Spring - Bring it on

Yesterday morning, Minou, 8 pounds of attitude in a cat - surprised me by leaping onto the bed, walking over me as if it didn't matter - and put her little nose right in my much bigger one. I've seen her get a 100 lb bully dog to back down, so I knew what I was dealing with.

"Get up!" was her obvious command. Early on a sunny Monday - I complied.

I know better than to deny the "Paws of Death" her morning breakfast. Besides, I had a lot to do this week and at least it wasn't raining, which just makes you want to sleep in and let the world roll on.

My move from law to film continues - first program will be on a young kid from a modest home who became an Olympic Gold Medal winner. Details are still being worked out so don't want to mention names yet.

RAIN coming, today and tomorrow. Still scrambling. Minor was right - I have no time to lose sleeping in. Incredible things seem to be breaking the routine, thank god.

More later...

The Smell of Napalm in the Morning

Maybe it was realy the smell of rain, and change. Woke at 6 to lightning flashes and thunder.

A huge storm was rolling in, just in time to hit commuters trying to get to work. Fortunately, my commute was less than 20 feet to hit my study and check the weather radar on the computer.  It was easier than wading through 4-6 inches of downpour.

Pres. Bush met with Mr. Putin today in Bratislava, Slovakia, the place where L's oldest son Jon did a work study. Tense meeting. Russia has been backsliding on democracy and pitching opponents into jail, helping Iran build a nuke plant, etc. My concern is that they have the most small nukes of any country - over 10,000 and not all secured that well. Needless to say, you have to wonder if Putin would care a lot if a terrorist got one that was used against the U.S. It certainly would give the ex-KGB leader a big leg up on the U.S. which is already spending inself into a financial hole. Putin would love to make Russia an empire again, so he wouldn't be sad to see us fall (and perhaps provide a secret shove in that direction). Our future dealings with Russia are as critical as what happens in Iraq, China, etc. because the zealots like bin laden are sitting near Russia's back door.

While Bush yakked with Valdimar, I was making an unscheduled run to the vet with Lexie, the wonder dog, who developed a bad cough in the past few days. She's rarely sick so it was obvious she needed attention. 

Hundred pound Henri would insist on going too, so we had to trick him into staying in the house while we got Lex in the car and off to the vet for an examination. Turns out, she had an infection, so Lex got pills instead of giving a press conference on doggie democracy. She is so friendly with the neighborhood kids she could charm the Russian wolf hounds. Henri the Big Dog would just eat them, especially if they weren't nice. I guess they are the "good cop," "bad cop" team.

It appears to be a whole new G Bush in Europe, trying to make friends with France and Germany. Better late than never.  Especially with Russia looking like a wolf in sheep's clothing. 

We'll need all the friends we can get to worldwide avoid even worse potential terrorism coming to the U.S.  Recent TV shows like "24" and "Dirty War" have finally addressed how it could happen --a dirty bomb or nuke meltdown caused by terrorists in the U.S. I've been writing and warning about this since before the first bombing of the WTC. It's good to see the media is catching up.

I hope that the possibility of a nuke attack in the U.S. remains fiction -- but we have to change our ways and get a lot smarter (fast) to avoid worse days ahead. Diplomacy and intelligence are as vital as bullets in the outcome.

A Day of Homeland Security training

The alarm went off at 5 a.m., which is not an hour I'm really familiar with on a Saturday. I had committed to spend the day at the Squadron doing air training, so I needed to be there sharp for a 0700 briefing. I didn't get to do much of this last year because of the Congress campaign.

The sky was clear but a front was forecast to roll in and I wasn't sure if I'd get to do everything I needed to stay qualified as a Mission Pilot. The nuke plant at South Texas almost had a release a couple days ago I kept thinking we needed to have detection gear for our aircraft to make survey flights in case people needed to know.

I ended up being a co-pilot observor on one sortie and flew as pilot on the other. We responded to a simulated terrorist attack on an airport, took digital photos and did an ELT beacon search for a simulated downed aircraft.

We were turning steep 360's at 1,000 feet. At that angle it's hard to see oncoming aircraft.  On the way back to base my co-pilot casually said at one point: "The other plane just passed below us about a 100 feet - going in the opposite direction." Whew. Another USAF plane was running the same mission and ended up on the same patch of sky--like two cars passing each other at a high combined speed. We need anti-collision devices on these planes, but I have to get more influence before anything will happen on that. I happened to be flying about 100 or so feet ABOVE the attitude my co-pilot had requested. Lucky for 6 of us in two planes.

For some reason nice people kept stopping me today, in between flights, once when I had to pop in a store to get some chap stick - and another on the way home when I ducked into a Kroger to buy my wife a dozen roses ( her daughter had announced today that she was thinking of getting a divorce so I figured I better show up with roses to try to improve the mood around the house). One guy insisted I go ahead of him in the line when I was buying the roses.

The rains are coming in tonight. A lot is happening I can't talk about yet. Anything could happen.

Stay tuned...

Forced prostitution of children - Time to stop it

The Boxing Day Tsunami has brought to light a dirty global secret - the forced prostitution of children and women worldwide. Many children orphaned by the Tsunami are at risk - by male predators from the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere.

It could be your daughter or young son being abused by these global gangs. It is happening to girls or boys their age. The U.S. needs to make this a priority as much as any problem presented by the Middle East, North Korea, etc. It will require a global effort to prosecute the predators and break up the gangs.

Social security is being touted as the latest crisis, but it has funds until 2018. Child prostitution is a 2005 problem; it is happening TODAY. 

If you are a young woman, look out. Young women, and girls, are being offered fake jobs that end up being a brothel. The problem is spreading - from Asia, East Europe, Central America, etc. And the predators are often middle aged American and Europe men -- many who are professionals with a very dark, twisted side.

Help me stomp this out. It will take global effort. The United States is the only country other than Somalia that has not signed the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. That would be a start...

And I intend to take whatever legislative, legal and public relations action necessary to protect these kids from sex predators.

Again, visit the web site at: www.Legal.Bigstep.com

Pass it on.

 

Foggy Start - NEW Year 2005

Awoke to FOG for first day of 2005. Foggy or not I was happy to see a whole new year. 2004 rolls out in the path of massive death from the Boxing Day Tsunami that hit a dozen countries and killed over 100,000 and counting...

Want to know what to do? Check out the New Year's Eve

Global American article at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GlobalAmerican

If you like, sign up for the newsletter. It's my way of trying to let Americans know how events in the world affect us, whether we are paying attention or not...

Happy New Year.

 

 

SNOW in Houston

It was 15 years ago - 1989 - the last time we had snow. It caught us by surprise on Christmas eve. As L and I drove to church suddenly the flakes were falling and falling. All during church it kept falling - leaving a white blanket on our cars. Amazing. SNOW!  It snowed in Victoria, about 100 miles southwest of us, for the first time in 86 years - and they got a foot of it! 

Of course people here don't know how to drive on it. Coming back on 59 we got to the Brazos River bridge and someone had spun out on the ice and a line of cars was backed up, so we took the turn-around and detoured home another way.

Of course it all melted on Christmas Day, but it was a nice change, and a treat. But with the war still going on in Iraq - an explosion from a suicide bomber in a mess tent killed over 20 a few days ago - I just couldn't get into the holiday spirit. I hope 2005 will be a better year.

Aftermath

Well, the campaign is OVER and I'm finally poking my head out again. The incumbent got fewer votes than ever before, but I still lost and so did all the other challengers. But it was a great learning experience and it was my first time on a general election ballot.

Now to move FORWARD.  After nearly 30 years of practicing law I am ready to try something different. There are too many lawyers and the work is not really that exciting. I liked international negotiations a lot more than having to do a divorce.

But our system seems to discard those with the most experience - the few international jobs now go to young kids who know very little but get paid the big bucks. Forget getting a corporation to hire someone over 50 regardless of talent. Same for the law firms. Age discrimination is not legal but is the norm. And the incompetent seem to rise quickly to the top (e.g. Rumsfeld - no war plan, no armor for the troops, etc.).  Sometimes I think we've changed from being a nation of the best and brightest to a nation run by the best connected who know how to kiss up (it's not WHAT you know but WHO you know that counts).  In the long term, it will be our undoing.

So, for me, it's either back to doing the mundane or I need to create something new and interesting, but what that is remains to be seen. Last week I was so bored I even applied for a job in Iraq!  No, it's not a death wish, but a desire to do something more interesting than hunt down land titles or hear an ex complain about their spouse they want to divorce. 

Even running for office was better than that. We shall see what develops.