"images (1)\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/images-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"263\" height=\"192\" /></a>[/caption]\n\n-- In the 1950s, it was still possible for a man with an eighth-grade education to get an entry-level blue collar job and work his way up to a position where he could support a family, own a home and live the American Dream.\n\nIt was a time when anyone who wanted to work could find a decent job, something that certainly isn\'t true anymore. There are a couple of things that didn\'t exist in the \'50s that made all that possible.\n\nFirst, many businesses were locally owned and nearly all businesses that operated in the United States were American-owned. We didn\'t have multi-national corporations doing business in the U.S. then, so the people who owned businesses felt a certain responsibility to their community and their country.\n\nSecond, financial speculation wasn\'t anywhere near what it became starting in the \'80s. Far fewer people were in the stock market, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was around 500 for most of the decade.\n\nSo the biggest difference was that our rich people were a lot less wealthy than they are today, but average folks lived a lot better. Far more jobs included meaningful benefits like pensions, and even people who didn\'t have medical insurance could usually afford doctor visits and other preventative medical care.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1807\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"200\" caption=\"&#39;50s ladies\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/kirche-kinder-kuche.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1807\" title=\"kirche-kinder-kuche\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/kirche-kinder-kuche-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nNow the last thing I want to do is say the \'50s were wonderful for everyone. They weren\'t. We still had a system of apartheid every bit as rigid as South Africa in parts of the country, and women who wanted to have anything other than the traditional <em>\"kinder kueche kirche\"</em> life that came from the old country (children, kitchen and church), could expect to have a difficult time of it. As for those of different sexual proclivities, they were firmly closeted and could expect to be called nothing much better than \"degenerates.\"\n\nBut most folks knew their neighbors, and they had enough local networks that there were people they could rely on to help them if they needed it.\n\nAnd they took pride in their families and their neighborhoods. General Colin Powell, who grew up in a poor neighborhood in New York, said that people behaved well even in bad neighborhoods because they didn\'t want to bring shame to their families.\n\n\"A sense of shame is not a bad moral compass,\" Powell said.\n\nThat\'s a good thing, and certainly it\'s one of the things to which O\'Reilly refers when he speaks of traditional America. But if you want tradition, you\'ve got to have it on both sides. You can\'t criticize people for behaving badly when you have taken away all their options.\n\nAnd when you live in a country where the population has more than doubled in 60 years, and where the population of the three largest states has nearly quadrupled, you really can\'t be all that surprised when things change.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n--\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1802-revision-2','','','2012-11-13 13:31:57','2012-11-13 21:31:57','',1802,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1808',0,'revision','',0),(1809,1,'2012-11-14 16:35:08','2012-11-15 00:35:08','I called by daughter in Jamaica the night before last and got a pleasant surprise.\r\n\r\nThrough the beauty of Skype and video phone calls, I had an opportunity to see my favorite grandson -- Lexington Wesley Kastner -- enjoying himself in the bathtub. Lex celebrated his first birthday 11 days ago, and he also has grown his first tooth and taken his first steps.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1810\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Maddie and Lex\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/427900_10151271141257122_1138774449_n.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1810\" title=\"427900_10151271141257122_1138774449_n\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/427900_10151271141257122_1138774449_n-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nThis is one happy little guy.\r\n\r\nWhether he\'s playing with his sister, or with his parents or just sitting there by himself, he always seems to have a big smile on his face. He\'s also all boy. When you look at pictures of him, all the way back to the beginning, there\'s no doubt that this is a boy who is going to grow up to be quite a man.\r\n\r\nIt\'s a funny thing about time. The next 12 months will pass very slowly for Lex. They\'ll be 50 percent of his life so far. But they\'ll pass very rapidly for me, making up less than 2 percent of my my life so far.\r\n\r\nVery strange.\r\n\r\nI\'m looking forward to spending some time with young Lex in a couple of months. We\'re planning to spend some time in Jamaica this winter, and we\'re looking forward to seeing both Lex and his big sister Maddie, our favorite granddaughter. That\'s the nice thing about having just two grandchildren. They can both be favorites.\r\n\r\nWhen Maddie was born, we called her the Amazing Baby.\r\n\r\nI guess Lex can be the Great Little Guy.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Lex, the Great Little Guy, is growing up fast','','publish','open','open','','lex-the-great-little-guy-is-growing-up-fast','','','2012-11-14 16:35:08','2012-11-15 00:35:08','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1809',0,'post','',0),(1810,1,'2012-11-14 16:05:27','2012-11-15 00:05:27','','427900_10151271141257122_1138774449_n','Maddie and Lex','inherit','open','open','','427900_10151271141257122_1138774449_n','','','2012-11-14 16:05:27','2012-11-15 00:05:27','',1809,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/427900_10151271141257122_1138774449_n.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1811,1,'2012-11-14 16:34:53','2012-11-15 00:34:53','I called by daughter in Jamaica the night before last and got a pleasant surprise.\n\nThrough the beauty of Skype and video phone calls, I had an opportunity to see my favorite grandson -- Lexington Wesley Kastner -- enjoying himself in the bathtub. Lex celebrated his first birthday 11 days ago, and he also has grown his first tooth and taken his first steps.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1810\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Maddie and Lex\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/427900_10151271141257122_1138774449_n.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1810\" title=\"427900_10151271141257122_1138774449_n\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/427900_10151271141257122_1138774449_n-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nThis is one happy little guy.\n\nWhether he\'s playing with his sister, or with his parents or just sitting there by himself, he always seems to have a big smile on his face. He\'s also all boy. When you look at pictures of him, all the way back to the beginning, there\'s no doubt that this is a boy who is going to grow up to be quite a man.\n\nIt\'s a funny thing about time. The next 12 months will pass very slowly for Lex. They\'ll be 50 percent of his life so far. But they\'ll pass very rapidly for me, making up less than 2 percent of my my life so far.\n\nVery strange.\n\nI\'m looking forward to spending some time with young Lex in a couple of months. We\'re planning to spend some time in Jamaica this winter, and we\'re looking forward to seeing both Lex and his big sister Maddie, our favorite granddaughter. That\'s the nice thing about having just two grandchildren. They can both be favorites.\n\nWhen Maddie was born, we called her the Amazing Baby.\n\nI guess Lex can be the Great Little Guy.\n\n&nbsp;','Lex, the Great Little ','','inherit','open','open','','1809-revision','','','2012-11-14 16:34:53','2012-11-15 00:34:53','',1809,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1811',0,'revision','',0),(1812,1,'2012-11-17 10:08:20','2012-11-17 18:08:20','This isn\'t the house in which we lived during most of my elementary school years, although as best I can tell, it\'s the same model.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1813\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Remodeling after 55 years.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/ddn012612housing1_1075678a.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1813\" title=\"ddn012612housing1_1075678a\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/ddn012612housing1_1075678a-300x204.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"204\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nThe street address is about 10 blocks from where we moved when I was 7 years old. I have vague memories of going with my parents to look at the model homes and then waiting anxiously while our house -- the first of three that my parents owned -- was being built.\r\n\r\nI don\'t remember the name of this model, but I remember the price was somewhere between $12 and $13,000. It had three bedrooms and two baths, although I can\'t recall if the bath in the master bedroom suite was a full bath or just a shower. The address of our home was 5675 Harshmanville Road in Huber Heights, Ohio.\r\n\r\nI also remember that the first phone number we had was only six digits, although we got a different, seven-digit number sometime in the first year we lived there. I actually think I remember both of those numbers.\r\n\r\nWe lived almost directly across the street from the elementary school, although it was several years before it was built. I went to both second grade and fourth grade in empty homes that were leased to the school district to be used as interim classrooms. Surprisingly at age 62, I remember the names of the five teachers I had in elementary school.\r\n\r\nWhen we first moved there in 1957, there was still a lot of construction going on within walking distance. We used to head down to that area, where there were massive (to a 7-year-old) tunnels that went underground. We used to explore the tunnels, but when our parents found out, they made us stop. It turned out we were walking in what ultimately would be the sewer system.\r\n\r\nOf course, all that was a very long time ago. We left Ohio for Virginia in January 1963, the year after Interstate 70 had opened for business just north of Huber Heights. We had moved to a bigger home in the new end of the development in 1961 when our family had grown from two children to five, and we moved east little more than a year later when my dad was offered a good job at the Pentagon.\r\n\r\n<a title=\"Huber Heights, Ohio\" href=\"http://www.hhoh.org/\">Huber Heights</a> is more than just a housing development now. It\'s a city of its own. I stopped by and looked at our two homes when I was traveling home to St. Louis in the spring of 1985, but I haven\'t seen it since. I don\'t think I\'ve set foot in Ohio since 1990, when my grandmother died at the age of 94.\r\n\r\nIn some ways, it\'s embedded in the past, almost like Colonial Williamsburg, for me. But when I see pictures of houses that were built less than 60 years ago being gutted and remodeled for 21st century families, it says something nice to me. Our house there is valued at about $56,000, which probably says more about the stability of the housing market there than anything else.\r\n\r\nWhat fascinates me about the remodeling is that when it\'s done, a family will buy the house. Maybe it will be their first home, and maybe they\'ll have two kids, ages 7 and 5. Their children will be able to walk to school in about two minutes, and if their mother doesn\'t have a job, maybe they can hurry home at lunchtime and eat in their own dining room.\r\n\r\nJust like things used to be.\r\n\r\nAt least for some of us.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','They\'re already remodeling the homes of the \'50s','','publish','open','open','','theyre-already-remodeling-the-homes-of-the-50s','','','2012-11-17 10:08:20','2012-11-17 18:08:20','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1812',0,'post','',0),(1813,1,'2012-11-17 08:58:25','2012-11-17 16:58:25','','ddn012612housing1_1075678a','Remodeling after 55 years.','inherit','open','open','','ddn012612housing1_1075678a','','','2012-11-17 08:58:25','2012-11-17 16:58:25','',1812,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/ddn012612housing1_1075678a.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1814,1,'2012-11-17 10:08:17','2012-11-17 18:08:17','This isn\'t the house in which we lived during most of my elementary school years, although as best I can tell, it\'s the same model.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1813\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Remodeling after 55 years.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/ddn012612housing1_1075678a.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1813\" title=\"ddn012612housing1_1075678a\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/ddn012612housing1_1075678a-300x204.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"204\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nThe street address is about 10 blocks from where we moved when I was 7 years old. I have vague memories of going with my parents to look at the model homes and then waiting anxiously while our house -- the first of three that my parents owned -- was being built.\n\nI don\'t remember the name of this model, but I remember the price was somewhere between $12 and $13,000. It had three bedrooms and two baths, although I can\'t recall if the bath in the master bedroom suite was a full bath or just a shower. The address of our home was 5675 Harshmanville Road in Huber Heights, Ohio.\n\nI also remember that the first phone number we had was only six digits, although we got a different, seven-digit number sometime in the first year we lived there. I actually think I remember both of those numbers.\n\nWe lived almost directly across the street from the elementary school, although it was several years before it was built. I went to both second grade and fourth grade in empty homes that were leased to the school district to be used as interim classrooms. Surprisingly at age 62, I remember the names of the five teachers I had in elementary school.\n\nWhen we first moved there in 1957, there was still a lot of construction going on within walking distance. We used to head down to that area, where there were massive (to a 7-year-old) tunnels that went underground. We used to explore the tunnels, but when our parents found out, they made us stop. It turned out we were walking in what ultimately would be the sewer system.\n\nOf course, all that was a very long time ago. We left Ohio for Virginia in January 1963, the year after Interstate 70 had opened for business just north of Huber Heights. We had moved to a bigger home in the new end of the development in 1961 when our family had grown from two children to five, and we moved east little more than a year later when my dad was offered a good job at the Pentagon.\n\n<a title=\"Huber Heights, Ohio\" href=\"http://www.hhoh.org/\">Huber Heights</a> is more than just a housing development now. It\'s a city of its own. I stopped by and looked at our two homes when I was traveling home to St. Louis in the spring of 1985, but I haven\'t seen it since. I don\'t think I\'ve set foot in Ohio since 1990, when my grandmother died at the age of 94.\n\nIn some ways, it\'s embedded in the past, almost like Colonial Williamsburg, for me. But when I see pictures of houses that were built less than 60 years ago being gutted and remodeled for 21st century families, it says something nice to me. Our house there is valued at about $56,000, which probably says more about the stability of the housing market there than anything else.\n\nWhat fascinates me about the remodeling is that when it\'s done, a family will buy the house. Maybe it will be their first home, and maybe they\'ll have two kids, ages 7 and 5. Their children will be able to walk to school in about two minutes, and if their mother doesn\'t have a job, maybe they can hurry home at lunchtime and eat in their own dining room.\n\nJust like things used to be.\n\nAt least for some of us.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','They\'re already remodeling the homes of the \'50s','','inherit','open','open','','1812-revision','','','2012-11-17 10:08:17','2012-11-17 18:08:17','',1812,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1814',0,'revision','',0),(1816,1,'2012-11-22 16:33:44','2012-11-23 00:33:44','','medium_riotblackfriday','Black Friday','inherit','open','open','','medium_riotblackfriday','','','2012-11-22 16:33:44','2012-11-23 00:33:44','',1815,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/medium_riotblackfriday.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1817,1,'2012-11-22 17:12:32','2012-11-23 01:12:32','I\'m not sure there is anything that says more about what this country has become in recent years than the concept of \"Black Friday.\"\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1816\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Black Friday\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/medium_riotblackfriday.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1816\" title=\"medium_riotblackfriday\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/medium_riotblackfriday.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"201\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nBargain hunters line up in front of stores waiting for them to open on the Friday after Thanksgiving so that they can get fantastic bargains on limited numbers of items for sale. My first experience with it was 11 years ago, when I found myself outside a Walmart in Upland, California, at 5 a.m., looking at a line of 1,500 people waiting for the store to open at 6 a.m.\n\nI don\'t remember exactly what the bargains were, although I do remember that DVD players were new enough that they were still selling for $125 or so and Walmart had several hundred of them for $50 each. The other stuff was pretty much the same as it is now -- game systems, computers, big screen televisions. I know there were very small numbers of items at incredible bargains -- $1,500 televisions for $500, $1,000 computers for $300. Enough to make some folks really aggressive when the doors opened.\n\nIf that sounds like a recipe for disaster, it\'s because you\'re looking at it from 2012 and not 2001. You\'ve read the stories in intervening years about the weaker shoppers who got knocked down and trampled, or the Walmart employee on Long Island who actually was knocked down and died from his injuries. My own favorite horror story was about the woman who made sure she got one of the real bargains by using pepper spray to get the competition out of her way.\n\n<em>Hey, is this a great country or what?</em>\n\nActually, Black Friday keeps edging forward on the calendar. Instead of 6 a.m. Friday, the Walmarts are starting their sales at 8 p.m. tonight and going through the night. I won\'t be anywhere near any of the sales. We got most of the things we\'ll be giving our grandchildren last weekend, and our kids and their spouses are old enough that gift cards\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1815-revision','','','2012-11-22 17:12:32','2012-11-23 01:12:32','',1815,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1817',0,'revision','',0),(1823,1,'2012-12-07 20:12:05','2012-12-08 04:12:05','For at least the last  15 years or so, I always seem to find myself getting a little bit crazy at this time of year.\r\n\r\nNot Christmas, although that has become a problem of its own. No, it\'s the first 10 days or so of December that seem to throw me off a little, whether it\'s becoming overly emotional at dopey songs or missing people I haven\'t seen in a long, long time.\r\n\r\nI guess the best way to explain it is that December 11th is my birthday. When I was younger, I was excited -- \"Hey, I\'m 9! -- and of course there were the milestone ones like 16, 18 and 21, but the last birthday I can remember that actually expanded my world was 25. When I was 25, you had to be at least 25 to be able to rent a car. I don\'t think I rushed out and rented a car, just as I didn\'t get a driver\'s license on my 16th birthday, register for the draft on my 18th or vote on my 21st. Back then ...\r\n\r\nAfter a while, though ...\r\n\r\n<em>Oh Lord, I\'m 30 ...</em>\r\n\r\n<em>Jeez, am I really 40?</em>\r\n\r\n<em>Can I possibly be 50?</em>\r\n\r\nAll birthdays were doing by that point was taking things away. It had been a long time since I could have been a prodigy, but I was long past young hotshot and well into grizzled veteran before I realized it.\r\n\r\nMost of that was my own fault. Instead of graduating from high school at age 17, going through college in four years and having wonderful memories of my alma mater, I did almost everything I could do to destroy my chance at a bright future. When I was 5 or 6 years old, adults told my mother what an amazing future I would have.\r\n\r\nI didn\'t do amazing, although I was lucky enough (the second time around) to marry into amazing. My lovely wife of 20 years -- going on 21 -- was a brilliant scientist and a wonderful person, and my two children -- who have everything of me except my DNA -- are both sky\'s-the-limit people who are succeeding beyond their years in the early part of their careers.\r\n\r\n<em>But am I really 60?</em>\r\n\r\n<em>61?</em>\r\n\r\n<em>62?</em>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1826\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"199\" caption=\"Back in the day\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/20110222_1.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1826\" title=\"20110222_1\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/20110222_1-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nIf there is one thing that pisses me off more than anything, it is that 12 years ago, I had a job that I thought I would do until I was 75 years old. I was a newspaper columnist and a damn good one. I won awards every year and I was developing a big following. But after five years, a boss for whom I had absolutely no respect as a journalist decided that I wasn\'t going to be a columnist anymore. What I later learned that really infuriated me was that when our publisher asked him why I wasn\'t doing the column anymore, the jagoff lied and told him it had been my choice.\r\n\r\nWe received dozens of letters to the editor complaining, and they didn\'t run any of them.\r\n\r\nI really enjoyed being a sportswriter and sports columnist the first 16 years of my career, and I loved the five years I wrote a news column. I really thought I would do it as long as I was able. But my last seven years in the business were just a chore comparatively, and when budget cuts took away my job in 2008, I had already started counting the days till I could retire.\r\n\r\nI never once while I was growing up had a desire to own my own business, and I suppose I was naive to think that as long as I worked hard and did a good job, the people who signed my paychecks would treat me fairly.\r\n\r\nI doubt that I\'ll ever work for a paycheck again. I did earn a little money this year -- $1,300 playing fantasy baseball on the Internet and $250 in a writing contest on All Voices, where I have blogged for years -- but that\'s not much.\r\n\r\nI do have some good memories of at least a couple of my employers. The very best boss I ever had was the two years I worked as a sports editor and sports columnist at the <em>Greeley Tribune</em> in Colorado. Editor Ron Stewart was an absolute prince, but even if I hadn\'t been dumb enough to leave for a job in Reno, he moved on to Oregon himself soon after that.\r\n\r\nI\'m not in denial. I know there were times in my career when I slacked off -- or got burned out for a while -- and deserved punishment. But in the 18 years I spent working in Ontario, Calif., there were four different times I got, well, screwed.\r\n\r\n<em>Fool me once ...</em>\r\n\r\nI never intended to be retired when I was 58 years old, and it has taken me a long time to feel OK about it. I\'m not sure I\'m there yet, but with my wife\'s health problems, I can\'t leave her 40-50 hours a week to earn money that we don\'t need.\r\n\r\nI guess I\'m getting to the age when I\'ll feel OK about it.\r\n\r\n<em>Am I really 63?</em>\r\n\r\nFour more days, dude. Four more days.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','\'It\'s the most ... craziest ... time of the year\'','','publish','open','open','','its-the-most-craziest-time-of-the-year','','','2012-12-07 20:12:05','2012-12-08 04:12:05','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1823',0,'post','',0),(1819,1,'2012-11-22 17:48:21','2012-11-23 01:48:21','I\'m not sure there is anything that says more about what this country has become in recent years than the concept of \"Black Friday.\"\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1816\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Black Friday\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/medium_riotblackfriday.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1816\" title=\"medium_riotblackfriday\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/medium_riotblackfriday.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"201\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nBargain hunters line up in front of stores waiting for them to open on the Friday after Thanksgiving so that they can get fantastic bargains on limited numbers of items for sale. My first experience with it was 11 years ago, when I found myself outside a Walmart in Upland, California, at 5 a.m., looking at a line of 1,500 people waiting for the store to open at 6 a.m.\n\nI don\'t remember exactly what the bargains were, although I do remember that DVD players were new enough that they were still selling for $125 or so and Walmart had several hundred of them for $50 each. The other stuff was pretty much the same as it is now -- game systems, computers, big screen televisions. I know there were very small numbers of items at incredible bargains -- $1,500 televisions for $500, $1,000 computers for $300. Enough to make some folks really aggressive when the doors opened.\n\nIf that sounds like a recipe for disaster, it\'s because you\'re looking at it from 2012 and not 2001. You\'ve read the stories in intervening years about the weaker shoppers who got knocked down and trampled, or the Walmart employee on Long Island who actually was knocked down and died from his injuries. My own favorite horror story was about the woman who made sure she got one of the real bargains by using pepper spray to get the competition out of her way.\n\n<em>Hey, is this a great country or what?</em>\n\nActually, Black Friday keeps edging forward on the calendar. Instead of 6 a.m. Friday, the Walmarts are starting their sales at 8 p.m. tonight and going through the night. I won\'t be anywhere near any of the sales. We got most of the things we\'ll be giving our grandchildren last weekend, and our kids and their spouses are old enough that gift cards seem to be best for them.\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">***</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">It has actually been sort of a strange Thanksgiving. My wife is in the hospital for the third time in less than a year, although I\'m hopeful she will be home on Saturday. When we lived in California, we went to a wonderful restaurant -- Twin Palms in Pasadena -- every Thanksgiving. They had a delicious dinner buffet just for the holiday, and while it was pretty expensive ($35-40 a person), they did something nice by letting everyone fill a styrofoam container with more food to take home as leftovers.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">They were wonderful dinners, but as I get older and more sentimental, what I remember the most was home special the days were when our kids were still at home. Our Thanksgiving tradition for some years was to go to a matinee, then have dinner and then go to another movie.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Happy days.</p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"></p>\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','\'Black Friday\' says nothing good about America','','inherit','open','open','','1815-revision-2','','','2012-11-22 17:48:21','2012-11-23 01:48:21','',1815,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1819',0,'revision','',0),(1820,1,'2012-11-28 19:01:09','2012-11-29 03:01:09','My daughter has a family tradition that more families ought to have.\r\n\r\nLate in every year, Pauline has family pictures taken professionally. It isn\'t as if she doesn\'t like to take pictures herself; I have probably purchased 2,000 prints of pictures either she or husband Ryan posted on Snapfish. She just thinks that at least once a year, having someone put them in their best light is a pretty good idea.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1821\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Pauline and Lexington\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/318925_10151321609732122_750218834_n.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1821\" title=\"318925_10151321609732122_750218834_n\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/318925_10151321609732122_750218834_n-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nThis year was the first that my grandson Lexington was much of a presence in the pictures, and the truly wonderful thing about him is that he always looks so interested in his surroundings.\r\n\r\nPauline and her family are in the first winter of a three-year tour in Kingston, Jamaica. By the time they leave, Lex will be as old as his sister is now. Madison is 4, and she is starting to look like a lovely young lady. She runs, jumps, swims and does all sorts of things that are so much fun.\r\n\r\nI have hundreds of pictures of her, and over the next few years, I will be doing my best to get hundreds of pictures of Lex.\r\n\r\nPauline will be a big help with that.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Taking great pictures can be a lot of work','','publish','open','open','','taking-great-pictures-can-be-a-lot-of-work','','','2012-11-28 19:01:09','2012-11-29 03:01:09','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1820',0,'post','',0),(1821,1,'2012-11-28 18:32:09','2012-11-29 02:32:09','','318925_10151321609732122_750218834_n','Pauline and Lexington','inherit','open','open','','318925_10151321609732122_750218834_n','','','2012-11-28 18:32:09','2012-11-29 02:32:09','',1820,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/318925_10151321609732122_750218834_n.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1822,1,'2012-11-28 19:00:31','2012-11-29 03:00:31','My daughter has a family tradition that more families ought to have.\n\nLate in every year, Pauline has family pictures taken professionally. It isn\'t as if she doesn\'t like to take pictures herself; I have probably purchased 2,000 prints of pictures either she or husband Ryan posted on Snapfish. She just thinks that at least once a year, having someone put them in their best light is a pretty good idea.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1821\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Pauline and Lexington\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/318925_10151321609732122_750218834_n.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1821\" title=\"318925_10151321609732122_750218834_n\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/318925_10151321609732122_750218834_n-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nThis year was the first that my grandson Lexington was much of a presence in the pictures, and the truly wonderful thing about him is that he always looks so interested in his surroundings.\n\nPauline and her family are in the first winter of a three-year tour in Kingston, Jamaica. By the time they leave, Lex will be as old as his sister is now. Madison is 4, and she is starting to look like a lovely young lady. She runs, jumps, swims and does all sorts of things that are so much fun.\n\nI have hundreds of pictures of her, and over the next few years, I will be doing my best to get hundreds of pictures of Lex.\n\nPauline will be a big help with that.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1820-revision','','','2012-11-28 19:00:31','2012-11-29 03:00:31','',1820,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1822',0,'revision','',0),(1824,1,'2012-12-06 17:52:22','2012-12-07 01:52:22','For at least the last  15 years or so, I always seem to find myself getting a little bit crazy at this time of year.\n\nNot Christmas, although that has become a problem of its own. No, it\'s the first 10 days or so of December that seem to throw me off a little, whether it\'s becoming overly emotional at dopey songs or missing people I haven\'t seen in a long, long time.\n\nI guess the best way to explain it is that December 11th is my birthday. When I was younger, I was excited -- \"Hey, I\'m 9! -- and of course there were the milestone ones like 16, 18 and 21, but the last birthday I can remember that actually expanded my world was 25. When I was 25, you had to be at least 25 to be able to rent a car. I don\'t think I rushed out and rented a car, just as I didn\'t get a driver\'s license on my 16th birthday, register for the draft on my 18th or vote on my 21st. Back then ...\n\nAfter a while, though ...\n\n<em>Oh Lord, I\'m 30 ...</em>\n\n<em>Jeez, am I really 40?</em>\n\n<em>Can I possibly be 50?</em>\n\nAll birthdays were doing by that point was taking things away. It had been a long time since I could have been a prodigy, but I was long past young hotshot and well into grizzled veteran before I realized it.\n\nMost of that was my own fault. Instead of graduating from high school at age 17, going through college in four years and having wonderful memories of my alma mater, I did almost everything I could do to destroy my chance at a bright future. When I was 5 or 6 years old, adults told my mother what an amazing future I would have.\n\nI didn\'t do amazing, although I was lucky enough (the second time around) to marry into amazing. My lovely wife of 20 years -- going on 21 -- was a brilliant scientist and a wonderful person, and my two children -- who have everything of me except my DNA -- are both sky\'s-the-limit people who are succeeding beyond their years in the early part of their careers.\n\n<em>But am I really 60?</em>\n\n<em>61?</em>\n\n<em>62?</em>\n\nIf there is one thing that pisses me off more than anything, it is that 12 years ago, I had a job that I thought I would do until I was 75 years old. I was a newspaper columnist and a damn good one. I won awards every year and I was developing a big following. But after five years, a boss for whom I had absolutely no respect as a journalist decided that I wasn\'t going to be a columnist anymore. What I later learned that really infuriated me was that when his boss asked him why I wasn\'t doing the column anymore, he lied and told him it had been my choice.\n\nWe received dozens of letters to the editor complaining, and they didn\'t run any of them.\n\nI really enjoyed being a sportswriter and sports columnist the first 16 years of my career, and I loved the five years I wrote a news column. I really thought I would do it as long as I was able. But my last seven years in the business were just a chore comparatively\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1823-revision','','','2012-12-06 17:52:22','2012-12-07 01:52:22','',1823,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1824',0,'revision','',0),(1834,1,'2012-12-15 20:06:27','2012-12-16 04:06:27','It\'s tough enough being a kid when all you have to worry about is other kids.\r\n\r\nWhen my son was in second grade, he was getting bullied by a couple of kids a year or two older. Rather than complaining, he found a tiny little penknife that he had bought as a souvenir at the Roy Rogers Museum in Victorville, California. The blade was less than an inch long, and he would never have stabbed anyone with it. But he thought if he showed these kids he had the knife, they would leave him alone.\r\n\r\nI didn\'t find out about it until the school called to tell me my son had brought a knife to school. I didn\'t argue with them, although I probably could have pointed out that it was so small and the blade so dull that I probably could have swallowed it and had it pass through my entire digestive system without doing any damage. I told them I would talk to him, and he made it through the rest of his school years without taking a weapon to school.\r\n\r\n<!--more-->He was a good kid, and very well adjusted. There were times I found myself wondering about kids who were less well adjusted, or who had parents who weren\'t involved in their children\'s lives. The year my son was in eighth grade, two misfits in Colorado went on a shooting spree at Columbine High School. Reading -- and writing -- about that was almost too much to bear.\r\n\r\nMy son is an adult now, but the shootings continue and every time a new one comes along, we become more cowardly. We allow the craziest among us -- the ones who think the government will come to get them if they don\'t have enough military-style weaponry -- to keep us from placing sensible restrictions on gun ownership. There\'s nothing in the Constitution that says we can\'t use licensing, registrations and background checks to make sure we can\'t keep criminals and the mentally ill from buying guns, but the National Rifle Association says it isn\'t fair to inconvenience legal gun owners.\r\n\r\n<em>Inconvenience?</em>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1835\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"First-grade teacher Vicki Soto\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/article-vicki-soto-2-1215-web.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1835\" title=\"article-vicki-soto-2-1215-web\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/article-vicki-soto-2-1215-web-300x210.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"210\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nDo you think the people who were killed the other day in Newtown, Conn., were<em> inconvenienced?</em>\r\n\r\nChildren -- all of them either 6 or 7 years old -- made up most of the list of people killed when another misfit loser who just happened to be able to get his hands on a semi-automatic assault rifle and kill 27 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School. He didn\'t have any connection with the school; he just went looking for victims -- and apparent fame.\r\n\r\nI won\'t mention his name.\r\n\r\nThe only person who deserves fame from this is one of the victims. First-grade teacher Vicki Soto, a lovely 27-year-old, got her students to hide in a closet. When the shooter came to her classroom, she said her students were in the gym. He shot her dead, but then moved on and all the children in her class survived.\r\n\r\nWhere do we go from here?\r\n\r\nAre we really so frightened of the pathetic losers who make up the NRA that we can\'t try to reinstate the ban on assault weapons that passed during the Clinton Administration and expired while Gee Dubya was president?\r\n\r\nI\'m really tired of the talk about how sacred the Second Amendment is.\r\n\r\nIf there is one thing the Founding Fathers never expected the Constitution to be, it\'s a suicide pact.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Stand up to the gun nuts and take reasonable steps','','publish','open','open','','stand-up-to-the-gun-nuts-and-take-reasonable-steps','','','2012-12-15 20:06:27','2012-12-16 04:06:27','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1834',0,'post','',0),(1826,1,'2012-12-07 19:57:16','2012-12-08 03:57:16','','20110222_1','Back in the day','inherit','open','open','','20110222_1-2','','','2012-12-07 19:57:16','2012-12-08 03:57:16','',1823,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/20110222_1.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1827,1,'2012-12-07 20:11:50','2012-12-08 04:11:50','For at least the last  15 years or so, I always seem to find myself getting a little bit crazy at this time of year.\n\nNot Christmas, although that has become a problem of its own. No, it\'s the first 10 days or so of December that seem to throw me off a little, whether it\'s becoming overly emotional at dopey songs or missing people I haven\'t seen in a long, long time.\n\nI guess the best way to explain it is that December 11th is my birthday. When I was younger, I was excited -- \"Hey, I\'m 9! -- and of course there were the milestone ones like 16, 18 and 21, but the last birthday I can remember that actually expanded my world was 25. When I was 25, you had to be at least 25 to be able to rent a car. I don\'t think I rushed out and rented a car, just as I didn\'t get a driver\'s license on my 16th birthday, register for the draft on my 18th or vote on my 21st. Back then ...\n\nAfter a while, though ...\n\n<em>Oh Lord, I\'m 30 ...</em>\n\n<em>Jeez, am I really 40?</em>\n\n<em>Can I possibly be 50?</em>\n\nAll birthdays were doing by that point was taking things away. It had been a long time since I could have been a prodigy, but I was long past young hotshot and well into grizzled veteran before I realized it.\n\nMost of that was my own fault. Instead of graduating from high school at age 17, going through college in four years and having wonderful memories of my alma mater, I did almost everything I could do to destroy my chance at a bright future. When I was 5 or 6 years old, adults told my mother what an amazing future I would have.\n\nI didn\'t do amazing, although I was lucky enough (the second time around) to marry into amazing. My lovely wife of 20 years -- going on 21 -- was a brilliant scientist and a wonderful person, and my two children -- who have everything of me except my DNA -- are both sky\'s-the-limit people who are succeeding beyond their years in the early part of their careers.\n\n<em>But am I really 60?</em>\n\n<em>61?</em>\n\n<em>62?</em>\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1826\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"199\" caption=\"Back in the day\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/20110222_1.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1826\" title=\"20110222_1\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/20110222_1-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nIf there is one thing that pisses me off more than anything, it is that 12 years ago, I had a job that I thought I would do until I was 75 years old. I was a newspaper columnist and a damn good one. I won awards every year and I was developing a big following. But after five years, a boss for whom I had absolutely no respect as a journalist decided that I wasn\'t going to be a columnist anymore. What I later learned that really infuriated me was that when our publisher asked him why I wasn\'t doing the column anymore, the jagoff lied and told him it had been my choice.\n\nWe received dozens of letters to the editor complaining, and they didn\'t run any of them.\n\nI really enjoyed being a sportswriter and sports columnist the first 16 years of my career, and I loved the five years I wrote a news column. I really thought I would do it as long as I was able. But my last seven years in the business were just a chore comparatively, and when budget cuts took away my job in 2008, I had already started counting the days till I could retire.\n\nI never once while I was growing up had a desire to own my own business, and I suppose I was naive to think that as long as I worked hard and did a good job, the people who signed my paychecks would treat me fairly.\n\nI doubt that I\'ll ever work for a paycheck again. I did earn a little money this year -- $1,300 playing fantasy baseball on the Internet and $250 in a writing contest on All Voices, where I have blogged for years -- but that\'s not much.\n\nI do have some good memories of at least a couple of my employers. The very best boss I ever had was the two years I worked as a sports editor and sports columnist at the <em>Greeley Tribune</em> in Colorado. Editor Ron Stewart was an absolute prince, but even if I hadn\'t been dumb enough to leave for a job in Reno, he moved on to Oregon himself soon after that.\n\nI\'m not in denial. I know there were times in my career when I slacked off -- or got burned out for a while -- and deserved punishment. But in the 18 years I spent working in Ontario, Calif., there were four different times I got, well, screwed.\n\n<em>Fool me once ...</em>\n\nI never intended to be retired when I was 58 years old, and it has taken me a long time to feel OK about it. I\'m not sure I\'m there yet, but with my wife\'s health problems, I can\'t leave her 40-50 hours a week to earn money that we don\'t need.\n\nI guess I\'m getting to the age when I\'ll feel OK about it.\n\n<em>Am I really 63?</em>\n\nFour more days, dude. Four more days.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','\'It\'s the most,','','inherit','open','open','','1823-revision-2','','','2012-12-07 20:11:50','2012-12-08 04:11:50','',1823,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1827',0,'revision','',0),(1828,1,'2012-12-09 19:54:07','2012-12-10 03:54:07','One of the political subjects on which I tend to write a great deal is the quest by conservatives to pass lower and lower taxes on the wealthiest among us.\r\n\r\nI have always been a strong believer in the progressive income tax, and I am convinced that it has been one of the major factors to the creation of the middle class in America. Between a progressive income tax and a meaningful estate tax, we have at least restricted the size of massive hereditary estates being handed down from generation to generation.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1829\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Darrell Issa\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Darrell_Issa-Reuters.jpeg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1829\" title=\"14469661_h16761485\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Darrell_Issa-Reuters-300x168.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nI don\'t have a bully pulpit anymore -- millions of people blog and most don\'t have more than a handful of readers -- so I write the occasional piece on All Voices and I snipe on Facebook. The other day I commented on a news story in which California Rep. Darrell Issa, who became fabulously wealthy selling car alarms, had suffered a loss of $100,000 in jewelry from his California home.\r\n\r\nNow on his financial disclosure forms in Congress, Issa has listed his net worth as somewhere between $135 million and $770 million, so $100,000 is probably about as much as he loses in his couch cushions in an average year. In fact, I pointed out, it probably would be fair to say that the average upper middle-class American probably has a worth somewhere between $135 thousand and $770 thousand; the same proportional loss for them would be $100.\r\n\r\nTo take it one step farther than I did the other day, a lower middle-class family may have a net worth somewhere between $13,500 and $77 thousand; their proportional loss would be $10.\r\n\r\nThat\'s right, ten dollars.\r\n\r\nSo I posted a comment on Facebook about how it might horrify 98 percent of the people in the country to be robbed of $100,000, it wasn\'t much more than an annoyance -- at least financially -- to Issa.\r\n\r\nSo my Facebook friend John Rummans, who seems like a really good guy even if he is a conservative Republican, responded to my post by saying, \"You really don\'t like wealthy people, do you?\"\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1830\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"150\" caption=\"The plutocrat\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/6a00d8341c4eab53ef0115709374f9970c-150wi.gif\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1830\" title=\"6a00d8341c4eab53ef0115709374f9970c-150wi\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/6a00d8341c4eab53ef0115709374f9970c-150wi.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"211\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nWell, there are plenty of rich people I don\'t like, but it isn\'t because they\'re rich. The people I dislike are folks who think they are better than other people<em> because</em> they\'re rich and who spend millions of dollars supporting politicians who will keep their taxes as low as possible. And to hell with the rest of the country.\r\n\r\nToo many rich people today are like 19th century robber baron Jay Gould, who once said he could hire half the working class to kill the other half, or like Cornelius Vanderbilt, who said \"The public be damned!\"\r\n\r\nMy favorite robber baron was steel mogul Andrew Carnegie, who said any man who didn\'t spend all his money on good works by the time he died had led a failed life. He built thousands of public libraries in American towns too small to afford their own.\r\n\r\n<!--more-->Carnegie was a forerunner to modern billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, both of whom support a progressive income tax, an estate tax and plan to give away most of their money by the time they die.\r\n\r\nI have always believed that America is at its best when people understand that we are all part of a family and that our country is only as successful as the weakest among us. Call it Socialism if you want, it isn\'t what I mean. When more of our wealth was locally owned, the rich guy in town might pay to build a community center, or a wing on the hospital, or athletic fields for kids. He cared because it was his town too, and while he might have lived in the very best house in town, it wasn\'t some obscene parody of a medieval castle.\r\n\r\nGuys like Donald Trump just wouldn\'t fit in.\r\n\r\nIronically, Sam Walton (the founder of Walmart) actually worked for many years building things. All his<a title=\"Richest Americans\" href=\"http://www.forbes.com/forbes-400/list/\"> four children</a> are doing is trying to eliminate the estate tax. They\'re four of the nine richest Americans, and they have a combined worth of about $110 billion, according to Forbes.\r\n\r\nYou\'re right, John. Those are wealthy people I don\'t like at all. Think of all the good that could be done by individuals worth at least $26 billion. These folks aren\'t Americans, they\'re citizens of the Almighty Dollar.\r\n\r\nOn the other hand, if Bill Gates asked me to contribute to one of his projects to help poor people, I would gladly write a check.\r\n\r\nYou see, some rich people make me proud to be an American.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','The rich are different, some good and some bad','','publish','open','open','','the-rich-are-different-some-good-and-some-bad','','','2012-12-09 19:54:07','2012-12-10 03:54:07','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1828',0,'post','',0),(1829,1,'2012-12-09 17:10:47','2012-12-10 01:10:47','','14469661_h16761485','Darrell Issa','inherit','open','open','','14469661_h16761485','','','2012-12-09 17:10:47','2012-12-10 01:10:47','',1828,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Darrell_Issa-Reuters.jpeg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1830,1,'2012-12-09 19:25:50','2012-12-10 03:25:50','','6a00d8341c4eab53ef0115709374f9970c-150wi','The plutocrat','inherit','open','open','','6a00d8341c4eab53ef0115709374f9970c-150wi','','','2012-12-09 19:25:50','2012-12-10 03:25:50','',1828,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/6a00d8341c4eab53ef0115709374f9970c-150wi.gif',0,'attachment','image/gif',0),(1831,1,'2012-12-09 19:42:06','2012-12-10 03:42:06','One of the political subjects on which I tend to write a great deal is the quest by conservatives to pass lower and lower taxes on the wealthiest among us.\n\nI have always been a strong believer in the progressive income tax, and I am convinced that it has been one of the major factors to the creation of the middle class in America. Between a progressive income tax and a meaningful estate tax, we have at least restricted the size of massive hereditary estates being handed down from generation to generation.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1829\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Darrell Issa\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Darrell_Issa-Reuters.jpeg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1829\" title=\"14469661_h16761485\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Darrell_Issa-Reuters-300x168.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nI don\'t have a bully pulpit anymore -- millions of people blog and most don\'t have more than a handful of readers -- so I write the occasional piece on All Voices and I snipe on Facebook. The other day I commented on a news story in which California Rep. Darrell Issa, who became fabulously wealthy selling car alarms, had suffered a loss of $100,000 in jewelry from his California home.\n\nNow on his financial disclosure forms in Congress, Issa has listed his net worth as somewhere between $135 million and $770 million, so $100,000 is probably about as much as he loses in his couch cushions in an average year. In fact, I pointed out, it probably would be fair to say that the average upper middle-class American probably has a worth somewhere between $135 thousand and $770 thousand; the same proportional loss for them would be $100.\n\nTo take it one step farther than I did the other day, a lower middle-class family may have a net worth somewhere between $13,500 and $77 thousand; their proportional loss would be $10.\n\nThat\'s right, ten dollars.\n\nSo I posted a comment on Facebook about how it might horrify 98 percent of the people in the country to be robbed of $100,000, it wasn\'t much more than an annoyance -- at least financially -- to Issa.\n\nSo my Facebook friend John Rummans, who seems like a really good guy even if he is a conservative Republican, responded to my post by saying, \"You really don\'t like wealthy people, do you?\"\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1830\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"150\" caption=\"The plutocrat\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/6a00d8341c4eab53ef0115709374f9970c-150wi.gif\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1830\" title=\"6a00d8341c4eab53ef0115709374f9970c-150wi\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/6a00d8341c4eab53ef0115709374f9970c-150wi.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"211\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nWell, there are plenty of rich people I don\'t like, but it isn\'t because they\'re rich. The people I dislike are folks who think they are better than other people<em> because</em> they\'re rich and who spend millions of dollars supporting politicians who will keep their taxes as low as possible. And to hell with the rest of the country.\n\nToo many rich people today are like 19th century robber baron Jay Gould, who once said he could hire half the working class to kill the other half, or like Cornelius Vanderbilt, who said \"The public be damned!\"\n\nMy favorite robber baron was steel mogul Andrew Carnegie, who said any man who didn\'t spend all his money on good works by the time he died had led a failed life. He built thousands of public libraries in American towns too small to afford their own.\n\n<!--more-->Carnegie was a forerunner to modern billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, both of whom support a progressive income tax, an estate tax and plan to give away most of their money by the time they die.\n\nI have always believed that America is at its best when people understand that we are all part of a family and that our country is only as successful as the weakest among us. Call it Socialism if you want, it isn\'t what I mean. When more of our wealth was l\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1828-revision','','','2012-12-09 19:42:06','2012-12-10 03:42:06','',1828,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1831',0,'revision','',0),(1832,1,'2012-12-09 19:53:24','2012-12-10 03:53:24','One of the political subjects on which I tend to write a great deal is the quest by conservatives to pass lower and lower taxes on the wealthiest among us.\n\nI have always been a strong believer in the progressive income tax, and I am convinced that it has been one of the major factors to the creation of the middle class in America. Between a progressive income tax and a meaningful estate tax, we have at least restricted the size of massive hereditary estates being handed down from generation to generation.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1829\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Darrell Issa\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Darrell_Issa-Reuters.jpeg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1829\" title=\"14469661_h16761485\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Darrell_Issa-Reuters-300x168.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nI don\'t have a bully pulpit anymore -- millions of people blog and most don\'t have more than a handful of readers -- so I write the occasional piece on All Voices and I snipe on Facebook. The other day I commented on a news story in which California Rep. Darrell Issa, who became fabulously wealthy selling car alarms, had suffered a loss of $100,000 in jewelry from his California home.\n\nNow on his financial disclosure forms in Congress, Issa has listed his net worth as somewhere between $135 million and $770 million, so $100,000 is probably about as much as he loses in his couch cushions in an average year. In fact, I pointed out, it probably would be fair to say that the average upper middle-class American probably has a worth somewhere between $135 thousand and $770 thousand; the same proportional loss for them would be $100.\n\nTo take it one step farther than I did the other day, a lower middle-class family may have a net worth somewhere between $13,500 and $77 thousand; their proportional loss would be $10.\n\nThat\'s right, ten dollars.\n\nSo I posted a comment on Facebook about how it might horrify 98 percent of the people in the country to be robbed of $100,000, it wasn\'t much more than an annoyance -- at least financially -- to Issa.\n\nSo my Facebook friend John Rummans, who seems like a really good guy even if he is a conservative Republican, responded to my post by saying, \"You really don\'t like wealthy people, do you?\"\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1830\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"150\" caption=\"The plutocrat\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/6a00d8341c4eab53ef0115709374f9970c-150wi.gif\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1830\" title=\"6a00d8341c4eab53ef0115709374f9970c-150wi\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/6a00d8341c4eab53ef0115709374f9970c-150wi.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"211\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nWell, there are plenty of rich people I don\'t like, but it isn\'t because they\'re rich. The people I dislike are folks who think they are better than other people<em> because</em> they\'re rich and who spend millions of dollars supporting politicians who will keep their taxes as low as possible. And to hell with the rest of the country.\n\nToo many rich people today are like 19th century robber baron Jay Gould, who once said he could hire half the working class to kill the other half, or like Cornelius Vanderbilt, who said \"The public be damned!\"\n\nMy favorite robber baron was steel mogul Andrew Carnegie, who said any man who didn\'t spend all his money on good works by the time he died had led a failed life. He built thousands of public libraries in American towns too small to afford their own.\n\n<!--more-->Carnegie was a forerunner to modern billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, both of whom support a progressive income tax, an estate tax and plan to give away most of their money by the time they die.\n\nI have always believed that America is at its best when people understand that we are all part of a family and that our country is only as successful as the weakest among us. Call it Socialism if you want, it isn\'t what I mean. When more of our wealth was locally owned, the rich guy in town might pay to build a community center, or a wing on the hospital, or athletic fields for kids. He cared because it was his town too, and while he might have lived in the very best house in town, it wasn\'t some obscene parody of a medieval castle.\n\nGuys like Donald Trump just wouldn\'t fit in.\n\nIronically, Sam Walton (the founder of Walmart) actually worked for many years building things. All his<a title=\"Richest Americans\" href=\"http://www.forbes.com/forbes-400/list/\"> four children</a> are doing is trying to eliminate the estate tax. They\'re four of the nine richest Americans, and they have a combined worth of about $110 billion, according to Forbes.\n\nYou\'re right, John. Those are wealthy people I don\'t like at all. Think of all the good that could be done by individuals worth at least $26 billion. These folks aren\'t Americans, they\'re citizens of the Almighty Dollar.\n\nOn the other hand, if Bill Gates asked me to contribute to one of his projects to help poor people, I would gladly write a check.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1828-revision-2','','','2012-12-09 19:53:24','2012-12-10 03:53:24','',1828,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1832',0,'revision','',0),(1846,1,'2012-12-18 20:03:35','2012-12-19 04:03:35','My grandmother was born in 1895, and we used to talk about all the amazing changes that had occurred during her life.\r\n\r\nThere is no way my own life -- even if I do live to be 94 -- will have the same level of changes hers did. When she was born, most Americans lived on farms without electricity or indoor plumbing. They used horses and buggies for short trips and coal-powered trains for long trips. No one yet flew, and there was no penicillin for infections. There were no motion pictures, television or even radio.\r\n\r\nWhat didn\'t we have when I was born in 1949? I don\'t need to go into most of them, but I will mention one thing.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1847\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"iTunes\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/itunes-logo.png\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1847\" title=\"itunes-logo\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/itunes-logo-300x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nWe didn\'t have iTunes.\r\n\r\nThat might not sound like a big deal, but there are several ways in which it is just <em>huge</em> for people who love music. In the late 1970s, when the size of my record collection peaked, I had about 600 record albums. If you figure an average of about 11 songs per album, that means I had about 6,600 songs.\r\n\r\nAs I started moving around the country in the \'80s, my collection got smaller and music became something to be listened to on the radio.\r\n\r\nI had switched first to cassettes and later to CDs, but they took up space too. A few years back, I noticed that my daughter and my son had both started saving their music on their computer hard drives.\r\n\r\n<!--more-->I was reluctant at first, just as I was reluctant to get rid of books I really liked and store them on my Nook.\r\n\r\nBut about 2 1/2 years ago, I transferred almost all my CDs onto my computer hard drive and got rid of the CDs themselves. Even though I\'ve always been a PC guy, I found that Apple\'s iTunes was far and away the best way to store my music.\r\n\r\nI also discovered the iTunes store, and I have the most amazingly eclectic collection of music you could imagine. Except for hip hop, which isn\'t really aimed at retired white guys, I\'ve got everything from ABBA to (Warren) Zevon. I\'ve got albums in French (dozens of them), Spanish, Portugese, Italian and German. I\'ve got Sousa marches, Broadway shows and movie soundtracks, dozens of comedy albums and about a hundred audiobooks.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1849\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"220\" caption=\"Dennis Day\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Dennis_Day_1960.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1849\" title=\"Dennis_Day_1960\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Dennis_Day_1960.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"220\" height=\"292\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nOne thing that has been fun for me is finding albums that have to be out of print that my parents owned and played when I was a little kid -- Harry Belafonte, Pete Seeger, Harry Lauder, Maurice Chevalier. With Christmas just around the corner, I found myself looking on iTunes for an album my mother always loved. Dennis Day was an Irish tenor who sang for 35 years on the Jack Benny Show. In 1957, he came out with an album called \"Christmas is for the Family.\"\r\n\r\nEvery year for the rest of my childhood, we listened to that album. Tonight I found it, purchased it and downloaded it. It had a partental guidance label on it unlike any I have ever seen. I download comedy albums that say \"EXPLICIT.\" This wonderful old album, first recorded and sold 55 years ago, says \"CLEAN.\"\r\n\r\nIsn\'t that wonderful?\r\n\r\nThere are plenty of Christmas songs I love, from Alabama\'s \"Christmas in Dixie\" to Jim Croce\'s \"It Doesn\'t Have to be This Way\" to plenty of the old traditional ones. My true favorite is \"O Holy Night,\" which actually is also on the Dennis Day album.\r\n\r\nBut it is so wonderful to be able to hear a song that meant so much to my family for so long.\r\n\r\nThanks, iTunes.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','So beautiful to find wonderful old songs on iTunes','','publish','open','open','','so-beautiful-to-find-wonderful-old-songs-on-itunes','','','2012-12-18 20:03:35','2012-12-19 04:03:35','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1846',0,'post','',0),(1835,1,'2012-12-15 19:55:42','2012-12-16 03:55:42','','article-vicki-soto-2-1215-web','First-grade teacher Vicki Soto','inherit','open','open','','article-vicki-soto-2-1215-web','','','2012-12-15 19:55:42','2012-12-16 03:55:42','',1834,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/article-vicki-soto-2-1215-web.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1836,1,'2012-12-15 20:06:25','2012-12-16 04:06:25','It\'s tough enough being a kid when all you have to worry about is other kids.\n\nWhen my son was in second grade, he was getting bullied by a couple of kids a year or two older. Rather than complaining, he found a tiny little penknife that he had bought as a souvenir at the Roy Rogers Museum in Victorville, California. The blade was less than an inch long, and he would never have stabbed anyone with it. But he thought if he showed these kids he had the knife, they would leave him alone.\n\nI didn\'t find out about it until the school called to tell me my son had brought a knife to school. I didn\'t argue with them, although I probably could have pointed out that it was so small and the blade so dull that I probably could have swallowed it and had it pass through my entire digestive system without doing any damage. I told them I would talk to him, and he made it through the rest of his school years without taking a weapon to school.\n\n<!--more-->He was a good kid, and very well adjusted. There were times I found myself wondering about kids who were less well adjusted, or who had parents who weren\'t involved in their children\'s lives. The year my son was in eighth grade, two misfits in Colorado went on a shooting spree at Columbine High School. Reading -- and writing -- about that was almost too much to bear.\n\nMy son is an adult now, but the shootings continue and every time a new one comes along, we become more cowardly. We allow the craziest among us -- the ones who think the government will come to get them if they don\'t have enough military-style weaponry -- to keep us from placing sensible restrictions on gun ownership. There\'s nothing in the Constitution that says we can\'t use licensing, registrations and background checks to make sure we can\'t keep criminals and the mentally ill from buying guns, but the National Rifle Association says it isn\'t fair to inconvenience legal gun owners.\n\n<em>Inconvenience?</em>\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1835\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"First-grade teacher Vicki Soto\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/article-vicki-soto-2-1215-web.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1835\" title=\"article-vicki-soto-2-1215-web\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/article-vicki-soto-2-1215-web-300x210.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"210\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nDo you think the people who were killed the other day in Newtown, Conn., were<em> inconvenienced?</em>\n\nChildren -- all of them either 6 or 7 years old -- made up most of the list of people killed when another misfit loser who just happened to be able to get his hands on a semi-automatic assault rifle and kill 27 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School. He didn\'t have any connection with the school; he just went looking for victims -- and apparent fame.\n\nI won\'t mention his name.\n\nThe only person who deserves fame from this is one of the victims. First-grade teacher Vicki Soto, a lovely 27-year-old, got her students to hide in a closet. When the shooter came to her classroom, she said her students were in the gym. He shot her dead, but then moved on and all the children in her class survived.\n\nWhere do we go from here?\n\nAre we really so frightened of the pathetic losers who make up the NRA that we can\'t try to reinstate the ban on assault weapons that passed during the Clinton Administration and expired while Gee Dubya was president?\n\nI\'m really tired of the talk about how sacred the Second Amendment is.\n\nIf there is one thing the Founding Fathers never expected the Constitution to be, it\'s a suicide pact.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','Stand up to the gun nuts and take reasonable steps','','inherit','open','open','','1834-revision','','','2012-12-15 20:06:25','2012-12-16 04:06:25','',1834,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1836',0,'revision','',0),(1838,1,'2012-12-16 19:08:55','2012-12-17 03:08:55','It seems like one thing we could use a lot more of in this country is common sense.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/common-sense.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1839\" title=\"Posted @ Funny-Picks.com\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/common-sense-300x268.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"268\" /></a>As we approach the end of a pretty nasty year, with 20 little kids murdered at school in Connecticut, our politicians in Washington are trying to find a way to extend the longest, stupidest spree our government has ever been on. For the last 12 years, we have been spending too much and taxing too little, and all we have really done is totally destroy people\'s confidence that elected officials could possible be concerned with anything more than perpetuating their careers.\r\n\r\nWhen Bill Clinton left office in January 2001, if we hadn\'t exactly solved our deficit and debt problems, we at least seemed to be on the right track. We had a federal budget that was at least technically in surplus and it looked as if we would be able to pay down the national debt.\r\n\r\nThen we lost our common sense.\r\n\r\nGeorge W. Bush came into office and said that if we have these surpluses, it means people are paying too much in taxes and we need to cut the rates to give money back to them.\r\n\r\nThe emperor had no clothes, but nobody would listen.\r\n\r\n<!--more-->Let\'s put this in terms of a family\'s budget:\r\n\r\nFor 10 years, you\'re forced to live beyond your means. You run up debts of $50,000. But in the 11th year, you finally reach a point where you\'re making enough money that you don\'t have to go any deeper into debt. You even have $5,000 extra a year to reduce those debts. The heck with that, you say. I\'m going to Hawaii. So you don\'t pay your debts down, and when your situation worsens a few years later, your debts just keep getting bigger and bigger.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/123853_600.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1840\" title=\"123853_600\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/123853_600-235x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"235\" height=\"300\" /></a>I want to try and write this without blaming either side, even though most of you know where I stand. Despite the fact that our tax burden is the lowest it has been in more than 80 years, Republicans say we don\'t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem. And even though our deficit and the overall debt are at horrific levels, Democrats seem to think all we need to do is raise taxes on the rich and we\'ll be all right.\r\n\r\nThey\'re both wrong, but that doesn\'t mean the answer is way off on the left or right. The answer is in the middle.\r\n\r\nRaise taxes some, cut spending some. Do it delicately because the economy is still in bad shape. But make it transparent enough and clear enough that people see that nobody is getting a sweet deal or a free ride.\r\n\r\nI just received a notification that my Social Security checks will go up by about 1.7 percent next year. To me that means $21 more a month. I certainly can\'t speak for all beneficiaries -- Social Security is only a small part of my family income -- but I know I would forgo that $252 a year if it helped balance the federal budget and ultimately reduce the debt.\r\n\r\nCommon sense? Maybe. It sure seems sensible to consider the fact that we spend as much on our military as nearly everyone else in the world combined. Some cuts in spending there wouldn\'t hurt. And what about the billions in subsidies that we give to oil companies that are making record profits? That doesn\'t seem sensible.\r\n\r\nSadly, some of the best ways to save money are politically controversial. We spend twice as much per capita on health care as Western Europe and Canada and they get better results than we do. There\'s just no reason for the hundreds of billions of dollars we as consumers spend on insurance companies.\r\n\r\nIt always seemed to me that a good rule of thumb would be that things we don\'t need -- luxuries -- should be subject to the profit motive, but things that we absolutely need -- like health care -- should not be something off which people make money.\r\n\r\nOf course, there you\'re talking about redoing the whole economy. That\'s much more of a long-term idea. In the short run, though, the one thing we ought to demand from our politicians is common sense.\r\n\r\nRepublicans, taxes are going to have to go up on the rich.\r\n\r\nDemocrats, we have to take a look at reining in entitlements.\r\n\r\nIt\'s only common sense, but we\'re going to demand that of you.\r\n\r\nOtherwise, things will get ugly.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Time to demand common sense from our politicians','','publish','open','open','','time-to-demand-common-sense-from-our-politicians','','','2012-12-16 19:08:55','2012-12-17 03:08:55','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1838',0,'post','',0),(1839,1,'2012-12-16 18:45:12','2012-12-17 02:45:12','','Posted @ Funny-Picks.com','','inherit','open','open','','posted-funny-picks-com','','','2012-12-16 18:45:12','2012-12-17 02:45:12','',1838,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/common-sense.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1840,1,'2012-12-16 18:55:36','2012-12-17 02:55:36','','123853_600','','inherit','open','open','','123853_600','','','2012-12-16 18:55:36','2012-12-17 02:55:36','',1838,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/123853_600.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1841,1,'2012-12-16 19:08:42','2012-12-17 03:08:42','It seems like one thing we could use a lot more of in this country is common sense.\n\n<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/common-sense.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1839\" title=\"Posted @ Funny-Picks.com\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/common-sense-300x268.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"268\" /></a>As we approach the end of a pretty nasty year, with 20 little kids murdered at school in Connecticut, our politicians in Washington are trying to find a way to extend the longest, stupidest spree our government has ever been on. For the last 12 years, we have been spending too much and taxing too little, and all we have really done is totally destroy people\'s confidence that elected officials could possible be concerned with anything more than perpetuating their careers.\n\nWhen Bill Clinton left office in January 2001, if we hadn\'t exactly solved our deficit and debt problems, we at least seemed to be on the right track. We had a federal budget that was at least technically in surplus and it looked as if we would be able to pay down the national debt.\n\nThen we lost our common sense.\n\nGeorge W. Bush came into office and said that if we have these surpluses, it means people are paying too much in taxes and we need to cut the rates to give money back to them.\n\nThe emperor had no clothes, but nobody would listen.\n\n<!--more-->Let\'s put this in terms of a family\'s budget:\n\nFor 10 years, you\'re forced to live beyond your means. You run up debts of $50,000. But in the 11th year, you finally reach a point where you\'re making enough money that you don\'t have to go any deeper into debt. You even have $5,000 extra a year to reduce those debts. The heck with that, you say. I\'m going to Hawaii. So you don\'t pay your debts down, and when your situation worsens a few years later, your debts just keep getting bigger and bigger.\n\n<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/123853_600.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1840\" title=\"123853_600\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/123853_600-235x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"235\" height=\"300\" /></a>I want to try and write this without blaming either side, even though most of you know where I stand. Despite the fact that our tax burden is the lowest it has been in more than 80 years, Republicans say we don\'t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem. And even though our deficit and the overall debt are at horrific levels, Democrats seem to think all we need to do is raise taxes on the rich and we\'ll be all right.\n\nThey\'re both wrong, but that doesn\'t mean the answer is way off on the left or right. The answer is in the middle.\n\nRaise taxes some, cut spending some. Do it delicately because the economy is still in bad shape. But make it transparent enough and clear enough that people see that nobody is getting a sweet deal or a free ride.\n\nI just received a notification that my Social Security checks will go up by about 1.7 percent next year. To me that means $21 more a month. I certainly can\'t speak for all beneficiaries -- Social Security is only a small part of my family income -- but I know I would forgo that $252 a year if it helped balance the federal budget and ultimately reduce the debt.\n\nCommon sense? Maybe. It sure seems sensible to consider the fact that we spend as much on our military as nearly everyone else in the world combined. Some cuts in spending there wouldn\'t hurt. And what about the billions in subsidies that we give to oil companies that are making record profits? That doesn\'t seem sensible.\n\nSadly, some of the best ways to save money are politically controversial. We spend twice as much per capita on health care as Western Europe and Canada and they get better results than we do. There\'s just no reason for the hundreds of billions of dollars we as consumers spend on insurance companies.\n\nIt always seemed to me that a good rule of thumb would be that things we don\'t need -- luxuries -- should be subject to the profit motive, but things that we absolutely need -- like health care -- should not be something off which people make money.\n\nOf course, there you\'re talking about redoing the whole economy. That\'s much more of a long-term idea. In the short run, though, the one thing we ought to demand from our politicians is common sense.\n\nRepublicans, taxes are going to have to go up on the rich.\n\nDemocrats, we have to take a look at reining in entitlements.\n\nIt\'s only common sense, but we\'re going to demand that of you.\n\nOtherwise, things will get ugly.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','Time to demand common sense from our politicians','','inherit','open','open','','1838-revision','','','2012-12-16 19:08:42','2012-12-17 03:08:42','',1838,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1841',0,'revision','',0),(1842,1,'2012-12-17 20:32:28','2012-12-18 04:32:28','The truth isn\'t always simple, especially when people look for answers as to why something terrible happened.\r\n\r\nWhen the news came from Newtown, Conn., that a shooter had murdered 26 people -- 20 of them small children -- and then had taken his own life, people had lots of answers. Depending on their own personal agendas, the answers ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous. Former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said it happened because we had taken God out of our schools, but<a title=\"Mike Huckabee\" href=\"http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/17/mike-huckabee-sandy-hook_n_2315340.html\"> he backed off some</a> from that when people started asking him if he meant God had been responsible for the death of 20 6- and 7-year-olds.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/476567_509542165744160_154535176_o.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1843\" title=\"476567_509542165744160_154535176_o\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/476567_509542165744160_154535176_o-300x235.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"235\" /></a>Liberals are blaming guns, conservatives are blaming everything except guns and some folks are even blaming the mental health system.\r\n\r\nI love the ones who try to blow off responsibility completely by running some ancient quote from Ronald Reagan that when a crime is committed, it is the fault of the individual who committed it and not society overall. The irony there is that it was during Reagan\'s administration that the mental health system got decimated.\r\n\r\nThat was also the period when the National Rifle Association became one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington, and when the culture seemed to fall off a cliff.\r\n\r\n<!--more-->So while I\'m not saying Reagan is to blame for this, an awful lot of what is wrong with our country today had its genesis in the 1980s. For one thing, that was the decade that a lot of groups started preparing either for Russian invasions, the Biblical apocalypse or all sorts of other disasters that started stockpiling weapons.\r\n\r\nThat was the decade that James Watt, the only Secretary of the Interior who seemed actually to <em>hate</em> the environment, was quoted as saying we didn\'t need to protect the environment because Jesus was going to return and take care of everything <em>during our lifetime</em>.\r\n\r\nYeah, he really said that.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/05-REAGAN-thatcher-inside.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1844\" title=\"05-REAGAN-thatcher-inside\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/05-REAGAN-thatcher-inside.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"180\" /></a>Somebody more important actually said something far worse. Reagan\'s friend and inspiration, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, probably stood even farther to the right than he did. Thatcher actually argued that there were no such things as communities, that there were only individuals and families. In other words, you\'re on your own.\r\n\r\nAnd of course, if you\'re on your own, you need guns to protect yourself from everything bad out there.\r\n\r\nOne of the horrific ironies of the Newtown shootings is that the shooter\'s mother was something of a survivalist herself and had not only purchased the military-grade weapon her son used but had taught him to shoot it.\r\n\r\nShe was his first victim.\r\n\r\nYes, the causes of something like this can be complex. Clearly we have to do a better job of identifying those who because of mental illness may be dangerous to themselves and others. Yes, our culture can best be described as toxic. The high levels of blood and gore, violence and mayhem, desensitize us in a way that is tragic. But other countries watch our movies and play our video games and they don\'t have this problem.\r\n\r\nIn the end, if it isn\'t the only cause, clearly the easy availability of weaponry is the major problem we face. We need to stand up to the NRA and ask them if they really believe we shouldn\'t have background checks at the point of sale because they <em>inconvenience</em> legitimate buyers.\r\n\r\nI\'ll tell you what. Anybody who wouldn\'t undergo a little inconvenience if it made it harder for criminals, lunatics and even terrorists to get guns, well, he\'s part of the problem and not the solution.\r\n\r\nCan we just agree to do smart things?\r\n\r\nSensible things?\r\n\r\nThings like agreeing that if we can do anything at all, we can try to protect our children?\r\n\r\nIt would be a good start.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Problems not simple, but they\'re not insoluble either','','publish','open','open','','problems-not-simple-but-theyre-not-insoluble-either','','','2012-12-17 20:32:28','2012-12-18 04:32:28','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1842',0,'post','',0),(1843,1,'2012-12-17 19:23:46','2012-12-18 03:23:46','','476567_509542165744160_154535176_o','','inherit','open','open','','476567_509542165744160_154535176_o','','','2012-12-17 19:23:46','2012-12-18 03:23:46','',1842,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/476567_509542165744160_154535176_o.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1844,1,'2012-12-17 20:21:55','2012-12-18 04:21:55','','05-REAGAN-thatcher-inside','','inherit','open','open','','05-reagan-thatcher-inside','','','2012-12-17 20:21:55','2012-12-18 04:21:55','',1842,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/05-REAGAN-thatcher-inside.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1845,1,'2012-12-17 20:32:00','2012-12-18 04:32:00','The truth isn\'t always simple, especially when people look for answers as to why something terrible happened.\n\nWhen the news came from Newtown, Conn., that a shooter had murdered 26 people -- 20 of them small children -- and then had taken his own life, people had lots of answers. Depending on their own personal agendas, the answers ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous. Former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said it happened because we had taken God out of our schools, but<a title=\"Mike Huckabee\" href=\"http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/17/mike-huckabee-sandy-hook_n_2315340.html\"> he backed off some</a> from that when people started asking him if he meant God had been responsible for the death of 20 6- and 7-year-olds.\n\n<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/476567_509542165744160_154535176_o.jpg\"><img class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1843\" title=\"476567_509542165744160_154535176_o\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/476567_509542165744160_154535176_o-300x235.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"235\" /></a>Liberals are blaming guns, conservatives are blaming everything except guns and some folks are even blaming the mental health system.\n\nI love the ones who try to blow off responsibility completely by running some ancient quote from Ronald Reagan that when a crime is committed, it is the fault of the individual who committed it and not society overall. The irony there is that it was during Reagan\'s administration that the mental health system got decimated.\n\nThat was also the period when the National Rifle Association became one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington, and when the culture seemed to fall off a cliff.\n\n<!--more-->So while I\'m not saying Reagan is to blame for this, an awful lot of what is wrong with our country today had its genesis in the 1980s. For one thing, that was the decade that a lot of groups started preparing either for Russian invasions, the Biblical apocalypse or all sorts of other disasters that started stockpiling weapons.\n\nThat was the decade that James Watt, the only Secretary of the Interior who seemed actually to <em>hate</em> the environment, was quoted as saying we didn\'t need to protect the environment because Jesus was going to return and take care of everything <em>during our lifetime</em>.\n\nYeah, he really said that.\n\n<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/05-REAGAN-thatcher-inside.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1844\" title=\"05-REAGAN-thatcher-inside\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/05-REAGAN-thatcher-inside.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"180\" /></a>Somebody more important actually said something far worse. Reagan\'s friend and inspiration, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, probably stood even farther to the right than he did. Thatcher actually argued that there were no such things as communities, that there were only individuals and families. In other words, you\'re on your own.\n\nAnd of course, if you\'re on your own, you need guns to protect yourself from everything bad out there.\n\nOne of the horrific ironies of the Newtown shootings is that the shooter\'s mother was something of a survivalist herself and had not only purchased the military-grade weapon her son used but had taught him to shoot it.\n\nShe was his first victim.\n\nYes, the causes of something like this can be complex. Clearly we have to do a better job of identifying those who because of mental illness may be dangerous to themselves and others. Yes, our culture can best be described as toxic. The high levels of blood and gore, violence and mayhem, desensitize us in a way that is tragic. But other countries watch our movies and play our video games and they don\'t have this problem.\n\nIn the end, if it isn\'t the only cause, clearly the easy availability of weaponry is the major problem we face. We need to stand up to the NRA and ask them if they really believe we shouldn\'t have background checks at the point of sale because they <em>inconvenience</em> legitimate buyers.\n\nI\'ll tell you what. Anybody who wouldn\'t undergo a little inconvenience if it made it harder for criminals, lunatics and even terrorists to get guns, well, he\'s part of the problem and not the solution.\n\nCan we just agree to do smart things?\n\nSensible things?\n\nThings like agreeing that if we can do anything at all, we can try to protect our children?\n\nIt would be a good start.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1842-revision','','','2012-12-17 20:32:00','2012-12-18 04:32:00','',1842,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1845',0,'revision','',0),(1847,1,'2012-12-18 18:28:13','2012-12-19 02:28:13','','itunes-logo','iTunes','inherit','open','open','','itunes-logo','','','2012-12-18 18:28:13','2012-12-19 02:28:13','',1846,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/itunes-logo.png',0,'attachment','image/png',0),(1848,1,'2012-12-18 19:00:49','2012-12-19 03:00:49','My grandmother was born in 1895, and we used to talk about all the amazing changes that had occurred during her life.\n\nThere is no way my own life -- even if I do live to be 94 -- will have the same level of changes hers did. When she was born, most Americans lived on farms without electricity or indoor plumbing. They used horses and buggies for short trips and coal-powered trains for long trips. No one yet flew, and there was no penicillin for infections. There were no motion pictures, television or even radio.\n\nWhat didn\'t we have when I was born in 1949? I don\'t need to go into most of them, but I will mention one thing.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1847\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"iTunes\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/itunes-logo.png\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1847\" title=\"itunes-logo\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/itunes-logo-300x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nWe didn\'t have iTunes.\n\nThat might not sound like a big deal, but there are several ways in which it is just <em>huge</em> for people who love music. In the late 1970s, when the size of my record collection peaked, I had about 600 record albums. If you figure an average of about 11 songs per album, that means I had about 6,600 songs.\n\nAs I started moving around the country in the \'80s, my collection got smaller and music became something to be listened to on the radio.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1846-revision','','','2012-12-18 19:00:49','2012-12-19 03:00:49','',1846,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1848',0,'revision','',0),(1849,1,'2012-12-18 19:56:18','2012-12-19 03:56:18','','Dennis_Day_1960','Dennis Day','inherit','open','open','','dennis_day_1960','','','2012-12-18 19:56:18','2012-12-19 03:56:18','',1846,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Dennis_Day_1960.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1850,1,'2012-12-18 20:03:31','2012-12-19 04:03:31','My grandmother was born in 1895, and we used to talk about all the amazing changes that had occurred during her life.\n\nThere is no way my own life -- even if I do live to be 94 -- will have the same level of changes hers did. When she was born, most Americans lived on farms without electricity or indoor plumbing. They used horses and buggies for short trips and coal-powered trains for long trips. No one yet flew, and there was no penicillin for infections. There were no motion pictures, television or even radio.\n\nWhat didn\'t we have when I was born in 1949? I don\'t need to go into most of them, but I will mention one thing.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1847\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"iTunes\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/itunes-logo.png\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1847\" title=\"itunes-logo\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/itunes-logo-300x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nWe didn\'t have iTunes.\n\nThat might not sound like a big deal, but there are several ways in which it is just <em>huge</em> for people who love music. In the late 1970s, when the size of my record collection peaked, I had about 600 record albums. If you figure an average of about 11 songs per album, that means I had about 6,600 songs.\n\nAs I started moving around the country in the \'80s, my collection got smaller and music became something to be listened to on the radio.\n\nI had switched first to cassettes and later to CDs, but they took up space too. A few years back, I noticed that my daughter and my son had both started saving their music on their computer hard drives.\n\n<!--more-->I was reluctant at first, just as I was reluctant to get rid of books I really liked and store them on my Nook.\n\nBut about 2 1/2 years ago, I transferred almost all my CDs onto my computer hard drive and got rid of the CDs themselves. Even though I\'ve always been a PC guy, I found that Apple\'s iTunes was far and away the best way to store my music.\n\nI also discovered the iTunes store, and I have the most amazingly eclectic collection of music you could imagine. Except for hip hop, which isn\'t really aimed at retired white guys, I\'ve got everything from ABBA to (Warren) Zevon. I\'ve got albums in French (dozens of them), Spanish, Portugese, Italian and German. I\'ve got Sousa marches, Broadway shows and movie soundtracks, dozens of comedy albums and about a hundred audiobooks.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1849\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"220\" caption=\"Dennis Day\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Dennis_Day_1960.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1849\" title=\"Dennis_Day_1960\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Dennis_Day_1960.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"220\" height=\"292\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nOne thing that has been fun for me is finding albums that have to be out of print that my parents owned and played when I was a little kid -- Harry Belafonte, Pete Seeger, Harry Lauder, Maurice Chevalier. With Christmas just around the corner, I found myself looking on iTunes for an album my mother always loved. Dennis Day was an Irish tenor who sang for 35 years on the Jack Benny Show. In 1957, he came out with an album called \"Christmas is for the Family.\"\n\nEvery year for the rest of my childhood, we listened to that album. Tonight I found it, purchased it and downloaded it. It had a partental guidance label on it unlike any I have ever seen. I download comedy albums that say \"EXPLICIT.\" This wonderful old album, first recorded and sold 55 years ago, says \"CLEAN.\"\n\nIsn\'t that wonderful?\n\nThere are plenty of Christmas songs I love, from Alabama\'s \"Christmas in Dixie\" to Jim Croce\'s \"It Doesn\'t Have to be This Way\" to plenty of the old traditional ones. My true favorite is \"O Holy Night,\" which actually is also on the Dennis Day album.\n\nBut it is so wonderful to be able to hear a song that meant so much to my family for so long.\n\nThanks, iTunes.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','So beautiful to find wonderful old songs on iTunes','','inherit','open','open','','1846-revision-2','','','2012-12-18 20:03:31','2012-12-19 04:03:31','',1846,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1850',0,'revision','',0),(1853,1,'2012-12-23 13:22:14','2012-12-23 21:22:14','In Friday\'s Washington Post, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) writes of the <a title=\"Joe Manchin op-ed\" href=\"http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/sen-joe-manchin-between-obama-and-the-nra-another-path-to-stopping-mass-violence/2012/12/21/181d4e94-4adc-11e2-9a42-d1ce6d0ed278_story.html?hpid=z4\">comprehensive approach</a> that must be taken to solve the problems that we as Americans have with gun violence. He suggests that any approach that only targets guns and gun owners and ignores mental health and our violence-soaked culture is doomed to fail.\r\n\r\nI tend to agree, but I think the problem lies much deeper -- and is much more difficult to solve -- than anyone is saying.\r\n\r\nLet me illustrate what I want to discuss with an anecdote. Back about 1998, when a lot of people with home computers were switching first to DSL and then to cable modems, my wife and I were still using dial-up Internet at home. Our modem was pretty good for the time -- 57,600 baud -- especially considering the fact that the first modem I ever used as a journalist was 300 baud. My 500-word stories to five minutes to send to my newsroom. Of course, that was 1980. Still, it made me appreciate 57,600.\r\n\r\nMy son didn\'t have that experience, so all I heard from him was how deathly slow our modem was.\r\n\r\nAnd that is the root of our problem. Most of us know that Marshall McLuhan said \"the medium is the message,\" but how many people understand what McLuhan meant by that? McLuhan wasn\'t much concerned with whether people chose to watch \"Masterpiece Theatre\" or \"Gilligan\'s Island.\" He knew that within reason, it didn\'t matter what you watched. What mattered is that watching did to your brain.\r\n\r\nIn his wonderful book \"The Shallows\" (we\'ll get to it in a minute), Nicholas Carr wrote that McLuhan understood media aren\'t just channels of information. \"They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought.\" Numerous studies have shown that watching large amounts of television affects our brains in a way almost nothing else does -- it makes us more passive. We sit in the dark and absorb information without having to think about it at all.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/images-1.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1855\" title=\"images (1)\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/images-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"225\" /></a><a title=\"The Shallows\" href=\"http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/shallows-nicholas-carr/1100207475?ean=9780393079364\">\"The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains\"</a> is an expansion of an Atlantic Monthly cover story titled \"Is Google Making Us Stupid,\" and it\'s pretty obvious what Carr\'s take on it is. He has interviewed numerous people who say -- as he says for himself -- that it has become much more difficult to read for any length of time. \"Whether I\'m online or not, my mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles,\" Carr writes. \"Once I was a scuba diver in a sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.\"\r\n\r\n<!--more-->I hope that\'s enough background for you, because I do want to get back to the subject of this column -- the causes of gun violence in our country.\r\n\r\nCan we go back to a simpler culture, where we don\'t have to see heads explode or watch people writhing nakedly on screen? I doubt it, and those aren\'t even the biggest problem. The biggest problem in the culture -- and one reason I mentioned \"The Shallows\" -- is the quick cutting and choppy editing, two things designed to keep people in a constant state of anxiety. Unless you go into a quiet, dark room, it\'s almost impossible to maintain any real level of serenity.\r\n\r\nYou might as well be Frank Costanza, screaming out \"Serenity now!\" as his blood pressure rises.\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"http://www.youtube.com/embed/oqm4LG8_3vE\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\"></iframe>\r\n\r\nSo is there any serenity in our culture?\r\n\r\nOne of the first video games I ever played was Tetris. I wasn\'t great at it, but I was pretty good. Still, after I played for an hour or so, I would find Tetris patterns going through my mind later that night as I tried to go to sleep. I played games like Ms. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Burger Time and Zookeeper, none of them violent but all of them reducing my own personal level of serenity.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1856\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"267\" caption=\"NRA Gun Club\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/images.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1856\" title=\"images\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/images.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"267\" height=\"189\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nOf course, there were plenty of other games -- ones I didn\'t play -- that were a lot more aggressive. Games like Doom, games like Mortal Kombat, games like NRA Gun Club.\r\n\r\nIn Mortal Kombat, for example, the right sort of punch or kick could actually drive the opponent\'s skeleton out of his body.\r\n\r\nAnd that\'s a game that would be regarded as impossibly primitive in 2012. We\'re not even going to take our culture back to Mortal Kombat or Doom, let alone to the days before video games. Our country has changed too much. In the \'60s, movies by Sam Peckinpah pushed the envelope for violence. These days Quentin Tarantino and others make Peckinpah look like Walt Disney\'s tender-hearted brother.\r\n\r\nWe don\'t even have the same values. A <a title=\"State of Our Unions\" href=\"http://www.stateofourunions.org/\">University of Virginia study</a> looked at the 60 percent of Americans who graduate from high school but not from college. In the 1980s, 13 percent of children born to mothers in this group were born outside of marriage; by 2010 that number was up to 44 percent.\r\n\r\nSince we know, all politics aside, that the optimum situation for a child is to be raised in a stable home with two loving, committed parents, the numbers from the report show a real decline in one very important respect.\r\n\r\nWe\'re never going back to the \'50s, not that we even should. But that doesn\'t mean there aren\'t problems that need to be addressed, ways to make our country a better place to live. Manchin is correct in saying that this is a complex problem, but we should always remember that the heart of the problem is guns.\r\n\r\nPeople who are happy, successful and yes, mentally healthy, are not stockpiling weapons of war. They\'re not living in fear that the government will come after them. People with military-style weapons, the people who say the Founding Fathers intended private citizens to have the firepower to protect themselves from the government, these people are the ones standing in the way of sensible reform.\r\n\r\nIf I take a minimalist view of the Second Amendment, it\'s because I believe sincerely that the Bill of Rights was never intended to be a suicide pact.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Yes, our problems are more than just gun problems','','publish','open','open','','yes-our-problems-are-more-than-just-gun-problems','','','2012-12-23 13:22:14','2012-12-23 21:22:14','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1853',0,'post','',0),(1854,1,'2012-12-23 09:59:13','2012-12-23 17:59:13','In Friday\'s Washington Post, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) writes of the <a title=\"Joe Manchin op-ed\" href=\"http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/sen-joe-manchin-between-obama-and-the-nra-another-path-to-stopping-mass-violence/2012/12/21/181d4e94-4adc-11e2-9a42-d1ce6d0ed278_story.html?hpid=z4\">comprehensive approach</a> that must be taken to solve the problems that we as Americans have with gun violence. He suggests that any approach that only targets guns and gun owners and ignores mental health and our violence-soaked culture is doomed to fail.\n\nI tend to agree, but I think the problem lies much deeper -- and is much more difficult to solve -- than anyone is saying.\n\nLet me illustrate what I want to discuss with an anecdote. Back about 1998, when a lot of people with home computers were switching first to DSL and then to cable modems, my wife and I were still using dial-up Internet at home. Our modem was pretty good for the time -- 57,600 baud -- especially considering the fact that the first modem I ever used as a journalist was 300 baud. My 500-word stories to five minutes to send to my newsroom. Of course, that was 1980. Still, it made me appreciate 57,600.\n\nMy son didn\'t have that experience, so all I heard from him was how deathly slow our modem was.\n\nAnd that is the root of our problem. Most of us know that Marshall McLuhan said \"the medium is the message,\" but how many people understand what McLuhan meant by that? McLuhan wasn\'t much concerned with whether people chose to watch \"Masterpiece Theatre\" or \"Gilligan\'s Island.\" He knew that within reason, it didn\'t matter what you watched. What mattered is that watching did to your brain.\n\nIn his wonderful book \"The Shallows\" (we\'ll get to it in a minute), Nicholas Carr wrote that McLuhan understood media aren\'t just channels of information. \"They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought.\" Numerous studies have shown that watching large amounts of television affects our brains in a way almost nothing else does -- it makes us more passive. We sit in the dark and absorb information without having to think about it at all.\n\n<a title=\"The Shallows\" href=\"http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/shallows-nicholas-carr/1100207475?ean=9780393079364\">\"The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains\"</a> is an expansion of an Atlantic Monthly cover story titled \"Is Google Making Us Stupid,\" and it\'s pretty obvious what Carr\'s take on it is. He has interviewed numerous people who say -- as he says for himself -- that it has become much more difficult to read for any length of time. \"Whether I\'m online or not, my mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles,\" Carr writes. \"Once I was a scuba diver in a sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.\"\n\n<!--more-->I hope that\'s enough background for you, because I do want to get back to the subject of this column -- the causes of gun violence in our country.\n\nCan we go back to a simpler culture, where we don\'t have to see heads explode or watch people writhing nakedly on screen? I doubt it, and those aren\'t even the biggest problem. The biggest problem in the culture -- and one reason I mentioned \"The S','','','inherit','open','open','','1853-revision','','','2012-12-23 09:59:13','2012-12-23 17:59:13','',1853,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1854',0,'revision','',0),(1855,1,'2012-12-23 12:08:22','2012-12-23 20:08:22','','images (1)','','inherit','open','open','','images-1-4','','','2012-12-23 12:08:22','2012-12-23 20:08:22','',1853,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/images-1.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1856,1,'2012-12-23 12:22:55','2012-12-23 20:22:55','','images','NRA Gun Club','inherit','open','open','','images-11','','','2012-12-23 12:22:55','2012-12-23 20:22:55','',1853,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/images.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1857,1,'2012-12-23 13:20:27','2012-12-23 21:20:27','In Friday\'s Washington Post, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) writes of the <a title=\"Joe Manchin op-ed\" href=\"http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/sen-joe-manchin-between-obama-and-the-nra-another-path-to-stopping-mass-violence/2012/12/21/181d4e94-4adc-11e2-9a42-d1ce6d0ed278_story.html?hpid=z4\">comprehensive approach</a> that must be taken to solve the problems that we as Americans have with gun violence. He suggests that any approach that only targets guns and gun owners and ignores mental health and our violence-soaked culture is doomed to fail.\n\nI tend to agree, but I think the problem lies much deeper -- and is much more difficult to solve -- than anyone is saying.\n\nLet me illustrate what I want to discuss with an anecdote. Back about 1998, when a lot of people with home computers were switching first to DSL and then to cable modems, my wife and I were still using dial-up Internet at home. Our modem was pretty good for the time -- 57,600 baud -- especially considering the fact that the first modem I ever used as a journalist was 300 baud. My 500-word stories to five minutes to send to my newsroom. Of course, that was 1980. Still, it made me appreciate 57,600.\n\nMy son didn\'t have that experience, so all I heard from him was how deathly slow our modem was.\n\nAnd that is the root of our problem. Most of us know that Marshall McLuhan said \"the medium is the message,\" but how many people understand what McLuhan meant by that? McLuhan wasn\'t much concerned with whether people chose to watch \"Masterpiece Theatre\" or \"Gilligan\'s Island.\" He knew that within reason, it didn\'t matter what you watched. What mattered is that watching did to your brain.\n\nIn his wonderful book \"The Shallows\" (we\'ll get to it in a minute), Nicholas Carr wrote that McLuhan understood media aren\'t just channels of information. \"They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought.\" Numerous studies have shown that watching large amounts of television affects our brains in a way almost nothing else does -- it makes us more passive. We sit in the dark and absorb information without having to think about it at all.\n\n<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/images-1.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1855\" title=\"images (1)\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/images-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"225\" /></a><a title=\"The Shallows\" href=\"http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/shallows-nicholas-carr/1100207475?ean=9780393079364\">\"The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains\"</a> is an expansion of an Atlantic Monthly cover story titled \"Is Google Making Us Stupid,\" and it\'s pretty obvious what Carr\'s take on it is. He has interviewed numerous people who say -- as he says for himself -- that it has become much more difficult to read for any length of time. \"Whether I\'m online or not, my mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles,\" Carr writes. \"Once I was a scuba diver in a sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.\"\n\n<!--more-->I hope that\'s enough background for you, because I do want to get back to the subject of this column -- the causes of gun violence in our country.\n\nCan we go back to a simpler culture, where we don\'t have to see heads explode or watch people writhing nakedly on screen? I doubt it, and those aren\'t even the biggest problem. The biggest problem in the culture -- and one reason I mentioned \"The Shallows\" -- is the quick cutting and choppy editing, two things designed to keep people in a constant state of anxiety. Unless you go into a quiet, dark room, it\'s almost impossible to maintain any real level of serenity.\n\nYou might as well be Frank Costanza, screaming out \"Serenity now!\" as his blood pressure rises.\n\n<iframe src=\"http://www.youtube.com/embed/oqm4LG8_3vE\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\"></iframe>\n\nSo is there any serenity in our culture?\n\nOne of the first video games I ever played was Tetris. I wasn\'t great at it, but I was pretty good. Still, after I played for an hour or so, I would find Tetris patterns going through my mind later that night as I tried to go to sleep. I played games like Ms. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Burger Time and Zookeeper, none of them violent but all of them reducing my own personal level of serenity.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1856\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"267\" caption=\"NRA Gun Club\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/images.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1856\" title=\"images\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/images.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"267\" height=\"189\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nOf course, there were plenty of other games -- ones I didn\'t play -- that were a lot more aggressive. Games like Doom, games like Mortal Kombat, games like NRA Gun Club.\n\nIn Mortal Kombat, for example, the right sort of punch or kick could actually drive the opponent\'s skeleton out of his body.\n\nAnd that\'s a game that would be regarded as impossibly primitive in 2012. We\'re not even going to take our culture back to Mortal Kombat or Doom, let alone to the days before video games. Our country has changed too much. In the \'60s, movies by Sam Peckinpah pushed the envelope for violence. These days Quentin Tarantino and others make Peckinpah look like Walt Disney\'s tender-hearted brother.\n\nWe don\'t even have the same values. A <a title=\"State of Our Unions\" href=\"http://www.stateofourunions.org/\">University of Virginia study</a> looked at the 60 percent of Americans who graduate from high school but not from college. In the 1980s, 13 percent of children born to mothers in this group were born outside of marriage; by 2010 that number was up to 44 percent.\n\nSince we know, all politics aside, that the optimum situation for a child is to be raised in a stable home with two loving, committed parents, the numbers from the report show a real decline in one very important respect.\n\nWe\'re never going back to the \'50s, not that we even should. But that doesn\'t mean there aren\'t problems that need to be addressed, ways to make our country a better place to live. Manchin is correct in saying that this is a complex problem, but we should always remember that the heart of the problem is guns.\n\nPeople who are happy, successful and yes, mentally healthy, are not stockpiling weapons of war. They\'re not living in fear that the government will come after them. People with military-style weapons, the people who say the Founding Fathers intended private citizens to have the firepower to protect themselves from the government, these people are the ones standing in the way of sensible reform.\n\nIf I take a minimalist view of the Second Amendment, it\'s because I believe sincerely that the Bill of Rights was never intended to be a suicide pact.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1853-revision-2','','','2012-12-23 13:20:27','2012-12-23 21:20:27','',1853,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1857',0,'revision','',0),(1858,1,'2012-12-23 13:23:16','2012-12-23 21:23:16','In Friday\'s Washington Post, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) writes of the <a title=\"Joe Manchin op-ed\" href=\"http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/sen-joe-manchin-between-obama-and-the-nra-another-path-to-stopping-mass-violence/2012/12/21/181d4e94-4adc-11e2-9a42-d1ce6d0ed278_story.html?hpid=z4\">comprehensive approach</a> that must be taken to solve the problems that we as Americans have with gun violence. He suggests that any approach that only targets guns and gun owners and ignores mental health and our violence-soaked culture is doomed to fail.\n\nI tend to agree, but I think the problem lies much deeper -- and is much more difficult to solve -- than anyone is saying.\n\nLet me illustrate what I want to discuss with an anecdote. Back about 1998, when a lot of people with home computers were switching first to DSL and then to cable modems, my wife and I were still using dial-up Internet at home. Our modem was pretty good for the time -- 57,600 baud -- especially considering the fact that the first modem I ever used as a journalist was 300 baud. My 500-word stories to five minutes to send to my newsroom. Of course, that was 1980. Still, it made me appreciate 57,600.\n\nMy son didn\'t have that experience, so all I heard from him was how deathly slow our modem was.\n\nAnd that is the root of our problem. Most of us know that Marshall McLuhan said \"the medium is the message,\" but how many people understand what McLuhan meant by that? McLuhan wasn\'t much concerned with whether people chose to watch \"Masterpiece Theatre\" or \"Gilligan\'s Island.\" He knew that within reason, it didn\'t matter what you watched. What mattered is that watching did to your brain.\n\nIn his wonderful book \"The Shallows\" (we\'ll get to it in a minute), Nicholas Carr wrote that McLuhan understood media aren\'t just channels of information. \"They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought.\" Numerous studies have shown that watching large amounts of television affects our brains in a way almost nothing else does -- it makes us more passive. We sit in the dark and absorb information without having to think about it at all.\n\n<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/images-1.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1855\" title=\"images (1)\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/images-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"225\" /></a><a title=\"The Shallows\" href=\"http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/shallows-nicholas-carr/1100207475?ean=9780393079364\">\"The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains\"</a> is an expansion of an Atlantic Monthly cover story titled \"Is Google Making Us Stupid,\" and it\'s pretty obvious what Carr\'s take on it is. He has interviewed numerous people who say -- as he says for himself -- that it has become much more difficult to read for any length of time. \"Whether I\'m online or not, my mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles,\" Carr writes. \"Once I was a scuba diver in a sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.\"\n\n<!--more-->I hope that\'s enough background for you, because I do want to get back to the subject of this column -- the causes of gun violence in our country.\n\nCan we go back to a simpler culture, where we don\'t have to see heads explode or watch people writhing nakedly on screen? I doubt it, and those aren\'t even the biggest problem. The biggest problem in the culture -- and one reason I mentioned \"The Shallows\" -- is the quick cutting and choppy editing, two things designed to keep people in a constant state of anxiety. Unless you go into a quiet, dark room, it\'s almost impossible to maintain any real level of serenity.\n\nYou might as well be Frank Costanza, screaming out \"Serenity now!\" as his blood pressure rises.\n\n<iframe src=\"http://www.youtube.com/embed/oqm4LG8_3vE\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\"></iframe>\n\nSo is there any serenity in our culture?\n\nOne of the first video games I ever played was Tetris. I wasn\'t great at it, but I was pretty good. Still, after I played for an hour or so, I would find Tetris patterns going through my mind later that night as I tried to go to sleep. I played games like Ms. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Burger Time and Zookeeper, none of them violent but all of them reducing my own personal level of serenity.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1856\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"267\" caption=\"NRA Gun Club\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/images.jpg\"><img class=\"size-full wp-image-1856\" title=\"images\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/images.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"267\" height=\"189\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nOf course, there were plenty of other games -- ones I didn\'t play -- that were a lot more aggressive. Games like Doom, games like Mortal Kombat, games like NRA Gun Club.\n\nIn Mortal Kombat, for example, the right sort of punch or kick could actually drive the opponent\'s skeleton out of his body.\n\nAnd that\'s a game that would be regarded as impossibly primitive in 2012. We\'re not even going to take our culture back to Mortal Kombat or Doom, let alone to the days before video games. Our country has changed too much. In the \'60s, movies by Sam Peckinpah pushed the envelope for violence. These days Quentin Tarantino and others make Peckinpah look like Walt Disney\'s tender-hearted brother.\n\nWe don\'t even have the same values. A <a title=\"State of Our Unions\" href=\"http://www.stateofourunions.org/\">University of Virginia study</a> looked at the 60 percent of Americans who graduate from high school but not from college. In the 1980s, 13 percent of children born to mothers in this group were born outside of marriage; by 2010 that number was up to 44 percent.\n\nSince we know, all politics aside, that the optimum situation for a child is to be raised in a stable home with two loving, committed parents, the numbers from the report show a real decline in one very important respect.\n\nWe\'re never going back to the \'50s, not that we even should. But that doesn\'t mean there aren\'t problems that need to be addressed, ways to make our country a better place to live. Manchin is correct in saying that this is a complex problem, but we should always remember that the heart of the problem is guns.\n\nPeople who are happy, successful and yes, mentally healthy, are not stockpiling weapons of war. They\'re not living in fear that the government will come after them. People with military-style weapons, the people who say the Founding Fathers intended private citizens to have the firepower to protect themselves from the government, these people are the ones standing in the way of sensible reform.\n\nIf I take a minimalist view of the Second Amendment, it\'s because I believe sincerely that the Bill of Rights was never intended to be a suicide pact.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','Yes, our problems are more than just gun problems','','inherit','open','open','','1853-autosave','','','2012-12-23 13:23:16','2012-12-23 21:23:16','',1853,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1858',0,'revision','',0),(1878,1,'2012-12-31 18:08:09','2013-01-01 02:08:09','For the life of me, there have been subjects involving a great deal of memorization -- like foreign languages -- that I have never been able to learn.\r\n\r\nMaybe that\'s because an incredible amount of the space in my brain has been devoted to remembering things I never wanted to remember, like titles, artists and even lyrics to nearly every song I heard of the radio between about 1965 and 1975.\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"http://www.youtube.com/embed/HUm15jxuMvM\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\"></iframe>\r\n\r\nAround 1972 or \'73, my friends and I used to go to the Campus Club, a basement beer joint at George Washington University. They rarely had a band, usually just a soundtrack of oldies. One of the games we played was seeing who could identify a new song first. I usually won, and my most shining moment -- I can name that tune in one note -- came when I got \"Light My Fire\" by the doors just as it started.\r\n\r\nIt\'s funny how we remember the tiniest of triumphs when we don\'t have major ones to remember. It sort of reminds me of the person who said the reason faculty politics are so vicious is that there is so little at stake.\r\n\r\nI haven\'t played that game it at least 30 years, other than listening to the radio when I\'m in the car alone by myself and I have an oldies station on. It might surprise some people who know me, but I listen to Sixties music a lot less than I once did. I almost always still know the song, but there are more times than there once were that the name of the group doesn\'t come to mind at all.\r\n\r\nThe other afternoon I was in the car, and a song with a fairly extensive instrumental lead-in started playing. It didn\'t register at first. It certainly wasn\'t a major hit by a major group. But all of a sudden, I found myself thinking ... \"Alice Long,\" by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, from \'68 or \'69?\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"http://www.youtube.com/embed/bvZ3NH0DMWw\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\"></iframe>\r\n\r\nThat\'s exactly what it was. A song that only got to No. 27 on the Billboard survey in the summer of 1968. A song I never really liked, a song I never really thought much about.\r\n\r\nDamn.\r\n\r\nI\'ve still got it.\r\n\r\nAnd I still speak only one language.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','I\'ve always been good at remembering silly trivia','','publish','open','open','','ive-always-been-good-at-remembering-worthless-trivia','','','2012-12-31 18:08:33','2013-01-01 02:08:33','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1878',0,'post','',0),(1898,1,'2013-02-01 11:21:24','2013-02-01 19:21:24','','ufedup1','','inherit','open','open','','ufedup1','','','2013-02-01 11:21:24','2013-02-01 19:21:24','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/ufedup1.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1867,1,'2012-12-28 19:33:37','2012-12-29 03:33:37','I was trying to remember my first Christmas as an adult, the first one I didn\'t celebrate at my parents\' house or my grandparents\' house.\r\n\r\nIt was 1975, although you could argue 1971 on a technicality. I was still living at home in 1971, but the rest of my family went to Russia with a tour group. I got together with three other friends -- my closest friends -- whose families were also away. We worked together and did a Christmas dinner at my friend Mick\'s house. Mick and my two Chris friends -- one Christine and one Christopher -- filled out the group. I think I can safely say without fear of excessive chauvinism that we were fortunate to have a female in our group.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1868\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"My first apartment -- 35 years later.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/20110110_5.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1868\" title=\"20110110_5\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/20110110_5-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nThat was really just Christmas dinner, though. My first real Christmas in my own place, with decorations and everything, came in 1975.\r\n\r\nWe had moved into a new development outside Herndon, Va. The apartments in Stuart Woods were brand new. A one-bedroom unit was $230. It was the only apartment I ever had with its own washer and dryer. We moved there in February, we got married in April and we lived there till May 1976. She commuted to Langley and I commuted to the Ballston neighborhood in Arlington.\r\n\r\nI don\'t know if we had any problem-free years in our marriage. We were together for less than five years; we probably married too young. It\'s as good an excuse for failure as any. It\'s funny how 37 years later, I have little memory of where in our living room we put our Christmas tree. Maybe we didn\'t. Ironically, it was the only Christmas we celebrated together in the United States. In 1976 we were in Austria and in 1977 we were in London for Christmas week.\r\n\r\nShe spent Christmas of \'78 on temporary duty in Beijing and she went to Nevada to spend the \'79 holidays with her parents. In January 1980 we split for good.\r\n\r\nRegrets? Yes and no. I doubt that a thoughtful person could fail to regret a marriage that didn\'t work, but on the other hand, I have spent the last 21 Christmases married to the real love of my life.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1870\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Lex this Christmas.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Lex.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1870\" title=\"Lex\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Lex-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nIf there is a sadness at all, it comes when I see my two grandchildren celebrating their first Christmases, Madison in 2009 (at 15 months) and Lexington this year (at 13 1/2 months). My first Christmas with my wonderful children came when Pauline was already 12 and Virgile was nearly 8.\r\n\r\nSeeing pictures of the grandkids with the gifts we gave them is so wonderful. In the picture here, Lex is pushing a cart we gave him for Christmas and wearing a Georgia Tech football jersey we gave him for his first birthday in November.\r\n\r\nChristmas is pretty wonderful when you have children or grandchildren, but it was also pretty special when I was first on my own and never dreaming that a marriage could end in the most excruciating pain. I don\'t think of her all that much, but there are times I wonder what it would have been like to hold a baby in my arms and know that it was my child, not my grandchild.\r\n\r\nI am a very fortunate man. I have two wonderful children who look at me and see a father, not a stepfather. I could never love a child more than I love Pauline and Virgile, and I could never love a grandchild more than I love Maddie or Lex.\r\n\r\nI know it all worked out for the best.\r\n\r\nNo question at all.\r\n\r\nThat doesn\'t keep the \"what ifs\" from popping into my mind once in a while. In the end, I guess I\'m only human.','We all have memories of a few Christmases past','','publish','open','open','','we-all-have-memories-of-a-few-christmases-past','','','2012-12-28 19:33:37','2012-12-29 03:33:37','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1867',0,'post','',0),(1868,1,'2012-12-28 19:06:25','2012-12-29 03:06:25','','20110110_5','My first apartment -- 35 years later.','inherit','open','open','','20110110_5','','','2012-12-28 19:06:25','2012-12-29 03:06:25','',1867,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/20110110_5.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1869,1,'2012-12-28 19:18:36','2012-12-29 03:18:36','I was trying to remember my first Christmas as an adult, the first one I didn\'t celebrate at my parents\' house or my grandparents\' house.\n\nIt was 1975, although you could argue 1971 on a technicality. I was still living at home in 1971, but the rest of my family went to Russia with a tour group. I got together with three other friends -- my closest friends -- whose families were also away. We worked together and did a Christmas dinner at my friend Mick\'s house. Mick and my two Chris friends -- one Christine and one Christopher -- filled out the group. I think I can safely say without fear of excessive chauvinism that we were fortunate to have a female in our group.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1868\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"My first apartment -- 35 years later.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/20110110_5.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1868\" title=\"20110110_5\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/20110110_5-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nThat was really just Christmas dinner, though. My first real Christmas in my own place, with decorations and everything, came in 1975.\n\nWe had moved into a new development outside Herndon, Va. The apartments in Stuart Woods were brand new. A one-bedroom unit was $230. It was the only apartment I ever had with its own washer and dryer. We moved there in February, we got married in April and we lived there till May 1976. She commuted to Langley and I commuted to the Ballston neighborhood in Arlington.\n\nI don\'t know if we had any problem-free years in our marriage. We were together for less than five years; we probably married too young. It\'s as good an excuse for failure as any. It\'s funny how 37 years later, I have little memory of where in our living room we put our Christmas tree. Maybe we didn\'t. Ironically, it was the only Christmas we celebrated together in the United States. In 1976 we were in Austria and in 1977 we were in London for Christmas week.\n\nShe spent Christmas of \'78 on temporary duty in Beijing and she went to Nevada to spend the \'79 holidays with her parents. In January 1980 we split for good.\n\nRegrets? Yes and no. I doubt that a thoughtful person could fail to regret a marriage that didn\'t work, but on the other hand, I have spent the last 21 Christmases married to the real love of my life.\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1867-revision','','','2012-12-28 19:18:36','2012-12-29 03:18:36','',1867,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1869',0,'revision','',0),(1870,1,'2012-12-28 19:22:44','2012-12-29 03:22:44','','Lex','Lex this Christmas.','inherit','open','open','','lex','','','2012-12-28 19:22:44','2012-12-29 03:22:44','',1867,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Lex.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1871,1,'2012-12-28 19:32:38','2012-12-29 03:32:38','I was trying to remember my first Christmas as an adult, the first one I didn\'t celebrate at my parents\' house or my grandparents\' house.\n\nIt was 1975, although you could argue 1971 on a technicality. I was still living at home in 1971, but the rest of my family went to Russia with a tour group. I got together with three other friends -- my closest friends -- whose families were also away. We worked together and did a Christmas dinner at my friend Mick\'s house. Mick and my two Chris friends -- one Christine and one Christopher -- filled out the group. I think I can safely say without fear of excessive chauvinism that we were fortunate to have a female in our group.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1868\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"My first apartment -- 35 years later.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/20110110_5.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1868\" title=\"20110110_5\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/20110110_5-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nThat was really just Christmas dinner, though. My first real Christmas in my own place, with decorations and everything, came in 1975.\n\nWe had moved into a new development outside Herndon, Va. The apartments in Stuart Woods were brand new. A one-bedroom unit was $230. It was the only apartment I ever had with its own washer and dryer. We moved there in February, we got married in April and we lived there till May 1976. She commuted to Langley and I commuted to the Ballston neighborhood in Arlington.\n\nI don\'t know if we had any problem-free years in our marriage. We were together for less than five years; we probably married too young. It\'s as good an excuse for failure as any. It\'s funny how 37 years later, I have little memory of where in our living room we put our Christmas tree. Maybe we didn\'t. Ironically, it was the only Christmas we celebrated together in the United States. In 1976 we were in Austria and in 1977 we were in London for Christmas week.\n\nShe spent Christmas of \'78 on temporary duty in Beijing and she went to Nevada to spend the \'79 holidays with her parents. In January 1980 we split for good.\n\nRegrets? Yes and no. I doubt that a thoughtful person could fail to regret a marriage that didn\'t work, but on the other hand, I have spent the last 21 Christmases married to the real love of my life.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1870\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Lex this Christmas.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Lex.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1870\" title=\"Lex\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Lex-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nIf there is a sadness at all, it comes when I see my two grandchildren celebrating their first Christmases, Madison in 2009 (at 15 months) and Lexington this year (at 13 1/2 months). My first Christmas with my wonderful children came when Pauline was already 12 and Virgile was nearly 8.\n\nSeeing pictures of the grandkids with the gifts we gave them is so wonderful. In the picture here, Lex is pushing a cart we gave him for Christmas and wearing a Georgia Tech football jersey we gave him for his first birthday in November.\n\nChristmas is pretty wonderful when you have children or grandchildren, but it was also pretty special when I was first on my own and never dreaming that a marriage could end in the most excruciating pain. I don\'t think of her all that much, but there are times I wonder what it would have been like to hold a baby in my arms and know that it was my child, not my grandchild.\n\nI am a very fortunate man. I have two wonderful children who look at me and see a father, not a stepfather. I could never love a child more than I love Pauline and Virgile, and I could never love a grandchild more than I love Maddie or Lex.\n\nI know it all worked out for the best.\n\nNo question at all.\n\nThat doesn\'t keep the \"what ifs\" from popping into my mind once in a while. In the end, I guess I\'m only human.','','','inherit','open','open','','1867-revision-2','','','2012-12-28 19:32:38','2012-12-29 03:32:38','',1867,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1871',0,'revision','',0),(1874,1,'2012-12-29 15:57:24','2012-12-29 23:57:24','','124585_600','','inherit','open','open','','124585_600','','','2012-12-29 15:57:24','2012-12-29 23:57:24','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/124585_600.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1879,1,'2012-12-31 18:07:22','2013-01-01 02:07:22','For the life of me, there have been subjects involving a great deal of memorization -- like foreign languages -- that I have never been able to learn.\n\nMaybe that\'s because an incredible amount of the space in my brain has been devoted to remembering things I never wanted to remember, like titles, artists and even lyrics to nearly every song I heard of the radio between about 1965 and 1975.\n\n<iframe src=\"http://www.youtube.com/embed/HUm15jxuMvM\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\"></iframe>\n\nAround 1972 or \'73, my friends and I used to go to the Campus Club, a basement beer joint at George Washington University. They rarely had a band, usually just a soundtrack of oldies. One of the games we played was seeing who could identify a new song first. I usually won, and my most shining moment -- I can name that tune in one note -- came when I got \"Light My Fire\" by the doors just as it started.\n\nIt\'s funny how we remember the tiniest of triumphs when we don\'t have major ones to remember. It sort of reminds me of the person who said the reason faculty politics are so vicious is that there is so little at stake.\n\nI haven\'t played that game it at least 30 years, other than listening to the radio when I\'m in the car alone by myself and I have an oldies station on. It might surprise some people who know me, but I listen to Sixties music a lot less than I once did. I almost always still know the song, but there are more times than there once were that the name of the group doesn\'t come to mind at all.\n\nThe other afternoon I was in the car, and a song with a fairly extensive instrumental lead-in started playing. It didn\'t register at first. It certainly wasn\'t a major hit by a major group. But all of a sudden, I found myself thinking ... \"Alice Long,\" by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, from \'68 or \'69?\n\n<iframe src=\"http://www.youtube.com/embed/bvZ3NH0DMWw\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\"></iframe>\n\nThat\'s exactly what it was. A song that only got to No. 27 on the Billboard survey in the summer of 1968. A song I never really liked, a song I never really thought much about.\n\nDamn.\n\nI\'ve still got it.\n\nAnd I still speak only one language.\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1878-revision','','','2012-12-31 18:07:22','2013-01-01 02:07:22','',1878,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1879',0,'revision','',0),(1880,1,'2012-12-31 18:08:09','2013-01-01 02:08:09','For the life of me, there have been subjects involving a great deal of memorization -- like foreign languages -- that I have never been able to learn.\r\n\r\nMaybe that\'s because an incredible amount of the space in my brain has been devoted to remembering things I never wanted to remember, like titles, artists and even lyrics to nearly every song I heard of the radio between about 1965 and 1975.\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"http://www.youtube.com/embed/HUm15jxuMvM\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\"></iframe>\r\n\r\nAround 1972 or \'73, my friends and I used to go to the Campus Club, a basement beer joint at George Washington University. They rarely had a band, usually just a soundtrack of oldies. One of the games we played was seeing who could identify a new song first. I usually won, and my most shining moment -- I can name that tune in one note -- came when I got \"Light My Fire\" by the doors just as it started.\r\n\r\nIt\'s funny how we remember the tiniest of triumphs when we don\'t have major ones to remember. It sort of reminds me of the person who said the reason faculty politics are so vicious is that there is so little at stake.\r\n\r\nI haven\'t played that game it at least 30 years, other than listening to the radio when I\'m in the car alone by myself and I have an oldies station on. It might surprise some people who know me, but I listen to Sixties music a lot less than I once did. I almost always still know the song, but there are more times than there once were that the name of the group doesn\'t come to mind at all.\r\n\r\nThe other afternoon I was in the car, and a song with a fairly extensive instrumental lead-in started playing. It didn\'t register at first. It certainly wasn\'t a major hit by a major group. But all of a sudden, I found myself thinking ... \"Alice Long,\" by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, from \'68 or \'69?\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"http://www.youtube.com/embed/bvZ3NH0DMWw\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\"></iframe>\r\n\r\nThat\'s exactly what it was. A song that only got to No. 27 on the Billboard survey in the summer of 1968. A song I never really liked, a song I never really thought much about.\r\n\r\nDamn.\r\n\r\nI\'ve still got it.\r\n\r\nAnd I still speak only one language.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','I\'ve always been good at remembering worthless trivia','','inherit','open','open','','1878-revision-2','','','2012-12-31 18:08:09','2013-01-01 02:08:09','',1878,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1880',0,'revision','',0),(1882,1,'2012-12-31 19:49:42','2013-01-01 03:49:42','New Year\'s Eve is a holiday for the young, although even when I was young, I can\'t really recall many memorable times I had. The last New Year\'s I remember standing out was 1987, when I left Sioux Falls, S.D., in a morning when the wind-chill factor was nearly 50 below zero. I had been there for four days covering a college basketball tournament -- my only time ever in the Dakotas -- and I was leaving for two weeks of vacation at home in Virginia.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1883\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Not mine, but same model same color.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/1987_pontiac_fiero_base-pic-12558.jpeg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1883\" title=\"1987_pontiac_fiero_base-pic-12558\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/1987_pontiac_fiero_base-pic-12558-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nI had it figured as a 2-3 day drive in my two-seat Pontiac Fiero -- the only new car I ever bought for myself -- but I wanted to get as far as I could the first day. When 1987 turned to 1988, I was circling Indianapolis on I-465 and looking for a motel to get some sleep.\r\n\r\nI loved that car and I drove it till an 18-wheeler crushed it in December 1990 on I-5 in Los Angeles. But I never put as many miles on it as quickly as Colorado to South Dakota to Virginia and back to Colorado that winter. Nearly 4,000 miles in a little more than two weeks.\r\n\r\nAnyway, I digress. I think the last date I had on a New Year\'s Eve was in 1981, the second of two New Year\'s dates with the lovely Lisa McGrady.\r\n\r\nTonight is the 21st New Year\'s Eve of my second marriage, and there haven\'t been more than a couple when Nicole and I were even awake when 11:59 p.m. became midnight. The only reason I\'m still up with 90 minutes or so to go is that I really wanted to be productive and put down some resolutions for 2013.\r\n\r\nI don\'t usually do resolutions. I know how easy it is to break them, but 2012 has been a disappointing year in many ways and I want to go on record that 2013 will be better.\r\n\r\nSo, a few resolutions:\r\n\r\n1. BE NICER -- The best compliment I ever heard about anyone was when my son\'s freshman roommate in college said to me, \"Virgile is the nicest person I have ever known in my life.\" Nobody\'s ever going to say that about me, but I have a very fragile wife who I love with all my heart. I want to be gentler -- and nicer -- this year.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1884\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"2013 is here.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/FireworksLondonEye2013_200.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1884\" title=\"FireworksLondonEye2013_200\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/FireworksLondonEye2013_200-300x155.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"155\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\n2. GET HEALTHY AGAIN -- I established wonderful habits for myself in 2010. I\'ve got to get them back. Eat right and exercise. Every day.\r\n\r\n3. GET PURPOSEFUL AGAIN -- I need to finish my book. That means writing at least a little bit every day. No more screwing around.\r\n\r\n4. RIDE MY BIKE -- Part of the exercise thing, and I have to learn a whole new way of riding to do it, but I bought myself a thousand-dollar road bike and it\'s time to hit the road.\r\n\r\n5. BE THOUGHTFUL, NOT THOUGHTLESS -- Don\'t take anybody for granted.\r\n\r\n6. DON\'T PROCRASTINATE -- Just because we have two phone lines, it doesn\'t mean I should ignore the one that isn\'t working. Call and get it fixed.\r\n\r\n7. FOLLOW THE RULES -- Love God, let go of regrets and treat other people the way I would want them to treat me. Three rules for a great life.\r\n\r\nSo, I guess I\'ll file this and ...\r\n\r\nOh Lord, here comes 2013!\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Getting on the record with some (gulp!) resolutions','','publish','open','open','','getting-on-the-record-with-some-gulp-resolutions','','','2012-12-31 19:49:42','2013-01-01 03:49:42','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1882',0,'post','',0),(1883,1,'2012-12-31 19:29:59','2013-01-01 03:29:59','','1987_pontiac_fiero_base-pic-12558','Not mine, but same model saame color.','inherit','open','open','','1987_pontiac_fiero_base-pic-12558','','','2012-12-31 19:29:59','2013-01-01 03:29:59','',1882,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/1987_pontiac_fiero_base-pic-12558.jpeg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1884,1,'2012-12-31 19:43:52','2013-01-01 03:43:52','','FireworksLondonEye2013_200','2013 is here.','inherit','open','open','','fireworkslondoneye2013_200','','','2012-12-31 19:43:52','2013-01-01 03:43:52','',1882,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/FireworksLondonEye2013_200.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1885,1,'2012-12-31 19:49:39','2013-01-01 03:49:39','New Year\'s Eve is a holiday for the young, although even when I was young, I can\'t really recall many memorable times I had. The last New Year\'s I remember standing out was 1987, when I left Sioux Falls, S.D., in a morning when the wind-chill factor was nearly 50 below zero. I had been there for four days covering a college basketball tournament -- my only time ever in the Dakotas -- and I was leaving for two weeks of vacation at home in Virginia.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1883\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Not mine, but same model same color.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/1987_pontiac_fiero_base-pic-12558.jpeg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1883\" title=\"1987_pontiac_fiero_base-pic-12558\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/1987_pontiac_fiero_base-pic-12558-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nI had it figured as a 2-3 day drive in my two-seat Pontiac Fiero -- the only new car I ever bought for myself -- but I wanted to get as far as I could the first day. When 1987 turned to 1988, I was circling Indianapolis on I-465 and looking for a motel to get some sleep.\n\nI loved that car and I drove it till an 18-wheeler crushed it in December 1990 on I-5 in Los Angeles. But I never put as many miles on it as quickly as Colorado to South Dakota to Virginia and back to Colorado that winter. Nearly 4,000 miles in a little more than two weeks.\n\nAnyway, I digress. I think the last date I had on a New Year\'s Eve was in 1981, the second of two New Year\'s dates with the lovely Lisa McGrady.\n\nTonight is the 21st New Year\'s Eve of my second marriage, and there haven\'t been more than a couple when Nicole and I were even awake when 11:59 p.m. became midnight. The only reason I\'m still up with 90 minutes or so to go is that I really wanted to be productive and put down some resolutions for 2013.\n\nI don\'t usually do resolutions. I know how easy it is to break them, but 2012 has been a disappointing year in many ways and I want to go on record that 2013 will be better.\n\nSo, a few resolutions:\n\n1. BE NICER -- The best compliment I ever heard about anyone was when my son\'s freshman roommate in college said to me, \"Virgile is the nicest person I have ever known in my life.\" Nobody\'s ever going to say that about me, but I have a very fragile wife who I love with all my heart. I want to be gentler -- and nicer -- this year.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1884\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"2013 is here.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/FireworksLondonEye2013_200.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1884\" title=\"FireworksLondonEye2013_200\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/FireworksLondonEye2013_200-300x155.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"155\" /></a>[/caption]\n\n2. GET HEALTHY AGAIN -- I established wonderful habits for myself in 2010. I\'ve got to get them back. Eat right and exercise. Every day.\n\n3. GET PURPOSEFUL AGAIN -- I need to finish my book. That means writing at least a little bit every day. No more screwing around.\n\n4. RIDE MY BIKE -- Part of the exercise thing, and I have to learn a whole new way of riding to do it, but I bought myself a thousand-dollar road bike and it\'s time to hit the road.\n\n5. BE THOUGHTFUL, NOT THOUGHTLESS -- Don\'t take anybody for granted.\n\n6. DON\'T PROCRASTINATE -- Just because we have two phone lines, it doesn\'t mean I should ignore the one that isn\'t working. Call and get it fixed.\n\n7. FOLLOW THE RULES -- Love God, let go of regrets and treat other people the way I would want them to treat me. Three rules for a great life.\n\nSo, I guess I\'ll file this and ...\n\nOh Lord, here comes 2013!\n\n&nbsp;','Getting on the record with some (gulp!) resolutions','','inherit','open','open','','1882-revision','','','2012-12-31 19:49:39','2013-01-01 03:49:39','',1882,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1885',0,'revision','',0),(1889,1,'2013-01-12 19:58:19','2013-01-13 03:58:19','','richard thornburg','Intrusive media','inherit','open','open','','richard-thornburg','','','2013-01-12 19:58:19','2013-01-13 03:58:19','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/richard-thornburg.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1892,1,'2013-01-17 15:12:57','2013-01-17 23:12:57','','images7','No more cell phones.','inherit','open','open','','images7','','','2013-01-17 15:12:57','2013-01-17 23:12:57','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/images7.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1895,1,'2013-01-17 19:12:50','2013-01-18 03:12:50','','debt-credit-card','','inherit','open','open','','debt-credit-card','','','2013-01-17 19:12:50','2013-01-18 03:12:50','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/debt-credit-card.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1904,1,'2013-02-18 19:40:10','2013-02-19 03:40:10','','111211571','Jerry Buss (1933-2013)','inherit','open','open','','111211571','','','2013-02-18 19:40:10','2013-02-19 03:40:10','',1903,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/111211571.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1905,1,'2013-02-18 19:40:41','2013-02-19 03:40:41','[caption id=\"attachment_1904\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Jerry Buss (1933-2013)\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/111211571.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1904\" title=\"111211571\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/111211571-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" /></a>[/caption]\n\n<strong><em>I haven\'t written for a while, and this is certainly nothing new. But Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss died this weekend at the age of 80, and it reminded me of something I wrote about Buss in July 1987 when I was sports editor of the Greeley Tribune in Colorado. Buss probably would have laughed at this column, which poked gentle fun at his reputation as a swinger.</em></strong>\n\nThere\'s an old saying in the newspaper business:\n\n\"Dog bites man isn\'t news. Man bites dog is news.\"\n\nThat\'s why when the story about Puppi Buss came across the wire datelined Los Angeles,, I had my doubts. It looked like a clear case of dog bites man.\n\nThe <em>Los Angeles Times</em> story, which we ran in Thursday\'s <em>Tribune</em>, started something like this:\n\n\"A woman who claims she met Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss in the elevator of a West Hollywood hotel in 1969, and lived with him on and off for the next 15 years, filed a $25 million palimony suit against the millionaire businessman Wednesday, charging that he lied when he pledged he would take care of her for the rest of her life.\"\n\nFollowing were the sad details of the story of Puppi Buss, nee Marsha Lee Osborne, who lived with Jeffy Buss at various times between 1969 and 1984. She reportedly changed her name from Marsha to Puppi because Buss used the name as a \"term of affection\" when referring to her.\n\nThat\'s easy to understand. I know I always refer to the people I care about with animal designations. Just ask my brother \"Hamster\" and my cousin \"Warthog.\"\n\nWhy Puppi, though? Why not \"Kitten\" or \"Bunny,\" certainly more traditional animal nicknames for women? Could it be that \"Puppi\" became something a little darker when Buss was mad at her?\n\n<!--more-->\n\nAt any rate, Puppi reportedly, in the best tradition of California palimony cases, abandoned her own career and professional opportunities so that she could take care of Buss, who is 18 years her senior.\n\nLast year, when Puppi turned 35 (that\'s 245 in dog years), Buss allegedly stopped making payments to her. That ended a two-year campaign in which he forced her to leave the house he had bought for her and closed the business he had opened for her.\n\nNow Puppi has been reduced to managing day care centers and supervising rental properties (when  she isn\'t chasing cars). She is asking for $25 million, certainly a fair reimbursement for being named after an animal. What will probably come out in the course of all this is that Buss even made her eat out of a dog dish and sleep in the garage. Just a few more ways of showing \"affection.\" She probably balked at wearing the rhinestone collar and barking at the mailman, though.\n\nIt\'s a shame these two crazy kids can\'t work their problems out and get back together, because it certainly seems as though Puppi and Jerry are meant for each other.\n\nMaybe that\'s not entirely accurate. Maybe it\'s that the two of them deserve each other.\n\nSomeone -- I think it was either Pat Sajak or Ed Meese -- once called power the greatest aphrodisiac of all, and it\'s certain that Puppi wasn\'t attracted to Jerry because of his manly physique. In fact, her lawyer said she turned Buss down the first time he asked her out because he was \"too old and too heavy.\"\n\nA month later, though, she changed her mind. Her lawyer said Buss had slimmed down. Maybe Puppi found out who he was and how much money he had, or maybe she just realized that good looks aren\'t everything.\n\nSome people undoubtedly will see this as a case in the worst tradition of rich older men dominating naive young women, but I\'m not sure that\'s true. To me it seems more like a classic \"I Love L.A.\" case.\n\nRemember, it was Southern California that first gave us the concept of palimony back in the \'70s, when Michelle Triola sued Lee Marvin.. Her lawyer, Marvin Mitchelson, is the one who\'s taking care of Puppi these days..\n\nIt\'s tough not to admire a man who has devoted almost his entire career to fighting for a principle. Three hundred years from now, when people think of palimony, they\'ll think of Mitchelson.\n\nOf course the fact that he stands to make something like $8 million if Puppi gets her $25 million has nothing to do with it. Everyone knows that lawyers would give up everything they own to fight for something they believe in.\n\nAs I said earlier earlier, the simple solution to this case would just be for Puppi and Jerry to get back together. All it would take is a couple of concessions on each side.\n\nJerry would promise to pet her more often and to buy her the food she likes.\n\nPuppi would promise to use the paper.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','','','inherit','open','open','','1903-revision','','','2013-02-18 19:40:41','2013-02-19 03:40:41','',1903,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1905',0,'revision','',0),(1910,1,'2013-03-11 18:01:00','2013-03-12 01:01:00','I don\'t know if the last 2 1/2 months have been the toughest time of my life -- I certainly remember a few times when I was younger when I felt a lot more hopeless -- but when the person you love the most in the world is already on long-term disability for other problems and then breaks a bone in her back, that\'s pretty rough.\r\n\r\nFive weeks ago, my wife had surgery to repair the fracture. She is recuperating slowly, but has yet to have a single day without pain only a few levels below shark bite.\r\n\r\nNo fun at all.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1911\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"The little guy\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/DSC_0716.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1911\" title=\"DSC_0716\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/DSC_0716-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nUntil this weekend.\r\n\r\nOur daughter Pauline came to visit from Jamaica, and she brought along a bundle of fun -- our 16-month-old grandson Lexington Wesley Kastner.\r\n\r\nLex is at an age when he seems truly to be enjoying himself. as often as not, he has a big smile on his face. His vocabulary -- at least the words we can identify as meaning something -- is still in single digits, but this kid is constantly chirping. He enjoys so many things, too. Pauline says what he seems to have the most fun with at all is carrying the broom around their house, and we saw some of that this weekend.\r\n\r\nWe didn\'t do all that much this weekend. Nicole is going through a rough period and we were pretty much tied to the house and the area around it. We do have a \"grandchildren\'s park\" in our community and Pauline took Lex there a few times so he could play.\r\n\r\nI haven\'t been around babies much. I never fathered a child myself and I didn\'t become a dad until Pauline was 12 and Virgile was 7. I really think my closest exposure as an adult came when I vacationed in Los Angeles in May 1986 and stayed with my friend Mick Curran. His daughter Kelsey -- my unofficial niece -- was just seven months old then. They lived in a small apartment and Kelsey was suffering from colic at the time. She was wailing pretty much nonstop for most of the night.\r\n\r\nPeople who have -- or have had -- babies love to tell those who haven\'t that that\'s the way life is, and if that small amount of crying bothers you, it\'s a good thing you never had to care for a baby. Maybe that\'s true, but I also figure that if it\'s your own kid, and you\'re young, you manage it.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1912\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Nicole and Lexington\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/DSC_0812.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1912\" title=\"DSC_0812\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/DSC_0812-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nSo he shrieked a little having his hair washed. He was still wonderful.\r\n\r\nAnd if you look at the second picture, having him around was good for Nicole\'s spirits too.\r\n\r\nHer pain is starting to improve, very slowly but measurably. If we can get past that and get her back on her feet regularly, we can start working on the other stuff.\r\n\r\nIt\'s too bad Lex won\'t be around every day to cheer up his grandparents, but spending time with him this weekend did a lot for me.\r\n\r\nWinter is nearly over.\r\n\r\nI\'m hoping for a good spring.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Wonderful Lexington brings a little cheer to Georgia','','publish','open','open','','wonderful-lexington-brings-a-little-cheer-to-georgia','','','2013-03-11 18:01:00','2013-03-12 01:01:00','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1910',0,'post','',0),(1908,1,'2013-02-20 18:43:50','2013-02-21 02:43:50','','1709_53003112066_1285_n','','inherit','open','open','','1709_53003112066_1285_n','','','2013-02-20 18:43:50','2013-02-21 02:43:50','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/1709_53003112066_1285_n.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1911,1,'2013-03-11 12:03:32','2013-03-11 19:03:32','','DSC_0716','The little guy','inherit','open','open','','dsc_0716','','','2013-03-11 12:03:32','2013-03-11 19:03:32','',1910,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/DSC_0716.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1912,1,'2013-03-11 17:56:09','2013-03-12 00:56:09','','DSC_0812','Nicole and Lexington','inherit','open','open','','dsc_0812','','','2013-03-11 17:56:09','2013-03-12 00:56:09','',1910,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/DSC_0812.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1913,1,'2013-03-11 18:00:53','2013-03-12 01:00:53','I don\'t know if the last 2 1/2 months have been the toughest time of my life -- I certainly remember a few times when I was younger when I felt a lot more hopeless -- but when the person you love the most in the world is already on long-term disability for other problems and then breaks a bone in her back, that\'s pretty rough.\n\nFive weeks ago, my wife had surgery to repair the fracture. She is recuperating slowly, but has yet to have a single day without pain only a few levels below shark bite.\n\nNo fun at all.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1911\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"The little guy\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/DSC_0716.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1911\" title=\"DSC_0716\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/DSC_0716-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nUntil this weekend.\n\nOur daughter Pauline came to visit from Jamaica, and she brought along a bundle of fun -- our 16-month-old grandson Lexington Wesley Kastner.\n\nLex is at an age when he seems truly to be enjoying himself. as often as not, he has a big smile on his face. His vocabulary -- at least the words we can identify as meaning something -- is still in single digits, but this kid is constantly chirping. He enjoys so many things, too. Pauline says what he seems to have the most fun with at all is carrying the broom around their house, and we saw some of that this weekend.\n\nWe didn\'t do all that much this weekend. Nicole is going through a rough period and we were pretty much tied to the house and the area around it. We do have a \"grandchildren\'s park\" in our community and Pauline took Lex there a few times so he could play.\n\nI haven\'t been around babies much. I never fathered a child myself and I didn\'t become a dad until Pauline was 12 and Virgile was 7. I really think my closest exposure as an adult came when I vacationed in Los Angeles in May 1986 and stayed with my friend Mick Curran. His daughter Kelsey -- my unofficial niece -- was just seven months old then. They lived in a small apartment and Kelsey was suffering from colic at the time. She was wailing pretty much nonstop for most of the night.\n\nPeople who have -- or have had -- babies love to tell those who haven\'t that that\'s the way life is, and if that small amount of crying bothers you, it\'s a good thing you never had to care for a baby. Maybe that\'s true, but I also figure that if it\'s your own kid, and you\'re young, you manage it.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1912\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Nicole and Lexington\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/DSC_0812.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1912\" title=\"DSC_0812\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/DSC_0812-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nSo he shrieked a little having his hair washed. He was still wonderful.\n\nAnd if you look at the second picture, having him around was good for Nicole\'s spirits too.\n\nHer pain is starting to improve, very slowly but measurably. If we can get past that and get her back on her feet regularly, we can start working on the other stuff.\n\nIt\'s too bad Lex won\'t be around every day to cheer up his grandparents, but spending time with him this weekend did a lot for me.\n\nWinter is nearly over.\n\nI\'m hoping for a good spring.\n\n&nbsp;','Wonderful Lexington brings a little cheer to','','inherit','open','open','','1910-revision','','','2013-03-11 18:00:53','2013-03-12 01:00:53','',1910,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1913',0,'revision','',0),(1929,1,'2013-04-25 09:14:51','0000-00-00 00:00:00','We measure the true quality of people -- and nations -- by what they do when things are going badly.\n\nWe\'re all for freedom of religion -- until we\'re not.\n\nWe\'re all for the rights of criminal defendants -- until we\'re not.\n\nTwo criminals attack the Boston Marathon. Law enforcement does it right, pursuing them, finding them pretty quickly and then killing one and capturing the other.','','','draft','open','open','','','','','2013-04-25 09:14:51','2013-04-25 16:14:51','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1929',0,'post','',0),(1915,1,'2013-03-14 17:20:30','2013-03-15 00:20:30','I don\'t want to argue the politics of religion, or the goods and bads of the Roman Catholic Church. Several people very close to me would proudly refer to themselves as lapsed Catholics. In fact, I\'m not sure there is any other thing that more people seem to brag about <em>no longer being</em>, which seems truly odd to me.\r\n\r\nI was raised Protestant, but converted 20 years or so ago when I married into a Catholic family. I enjoy what I see as the majesty of the Mass, and I suppose I am guilty of downplaying the bad and concentrating on the good the church does. Yes, the pedophilia scandals are horrible, but there are few groups standing up for the poor as strongly as the Catholic bishops in this country. I admire the fact that my church -- unlike many of the fundamentalist Protestants in this country -- doesn\'t treat the poor as if their problems are their own fault.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1916\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Times change.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/882761_555336131153088_1035548107_o.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1916\" title=\"882761_555336131153088_1035548107_o\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/882761_555336131153088_1035548107_o-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\r\n\r\nBut what fascinates me right now is the selection of Pope Francis, the first pope from the Western Hemisphere. Choosing a South American pope seems brilliant to me, since Latin America is where the church remains strongest in terms of its membership. It\'s the one part of the world where radical Islam doesn\'t seem to have made any serious inroads.\r\n\r\nI\'m not sure how long Jorge Bergoglio will serve -- he is already 76 years old -- but it is still a good move.\r\n\r\nA look at the photo showing the scenes when the last two popes -- Francis this year and Benedict in 2005 -- were announced is at least a little bit humorous. In 2006, the people who were there were <em>there</em>, doing their best so see whatever they could see with their own eyes. This year hundreds if not thousands of people who were in attendance were watching on tablets or smart phones.\r\n\r\nApparently being there isn\'t the best thing.\r\n\r\nActually, it reminds me of the old days at Dodger Stadium, when hundreds of fans attending baseball games came equipped with transistor radios so that they could hear what legendary broadcaster Vin Scully describe the game.\r\n\r\nSure, you can be there.\r\n\r\nBut why not enhance the experience if you can?\r\n\r\nIt isn\'t 1950 anymore.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;','Being there isn\'t actually good enough anymore','','publish','open','open','','being-there-isnt-actually-good-enough-anymore','','','2013-03-14 17:20:30','2013-03-15 00:20:30','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1915',0,'post','',0),(1916,1,'2013-03-14 17:08:02','2013-03-15 00:08:02','','882761_555336131153088_1035548107_o','Times change.','inherit','open','open','','882761_555336131153088_1035548107_o','','','2013-03-14 17:08:02','2013-03-15 00:08:02','',1915,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/882761_555336131153088_1035548107_o.jpg',0,'attachment','image/jpeg',0),(1917,1,'2013-03-14 17:20:19','2013-03-15 00:20:19','I don\'t want to argue the politics of religion, or the goods and bads of the Roman Catholic Church. Several people very close to me would proudly refer to themselves as lapsed Catholics. In fact, I\'m not sure there is any other thing that more people seem to brag about <em>no longer being</em>, which seems truly odd to me.\n\nI was raised Protestant, but converted 20 years or so ago when I married into a Catholic family. I enjoy what I see as the majesty of the Mass, and I suppose I am guilty of downplaying the bad and concentrating on the good the church does. Yes, the pedophilia scandals are horrible, but there are few groups standing up for the poor as strongly as the Catholic bishops in this country. I admire the fact that my church -- unlike many of the fundamentalist Protestants in this country -- doesn\'t treat the poor as if their problems are their own fault.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_1916\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\" caption=\"Times change.\"]<a href=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/882761_555336131153088_1035548107_o.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-1916\" title=\"882761_555336131153088_1035548107_o\" src=\"http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/882761_555336131153088_1035548107_o-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" /></a>[/caption]\n\nBut what fascinates me right now is the selection of Pope Francis, the first pope from the Western Hemisphere. Choosing a South American pope seems brilliant to me, since Latin America is where the church remains strongest in terms of its membership. It\'s the one part of the world where radical Islam doesn\'t seem to have made any serious inroads.\n\nI\'m not sure how long Jorge Bergoglio will serve -- he is already 76 years old -- but it is still a good move.\n\nA look at the photo showing the scenes when the last two popes -- Francis this year and Benedict in 2005 -- were announced is at least a little bit humorous. In 2006, the people who were there were <em>there</em>, doing their best so see whatever they could see with their own eyes. This year hundreds if not thousands of people who were in attendance were watching on tablets or smart phones.\n\nApparently being there isn\'t the best thing.\n\nActually, it reminds me of the old days at Dodger Stadium, when hundreds of fans attending baseball games came equipped with transistor radios so that they could hear what legendary broadcaster Vin Scully describe the game.\n\nSure, you can be there.\n\nBut why not enhance the experience if you can?\n\nIt isn\'t 1950 anymore.\n\n&nbsp;\n\n&nbsp;','Being there isn\'t actually good enough anymore','','inherit','open','open','','1915-revision','','','2013-03-14 17:20:19','2013-03-15 00:20:19','',1915,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1917',0,'revision','',0),(1930,1,'2013-04-21 15:50:23','2013-04-21 22:50:23','We measure the true quality of people -- and nations -- by what they do when things are going badly.\n\nWe\'re all for freedom of religion -- until we\'re not.\n\nWe\'re all for the rights of criminal defendants -- until we\'re not.\n\nTwo criminals attack the Boston Marathon. Law enforcement does it right, pursuing them, finding them pretty quickly and then killing one and capturing the other.','','','inherit','open','open','','1929-revision','','','2013-04-21 15:50:23','2013-04-21 22:50:23','',1929,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1930',0,'revision','',0),(1931,1,'2013-04-22 15:25:06','0000-00-00 00:00:00','','Auto Draft','','auto-draft','open','open','','','','','2013-04-22 15:25:06','0000-00-00 00:00:00','',0,'http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/?p=1931',0,'post','',0);

--
