Paul Richard Hain

Yawn. . .  Run for the U.S. Senate to make your vote count.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Sadly with two Senators per state, the vast majority of Americans' voices were not heard in the halls of Congress.

If the 6 other FBI investigations were as incomplete as the 7th, it's amazing we know when Kavanaugh's birthday is.

I have no problem with white men-- I stand proud with IL Senator Durbin, CT Senator Blumenthal, RI Senator Whitehouse, DE Senator Coons, VT Senator Leahy... I stand proud with NJ Senator Booker too. 

I also celebrate Prof Christine Blasey Ford as a hero, as I do CA Senator Feinstein, MN Senator Klobuchar, HI Senator Hirono, and CA Senator Harris.

I'm shedding a tear for our country.

Alan A. Alop

In the year 2020 the United States Supreme Court declared abortion illegal.  All abortions—even in cases of rape and incest--were prohibited, except where the life of the mother was imminently threatened.

State legislatures immediately enacted laws to protect the unborn. Doctors or others who performed or participated in abortions were subject to lengthy imprisonment. Women who had abortions faced jail sentences of one to five years. States began to arrest and imprison women who attempted on their own to terminate their pregnancies. Laws were passed to punish women who refused to identify the abortionists who terminated their pregnancies. Some states enacted legislation to penalize women—and others who aided and abetted them—who obtained abortions in Canada and other foreign nations and then returned to the United States.  The prison system in every state expanded to accommodate the “termies” (as they were labeled) and the abortionists.

Almost every major hospital in America opened new wards to treat women who were victims of botched abortions or self-mutilation. The number of deaths of women from abortions and self-attempts to terminate pregnancies soared a thousand-fold. Homicides of unwanted babies increased dramatically.

Some states greatly restricted birth control and enacted criminal sanctions for the use of particular birth control measures, including intra-uterine devices. Mississippi passed a law allowing police to remove such devices where probable cause existed to suspect their use. Maryland passed legislation that included two-years imprisonment for anyone who dispensed or “recommended” morning-after medications.

Vast networks of an underground railroad came into existence, designed to aid women who chose to terminate their pregnancies. The FBI formed a new department to combat these networks and illegal abortions by women who crossed state lines.

If you think this nightmare scenario is far-fetched, you are wrong. Ninety-percent of the above is what happened in America from 1880-1973, until Roe v. Wade was decided. See, Leslie J. Reagan, When Abortion Was A Crime (1997).

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Integrity of Supreme Court > sense of entitlement to a SC seat.

Gloating with #BeersForBrett festivities celebrating Kavanaugh’s drunkenness and alleged sexual assault -- “Yes, we drank beer.  My friends and I.  Boys and girls.  Yes, we drank beer.  I liked beer.  Still like beer.  Do you like beer?” (about 30x beer) -- are sad optics for a nominee and his backers to defend and celebrate the confirmation of a Supreme Court justice, not to mention the prevarication and filibustering and outright lying. 

Our country is hurting-- We need leaders who bring healing and are positive role models.

(Carol, I am a mother and a grandmother - 2 grandsons in college, a grandson and a granddaughter in HS, a grandson in 8th grade, and a grandson and a granddaughter in elementary school.)  Brett Kavanaugh is a poor role model (as is Donald Trump).

#MeToo

The Supreme Court was once a bulwark of our democracy.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Recognizing that he has no power, Keith Koegler of Palo Alto, CA, wrote to the U.S. Senate more than once: in his first letter on September 24th he named himself as a corroborating witness; he wrote again on Friday, October 5th following the FBI investigation urging the Senate “to do what is right.” 

In his letter Friday, before confirmation, Koegler said he and at least seven others who had knowledge of the alleged sexual assault that occurred when Christine Blasey (Ford) and Brett Kavanaugh were high school students were not interviewed by the FBI as part of its investigation.

“The process by which the Senate Judiciary Committee has ‘investigated’ the facts relating to the assault has been a shameless effort to protect Judge Kavanaugh.  The fact that the FBI did not interview either Christine or Judge Kavanaugh, by itself, renders absurd any assertion that the investigation was ‘thorough’.  There are a minimum of seven additional people, known to the White House, the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the FBI who knew about the assault prior to the nomination, who were not interviewed.  I am one of them.

“There was no ‘grand conspiracy’ to conduct a ‘political hit job’ on Judge Kavanaugh—this was always about one woman struggling with a perverse choice: Suffer a brutal toll on herself and her family to fulfill a sense of civic duty and (possibly, though not likely) avoid spending the rest of her life looking at the face of the man who assaulted her as a teenager on the United States Supreme Court or, alternatively, live in silence with the knowledge that she might have been able to make a difference.

“Christine has been afraid of flying her entire adult life.  Prosecutor Rachel Mitchell repeatedly challenged Christine about her fear of flying, in an effort to impugn Christine’s general credibility.  I could have provided the FBI with the names of at least half a dozen people who have flown with Christine and can attest to the fact that she has panic attacks before she flies.  She controls those attacks with medicine prescribed by a doctor.”

An incomplete investigation is worse than none-- it amounts to a coverup.

How much can be shoved under the rug?

Fancy Miss Nancy (Novak)

Five is a Lonely Number


My parents were obsessed with the number five. No, they weren’t number worshipers, only crazy.  An entire mythology sprang up around their pentatonic neurosis. They told everyone that they had dated five years before getting married and they claimed to love the same exact five colors and the same five foods.  According to my dad, each of them individually had seen a cloud in the shape of a perfect number “5” on the day they met. Both of them had five letters in each of their names.  This, at least was verifiably true: Ralph Novak and Janet Crane. They bragged to anyone within earshot that each of them excelled in five different areas in school.  Supposedly, both of them sported five clearly visible birthmarks on five unmentionable parts of their bodies. I never attempted to verify that one.  My father, an accomplished finish carpenter, built a five-cornered dinner table.  Their intent was to have five children, each of whom would also have five letters in each of their names.
The first two were easy: Nancy Ellen and Linda Susan  Then they had to stretch it a bit with Gayle Bethe who we still torment to this day by calling her “Gay-lee Beth-ee.” Then Larry, not “Lawrence,” mind you, but “Larry” Scott arrived on the scene. 
I suppose fulfilling a numerological compulsion is as good a reason as any to have children, but my mother’s manic depressive nature was not improved each time she miscarried “Number Five.”  No matter what else she accomplished artistically, intellectually, or socially, the unattainable formula they created for her life was always incomplete.
So along came the endless stream of “adopted” kids; cousins, friends, foreign exchange students, runaways, misfits who were welcome to stay as long as they wanted if they had five letters in their names.  Otherwise… next!
My folks correctly predicted the demise of my first marriage on the grounds that, even though my groom had ten letters in his last name (an acceptable multiple of five), his first and middle names were unforgivably short. 
So now all is well.  I’ve married Frank Bruce Irwin. All hail Numero Cinco.🖐🏼

Fancy Miss Nancy (Novak)

Steve,

Koko isn’t dead. She’s running for the U.S.Senate.

🙈🙉🙊                          Yippee and Yahoo!

Fancy Miss Nancy (Novak)

Hey Carol (my dear next-door-neighbor), Thanks for mentioning your personal appreciation of my Snippet. So far, I have written about 20 short ones one medium long and 2 that are in 2 parts each, kind like a short book. It's my deepest desire to share memories & happenings that might bring a smile to someone's face among those in the Niles West graduationg class of 1964. Friends, neighbors, fellow students... I challenge each and every one of you to spin out a short story that relates a personal life's experience, present or past, new or ancient history, fact or fiction, let's make it FUN!  No judgement or spelling corrections please. Laughter is good medicine... scientifially proven to be true. Of course, life has its sorrows, but for some unknown reason, I'm always able to see the bright, usually funny side of a situation. My tears flowed uncontrollably when I read of Sherwin "Bud" Levin's death. But in the process of mourning, I connected with our other Lorel Ave. neighbor, (6th house down in the middle of the block on our side of the street) Kerry Kenny. Together we reminisced how about the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that the four of us ate in front of his television set while watching Lunchtime Little Theatre. Talking about the happy times helped us to overcome the tragedy. So, get to it classmates! Let's hear something soft, sweet, or guffawing loud and personal about you so we can really get to know about all the amazing 1964 graduates.                                                                             PS Certainly, or course, this is not an order, just a heartfelt suggection from an old lady (well maybe not as old as some of you, but older than Scott Mermel) who has been though many tough times and survived as I believe ALL of us have. DIFFERENCES, like political and religious opinions need not be emphasized and mulled over and over as if we don't get the point. It's the things we have in common that will bring us together, perhaps not as the Fighting Indians since that is poitically incorrect at the present, but as Best Friends Forever. Oh yeah, my grandaughters have thoroughly explained the incredible importance of BBF.

Allan Norman Karlin

Whoa !!  We are falling into the trap that some politicians and idealogues have set for us.  Obviously, some of us see the world very differently than others.  To some,  Trump and Kavanaugh are the victims of dishonest women who conspire with the Democratic Party (and the Clintons) to victimize white males.  To others (and here is where I stand) Trump and Kavanaugh are disrespectful and arrogant men who think (apparently correctly) that they are immune from the rules that apply to rest of us.  ( I am a former member and Chairperson of the West Virginia Lawyer Disciplinary Board and I can assure you that, if I had behaved in front of a Congressional Committee the way Judge Kavanaugh did, I would be facing a disciplinary committee not a position on the Supreme Court.  In fact, the only court I could get on would be a tennis court -- maybe given how bad I play).

But, before any of you on my right flank attack me, hear me out.  The thing we need to really think about is not who is right and who is wrong, but rather -- how did some of us who attended high school  together  come to see things in our world so very differently?  Why do some of us see Trump as a bully serving the interests of the very rich while others see him as a "stand-up guy" and the savior of America's workers?  So far there is no clear case that pro and anti Trump genes have been identified (though some have suggested there is a genetic compondent to liberal vs conservative.)  So it must be our different experiences in life that bring us to where we are.  We really ought to be asking what is there about each of us that makes us think the way we do?  Maybe this kind of thinking can this lead us to rethink our positions and perhaps, in some cases, change how we see things? 

I have thoughts on this, but no answers.  But I do know it is time to turn the rancor down.  It does not get us anywhere. 

And it is important to do so because (and here is my prejudice) bad things are happening while good and well meaning people are ever more polarized and ever less able to understand those with whom they disagree.

Underlying these differences are important issues that will shape the world in which our children and grandchildren will live after we are gone. For example, do we really need to loosen mercury standards for the air we and our children and grandchildren breath?   Are a reduction in mercury emission standards really good for the future of those we love?. See, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/30/climate/epa-trump-mercury-rule.html, (OK, so this article comes from the "failing NY Times"-- but does anyone really deny that regulatory standards that have improved the quality of our air are under attack and that we should be cautious in trimming them back.  That is  a rhetorical question.   

Well I guess now I am preaching (and I assure you I can be as aggressive a debater as anyone.).  I just don't like myself all that well when I attacking good decent people with whom I happen to disagree.

Hope this makes some sense.  Now back to work.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Allan, thanks for a reality check.  Good to hear from someone who has first hand experience with judicial temperament. Janis

Frances Garfield (Brown)

Janis,

Please keep on trekking for I believe your ideas and thoughts each time. Your words are positive and encouraging and don't forget that.

--fran

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Where are the grownups?  

“What makes us think the way we do?”  

“Where are the Senators who put politics aside

to do what’s right for our country?”

"The Supreme Court needs term limits."

The Founders never anticipated a justice would serve for decades.  

We need Senators and Supreme Court justices who do not tear our country apart.

Bad things are happening while people I love and respect, not only condone, but seemingly revel in what I see as openly profane and arrogant exercise of raw power.  

with thanks to Fran Garfield Brown and Lisa Murkowski for inspiration in the quiet of this morning...

"...deep in my heart, I do believe, we shall overcome someday."

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

"Underlying (our) differences are important issues that will shape the world in which our children and grandchildren will live after we are gone."  -- Allan Karlin

Is the future not a common hope worthy sharing with our classmates?

"To hope is to risk frustration."  -- Thomas Merton

Fran, thanks for putting a song on my lips...

"...deep in my heart, I do believe, we shall overcome someday."

Nancy, keep writing and posting and challenging all to share "something soft, sweet, or guffawing loud and personal... "

Love is ALIVE.

Greetings Zaitz.  Hope you and others are enjoying the MLB post season. Janis

Nikki Haley has resigned as US Ambassador to the United Nations.  She's a big believer in term limits.

Alan A. Alop

Carol---I just read your post about liberals hijacking this forum.  I am assuming you mean me and others who have posted our political views.  I certainly realize that your political posts are okay because somebody has to respond to the liberal madness. 

But I have a confession to make.  George Soros made me do it.  The money was too hard to resist.  In truth I am a William F. Buckley Conservative.  But Soros money butters my bread. Here is a portion of the current Soros pay schedule---all payable in swiss francs but I have converted it to dollars:

Protesting an action of the Trump administration:  $288 per protest. (Extra $106 if you wear a pink hat).

Confronting a senator in an elevator (with media present);  $565

Hijacking a high school reunion message forum:  $315 monthly

Letter to editor complaining of new EPA rules allowing dirty water and air:  $78

Anyways, if you now look at the liberal posts and understand that we are just trying to earn a few Soros francs in our retirement, it may seem a little more bearable. It's not us who you should level your barbs at--its George Soros.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

 Crazy, insane October baseball:

    MLB League Championship matchups

     Series begin--

          Dodgers @ Brewers

      Friday, 10/12 @ 7:09 PM

                      and

          Astros @ Red Sox

     Saturday, 10/13 @ 7:09 PM

  World Series begins Tuesday, October 23rd, TBD

Over the past 24 hours, Hurricane Michael rapidly intensified by 45 mph.  It could increase even more by the time it slams into the Florida Panhandle.

Allan Norman Karlin

Warning:  The following is shared to complete the historical record and not to advocate for any particular point of view.  It is shared only for the purpose of  disclosing the past of classmates Alop and Hirschtick and to place their current strongly felt and, perhaps, sometimes over the top polemics in historical perspective.

I can testify, under oath, that people do change their political stripes over the years.  Alan Alop was, in our high school days, a Barry Goldwater Republican.  I personally know this to be true and can testify to the facts if called upon to do so.  And Steve Hirschtick was, in the days of the George W. Bush Presidency, a hawk on the Iraq War and strong supporter of President Bush who argued in support of G. W. Bush with every bit of the passion that he now denounces President Trump. Again, I know this from personal knowledge and am prepared to confirm this under oath if called upon to do so. In days gone by, we had heated disagreements between friends.

Alan, Steve-- Admit the truth of what I say!   .

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Allan, to complete the historical record it would be interesting to know if some read (comprehended) your post #4410-- you clearly stated:

“I am a former member and Chairperson of the West Virginia Lawyer Disciplinary Board and I can assure you that, if I had behaved in front of a Congressional Committee the way Judge Kavanaugh did, I would be facing a disciplinary committee not a position on the Supreme Court.”

We have seen our President, not a lawyer (or a judge), apologize for the nation and proclaim Brett Kavanaugh “Innocent”.  

...easy for Niles West ‘64 classmates to chuckle and/or move past polemics on the Forum...

According to the Wall Street Journal, when Senators went into their super-cone of silence with Mitch McConnell, they saw a stack of documents with thousands of tips about Brett Kavanaugh that had been sent to the FBI tipline.  

According to the Washington Post, Chief Justice John Roberts received more than a dozen judicial misconduct complaints against Brett M. Kavanaugh which he chose not to refer to a judicial panel for investigation.  

Respect is due our classmates and all Americans who challenged and mourn Kavanaugh’s lifelong appointment to the Supreme Court.

Talk about a mob-- not to mention Trump rallies breaking into “LOCK HER UP” chants about Senator Dianne Feinstein...  Meanwhile Professor Ford cannot return to her home because of death threats.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

 Love is ALIVE-- life moves forward.  

 Health and safety to all our classmates.

 Variety is the spice of Life...

 Better to read something to chew on...  

 Vote absentee...

 Watch teams and cheer...

 Hear jokes worthy a chuckle

 and stories worthy reflection...

 Time to sing “We shall overcome... ”

 To those of you in harm’s way--

 where rain feels like little needles...

 Be alert.  Be safe.  

 To all our classmates--

 Know that we are with you,

 Be in touch when you’re able.

David Steinberg (Noel)

JUST A FEW BARS, AND MAYBE A NOEL MARTINI LATER, FOR US ALL (FROM PAUL, JOHN, GEORGE, AND RINGO)

LOVE IS ALL THERE IS, LOVE IS ALL THERE IS, LOVE IS ALL THERE IS.......... 

DAVID

Marvin Irving Blusteln

I am with Alop and Steve.  I've got my pitch fork sharpened and ready.

Nancy Doyle (Sudlow)

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Mitch McConnell is beaming, he calls Kavanaugh’s confirmation the most consequential accomplishment in his 34 year Senate career.  “It’s hard to judge your own legacy but I can say this: I think it’s the single most important thing I’ve been involved in in my career,” says McConnell.  

In the final week before the confirmation vote, McConnell’s speeches cast Kavanaugh as the victim-- he pushed the confirmation vote as a referendum on basic fairness.

Conservatives are praising McConnell for steering the nomination through.  McConnell’s success is rooted in his escalation of political gamesmanship.  

McConnell’s friends say he will be remembered for his shrewd refusal to give Judge Merrick Garland a hearing.

“McConnell has irreversibly damaged the nomination process.  He has set a new bar for tactics, and made them baldly partisan.  Clearly McConnell has stretched and mis-characterized what all prior tacticians had done.”  -- Democratic Congressman John Yarmouth of Kentucky who worked alongside McConnell as an aide in U.S. Senator Marlow Cook’s office in the late 1960s.  

Tornado watches cover much of northern Florida and Georgia.  Hurricane Michael is in southeastern Alabama and southwestern Georgia.  President Trump is campaigning in Pennsylvania.

Stewart Myrent

All right. I've finally had it.  I'm tired of being a lurker! And I've decided to take up Carol's challenge, preferring a "group of contributors" to an "audience of lurkers."  Before I start, I want to thank Alan Alop, Steve Hirschstick, Allan Karlin & Marv Blustein for their recent contributions, as I was laughing my ass off, reading their posts.  Laughing is my favorite thing to do.  The reason I decided to chime in, is that I have noticed a not-so-subtle change in the Forum, in the past few days.  It seems that the tone of the Forum, lately, contains posts from our classmates that are bending over backwards, to not be offensive, or insensitive, in any way.  Frankly. it has somewhat of a phony feel to it.  I much preferred it, when it was more openly hostile. even with people putting a more civilized edge on it.  I would much rather know someone's true feelings, than be misled.  Although I rarely, if ever, post, I do open my Class of 1964 Forum, with great anticipation, on a daily basis & read all the posts.  Despite Carol's claim that Janis has a "personal blog" on the Forum site, I have to say that I, in particular, look forward to Janis' posts.  I find them to be empathetic & informative.  Before I continue, I want to say that I have been a life-long Democrat & liberal, so perhaps that explains my appreciation of Janis' posts.  What I really wanted to say, is that I would have guessed that most of my classmates would have similar outlooks on life, in general, and politics, in particular, having come from the same, or similar, communities & backgrounds.  I realize that I was foolish to ever expect that to be the case.  Because the older I get, the more I realize that our thoughts, identities & proclivities are there because of ancient attitudes that are instilled in us from our childhoods. Can we change?  Possibly, but not likely. My major problem with the current Congress' attitude towards immigration, is that I am flabbergasted at their attitude, because every single Representative & Senator, regardless of party, has ancestors who came from somewhere else, in hopes of attaining the American dream, or at least some personal freedom.  Even if they came over on the Mayflower, they came from somewhere else.  Every single wave of immigrants has had to endure the pain of prejudice & ostracization.  Because they were different.  Because they spoke differently, or dressed differently, or ate differently, or believed in another God.  It didn't make any difference if you were Irish, or Jewish, or German or Polish.  They all had to go through it.  But in every case, those first-generation immigrants, who spoke little, or broken, English, and probably spoke most often in their native tongues at home, bore children who spoke English perfectly. If it wasn't their children who spoke perfect English, it was their grandchildren, who were able to assimilate into the great American culture.  I really don't get this antipathy to immigrants & I never will.  It is what made & makes America great & different.  Sorry to be so long-winded. 

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

 Welcome off the sidelines Stewart.

 Thank you for your kind words.

 Immigrants bring vibrancy, new energy, and high motivation.

 This land is as much a matter of the mind and spirit as it is geography.

Fancy Miss Nancy (Novak)