Alright, I wasn't going to blog politics.  It's so controversial.  My Mom always said, 'in a group setting, never talk politics or religion.'  Sorry Mom, but this is one heck of a political season.  We have a black presidential candidate and a female Republican vice-presidential candidate.  We're making history folks, one way or the other.  But instead of tipping my partisan hand (which I may do at a later date), I'm blogging about one of the big issues.  Energy.

First of all, I can't believe that in the good old USA, we don't have the brain power to come up with a full-blown alternative energy agenda that would make the use of oil as obsolete as ... well ... dinosaurs.  A whole host of possible alternative energy technologies are already out there.  Solar and wind alone would make Bakersfield an energy mecca.  Hybrid cars are already a popular item.  I just hope US automakers get on the bandwagon quickly, or the stage-coach might be leaving town. 

In fact, the more we use alternative energy, the cheaper gasoline will become.  It's called supply and demand. 

Plus, the less we use fossil fuel, the cleaner the air will become (sound familiar Bakersfield).  And the less oil we use, the less we will be putting billions of dollars into the pockets of people who hate us.  Sure, we can drill, drill, drill, but eventually the gooy stuff is going to run out anyway.  Why doesn't America become the purveyor of freedom that we have always espoused to be, and help the world gain it's freedom from petroleum fuel? 

I know we can do this.  And without taking political sides, I think Obama is right on the mark on this one.  Here's my dream.  All homes are powered by solar energy.  It costs you nothing, and you sell the excess back to the utillity.  When you get home from work at night, you plug in your car to carry you through the next work day. 

As John Lennon once said, 'you might say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.' 

Peace & Clean Air

We thumbed our noses at the price of gas this summer and hit the road to Montana.  My wife's daughter, her husband, and three grandkids live in Bozeman.  We visit there frequently, and we always drive.  The main reason for driving is that I hate to fly.  There is nothing about flying that I like.  Plus, I rather enjoy driving most of the time.  This time we took I-15 as far as we could with an overnight stay in Pocatello, Idaho.  We always eat at a little family Italian restaurant called Buddy's.  I-15 is a straight shot and most of it 75 miles an hour.  And for most of the eleven hundred mile trip the scenery is beautiful.  The hardest parts of the drive are Las Vegas and Salt Lake City.  Both are very crowded big cities.  And it never fails that when we go through both, there is always some sort of freeway construction project going on.

Las Vegas you get through pretty quick, but SLC is another story.  The traffic congestion starts well south of SLC and continues until you get well north around Ogden.  It's kind of like driving through LA.  But as soon as you get to northern Utah and into Idaho, the scenery changes dramatically.  Idaho is beautiful.  I love the wide-open space.  You can see forever.  As you drive along the western slope of the Rockies you see small farming towns scattered all along the foothills.  I've always loved that lifestyle.  The outdoors, the fresh air, the hard work, and of course the very casual attire.

Bozeman is a great little town.  It's a much slower pace than here.  People tend to ride their bicycles everywhere.  It was a great visit, but it was good to get back home.  The hardest part of the return trip is driving over the Tehachapi Mountains and down into the smoggy valley.  Maybe another bezillion windmills could help blow this stuff outa' here.

     I saw one again the other day, a special report on one of my cable channels about aliens.  Not the illegal type, the ones from outer space.  There’s such a fascination with the possibility of extra-terrestrial life.  You know, I don’t really care if aliens are out there or not.  I mean, sure, it would be cool, but it really wouldn’t change my life a whole lot.  It would make one heck of headline in the newspaper though: ALIENS LAND ON CAPITOL HILL... FIND NO SIGNS OF INTELLIGENT LIFE.

     You see I’ve been in the news business much of my life.  If aliens are out there fine, I just need one little thing before I believe in them... it’s called proof.  Show me the spaceship.  Oh, I forgot, the government is hiding it from us.  Now you can believe in government conspiracies all you want.  I’m sure the government is hiding all sorts of stuff from us.  That’s nothing new.  And yes there have been numerous UFO sightings, and scores of reports of alien abductions, and of course there’s Roswell.  But I’ve done a little rough figuring.  If just a small fraction of all those reports are true, there must be one heck of an extra-terrestrial traffic jam out there.  Where are all those space guys coming from?\

     You see I don’t look at it from our point of view.  I look at it from their point of view.  If little light bulb headed people from the planet Zargon are buzzing our planet and abducting unsuspecting farmers from the middle of a cornfield, and they have the technology to travel a bazillion miles to get here, they would certainly have the ability to monitor our communications.  So… they must know that they are the hottest things since Star Trek, and they would be as welcome on any lawn in the country as the Publisher’s Clearing House people.  They could finance their return trip home by selling their story to Hollywood.  They could go on Oprah and explain how they didn’t mean to scare the bejeebies out of all those people they beamed up to the Mother Ship.  They could go on Letterman... TOP TEN REASONS WHY THE SMALL BODIED... BIG HEADED ALIENS FINALLY SHOWED THEMSELVES TO EARTHLINGS... Number Ten... They wanted to repudiate the claim that James Carville was one of them.  They could land anywhere, except maybe a military base, and we would roll out the red carpet.

     It just doesn’t make any sense that after all that traveling all they’re doing is inter-galactic drive-bys.  I’m quite sure if they were here they would land.  It would be like my wife seeing a big sale at a local department store.  She drives to the mall, but instead of going in, she just drives around.  Oh, sure occasionally she would abduct an unsuspecting shopper to find out what it’s like inside the mall, but she wouldn’t actually go in the mall herself.  I DON’T THINK SO!!!

     Hey aliens... if you’re out there... you can land on my lawn and knock on my door anytime.  In fact, you can help us out... we have this Sasquatch-Loch Ness-Leprechaun thing we’re really trying to work out.

        Upon leaving the Constitutional Convention at its close in 1787, Benjamin Franklin was asked whether the founding fathers had decided on a monarchy or a republic.  Franklin responded… “a republic, if you can keep it.”  I think Franklin may have been somewhat of a prophet.

        A lot is made in the Christian community (of which I am a born-again member) about how the founding fathers were bible believing Christians.  They may have been, but don’t believe for an instant that they were intending to establish a Christian nation.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  Their intentions were to escape the religious persecution of England.  They established exactly what they intended, a democracy, not a theocracy.  Freedom of religion is at the core of their beliefs, even freedom from religion if that is what the individual decides.  But now religion and politics have somehow forged a very strange alliance.

        We question a person’s religion as a deciding factor in whether he or she is fit for office.  What that often leads to is a plethora of political speeches that end with, “God bless America”, which almost takes on the tone of nothing more than “Good night and good luck.”  George Bush is allegedly a born-again believer.  Has that guided him in the best decisions for this nation? 

        City Councilwoman Jacquie Sullivan spearheaded a campaign, along with trustee Chad Vegas, that put patriotic posters that included the phrase ‘In God We Trust’ into high school classrooms.  Ms. Sullivan is a wonderful person and public servant, I know her.  But here is the problem.  If the intention is to somehow get God into the classroom this way, the campaign failed.  The only way God will ever get into the classroom is in the hearts and minds of students and faculty.  Plus, won’t most Christians say that the God they serve is different than the gods of other religions?

     I’m a Christian.  I love the Lord.  So here’s my offering of a motto that you can put on a bumper sticker.  Instead of all those ‘God Bless America’ bumper stickers you see, how about one that says ‘America, Bless God.’  I believe therein lies the problem. 

     I think old Ben had the right idea when he replied ‘a republic if you can keep it.’  The great thing about democracy is that people have the freedom to do just about anything they want.  The problem with democracy is that people have the freedom to do just about anything they want. 

It's always amazing to me as I look through a lot of the blogs and comments.  So many of them are about their faith in God through Jesus Christ.  I don't want to sound preachy, or maybe I do.  It's just that my faith is such a big part of my life that my thoughts always go back to it.  Sometimes my thoughts don't 'go back' to my faith in Christ, they 'stay' on it.

Once upon a time I was in the news business.  I don't see how anybody can watch the news these days and not get completely depressed without faith.  Wars and rumors of wars, gang violence, an economy teetering on the brink, food and gas prices skyrocketing, sharks eating people.  I'm just really glad that I know that my God is in charge, and since I study the Bible, I know how it all ends anyway. 

For all of you out there who are wrestling with the trials and tribulations of life, I invite you to give Jesus a chance.  Think about it, or pray about it.  Remember, God is always listening.

A huge thanks to all the people who made my Barnes and Noble book signing so much fun.  Peg Connely was such a great sidekick... emphasis on the word 'kick'.  She was very good at 'prodding' me to get the signing part right.  Dana showed up & took pics.  And all the wonderful people who showed up.  It wasn't just that I sold a lot of books, it was that all the people were so nice.  Thanks to all of you.  You made me feel like I'm still a big part of Bakersfield even though I'm not on TV.  Next book signing at Russo's at the Marketplace on the 19th from 1 to 3.  Hope to see everyone there.  God Bless all of you.... Rusty

larger view

I must admit, I'm a bit nervous about my book signing coming up this weekend at Barnes & Noble.  I wrote Blood Harvest about ten years ago.  I have lots of very polite rejection letters from publishers.  Then after my aneurysm I was fortunate enough to get involved with The Writers of Kern.  They steered me in the right direction.  Now my book is actually in print.  It's been published... and I'm as nervous as heck.  Why?  Because now people get to actually read it.

My family members loved it.  But what would you expect them to say?  They're related to me.  For all of you out there who do buy it, remember, the final edit was mine.  The grammatical booboos (and there are a few) are mine.  But the story is also mine and I must admit I'm kinda' proud of it.  And by the way, for all you aspiring authors out there, if I can do it anybody can.

Now let me proceed to the picture posting part of this website.    

Daylight savings time.  I really thought I had it wired this year.  Instead I got busted again.  Usually it gets late, and I get tired, and my wife and I don't think about changing the clocks the night before.  Most times the trusty (and annoying) old cell phone saves the day, or the morning.  Lets hear it for high tech!  But this year I got burned by that same high tech.  It seems I had purchased an alarm clock that automatically resets itself for the twice a year time change.  I didn't know that of course, because like any self respecting man, I threw away the instructions that came with it.  And I never set my alarm.  I'm an insomniac who is always awake prior to wake-up time. 

But this year I dutifully set the clocks before going to bed.  The clock on my bedstand was set one hour ahead, and all was well, right?  Wrong!  The high tech clock with unread instructions then set itself ahead another hour, I'm guessing at 2 a.m.  So in the morning when I rolled over and saw 7 a.m. on the clock, I knew it was time to get up and make coffee.  Problem is that 7 a.m. wasn't the old 6 a.m., it was now the old 5 a.m.  So there I was, in the kitchen making coffee when the digital clock on the microwave caught my eye, or should I say poked me in the eye. 

I quickly realized my mistake.  But by then it was too late.  I had the coffee fixins in my hand, and going back to bed would probably have been as annoying to my wife as getting out of bed at the old 5 a.m.  Plus, I'm an insomniac.  There would be no more sleep on this Sunday.  Won't somebody please fix this time change thing.  Pick a time and stick with it.  Yawningly yours ... Rusty

I know.  I'm going to milk this 'brain aneurysm' thing for all it's worth.  But in looking back at the ordeal, some of my most precious thoughts are of memories that I don't even have.  From the time I went to the doctor with a bad headache to the time I woke up in the hospital, I probably lost four or five days.  No recollection.  But I do know that I was not alone.  For a Christian, I know that God is always there, but so was my family.  Long before anyone else knew about my medical malady, my wife and two daughters were constantly at my side, praying and cheering me on.  I know it now because of what they've told me.  But in some odd way (and I can't explain it), I knew it then, even in my not-awake state.  And I'm sure that's one of the reasons I woke up with such a positive attitude, even when I realized where I was and why I was there.  

Yes I'm a Christian.  Prayer is a big part of my life, and I know it works.  What we don't realize sometimes is that the prayer and love of family members is also always there.  When you're around family members all the time, it can become easy to take them for granted.  Sure they know you love them, so why say it?  What I have learned through all my medical travails of the past year is how much their love means.  My daughters, Sarah and Rusti; and my wife Diane.    I can never say I love them enough, or hug them enough.  I think that's a good lesson for everybody to learn.

Peace out ... Rusty