Jim Vann’s Blog

Can somebody explain to me why the President of the United States needs to be somebody with whom we’d like to have a beer?
Apparently this nonsense has spread to the families as well.
Remember when George W Bush was running and the commentators and pollsters kept telling us that his big strength was that he was a personable guy.
They did surveys that asked the actual question, “Which is the candidate you’d most like to have a beer with?”
Like there was a chance of that happening! I never got invited to the White House for a brew. Did you?
Now there is a brouhaha over the fact that Ann Romney has never worked at Wal-Mart.
Not that there is anything wrong with working at Wal-Mart, but, in what way does it qualify you to entertain the Queen of England or have the President of Ghana over to the house for tea?
I have been saying for some time that what this country needs in the White House is a complete jerk with whom nobody wants to have a beer, but who absolutely knows how to run the Executive Branch and get things done.
Oh well, maybe next time, Newt.

As we wrap up the five day suspension of Ozzie Guillen, manager of the Marlins, for saying that he loves Fidel Castro, (who does this guy think he is, Jimmy Carter?) I am struck by the dynamics at work, here.

I don’t really know the circumstances surrounding the statement, and there is obviously a lack of judgment here that should be of concern in a manager.

Perhaps there is a “no-stupidity” clause in Guillen’s contract. That would be understandable. And the argument can be made that loving Castro in Miami is pretty much the same as yelling “fire” in a crowded theater or saying you hate cheese in Milwaukee.

But, back to Ozzie, it strikes me that, just up the road a piece, Al Sharpton and the Black Panthers are trying to stir up a lynch mob and take George Zimmerman out and, as Judge Roy Bean said, “…give him a fair trial followed by a first class hanging.” I seem to recall a time when doing this sort of thing was called “inciting to riot,” and vigilantism. I seem to recall a time when this was regularly done to people in my part of the country.

Then the Federal government stepped in and, rightfully put a stop to it. Now the government steps in and hands Sharpton and the Panthers a rope.

Apparently, the time has come to amend the “free speech” part of the First Amendment, and add the phrase at the end…”unless it makes a bunch of people mad.”

Almost everybody whose opinion I respect agrees that there was a time when the corporations got greedy and unions were inevitable. The reason was that the robber barons did not want to share the wealth. They were under no obligation to do so. What they were doing was not illegal. But it was, by my definition of the word, a sin.
My definition of sin is anything we do that can hurt ourselves or others. Check out the Ten Commandments if you don’t believe me.
To be sure, the corporate “sin” of shortsightedness found them out…and begat unions.
Then the unions gained popularity, as people giving other people’s’ money away often do. The resulting greed was also inevitable.
Now, a survey by Bill Ballenger in Michigan shows that a majority want the state to return to “right to work” status.
Just as it happened to the robber barons, it is happening now to the unions. The love of money is, indeed, the root of all evil, as St. Paul said. Or, as Moses said, ” Be sure your sins will find you out.”
Amazing how one book can turn out to have he answer so often. I’d call it inspired.

Well, sir, the race baiters are having a field day over the Trayvon Martin tragedy. The latest attempt to gain a foothold from this horrible, but local, crime comes from the “New” Black Panthers offering a $10,000 reward for George Zimmerman…dead or alive.
Let me get this straight, when Newt Gingrich wants to reform welfare and lower everybody’s taxes, he is a racist, but when this group offers money to have someone murdered, it is free speech.
I would remind those who want a war between the races in the U.S.A. that the North won the Civil War because the South had a lot of cotton and the North had a lot of guns. The practical reality of war is economic, not social.
In other words, be careful what you ask for, because you may get it.

As the primary season comes to a close and the campaign heats up with the summer, I wish I could make the candidates understand a few things that i know to be true.

I would like to tell them that just because The Kardashians are famous does not mean that the entire population is mindless and vapid. We care about each other, and we want you to share that real concern.

I wish I could point out that there is a thin line between having our faith form the basis for our thinking and our actions as individuals (good) as most of us do, and having any religion dictate or laws.(radical Islam).

Finally, I would like to explain that you can’t make one person richer by making another person poorer. You only earn the disdain of the former and the resentment of the latter.

But, alas, I have no real voice in our election process. I am neither a TV pundit nor a pollster.

I am just a concerned citizen, with no money to contribute to the campaign, only one little vote to cast.

Read more: Cherokee Tribune – What I would tell politicians

To all of my friends (and, at least one relative) who voted for Barack Obama in 2008, I understand.

I understand that you were frustrated with an economy in a tailspin.

I understand that you were upset by the Middle East and concerned it would become another Vietnam.

I understand that the Bush administration seemed to be doing nothing to make things better.

I understand that the alternative was another old white guy, and his running-mate who was a total unknown commodity.

I understand that Barack Obama was a breath of fresh air with a youthful vigor, who spoke in beautiful metaphors about a better world.

Why do I understand?

I was once young and I once supported  the wrong candidate for all the right reasons…his name was John F. Kennedy.Think how I felt when I heard recently that he was a dirty old man at heart, who couldn’t keep his hands off of a nineteen year old intern. At least Monica Lewinsky was over twenty-one.

I am proud of the fact that nobody can ever say again that the United States has never had a black president. I am glad that we proved them wrong about us in 2008. Even I toyed with voting for him just to get that stigma off of our back.

Now it is 2012. The economy is worse, we are still at war in the Middle East and the President is making no progress in fixing things.

All I ask is that you apply the same standard this year that you applied in 2008.  I honestly have no way of knowing if Mitt Romney can make things better. Just like you in 2008, I don’t have a crystal ball. But, I can see what has occurred in the last 3 and a half years.

Two wrongs don’t make a right. It felt good in 2008 to vote for Barack Obama. In 2012,  it should just feel ignorant.

After the “debates,” and the rest of the campaign, I think I understand why the best and the brightest don’t run for office. You get called everything except a child of God, and heaven help you if you once filched a candy bar from the five and dime in the 1950′s. If you are a devout follower of the wrong religion, you’re a goner, and if you prefer to keep your faith to yourself, well, suffice it to sat, you must be a closet athiest.
You have to leave your family and travel the country for a year or so while radio and TV “pundits,” which is, I believe the French word for “airbags,” sit on the sidelines and criticize your every move, secure in the knowledge that they will not be called to account, since they are just filling up time anyway.
Then, if you “win,” the real abuse begins. In a world where only the accusations matter, not the proof, you are fair game.
All this for $450,000 a year and a housing allowance
Come to think of it, why would we vote for anybody nuts enough to freely admit to wanting the job?

It wasn’t on the news since it didn’t have anything to do with the Kardashians or “Who killed whom in the ‘hood, but the Georgia Legislature actually did a good thing. They passed a bill that would allow access in K-12 schools to the efficiencies and advantages of telemedicine.
The average cost of accessing a doctor this way is $20. What did it cost for an office visit that last time your child got the sniffles?
I hope this doesn’t jinx anything but “Way to go Ga lawmakers!!!!”
Now, if we can just get the Congress to put aside their own interests and think of ours, maybe we can get rid of nationalized health care and replace it with affordable and accessible health care.

I had a dream the other night that a candidate running for president made a totally supportable campaign promise. I couldn’t recognize the candidate because it was a dream and not a nightmare, but he promised that, if elected, he would never actively run again. He said he would offer himself for re-election, but would not campaign or advertise or do any of the things requiring money to get elected.
Can you imagine a country where the need for payoffs from wealthy PACS, lobbyists and other deep pockets was simply not necessary?
My God, things could actually get done. We could actually have a government that represented us and not them.
Then I woke up.
The closest thing we have to my dream is GOOH (Get Out of Our House) that seeks to find and support candidates that run against incumbents just because they are incumbents.
In a world where the political parties are indistinguishable from one another, I guess I’ll have to go back to sleep and dream again.

Can somebody please tell me when and how comedians became the arbiters of everything in this country? Can you explain to me why a group of people who are almost uniformly neurotic and lacking in depth of thought (apologies to Jeff Foxworthy and a few others)  have been elevated to the exalted position of decision-makers for the modern world?

I blame “The Fonz.”

“Happy Days” was a great show that harkened back to a simpler time and made gentle fun of our naivete during that time. Of course there was the happy and well-adjusted family and the nerdy friends, which were required in TV of the era. But “Happy Days” added a stylized version of a 50′s biker that would have made Marlon Brando shutter. He was tough, in a sanitized TV sort of way. If he liked you, he was a true friend, but, if you crossed him or one of his nerdy friends, he would look at you in a threatening way and say, “Heeeeey!”

Played to TV perfection by Henry Winkler, Arthur Fonzarelli was the proof that TV needed to be convinced that humor was, in no way, associated with the real world. Had Fonzi been a real biker, no member of the Cunningham family would have survived season one, except for Joanie, who would have had at least one tattoo (and probably one illegitimate kid by the end of the series.)

Building on “The Fonz,” TV has gotten further and further from reality, until today, Bill Mahr can make the most outrageously offensive and errant statement, and, as long as the hand-picked studio audience laughs, ni one is allowed to question it for fear of being labeled “uncool,” a phrase started on TV by “The Fonz.”

Uneducated, ignorant, unpatriotic and naive are all OK,  but, thanks to The Fonz we will remain “cool” all the way to the poor house and national ruin.

Freedom of the press is a right. It is also a responsibility.

Stay cool, America!