shot-from-the-hip

2009-07-02T10:35:00.000-07:00

Rick Raw: Iranian Uprising–Will of the People will Eventually Reign Supreme

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net www.rickatnight.com

The present unrest in Iran is no longer a protest against the election results. The protests have mushroomed into an uprising against the supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenie. He has absolute power and is the commander and chief of the Iranian military, militia, and Revolutionary Guard. Shockingly, the people are chanting "Death to the dictator."

This is an unprecedented breaking of a long standing taboo to question the supreme leader’s wisdom. If the people are dedicated to forcing change and willing to risk their life for a new style of government, then the will of the people will eventually reign supreme.

In America, in the mid-1700s, the Colonists were willing to take up arms against Britain. More seriously, the Colonists were willing to shed blood to become an independent nation. The die was cast. If the passion for change is strong enough, the will of the people will always prevail. They have to be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. Live free or die!

The breaking of the taboo against the supreme leader expresses the deep seeded level of the people’s discontent with the government. Since two-thirds of the population is under thirty and well educated, the youthful proletariat want more freedom and a bigger voice in the domestic decisions handed down by the president. Ahmadinejad has bungled the economy of the country. The people are furious, knowing the election was rigged.

Indeed, much of this discontent is being driven by young women who are tired of the strict Islamic moral rules of female behavior. They are smart, resourceful, and they want equal rights with men. A well known female Iranian author said that to find out what the modern Iranian wants, follow the activism of Iranian women.

The present Iranian system of government was set up after the 1979 Iranian Islamic extremist revolution which voted in the new constitution. This document gave the supreme leader absolute power to govern as he saw fit.

The new 1979 government constitution also installed the Guardian Council who vote in the presidential candidate every four years for a maximum of two terms. Essentially, the president is subservient to the supreme leader. The president does have leeway in his decisions regarding the economy and domestic issues. If the president does something of which the Guardian Council doesn’t approve, he could be forced out.

Elections in Iran have long been suspected of being fixed and just a sham. Ahmadinejad was declared winner only two hours after the polls closed. How could they count all those ballots in that short a time. Of course, it was fixed!

In other words, the Guardian Council protects the fundamentalist Islamic law which is highly restrictive of people’s civil rights and freedom. When the 1979 revolution ousted the Shah of Iran, it was like the country was sent back to the dark ages. These fanatical old men are religious zealots and frame all human behavior in the rules as set forth in the Qur’an. Of course, their interpretation is extremely bias to their viewpoints.

It would be like the Pope was the supreme leader of the United States and the president would have to do his bidding. Sin would be in, and confessing sin would get everyone off the hook. We have separation of church and state for very logical reasons.

Could the people of Iran pull off a full blown revolution? Not without the support of the military and or the Revolutionary Guard, who are fiercely loyal to the supreme leader and the concept of Islamic fundamentalism. In the end, Khamenei has the power to crush the uprising.

As long as Khamenei has the support of the military, then, unless the people had help from a foreign army, they are doomed to eventually comply. They could strike and shutdown the infrastructure of the country. That would be effective and could cause dissension in the Guardian Council forcing change. But the hard liners are definitely in charge.

Nonetheless, something important has happened to the Iranian Zeitgeist. There has been a shift in the power paradigm. In the hearts and minds of the people, the uprising has fomented the idea of a democratic revolution.

The people now have demonstrated they will not lay down to comply with the supreme leader or put up with fixed elections. This seed of revolution will grow into a people’s power base working behind the scenes to bring in visionary leaders.

Still, the heart beat of the Islamic fundamentalist revolution is strong and powerful. Ultimately, the will of the people is stronger than a fundamentalist religion. The question is: How dedicated are the democratic revolutionaries? Time will tell.

2009-06-25T10:45:00.000-07:00

Rick Raw: Vicious Chihuahuas Corner Cougar in Garage–It’s Not about Size but Dominance

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net www.rickatnight.com

In Riverside County, California, Ana Lee Spray, 23, was dumbfounded when she saw her three toy Chihuahuas snarling and barking just inside her open garage. When she investigated she saw a full grown Cougar cowering in the corner of the garage.

No doubt, the Cougar wandered into the garage to eat the Chihuahuas, but their viciousness and loud taunts scared the big cat. Each Chihuahua weighed no more than 3 pounds, which only proves that dog psychologist, Cesar Millan’s rule that it’s not about size but dominance.

A panicked Spray called police who in turn called in officers from the Department of Fish and Game. The police officers and the Game agents were speechless at this bizarre sight. The Game agents had to shoot three tranquilizer darts into the Cougar to subdue the beast.

But the tiny Chihuahuas refused to stop their attack. Finally, Spray got the pint-sized animals calmed down as the Game officers hauled the sleeping Cougar back to a wild life sanctuary. When the big cat woke up, he probably thought he had a bad dream.

Of course, as master of Pepe, my 11 pound Chihuahua, I can verify that this breed can dominate much larger dogs. And, Pepe, although I’ve trained him to be less vicious, can be unpredictable. Now if someone comes into our apartment, he’s quiet but we never know when he might silently attack, like a submarine. He has latched on to some unexpecting persons’ ankles a few times without making a sound.

Of course, the California incident was funny and made a great weird news story. However, with dogs, they are natural followers, and they need a leader of the pack. In the case of the Cougar, he encountered a situation for which he had no precedent. He was confused. The little monsters scared him into submission.

Since I have three dogs–officially a pack–they look to me as the leader of the pack. They need direction and discipline delivered with calm assertiveness. My Chihuahua will try to dominate the other bigger Basenji female and the smaller Heinz 57 variety female, but I step in and assert dominance.

Ultimately, Pepe looks to me for guidance. But Chihuahuas can be difficult to train or discipline. Those three toy Chihuahuas that cornered the Cougar are a great example of Chihuahuas assuming dominance with extreme prejudice.

In most cases, when dogs go bad, it’s the owners who are to blame for not assuming command of the pack. I reached this conclusion from watching Cesar Millan’s series The Dog Whisperer on the National Geographic Channel. He rehabilitates dogs and trains people who do not understand dog psychology.

2009-06-17T19:41:00.000-07:00

Rick Raw: "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" Abysmal Failure–Supreme Court Setback–Obama Flip-Flops on Issue

By Rick Grant Commentary www.rickgrant01@comcast.net

When Obama was elected President, he promised to end the absurd military policy established during the Clinton administration called "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell," because if you do, you are out of the military. The recent Supreme Court’s refusal to hear a gay Ohio Soldier, James Pietrangelo II’s challenge to the law was a bitter setback for gays wishing to serve openly in the military.

Gays and lesbians serving openly in the U.S. military has been a contentious issue for years. Many fine officers including Army Captains in the field, Air Force and Navy pilots, Marine Colonels, and even Generals have resigned over this matter. We know that throughout the history of the U.S. military at least 10% or more gays are at one time serving proudly and effectively, while keeping their sexual orientation secret.

These decorated military heroes have proven time and time again that their sexual orientation has absolutely nothing to do with their exemplary service to their country. Yet, here we are in 2009, and the military brass, whose ranks ironically include gays and lesbians, refuse to deal with the issue for fear of breaking their own prejudice or opening a Pandera’s Box. It’s unconscionable.

Indeed, on the battlefield, no one cares about soldiers’ sexual orientation, they are too busy trying to stay alive and protect their fighting companions. Everyone who has ever served in the U.S. Military, including me, has known gay colleagues. It was an unwritten policy that they were accepted. We knew who they were, and they had their own friends and social life, which had no effect on our life off-base.

In the past, perhaps they were talked about behind their backs but no one really cared. They went to their bars and we went to our bars. But the hard-core homophobic brass fear change might cause problems. Not true!

Nonetheless, the President should have stepped in and signed an executive order to allow gays to serve openly. Peirangelo has a right to be angry at Obama, saying, "He’s a coward, a bigot, and a pathological liar." Well, I wouldn’t go that far. But for some strange reason, Obama backed off his promise after consulting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The old excuse of worrying about discipline and cohesion is ridiculous, since the gays who now serve are excellent soldiers. Their concerns are based on the assumption that there are no gays presently serving. And, we know that isn’t true.

Clearly, when the U.S. military needs recruits, having an open gay policy would help bring in more men or women into the ranks. For gays, serving in the military is a great career. The gays who have served in the past have been lifers serving right up until retirement. But today, gays don’t want to keep their sexual orientation a secret. Why should they, when they have probably come out to their parents and friends long before joining the military.

By upholding the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, Obama has filp-flopped again from his campaign rhetoric. Obama’s staff has sent out E-mails saying that the President is too busy dealing with the collapse of the economy and two wars to handle the gay ban right away. Bullshit? He could just step in and keep his promise.

When elected officials go back on their word, it substantiates the adage that politicians will say anything to get elected, and then when they take office, they do what they want. Obama has already shown that he is willing to break promises on important issues that got him elected.

One thing for sure, the gay community will be up in arms pressuring the administration to end the ban. And more military gays will come out and lose their careers. Time will tell if Obama is true to his word. If not, well–we will not be surprised. He will be just like any other mealy-mouthed politician–a lying sack of dung.

2009-06-12T06:54:00.000-07:00

Rick Raw: Electric Car–Why Wait, Build It Yourself–Patrick Roth did It

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net

GM has promised that it will sell the Volt, an all-electric car, next year. Chances are it will be expensive. Patrick Roth from Indianapolis, Indiana heard about the GM model. He was driving a Lexus hybrid and thought that he could research building his own all-electric car. His reasoning was simple, he could build his own electric car cheaper than GM from available parts, even factoring in the cost fo the car.

After finding out that building an electric car would not be that difficult, he bought a 1998 Ford Escort and took out the entire engine, the gas tank, and the radiator, and ordered an electric motor and the other parts to connect the motor to the car. He worked in his car garage with regular tools and rented the special tools to complete the job like a small crane to hoist the engine out and place the electric motor into the car. He completed the job in six weeks.

Roth claims he has no special mechanical skills and is not an engineer. He created a video that details every step for anyone else who would like to tackle the project. The job does require some precision machining to adapt the motor to the transmission, but he outsourced that job. His step-by-step video was published on http://www.theindychannel.com/ media station in Indianapolis. (Search: "Man whizzes past gas stations..")

Roth bought the parts and regular Interstate batteries off the rack from local dealers. To make sure the batteries fit the compartment he had designated, he made mock-ups of the batteries out of wood. He also researched the legality of his self made electric car and it is perfectly street legal. And, his insurance company said they would insure it.

"It works great, actually. I’ve tested it on the highway up to 70 mph," Roth said. "It works out that I’m spending the equivalent of .75 cents a gallon," he went on to say.

Roth said everything works on the car including the power steering. It drives very smoothly and quietly. "If I can do it with no mechanical experience and no engineering degree, then anyone can do it. Just follow my step-by-step instructions. The total cost of the car and conversion was $13,000–far less than the Volt will cost.

Legendary singer / songwriter Neil Young converted an old 1959 Lincoln Continental convertible into an all electric vehicle. He then drove it across the country and wrote an album’s worth of songs about the experience. So, with some ingenuity, most anyone can build their own electric car.

So Patrick Roth says! Well, it’s worth looking into for the weekend mechanic. I don’t believe Roth doesn’t have mechanical experience, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. I once built my own guitar amplifier. It looked easy, but it was tedious and frustrating.

After that experience, I bought a Fender Twin Reverb because my self-made amp sounded like crap. And remember those experimental kit planes guys built in their garages. Many of them crashed and killed the builder/pilot. Be warned, these projects are always more difficult than they look when you start to work.

2009-06-04T11:16:00.000-07:00

Rick Raw: Cult Madness–Strong City Cult Leader Convicted of Sexual Contact with A Minor

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net www.rickatnight.com

In my book, The Mind Further Out, in which I debunk organized religions and meld spirituality with quantum physics, I devoted a whole chapter on the evil of cults. Recently, National Geographic Channel aired an in-depth documentary on one of the strangest cults to come to light, the Strong City Cult.

The second part of the documentary was an update. It focused on the arrest and trial of its leader, 66 year old Wayne Bent a.k.a. Michael Travesser. The Cult is an offshoot of The Lord Our Righteousness Church, based in Travesser Park, New Mexico in a sprawling remote parcel of land.

Incredibly, this grifter, Bent, declared himself the Son of God–the Messiah. He demanded seven virgins from the teenage girls living on the compound and held a ceremony crowning himself the Holy Trinity. He had also predicted the end of the world on a specific date in 2008, which passed with no apocalypse.

Undeterred, Bent carried on looking for a new world ending date. In a blatant grab for complete power, Bent seduced the married women in the cult, who naturally would prefer the Messiah rather than their ordinary mortal husbands. Thus, Bent broke up long standing marriages among his flock which emasculated the men and gave him absolute power.

In contrast, some cult leaders claim they are a vehicle through which God communicates. But Bent went all the way by saying he was God almighty. Of course, it was a preposterous claim, but it got him multiple bed partners–brain washed zombies! Remember Charles Manson’s followers–a gaggle of twisted teenage girls from the suburbs.

Bent’s legal problems were a result of the National Geographic Documentary in which he said he had laid naked with two underage girls. He said God directed him to do this. (paraphrasing) "I was struck down on the floor by a mighty power that told me to let them feel God’s energy." He claims no sex was involved (right). He merely put his chest on the girls’ chests. Yeah, and I believe in the fairness of the IRS..

However, in Bent’s trial, one of girls said he kissed her on her mouth and touched her breasts in a sexual way. Chances are, the girls were covering up what really happened–sexual intercourse-- since Bent was having sex with all the women in the cult.

The parents and relatives of the children who had left the cult were trying to get their kids out, but when they turned 18, some of them returned to Strong City. Bent had a powerful psychological hold on his flock. More significantly, these damaged young people could not function in the real world. They were "educated" by surfing the internet.

After the jury returned with their verdict, Bent was found guilty on multiple charges including sexual contact with a minor, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and other less serious charges. Bent was sentenced to 18 years in prison. His flock returned to Strong City and waited for Bent’s appeals to grind through the courts.

Intelligent people ask: Who would be so stupid to get involved with this oppressive cult–or any cult? People are sucked into the black hole of cults gradually. It usually starts with a charismatic preacher, like Jim Jones, who had a church with a loyal following. Then he played on their fears of the denigration of society, saying there is nothing but strife and violence on the streets. He told them they must find a location where they are free of society’s evils.

Then, the leader takes his flock to a remote area in America or a foreign country. Isolation is the first step to control. Then he takes all their money and forbids their relatives from interfering with his way of the Lord. He preaches that his flock’s parents and relatives are responsible for their unfulfilled lives and confused minds. Now, the flock has nowhere to go and no money. The leader then owns them. They are an extension of his warped mind.

Before they realize it, the cultists are trapped and psychologically brain washed by the leader, who has proclaimed himself a prophet with a direct line to God. As this process develops, the leader gradually seduces the married women, and alienates the men. This is the peak of his power. His entire flock is dependent on him for their existence. They shun their relatives and believe they have found Nirvana.

Cult leaders force believers to submit to restrictive dogma that limits their thinking. People get involved with cults because they are unhappy with their lives and they think that the leader or preacher has all the answers.

Indeed, everyone should question their root assumptions and never fall for these false prophets’ lies. They’re clever con men who seek power and control.

Dogma of any kind forces a person to believe in a limited interval. They then have to conform their thinking to the narrow ideology of the cult or organized religion. A cult is an extreme example of dogma run amok.

2009-05-28T13:25:00.000-07:00

Rick Raw: Wolfram Alpha Launches–A Computational Knowledge Engine

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net www.rickatnight.com

Stephen Wolfram, a highly acclaimed mathematician and astrophysicist, spent years putting together this search engine for scientists and lay-people. Oh, pardon moi, he says it’s not a "search engine" but a "computational knowledge engine." For lesser brains like yours and mine, it’s a giant number cruncher which coughs up solutions to formulas and any scientific information one is seeking. Example: "Alpha what is the formula for picking-up women?" Answer: S+Y+A+A+D=S" S(Say) Y(You) A(Are) A(A) D (Doctor)= S(Score)

This brain bank doesn’t just give you preprogrammed information like Google, but it compares statistics, solves problems, and builds charts based on online data supplied by the user. Call it a problem solver for scientists and other techies that need this type of information at their fingertips. For scientists in the field who are not able to log onto their supercomputers back at their universities, this will be a godsend.

Wolfram says that Alpha is a big advance for how well computers can think. In other words, it’s Google with a brain that can answer specific scientific questions. Moreover, it’s like having Stephen Wolfram available to answer your questions, not just reference already existing data. It’s the Oracle, on-line. Cue spacy music.

The brainiac behind this new computational knowledge engine, Stephen Wolfram, 50, published his first scientific paper at age 16. At 20, he earned his PhD and in 1981 he was the youngest recipient of the MacArthur Prize Fellowship.

Wolfram’s first key idea was to use computer experiments to study the behavior of simple computer programs known as cellular automata. In 1982, this research led him to make a series of startling discoveries about the origins of complexity. Wolfram’s further research laid the groundwork for the emerging field that Wolfram called "complex systems research."

One of Wolfram’s most important breakthroughs was his discovery of a number of fundamental connections between computation and nature, which led to his invention of the concept of computational irreducibility. This study led to the fledgling field of artificial intelligence that has mushroomed exponentially in recent times.

During the 1990s, Wolfram’s work led to a wide range of applications. He used his own ideas to develop a new randomness generation system and a new approach to computational fluid dynamics, which are now in widespread use. His academic pursuits were first sponsored by Caltech and then the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. This led to a professorship at the University of Illinois as Professor of Physics, Mathematics and Computer Science.

Indeed, Wolfram’s computational knowledge engine incorporates his discoveries in artificial intelligence. He views his Alpha engine as an advance in thinking machines. Wolfram’s work continues to influence the computer science community which see him as a pathfinder in thinking machines.

Wolfram Alpha is a serious scientific tool for anyone to use. Wolfram has always shared his discoveries with his colleagues in the scientific community. As users give him feedback, Wolfram will refine his engine to better use his concepts. The engine is like a computer science lab unto itself. Its future is unlimited and it will evolve like artificial life.

So, Wolfram wants to hear from users and he is soliciting ideas to greatly expand Alpha’s abilities. It’s the most exciting new development in the Internet’s history. Alpha is a thinking artificial entity in its infancy. It will grow into something even Wolfram hasn’t yet conceived.

2009-05-21T10:58:00.000-07:00

Rick Raw: Harley–Rescuing Exotic Basenji from Heartless Lowlifes

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net www.rickatnight.com

When an abandoned dog appeared outside my kitchen window for three days, I just couldn’t let the poor dog starve to death. I took action by going to the owners, a young couple living across the street.

Their heartless attitude shocked me. The loutish bastard had broken up with his girlfriend and taken up with another woman. She said, "We are not dog people." Indeed! Neither his ex-girlfriend nor the lowlife wanted the dog. They had cruelly abandoned the dog by not feeding it or giving it water. Hiding my anger, I told them I’d take the dog and they just shrugged. Her name is Harley.

So I put a leash on her and took her inside my apartment to see if she could get along with my other two dogs, Pepe (Chihuahua) and Jazz (Mixed breed). Happily, Harley bonded with Pepe and Jazz right away.

Now, officially I have a pack. Then I took Harley to my vet. She gave her the standard shots and tested her for heartworm, which is epidemic in Florida. It’s caused by a mosquito bite. The worms travel from the stomach to the heart.

Anyone with a dog in Florida should know that they need to give their dogs heartworm preventitive medication on a regular basis. It turned out Harley tested positive for heartworm and needed a series of expensive chemo-therapy treatments.

The good news is, we caught this insidious parasite in it’s early stages inside her stomach. If the worms get into her heart, she’ll die. Harley needs to be spayed as well. The previous owners were just too stupid and cruel to know how to care for the dog.

Although it would hurt me financially, I made the decision straightaway to save the dog. I researched the Harley’s breed and it turned out she’s an exotic Basenji, whose ancestry dates back to Egyptian times. The dogs now come from Africa and are bred here in America.

The people who abandoned Harley obviously didn’t know they had an expensive breed. Not that they cared! Of course, people like Harley’s former owners are clueless about the responsibilities of owning dogs. They just cast her aside without any conscience or feeling for the dog.

So many abandoned dogs and cats end up in shelters because their owners are irresponsible or fell victim to our economic collapse and couldn’t afford the vet bills to keep their pets. Owning pets is like having children, they have to be cared for, disciplined with calm assertive energy, (Thanks Cesar Millan) and loved.

Lately, in my apartment complex, not only do people abandon their dogs, I’ve been observing kids gone wild, without any parental supervision. I see toddlers running around late at night with no parents in sight. More disturbing, kids are in the pool after midnight. Where are the parents?

These degenerates have kids like they own dogs, with no sense of responsibility. Then when the negleted misfits get shot or abducted, they scream bloody murder. It’s not a racial issue but a lack of high functioning intelligence issue.

Yes, another four legged soul has come into our family. Our dogs live to ripe old ages and we adore them. All our dogs and cats who have passed away are remembered in a special photo shrine on top of our television.

Harley is an angel sent by God to brighten-up our lives. Pepe is already famous for being on NBC news about families going bankrupt. The calls we received from friends said they saw Pepe on TV. Funny, they didn’t mention us. So, Harley has a lot to live up to.

2009-05-14T17:20:00.000-07:00

Rick Raw: Tiger Woods Makes Golf Look Way Too Easy–Life is Easy, Golf is Hard

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net www.rickatnight.com

While watching the Player’s Championship last week, I reminisced about my frustrating years of playing golf. I grew up with an avid golfer–my father. He was a ranked amateur and as young as twelve, I caddied for him and learned the game. Dad started playing for the exercise and to relieve the stress of his business ownership.

Almost immediately, he caught the golf bug. Soon, golf had taken over his life and he was sneaking off early in the morning to get in 9 holes before going to the office. Although my dad and I didn’t get along, I admired his spirit and determination to become a great golfer. Over the years, on a good day, he shot par, and on a bad day, 80, with no handicap. It was good enough to enter amateur tournaments. Consistently shooting par golf was his lofty goal.

As for me, I was struggling to break 90. But for one who has never played, golf may look easy, but the reality of one’s first round is a rude awakening. There are so many subtle skills involved. Golf requires superior hand-eye coordination, an even disposition, and above all, the ability to not get frustrated or angry over mistakes. Developing a correct swing is paramount.

Once, my dad played a pro-am with Sam Snead and I caddied for my dad. Snead had the most technically and aesthetically beautiful swing of any golfer-- past or present. It was machine-like in its repeatability. His philosophy was to keep the ball in the middle of the fairway, even if it wasn’t hit long, and make every shot count. On a par 5, he could put his second shot on the green with a 3 wood. Today, Tiger Woods and other pros can hit 300 yards plus off the tee. Then they’re into their short game.

For years, I took lessons from a club pro. But, no matter how hard I tried, golf was an epic battle with my self-control and the golf course. In every round I played, the golf course won. One day, I decided enough is enough, life is too stressful, so I quit golf before I joined the Air Force.

Years later, when I was in the music business and a friend talked me into playing again. I bought some decent clubs and we went out to Hyde Park. Surprisingly, I did pretty well. I was still having serious swing problems and my hand-eye coordination was worse than before. I seemed to spend more time in the woods than on the fairways. And, if there was water hazard, my ball was a water seeking missile straight into the lake. I continued to play on and off, but I was so busy it was difficult to find the time for a round of golf.

Still, whether one is chasing bad shots or not, golf does take you mind off your worries. Hell, life is easy–golf is hard. Golf teaches you about yourself and your temperament. After embarrassing myself too many times on the golf course, I learned to control my anger and take a more relaxed attitude toward the game and life.

In today’s golf world, every pro golfer is chasing Tiger Woods. He raised the standards exponentially. On his Saturday round in the TCP, Tiger had a shot roll up near a tree. Incredibly, he switched to a left handed swing and reversed his club. He ended up with a bogey, but it could have been even worse. Alas, Tiger struggled and did not win. He still finished 5 under par.

The few times Tiger gets in the rough or woods, his bag of trick shots save him every time. From Friday to Saturday, he moved up to second place on the leader board. When Tiger is on the hunt for victory, he gets super hot. In contrast, other golfers fold under the pressure. Tiger is the undisputed best golfer in the sport for his extraordinary skill under pressure and his drive to win.

However, Tiger makes it look way too easy, it can be disheartening for young people to be inspired by his incredible ability. If a young person has the intrinsic talent, and great guidance from proven instructors, then they can strive to become pros. Beware of getting discouraged. Golf is a game of great skill and patience. It’s you against yourself and the golf course. The golf course usually wins.

2009-05-07T12:32:00.000-07:00

Rick Raw: GM Killed Pontiac-- Rekindling Memories of My 1966 GTO

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net www.rickatnight.com

In 1966 I was working for United Technologies Florida Research and Development Division, located out in the swamp off the B-line Highway west of Palm Beach. A good paying job and security meant I could buy a new car to go along with the small house I’d bought. It was, after all, the American Dream.

Pontiac had just come out with the GTO, now considered a classic muscle car. Back then, most all cars had big honking V-8s. Gas was cheap and fuel sucking two and four barrel carburetors were the norm.

There were six cylinder engines available on Chrysler’s line of cheaper cars like the Plymouth Valiant. But no self-respecting macho man would be caught dead in anything but a 427 cubic-inch V-8. Funny, years later, I owned a 1966 Plymouth Valiant with a slant six engine. The car had over 200,000 miles and I couldn’t kill it.

When I gazed upon that ballsy 1966 GTO in a magazine, it was love at first sight. I borrowed $2,300 from the UTC Credit Union and bought my dream car–the testosterone emitting Pontiac GTO. At the time, I was young and this Pontiac was my first new car.

Yes, I was making a decent salary and life was good. I had two kids, but the GTO was my special baby. I pampered that car and drove it all over the country. The quality was surprisingly good for that time when American car makers had a reputation for shoddy craftsmanship. Ford stood for: Fix or Return Daily!

American car manufacturers only got into quality as job one when the Japanese introduced the Toyota which was cheaper and anyone could see the difference in quality. The Japanese car makers also set the standards on safety. Again, American car makers only got into safety when they had to.

For American car companies reducing the appalling death rate on America’s highways was a lower priority than keeping costs down. Those money grubbing swine were earning obscene profits, but they could care less about quality or safety until the Japanese cut deeply into their sales.

Now, GM, swimming in red ink, pulled the plug on its Pontiac brand. In the 1960s marketing strategy, Chevrolet was aimed at the working stiff, Pontiac was for the sporty young crowd, Buick was for the middle class golfers, and Cadillac was for the well heeled or people who wanted to portray an image of being wealthy. The guy in the song didn’t drive his Caddy to the levee but his Chevy.

The decision to kill the Pontiac brand is part of GM’s new leaner meaner program to satisfy the government that they are taking drastic steps to avoid bankruptcy or a bailout. Saturn, Saab, and Hummer are also on the chopping block. Hummer was the worst idea since the Edsel.

Of course, GM was always much too big and bloated to compete with foreign manufacturers. BMW is one brand. Mercedes is one brand. All those GM brand divisions were archaic and bled the successful divisions of operating capital.

Pontiac was marketed as a performance brand which dates back to the late 1950s and early 1960s. Pontiacs had a wider wheel base and the ad slogan was "wide-track" which gave the car better cornering ability.

By far, the GTO was the most successful Pontiac ever built. It conjured up images of the LeMans GTO and piqued the imagination of young men who, like me, made the pilgrimage to Watkins Glen, N.Y for the United States Grand Prix for Formula One cars (now called Indy Cars). Now forty-three years later, the GTO is an expensive collector’s classic car.

In 2004, GM vice chairman reintroduced the rear-wheel Pontiac GTO imported from GM’s Australian division. The sales tanked and the G8, also a rear wheel four-door sedan, which was also imported from Australia, failed to capture the imagination of the car buying public.

Ah yes, now GM is reintroducing the Chevy Camero. It’s modern shape and pedigree are authentically awesome. But, like the reintroduction of the Pontiac GTO, the company is trying to resell nostalgia, which just doesn’t work.

People would rather look back with fond memories of the cars of their youth. There is no way to recapture that time in space. It’s gone forever. But when I look back and think of my 1966 GTO, I get goose bumps and think of how much simpler life was in that era. It’s like remembering an old girlfriend, my memories filters out the bad stuff, and I only remember the good things about her.

2009-04-30T08:40:00.000-07:00

Rick Raw: Green Machine Now Running on New Technology

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net www.rickatnight.com

Just ten years ago, the idea of developing new technology to fuel the green machine of conservation and greatly reducing C02 emissions seemed like a far off dream. Amazingly, today, scientists have met the challenge of developing the advanced technology to make this new green frontier a reality.

To facilitate this new age of progress, U.S. politicians are gearing up to implement special taxes and incentives to replace old coal fired power plants with wind turbine fields, solar energy, and nuclear power.

The long outdated grid is being updated with new computerized equipment that will deliver electricity more efficiently and cheaply. Engineers say the infrastructure is antiquated and stressed to its limits by the increasing demand electricity. Many other innovations are being developed to reengineer the grid. This initiative is already started in many states.

More significantly, just last week, President Obama visited a factory that was converted to manufacturing wind turbines. The conversion kept the workforce in place instead of laying them off. This is just one example of the changing tide of creative thinking to save jobs and provide new employment opportunities.

Retrofitting major skyscrapers to utilize green technology has begun in earnest. The Empire State Building in New York City is presently being retrofitted to save the owners $4.4 million a year in energy costs. This project is being funded by the Bill Clinton Foundation which donated $20 million to the project. Clinton hopes that this greening of such a famous building will inspire other owners of old buildings to convert their properties. Whatever the cost, it will eventually pay for itself.

More efficient lighting has already captured people’s imagination by converting to the new energy efficient bulbs, thus saving homeowners and renters significant money in electricity costs. In fact, the old incandescent bulbs will no longer be manufactured.

Now, the widespread use of light-emitting diodes, or LEDs could cut energy consumption in half. The chips have been around for decades, but primarily to make consumer electronics flash green or red. Now scientists have learned how to make the LEDs glow in bright white which will replace most all lighting demands such as home lighting, highway and street lights, and theater lighting. Using LEDs for all lighting will dramatically cut down on energy demands across the board.

Another unusual source energy is algae as fuel. Yes, think of that slimy pond near the interstate. The green algae produces oil that can be converted into biodiesel. Yes, the technology is new and is still experimental but, in less than ten years, large algae farms will provide commercial quantities of biofuel at a competitive price. The cost of growing, harvesting, and processing algae is inexpensive compared to processing petroleum into its various by-products.

Solar energy is not a pipe dream anymore. It’s here now and connected to the grid. California companies such as Miasole, Nanosolar, and Solandra are providing more than 5 percent of the energy market nationwide. Many home owners have gone solar and are selling their excess electricity back to the power companies. Here again, the investment in solar energy pays for itself. In some states, low interest loans are available to home owners who want to convert their homes to solar energy.

The truth is, going green is no longer a crackpot idea. Since, in every case, going green saves a significant amount of money, and ultimately, it will save the planet from global warming. Hell, everyone wants to save money.

Car manufactures have been frustratingly slow in getting on the green machine bandwagon. We should have had electric and hybrid cars decades before now. However, battery technology has advanced exponentially and a serious electric car is being manufactured called the Volt that will go 200 miles on a charge. That’s enough for driving to and from work and around town. Then just plug it in until morning.

Hybrids are selling well and the hydrogen fuel cell powered car is being sold in Europe. The Norwegians built a thousand kilometer highway with hydrogen gas stations along the way. Of course, the economic downturn has crippled the auto industry. But they can use the down time to produce green cars which, when the recession is over, will be in demand.
Going green is no longer a silly slogan invented by tree huggers. It’s a bold initiative to save money, energy, and the planet. Going green is now mandatory.

2009-04-23T13:01:00.000-07:00

Rick Raw: Evil Empire will Crumble –IRS Power Wanes as Fair Tax Intiative Gains Momentum

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net www.rickatnight.com

For years I’ve been waging a personal war with the IRS and preaching that the Evil Empire must be eliminated. Finally, a powerful nonpartisan group of movers and shakers has come to the same conclusion. Ergo, this group has posted a website http://www.fairtax.org/ to outline their grass roots initiative. These prominent power players propose that the IRS should be dismantled and a fair tax system of sales tax put in its place. They have a bill ready to pass.

The distinguished group that formed the Fair Tax Plan include former governor and presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee, radio host and Fair Tax author, Neal Boortz, Fair Tax lead sponsor Rep. John Linder, Fair Tax bill sponsor Rep. Steve King, business entrepreneur and radio host Herman Cain, Ga. Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner, John Oxendine, and National Communication Director for the AFFT Ken Hoagland.

Indeed, this is a serious bipartisan battle on the Hill to push this bill through the legislature and ultimately defeat the IRS collection goons, stripping them of their ubiquitous powers to destroy lives and emotionally torture people with their draconian collection methods and sweeping power to get into every aspect of a citizen’s financial background and essentially ruin a person’s life.

The IRS beast makes the Mafia look like boy scouts by comparison. Up until this growing Fair Tax initiative, the Evil Empire has run ripshod through the lives of many Americans that couldn’t keep up with the usurious interest and penalties that piled up in a short time. One can never pay off the IRS with affordable monthly payments. The balance due quadruples every month. The truth is: The IRS wields more power than the entire presidential administration branch of our government.

Recently, the Fair Tax disciples held a rally here in Jacksonville, Florida at the Landing with U.S. Reps. John Linder, R-Ga. and Ander Crenshaw, R-Fla, along with Neal Boortz as Master of Ceremonies. Hundreds of people showed up. I couldn’t be there but I am a member and strong supporter of this movement.

For many years I felt like one lonely voice in the wilderness preaching the downfall of the Evil Empire. However, I supported presidential candidate Mike Huckabee’s campaign because he promised to dismantled the IRS. I switched my allegiance to Obama shortly after Hukabee started to sound like a Baptist preacher.

The principles of the Fair Tax plan are based on common sense and fairness. It’s founded on a progressive national retail sales tax, which is directly proportional to the value of the merchandise. For example, a HD flat screen TV would cost more tax than a microwave oven.

By its design, the wealthy will pay more because they will buy more luxury goods and services–yachts, BMWs, jewelry, mansions, et al. The poor will pay less. The plan abolishes all Federal, personal, (I love the term "abolishes all") and corporate income taxes. The bill stipulates that there will be no taxes on gifts, estates, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security (hallelujah) Medicare, and self-employment. The tax will be administrated primarily by existing state sales tax authorities. (Say yeah, brother Fair Tax advocates!)

The Fair Tax Act (HR 25,S 296) is nonpartisan legislation. It taxes us only on what we choose to spend on new goods or services, not on what we earn. It’s fair, efficient, and transparent. It’s so simple it boggles the minds of the legions of tax lawyers, none of whom understand the 1,900 pages of the present tax code.

Of course, food items would be exempt. (No, not beer, wine, or spirits.) One’s paycheck would be free of deductions and seniors would receive their whole Social Security payment and not have to pay tax on it. (Father, bless the Fair Tax boys.)

For years, politicians and activists have proposed this idea only to be silenced by the IRS’ powerful lobby. Now, we have an actual bill before Congress that would, in one fell swoop, wipe out the Evil Empire. Yes, thousands of IRS employees will lose their jobs. Too bad. They could get jobs in India as customer service reps, become loan sharks, or collect for the mob. I don’t care. The Evil Empire will crumble and my Fair Tax brothers and I will celebrate.
Kudos to Neal Boortz for his books, radio show, and tireless campaigning on this issue.

2009-04-16T10:06:00.000-07:00

Rick Raw: MS-13 Mara Salvatrucha Gang Proliferating Worldwide as an Organized Crime Organization

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net www.rickatnight.com

Just as our law enforcement agencies and military are coping with threats from al Qaeda conducting a jihad on America, a highly organized gang called Mara Salvatrucha MS-13 has proliferated from Los Angeles into all American states, Central and South America. This organized crime syndicate has the potential to turn peaceful regions into lawless hell holes.

This ruthless band of El Salvadorian criminals formed the gang in 1980 to defend itself from other LA gangs. In the 1990s the FBI rounded up most of the gang members in Los Angeles and deported them to El Salvador, which was a huge blunder.

From there, the gang spread as an organized crime virus throughout Central and South America. The members who were not deported in America proliferated through the states, engaging in drug smuggling and sales, black market gun sales, human trafficking, auto chop shops, home invasions, assaults on law enforcement officials, and contract killings.

Like al Qaeda, MS-13 is run from autonomous cliques (like cells) that operate with their own leaders. The main leaders of the gang run the entire organization from special prisons in El Salvador. These prisons are not designed to incarcerate MS-13 members but protect them from other criminal organizations. The prisons are actually sanctuaries for the MS-13 leaders who bribe officials and send money to professional launderers who stash the enormous profits in off-shore and Swiss banks.

Not much is known about the hierarchy of Mara Salvatrucha. The rank and file members guard the gang’s secrets with their lives. The name loosely means a gang of Salvadorian rebels. Salvatrucha was slang for the Salvadorian guerrillas, which was the source of the early members who smuggled military arms into Los Angeles.

The members are initiated by a group beat-down and then they get the gang’s tattoos on their bodies, which marks them for life. Once someone is sworn into MS-13, there is no way out except prison or death. Prison is MS-13's university where members hook up with other gang members and plan crimes from jail.

Brenda Paz was the only MS-13 member to become a FBI informant. She told authorities that the gang is highly structured, with multiple leaders, and the goal is to become the richest and most feared gang in the world. Indeed, since 1980, the gang has achieved both those objectives.

In 2003, Brenda Paz was murdered by her close friends for being a snitch. Originally, she was secreted into the witness protection program, but she was unhappy and left the protection of the U.S.Marshalls. Foolishly, she wrote a diary of her MS-13 betrayal and the gang found it. They lured her out on a fishing trip to Virginia and her closest friend stabbed her. She must of known that she was marked for death.

What makes this gang especially dangerous is their roots of poverty in El Salvador and their military experience as Salvadorian rebels. MS-13 members easily recruit poverty stricken youth from Central and South America, give them a home and certain luxuries that they would never have in their old lives. Their women or wives are also pledged to the gang, and are tasked with carrying out crime missions.

Since the upper echelon leaders of MS-13 are protected in their own prisons in El Salvador, the United States law enforcement officials can’t touch them. All they can do is make token arrests of MS-13 soldiers committing crimes in America. These hardened career criminals do not fear jail. A prison sentence is a vacation with their home boys.

There have been rumors of an al Qaeda MS-13 collaboration but it was just a rumor. There is no evidence of al Qaeda having anything in common with MS-13, except maybe MS-13's counterfeit document operation to get members into the United States.

Brenda Paz was a wealth of information for the FBI, but even she didn’t know the gang’s darkest secrets or their chain of command. One of the founders of MS-13, Ernesto "Smokey" Miranda had begun studying law and working to keep children out of gangs. He was murdered at his home in El Salvador because he declined to attend a party for a gang member who had just been released from prison.

Thus, the tens of thousands (and growing) MS-13 members continue to wreak havoc on law abiding citizens of America and other countries. Like the plague, finding a cure may be difficult if not impossible. Every day hundreds more young people are recruited into this deadly criminal army.

2009-04-09T10:23:00.000-07:00

Rick Raw: The Case for Legalizing Drugs –Prohibition Revisited

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net www.rickatnight.com

Today, the drug violence in Mexico has reached critical levels with thousands of innocent people killed in the cross-fire. The Mexican and Colombian drug Cartels have more money than their respective governments, enabling them to buy their own armies and corrupt the local police and politicians.

The Cartel agents make an offer the officials can’t refuse: "lead or gold" –a bullet or money.
Consequently, breaking this chain of corruption has been almost impossible. The Mexican government has called in the regular army in large numbers to patrol the towns near the America’s border. Still, the Cartels have pervasive operations in these towns and the killings continues. They have the best weapons and the latest electronic surveillance gear bought in the United States.

More significantly, since most of the drugs are consumed in America, the Cartels and other organized crime operators have spread out across our land like a virus. It has been this way since the 1980s when the crack epidemic hit the streets of America’s big cities which established the drug trade routes through California and the East Coast of Florida.

The Reagan Administration’s so called "War on Drugs" was an abysmal failure. Later when Carlos Escobar was finally gunned down in a small town in Colombia by the Colombian army, he was immediately replaced by others. The lure of easy money from the obscene profits of running cocaine, heroin, and now methamphetamine has a very strong appeal.

Historically, we learned that the government can not control vices such as drinking alcohol. Clearly, Prohibition failed for the same reasons the war on drugs failed. People will get their whiskey, drugs, and prostitutes regardless of the law. The only way to control these human weaknesses is to make all vices legal. Blasphemy you say! No, it’s common sense.

The problem is: America is a puritanical culture that can’t seem to get over the moral aspects of making drugs legal, when, in fact, tons of drugs are flowing into the country and distributed by a sophisticated network of established drug wholesalers with large warehouses, and street dealers. This means millions of people are using drugs.

The police love to "show and tell," displaying the latest tonnage of drugs they just intercepted. But the truth is, it’s only a small sample of the total amount of drugs coming into the country. The Cartels know that a certain percentage of their product will get seized. However, in toto, it barely makes a dent in their massive profits.

Legalizing marijuana is already happening in some states. The ultimate national legalization of pot is a no-brainer. It’s a benign drug that is not lethal or addictive. It helps terminally ill cancer patients restore their appetite and feel better taking chemo-therapy. Then we have to consider the hard drugs like heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine controlled by a government program.

Obviously, these are dangerous drugs that kill many people annually. Thus, we would have to work out a special distribution program for addicts that weans them off the drugs, but still making it legal to buy them. Is that a contradiction in goals? Yes and no. If addicts bought these drugs, they would have to register and receive counseling and treatment if they so desired. They will get the drugs illegally anyway, so why not monitor their progress toward eventual sobriety. It would be an ongoing intervention.

There are 3 million people incarcerated in America’s prisons. A large percentage of these inmates are serving long sentences for non-violent drug offences. Legalization would be retroactive on a case by case basis and relieve prison overcrowding.

Of course, the major benefit of legalization would be to take the drugs out of the hands of the powerful Cartels and establish legal networks using the shipping lanes of spirits, wine, and beer.
Indeed, this is a radical solution, but as long as drugs are illegal, the drug wars will go on indefinitely. But I doubt most Americans could make this leap of morality to justify such a solution. It would be politically unpopular and the preachers and churches would rise up in protest.

Still, I believe that with intelligent policies in place using regulation, taxation, education, and intervention for addiction, the drug crisis can be solved. Otherwise, we will be fighting an endless war on drugs that can’t be won. It’s time to get over the religious morality of legalization and use common sense to end the violence. Remember, in large volumes, alcohol can be deadly to the consumer. Yet, it’s legal to buy it and consume it.

2009-04-02T19:11:00.000-07:00

Rick Raw: 2012 Doomsday Date–Apocalypse Pending?–Or Another Y2K Fizzle?

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net www.rickatnight.com

The prophets of doom are at it again with the new scary date 2012. (Cue end of the world music.) Sparked by nutty Mayan scholars, who claim the date marks the end of a 5,120-year cycle on the Long Count calendar developed by the Maya. They were an ancient civilization known for its advanced understanding of astronomy. These mystical people also built great cities in Mexico and Central America. Then, they mysteriously disappeared. The whole civilization just vanished.

This 2012 hype parallels the Y2K 2000 Armageddon that fizzled. The sun came up on January 1, 2000 and everything was alright. Now, these nut-jobs are speculating that all the ancient visionaries who supposedly saw the future, such as Merlin, Nostradomus, some babbling old hag who lived in a cave, the Bible, and other mythical figures who place special significance on 2012 as the end of time. The 2012 speculators foresee mega-disasters, reaping death and destruction on the planet and the reversal of the Earth’s magnetic poles, which would be bad.

Mainstream Mayan scholars are mocking this balderdash as pure fantasy. But filmmaker Roland Emmerich seized the opportunity to direct a big budget disaster movie titled 2012 starring John Cusack. The film is set to be released this fall.

Of course, all the buzz on 2012 makes great free advance publicity for the film. It’s also fertile ground for the publication of books on the subject to spark interest in the end of the world trendsetters.

The latest book, Apocalypse 2012 is by author Lawrence Joseph who set out to sell many books by scaring the bejesus out of the fools who buy into this gibberish. Besides, I’d never buy a book by an author who has two first names. It’s freaky. And, how many Y2K books were published? Too many.

If the prognosticators of disaster are right, then there is nothing we can do about it. If the magnetic poles suddenly reverse, imagine the hellish disasters that would follow. Or what if the Earth starts rotating in the opposite direction. There would be no time to pray. Total wipe-out.
However, do I think there’s even a remote possibility that the date 2012 is the end of the world--absolutely not! Crazed preachers and cultists have been predicting the end of the world for Centuries.

There were the Earth Enders who sold all their possessions and moved to the Midwest to wait for the apocalypse that never came. The date came and went and suddenly, they were homeless and felt stupid. The preacher just said he was mistaken. He recalculated the date as sometime in the future. And, the group started to prepare for another end date.

The Bible has the colorful Book of Revelations featuring the four horsemen of the apocalypse riding to doom. Some theologians interpret this dramatic end of the world to the date 2012, which is complete nonsense.

Real Mayan scholars say that the 2012 cycle is an alignment of the December solstice sun with the center of the Milky Way, as viewed from earth. "Two thousand years ago the Maya believed that the world would be going through a great transformation when this alignment happens," said Mayan scholar John Major Jenkins.

Since our solar system is in an outward leg of the Milky Way, we see the galaxy from a side view, which changes the alignment theory. In other words, if we could look down on the Milky Way, we’d see our solar system on the right outer bands of the galaxy. Nonetheless, I’m not worried.

It will be just another day on Earth. The 2012 doomsayers are wild speculators of misinformation to feed their paranoia. Dawn will break on December 21, 2012! I would bet heavily on it.

2009-03-26T09:42:00.000-07:00

Rick Raw: Tent Cities Springing Up Nationwide–An Ominous Sign of Impending Depression

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net www.rickatnight.com

Years ago, my parents, who suffered through The Great Depression, told me stories about tent cities in Southern Florida and California. They used the fact that people were living in tents as a indicator of just how bad things had become. To them, living in a tent meant that the people had hit rock bottom–homeless and hopeless. To me it was like they had returned to pioneer times, living off the land.

Many people who escaped the dust bowl in the Midwest, drove east and camped out beside the roads, killing game for food. My parents had relatives and friends who were forced to camp out in crude Army tents. My dad would talk about them and then say, "and they lived in a tent," like it was a badge of honor to survive The Great Depression.

After the WWII, these people bought houses and became middle class like my folks. But they never forgot their lives in the tent cities, and lived frugally in case another depression came along. They became pack rats and saved their money. Credit cards didn’t exist. But if people wanted an expensive appliance, they laid it away and picked it up when it was paid for.

Today, tent cities are again springing up nationwide, mostly in California and Southern Florida. It’s an ominous sign that we’re in a serious recession that could escalate into a full blown depression. Unless Obama’s stimulus package works, we could be looking at another Great Depression in a couple of years.

Millions of people have been laid-off. The typical story is: A husband and wife with two kids were living well on both their salaries. Then the husband and wife were laid-off. They rapidly burned through their savings, could not make it on unemployment pay. Consequently, they lost their car and finally lost their house.

The husband dilligently looked for work, but no one was hiring in his field. His wife also hit the bricks looking for work in her field. Then they looked for any work, and found out all the service jobs had been taken. Incredibly, this nice middle class family was suddenly homeless "with no direction home." In one town, a school had one opening for a janitor and 2,000 people showed up.

From sea to shining sea, homeless advocacy groups and city agencies are reporting a sharp spike in homeless encampments–tent cities. "It’s clear that poverty and homelessness have greatly increased" said Michael Stoops in a Fox News report, He is acting executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless. He went on to say, "The economy is in chaos, we’re in a recession and Americans are worried, from the homeless to the middle class, about their future."
The appearance of encampments happened literally overnight in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, California, Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, catching advocacy groups off guard. They are struggling to provide services to these temporary towns in state parks and large abandoned parking lots.

The police are being counseled to be sympathetic to the occupants of these encampments and not hassle them. They’ve been through enough. Some organizations like the Red Cross are providing portable toilets and water tank trucks to accommodate the burgeoning camp sites.

With innovative ideas and thinking we can help these people who were forced to live in a permanent camp sites. There are countless abandoned mini-malls throughout Florida that could be turned into cheap housing for the homeless.

There are unsold tracks of land that could be developed into modular housing projects in weeks. The homes are built in factories, shipped to the site on trucks in modules, and assembled at the site. It takes about a week to assemble one of these modular homes.

The vast subdivisions of foreclosed houses sitting empty and decaying or being vandalized could house the homeless under certain conditions. The occupants would be like caretakers, living rent free until they found jobs. They would agree to keep up the maintenance and yard, and protect the property from damage. They would keep the house ready to show prospective buyers.

The utilities would be paid by the foreclosure companies and any supplies and furniture the occupants needed would be supplied by the FEMA. This is a no-brainer since everyone knows that occupied houses that have been kept up by the owners are easier to sell. Rename these subdivisions Madoff Villas.

Yes, it’s time to get creative and solve our problems. Everyone should pitch-in to overcome these hard times.

2009-03-18T09:27:00.000-07:00

Rick Raw: Proof That Irish Airline CEO Drank Too Much Guinness by Threatening to Install Pay Toilets in Their Aircraft

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net www.rickatnight.com

Ryanair Irish Airline’s CEO, Michael O’Leary suggested that another way to raise money for the cash strapped airline was to install pay toilets on their planes, charging a pound (about $1.40) for a pee. With other airlines looking for ways to nickel and dime passengers, such as charging for luggage, pillows, nuts, and movies, this idea comes from an Irish idiot who has spent too many nights at the pub.

It’s proof that this dumb-ass has been drinking too much Guinness. Is there any end to the pettiness of these airline CEOs? Yeah, the once friendly skies turned sinister after 9/11 and the airlines lost a pile of money during the two years after the attack when public nervousness over flying made air travel scary. Today, the airline industry is desperate to pull out of operating in the red.

So now passengers on Ryanair have to make sure that they are carrying plenty of pound notes. What if you forgot to carry cash. Uh-oh, the smell of urine would get unbearable. Come on, this jerk can’t be serious? This brazen declaration may have been a ploy for publicity, but O’Leary claims he is serious. O’Leary rationalized the new charge by saying that across Europe, trains have pay toilets.

During the airlines’ golden years 1950s-1980s, airlines competed to offer luxury amenities on flights. Since flying during that era was relatively expensive, it attracted the an affluent clientele. People dressed up to fly and expected first class service and gourmet food. Times changed and commercial flying became affordable to most anyone but customer service disappeared.

Then the discount airlines appeared in the early 1980s such as People Airline. Flying People was more like taking a bus. A flight attendant would roll a cash register cart down the aisle to collect the ticket money. Once I flew People and remember a woman didn’t have the money, so she was handcuffed to her seat by a flight attendant, and taken from the plane by Air Marshalls when we landed.

By the late 1980s, the amenities of yesteryear were gone and flying became a hassle. After 9/11/2001, flying on commercial airlines was intolerable. After the shoe bomber was foiled, everyone had to remove their shoes, belts, and a new X-ray machine was installed. It exposes passengers to the embarrassment of having their naked bodies seen by screeners.

Today, all passengers are treated like potential terrorists. God help you if you look Mid-eastern or are a Muslim wearing traditional garb. Ironically, security has never been that effective despite the precautions. Every time there are tests of airline security, they fail when a guy with a fake bomb gets through the screening process.

So what do the airline CEOs do, they turn into petty little penny-pinchers who want to charge passengers for every little thing. If flying wasn’t stressful enough, now passengers have to dig into their wallets every step through the airport. And if Michael O’Leary gets his way, passengers will have to pay to use the toilet. Could the airlines have made flying more undesirable? Man, forget flying, I’m driving.

2009-03-12T10:13:00.000-07:00

Rick Raw: Deflation of the American Dream–Lowered Expectations of The New Reality

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net www.rickatnight.com

Countdown to the New Reality!

The 1950s-1960s button-down American Dream focused on conformity. Bright young men were expected to attend college and became professionals. They wore Brooks Brothers suits and ties to work. They got married, bought a suburban home, and had a couple of kids a la The Donna Reed Show. To quell the monotony, they drank copious amounts of whiskey and had affairs with their secretaries.

The early American Dream was a narrow minded and rigid philosophy with no room for creativity or eccentricity. Many people who bought into this limited interval became bored and unhappy. Suburbia turned into a prison, trapping many people into living lives they loathed.
In the early 1960s, the birth control pill hit the market and launched the Sexual Revolution.

Disillusioned housewives divorced their uptight husbands and joined swingers clubs. The pervasive use of marijuana and the birth of now classic rock’n’roll in the youth subculture inspired the Counter Culture Revolution. "Hippies" became a derogatory moniker for the establishment "squares" to mock the leftist views.

The term "alternative lifestyles" became part of the lexicon. Psychedelic drugs’ high priest, Timothy Leary, extolling the altered states of marijuana use, said, "Turn on, tune in, and drop out." It was a idealistic end-game.

Ah yes, the Big Dream was still a significant ideal, but it had been expanded with more flexibility. Women were getting jobs and having fewer kids, equalizing the household power base. Feminist literature became popular.

The 1990s brought us unprecedented prosperity during the Clinton years. The new Modified Dream was still relevant because of boundless available loans. Credit cards offered ridiculous limits compared to the holder’s income.

Unscrupulous mortgage companies and banks were writing mortgage loans for houses worth $750 grand and the buyer only earned $40 grand a year. A body with a pulse was the only requirement to get a mortgage.

It was the 1990s-early 2000s bubble that encouraged everyone to live far beyond their means. It was the pentacle of the Big Dream that rose from the suburban mind-set of the 1960s. Party like it was 1999 baby!

The dream turned into a nightmare in 2008, when the loan sharks converted the mortgages into bonds to trade on Wall Street. Soon, this paper was worthless as the housing market tanked. The housing bubble burst, and the paper lion crumbled. Suddenly, banks were going under and millions of people couldn’t pay their mortgages.

Foreclosures were rampant and spreading like the plague. What’s worse, the swindlers were being exposed as their Ponzi schemes collapsed. The Big Dream fragmented into the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression.

This deflation of the American Dream is a permanent readjustment of our expectations. Our whole philosophy of prosperity is changing into the New Reality of reduced wages, massive layoffs, outsourced jobs, dwindling American resources.

We face a New Dream of lower standards of living. In some ways, it’s like we have been blasted back in time to the 1950s.We must learn to live within our means. If we can’t afford something, then we can’t buy it. We must save more money and spend less. This is the bold new economics of today’s America. We must look for new green jobs or start imaginative new businesses that deal with the New Reality of green energy.

More importantly, we must close our borders to the onslaught of illegal aliens flooding into the United States and lowering our wage scales and taking all the construction jobs.
Our lawmakers need to pass legislation that forbids corporations from building plants in other countries like Mexico or outsourcing customer service jobs to India. Finally, we need to start building things in America instead of China.

Still, it will take years to pull out of this recession. But the recovery will bring us up to the New

Reality of a more modest dream for the middle class, without overextended credit and tightened mortgage loan qualifications. The credit driven prosperity of the 1990s and early 2000s will never happen again. When the dust clears, we will have more savings and ultimately a brighter future once the economy stabilizes.

2009-03-05T09:52:00.000-08:00

Rick Raw: Robert Stanford–Madoff’s Evil Twin Swindler

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net www.rickatnight.com

Here we go again! Another major crook was created by Allen Greenspan’s deregulation initiative of the 1990s, supported and endorsed by President Clinton.

A cocky Texas banker, Robert Stanford, who flaunts his $2 billion wealth with conspicuous spending on mansions, private jets, and other big ticket items, has come under fire by the SEC.

The Feds allege Stanford swindled investors in his Certificate of Deposits (CDs) scheme.
Last week, federal regulators charged Stanford with fraud in connection with the sale of $8 billion in CDs issued by his Antigua-based Stanford Financial Group. They froze his assets, effectively stopping Stanford from any further business dealings

Stanford, who is the stereotypical Texas cowboy-hat-wearing blowhard, bragged that his CDs paid more than twice the going rate. He once said, "I’m untouchable," presumably because his company spent more than $5 million on political contributions and lobbyists.

The SEC charges that the CDs are nothing but another Ponzi scheme. Stanford is telling investors that they can’t redeem their CDs for at least two months. Such delays are a red-flag prelude to the collapse of a Ponzi fraud

With his macho bravado, Stanford established himself as royalty in Antigua. Islanders call him Sir Stanford since he was knighted by the former British colony in 2006. He holds dual citizenship in Antigua and the United States.

Along with the SEC, the FBI and IRS have joined the investigation into Stanford’s business dealings. Indeed, that’s major heat on this slippery Texan. Still, Stanford maintains his innocence and walks tall. He’s the type of character that has always aspired to be bigger than life. He says he was born to be rich and, from an early age, he was hustling for money and status. Stanford dabbled in philanthropy to spread his name as an icon of the banking world. Stanford and his father got rich buying up and reselling foreclosures that swept Houston in the early 1980s.

As the father and son company prospered, Stanford broke from his father and he began to buy, operate, and sell apartment complexes and residential projects. With the profits of his real estate business, Stanford opened his first bank, Guardian International Bank, the predecessor of Stanford International Bank in Montserrat, in the Caribbean.

Justifiably, the Feds want to know how Stanford’s relatively small real estate company morphed into an international bank. Close associates of Stanford believe his personality and con-man skills enabled him to move in much higher circles than his modest entitlement warranted. Childhood friends say that Stanford has boundless energy and confidence and was always making deals even as a teenager.

Like Madoff, whose audacity blasted him into the higher echelon of the banking world, Stanford inspired trust. His name was his bond. People figured he owned his own banks and financial company. His humanitarian activities got him knighted. In investors minds, how could a man of such impeccable credentials swindle investors?

Well, the Feds have only scratched the surface of the many scams operating under deregulation for the last two decades. Now the swindlers are being exposed, fear grips the investment world.

These days, investors can’t trust any financial company that doesn’t back up its investments with FDIC. Sure that means one’s money will make pitiful interest rates, but at least its protected–guaranteed. It’s beats waking up one morning and discovering your life savings has been wiped out by some scumbag like Madoff or Stanford. And worse, you can’t get your hands around their necks because a cadre of U.S. Marshalls protect them.

2009-02-26T09:29:00.000-08:00

Rick Raw: Save American Jobs–Close Borders and Ban Outsourcing

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net www.rickatnight.com

Provisions in the Stimulus Bill were drafted to create new jobs in construction and the new green industries. However, there are serious problems with this legislation, in that, it does not account for illegal immigration or American corporations being allowed to outsource jobs to other countries.

On most construction sites, Hispanic immigrants have taken all the jobs. Most of these workers have entered our country illegally. Construction firms look the other way because illegals will work for much less than American labor. If we are going to offer new jobs in the construction trades for the millions of unemployed Americans, then we will have to shutdown our borders to the onslaught of illegal aliens, pouring into the promise land. This is a serious threat to our superpower status.

More significantly, we need to improve law enforcement of our immigration laws by hiring thousands of new Border Patrol Agents and investigators who can weed out the illegal aliens from the big construction firms. We have the will and the means, but we need to fund it. Sadly, the Stimulus package does not account for this money.

Presently, construction companies have no incentive to hire American workers. If they get caught with illegal aliens, they get a fine and a slap on the wrist. Clearly, the penalties need to have teeth and enforcement upgraded. As long as illegal aliens are stealing American jobs by working for less, then the construction industry is a closed shop to English speaking workers.

Ah yes, but another problem that discourages hiring American workers was not addressed in the Stimulus Bill. For years, American corporations have been allowed to outsource millions of jobs overseas to countries like India and Northern Ireland. In recent years, most nationwide major call centers have closed and the jobs moved to India where labor is cheap. Yeah, how many times have I called for computer support and tried to understand the guy with the Indian accent. It’s maddening.

Moreover, thousands of manufacturing jobs were also outsourced overseas to China and other countries. The only way to stop this practice is to pass a law banning outsourcing–period! Yes, American corporations would scream bloody murder. They would say that by banning outsourcing, they would not be able to compete on the global markets.

That’s a big fat lie. The "global market" excuse has been the corporations’ ticket to ride the cheap foreign labor bandwagon for years . Here’s a thought: Pay the CEOs much less money and that would make up the difference after hiring American workers. We could get back to making quality American goods that, like German engineering, is respected worldwide.

2009-02-19T09:24:00.000-08:00

Rick Raw: Nadya Suleman-- Baby Factory is A Liar and Opportunist

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net www.rickatnight.com

The sensational case of Nadya Suleman giving birth to eight babies after being implanted with in vitro fertilized eggs has stirred up debate on the ethics and morality of her decision. Suleman already had six kids and was living on money she received from a lawsuit–over 100 grand, and disability.

At first blush, I thought she would be a typical welfare mother–fat and slovenly. Shockingly, at 33, Suleman is attractive, and curiously, looks like Angelina Jolie. She has a degree in psychology and had worked a mental institution as a counselor. It was there during a riot that she was seriously injured and suffered through a long recovery. She sued and won her case.

During Suleman’s convalescence, she was depressed and longed to have many children–surrounding herself with her offspring’s love. (Perhaps she should have found a boyfriend to feed her need for love.) So after she recovered, she asked a male friend if he would donate his sperm so she could have children. On Dateline, she made it clear she is not romantically involved with her donor, but he wants to be in the children’s lives. Hmmm, I wonder is he working on the diaper changing assembly line.

Six babies later, Suleman still wanted more kids. So her stalwart male donor (a prolific masturbater) again made the scene with a magazine inside the sperm bank and a sympathetic doctor implanted all of her fertilized eggs. Eight more premature bambinos were cut out of her womb. Now, Suleman has fourteen kids, no job, dwindling funds, but a positive attitude. Clearly, she is intelligent and determined to raise her brood while going back to school to get her masters degree.

When I saw Suleman’s interview on Dateline, I was impressed with her can-do attitude. She came across as having all these kids is something she was destined to do, despite the physical, emotional, and financial burden on her and her circle of friends. Still, I was bothered by her selfishness knowing there is no way she can give them all the love and support they need.

Of course, the morality and ethics of this case is open for debate. Now that we have the technology to allow women to have multiple births beyond four or five babies, is it violating moral or ethical standards? Just how many kids should a woman have at once? The answer is: As many as she wants. This is not China where the government tries to limit the population explosion.

"I know I’ll be able to afford them when I’m done with my schooling," Suleman said to Anne Curry in the Dateline interview. To date, Suleman has received disability payments from the State of California, but she refuses to accept welfare payments except for food stamps, which she doesn’t consider welfare. She and her children were living in her mother Angela Suleman’s house, but since the death threats, she has moved to an undisclosed location.

Nonetheless, despite her seemingly righteous motivations, there are underlying sinister machinations that bother me. Her new agent is shopping a reality show and other commercial possibilities to earn money. Clearly, NBC did not pay Suleman to get their exclusive interview and videos.

Ultimately, Suleman is using her situation for commercial gain which may have been her sole reason for doing this baby gig in the beginning. If so, I feel sorry for all her kids who will pay the price for her selfishness and greed. I think Nadya Suleman has figured out an angle to make money. I’m sorry, I’m cynical. I’ve seen too many con artists and scammers get rich to think that Suleman is sincere.

Obviously, she lied to Anne Curry about having her lips enhanced to look like Angelina Jolie. The pictures of her before and after her lip-job tell the true story. Letters she wrote to Jolie have surfaced. Now, (as of Feb. 19th) Suleman’s house could go into foreclosure. My conclusion is: Suleman is a liar and plans to exploit her 14 kids. Meanwhile, California taxpayers will be picking up her tab.

2009-02-12T10:02:00.000-08:00

Rick Raw: Rush Limbaugh Lays Down The Gauntlet for Opposing Obama

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net www.rickatnight.com

Well, it didn’t take long for radio talk show pit-bull, Rush Limbaugh to oppose President Obama’s first week’s agenda–specifically Obama’s Stumulus Package. Suddenly, Limbaugh emerged as the lead spokesperson for the ultra-conservative right wing of the Republican party.

Post haste, the blow-hard naysayer began spewing his unsubstantiated opinion to his radio listeners, condemning everything Obama before the new president could trim the Stimulus Package of its pork to get at least some Republican Senators on-board for the final vote.

Of course, Limbaugh is a provocateur--a gadfly. His reason for being is to stir up controversy to get Democrats all riled up with his anti-Obama rhetoric. His on-air diatribes are outrageous, prompting listeners to call his show so he can blast them with his shot-gun mouth. All well and good–it stimulates hard hitting dialogue, making for a lively radio show. Like him or hate him–Limbaugh is the mouth that ate the radio waves and gets paid very well for his bombastic utterances.

Limbaugh’s ascension as the voice of the right wing Republican party, when in fact, Limbaugh is not a politician, was unprecedented. It exposes the Party’s weakened position after the Obama win swept through their caucus like a hurricane, sending the candidates and Party stars scurrying like rats from a burning building.

Indeed, Limbaugh is delighted to be the horn blower for the conservative movement. In a way, Limbaugh has taken the right wing banner to the airwaves and will be its outspoken champion, while annoying the Obama camp every day. It’s Newton’s third law of motion "Where there’s an action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction." Obama’s action–Limbaugh’s reaction. Yin-yang!

Representative Phil Gingery, a Georgia Republican found out that criticizing Limbaugh brought a hellstorm of phone calls from conservatives. He said, "It’s easy for talk show hosts to stand back and throw bricks," The next day, Politico’s headline stated, "House GOP member to Rush. Back off?" Gingery was so bothered by the complaints, he visited four conservative talk-show hosts, including Limbaugh, to apologize. He ended up kissing Limbaugh’s ring, knowing that Limbaugh could bury him.

This hubbub reverts back to a few days before Obama was sworn in. Limbaugh said that he hoped Obama failed because he didn’t believe in the incoming president’s policies. Bingo! His telephone lines lit up like the enemy attack warning buttons at CENTCOM. An anchor on MSMBC asked rhetorically, "Is Limbaugh running the GOP?"

So the battle lines have been drawn and, like it or not, Limbaugh is the voice of the opposition party because he has a powerful listener base and he feeds them what they want to hear with his opinions.

Nonetheless, we must remember that when Limbaugh was having a field day with Bill Clinton’s screw-ups, his pronouncements of disgust had no effect on Clinton’s presidency. Ultimately, Rush Limbaugh hosts an entertaining radio show that stimulates debate and controversy. He has no control over Obama’s presidency. He’s just an irritating voice on the airwaves. Blah, blah, blah!

2009-02-05T12:43:00.000-08:00

Rick Raw: Obama Healing the Wounds of Past Bipartisan Acrimony

by Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net www.rickatnight.com

President Obama came to the White House with no left over bitterness or revenge motivation that would make bipartisan cooperation impossible. This is in stark contrast to his predecessors Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. They came from the rough and tumble politics of Texas and Arkansas and the culture clashes of the 1960s-1990s. During their respective administrations the Democrats were the hip liberal party and the Republicans were the stodgy square party of the far right. It was the smack down politics of kill or be killed.

Over the years, vendettas clouded the air between parties. When W was coronated into office by the Supreme Court, stealing the election from Al Gore, Democrats were bitter and dug in for the battles to come. Then the Republican majority victory in Congress was squandered by over zealous partisan initiatives. This led to gridlock on the Hill that clogged up the progress of worthy causes and the much needed regulation of the Stock Market. Now we are paying the price.

Hail to the new Chief. President Obama has reached out across the aisle to bring Republicans into the decision making process. He listens to suggestions and is open to new ideas, regardless from which party they are originating. His lack of ego and calm decision making persona is a powerful tool for getting thing done.

Indeed, President Obama is genuinely trying to heal the wounds of past bipartisan acrimony. Of course, the art of the deal requires making compromises. The Democrats and Republicans have to meet each other on common ground. In the end, President Obama will have to make the final decision and it will not please everyone.

The President’s cabinet is a centrist body-politic that by its very make-up includes both parties. So far the Republicans are pleased by President Obama’s tax cut initiative. It may not be exactly what they had in mind, but it comes close enough for them to vote yea. It’s too early in the game to predict that this spirit of cooperation will continue.

Lurking in the wings are the ultra-conservative activists who are not necessarily interested in bipartisanship or flexibility. They want what they want, and don’t encourage compromise. They are lined up with various religious zealots who think that their religion is the only belief system that will get their parishioners into heaven. They are the born-agains who say that unless one is saved, hell is one’s only option. So, these closed minded dolts will always be a problem. But they can be circumvented by the Democratic majority.

There are those naysayers that predict President Obama will not have the guts to stand up to Republican machinations or his own party’s liberal agenda . But that is unsubstantiated negative speculation. President Obama has demonstrated he has the leadership skills to transcend the bipartisan bickering and make the tough decisions. He exudes calm strength which motivates his cabinet and inspires respect from his detractors.

Time will tell if President Obama can rise above the slash and burn politics of the past. He is off to a great start and his impressive show of strong leadership has ushered in a new dawn of American presidential power that brings people together for the common good. Everyone is watching and praying that President Obama can solve our overwhelming problems.

2009-01-29T13:17:00.000-08:00

Rick Raw: Civil Service Draft –Putting Young Slackers to Work

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net http://www.rickatnight.com/

Now that Obama has taken the helm of a nation in the grips of the Great Recession, he is soliciting ideas from his vast E-mail supporters’ list. There are myriad economic problems to solve, bailouts to manage, stimulus packages to initiate, and new jobs to create. It’s a daunting job for our new president. Expectations are unreasonably high.

Indeed, Obama has landed in a pressure cooker White House with his staff of experts and wunderkinds. Obama will be tested like no other president since Franklin Roosevelt. He must give us positive indicators that he will promote change, or there will be a backlash of disappointment and despondency.

First and foremost, Obama must stop the recession’s downward spiral stemming from our country’s economic collapse. However, Obama must also create new jobs to get the millions of unemployed people back to work to jump start the economic engine. Presently there are millions of disenfranchised youth who have no job prospects. Some are joining the military to find financial stability and to serve their country, which is a noble endeavor.

In contrast, others are slackers who hang around being a burden on their parents and society. Yes, they are unmotivated dweebs who think they can skirt the system by becoming overnight rock stars by imitating the success of four generations of established rockers. I see them on Jay Leno every night. They have one hit record, one tour, and are never heard from again. They pose well though. They’ve got the rock star look down pat. Alas, they can’t write memorable songs.

My first letter to Obama suggested that he form a Civil Service Draft. A mandatory conscription for men and women that would mandate young people (18-25) who were not serving in the military would be obliged to join a Civil Service Corp for four years. It would be much like the military with a boot camp, uniforms, special training, and military styled discipline. The pay scale would be setup similar to the military with a ranking system. Shelter, uniforms, and food would be included, like the military. Transfer into the military would always be an option at a comparable rank and pay.

After boot camp and training, the Civil Service Corp personnel would be assigned to community service organizations across the country helping restore ghettos, infrastructure projects, help build homeless shelters, administer medical help to people who have no health insurance.

Of course, college students with grade point averages 2.5 and above would be exempt. Civil Service Corp four-year tenure would be a respected credit on the Corp member’s resume.

Like the military, the Civil Service Corp will teach young people that they are not the center of the universe, and the needs of others are more important than their meaningless lives of doing nothing and being a burden on society.

At some point young people need to face reality and see the world beyond themselves. This would give them the chance for a steady job of self reliance and sacrifice. It would serve as a bridge from dependence on their parents to true independence and self respect.

The lessons Corp members would learn from this experience can’t be taught in schools. Clearly, there will be young people who can’t be helped. They will end up in jail or dead. But, this Civil Service Corp would save many of our youth on the brink of being lost forever.

2009-01-22T10:02:00.000-08:00

Rick Raw: Madoff Mess Escalates –Pirate Mad Bart Madoff Remains Free in Penthouse

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net www.rickatnight.com

The saga of pirate Mad Bart Madoff continued with another outrage. On Monday, Jan. 12th, Magistrate Judge Ronald Ellis of the U.S. District Court of New York refused to revoke Mad Bart’s bail. Prosecutors were livid and complained to the judge that Mad Bart brazenly violated his bail agreement by writing a hundred checks to relatives equaling over $100 million. He also mailed jewelry, expensive watches, and diamonds to relatives to the tune of $1 million dollars.

The judges decision left the prosecution stunned and speechless.
Yes, this pirate swindler just keeps thumbing his nose at the law and his victims while continuing to live the high life. Why is this judge giving him special privileges by letting him live in luxury in his palatial penthouse condo? Why, why, why!

Why indeed! Everyone from the prosecutors to enraged victims want this scumbag locked up behind cold steel bars, in a small cell with a stainless steel toilet and a cement bed until his trial. Perhaps the judge has heard of threats to Mad Bart’s life if he is incarcerated in the general population lockup. Ah yes, but no matter where Mad Bart is housed, someone is going to whack this creep–mark my words.

One can only speculate that the judge is soft peddling this major criminal for unknown reasons. Well, we can make unsubstantiated accusations that some money changed hands through underground channels or Mad Bart’s defense attorneys. But with the mass media spotlight on this case, the judge would be insanely reckless to take a bribe. But his latest ruling makes us suspicious.

The enormity of Mad Bart’s crime makes him the master thief of all time. He defrauded investors out of $50 billion in a blatant Ponzi scheme. Mad Bart’s victims included VIPs and celebrities, plus the Jewish charities in America and Israel. They demand that he be locked up for the common good. Lesser crooks have been hauled off to jail and held without bond until their trials.

Judge Ellis’ ruling is so egregious it demands a hearing before the bar association. No one is above the law and no one should get special privileges because they are wealthy. Judge Ellis’ ruling makes a mockery of the judicial system.

More significantly, Mad Bart’s scam went beyond his many irate victims. He disrupted an already fragile financial system, affecting hedge funds and brokerage firms, causing the Stock Market to falter. Big time investors from Wall Street, Palm Beach, Florida to Europe were ruined. Two of Hollywood’s elite players, Steven Spielberg and Kevin Bacon lost large amounts of money.

The chorus of people who are demanding Mad Bart Madoff’s head are growing louder. Lock the son-of-a-bitch up before a mob breaks into his building and drags him out onto the street and strings him up on a lamp post. There are some crimes that demand old time justice.

2009-01-15T09:05:00.000-08:00

Rick Raw: Pirate Mad Bart Madoff of Third Avenue–The Quest to Find Madoff’s Hidden Stash

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net www.rickatnight.com

The cold steel blade of Pirate Mad Bart Madoff’s sword has ripped open a blood bath of financial destruction on his clients after he was arrested for running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. Everyone from movie stars to retirees and best selling authors lost their life savings when Mad Bart’s house of cards collapsed. Inevitably, the slimy old bastard will walk the plank.

But now, the quest to find Mad Bart’s hidden stash, estimated to be $850 million, has begun. Despite Mad Bart’s assurances that he would come clean with his list of assets last week, so far, he’s done nothing to comply.

Mad Bart’s unmitigated gall continues to amaze and piss-off prosecutors when they discovered a pile of signed checks amounting to millions of dollars he intended to send to relatives. Then he mailed his jewelry and precious stones to family members for safe keeping. Despite prosecutors wishes that the Pirate Mad Bart be thrown in jail, the judge presiding over the case has not yet revoked his bail. Why is the judge treating this blood thirsty pirate with kid gloves?

It’s unlikely that Mad Bart will tell authorities where he has hidden his stash unless prosecutors offer him a sweetheart deal–like a complete walk.(That won’t happen.) It’s his only bargaining chip. Victims are clambering to get at least some of their money back. But jolly old Mad Bart scammed so many people they’ll be lucky to get pennies on the dollar. "Aye, I’ll give them nothing," he growled.

The scandal has just touched the tip of the Big Swindle iceberg. Where were the SEC and regulators? How could Mad Bart pull off this fraud for so long? Heads will roll and new regulations will be put in place. Delving into Mad Bart’s complex matrix of illicit dealings will take time to unravel.

Sure, Mad Bart will relinquish his obvious assets such as his brokerage accounts, client names, and offshore and numbered accounts that dealt directly with his investment company, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. And he’ll agree to sell his $7 million Park Avenue penthouse, the Palm Beach mansion, the yachts, the French villa, and the Montauk getaway. "Hell, their only trinkets," he said.

However authorities know that this devious sociopath had plenty of time to hide his real worth so his extended family will not have to live in poverty while he sits in jail for the rest of his life. Chances are, if Mad Bart is jailed in an open population of inmates, someone will have him whacked. One phone call from the outside and Mad Bart gets a shank in the heart.

Pirates of yesteryear buried their loot. Today, Mad Bart could have owned his own bank that was funded by nameless wire transfers from and to Switzerland, the Caymans, Liechtenstein. And yes, he could have used hidden safes, safe deposit boxes stuffed with cash, or bearer bonds, which are just like currency with no record of purchase. Relatives could cash them in after the scandal was forgotten.

Justice should be swift for Mad Bart. His head should rest on a spike high above Wall Street as a warning to greedy traders and big time swindlers. But first, Mad Bart should be tortured to give up the location of his stash, and then beheaded. A deal to find the loot is out of the question. He has done too much harm to too many people.