A Wandering Mind

     Marco Rubio (R-FL) has introduced a bill he calls The Olympic Tax Elimination Act .  The purpose of the act is to provide an income tax exemption for American athletes who win medals at the Olympic Games.  Currently, these outstanding athletes are paid a stipend of $25,000 for a gold medal, $15,000 for a silver medal, and $10,000 for a bronze.  That's a pretty good paycheck, unless one considers the thousands of hours in the gym, pool, or track that they put in.  Except for the attention paid by people who are really devoted followers of sports like swimming, gymnastics, beach volleyball, air rifle, kayaking, and all the rest, these extremely skilled athletes labor in anonymity, striving for the opportunity to represent the nation once every four years.  For most of them, one Olympic experience is all they are going to get.      So from a patriotic standpoiont, what Marco Rubio proposes makes a lot of sense....

     I do not agree with Chick-fil-A's chairman Dan Cathy on his view of gay marriage.  My opinion is that it is time that gay marriage achieve recognition in our nation.  That "traditional marriage" is the union between "one man and one woman" does not necessarily square with history.  A read of the Old Testament and other ancient literature should be enough to convince one that the "tradition" of marriage often included one man and several women.  Whether this tradition demonstrates male oppression of women, or whether this tradition is more benign--women simply needed the protection of a male head of family in some societies--is unclear to me.  (For an interesting read on marriage, look at historian Stephanie Coontz's book Marriage, a History:  How Love Conquered Marriage).       Dan Cathy's recent remarks that he supports "traditional" marriage has met with predictable denunciations from the gay commun...

     This summer, a prominent history museum in the city where I live is displaying several pages from the Pacific Railway Act of 1862.  I confess to being a "history geek," the kind of person who drives friends and family crazy by lingering in history museums while trying to "feel" the meaning of the artifacts on display.  People who do that tend to spend a lot longer in the museum than do others.  In the case of the Pacific Railway Act, there are many cognitive and visceral reactions that one can experience.  Of course, it is moving to scan to the end of this document, and see with your own eyes the signature of President Abraham Lincoln.  I wonder if he used numerous "ceremonial quills" to sign this seminal act into law on July 1, 1862.  My hunch is that Lincoln signed the act without the hype that modern presidents have come to employ, in spite of the overwhelming importance of this act.      More important than...

     Today the NCAA announced that it is imposing unprecedented penalties on the Penn State University football program.  The penalties include both retroactive penalties (such as vacating previous wins), future penalties (such as a prohibition from playing in bowl games for four years) and very large monetary penalties, to the tune of $60 million.  In addition, the Big 10 Conference is applying its own set of penalties, which will effectively bar Penn State from sharing revenue from bowl games.  The reaction has been mixed.      On one hand, former players have weighed in on Twitter with tweets to the effect that they had nothing to do with Jerry Sandusky's horrendous crimes, so why should their records suffer?  Further, there are many who continue to maintain that the late Joe Paterno did no wrong.  He reported Coach Sandusky's alleged (at the time) crimes to his nominal superiors.  Of course, the word "nomin...

Thanks to Those Who Serve (originally posted May 3, 2011)   On Monday night, May 1, 2011, President Obama announced that United States Special Forces had killed Osama bin Laden.  Along with the rest of the nation, I rejoiced.  I am thankful for the courageous Navy SEALS who conducted the operation; we will never know the names of these dedicated professionals.  But hearing the news brought to my mind many other memories.  Mostly, I remember those who have served and continue to serve: --I remember my friend Chris who worked for me during a past assignment in the Air Force.  Chris has deployed four or so times since 9/11, and has always been in harm's way.  During one deployment, he had the very dangerous job of training Iraqi Police. -- I remember my friend Neal who worked at the American Embassy in Nairobi when it was bombed by terrorists.  Neal earned the Airman's Medal that day for rescuing numerous injured victims from a bombed, bur...

 Let's Get Serious About Debt (originally posted April 19, 2011)           Yesterday, the bond rating firm Standard & Poor's released a gloomy report stressing that unless the President and Congress do something, and quickly, about America's long-term debt, the United States stands to have its bond rating downgraded from "AAA"   ( http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2011/04/18/USAAARating.pdf ).   What's the effect?   It's pretty simple to understand, even for those of us who do not invest in bonds.   With a lower rating, the U.S. will be forced to raise interest rates to attract buyers.   Higher interest rates for U.S. securities translate to higher interest rates across the board, for things like small business lines of credit and mortgages.   Worse, higher rates mean the country is paying more and more each year just to service its own debt.      Although it seems that nowadays we're a...

Space Shuttle Discovery and Our Future (originally posted March 9, 2011) The Space Shuttle Discovery touched down at Florida's Kennedy Space Center today, March 9, 2011, at 11:57 AM.  This landing marks the final mission for the nation's oldest shuttle vehicle, and with only two shuttle missions remaining, one each for Endeavour and Atlantis , NASA's shuttle program comes to an end.  This era will be replaced by U.S. astronauts hitching rides with the Russian space program to get to the International Space Station, by launching satellites through already-existing NASA and commercial rockets, and by a push for Mars exploration.  But, as the New York Times opines:  "What sort of spaceship might ultimately replace the shuttle is an open question, and it is not yet clear how NASA will fare in the ongoing budget debate."  http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2011%2F03%2F10%2Fscience%2Fspace%2F10shuttle.html%3F_r%3D1%26hp&sa=D&s...