+

The week of April 7 marked 35 years that humble has made this radio program for you. --- Around 1820 shows. He was a kid of 42 when he started driving to Orono every week to make this program.

+

Rough draft of Rants for your Maine Private Radio show for June 9, 2013

+

+

1. My old neighbor Gramp Wiley said, “You don’t remember Tauno --- worked in the boat yard? One day a little cross-eyed fellow came in and said, ‘You’re two months behind on your car payments. I’m going to take it.’ “And Tauno puts down his caulking hammer and says, ‘You do what you have to do, but before you go out that door I’m going to straighten out your eyes.’”

+

2. What do you think about a flat income tax? Someone wrote a letter to the newspaper that said, "If you want a fair tax then we need a Flat Tax system and then everyone will be taxed fairly." Think about this. If taxes were 50% of my income and I were earning a million dollars a year I could probably buy food and heating oil with what I had left. But if taxes were 50% of my income and I were earning $27,000 a year and my mortgage and health insurance took $13,000 of that, I might have trouble paying the insurance on my house and car and eating with the $500 that I think would be left. With a flat tax system isn’t it possible that many of us low income folks would lose our homes to the banks and have to go on welfare? And you don't want that to happen. Or do you?

+

3. Forgive me if you think I only know what I read in the newspapers, but if you’d write to me from time, I’d have something else to talk about here. Right in the newspaper I read that “Investing in early childhood education pays off with more high school graduates and more people prepared to join the military" Did that one make you laugh? When was the last time you ever heard of more education encouraging people to want to join the military in any country? When was the last time you ever heard of a 21-year-old with a PhD in chemistry from MIT who joins the marines? On the other hand, could you believe that the best way to get people to join the military would be to keep them so poor and uneducated that it becomes an inevitable economic decision? Could you believe that the best way to keep people in the military would be to keep them so poor and uneducated that re-enlisting becomes an inevitable economic decision? What do you think? I don’t claim to know anything about it.

+

4. Don’t you think that packing heat is a cultural thing? Here in the state of Maine are the chances or doing harm with a gun under your coat or on your hip greater than the chances of doing good? But if you were walking in a Russian forest known to be inhabited by hungry wolves, you’d probably want to be armed. Remember those good old Russian stories about throwing people off the horse drawn sleigh just to distract the wolves? We've all known Maine men who shot a bad guy. One of my friends who was so entitled was an officer in the military who happened to be passing a jewelry store on a New York street, but that was way back when such an action was still appreciated by society. Another friend of mine was taken to court for shooting a man who was robbing his place of business. I contributed funds for my friend’s defense because I think it is nice to shoot people who steal. The danger with blasting away at robbers in the dark is that you're more likely to shoot a friend who just broke down near your house at 2 in the morning. If he had to do it over, my shooter friend would probably smash his gun before he'd go to court again. There are places, however, where military types with machine guns are taken for granted. You might have seen some in airports in Spain and elsewhere. One day my wife and I drove by a young female hitchhiker on a road in Israel. My wife remarked that Israel must be a safe country if young girls could go out and hitchhike. I said, "My dear, that was an Uzi machine gun on her back."

+

5. Have you heard about the east west highway a few people in the construction business would like to build in Maine? Do you know how much construction money is out there pushing for this road? Money buys a lot of votes. Money buys ads to shape opinion. If this proposed highway would pay you $100,000 without going through your town or your sister's place in the next town, wouldn't you have to consider some of its positive ramifications? There’s something pretty wonderful about a road that would put $100,000 in my pocket so I'd have to give it some serious thought. But would an east-west highway do all that much for my Maine friends? And after we paid to build it, would we have to then pay to use it? Sooner or later? We read that streetcars were common throughout the industrialized world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries but that they had disappeared from most British, Canadian, French and US cities by the mid-20th century. By contrast, streetcars in parts of continental Europe continued to be used by many cities. Since 1980 streetcars have returned to favor in many places. New systems have been built in the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, France and many other countries. If the topic interests you, you can probably find out where. What would happen if you put the same money into improving Maine railroad passenger service that you'd spend on an east-west highway? If we had the old trolley system that was operating here in the Rockland-Thomaston area 80 or so years ago a lot of people would be using it. As a bonus, wouldn’t walking the last quarter of a mile from the trolley stop to and from work help eliminate obesity in America?

+

6. I have here in my hand the last 50 French flash cards I have to learn out of the 1,000 that were in the box. They are obviously the most difficult words to learn in the French language. Listen as I say them. En, or, ou, ou with a slash over it. Master as I am at the tricks and techniques of learning, --- when it comes right down to it I lack the basic intelligence that enables someone like you to memorize. Can an old man commit to memory tant que, a moins que, lorsque, quoique, quelconque, puisque, parce que, tant que, quelque, when he has lived in Maine for 77 years and still can’t remember the difference between Winthrop, Winslow, Windham and Windsor? 030704

+

7. I’m The humble Farmer and I like my solar panels and the free power they give me from the sun. You have heard me talk about my solar radiant heated cellar/office. So I raised my eyebrows when I read that "The utilities contend that customers without solar panels are subsidizing those who have them by paying more for the power generating stations, transmission lines and distribution wires that both groups use. They want regulators to change that pricing structure so people with solar panels pay more." Well, well, well. Of course they want us to pay more. Anyone could see that one coming. Utility and oil companies would kill the solar industry dead in its tracks if they could. --- Just like the people who made buggy whips wanted to get rid of automobiles the companies that sell energy are certainly trying to legislate solar out of existence --- in this country. And they've got the big bucks to do it. Read about how solar is catching on in progressive countries. And also read the articles put out by the utility companies telling you that solar doesn't work. When the oil runs out, the utility companies are going to own the wind farms and the acres of PV cells and they are already planning for the day when they will be selling you a product that you should already be generating on the roof of your own house. At the end of the day the question is, who gets the money? Corporate America? Or you? Which of the two groups do you vote for on election day?

+

8. Who should send me a letter but my radio friend Bill who runs around in a car with a red light on the roof trying to help people who get their toes caught in a crack. He’s pulled people out of the water and out of car wrecks and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s been called by folks who needed to get to work but were trapped in the cabin by a rutting bull moose. Bill saw a post on my Facebook page that says, “Good moms let you lick the beaters. Great moms turn them off first.” Bill writes, “I once went to a call where 2 newlyweds were making a cake. She let him lick the beater, but accidentally hit the switch. His tongue was so enmeshed in the beater that it had to be cut apart with a bolt cutter. I will never forget either of their faces. I wonder if they are still married.” Do you believe that story or do you think Bill made it up? If you have ever taught school you know that story is true, because you have probably had the pleasure of seeing the children from several similar couples in some of your classes.

+