Author Archives: tedsheadco

Have Faith…..

I recently read that Pew Research has determined  the number of us who identify with religion has taken a fair downturn lately. While atheists do not yet outnumber the believing crowd, there are chinks in the armor. Some of you might say the masses are beginning to see the light. No, I am not going to take the holy roller position but I would like to explore faith in several different ways.

If you have faith it means you have a belief or confidence in some person, object, idea or view. By whatever means you arrived at that conclusion and you are behind “it” whatever “it” is. That faith can be blind or you could have extensive knowledge of the matter at hand thereby intensifying your belief .

I think one of the greatest examples of this is when you get on an airplane. Now I do not have an aeronautical degree and when it comes to engineering I have trouble putting a plug in a socket. So for me to take aerodynamics into consideration every time I cavort through the skies would spoil all the fun and cause me to have more than two scotches in flight.

It is not just the plane but the pilots, air traffic controllers, ramp personnel and maintenance people whose wagon I must hitch to in order to get where I am going. Ditto trains, buses and automobiles. After you have put the pedal to the metal you expect the engine to roar and like wise to decelerate when you spot that trooper just over the hill.

I went to the dermatologist today for my semi annual inspection and requisite freezing. I can’t see on top of my head or my posterior so I hope skin doc knows what she is looking at and acts accordingly. I told you all of my meeting with Da Vinci for my prostate cancer a few months ago and I definitely had to look young Dr. Paul Maronie in the eye and say I am with you. You gotta believe.

Food gets perplexing. I love chicken but a Frontline expose on the fowl industry definitely put me on the defensive. Seems these guys knew there was salmonella in their plants but it was at acceptable levels. Just who is defining “acceptable”? Was the milk pasteurized and the butter fresh? Did every employee wash their hands before returning to work?

There are two things at work in all of the above: machines or processes and people that carry them out. You can have the greatest widget or sanitary procedure but if the people don’t give a crap the reliability factor just dropped to basement B. Up to this point I have been very cool about all of this. I am not paranoid or a worrywart of any sort. Probably I am too far the other way and take life as it goes but I am beginning to wonder.

Faith is a trust in my fellow man. But today as we get more and more robotic in our every day dealings does this take some of the culpability out of it? Don’t worry big guy, no one will ever know. When I hand you something and have to look you in the eye and tell you how good it is there is a connection or a bond. When I receive your order by email and then tell the machine to pick it from the bin and automatically throw in the box with a preprinted sticker and have that package dropped by our local Amazon drone perchance the responsibility gets taken out of it by some margin. Maybe but just maybe I lose a little faith.

Faith is indeed a trust. I am incredibly believing to a fault. It has caused me angst and heartbreak from time to time but it is how I choose to spend my life. I am a cheerleader not an undertaker. (Sorry Body Snatcher). An outcome of this irrational exuberance is if you let me down I am crestfallen. I will look askance for a long time and you have to earn your stripes all over again whether you are a priest, politician or HP printer.
This has happened to me on several levels not the least of which is government. Under domes in DC and capitals throughout our fair nation we are being let down. Funds are squandered and promises broken. They hem and haw and fail to make decisions that are so necessary. We gave them the keys to the car and even the gas to run it and they drive it into a wall. We get our hopes up for change and that continually falls flat to personal greed and opportunism. Interestingly it is not our constitution that has failed but the people administering it.

Another good example is religion. Is God dead or just the hierarchy of churches be they Catholic or Islamic? It seems we take something that is inherently good and subvert it to our own ends. That is human frailty I know but when your actions affect so many people we will indeed hold you to a higher standard. I think we can all feel that as citizens of the US and the world. Oh my God, I think that means we are all dependent on one another to do the right thing. I am not sure our compasses are exactly heading in that direction at the moment.

The opposite of faith or hope is distrust and despair. You just can’t depend on anyone or anything. The world is against you and in turn you are against it. Your days are spent criticizing cheap goods or incompetent management. “I told you so” is a mantra and life as a whole sucks.

What a horrible way to live…at least for me. I have faith in our ability to eventually see things for what they are and to figure out a way to make them better. I have faith that quality not quantity will be the norm some time in the future. I have faith that it all works out for the better in the end and man is not inherently evil. If that is blind faith, so be it.

As always
Ted The Great

Factoids:

There are in excess of 4200 religions throughout the world. They can monotheistic as in Abrahamic. Indian such as Buddhism and Hinduism. East Asian such as Confucianism, Shinto or Taoism. They cross cultures and countries. Unfortunately almost every one thinks they are the one true faith.

For the most part quality standards have increased not decreased. Computers modeling and robotics have led to more precise specifications and end results. This reliance has led to more human error situations.

Food quality in the US is determined by the Food Quality Act of 1990. The sheer magnitude of some processing facilities and their country wide distribution can cause huge recalls to occur. An outbreak in Oregon might be traced back to Tennessee as its point of origin.

60 million cars were recalled in the United States last year for anywhere from minor defects to serious problems. There were 89 million cars built worldwide. Detroit, we have a problem.

You Owe Me…..

Lately there have been incredible and heart wrenching stories about immigrants in all sectors of the world. The refugees of Syria have made their way to camps of Jordan and Turkey. Some of those settlements number 500,000. Even more tragic are the people that flee Somalia and other African nations. They pay smugglers anywhere from $3-5,000 to get them going in the right direction.

As they cross Africa they take two paths, some on boats others on foot. Many depart From Libya to Italy where the gangs load them onto old tubs of a ship and set the auto pilot straight for Sicily. Others make their way across eastern Africa to South America and then through an assortment of trains, boats and snake laden swamps to Central America, Mexico and eventually the US.

As some of us or our fellow Americans blithely comment to “send all them suckers back” I would like you to give some thought that these people aren’t exactly arriving on Air Emirates to demand hospitalization and welfare.They have truly risked everything to get here. I daresay we or some of our neighbors have trouble walking four blocks to the store or God forbid not get a spot close to the entrance of the mall. I wonder how we would fare if it was this hard for each of us to immigrate? Don’t know.

But all this begs a larger question. It can relate to a new arrival or a long time resident of one of our poorer neighborhoods. It can be anywhere in the world. Just what if anything are you owed? Okay I get the life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness thing but just what are the basics?

Let’s start with shelter. I think I can unequivocally work with a roof over your head. Now is infested with all sorts of vermin okay? Do we go two or twenty to a room. Let just throw in heat, water and electricity. AC? No I have to draw the line there. Hell, I didn’t have AC growing up. Now the accoutrements. TV? Interesting. Color? Big TV? Cable? Man we are going to have to set some boundaries. House phone or cell phone? Now some of my bleeding heart buddies will say that people have a right to be just like everyone else. We don’t want to have them feel like they are any different.

Food? Yes you have to have it. Should your food stamps buy Twinkies, booze or butts. No way (I was going to say Jose but you know how PC I am). The food pyramid still does not work in the ghetto or the rural heartlands. Clothes? Sorry but designer is out. ARC and Goodwill have sales every month. My worn out Izods will look great on you. Kathy had to steal them away from my armoire. Had several good years left in them.

Transportation comes to mind. Not as easy as it sounds. You have no money. You have no way to get to a job interview because you can’t even afford the bus. Now we can cram 8-10 into a Uber Ghetto sedan but then you run the risk of being pulled over by the gendarmes and then it is back to Mogadishu with you. Yes you can walk but we really have to set parameters as to distance and weather. You might make five miles in Denver and fifty yards in Nome,Alaska or Death Valley.

Schooling? Hmmm, now you are trying to stump me. I think we have to give you the basics of reading, riting and rithmetic. GED’s are desirable but not a slam dunk. Junior and four year college? This is a trap. We sell everyone on the concept that you have to have higher education. Forget about the trades. The real money is in being an accountant or communications major. What was your last bill when the plumber or HVAC man showed up at your house? Better yet how long did you have to wait? Forget it TTG. Image is everything.

I am getting close to my limit on what I will provide but I have to include medicine. Not as clear as I would like it to be. The first take is one of basic needs. You have a cold or pneumonia? That is a no brainer. But that doesn’t mean you can go to the emergency room at a gazillion dollars a pop. Speaking of which, let’s say you jump off a cliff and you have now multiplied the number of bones in your body by an order of three. Should I be responsible for you? I don’t think so. You know my feelings if you show up at the hospital after drinking or eating yourself for fifty years to 7/8 gone. Do I owe you to be healed ? Sorry not in my kingdom. I work in hospice for people like you. Cruel TTG. Cruel. Sorry about that.

We have talked about immigrants and the poor. You could use these guidelines throughout this wonderful country. If you have smaller means you have to think in terms of a smaller house. Smaller could even be the difference between earning $250k vs $1million. The concept is the same. You don’t go out to the finest restaurants if you are struggling to meet your mortgage, It’s the old champagne taste on a beer budget.

In pure fact you are owed nothing. That is a cold and pragmatic approach. You can see some poor bastard lying in the street and say “tough shit”. That is your prerogative. But as some one who sees his fellow man and thinks, “There but for the grace of God go I,“ I can’t just move on. I am not going to give you a free ride. But I will give you a leg up. A chance, but you have to make it work. I owe you that.

As always
Ted The Great

Factoids:

Poverty is a state of deprivation, or a lack of the usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions.Ergo my question. The poverty level for the US in 2014 was set at $23,850 (total yearly income) for a family of fourThe U.S. Census Bureau said more than 16% of the population lived in poverty, including almost 20% of American children. (approximately 43.6 million). California has a poverty rate of 23.5%, the highest of any state in the country.

$8 per hour wage yields $16,640 annually based on a 40 hour work week.
$10 per hour equals $20,800. The apocalyptic $15 per hour comes to $31,200.

There are 43 million refugees worldwide. Major refugee populations include Palestinians (4.8 million), Afghans (2.9 million), Iraqis (1.8 million), Somalis (700,000), Congolese (456,000),  Myanmarese (407,000), Colombians (390,000), Sudanese (370,000).They have been displaced by violence in their countries as well as famine and drought

I think Colorado is a pretty cool and modern state. 1 in 7 of our populace struggles with hunger. 1 in 5 kids aren’t sure where their next meal is coming from. 1 in 8 live in poverty UGH!

In 1964 LBJ declared the War On Poverty. We have spent up to $22 trillion by today’s standards on every conceivable program. Sadly the rates of poverty have barely budged the needle. Interesting is the fact that 85% of the poorest counties in the US are rural. So much for the governmental approach. Any ideas.

Culpability

Culpability, or being culpable, is a measure of the degree to which an agent, such as a person, can be held morally or legally responsible for action and inaction. I am struck by the word as well as the definition. It can call to mind pure evil as well as a much milder form in the substance of mediocrity and neglect. If you overlook something or just decide just not to address it are you culpable?

We have been witness here in Denver to a total fiasco during construction of our new Veteran’s Administration Hospital. Conceived in the early 2000’s it was to cost $328 million. It was planned to be an adjunct of a new University of Colorado campus that was started from scratch in 2004. The economies of scale were more than attractive until the VFW intervened and said veterans should have their own site and facilities. The new price tag was estimated to be $650 million.

Blame fingers were pointed everywhere but essentially the project was started without final plans. The VA said the needs were changing and the fact there were design factors that seemed over the top never seemed to be forthcoming. There is an atrium connecting several of the buildings that alone cost $100 million. They wanted vets to have a good experience walking between buildings. There were also curved walls to break down the institutional nature of the place. If you have ever been involved in construction you would know that curved walls are a huge expense. The estimated cost of completion several years from now is now $1.73 billion!

The head of project management retired with full honors after the new budget announcement and receiving several bonuses over the years. Kind of like when “W” said “great job Brownie” after the Katrina fiasco in New Orleans. Benghazi, Rummy’s tutelage of the war effort in Iraq, the $3.7 billion PATH station in lower Manhattan causes one’s eye’s to water not out of respect and nostalgia but the absolute incompetence that has been demonstrated…and rewarded.

Barney Frank who along with Bill Clinton set all the underpinnings in place for our financial disaster in 2008 by wanting everyone to own a home are all lauded as “we thank them for their service.” I wouldn’t mind if all these dudes and dudettes faded off quietly into the sunset but they continue to flaunt their arrogance as lobbyists and leaders of think tanks and foundations.

We just have had an upheaval in our sheriff’s department in Denver. The corruption, malfeasance and mismanagement go beyond the pale and we are wondering seriously if we just blow the whole thing up and start over. I wish these were rare occurrences or limited to one section of the woods or another but you and I know better.
Rigging Libor, currency manipulations, selling securities that are crap and insider don’t exactly create a mantle of virtue for our boys down at Wall and Broad. Bribery, theft, bogus charitable organizations, and pollution from all sources are sending a very bad message.Stop gap bills to keep the country running so Congress can take its break or just never ending investigations and committee hearings perpetuate the lunacy. Then again maybe it is a great message because crime or mediocracy does pay.

If you are good Catholic or Jew or Protestant you know that there is consequence in sinning. I know we have done away with fire and brimstone but there is still the thought that at the end of things we do have to meet our Maker and square things one way or another. There is a consequence to bad acting. I have the feeling the people that stole $80 billion from Medicare last year feel the odds are on their side. A team of investigators last year only recovered $4 billion.

Ethic is a system of moral value. Years ago it was assumed that this was a good one. It is interesting over the years how we have hemmed and hawed about its true definition. Fear of punishment is now paying a billion dollar fine without admitting guilt. Cops hide behind Blue Walls and the blacks can ransack  crying poverty. Corporations will tell you right to your face that the back room dealings are necessary to stay in business because after all everyone is doing it. Black and white has turned to a very vague shade of grey.

People worry non stop about Russia, China and ISIL. I worry about this. I will tell you that we and I include me have become complicit in all this. We are pros at looking the other way and rationalizing. You know TTG you have a point but I just don’t want to get involved. It’s just not my thing. Even worse is you might get a funny feeling when you watch Frontline to 60 Minutes. You become indignant about this or that and then wander off to check your tee time or see what else is on TV. Like the government, Congress and corporate America, just keep your mouth shut and maybe it will just go away.

If I sound pissed, I am. If I sound despondent I am not. There are a bunch of people out there that are decent and worried about someone else’s skin beyond their own. I am in receipt of a tribute from Notre Dame they put out in honor of Fr Ted Hesburgh. I wish I could send it to all of you. Forget the religious part although it was the most important part of his life. It told of a guy who worked to make the Golden Dome great but even moreso the world. His dedication to his fellow man and students was incredible.

Was he culpable? You bet, but in a good way. I sat and had a drink with him in his brother’s den one night in Vail. I asked him what drove him when he was then in his 80’s. He said. “every day of my life I want to to correct injustice.” I gotta stop on that note. He could not have said it better.

As always
Ted The Great

Factoids:
The University of Colorado Campus has been in operation over 7 years now and the VA won’t be open until 2017 at the earliest. The cost per bed for the VA will be triple the cost of the university hospital. It is also assumed the hospital at completion will be 550,000 sq ft short of the necessary disciplines.

A recent article put the final tally for Wall Street from the financial crisis at $100 billion. There was a recent settlement for currency manipulation for $5 billion. The fines for the most part go into the general fund but some may used for reimbursement of injured parties.

On that note I was on a Georgetown trip with the Inspector General of Health and Human Services. I asked why they did not hire more investigators. He said they could prove a 11-12 to 1 return on investment by recouping ill gotten funds. Why don’t you do it then? Congress won’t let me was his reply because they didn’t want look like they were hiring people.

You can get 10 years to life for peddling heroin. You can get 5 years for possession with intent to sell marijuana. I don’t recall any corporate types being put in jail for the BP oil spill, bribery charges or securities violations. I am sure they are out there but few and far between.

Trains, Planes And Automobiles….

There was a terrible train crash in North Philadelphia this week. Three people were killed and many injured. Still derailments and deaths are quite rare when one considers the number of trains that roll throughout the United States and the world every day. Commuter, long hauls, subways etc. have created an exceptionally safe mode of transportation. Yet there are cries from every corner of the spectrum for more stringent measures of all sorts. It is an interesting study of our national psyche.

We want to install Positive Train Control (PCT) on every stretch of rail in the Northeast Corridor and eventually on every dangerous bend in our 60,000 mile national system. Monies had already been earmarked to do that on the fateful link but AMTRAK decided there were more important priorities. I am not arguing against safety but think about the reasoning.

We want to foolproof everything. There is no danger or steep cliff of life that we cannot eliminate or at least ameliorate. The implications are intriguing. That was a human mistake of some sort that created the carnage. Thousands upon thousands of trains have travelled that exact turn for the many decades. To my knowledge there had never been a derailment prior to and so thousands of train engineers knew of the threat and took appropriate action. We now want to be able to override that decision making and put it in a box. Interesting. I guess we are saying we are not as good as machines….and maybe we aren’t.

The broader context has this not only on railways but in so many parts of our everyday lives. There was a rogue pilot who for whatever reason of insanity took a plane to the ground with hundreds aboard. Immediately there was a call to be able to take over a flight from the ground in mid flight. Sounds great except people would be a little wary if Hal was at the wheel. Google has a car that can drive coast to coast without human intervention. Supposedly had four or five fender benders but it was John Doe and not Watson that was at fault.

We have high speed trading on Wall Street. Everything is done by computer. They get a news flash nanoseconds before anyone else and through a series of algorithms decodes key words and puts out buy and sell orders for millions of share before you can even say Dow Jones.Plug in name rank and serial number and goals in life and we will do the investing and balancing of your portfolio for you. Easy peasy. No human intervention.

Relax TTG you are overdoing it. Really? Ok I will play golf. I now have a rangefinder that will tell me the distance to the hole, whether it is downhill or uphill and what club I should use. If I am sneaky I can adjust my driver for loft depending on the hole.Don’t have the latest golf ball? You lose. My computerized scorecard will tell me where I need work and what my choke threshold is. The Royal and Ancient might be me. Then my Fitbit will tell me how many steps I have taken, calories I have burned and whether I beat out Meehan, Yeoman and Farrell for the day, week and year. No sweat.

Enough of that physical exercise I am just going to sit back and enjoy some music….The Denver Symphony. What? You mean that is not a symphony but a computer generated concerto? What about art? Sorry but your painter’s  palette has been replaced by a mosaic of 4 million pixels. Don’t you understand how much clearer you are seeing things? Sorry but we have decided to forego the creativity and spontaneity of human thought for efficiency and expediency. Just check your Apple Watch to see how much better off you are.

I would be a hypocrite if I didn’t tell you I like progress. I went through a four hour operation a few months ago and the doc never laid a hand on me. It was something called DaVinci that did all the work. I love anything with Leonardo’s handle on it. But that was a great example of a tool being used by a very talented surgeon. I just hope we don’t step over the edge in the future and take that wonderful human brain out of it.

For that MD and train engineer and human stock trader there is a thing called culpability. You have some sort of vocation that requires you to take responsibility for your actions. The machine didn’t screw up. You did. As a corollary the wires and diodes didn’t create something beautiful and successful. You did. That is an incredible force of HUMAN nature that I hope we never lose. Robots are cool but they can’t kiss or cry or smile with warmth or hold with tenderness. At least not yet.

We can have drones do our dirty work. We can probably overmedicate, self lubricate and overeat and look to machines and say the devil made me do it. In the long run we are responsible for this world. If we create monsters it is our fault not their’s. No matter what happens for better or worse in our lives it is because we made a decision and therein lies the culprit or hero as the case might be. I am all for progress but let’s not let technology take over completely as we take a back seat. The next complex equation might make us expendable. Is that a far out concept? Maybe not as far as you think.

As always
Ted the Great.
Factoids:

There are 6.8 billion people on the planet and 4 billion of them use a mobile phone. Only 3.5 billion of them use a toothbrush. There are 500 apps added each day to the Windows Phone Store. Android users were able to choose between 1.3 million apps. Apple’s App Store remained the second-largest app store with 1.2 million available apps as of July 2014.

In the computer security context, a hacker is someone who seeks and exploits weaknesses in a computer system or computer network. They can and have taken control of your financial data, automobiles, security systems, as well as infiltrating the Department of Defense computer system. This is probably the largest vulnerability of our technology age. Even if we install PCT on trains there is a good chance there is someone out there that can override it.

A company called Holosonics developed the Audio Spotlight system, which uses tiny speakers to focus sound into a very narrow beam. In a food or department store it may be able to project a message specifically for you. If you do eat that Ben and Jerry Chunky Monkey ice cream then maybe the devil did make you do it.

A very cool thing is the Atmoph Window. A digital window that opens to beautiful scenery from around the world with 4K-shot videos and sound. Place it anywhere, be anywhere. Complete with sound effects you can have anything from tropical beach to a blazing fire hanging on your wall. Should cost about $350 per which is probably what it would cost you to stay per night.

Veering Left and Right…..

I am a little late this week. I had picked a topic, done my due diligence and was ready to roll when I changed course. I was going to delve into one of our problems du jour and make one of my earnest but often unsuccessful attempts to crack the code. Then a random act of random hit me and I was off on a new trail.

I met a fellow for a drink last night in a local tavern. Local in every sense of the word. The building and the decor were at least fifty years old. A simple brightly lit bar had chrome spinning stools a la the soda shop of yesteryear. The dining area was series of tables and booths where I am sure the fare was hearty and simple. A place you could just be yourself whoever you are.

We were talking about how we could make what was an Army Corps of Engineers flood control project of the 50’s into a vibrant amenity for all to enjoy. If you are from Denver you understand the Cherry Creek is more of a marketing scion for a well to do area than the creek itself. People drive and ride bikes past it but never stop to smell the roses so to speak. Bordering its banks are ample swathes of green space named as parks in a city that is looking for development acreage anywhere it can find it. The particular stretch of a mile or so, although unruly and overgrown is truly a diamond in the rough.

The Creek empties into the South Platte River to the west. Enter my friend. His dad and he in succession have turned the Platte from what was beyond a dumping ground for sewers and chemicals as well as a repository for Denver’s junk into a sparkling waterway. Pop is gone but Jeff carries on the love of the river and nature itself. Through the Greenway Foundation they have shaped not only a scenic wonder but an educational resource for kids to learn of nature and how to preserve it.

There is a not a lot of fanfare to this man although his eyes sparkle and these two lunatics got really wound up when we spoke of what could be. Born and raised in South Denver he is I guess to use a term a public servant although that somehow would seem to denigrate him. He has been a teacher, a politician, a conservator but most of all a person of vision and enthusiasm. As the Platte has cleaned up and become more commercially viable for development it is too bad he can’t share the financial fruits of his labors. I wonder if anybody ever says thank you. I do.

As we talked it was like we were on crack instead of beer. The beauty of this man is that he not only talks the talk but walks the walk and is getting things done. He does most of his work with only a smattering of public funds. Ingenious not only because of his contacts but by doing so he can get things done rather than being locked up in waves of bureaucratic pondering. In seeking support and guidance for this new project I was more than content to let him drive the steam engine while I just shoveled the coal.

As time went on we spoke of other things like families,wives, kids, grandkids. More than a business meeting we got to know each other. We spoke of the city and the country and the world not in any ominous but optimistic way. We both agreed that we had to do it for our kids and not our personal improvement. I also met the bartender and and those around me. People of all walks. There were old people who barely shuffled in for an evening meal of whatever. It was a daily event and they knew the menu and specials by heart. It might have been their only contact with their fellow man all day. There were kids meeting mom and dad for a pizza. Rockwellesque and oh so neat.

We derived a game plan and said adieu but the repartee rolled over and over in my mind as I drove home. I threw in a dash of conversations I have had with my kids over the past few weeks and I was on a trip. Megan is running a leg in the Denver Marathon on Sunday. My daughter in law is getting more and more involved in her kids’ school in London as she coaches and cajoles. I have had exchanges on the whole concept of education today with my niece who teaches school in the mountains. I will watch my grandson play lacrosse this afternoon. A thing called life was coursing through my veins and it was exhilarating.

Now I am not avoiding Putin, income inequality, ISIS or Baltimore. Yes we have problems and we must meet them head on. It’s part of the scenery as we go down the highway of life. But so is what I have described above. It’s is the going down of a backroad every now and then. It is finally discovering the beauty of this world and its inhabitants that have been staring us in the face and we have been too blind to see.

This veering left or right goes beyond the office or the country club. It takes you out of you and into the rest of the world. It finds pleasure in small things that don’t cost a lot of money. When we get the Creek project finished as I know we will, you will have to come out and have a beer with us and dangle your feet. Even better maybe you will have found a project to sink your teeth into in your own burgh. We will have to schedule home and aways. Until then.

As always
Ted The Great

Factoids:

Our little stretch of the Cherry Creek is part of a 48 mile wandering from its headwaters in El Paso County to the South. The South Platte is integral to our water supply and provides irrigation to good portions of the farmlands of eastern Colorado.

Access to and views of water throughout the world are probably the single most contributor to commercial and residential property value throughout the world. It can be an ocean, creek, pond or bay.

Since 1974 he Greenway Foundation has partnered with numerous public and private agencies, corporations, and individuals to create over $130 million of environmental, aquatic, recreational, and open space improvements along the South Platte River and tributaries.It has facilitated more than $13 billion in residential and commercial development. That’s a bunch.

At the tavern I met a young man who volunteers in a program called Healing Waters. It is dedicated to the physical and emotional rehabilitation of disabled veterans through fly fishing and associated activities including education and outings. I went to one of these as a observer and believe me you walk away a different person.

Pendulums…..

Posted from Wimbledon, England

Monday was a Bank Holiday here in England and together with my son and his boys we visited the Hampton Court Palace of Henry VIII. It is a pastoral residence of sorts on the Thames in Richmond. After visiting other monarchical haunts in Russia and France this was somewhat tame.Gaudy Gold is not a primary color in GB and the brick and stone compliment each other beautifully.

Make no mistake it is huge but one gets the feeling of flow and utility. Successive monarchs have added their own touch but you could not help but have the sense they got most things right. The sculpted gardens and hedges were just as they seemed five hundred years ago. But nothing lasts forever. Just ask the Tsars, Marie Antoinette and of course Anne Boleyn.

I got to thinking of life in general and how over the centuries we have gone from one extreme to another. The explosion of the Renaissance must have knocked people off their chairs and out of the Dark Ages. The British Empire? Prognosticators of all sorts lay out the blueprint of life as we will know it. But just when we think we have it figured out, life throws us curveball.

Pendulums can be cultural. Today is emblematic of the evolution or revolution if you will from Victorian puritanism to what some might consider today’s hedonism. I laugh to think of the shock of parents in my adolescence to what is considered childhood entertainment of today. A song called “Short Shorts” was banned from the airwaves because of its suggestive lyrics in the 1950’s. How retro we were and yet we thought we were the cat’s meow.

The world of business has had its array of successes and failures from tulips to Edsels. Companies like Sony and Motorola ruled the tech world for a time and today they struggle for relevance. Railroads and ships lost sight of the fact they were in the transportation business and gave away their dominant position to the airlines. Who knows where we will be 50 years from now?
Some want to retain our way of life just as it is or even better go back to the good old days. Freeze the moment in time but it doesn’t quite work that way. There are two forces at work here, ourselves and the world. We constantly strive to accomplish. We want a better life in the form of money and material things. Look at the houses of just 40-50 years ago. Four bedrooms and two and a half baths were the ultimate. Formica was the counter of choice and bell bottoms or madras made us worthy of any social scene.

Fast forward and now our much larger homes need a bath in every bedroom along with family rooms, home theaters, saunas and hot tubs. Our wardrobes are no longer adequate when they fit into a normal size closet. We need walk in caverns to house the arsenal. Granite counter tops are close to being passe`and who would be seen with a three year old American made car. It’s partially our desire for bigger better faster but also a world that says if you fall behind you are an abject failure.

But as we think we are getting nearer and nearer to Nirvana there is something amiss. Instead of feeling the euphoria on a long gradual climb there seems to be some element of emptiness that the good life can’t fill. Maybe I will build a bigger monument to me? Hmm, I might find that elusive perfect bottle of wine or savor a meal by the world’s most celebrated chef? Perhaps it is my Ford 350 or a week at the Fat Farm at Canyon Ranch or front row seats to Kenny Chesney?

You mean there are other things? I believe there are. The reason the pendulum goes from one extreme to the other is because no matter what we have, life is a struggle. Not always in an onerous sense but more of a pulled muscle that won’t heal. An itch you can’t scratch. An enigma you can’t solve. Not fatal but chronic. As I travel down life’s highway there are certain things I can’t put to rest. I can work on them but it’s downright impossible to get it perfect. That’s not a bad thing. It’s a celebration of our humanity but also our frailty.

I have just read David Brooks’, “The Road to Character”. Probably what I write is at least subliminally what I read in his piece. He does a masterful job of describing the Resume Virtue and the Eulogy Virtue. On the one hand what I have accomplished in life and on the other how I would like to be remembered. Sure I was the CEO of a billion dollar company but will I be regarded as a decent person after I am gone? Was I kind and caring or ruthless and overbearing? How would YOU like to be remembered?

The struggle gets deep at this point. To see the “eulogy you” it is necessary to divorce yourself from everyday life. Scores are kept on a totally different spreadsheet. You start digging down and the floor opens up. Instead of finding the answer another level is revealed and you are forced to dig deeper and deeper. Aha, I have found my soul! Sorry Charlie, you are just getting started.

Enter self improvement books of all sorts. Shrinks, gurus and swamis will show you the way. Travel to buddhist temples burn incense and play funny music. Probably helpful but this is a trip you have to make for yourself. Now some will think I am crazy. So be it. Some will get tired and depressed and say it is not for them. But some will say this is kind of cool.

At least for me I don’t think for a moment I will ever get it figured out. When I get to the point I do, something will happen that will put me back to square one or at least three or four. If one of the books espousing the ultimate answer were true do you think we will still have title after title being published?

Like David Brooks I am writing because I am verbalizing my own part in the puzzle of life. Going back to that whole idea of pendulum I don’t see quandary but energy. The arcing motion gives its share of twists and turns but also new insights. If the weight at the end of the line should come to rest I don’t think it would be triumphant but tragic. It would mean that life, at least intellectually is over. I’m not ready for that yet.

As always
Ted The Great

Factoids:

Hampton Court Palace was considered modern and sophisticated when it was built in Tudor times. It had bowling greens, a 36,000 square foot kitchen and a toilet area that could seat 30 people.

There are thousands of palaces throughout the world in over 90 countries. There 16 in Mexico and over 50 in Italy. Amazingly there are even larger numbers in Malaysia, Indonesia and Brazil. When a new monarch assumed the throne in various countries predictably the new BMOC had to add onto an existing palace or build a new one that was bigger and better than the old one. Good for employment in the region.

Of the hundreds upon hundreds of self help books of the top ten in 2014, 9 were spiritual in nature and the top one was financial by Tony Robbins.

Google Ngrams measure the usage of certain words in the media. Over the past few decades references to self and I have soared and community, share and united have fallen drastically. Economics and business up and morality and character building down. Bravery, humbleness, and gratitude are down over 50%.

From Tranquility Base…

Posted from St Ives,Cornwall, UK

I am sitting in an alcove with huge windows overlooking the Atlantic Ocean below. Our hotel is a Victorian built in 18 0r 19 something and I see why people seek respite here. It is early morning and I can espy small craft bobbing on their tethers and the plaintiff cry of the gulls provides a gentle wake up to the day.

We have been visiting my son and his family in Wimbledon which beyond grass courts is a suburb of London so to speak. They have made quite a transition since moving there nine months ago. Scott has business trips to Amsterdam and Copenhagen this week and the boys speak of the Czech Republic, Germany and France as if they were neighboring states and not sovereign nations. Dionne is trying to figure out how to make the sun shine more than a few days a week. All is well.

As they say about fish and family they begin to smell after three days so we made a side trip to Cornwall. We survived my driving from the right side and found our way out of London. We made a wrong turn right out of the rental agency and after wandering about we passed the same enterprise we had just pulled out of. Kathy told me she hated me and let out a raft of expletives as I begged for directions. I told her if it suited here she could reside in the trunk for the duration. The view wouldn’t be quite so expansive but she could be spared my driving idiosyncrasies. After 44 years of marriage we have been through worse.

Driving along the A3 you want to compare the terrain to ones you know better. We noted at various points we could have been in New Hampshire, Long Island, Ireland and France. We made our way through dual carriageways, roundabouts and narrow country lanes to reach our haven. It really is a little bit of heaven. We had travelled about 250 miles and you can see why people make the trek.

Dinner was lovely as they say but the couple next to us found solace in their cell phones rather than each other’s company. It was quite startling form both a technological as well as personal view. Has it really come to this? Kathy and I talked for who knows how long in front of the fire after dinner. About kids, us, life et al. Nice way to spend a day especially since she was talking to me once again.

I was up early as is my want. French pressed coffee was served by a wonderful chap named Mark. I finally found somebody else I the world who was as wound up at 6:00 AM as yours truly. He spoke and as he tested the waters with each sentence he unraveled more and more of his life. A bit of a vagabond he loved the hotel business. He knew it was low pay and long hours but it was his calling.

He was divorced with a six year old son who lived with his mum just across the bay. He had decent relationship with his former spouse and he got his son every other weekend. They camped on the beach and fell asleep in arctic sleeping bags listening to the rolling surf. He said he had found tranquility in the simple life by the sea and you knew he was speaking from the heart. It was the way he should be and I wished I could bottle what he had and give it to the world.

We signed up for a walking tour of this seaside hamlet and Tony Farrell appeared in front of the Guild Hall at 11:00 AM sharp.
A retired professor of archaeology, his family had settled here over 150 years ago. He was a wealth of knowledge as well as perspective. It was just Kathy and I and he quickly departed from script and went into far more detail than the average excursion. This was not only his home but his heritage. We went to a fish lodge with aged and curling photographs that showed the tranquil bay in all its fury. As we passed the volunteer lifeboat rescue group he told of friends who had been lost trying to save a drowning sailor. They had sung in the choir next to him and now they were gone. It wasn’t a sadness but an acceptance of life as it is. Wow.

We drifted to politics which was appropriate in that the Brits are electing a new Parliament in ten days. He was as liberal as can be but not because of academia. For centuries this area had been a center for mining tin and fishing. These were people who worked with their hands and not necessarily their heads. They had given their lives to support family in a basic way in their small homes by the sea. Everyone supported each other and it was community in every sense of the word. He was a Labourite.

As time marched on, the trip from London took a few hours and not the several days of old. The wealthy had come and seen a chance for profit in the land. They bought up the structures that housed the help and made them grand. Prices shot up and the next generation of miners and seafarers were locked out. He rued the fact that his kids couldn’t afford to live here. He was put out that the mining and fishing had long gone and hospitality with its low wages was all that was left. He seemed to bristle at the fact these second homes were inhabited only three or four weeks of the year. He dreamed of a new Cornwall that could attract R and D or technology but he and I knew that probably could never be.

Now I do not deny my capitalist roots but it does give one pause. I am sitting here peering out at the land across the bay which is verdant and simple. I know someday it will be dotted with condos of all sorts of modernistic interpretation. Perhaps the wonderful Victorians that occupy the palisade behind me will be too dated for salvation. It cost a lot less to scrape and build anew you know. For now I will revel in finding this wonderful place and meeting the Marks and Tony’s of the world. I need that grounding. I hope they can stay.

As always
Ted The Great.

Factoids:

Wimbeldon started in the late 1800’s as a croquet club. There are 375 full time members and the only way you get in is to be invited. Of course someone has to die to move up on the list.

You get a ticket by lottery. All tickets cost the same and you could get a courtside seat or one up in nose bleed country. It is the luck of the draw. The winner of the Gentlemen’s singles at The Championships receives a gold trophy inscribed with the words: “The All England Lawn Tennis Club Single Handed Champion of the World”.

Off the Cornwall coast there are some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. During WWII, U Boat#48 sank over forty ships in these waters. Incredibly it was sunk by its own designs. After torpedoing a freighter there were steam engines being transported on the deck of the prey. One blew into the air and landing on the conning tower sending the sub to the bottom of the sea with all hands aboard being lost. At least that is how the story goes according to local lore.

What’s On Your Mind?…..

I had a conversation with my eight year old grandson, Anders. He is the most easy going kid imaginable. He seemed to be deep in thought and I asked him what he was thinking about? “Life “ was his reply. Getting ready for some deep conversation, I asked, “What about life?” He said,”playing and stuff.” His answer so honest, simplistic but most of all positive was beyond refreshing.

I like to think. I enjoy just taking a concept and letting it rip so to speak. I do research to get my juices flowing and then try to make sense of it all. Many of you might see this as foolish or even worse the mark of a rapidly aging man. Others will just brush it aside and say you have more important things to do. I am just too busy. Good for you.

But we all think thousands of times a day. Unfortunately a lot of it is negative or stressful. Kathy and I are flying to London on Wednesday to see our son Scott and his family. Some of you might point out the possibility of a bomb or terrorism of some sort on our sojourn. Could be on the plane or in the heart of Piccadilly. Ted, did you see what happened on that flight from Barcelona? Who knows who is behind the wheel?

Parents get whacko about their kids. Will my three year old get into Harvard? How can I best prepare him or her in these formative years? I guess the only way they are going to make it to the varsity sports team is if we send them to two week summer camp and then intensive personal training when they get home. Are they pretty or handsome enough? Got to restrict their diet and maybe even a nose job. Walk home from school or the store alone? Are you nuts? Think of all the BAD things that can happen?

I know a bunch of parents who obsess about their older kids. Sure I love my offspring but it is their life to succeed or fail and it doesn’t require my worrying during every waking hour. Are they a happy couple? Do they have enough money? Do they want a bigger house? Maybe I should help them. The apron strings get longer and longer instead of shorter as time marches on. How could they ever survive on their own?

The market, our health, our retirement accounts, our legacy to pass on, occupy an inordinate amount of that oh so precious time every day. The Greek debt, easing in Europe and the impending rise of China both financially and militarily? How can you just sit there TTG, our preeminent position in the world is crumbling. This is getting depressing….and yet we do it.

We seem to obsess on things gone wrong in the past. I am reading a book on our mini depression of 2008. It wants to let Wall Street off the hook and lay blame on Barney and Bill or HUD.They might be right. Last night there was a news segment on the BP spill five years later replaying the ecological disasters. Did any of us forget about either of these events? Sure there is a ton of blame to go around and yes as in any debacle some will get away scott free but do we have to regurgitate and relive them again? It is almost like we keep replaying these disasters time and again hoping the result will turn out differently.

Sure things bother and maybe even scare me but those are emotions I can control. There are very few cases where I really can have any control over an event. What I have tried to do is concentrate and take ownership of just those things around me where I can have an effect. The nuclear pact with Iran. The price of oil. The stock markets. Do you think little old me or you can really change the course of events? Look at poverty or waste in your town or city not the 50 states. Improve your neighborhood not the whole state. Make it manageable but do it.

David Brooks has a new book out, “The Road to Character”. It’s not so much the writing of the book as his thought processes that intrigue me. He and Charlie Rose had the quintessential interview. They both fed off one another and in the end it was a big name personality laid bare. No teleprompter or script. Just a young man in the process of sorting out so many things and letting us watch. Can you imagine if this were the norm rather than the rarity? Where politicians, corporate giants, big name doctors and lawyers just let us see who they really are? Fascinating stuff.

To get into this yourself you have to take a time out. Not so easy in today’s world. Separate yourself from the day to day to just take stock and get inside you. You look at morality in your life and the world around you. You get spiritual in not so much a religious sense but more of a divorce from that which is physical.How do you really view your life and that around you? Its sheer ambiguity should keep you on the edge of your seat.

I am not Pollyanna. I would like to describe myself as a pragmatic optimist. I know what is good and bad. Right and wrong. I actually am egotistical enough to think I have solutions to many of the problems that plague us. I am sure you do too but what are the chances of you and I having any impact on immigration, farm subsidies or the deficit in the short run.

Right now I could not be in a better place. No I did not win the lottery but I have decent idea what makes my world tick. I have enough savvy to accent the positive and eliminate the negative. Not rocket science. That’s what’s on my mind. What’s on yours?

As always
Ted the Great

Factoids:

The interview with David and Charlie can be found on charlierose.com. Go to the April 13th show and look under David Brooks, the 33 minute interview.

In the political arena over 30 million Americans are unhappy with the outcome every four years. They will obsess and get nuts for four years seizing every opportunity at the club,local bar and business meetings to express their ill will. How much of their precious time is wasted on talk, emails and cursing the TV. What if all that energy was put to use for something good? Just 30 minutes a day bitching comes out to 43,800 hours until the next election cycle. Okay you only do it 10 minutes per day. That’s only 14,600 hours!

Thesaurus:
Bad Feeling….hatred, resentment, bad vibes, repugnance, choler
Anxiety…angst,dread,uncertainty, the creeps, foreboding
Yuck!

70 and Picking Up Speed….

Last Friday I turned 70. My daughter Lindsey was kind enough to put a picture of me celebrating on Facebook and many of you responded. Thank you for the fact there were more thumbs up than down. I have discovered than it is almost impossible to look forward and backward in the same breath without tripping over yourself. Advanced age brings great wisdom.

We went to the Broadmoor with two of three offspring families for the weekend. We will do an encore in London with son Scott and company in 10 days. My mom used to say when we all got together, “Can you imagine that JJ and I started all this?” I think I get it now.

The kids were beyond funny staying at a big hotel for the first time. Sorry. For those who do not know, the Broadmoor in Colrado Springs is a beautifully updated version of a bygone era of luxury and class. A large lake with bridges and geese provided plenty of entertainment for 4-10 year olds. You couldn’t help but think of what this all must look like to these young wide eyes. They found hidden spots and nooks and crannies throughout. There was a library that could belong in any baronial manor and the oldest found their way up the book stacks on a movable ladder.

Daughter Lindsey gave me a digital picture frame loaded with pictures that really did go back 70 big ones. I don’t know where she found them but they were beyond fun. A lot of streams and bridges. I hope I didn’t burn too many of the latter. There were friends past and present. Some had died . Some had just faded away. The grandkids all marveled at the sight of Padge when he had hair. So did I.

As the pictures passed in the slide show you could almost feel the emotions of particular times. The security of a big house as a five year old. The uncertainty of a prep school in New York City or a college in DC. Be cool TTG. The world is your oyster but don’t blow it. The Navy provided a whole different sense. Sitting on a Swift Boat late at night in some God forsaken place 10,000 miles from home was not one’s idea of a road trip.

Then a new chapter with a wonderful wife and the tiny beginnings of a family. Careers, houses, station wagons and clubs. What more could you want? But then the wanderlust and adventure kicked in and we were off for the West. Seemed to suit us just fine and always called us back.

Time doesn’t tarry but roars as the years roll by. You look at your peers and say there is no way I look that old and gray. I put 19,000 steps on my Fitbit on Saturday as I tried to prove once again that I was Superman.Working out, golf, tennis and of course the victory cigar. I did this for my kids, grandkids and wife but most of all for me. Not to show off but to set the tone for the who knows how many years to come.

We drove back north to Denver on Sunday morning. It was a sparkling day and lot to think about. I25 may seem boring to some but to me it was a panoply of sights and thoughts. The Air Force Academy was a symbol of youth and leadership and at the same the war machine I have learned to detest. Mesa and buttes under Monument Hill hid farms and those anonymous families that ply the land. A huge Burlington Northern train hauled gigantic vanes for wind farms, Dozens and dozens of them. Ironic these are the same rails that carry the coal trains out of Wyoming. To each his own.

Beyond birthdays I have had some truly touching and difficult meetings this week. At hospice yesterday I sat with a woman for almost three hours as she lay dying. I was incredulous at the human spirit as she fought to live and yet knowing the inevitable. Later I talked with a great friend who is battling cancer. Nothing special. Just talk. I heard from someone who has been estranged for over five years. We talked for an hour. Some things change and others never do. I had to put distance with another. I wish I was more tolerant.

I lit into our local bishop over what I considered to be some serious insensitivity and ignorance. Predictably he told me to buzz off with a “Sincerely yours in Christ.” C’est la guerre. I am working with some incredibly civic and energetic people who want to try to make Denver a better place to live. They amaze me. All in all, situation normal.

Strangely enough this curtain came down on Sunday while watching the Masters. Jordan Speith is one hell of a golfer but an even better human being at the ripe old age of 21. Must be his Jesuit training. I didn’t marvel at his score as much as his grace and maturity, His posse was his family. The groupies and pariahs could wait and maybe never appear. He was decent and wholesome in a world where every one wants to get a piece of you.Just a nice way to end things.

I am going to use that as my plan for the future. In spite of all the mayhem abroad and nominations at home there is a beautiful world out there. So much to do and see and most of to all learn. Thanks for reading and for your friendship one and all. It’s what keeps me going.

As always
Ted The Great

Factoids:
I have been alive during the terms of 13 presidents and 7 popes. A half a dozen major wars and countless skirmishes. A good friend, Sue Rush told me at a cocktail party many years ago if I had married any other woman I would have burned through three wives by now. No doubt.
Our first house in 1972 cost $42,500. I went to bed the night before closing convinced no one would ever pay more for a house ever again. My dad bought a house from Bill Levitt himself in a luxury neighborhood in Manhasset , Long island in 1937 for $9,000. Levitt went on to build hundreds if not thousands of homes for GI’s coming home from the war in the late 1940’s.

Jordan Speith in not even three years on the tour has earned over $13,000,000. He will be 22 in July. His caddy has earned $375,000 in the last four weeks alone. Where did I go wrong?

The Broadmoor sits on 5,000 acres 60 miles south of Denver. It has over 800 rooms consisting of bedrooms, suites. brownstones, cottages, and ranch accommodations. The height above sea level is 6230 compared to 5280 for Denver. We always say going down to Colorado Springs but in actuality it is up.

Guilt…..

I took a long walk this AM and before I left I looked up the definition of guilt. That’s not to say I am still in my Lenten/Passover mode but it was just a fun concept to roll around in Ted’s Head during my trek.By definition it is taking responsibility for a crime or malfeasance where you have done harm to someone. You have violated some sort of personal or societal maxim. 

There are serious guilts.You have killed someone. Perhaps a Ponzi scheme has been your life’s work for several years. Rape, pillage, embezzlement and drug running are what I would call big time. Then there is a lighter note.

I love to give the guilts to my kids. The best defense is a good offense. Nothing penal just being my usual smart ass self and having fun. A good deal of guilt is ethnic. Irish guilt is “I’m fine don’t worry about me. Saints preserve us and praise God.Now run along.” Jewish guilt is much more direct. An orthodox grandmother can cut you in two with her whining and lamentations. Ah but Italian guilt is the worst…the long cold silent stare. Al Capone in heels. Then when they call a conclave of the paisan sisterhood at your niece’s First Communion you are screwed. 

In guilt a manifestation of your plight can be pacing the floor going over your transgressions in minute detail. It can be trying to figure out if they are just tired or never going to talk to you again? How about the sinking feeling as they stare at you and all you can do is keep saying “What?” over and over again. Usually the biggest problem is getting them to verbalize the reason for their venom. Is that all? I thought it was something serious. Uh oh. 

We let’s go beyond family. I am supposed to feel badly because I have too much money in the eyes of the world or then again maybe not enough. My house is too big to you and too small to my wife and kids. Gays tell me I am not showing them proper respect and the conservative right says you are sacrificing your morals by being nice. Blacks say they have been oppressed for centuries and I owe them. The flip side says I am too liberal and it’s every man for himself. For just about everyone I do too much or don’t do enough. What’s a guy to do?

 “Collective Guilt” is a concept in which individuals are responsible for other people’s actions by tolerating, ignoring, or harboring them, without actively collaborating in these actions. You could be a German in WWII and no matter what your personal ethics you were deemed a monster. Every one on Wall Street is a greedy bastard. The Jews? Of course they all killed Jesus. Every one of them.

Where does this all come from? I think it is mostly a convenient or ignorant way to confront a problem. Why screw up a good line of thinking with facts? You are gay and I am macho.It’s weird and deviant for you to love one another. Case closed. I am white and you are black. You are all crooks, pimps and murderers. There can’t be a decent one among you. Can’t we even talk?

No we cannot because no matter what I say it is going to be politically incorrect. I have to be careful not to offend someone who is perceived to have a disadvantage. This is getting fun but terribly whacky. Okay you want to have a dialogue. But I cannot express my true feelings because you will be hurt. Then again you don’t mind inflicting pain on me. Is this just me?

I wonder if this makes democracy impossible? We have all these diverse groups running around with their own idea of heaven. With over 300 million participants there are going to be a whole bunch of different points of view. When we try to distill it into six or seven major subheadings someone if not all are going to start to scream. How do we get consensus?

The first and most important thing to do is take a Bromo and chill out a little. Let’s not try to read into every word I say or facial expression evidence of this nuance or that. We are not negotiating nuclear weapons. We are trying to achieve some sort of common ground.But it is that insistence on every syllable being perfect that cuts off any discussion. “Just what did you mean by that?” Maybe the downtrodden want it that way? If I keep you back on your heels I have the upper hand for a change. Fascinating.

Wedding cakes seem to be the cause celebre. You want a seven tier special for you and your spouse to be who happens to be of the same sex. The baker is just to the right of John Birch. He’ll bake the cake but won’t put the icing on it. You want to make a stand and so does he. Personally I think you should both get over it. On either side we are talking about a tying of the knot which is usually not a life and death situation. And yet we ALL want to amp it up and the rite of joining takes the second or third spot in importance.

“Don’t be so sensitive.” How many times have we heard that? It is actually quite apt. Don’t take yourself to be center of the universe. Gays, straights, blacks, whites, females, males all have their right to do whatever they want but don’t continually jam it down our collective throats. Don’t give me the guilts because I ain’t going to buy it.

I am as compassionate as the next guy. I try to make the world a better place but let me work with you. Paint me in a corner and my reaction will be predictable. This goes for the disadvantaged and well as the elite. It has to start now and not when the other side gives in. Take a step, get a life and grow up. We have a lot of work to do. Me? Guilty as charged.

As always
Ted The Great

Factoids:
Ted The Great has uttered somewhere in his life the Chinks, Spics, Guineas, Hebes, Polaks and probably the N word. I don’t consider myself racist or homophobic but I have spoken of these in jokes, anger or just common talk. It was and is wrong. Mea Culpa. As a matter of fact mea maxima culpa. That’s just in case I run for President

When I hit a putt short I will more often than not utter to myself “Hit it you fag”. This is not in any way associated with gays but rather as a boy you were a fag if you were anything less than the Incredible Hulk. Nothing to do with sexuality.

I have been called on occasion(too many) an a__hole. I have chastised my compadres who hurl this invective at me for their utter degradation of the species known as a__holes by including me in their ranks. Then again I shouldn’t worry because in most cases today a__holes are a majority not a minority.

We protest discrimination, animal rights, civil liberties, the environment et alia but there is no hue and cry against the trafficking in human beings. To wit the fact that several people were indicted for importing over 15 girls 10-16 years of age for the 2013 Super Bowl in New York so high rollers could have their fun. Do you have a 10 year old niece, daughter or granddaughter?