The View From the Outback

• Thoughts While Staring at the Ceiling Fan
• If You Don't Have a PVR, Get One!
• John Magaw at TSA Sacked
• Spoken & Written English - Close Enough for Government Work?
• Being "Partly Black" - Part II
• 21st Century Teacher
• Suggested Reading From Past Columns

Nineteen Congressmen have asked Attorney General Ashcroft to prosecute peer-to-peer networks like Kazaa and Morpheus for copyright violations. It is about time. I have advocated this for a long time. If these peer-to-peer networks are allowed to continue, we will all suffer. The move to shut down computer CD-RW drives so that we cannot make legitimate backup copies of our CDs or rip them to our hard drives will continue to gain steam unless these Internet copyright "pirates" are dealt with forcefully.

Grasshoppers must have large brains for their size. They are smart enough to know that they like to go for rides. When I mow, a grasshopper will often jump up on the hood of my John Deere lawn tractor and ride for 20 minutes or so. They get on the truck windshield and will ride all the way into town, unless I get above 55 or 60 mph. They seem to love the breeze of a high-speed ride. But, I often wonder, if they ride into town, how do they get back? Does their family miss them? I'm serious. You have a lot of time for reflection here in the Outback. Maybe the Government needs to spend $200,000 on a study of the "familial patterns of the grasshopper." Only kidding, because I am not sure that you were sure. They have a lot dumber programs going on right now at our expense.

It is so much fun to sit here in a cow pasture and see the obvious, that somehow escapes those inside the Beltway. James W. Ziglar, the INS Commissioner, is resigning. Here is what I said in the Outback for March 30, 2000:

The INS is under heavy fire, and rightly so. As I watch the INS Commissioner, James W. Ziglar, testify before congressional committees, I get bad vibes. He seems to be yet another career bureaucrat who knows how to give "all the right answers." But, I question his suitability for the job. He served in several high administrative posts in the government, in Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, Bureau of Mines, and so forth, as an aide to a Senator, as a law clerk at the Supreme Court, and as a lawyer. He was also Sergeant at Arms for the U.S. Senate. Just how does this qualify him to run one of the critical "law enforcement" agencies in the country? Especially when it needs a complete restructuring. It seems to me that the president should have selected someone with federal law-enforcement experience and perhaps some federal criminal-law practice. Mr. Ziglar seems like a very nice person. What we need is a fire-breathing tyrant in that job. Mr. Ziglar might be one of the first high officials to leave his post prematurely. At least, it would not come as a surprise to me.

Baseball may go on strike. I have a suggestion with how to use the bats during the strike. Each owner and player should be hit up side the head with a Louisville Slugger in order to knock some sense into their heads. I get livid, apoplectic, when these millionaire crybabies talk about how they want more benefits. As a young man, I turned down an opportunity to try out in the majors when I found out that a rookie got paid about $7500. How did we get to where some gorilla thinks he is worth several million dollars a year to scratch his crotch and stand around in the outfield half of the of the game and eat sunflower seeds in the dugout for the other half? Even a .300 hitter only gets a hit now and then. I hope they go on strike and the fans finally have had enough and will not come back to the parks. A small poll on the Christian Science Monitor site showed 88% of people did not care if there was a strike. They are fed up with the greedy players and owners. Right on. Power to the fans, who have gotten screwed for years.

Upscale shopping has come to the Outback. A DOLLAR GENERAL store opened. I got a great pair of needle-nose pliers for about two bucks, four throw-away paint brushes for a buck. But the piece de resistance (you put in the accent marks) is a red T-shirt with a pocket and a white "Z" embroidered on the sleeve. This kind of designer shirt would probably cost $35.00 at the Galleria in Dallas. At DG, it was five bucks! It doesn't get any better than this. Let's see, that brings my clothing bill up to $50 for the year. One pair of jeans, a dozen socks, and a half dozen pairs of underwear. Dry cleaning? How does that work?

I don't download music MP3s from the Internet. But, I do rip my music CDs to my hard drive. There are all kinds of portable ways to listen to MP3 music. Recently, I bought a TDK Mojo CD- ROM portable player for $131. It plays both music CDs and MP3 music CDs (CD-R/CD-RW). It has a legible LCD window for Artist, Album, Title, etc., comes with a DC adapter, headphones, and will take a heck of a shock without skipping. I had trouble making an MP3 CD-R by dragging MP3 files to a "data" disk (as suggested) using Easy CD Creator Version 5.1 (for XP). And I was using a 32X TDK burner and 32X-rated TDK CD-Rs. But, I made a couple of MP3 beauties (about 10 hours each) by burning CDs directly from MusicMatch Jukebox. The unit comes with a pair of Duracell Ultra Alkaline AA batteries. I replaced them with rechargeable Nickel Metal Hydride batteries, and they seem to work fine. Now, I won't go broke buying batteries.

A magazine commented that you can store about 10,000 4-minute MP3 songs on a 40 gigabyte hard drive That is 667 hours of music. Do these people plan on living to 120? I think a lot of this mania to download MP3 is simply a race to see who can claim they have the most songs downloaded. I have about 70 music CDs that I bought in a store. My changer holds 60. My insurance agent tells me it is not unusual for people to inventory 600+ CDs on their policies. Wanna put some money on the last time they played through the whole collection? Or their 10,000 MP3s?

Iomega is now shipping an external 750MB Zip drive that supports USB 2.0, at a price of $179, with disks selling for $14.99 (that would be about $15, wouldn't it) in single quantity. It will also read and write 100MB and 250MB Zip disks. My Zip 250MB with USB 1.1 works flawlessly for daily backups. So, I vowed to buy the first Zip that supported USB 2.0 - for another computer. USB 2.0 is 40 times faster than the USB 1.1 format that is on most older computers. But, things are moving fast. You can now buy an external 40-Gigabyte USB 2.0 hard drive from Que for $158.99 (that would be about $159 wouldn't it). I think I will go with the 40 Gig hard drive, for less money than the new Iomega Zip drive. Unless you swap Zip disks with others, or carry them back and forth from home to office, the Que 40 Gig USB 2.0 hard drive is very appealing. The Zip market share has dropped in three years from 10% to 2.5%, in large part due to the availability of cheap CD-R and CD-RW drives and disks. Now come the inexpensive USB 2.0 external hard drives to further erode the Zip market. You do have USB 2.0 support don't you? If not, you can buy a PCI board to add it to your computer. USB 2.0 is backward compatible with USB 1.1, if you get in a bind with an older computer.

Have you seen the Lincoln Navigator commercial where the lady in a red coat, with two bags of groceries in her arms, is running to her vehicle to beat a rain storm? She clicks her key-chain button and the rear lid opens and the running boards slide out. I am nearly positive this is the same lady who years ago was in a commercial where she came in from running and had a bowl of "nutritious" soup. I hope she has another job, since that is only two commercials in about 5 years or so. Maybe another commercial that requires running will come up.

I watched a lot of liberal voices on TV telling us how the Constitution is being decimated by Bush/Ashcroft, how we are all going to lose our civil rights, how we will be (or already are) living in a police state, and how the foundations of Democracy are being destroyed by the "war on terrorism" and the extremes of the government actions to protect America from another 9/11. God, I am depressed! I had no idea it was this bad. I have hit the Internet sites to find a better place to live. So far, I have ruled out about 150 countries, but I will keep trying. There are 41 more to check out. There has to be a better place to live than this decadent, decaying police state.

If You Don't Have a PVR, Get One!

I wrote about this once before, but now I am hopelessly hooked on my PVR, so I thought I would beat the drum a little louder. And the equipment is now more sophisticated and feature rich.

A PVR is a Personal Video Recorder, also known as a DVR (digital video recorder). You get so spoiled being able to Pause a live program, Rewind a live program, make 30-second jumps forward and 10-second jumps backward. Not to mention recording at least 30 hours of program in digital format, even Dolby 5.1 programs when they are transmitted.

My DishNetwork PVR has a live buffer, which actually stores a program on disk for up to one hour as you watch it. The phone rings, you Pause, and come back where you left off. Let the buffer run for 30 minutes with the set on Pause, and you can fast-forward though the captured program, skipping the boring parts and commercials. That means you can save up to 15 minutes per half hour of programming.

If you wish that you had recorded the live program now in the buffer, you can Rewind and Record the program! You can watch a recorded program and record a new one at the same time. If you have two receivers (or one with two tuners), you can watch a live program and record another.

For those who cannot stand the drivel that is spoken on TV in between football plays - and the interminable commercials around the time of the 2-minute warning - get a PVR. If you let the live buffer get ahead maybe 30 minutes to an hour, or you play back a recording of the entire game, you can click the 30-second skip button just as a player is tackled. The next frame will be the QB under center. You can always "rewind" if you want to review something - or an injury time out messes up the timing. Three hour football games take about an hour, I would guess, to view. I am pausing a pre-season game on FOX as I write this. There is a graduated Rewind/Forward speed of up to 300X. You can review or rewind an hour program in short order, all the while seeing it clearly flash by your eyes.

On my PVR 501, there is a week's worth of program guide on the screen, if you scroll to the right. If you see a program in the future that you want to record, press the Select button and you can tailor the timer for one-time, M-F, every day, etc. Point and click. Of course, you can catalog up to at least 30 hours of programing (depending on the model) and replay the programs at will, or erase them to make room for new recordings. Remember, it is a hard drive. Play 30 minutes of a movie and come back later and press Resume to pick up where you left off to mow the lawn.

Software upgrades are beamed to my set from the DishNetwork satellite(s) while I sleep. New features and bug fixes are downloaded several times a year. This week, I think for the first time, I found a four-minute segment on my recording list that was downloaded overnight when I had the set turned off. It was a discussion and demo of the new features that had been recently downloaded. What a great idea. For example, local networks are mapped to number keys. If I press 8, I get CH-8, WFAA, ABC in Dallas - because I subscribe to the "Dallas locals." I would have never discovered that without the tutorial.

You can go to www.dbsforums.com to see comments about PVRs, among other satellite TV topics. There is a lot of complaining on that site, but on balance my PVR 501 has worked well, with only minor glitches. A Reset usually cures most problems. The automatic updates usually attend to some of the recurring complaints - and add features that the users have asked for. DishNetwork people read dbsforums.com and get a lot of good feedback about where they need to be heading with fixes, features, and new gear.

Some PVRs charge a monthly fee for the program guide. Read the fine print.

I have the PVR 501 from DishNetwork, but there is now a newer model. DirecTV also has a version of a PVR. And there is TiVO. ReplayTV (Sonic-blue) is back in production. You will kick yourself for not having done this sooner, I guarantee you.

John Magaw at TSA Sacked

In the Outback for Dec. 29, 2001, I praised the appointment of John Magaw as director of the new Transportation Security Administration, which comes under the Department of Transportation. He had a distinguished Federal law-enforcement career, including as chief of the Secret Service.

Well, John was summarily dismissed. It was said that he failed to meet deadlines, that he hired too many guys with "cop" mentality, and that he was too much of a law-enforcement guy and not enough of an administrator. Some of the criticisms of Mr. Magaw may be valid. But, I watched him testify before Congress on several occasions, and followed closely the public information of the progress of TSA.

Congress set an unrealistic deadline for putting bomb-detecting equipment in airports. The airline folks said it simply could not be done by December of 2002. But, Congressman after Congressman literally browbeat John Magaw to "exercise the unusually broad mandate we gave you in the legislation." They implored him to get tough, not to take no for an answer, and so on. Then, when he pushed too hard, and the lobbyists for the airline industry complained of the unrealistic deadlines, they fired John Magaw. He was only doing what they had been harassing, yes, harassing, him to do. Now, they are extending the deadline for the bomb machines. Sorry we bugged you, John - and that we fired you. You were right. It was an unrealistic deadline. We shot the messenger and then we changed the message after you left.

There were other complaints about the number of weapons that still got by screeners, and so on. But, it will take a long time to hire and train competent people to do the screening. John was made a scapegoat for what was an inevitable short-term result from such a sweeping reform of airline and airport security.

It does not help that Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta insists that there can be no "racial profiling" of young Arabic men at airports. Secretary Mineta was interned in a camp in Wyoming during WW II because he was Japanese. That was a terrible thing to do. But, there is no comparison of his experience and that of being mindful that all the Sept. 11 terrorists were young Arabs. Mineta is a moron, and is letting his unfortunate personal experience cloud his thinking. And, he is completely out of step with normal law-enforcement techniques and what the majority of Americans think is permissible under the circumstances. Even brilliant constitutional lawyers quote the famous line that "The Constitution is not a suicide pact."

Perhaps when the TSA moves into the Department of Homeland Security, the squeamish, politically-correct nonsense about not singling out Arab men at airports will be abandoned. And that they will stop harassing 80-year old grandmothers from Cleveland. Focus, guys. Focus.

And one would hope that in the future Congress accepts the blame for setting unrealistic goals, rather than firing the messenger. That's probably too much to hope for.

Spoken & Written English - Close Enough for Government Work?

Recently, I sent an e-mail to FoxNews.com pointing out that they were in error when they ran a headline that said "Democrats Hone In On Election Message." As pointed out in the Outback for March 16, 2002 (www.home.earthlink.net/~rickhgtx/outbac54.html), you cannot "Hone in" on anything. It is "Home in." Or hone, as in hone a skill or hone a message (meaning to sharpen).

After reflection, these kinds of errors probably are the result of an increasing reliance on learning by listening - instead of by reading. Thus, we also get "the physical year" for "the fiscal year" and "the curve" for "the curb." And so it goes. Only English teachers and I seem to be bothered by all of this. How do you pronounce "applicable," "advertisement," "preferable," or "insurance"? Take your pick from the different versions you hear. One is bound to be right. When I was in college, there was ONE correct (preferable) way to pronounce every word. Not these days. One suggestion: it is Pref'-er-able, not Pree-fer'-able. Maybe not.

Big dogs have speech writers. The FCC Chairman, testifying before a Congressional Committee, said" "... keep the committee appraised." The word is "apprised." I hope his speech writer will hear about that one. You appraise a house.

MSNBC.com ran a headline on 8-15-02 "LIghtening halts action" (at the PGA golf tournament). There is no "e" in Lightning and no uppercase "I." A few minutes later, the headline was changed to "LIghtning halts action." Well, that's some progress. At least they got it right in the body of the story. The point is that the old phrase "Close enough for government work" does not apply to the use of English. Either you are a professional or you are not. I make a lot of mistakes in this column, because I have nobody to check my work. Don't FoxNews, MSNBC, the FCC, et al., have some help?

Being "Partly Black" - Part II

Ever since I wrote the piece about Halle Berry being the first "half-black" woman to receive an Academy Award (Outback May 15, 2002 - and not a racist piece), I have become fascinated with high-profile people who are only "partly black." It seems that no matter how slight the percentage of black blood in their heritage, people insist on calling themselves African-Americans. It makes no sense in this age of racial intermarriage.

Hugh B. Price is the CEO of the National Urban League, which devotes itself to social services and civil rights. The main focus of the League is the advancement of black people, which is a laudable goal. Mr. Price is a Yale law graduate and has had a distinguished career. I saw him on C-SPAN addressing a meeting of the National Urban League. He is brilliant and articulate. But, once again, I was struck by his light skin tone and facial features. It seemed apparent to me that he was probably the product of a mixed marriage of a black and a white person - at a minimum. He is very fair skinned - and a handsome fellow, I might add.

I wondered how much of the "black experience" this Yale grad had experienced. I found only circumstantial evidence. His father was a doctor. He grew up in D.C., and my hunch is that he went to a private school. The D.C. public schools have been a disaster for a long time. Hugh graduated from Amherst college. He also graduated from Yale Law School in 1966, worked for a legal assistance program, an urban affairs consulting firm, a human resources administration, National Public Television, the Rockefeller Foundation, and as a member of the editorial board of The New York Times.

It is hard to see a lot of "black hard knocks" in that resume, but I could be wrong. If so, I apologize in advance. FYI: The Urban League is about a $66 million a-year operation. Its offices are on the eighth floor at 120 Wall Street in NYC, with a nice view of the East River. How come operations like these never seem to operate out of a pre-fab metal building in Newark? Closer to the people they profess to represent. If I were a black blue-collar worker and I was asked to send a contribution to an organization whose address was 120 Wall Street, I would probably say, "Are you kiddin' me, man?"

During the speech on C-SPAN, Hugh Price paid tribute to his "beautiful wife Marilyn" who was seated in the audience, but not shown on camera. He met her when she attended Mt. Holyoke College. I was curious if this man, who seemed on paper to have escaped most of the "black experience" might be married to a white woman. After several hours of research, I was unable to learn anything more about his parents, or the ethnicity of his wife. It was important to learn more because of the thrust of this article. That is, why is this man an advocate for blacks in a very high-profile position? What have been his life experiences? What is the full nature of his ethnicity? Is he married to a black woman?

I found it curious that you can learn about the ethnicity of movie stars, politicians, writers, and so on, but Hugh B. Price's lineage is nowhere to be found on the many, many articles and sites I reviewed about him.

I got so frustrated that I was tempted to call the National Urban League and ask about the ethnicity of Hugh's parents, grandparents, and wife. But, I did not want to hear the invective that I probably would have been subjected to, since it would have been perceived as a racist inquiry. I just want some perspective on yet another high-profile black leader who does not appear to have a lot of black blood in his background. So, I remain puzzled. But, I will eventually get the answers. It is the old investigator and spy in me.

So, here we have another man, Hugh Price, who is obviously only "partly black" who is a leader and spokesman for blacks. Why are they driven to do this? Do some blacks resent them because they are obviously only partly black? Do some of them do it because they feel guilty that they had it so easy? And they want to give a little back? I just don't know, and I doubt many people do know.

On CBS's "60 Minutes" Ed Bradley interviewed renowned playwright August Wilson. He said that his father was German. But, his many highly-regarded plays have all been about "the black experience." Why is he driven to speak so eloquently for blacks, when he is half white? Part of it is no doubt that his father was an alcoholic and rarely around. August was raised by his black mother. He was the only "black" in his high-school class. He got notes on his desk "Nigger go home," and so on. Thus, he did take part in "the black experience." He earned his "anger" - to which he readily admits.

August Wilson is married to a fair-skinned woman who was "Columbian born" (whatever that implies) and they have a lovely fair-skinned daughter, who is now about four-years-old. August said that his daughter came home from pre-school one day and said" "Daddy, it's dangerous to be an African-American." The child's mother was born in Columbia. Her father is half-white. One of her grandfathers was a white German. Who knows what the complete lineage is on her mother's side? And this small child is taught to call herself an African-American? This whole thing is out of whack.

Marlo Thomas (who is married to Phil Donahue) is half Lebanese. Her dad was Danny Thomas (Muzyad Yahkoob), famed comedian and actor. Her mother was Rose Marie Cassaniti. Yet, people do not generally refer to her as a Lebanese-American. Nobody discriminates against her because she is half Lebanese, or so it would appear.

Elaine Chao is Secretary of Labor. She is a Chinese immigrant whose family fled communist China. She came to America at the age of eight. She has an M.B.A from Harvard and is married to Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. In her official bio, she is noted as being Asian-American (to make the point that Republicans/Bush believe in diversity). But, I doubt that she very often refers to herself as a Chinese-American or as an Asian-American. She once debated Bill Clinton on PBS's "News Hour." The subject got around to quotas and racial preferences. She said:

"I believe most Americans don't care for preferential treatment based on race. We're a country based on merit, built by immigrants of all ethnic backgrounds who worked hard and took risks. Our society is replete with these wonderfully stirring stories."

Certainly, Elaine Chao's story is a "wonderfully stirring story." I have always thought that Sen. McConnell from Kentucky was pretty cool. But, now that I am reminded that he is married to the lovely Elaine Chao, my respect for his deepens. (I graduated from high school in Kentucky, enlisted in the Marines in an all-Kentucky "Blue-Grass Platoon," and my dad and Col. Sanders of KFC were members of the same lodge).

Wendy Lee Gramm has a Ph.D. in economics. She is married to Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas. They have two sons. Wendy was born in Hawaii. Her grandparents emigrated to Hawaii in the early 20th Century from Korea. I have never heard her referred to as an Hawaiian-Korean American. And her sons by Sen. Phil Gramm no doubt do not bill themselves as Hawaiian-Korean- Caucasian Americans. Do you see what utter nonsense labels are?

J.C. Watts is a black Congressman. He is a former football star. He does not need to point out that he is an African-American. His record speaks for who he is.

Sen. Joe Lieberman is Jewish. He does not introduce himself as "Joe Lieberman Jewish- American. Well, maybe in New York during a presidential campaign.

Sen. Daniel Akaka is Hawiian. I am sure he does not greet people with "Hi, I'm Dan Akaka - Hawiian-American."

Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell was born in California. His mother was Portuguese and his father was a Northern Cheyenne Indian. Sen. Campbell does not introduce himself as "Ben Campbell, Portuguese-Native-American American." In his Senate bio, it notes that his father was a Northern Cheyenne Indian. Not a "Native American," but an Indian from the Northern Cheyenne tribe. Ben is no doubt proud of that heritage. But, let somebody say that Ben is part "Indian" and they will be chastised by the PC Police. Please, "Native American." Stick it in your ear. Nighthorse would probably tell them the same thing. I served in the Marines with a huge and jovial guy named Victor Seneca. He was a Seneca Indian. Victor would have laughed his ass off if we had called him a Native American. "I ain't a Native, man. I'm a Seneca Indian and proud of it."

Then, why do so many people with the slightest trace of black blood in them call themselves African-American? It continues to baffle me.

You have to question the motives of the black leaders who continue to preach victimology and are asking for reparations for slavery. It is to their advantage to keep their constituencies at a high number. Their jobs and their clout depend upon it. So, they seduce people with the slightest amount of black blood in them to call themselves "African-Americans." Ridiculous and regressive.

The omnipresent Rev. Jesse Jackson and many thousands will march on Washington on Saturday, Aug. 17 in part to highlight the campaign to pay reparations to blacks for slavery. Among other questions; who will be regarded as "black"? What about the "barely black" folks I have noted in my writings? Will this require a DNA test and a certain level of black blood to qualify? What if one of your parents was white? Will you get less money? What if the white parent had parents or grandparents who owned slaves? Will the half-white person have to pay money instead of receive? The reparations movement has to be the dumbest idea of the century. Take the money and fund a Black National Chamber of Commerce, if there is not one already. (Update: I caught some of the "Slavery Reparations Rally" on C-SPAN. Not much of a crowd. We had more people in the street when we handed out free T-shirts and shopping bags at the opening of the first 7-Eleven store in Manhattan.)

I shouldn't have to say this, but some may question where my heart is in this matter. I would marry a black, Asian, or Hispanic woman in a minute. And I would not object if one of my several grandsons wanted to do the same thing. My problem is with hypocrites and wolves in sheep's clothing - who skew the debate.

21st Century Teacher

The following was sent to me by a friend via e-mail. I checked on the Web and found a citation with a reference to its original posting in the Marietta Georgia Daily Journal on March 26, 2000, and written by Rev. Nelson Price. It fits in well with the disucssion of how much we pay baseball players versus what we pay teachers:

"Let me see if I've got this right. You want me to go into that room with all those kids and fill their every waking moment with a love for learning. Not only that, I'm supposed to instill a sense of pride in their ethnicity, behaviorally modify disruptive behavior, observe them for signs of abuse and T-shirt messages.

I am to fight the war on drugs and sexually transmitted diseases, check their backpacks for guns and raise their self-esteem. I'm to teach them patriotism, good citizenship, sportsmanship and fair play, how and where to register to vote, how to balance a checkbook and how to apply for a job.

I am to check their heads occasionally for lice, maintain a safe environment, recognize signs of potential antisocial behavior, offer advice, write letters of recommendation for student employment and scholarships, encourage respect for the cultural diversity of others, and, oh yeah, always make sure that I give the girls in my class 50 percent of my attention.

I'm required by my contract to be working on my own time summer and evenings at my own expense toward advance certification and a master's degree; and after school, I am to attend committee and faculty meetings and participate in staff development training to maintain my employment status.

I am to be a paragon of virtue larger than life, such that my very presence will awe my students into being obedient and respectful of authority. I am to pledge allegiance to supporting family values, a return to the basics, and to my current administration. I am to incorporate technology into the learning, and monitor all Web sites while providing a personal relationship with each student.

I am to decide who might be potentially dangerous and/or liable to commit crimes in school or who is possibly being abused, and I can be sent to jail for not mentioning these suspicions.

I am to make sure all students pass the state and federally mandated testing and all classes, whether or not they attend school on a regular basis or complete any of the work assigned. Plus, I am expected to make sure that all of the students with handicaps are guaranteed a free and equal education, regardless of their mental or physical handicap.

I am to communicate frequently with each student's parent by letter, phone, newsletter and grade card. I'm to do all of this with just a piece of chalk, a computer, a few books, a bulletin board, a 45 minute more-or-less plan time and a big smile, all on a starting salary that qualifies my family for food stamps in many states.

Is that all?

And you want me to do all of this and expect me not to pray?"

(Rev. Nelson Price, as printed in the Marietta (GA) Daily Journal on March 26, 2000)

COPYRIGHT 2000 Richard C. Rhodes

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