The State of the Union Address

Most people spend their lives trying to build a reputation. Then they spend their last few minutes on their death bed trying to build their character.

I will not bash President Bush for his State of the Union address. Instead I will bash the media and those who seemed to act like Jesus Christ was arriving to address them! The whole event looking like a ceremony for a demigod. And for a president so unpopular?

Everyone wants to make the address more important than it is, especially the media, and their pundits, who need something to talk about so they can sell ads and collect revenues.

Congress members want to deify the position of President because so many of them hope to be president someday. Each congressional committee chair wants to be Speaker of the House, which has a military Boeing 757 jet for their disposal, and the Speaker of the House is number three in line to be president in case something happens to the president or vice president. This lust for power creates irrational behavior in rational people.

Thomas Jefferson did not appear before congress and make a speech because he thought it made the President seem like a monarch. Instead he sent a hand written letter to congress on the state of the Union. I agree with Thomas Jefferson.

Instead of all the fanfare, I think the State of the Union Address should simply be placed on the Internet at http://www.whitehouse.gov/index.html No more photo ops for the government elite.

The State of the Union show costs the taxpayers too much money. We should do away with the "public" State of the Union addresses to congress by the President.

Charles Tolleson

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_the_Union_Address George Washington gave the first State of the Union address on January 8, 1790 in New York City, then the provisional U.S. capital. In 1801, Thomas Jefferson discontinued the practice of delivering the address in person, regarding it as too monarchical (similar to the Speech from the Throne). Instead, the address was written and then sent to Congress to be read by a clerk until 1913 when Woodrow Wilson re-established the practice despite some initial controversy. However, there have been exceptions to this rule. Presidents during the latter half of the 20th century have sent written State of the Union addresses. The last President to do this was Jimmy Carter in 1980. For many years, the speech was referred to as "the President's Annual Message to Congress." The actual term "State of the Union" did not become widely used until after 1935 when Franklin D. Roosevelt began using the phrase.

Prior to 1934, the annual message was delivered at the end of the calendar year, in December. The ratification of Amendment XX on January 23, 1933 changed the opening of Congress from early March to early January, affecting the delivery of the annual message. Since 1934, the message or address has been delivered to Congress in January or February. Today, the speech is typically delivered on the last Tuesday in January, although there is no such provision written in law, and it varies from year to year, and it occurred on the last Monday of January in 2008.

The Twentieth Amendment also established January 20 as the beginning of the presidential term. In years when a new president is inaugurated, the outgoing president may deliver a final State of the Union message, but none has done so since Jimmy Carter sent a written message in 1981. In 1953 and 1961, Congress received both a written State of the Union message from the outgoing president and a separate State of the Union speech by the incoming president. Since 1989, in recognition that the responsibility of reporting the State of the Union formally belongs to the president who held office during the past year, newly inaugurated Presidents have not officially called their first speech before Congress a "State of the Union" message.

Calvin Coolidge's 1923 speech was the first to be broadcast on radio. Harry S. Truman's 1947 address was the first to be broadcast on television. Lyndon Johnson's address in 1965 was the first delivered in the evening. Bill Clinton gave his 1999 address while his impeachment trial was underway, and his 1997 address was the first broadcast available live on the World Wide Web. Ronald Reagan was the only president to have postponed his State of the Union address. On January 28, 1986, he planned to give his address, but after learning of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, he postponed it for a week and addressed the nation on the day's events.

Using vehicle draft to generate electricity

Have you ever stood by a freeway as a big truck goes by at 75 miles per hour? Not many people have. When I was a young man I often hitch hiked. When a truck went by I could feel the strong wind draft.

Race car drivers try to take advantage of the draft of a preceding car.

If all the freeways had turbines installed on the sides of the roads, the vehicle draft would turn the turbines and create electricity.

With new, huge, boring machines it is becoming more economical to build tunnels. These can be private, as the story below indicates.

All tunnels could have turbines installed that would use vehicle draft to generate electricity. Imagine a user of a tunnel paying a fee to drive through, and while driving through, the user is creating electricity that is being transferred to the user's own home!

Charles Tolleson

NY's 16-mile car tunnel would be longest, By FRANK ELTMAN, Associated Press Writer, Jan 27 2008

It would be the world's longest highway tunnel, running more than 16 miles under the west end of Long Island Sound.

The cost is estimated at $10 billion - and it wouldn't cost taxpayers a dime. A developer wants to build the tunnel with private money, recouping his costs by charging drivers $25 each way and by selling advertising.

Developer Vincent Polimeni says the tunnel between Oyster Bay and Rye on the New York mainland would let travelers going between Long Island and New England avoid crowded New York City highways and help alleviate traffic congestion.

While not expected to be completed before 2025, the proposal received renewed attention this past week when a state Senate committee held a hearing.

Polimeni has also employed the engineering and construction firm Hatch Mott MacDonald, which has been involved in tunnel projects worldwide, including the 30-mile railroad "Chunnel" that connects Great Britain and France.

At 16 to 18 miles long, depending on the final design, the Long Island Sound project would eclipse Norway's 15.2-mile Laerdal Tunnel as the world's longest highway tunnel.

It would consist of two tubes carrying three lanes of traffic each, plus a central tunnel to be used for maintenance access and emergency ventilation and egress.

America Falling Behind in Science Graduates

Despite the government funding 60% of all basic research funds ("In 2006, the federal government supplied about 60 % of all basic research funds, industry about 17 %, with private foundations, academic institutions and other governmental entities supplying the rest.), 47% of Americans said the government spends too little on research!

I did not dig into the report, but I suspect one reason for our decline in science is the "single mom" factor. Children who are brought up in a home without a father simply do not have the scientific activity in their lives as children with males around.

I'm not too alarmed by the report that America does not produce the same world percentage of scientists as it did in 1980. With two billion people in China and India, where the divorce rate is lower, it is only natural that their market share of science and engineering graduates would increase.

If science is a nation's security issue, maybe we should have a government program to recruit more male teachers in the schools. We know males are more interested in science, building, destruction, and repair. But, instead of a program to recruit more male teachers, we have government grants and programs trying to change females' interests to science.

The feminists' envy cannot stand for anything important to be the exclusive domain of males. Yet they are willing to allow the unglamorous work, garbage collection, to be the exclusive domain of males.

The teachers' unions and education colleges do not want to make it easy to hire a male off the street who has a long career in the science and technology field. Many of these males would make excellent teachers. They just don't have the teacher "credentials". They have not joined the monopoly. They have not paid their dues. For the teacher's unions and colleges to allow the free market to work in hiring teachers, the supply of teachers might increase. When the supply of an item increases the price goes down. This also applies to many professions; doctors, nurses, attorneys, accountants, architects, pilots, etc.

Females use males for scientific and mechanical jobs around the house. My own son built a solar system of Styrofoam balls hanging from the ceiling over my grandson's bed. His three children learn so much from his technological attitude.

My son-in-law is a math teacher. My daughter is a wonderful mother and art teacher. Because of my son in law, their three children live in world where math functions are normal daily conversations. The children also get all the benefits of having inputs and interests from both genders.

Without the men in my six grand children's lives, their science world would have a higher probability of being deficient.

Science will cause more human evolution in the next thousand years than nature caused during the previous million years. One change will be the disappearance of the Y chromosome in humans.

Charles Tolleson

"Opera singing and bird singing are both enjoyable. I cannot understand the words of either singer." Charles Tolleson

-----------------------------------------http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/24070The National Science Board this week said leading science and engineering indicators tell a mixed story regarding the achievement of the US in science, research and development, and math in international comparisons.

For example, US schools continue to lag behind internationally in science and math education. On the other hand, the US is the largest,single, R&D-performing nation in the world pumping some $340 billion into future-related technologies. The US also leads the world in patent development.The board's conclusions and Science and Engineering Indicators 2008are contained in the group's biennial report on the state of science and engineering research and education in the United States sent to the President and Congress this week.While the report is massive, the board came up with 13 prime observations on the report or what it calls leading Science and Engineering Indicators 2008.

The facts:· U.S. grade school students continue to lag behind other developed countries in science and math, although fourth and eighth grade U.S. students showed steady gains in math since 1990. Only fourth graders showed gains in science compared to 1996.·

High school completion and college enrollment rates across ethnic groups increased steadily in recent years. But college enrollment and completion rates differ across socio economic groups.·

In 2000, the United States held about one quarter of the world's 194 million tertiary degrees -- degrees broadly equivalent to a U.S. baccalaureate. Twenty years earlier, the U.S. share was closer to one third of the world's then 73 million tertiary degrees.·

From 1994 to 2004, U.S. firms increased the number of people they employed in R&D jobs outside the United States by 76 % and employment within the United States by 31 %, while U.S. subsidiaries of foreign firms increased their U.S. R&D employment by 18 %.·

The U.S. is the largest, single, R&D-performing nation in the world supplying an estimated $340 billion for R&D in 2006, a record high.· Of the $340 billion R&D total, basic research accounted for18 % or $62 billion; applied research accounted for 22 % or $75billion; and development accounted for the other 60 % or $203 billion.In 2006, the federal government supplied about 60 % of all basic research funds, industry about 17 %, with private foundations,academic institutions and other governmental entities supplying the rest.· Federal obligations for all academic research, basic and applied, declined in real terms between 2004 and 2005 and are expected to drop further in 2006 and 2007. This would be the first multiyear decline for academic research since 1982.· Based on key indicators, the U.S. sustained a relative economic advantage over other developed and developing economies.Growth has been far more rapid in the emerging markets of China and India.· The U.S. is a leading producer in high-tech manufacturing and knowledge-intensive services, but several Asian countries, led by China, have rapidly increased their global market share.· The U.S. leads the world in economically-viable patents,filed in the U.S., Japan and Europe.· The U.S. comparative advantage in exports of high-technology products has eroded: the U.S. trade balance in advanced technology products shifted from surplus to deficit starting in 2002. Information and communications products geographically concentrated in Asia -- particularly China and Malaysia -- account for this deficit.· U.S. public support for government funding of scientific research is strong and growing.· In a 2006 survey, 87 % of Americans supported government funding for basic research, up from 80 % in past surveys dating back to 1979. Also, Americans who said the government spends too little on scientific research grew from 34 % to 41 % between 2002 and 2006.· In 2006, Americans expressed greater confidence in leaders of the scientific community than those of any other institution except the military. On science-related public policy issues, including global climate change, stem cell research and genetically modified foods, Americans believe that science leaders, are knowledgeable and impartial and ought to be influential.· Academic scientists and engineers are more diverse today,and federal funding remains important to them.· From 1973 to 2006, in the academic, doctoral labor force the share of women increased from 9 % to 33 %, of underrepresented minorities (African-Americans, Hispanics, and American Indians/Alaska Natives) from 2 % to 8 %, and of Asian/Pacific Islanders from 4 % to14 %.· Academic S&E doctorate holders employed in academia who received federal support has remained steady during the last 20 years:just under half, 47 % in 2006, and in the late 1980s. Among life scientists, this %age has dropped from 65 % in 1989, to 58 % in 2006,although the actual number of those reporting federal support increased.

The National Science Board was established by Congress in 1950, and provides oversight for, and establishes the policies of, the National Science Foundation. It also serves as an independent body of advisors to both the President and Congress on broad national policy issues related to science and engineering research and education.

My economic stimulus package

The politicians are trying to out do each other on an economic stimulus package. President Bush just announced his plan, and the market went down. The market does not approve of the government plans because the government takes too much production from the economy and spends it in non productive ways.

This is my economic stimulus package.

After reducing taxes and spending, they should start by eliminating many of the rules that impede economic development.

They should repeal the minimum wage for anyone who is hired within the next 12 months.

They should eliminate all of the EEOC requirements for hiring and firing any employee hired during the next 12 months.

They should eliminate the licensing requirement to start a taxi business, barber shop, beauty salon, garage and many other businesses.

They should allow private property owners to build any building on their property that is zoned for such building, without a building permit, or EPA study.

This would stimulate the economy and increase tax revenues.

Charles Tolleson

"On one issue both men and women agree; they both distrust women." H. L. Mencken

People dying from lack of health insurance

From another forum member- "It is unacceptable to be the richest nation on earth and have people dying because of lack of health insurance."

It is a noble and wonderful thing that many people try to save the lives of others. However, it should be done voluntarily. To give government employees the power to use force to save lives is a dangerous thing. Government power has taken millions of lives in the past. We give the Food and Drug Administration the power to use force in approving drugs to save lives. That approval process now takes years and costs millions. How many people die from the slow actions of the FDA? How many terminally ill patients die because the FDA will not allow those dying patients to even experiment with a new drug?

Giving enough power to government employees to save lives is letting the government employees play God. This power has always been an ignition source for an inferno that, until the printing press, has usually been extinguished only by blood.

Charles Tolleson

"If only we'd stop trying to be happy we'd have a pretty good time". Edith Wharton

More on Newt Gingrich's Speech

Another forum I am on posted the Nov 15, 2007 New Gingrich speech, again, and some of the war lovers think the speech is great. http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/terrorism.php?id=1385641

Newt Gingrich has many complaints with our foreign policy, some I agree with. However, his only choice is, "I suggest we defeat our enemies and create a different situation long before they have that power."

The war complex and war lovers cannot exist without enemies, real or imaginary.

Many organizations need enemies to rally their people. The churches created Satan as an enemy.

Who are our enemies and why are they enemies? Could it be they are the enemies of Israel instead of our enemies? Newt gave the speech to the Jewish National Fund. Who else would pay thousands of dollars for a speaker to advertise for war against Israel's enemies? Well, the Armageddonites, who need war and destruction, might pay to promote their beliefs.

Maybe our enemies are enemies because our Christian army invades and occupies their countries.

How should we defeat "our" (Israel's) enemies? This sounds like more of the same foreign policy, unless Newt is saying we should invade Iran and Pakistan. Since we do not have the manpower for that, is Newt suggesting we just nuke them before they nuke us? Then we create more enemies. Do we nuke them also?

We call ourselves civilized. Yet we continue to kill over beliefs that have not been proven since they were advocated 2000 years ago.

It is said God made man in God's image. I suppose that makes God a misanthropic sadist. Why else would someone who is omnipotent do so much harm?

I sound misanthropic sometimes, but my hope for mankind seems more generous than what God has delivered. If I had God's power there would be no wars or diseases and we would be exploring distance galaxies by now.

Charles Tolleson

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/terrorism.php?id=1385641
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich delivered the following remarks to a Jewish National Fund meeting Nov. 15 at the Selig Center.

We don't have to be stupid. The choice is not cowardice or total war. Reagan unlocked Poland without firing a shot in an alliance with the pope, with the labor unions and with the British. We have every possibility if we're prepared to be honest to shape the world. It'll be a very big project. It's much closer to World War II than it is to anything we've tried recently. It will require real effort, real intensity and real determination. We're either going to do it now, while we're still extraordinarily powerful, or we're going to do it later under much more desperate circumstances after we've lost several cities.We had better take this seriously because we are not very many mistakes away from a second Holocaust. Three nuclear weapons is a second Holocaust. Our enemies would like to get those weapons as soon as they can, and they promise to use them as soon as they can.

I suggest we defeat our enemies and create a different situation long before they have that power.