"He who commits injustice is ever made more wretched than he who suffers it." (Plato)

.....Since I vented my views on the situation with Penn State, I have read in newspapers and magazines and have heard commentators on TV excoriate the NCAA for the harshness of the penalties inflicted on the university.  These media people expressed their opinions much more vehemently than I did on my blog the other day.  

*(Portions of the following article originate on ESPN.com)

.....A source familiar with the investigation into Penn State's response to former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky's child sex abuse scandal is speaking out against the NCAA.

.....According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, a person connected to the Freeh report, which condemned Penn State's handling of Sandusky's abuse, said the NCAA should not have based its harsh sanctions against the university on the investigation.

.....The NCAA took this report and ran with it without further exploration," the source said. "If you really wanted to show there was (something) to cover up, interview the coaches. See their knowledge and culpability ..."  The failure to do so, according to the source, has damaged Penn State.

....."The sanctions against Penn State were really overwhelming, and no one imagined the report being used to do that. Instead, Mark Emmert, NCAA President, took the report and used Penn State's own resources to do them in. The institution is made of people, too. And they don't deserve this."

(.....Meanwhile, former Penn State players Franco Harris, Rudy Glocker and Christian Marrone have sent an e-mail to other Penn State alumni saying the Freeh report "is highly flawed, and factually insufficient.)

.....I do hope that the new administration at Penn State and its coaches will appeal the NCAA penalties which they so richly undeserve.

"Punishment is justice for the unjust." (St. Augustine)

.....I may be at the wrong end of opinions now, but I still have my own regarding the punishment inflicted on Penn State.  I can't understand the purpose of destroying a great university when everyone there now is innocent of child abuse, and especially the students and coaches of the football team.  The boys on the team came to Penn State, not merely for its academic program, but also to have the opportunity to play football there under Joe Paterno.   Paterno is no longer there, but what is the point of taking it out on the football program?  And the penalties that have been applied will also have an affect on all the other athletic programs as well as the student body. 

.....And if this crime was going on for 10 years it's hard to believe that, in all that time, not a single parent came forward with the complaint that a child was being molested.  And was there no victim who complained to a parent?  All of those responsible for failing to report these crimes are gone now; Joe Paterno is dead, all the school administrators have resigned or have been fired, all the coaches are gone.  

.....I have also read that the victims' lives "have been ruined".  Is that a fact?  Who is it that decides that?  Have the victims made that claim?  Yeah, right.  I find that their lives are ruined is too hard to believe.  The University has been fined millions of dollars, and they will also lose the millions of dollars they might have expected from bowl games.  They might have been ordered to give these victims a million or two.  I feel that financial penalties should have been sufficient. The penalties to the school's football program are too harsh. The football program is not responsible for child abuse.  The man who committed it and those who failed to report  it are the guilty ones. Punishment is justice for the unjust.

"I can trace my ancestry back to a protoplasmal primordial atomic globule." (The Mikado)

.....With all the posts on this blog, I have rarely written about my family; but I will correct that fault now.  I have a sister who lives in Boca Raton's Century Village.  She and her husband whom we call Mickey and my mother moved to Florida several years before I came here.  They were the reason I also retired to Florida.  My mother passed away about a dozen years ago at the age of 90. My sister, Betty, is 86, two years younger than I, and Mickey is 89.  Mickey's health has recently taken a turn for the worst.  He has a severe hearing loss, he's in the beginning stages of dementia, and he has fallen out of bed several times.  My sister is weak, she must walk with a cane, she does not cook any more, and she is Mickey's caregiver.  She is really not fit for that role at this stage in her life.  My niece, Jane, who also lives here, goes to help her mother with the cooking and other chores which have been left undone, but Rhoda and I have other ideas of how they should spend whatever years are left to them.  They should sell that apartment and move into an assisted living facility; that is what my sister should do, but which she refuses to do.

.....Her excuse is, that she is "not ready", that she hasn't the finances, that she wants to leave the house to her children.  All these excuses are truly not fathomable.  Mickey is collecting enough income from the VA each month to pay for a room in a facility--and I'm aware of what it is.  I don't know what they are collecting from social security, but the sale of the house could provide for whatever needs they will have.  The children are in no need to live off their parents' backs.  Now, as far as other family members are concerned, I have lots of cousins, most of whom do not live in Florida--and, of course, and thankfully, I have an adopted cousin in Great Britain--Ruth Grimsley who, no doubt, will not attend a single Olympic Event--and who, most likely, will leave a comment on today's blog.  Look for it.  Lastly, I have no living Aunts or Uncles, but my children have.

"Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments; love is not love which alters, when it alteration finds."(Sonnet 116)

.....Now I know why I have thus far published 11 books of 432 posts on my blog--not for an ego trip--I'm doing this to preserve them so that when my first great grandchild (expected in September) gets old enough to be interested in the life of his great grandparents he will have some reading to do. Perhaps those to come after him will welcome the same opportunity--or they will all say, "Who cares?"  Either way, my life here in South Florida since I retired will have been documented. That's  quite thoughtful of me, don't you think?  These books may no longer be available in the future on Amazon or on Kimbles (sp?) or elsewhere on the internet,  but at least they exist in my library at home and will eventually be the property of one or more of my "kids" (all over 50+) who will then have them passed on from generation to generation.  Yeah, right.  At some point in the distant future, no one will know where the Baron is buried; well maybe not "buried", but wall-borne.  And it all will have been for nothing.

.....Consider this to be just my musings for the day, and at my age you do a lot of musings.  For example, I'm musing about when my next doctor's appointment is occurring; who the next President will be; when are we going back to the Isle Casino; what's for dinner; will I be physically able to audition for the next resident show next March; when will I be able to have the time to get back to writing my Great American Famous Unknown Novel; why didn't I get the time to see my first grandchild getting married; when will my speakers be hooked up to this computer; who will do it? What will I do for a title to this posting; when will Unca Phil decide to read this blog again; why don't my clothes fit me; what can I do for a snack now? When will BF love me again? As anyone might determine, my musings run the gamut from important to inconsequential.  But, don't miss the point--age catches up to everyone, so it might be wise to write down the musings you might be apt to have at that point, so you will not have to be bothered thinking about them when the time comes.

"Where both deliberate, the love is slight; Whoever loved who loved not at first sight" (Marlowe)

.....These  days there is no place for your money to make money.  A few years ago you could buy a CD for 12 months at an interest rate of 4.5% which was a pretty good deal. But now banks ads and commercials advise you to open their savings accounts or CDs at a whopping .80%!  So, if you deposit $10,000, after one year you earn $80.  Whoopee.  I could make more than that on scratchoff tickets.  Perhaps your money could make money in the market, but if you're over 80, it's much too risky.  Heck, if you're over 70, it's too risky.  Elderly people on fixed incomes cannot afford to lose money in the market.  My financial advice to myself is, take what you can get with CDs and savings accounts.

.....I know that the ALLY bank adds .25% to your CD if you renew it, so that if your CD had been earning 1.04% with them, your renewal with the bonus would be earning 1.29%, the best rate out there.  And you can even add funds to that same CD during the 10 days after it matures.  I don't think you can find a better deal anywhere these days.  Let me know if you have a better one.

.....Enough with the financial stuff. I'm not a broker. The good news is that my grandson, Adam, Joel's son, got married last Sunday in the house!  There were friends in attendance, but only Joel, Barbara, and daughter, Hannah, were blood relatives at the ceremony.  Rh+ and I felt that brother Bobby, who lives in the vicinity, ought to have been there, along with his girlfriend, Michelle.  But I was not running the show.  We only learned about this marriage on Friday before the affair on Sunday.  It was Adam's desire to do it all this way.  They could have accomplished this in Las Vegas with nobody there, and had some fun in the casinos.  When the time comes when the happy couple decide to have children, perhaps they will have a boy who could carry on the name, Ross.  I'm the original.  Maybe they could call the kid, Baron--Baron Ross.  No so bad a name, I'd venture.

.....The other good news is that my granddaughter, Bobby's girl, is pregnant with a male child, they will name, Huston.  I'm dedicating my next book to him, because Katrina is making me a great grandfather!  She and her boyfriend are both in the US Navy.  PK, as I call her (Princess Katrina), is a Petty Officer 2C.  She supervises the mechanics on the jet planes.  I believe she is going to make the Navy her career.  Now, not only is Katrina in the military, but my nephew, Jake, and his sister, Meagan, have both signed up for the Marines and are on their way to Paris Island.  I guess we were destined to be a military family.  Jake and Meagan are the children of Mark, my sister's son.

"Friendship should be more than biting time can sever." (T.S. Eliot)

….It seems that whenever I get “political” in my blog, those who are not of my Democratic persuasion get all bent out of shape.  I've been accused of  being “condescending” which according to the dictionary means  “displaying a patronizingly superior attitude.”  When I ask where in my blog  I am condescending, I never get a response.  And here is one comment that I published in spite of the fact that it denigrates me: “Try to be fair even if you are a liberal, which gives you the right to be condescending to those who have not reached your spiritual and intellectual level.”

…..So, let’s examine those personal accusations.  The writer implies that, as a Liberal, I’m not “fair” and that as a political group Liberals are not fair—whatever that means.  Then it goes on, sarcastically claiming that I think I have the right, (as liberals do, he says),  to place myself above those who have not reached my “spiritual and intellectual level.”  If that is not sarcasm, then I don’t know what is.  And I do not appreciate the fact that the writer gets personal.  The author, himself, fails to realize that he is not fair when, in another comment, calls the incumbents, “…that Obama gang.”  .....The truth is that I am not condescending, I do not place myself above anybody, and I have never referred to the writer as any other than my friend.  When I require of him to point out where I get as personal as he does, I get no response.  This does not ring true from a friend, which he claims to be.

…..He, and other “friends” present themselves as “ Independents”—then they speak like Republicans.  But I really don’t give a rat’s ass about their political denominations.  We all have our own ideas as to whom can best represent this country, but beyond our party loyalties we should not lose sight of the fact that we are all Americans.  I have a blog where anyone can leave a comment regardless of their political persuasions. That seems more than “fair” to me.  After all, it is MY Blog, and I can write whatever I damn please about Mitt Romney and his “gang”.  The first Amendment gives me that right and I embrace it.  But, If I consider someone my friend, I do not get personal with them on my blog; I do not call them names, I do not employ sarcasm against them,  I do not get angry about their views, as they appear to do about mine when they threaten never to read my blog, and I do not, in any way, attempt to embarrass them or insult them.  Show me the proof that I do any of these things, friend, or stop pinning me to the wall like a bug. 

…..Perhaps I have had different life experiences that have taught me to look beyond the things that tend to be the cause of rifts in friendship. Once you're my friend, that's it. One of the most overriding of experiences  was WWII.  I spent four years with ten “shipmates” in pressure situations every single day—pressures I never expected to endure when I was 17.  We used to fly 13 hour combat missions with the expectation we were going to die at any moment.  Many was the day when there were “differences” among us, but when morning game, we were all brothers, and grudges were forgotten.  I was the only Jew in this crew, and I suffered many an anti-Semitic remark from other crew members in the Squadron, but my “friends” had my back.  If you are my friend then you respect what you know about me through the years, and you do not reject my friendship when you become “frustrated” to the point where you call me “smug” or state that I am condescending, or that you will never read my blog again. This is not friendship if it causes you to lose me—to your detriment.  This is not friendship at all.

"Old age is the most unexpected thing that could happen to a man." (Trotsky)

.....As the great Mark Twain said... "Let us live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry."  Well, that is a very nice sentiment, and I'd like it to be true in my case.  But at the present time, I do not have an undertaker.  So, I suppose I'll have to go and find one and make a friend of him--or her.  Then there is a chance that it will help to confirm Twain's advice.  The other thing is that there is no point in having an undertaker without your having lived so that he'll (she'll) be sorry you have gone.  Twain does not explain the kind of living he has in mind.  I don't think Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer meet the criteria. And I'm not sure that I do. Besides, I'm not going to be taken "under" when I have completed my allotted time in this world; I'm going to be taken "over"--that is, I'll be taken and and laid to rest in a wall.  I could use the rest.  I gather that it's an attempt by the funeral home to emulate the Kings of Egypt who were "buried" in a pyramid.  However, in my case, I'm not a king, merely a Baron.

.....It's been 30 years since I retired, and at the moment I don't feel any different from that day.  I know that I am 30 years older, but I have had my wife as a companion since then who keeps me feeling younger.  If I did not have the physical ailments that require my using a cane or, at times, a walker, I could still be playing golf and running marathons.  But those days are over.  Nevertheless, I don't feel that I've "aged".  The real sign that you have aged is that your toupee has turned grey.  But, thankfully, I don't own one, and my hair has not turned grey. My problems are that I broke both hips and I'm dragging around a pacemaker.  These do not prevent me from doing xword puzzles or from writing a blog for the last five years, or for unjumbling the Jumble in the newspaper.  Other signs of aging are that one does not own an ipad, or an iphone, and you have no idea what an "app" is.  My white Malibu is 12 years old and has not changed color; I still drive it, and I've yet to be told not to.  When the time arrives that my keys have to be taken away, it will be done with me kicking and screaming.

"These quarrels must be quietly debated." (Titus Andronicus)

.....Cuzzzzzin Ruth commented on my previous blog that no one but she appears to be writing comments.  Well, that's scary.  It's like the saying "If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound?" ...or something like that.  I know I have been working on a book, so I have neglected blog writing.  Perhaps readers have become tired of looking for something to read on this venue.  I confess I'm not sure how to notify them.  Maybe I'll send an email to all my past readers...that is, except for my good friend Phil who has decided never again to read my blog.  So, then--that is a severe loss because in the past five years he has been one of the best of commentators.  He will be missed.  I'm not sure of his reasoning. A friend should bear a friend's infirmities, but Brutus makes mine greater than they are. (Thank you, Cassius...I will invite you to my Facebook and Twitter).  


.....As far as my novel is concerned, I guess that I am not a great novel writer because I have my characters stuck in 1776 at an Inn in Pennsylvania after accompanying George Washington in his venture across the Delaware to combat Hessians living on the other side as allies of the British Redcoats.  I have no idea why Hessians are doing that.  Oh, I do know why they are doing that; I do do research, but I don't know why are doing that for the reason they are doing that.  For one thing, they could get killed--which they were when Washington surprised and defeated them in a battle after he and his bedraggled Confederate Army won a decisive victory.  The Hessians and Redcoats should have learned a lesson from that.  But it turned out that they didn't.  The Colonists eventually won the war, even without speaking German.  The British wasted their money hiring German soldiers; witness WWI and WWII.

.....As you may have gathered, the painting atop this blog is a Hessian soldier all decked out in a fancy uniform.  I didn't plan to have it where it is; I had no idea how to move it or to resize it. I'm not an engineer.  I'm just a poet--and oh, yes, also a teacher.  I hope all my lost readers will have learned a lesson once they get back here.  

Yo Te Amo Esta Pais...les Etats Unis.

.....It seems that some people still believe that Obamacare is unconstitutional in spite of the fact that five judges on the Supreme Court decided that requiring people to buy health insurance is a tax, not a penalty, and therefore the health plan is constitutional. The Constitution does give the government the right to impose taxes.  The Affordable Health Act is therefore the law of the land.  
.....It seems that some of the same people claim that Obama violated the Constitution when, by executive order, he suspended the deportations of the children of illegal immigrants who were born in this country, who graduated from schools in this country, and who speak English in this country.  Republicans were furious.
.....It is factual that many presidents, who by executive order, have violated the Constitution. Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus during his tenure and had about 13000 arrested for being a danger to the war effort because of their public anti-war protests.  He also violated the Constitution, when by executive order he ordered that approximately 75,000 troops be recruited.   But only Congress can raise armies.

Here is the exact quote from Article 1, Section 8, Paragraph 12:

 12: (Congress has the right) to raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years.  

.....However, Congress was not in session, and Lincoln felt that the Confederacy had many more troops than the North, and that the war would be lost without a superior army.  Therefore, he "raised" the army. We had one email comment about this "violation" of the Constitution who claimed, "...That clause does not speak to the president's right to mobilize military in  an emergency, particularly when an invasion may be imminent."

.....Excuse me?  I read that statement several times to make certain I understood it. In other words it's O.K. to be invaded without doing anything that the Constitution doesn't allow?  That is ludicrous, and I feel that the author of that statement probably made a mistake.  A lifeguard was recently fired for saving a drowning person because he left the beach where he was hired.  I would claim that act as an emergency requiring the lifeguard's immediate attention, and to hell with leaving his area; a man was drowning.  Let's cut Abe some slack; he saved a drowning country.

Ruth Grimsley All very educational for an English lady, Baron! But I'm confused by  the meaning of the term "speak to" in your quotation. When we we've established that, I'll know better what issues we're discussing. Cuzzin Ruth  Baron Dear English Lady, it means  approximately"...says nothing about". POST SCRIPT  JULY 7, 2012 .....I suppose it's no secret that my political persuasion is left of right,  and that doesn't make me a bad person. This morning I read in the  newspaper a piece from a column by Rachel Patron, who  no doubt, is also somewhat "left of right".  And since I have plenty  of room here, I'll simply repeat it: "...Throughout the last year of debating, I've been bothered by the superficiality and ignoranceof right-wing conservatives pretending  to be constitutional experts.  On Fox News, or conservative radio, you repeatedly heard 'Obama shredded the Constitution'  or  that he 'violated our God-given rights'  or 'deprived the nation  of liberty and freedom,' etc. ...Since no specific instances of 'shredding'  or 'violation' have been  shown, or abused freedoms identified, either the speakers do not  know the Constitution, or they repeat talking points they've been handed .  Probably both."   ...Although conservatives are circling the wagons, President Obama  still comes out a winner, becauseit shoots down his enemies' assertion that he's an overreaching domestic leader.  On foreign  policy his credentials are strong--and Obama Bin Laden is still dead.

Vive Les Etats Unis

.....Today is the 4th of July, a day when our independence from the tyranny of King George III of England was declared.  I have never read a document as soul shearing as The Declaration of Independence is. Its birth occurred when the Continental Congress appointed a committee of five to write a document declaring the colonies' independence.  Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Ben Franklin turned out to be the principal authors of this revered and deathless article of poetry and patriotism.  Adams insisted that Jefferson do the writing and the rest would edit it.  Jefferson objected and said that Adams was a higher member of Congress, but Adams said that Jefferson was more revered than he, and a much better writer.  And so he did.  It has been 236 years since The Declaration was written, and we must wonder if the five considered what America would be like in our own time, and whether or not the Union survived.  Indeed it did. And so we must wonder what America would be like 236 years from now and whether or not patriotism and country would survive on all the July 4ths to come. 

.....Adlai Stevenson once said that ",,,when an American says that he loves his country, he means not only that he loves the New England hills, the prairies glistening in the sun, the wide and rising plains, the great mountains, and the sea.  He means that he loves an inner air, and inner light in which freedom lives and in which a man can draw the breath of self respect". 

.....Self respect and freedom were the goals of the Colonies in 1776 and Jefferson sought to achieve it for all of us, and for all of time, with the incredible Declaration of Independence when he wrote, "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."  I don't know about the "created equal" part.  Just take a look at and watch LaBron James.  I wish I were as equal as he.  Nevertheless, we do live now with a greater measure of acceptance of fellow Americans of every breed and color and religion than ever before.  In the name of achieving the goals that Jefferson cites, it is time to put aside our partisan differences and work together in order to serve our country and save our country with declarations of Patriotism so that rich and poor can live a life of liberty and the pursuit of happiness like all Americans seek and are entitled to by virtue of the Fathers of our Country.

Is the Revolution Over?

.....I've recently gone back to writing posts for this blog simply because I'm up against a wall with my Great American Famous Unknown Novel.  I have to take the characters somewhere, and I've got several places I would like to take them, but there is a load of research involved and that takes up a lot of my time.  I don't know if I can ever finish this book.  I've sent sample chapters out to a few relations and friends, but with barely any responses,so thus far it must not have stirred any hearts and minds...only blahs.  Blahs have never been sufficient for me.  That's why I've had a relatively brief career on the HLI stage...now no one to give me the claps.  A lot of brand new faces around that I have never seen before, so I'm sure very few are left who have seen my soul stirring performances in productions like The Mikado, Music Man, etc.  The turnover in this community has been vast.  Many well-wishers and breakaleg comrades have passed on to that big stage in the sky.  


.....As the days go by now, there is difficulty in figuring out what to do, except to make doctors' appointments.  That's what happens when you get on in the years.  I try to keep my brain active, but my body lags behind.  I have a doctor for almost every ailment that has been invented...I said almost--not every.  There is the internist, the dermatologist, the orthopedist, the cardiologist, the pulmonologist, the psychiatrist, the podiatrist, and the pedacurist.  They are all skilled and educated people who have a bad habit of making you wait 45 minutes past your appointment time.  When you go to checkin counter to find out what's going on, the answers are as follows: "The doctor is running late." (No kidding?) Or, "Oh, the doctor had an emergency appendectomy." 
So, where is he now, I might ask. "He's in the hospital."  So, I might ask why I've been made to sit in this waiting room without anyone coming out to tell me what is going on.
Well, again, this is what you have to contend with as the years creep on.  


.....It's been over a year since I've been to a movie.  It appears to me that film is now geared to the younger set who are able to contend with the 3D glasses one must now wear in order to have monsters or whatever to jump from the screen onto your lap.  Since I wear distance lenses, these monsters never really reach me, so perhaps reading lenses might help.  I'll have to try it.  That is, if I ever feel the need to go to a movie.  I can see one on my TV for five bucks.  Well, have a safe and sane 4th my friends...especially sane.