Readers of the previous posting (tacked onto this posting at the end) saw my comments and those of a South Florida Sun-Sentinel columnist about the Koch brothers, significant Florida contributors to conservative causes. That reminded me of a short story I originally posted on this blog on August 10, 2011. It is worth re-reading at this time. I wonder if the Koch brothers were in attendance. Anyway, take another (or a first) look at it. It is fiction, or is it?
JL
The Meeting
The meeting was held in a secluded and luxurious chalet in the foothills of an isolated mountain range. A private airstrip was the only access to the place other than a rugged unmarked road used to bring in the staff, food and housekeeping essentials from the nearest town, sixty miles away. A number of private jets were parked at the end of the runway where the hangar and fuel depot were located.
The men, all casually dressed as if they were there for a weekend of hunting or fishing, sat around a large conference table. They shall remain nameless, but suffice it to say, each one represented personal wealth in excess of the 300 billion dollar level, which made their eight figure annual salaries almost meaningless. These were the wealthiest men in America. If I were to identify them, you would not recognize one name. Each had gone to great lengths to preserve their anonymity, a quality common to possessors of wealth of this kind.
“Gentlemen,” intoned a short
gray-haired man sitting at the table. “In order to get to our agenda
promptly and tend to business, I want to remind all of you of what our group is
all about. I am sure you all already know this … that is why you are here
… but these ideas bear frequent repeating.” No one said anything. A
few of the men nodded their assent.
"Although we as individuals are clearly the most charitable people in the world, our prime objective is wealth preservation.”
"Although we as individuals are clearly the most charitable people in the world, our prime objective is wealth preservation.”
“Not exactly,” someone
interjected. “I am not in the least charitable. I don’t care if
people out there live or die or starve or whatever. I donate for tax
purposes. If the God damn government took away the deductions I get for
what I give, and what my foundations give away, I wouldn’t let loose of a red
cent.”
“Thank you, George, for your
comments. But let’s get on with it,” the discussion leader
continued.
“Ideally, it would be wonderful if
there were no such thing as taxes. Some of you, I know, have moved a lot
of your wealth to countries where there are practically none, but we all know
there are limits to how much of that you can do. So long as we are
Americans, we must do as much as we can to keep taxes here to a minimum and
deductions and loopholes at a maximum. We must have a government, for
without one, we would lose the protection it provides to allow us the freedom
to do what we want with our money. And of course, at a minimum, we need
an army and navy to provide that protection.”
George raised his hand, was
recognized, and spoke up. “Bull. We don’t need the government to
provide us with a military. We can hire our own. It’s cheaper that
way. There’s plenty of mercenaries around and no one gives a shit if they
get killed.”
“George, thank you for your
comments. That’s something to consider, but let’s get on. Even
though the maximum tax rate is down to 35%. that's still a big hit. Even
with deductions and shelters, it takes a lot out our wallets. The
Democrats would like to see it go back up to 39%, like it was under
Clinton. I would love it back down to 25% or even lower. Single
digits would be fine. And paying into Social Security is something we
must avoid. That’s a bottomless pit. We only pay into it on a miniscule
fraction of our income but I would hate to see that changed, and there are
those out there who want to do exactly that.”
“Look at the numbers, though. There
are only ten of us in this room and there are maybe another 100,000 top-bracket
taxpayers out there who are almost in the same boat as we are, and we are
speaking for them too. Our task is to make sure the government keeps
doing it our way. We have to get the country behind us. That
Norquist fellow did a fine job getting a lot of Congressmen to pledge never to
increase taxes nor get rid of our blessed loopholes, but he’s beginning to lose
his credibility. Bush helped him a lot to connect to the conservatives
out there, but that’s history now.”
The discussion leader paused
briefly, looked out of the massive picture windows at the spectacular scenery
surrounding the chalet and continued.
View looking westward from chalet picture window
View looking westward from chalet picture window
“As I see it, we must do everything
to promote the idea that tax increases, in any form whatsoever, including
removing loopholes and deductions, are extremely bad for the country. We
must drill it into the heads of all Americans that taxation removes incentive
to invest and grow the economy at all levels and kills jobs. That gets
them every time. We have to get that into the schools at all levels, even
kindergarten.”
“Ha,” someone laughed. “Maybe
we should put out an Ayn Rand inspired comic book for kids.”
“Great idea,” the leader chuckled.
“But this is no laughing matter. We must convince America that the Laffer
curve, the economic ideas of Milton Friedman and of course, of Frederick Hayek,
are irrefutable truths, deserving of as much respect as the Ten
Commandments. And that the Keynesian policies of using government spending
and higher taxes as tools with which to manage the economy, and to provide an
unearned safety net, are poisonous.”
“The way to do this is to convince a
majority of Americans of the validity of our positions. And this is a
great time to continue to do this. The citizenry is hurting and they,
like us, are taxpayers. We need them on our side. They will buy this
argument that taxes are the cause of all of the country’s problems, if we shove
it down their throats hard enough and often enough. Put the blame on the
government. It spends too much. On anything and everything.
As a wise person out there has said, ‘we have to starve the beast.’ "
"If the funding for Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and every government spending program out there were cut at least in half, we would never again need to even think about raising taxes. We might even cut them significantly. Frankly, I know people would be hurting and some might even die, and things the government does, like roads and dams and research, would have to be eliminated. But it is far more important that this nation preserve our freedom to accumulate wealth without having to share it with anyone else through excessive taxation. It’s our money. We cannot have anything that would even hint at the Marxist concept of wealth redistribution. That’s what high taxes really are. The French cut off Louis XIV’s head to start this God damn leftist ball rolling and we aim to make sure it is stopped right here.”
"If the funding for Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and every government spending program out there were cut at least in half, we would never again need to even think about raising taxes. We might even cut them significantly. Frankly, I know people would be hurting and some might even die, and things the government does, like roads and dams and research, would have to be eliminated. But it is far more important that this nation preserve our freedom to accumulate wealth without having to share it with anyone else through excessive taxation. It’s our money. We cannot have anything that would even hint at the Marxist concept of wealth redistribution. That’s what high taxes really are. The French cut off Louis XIV’s head to start this God damn leftist ball rolling and we aim to make sure it is stopped right here.”
All those around the table rose and
applauded the speaker.
“Okay, here is the way we do
it. And it has to be done so convincingly that even the Congressmen and
local politicians who come aboard actually believe this stuff with all their
hearts. That won’t be easy, because some of them are really smart, but we
need to make them believers.”
1. We must control the media. We have to have at least one or two major TV networks in our pocket whose programming we can control. We must dominate talk radio, internet web sites, newspapers, particularly in smaller cities and towns, and magazines. Once they get our message out, it gets E-mailed all over the country, multiplied ten-fold.
1. We must control the media. We have to have at least one or two major TV networks in our pocket whose programming we can control. We must dominate talk radio, internet web sites, newspapers, particularly in smaller cities and towns, and magazines. Once they get our message out, it gets E-mailed all over the country, multiplied ten-fold.
2. We must fund foundations and institutes which provide legitimate appearing material and documentation, telling our story, to be provided to the media. Generously endowing a few hard-up colleges or universities can result in strong support for our position from the academic world.
3. We must ally ourselves with groups who seem susceptible to adopting our ideology because they are already single-mindedly devoted to one cause or another. This blind devotion can be easily transferred to our cause. This will increase our numbers and believe me, this is very applicable to members of Congress and local legislators. The groups with which we must ally ourselves are endless. They include pro-Israel groups, pro-life groups, creationists, anti-fluouride groups, home schooling and pro-educational voucher groups, evangelical Christian groups, anti-immigrant groups, chambers of commerce, some professional societies, sporting groups, bankers association and Second Amendment groups.
4. We must repeatedly attack any opposition to our positions. Innuendo and stretching the truth can be used to discredit any who disagree with us. Guilt by association and lies, even ones easily disproven, are effective tools since refuting them takes the opposition’s eye off of the ball. Individuals who are in financial distress can be coerced. Anything questionable in an opponent’s personal life should be capitalized on.
“Gentlemen, to embark on this
program, we have established an off-shore funding center with access to all of
our accounts in this country. Everything is cryptographically protected
to a degree beyond the capability of any government in the world to
decipher. You will never be identified as being involved in this program.
Take a deep breath, gentlemen, for here is the price tag to do this job
properly."
"If any of you are not willing to contribute $200,000,000 to this effort right now and commit to that amount each and every year for the next ten years, you may get up and leave this room right now. All of your jets out there have been refueled and are ready to take off with you if you so choose. Remember though, what I propose is not only for your good, but for the good of the country as we know it. You see, I am firmly convinced of the truth of every word that I have said.”
"If any of you are not willing to contribute $200,000,000 to this effort right now and commit to that amount each and every year for the next ten years, you may get up and leave this room right now. All of your jets out there have been refueled and are ready to take off with you if you so choose. Remember though, what I propose is not only for your good, but for the good of the country as we know it. You see, I am firmly convinced of the truth of every word that I have said.”
He rose and looked at all of the men
sitting around the table, making eye contact with each of them individually.
None of the nine other men even budged nor made any motion to leave their
seats. He paused for half a minute and only then, smiled.
“Okay, then. Let’s have lunch
and afterwards, I want to introduce you to a few people who will make sure
every penny of the two billion dollars that you have just pledged is well spent
… and turn over the chair of our group for the next year to whomever is next in
alphabetical order. That’s you, George, right?”
Everyone leaned back as white-jacketed waiters entered the
room, laid down fine bone china and sterling silver table settings and prepared
to serve a lunch which did not come from McDonalds.
What Did They Have In Common?
Zsa Zsa Gabor (Miss Hungary in 1936) is now 96 but once looked like this.
In the previous posting, we asked you what a listing of celebrities had in common. I wonder how many of you knew that all of them: Elie
Weisel, Kevin Bacon, Steven Spielberg, Sandy Koufax, Larry King, Zsa
Zsa Gabor, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Elliot Spitzer and John Malkovich, all of them were victims of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme. All of them lost millions. Zsa Zsa Gabor (Miss Hungary in 1936) is now 96 but once looked like this.
JL
The Spice of Life
The
other day, I caught a few words from a TV commercial that I had turned my eyes away from. It was from the McCormick Spice people,
promoting their products, and was making the statement that “there's more to flavor than fat and salt.” How true that is! Most of us try to cut down on the salt and
fats which doctors say are not very good for you.
Coincidentally,
that morning the Palm Beach Post
carried a column (The You Docs) by Doctor Oz and Dr. Roizen pointing out that
“Adding Spices to Your Food Leads to Healthy Life.”
Dr. Roizen and Dr. Oz
After
pointing out that “spiciness is the heart of Indian cooking and those spices
deliver incredible flavors and powerful health-enhancing benefits,” the doctors
went on to describe three spices to “spice up your new year” as follows:
Fenugreek:
This plant’s aromatic seeds are ground into soups, veggies, stews and
curries. It’s been shown to help control
blood glucose levels and is advocated to aid breastfeeding and lower lousy LDL
cholesterol.
Cumin: Often used to quell gassiness, it’s
most potent as black cumin seed oil.
It’s said to be an immune system modulator and a cancer fighter. Sprinkle toe ground seeds in chili, barbeque
sauce and on veggies. Along with
turmeric, it helps boost memory-enhancing proteins that nurture your brain’s
neurons.
Turmeric: A dried root used in yellow mustard
(Dr. Roizen loves it in a marinade for grilled salmon), turmeric eases
inflammation of osteoarthritis and ulcerative colitis (when used with
conventional medications). The article
goes on to point out that curcumin is the active ingredient in the turmeric
root and not to be confused with cumin, although ¼ teaspoon of it several times a day sprinkled
in food is suggested, if you want to try it.
Finally,
“The You Docs” suggest that you make a curry powder by “grinding those three spices
together with coriander seeds, bay leaf, mustard seed, cinnamon and
cloves; use in place of salt and pepper. Wow!”
My
take on all of this is to first check with your own physician if your are
planning on adding any of these to your diet in order to deal with a medical
problem of any kind. Aside from that cautionary word, if these spices are
available on the spice shelves in your local market (cumin
and turmeric are), you can be a bit adventuresome
and give them a try. I would think
twice, however, if getting them requires a visit to a health food store or
pharmacy, where a quest for fenugreek might
lead you. It may sound corny but sometimes
nutritional advice like this should be taken with the proverbial “grain of
salt.”
JL
Governor Christie
And we Finally Get to Chris Christie's Problems
Originally being from New Jersey, I am fascinated by the controversy which has
arisen over Governor Christie’s problem with his aides shutting down some lanes
leading to the George Washington Bridge for political reasons. This kind of stuff has always been normal for the Garden State. For those whose familiarity with New Jersey
is limited to “The Sopranos, “Boardwalk Empire” and “Jersey Shore,” I attach an
very amusing opinion piece from the Palm Beach Post of January 14. The author is a former Newark Star Ledger
editor.
JL
Christie Controversy Not So Entertaining
Richard Aregood
In New Jersey, we like our politicians to be entertaining.
Watching Chris Christie writhe for what seemed like hours
last Thursday, denying he knew anything about what has become known as
Bridgegate, might have given joy to the “just deserts” crowd. We’re used to an
outsize share of rogues, incompetents and in-your-face pols. Often, they’re
funny, even if they don’t mean to be. But Christie’s performance wasn’t funny.
He doesn’t get it about funny.
Governor Christie
Kenny Gewertz was funny. The Democratic lawmaker went to
state Assembly sessions in the 1970s in a yellow plaid suit and drove a
Corvette with an airbrushed portrait of the Incredible Hulk on it. When an
Atlantic City hooker stole his $8,000 watch, he bellowed outrage at such
perfidy and called the cops. When he was feeling partisan, he hired a
helicopter to buzz the county Republican picnic and blow things around.
A little more in the Jersey tough-guy style was a Gewertz
opponent, New Jersey state Sen. James M. Turner. He masterminded a plot to
plant drugs in Gewertz’s home in an attempt to frame and ruin him. Turner got
five years in prison for that practical joke but won the Republican primary
before disappearing behind bars.
The Republican governor Christie Whitman, who ran the state
in the 1990s before quitting in 2001 to join George W. Bush in Washington, was
entertaining in her own stiff, waspy way. She once allowed herself to be
photographed frisking a young black man against a wall during a state police
sweep in Camden. The dopey grin on her face made the photo.
Nobody much cared that her successor, Jim McGreevey, was, as
he put it, “a gay American.” What we minded was that he appointed his untrained
and incompetent squeeze, an Israeli public relations man, as his homeland
security adviser. That put the personal far above the job we expect a governor
to do. McGreevey wasn’t funny, either, although I suppose it was kind of funny,
in a pathetic sort of way, that his career imploded when his paramour
threatened to sue him for sexual harassment after McGreevey had installed the
guy in a $110,000 state job.
Christie, with hardly any visible qualifications, was named
United States attorney for New Jersey in 2002. This is a great job. Kim
Kardashian could find corruption in New Jersey and get convictions. We have
dishonest politicians so stupid that they will risk jail for a no-show job or a
free driveway paving. So Christie had good conviction numbers in the office,
then had the great good fortune of running for governor against Jon Corzine, an
unpopular Wall Street guy, right after Wall Street crashed the entire American
economy.
The Fort Lee scandal happened because Christie (or his
aides) weren’t content with winning re-election. He wanted to run up the score
and pose as a unifier, despite his documented history of publicly abusing those
who disagreed with him. The news conference was perfect. He said he had just
learned what everybody in the state had suspected for weeks — that his own
people had created a traffic nightmare in Fort Lee to get back at its
Democratic mayor. Then he slagged his own people and called them names. Then he
wallowed in self-pity for the way they had betrayed him. That’s pitiful, not
entertaining.
George Washington Bridge
An example of another, less political bridge
An example of another, less political bridge
Humbug, as we say in Paramus. They were his people doing
what they believed was his will. If they were incompetents, they were his
handpicked incompetents, with whom he was perfectly content until the heat rose
on his personal backside.
As my friend, Tom O’Neil, who has been watching the parade
of Jersey pols for decades, put it, “That’s why there are no-show jobs, so the
clowns who got you elected don’t mess things up by going to work.”
That’s funny.
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* * * * * *
The Most Recent Previous Posting, in case you missed it, follows:
What Do These Famous People Have in Common?
Elie Weisel, Kevin Bacon, Steven Spielberg, Sandy Koufax, Larry King, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Elliot Spitzer and John Malkovich.
(The answer will be in the next posting.)
Jack Lippman
Hssssssssspendingisssssssbad! Sssssssoaretaxesssssssssss!
An Asp like this bit Cleopatra and today, its venom has infected the G.O.P
And that is why the very, very, very wealthy contribute enormous amounts of money to the Republican Party and organizations devoted to furthering its ASP agenda.
Florida's own Koch Brothers are an example of this, and with that in mind, I include a recent column by Stephen Goldstein from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. It is indeed an eye-opener.
Wha'd'ya Listen To?
Mostly taken from Wikipedia, and primarily based on Arbitron statistics, these are the ten most listened to radio programs in the United States today. While I am not surprised by the presence of conservative talk radio shows on the list, I am glad to see that a goodly number of people are listening to National Public Radio programming as well.
Rush Limbaugh
Elie Weisel, Kevin Bacon, Steven Spielberg, Sandy Koufax, Larry King, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Elliot Spitzer and John Malkovich.
(The answer will be in the next posting.)
Jack Lippman
"Offsets," the Koch Brothers and the "ASP" Party !
A
few postings back, I nicknamed the G.O.P. the “ASP” Party, that acronym
standing for “Anti-Spending Party” and I went on to explain that this
opposition to spending was based on an aversion to any new taxes. Such new taxes would strike at many of those who
support the Party primarily because they consider it to be a better guardian of
their wealth than the Democrats.
So
when something so deserving of passage as the extension of unemployment
benefits comes on to the floor of Congress, something that was left out of the
budget compromise achieved late in 2013, the G.O.P has to find a way of
supporting it, but without any additional spending. Even Republicans cannot ignore the suffering
among the unemployed the cessation of benefits causes. Their support, however,
comes with a demand for cuts elsewhere to “offset” the spending and any
potential new taxes which might be needed to fund an extension of unemployment
benefits.
They
do not consider that the cuts necessary to find these “offsets” might actually create
additional unemployment and bring about new problems in the area from which
they came. They just want to avoid any
new taxes. That’s the bottom line for
the ASP Party. It always is.
Hssssssssspendingisssssssbad! Sssssssoaretaxesssssssssss!An Asp like this bit Cleopatra and today, its venom has infected the G.O.P
And that is why the very, very, very wealthy contribute enormous amounts of money to the Republican Party and organizations devoted to furthering its ASP agenda.
Florida's own Koch Brothers are an example of this, and with that in mind, I include a recent column by Stephen Goldstein from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. It is indeed an eye-opener.
2014 – A
Pivotal Year For the Kochs, a pivotal
r for
By Stephen L. Goldstein
January 5, 2014
What do toilet
paper and Florida have in common? The billionaire Koch Brothers. In addition to
hardcore businesses like chemicals and oil, Koch Industries peddles a wide
variety of consumer products like Angel Soft. In addition to any number of
states around the country, the brothers "own" the Sunshine State.
Funding shills from the shadows, they push an aggressive, corporate legislative
agenda. For them, elections are buying opportunities, the chance to rebrand the
nation in their single-ply image. The Florida Legislature
is riddled with elected officials eager to do the bidding of ALEC — and the
Kochs behind it.
In 2010, the
Kochs gave $100,000 to Protect Your Vote, a Florida group, to fight
Constitutional Amendments 5 and 6 that aimed to stop the gerrymandering of districts.
In spite of their bucks, the amendments passed. But they're also behind Voter
ID bills authored by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to keep
people from voting.
Americans for Prosperity,
a Koch-backed "grassroots," tea-party group has been behind
eliminating Florida's already-low corporate tax. Yet, in 2011, not even 2
percent of Florida businesses paid any income tax. And, in one of the most
egregious attacks on representative government and the independence of judges,
in 2012, Americans for Prosperity tried to unseat three members of the Florida
Supreme Court, so Gov. Scott could replace them with radical conservatives.
They failed. But with four potential vacancies on the court for the next
governor to fill, expect the Kochs to pour millions into Florida to engineer
Scott's re-election so they can seed the court with corporate lackeys.
But that's just
the tip of the proverbial iceberg. In a chilling, new report, "Lawmaking
under the Influence of Very Special Interests," Progress Florida and the
Center for Media and Democracy identify the James Madison Institute (JMI) and
the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) in Florida as "cogs in
the State Policy Network, a Koch-funded, ALEC-allied network of groups that
push a cookie-cutter agenda in statehouses across the country." Here are
some of its key findings:
JMI "has
received more than $1 million from Koch-funded organizations, and has
consistently advocated for policies that protect the Kochs' bottom line rather
than the best interests of Floridians." JMI, FGA and ALEC have been behind
attacks on health care expansion, despite Florida's having the nation's
second-highest percentage of uninsured residents. They are also behind
"numerous other attacks on workers and the middle class, including efforts
to block minimum wage increases and deny critical employment benefits such as
earned sick time."
2014 is a
make-it-or-break-it year for the Kochs, JMI, FGA, ALEC and whatever new,
cozy-sounding names and acronyms they concoct to hide the fact that they're out
to take over the country. Somewhere, some Koch-financed group is plotting — and
laughing at how easy it is to get most Americans to vote against their own
self-interest. With tragic consequences, some people who've made a few bucks
regurgitate the garbage of the mega-rich, fantasizing they are one of them and
that they're accepted members of the club.
Well, it's up
to each and every one of us to show them that this isn't a one-ply or two-ply
country; it is non-compliant. "We the People" are better than toilet
paper, especially if it's Angel Soft. Florida is, too. The Kochs are not. It's
time to flush them down the drain, or roll over for them and lament the reason
why. I can't imagine anyone thinks we have a choice.
* * * * *
David and Charles Koch, whose last name is pronounced like the drink, COKE, and not like the last name of a former New York City mayor.
* * * * *
David and Charles Koch, whose last name is pronounced like the drink, COKE, and not like the last name of a former New York City mayor.
Well, he certainly said a mouthful. Do you disagree? If so, submit your thoughts to this blog. They
will be included. (By the way, I just can't wait for someone to
explain to me how ending unemployment benefits is the best way to
motivate an unemployed person to get a job, as if they weren't trying to
do exactly that all along, or how an increase in the wealth of the Koch
brothers will provide more money to "trickle down" to everyone else.)
And finally, for those of you who aren't aware of them, ALEC is the American Legislative Exchange Council, the infamous group which prepares and packages cookie-cutter tea party type laws (tighter voting hours, curtailed abortion rights laws, anti-gun control laws, laws weakening public schools, corporate tax reductions, etc.) and provides them with a red, white and blue ribbon to G.O.P legislators in State Houses throughout the nation. I rank them with Al Qaeada and the NRA as among the great dangers to America democracy today! And of course, the Koch brothers have been funding ALEC with millions of dollars over the past few decades. The Sun-Sentinel columnist got it right. Amen!
And finally, for those of you who aren't aware of them, ALEC is the American Legislative Exchange Council, the infamous group which prepares and packages cookie-cutter tea party type laws (tighter voting hours, curtailed abortion rights laws, anti-gun control laws, laws weakening public schools, corporate tax reductions, etc.) and provides them with a red, white and blue ribbon to G.O.P legislators in State Houses throughout the nation. I rank them with Al Qaeada and the NRA as among the great dangers to America democracy today! And of course, the Koch brothers have been funding ALEC with millions of dollars over the past few decades. The Sun-Sentinel columnist got it right. Amen!
JL (highlighting added by me)
Out on a Limb with
a Super Bowl Prediction
Who
will win the Super Bowl? With eight
teams in the playoffs at this time (Denver, San Diego, New England and
Indianapolis in the AFC and Seattle, San Francisco, Carolina and New Orleans in
the NFC), I will go out on a limb and pick the AFC Denver Broncos to win in the
final game, defeating whatever team wins in the NFC. I base this prediction on one factor only,
the season-long success of their offensive line in giving their quarterback plenty
of time and creating openings for their running backs as well. All eight teams have potentially explosive
passers, receivers and running backs and solid defenses as well, but a dominant
offensive line, which Denver has, trumps these factors.
Peyton Manning, Bronco Quarterback
JL
THE HEARING
A short story by Harvey Sage
The tubes snaked around
her like spaghetti, pulsating to the rhythm of the life support machines. Anna
Jonsen lay there, oblivious to the five people who encircled the hospital bed.
Dr. Dole spoke in a sad voice. “It breaks my heart to say this Mrs. Jonsen, but
the monitors don’t lie. Just look at the green lines. No movement. No life.
Your daughter Anna is brain dead.” The Jonsens held each other, their tears
sprouting as a soft mist. The evidence weighed heavily against their hopes.
They still had faith, faith that stood against scientific evidence. That faith
had brought them to this hearing. But still….
“But doctor , how
can this be? Anna came here last week for a simple procedure. They told us it
would be a routine, non-invasive operation. She should be home now, up and
about, fully recuperated.” Mrs. Jonsen spoke with a broken voice filled with
grief and disbelief. “How can this be?” she repeated herself, sounding like an
echo in a large cave.
Hobart Smith, the lawyer
for The Children’s Hospital, interjected a sour note. “I think it’s obvious
that we’re wasting time here. We must face reality. Unfortunately Anna has met
with a tragic situation. We met here to ascertain whether or not there is hope.
I think Dr. Dole has answered that for us.” He turned his oily head to Judge
Rothstein, his eyes riveted on him in fixation. “What happened to Anna was an
unfortunate medical accident. My client, The Children’s Hospital, is willing to
admit their culpability and will offer a cash settlement to the Jonsens. What
we need is that Anna be declared legally dead so that we can remove her from
this wasteful and costly life support. Every day she lays here is costing us a
hundred thousand dollars. That is crazy your honor.”
Mr. Jonsen glared at him.
“Money! Is that all you can think of? My daughter should be home recuperating
from routine surgery, not lying here waiting for you to pronounce her dead.”
Holding his wife in a loving squeeze he softly prayed. “Oh my God, You created
the universe by Your word. Certainly You can restore this child back to health
and well being. Help us Lord, please!”
Smith looked at Dr. Dole.
They exchanged glances. Dole understood how the Jonsens were hoping against
reason for a restoration of their daughter’s life. He shook his head. In his
years as a doctor he’d never seen such a recovery. Medically it didn’t make
sense.
The silver haired judge
stood silently, bowed in thought. Judge Rothstein felt as King Solomon must
have when he had to decide which of two women was the rightful mother of a
disputed child. By ordering that the child be split in two so that each women
would get half he forced the rightful mother to scream for the child’s safety,
thus proving that she was the true parent. Oh if only such a decision could
present itself to him now.
The judge felt sympathy
for the Jonsens, but he also had to be practical. Dead is dead, and no matter
how much love and prayer surrounded Anna she was officially brain dead. And he
was the one who had to declare her as such, the man who had to assign her to a
grave. Of course there was always the belief in resurrection. This was a
religious belief that some professed. Not so Judge Rothstein.
He was aware of the faith
of the Jonsens. So when he spoke he tried to be a gentle as possible. “Dear
parents, I am aware of your love for your daughter. Like you I wish she were
alive, that there was a chance, a sliver of evidence to support hope for Anna.
Alas, there is none. Unless you can point to incontrovertible proof of her being
alive I must find for the hospital and declare that she be removed from life
support.”
“Your honor, I feel you
are ignoring something. What about the possibility of a miracle. Science
doesn’t know all the answers.”
“No Mr. Jonsen, science
doesn’t. We still don’t know how the universe was formed or how life came
about. However at this juncture we must adhere to what we can see. The
observable evidence is clear. It breaks my heart but I see no other choice.”
The doctor and the lawyer
started to leave. The Jonsens went to Anna, stroked her cool brow with as much
love as they cold muster. Mrs. Jonsen looked up and asked God for a miracle, a
sign, anything that would save Anna’s life. “Speak the word Lord as you have in
the past. Near death experiences are evidence that gives us cause to hope. Help
us Lord, please. Do so, not only for our sake but for the sake of your Name so
that all will come to realize Your power.” Then, along with her husband and the
judge she started to leave.
As the three approached
the ICU door they felt a blast of cold air which struck them as weird since
there was no window or air conditioning vent to emit it. It stopped them in
their tracts as it continued on causing the bedclothes to twirl. The monitor
near Anna began to emit flashes of green light in a series of tell tale pulses.
Perplexed, the three stood transfixed as the doctor came back into the room
with lawyer Smith. “How can this be?” Dr. Dole asked as the monitor lines,
suddenly energized, moved up and down. “Her brain is supposed to be dead.”
The five of them heard a
moaning from where Anna lay and then heard her voice say “Momma.”
Wha'd'ya Listen To?
Mostly taken from Wikipedia, and primarily based on Arbitron statistics, these are the ten most listened to radio programs in the United States today. While I am not surprised by the presence of conservative talk radio shows on the list, I am glad to see that a goodly number of people are listening to National Public Radio programming as well.
 |
|---|
| Program | Format | Daypart | WeeklyListeners in Millions | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Rush Limbaugh Show | Conservative talk | Midday | 14+ | ||||||
| The Sean Hannity Show | Conservative talk | East Coast PM Drive | 13.25+ | ||||||
| Morning Edition | Public news | AM Drive | 12.3 | ||||||
| All Things Considered | Public news/talk | PM Drive | 11.8 | ||||||
| Marketplace | Public news | PM Drive | 9+ | ||||||
| Delilah | Adult contemporary | Evenings | 8+ | ||||||
| The Dave Ramsey Show | Financial talk | Midday | 7.75+ | ||||||
| Glenn Beck Program | Conservative talk | West Coast AM Drive | 7.5+ | ||||||
| The Mark Levin Show | Conservative Talk | West Coast PM Drive | 7.5 | ||||||
| Fresh Air | Public news/talk | Midday | 4.5 | ||||||
Back
in 1955, things were quite different though. These are the ten most
listened to radio programs
as reported by the A.C.Neilsen organization in that year. My, my, how
things have changed. How many of them do YOU remember? If you recall
more than half of them, you probably are an AARP member.
 Jack Benny
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|
