Proud to be an AMERICAN Again!!

ON TRUMP’S EXCELLENT SPEECH

by  John Hinderaker   at PowerLine:

Paul has noted the comments that President Trump made on the weekend’s two mass shootings this morning. His post embeds a video of the president’s speech, which is 10 minutes long. I recommend that you watch it. It was thoughtful, measured, and, in my opinion, struck all the right notes.

It consisted in large part of denunciations of the murderers and sympathy for their victims. Beyond that, Trump’s comments were notable in several ways.

First, Trump attacked white supremacism without noting that socialism, the doctrine of the Ohio murderer, was equally fatal in this case. That was probably sound from a political standpoint, and perhaps manifests the president’s conviction that the Democrats will get nowhere by trying to tie him to the El Paso murderer.

Second, the president expressed determination to do something about mass shootings. He said that on this issue, as elsewhere, America will “win.” It is easy to be skeptical about this promise; as I wrote in May, the United States does not have an unusual number of mass shootings on a per capita basis. We rank 56th in the world in that regard, far behind countries like Norway, Switzerland, Finland and Russia. Mass murders are so rare that it is easy to be cynical about our ability to do much about them, even though we have cut the overall homicide rate in half. Still, it was bracing to hear the president express confidence that the problem can successfully be addressed.

Third, Trump called for capital punishment for mass hate-murderers. This isn’t going to happen, but it puts liberals in a box. Most people think death is the appropriate punishment for mass murderers like the El Paso and Dayton shooters. Liberals don’t agree, but they have a hard time explaining to the average voter their reticence when it comes to punishing the actual murderer, as opposed to people who disagree with them politically.

Fourth, Trump did not take the easy way out by endorsing more useless gun control measures. Rather, he came out in favor of the one thing that actually might make a difference: so-called “red flag” laws. Such legislation has, I believe, been enacted in a few states and introduced in others. The basic idea is that if you think someone is mentally ill and dangerous and therefore should not possess firearms, you can go to court on an expedited basis, potentially without notice to the “dangerous” person, and obtain an order that 1) bars that person from possessing firearms, and 2) directs police officers to go to his residence and confiscate any firearms they find there.

It is easy to imagine circumstances in which a procedure of this sort might actually work. Mass shooters are pretty much all as nutty as fruitcakes. In most cases, it is obvious to everyone who encounters them that they are crazy and might be dangerous. Sometimes (like the Parkland murderer) they advertise their intent to commit mass murder on social media. So in some cases, a “red flag” process might actually work.

On the other hand, the potential for abuse is equally obvious. How many ex-wives would take advantage of the opportunity to turn in their ex-husbands as potentially dangerous? How can an allegedly deranged person receive due process sufficient to prevent gross miscarriage of justice? And what are the consequences of sending police officers to someone’s home to confiscate his firearms, perhaps in circumstances where he has no notice of what is going on? The sometimes-disastrous history of the no-knock raid comes to mind.

Personally, I am open to the idea of “red flag” legislation if the details can be worked out. I don’t think such laws would do a lot of good, but they might do some, unlike stupid bans of arbitrarily-defined firearms or firearm accessories.

But there is a broader issue here: the United States does not have a mental health care system. Decades ago, we emptied our mental hospitals in a fit of “liberation” driven by silly movies like One Few Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and King of Hearts. At the time, it was a triumph of liberalism, but I haven’t heard liberals taking credit for it lately.

Today, involuntary commitment borders on the impossible. (This is why “universal background checks” are useless. Hardly anyone has been involuntarily committed or adjudged mentally incompetent, so hardly anyone other than convicted felons, who don’t try to buy guns legally, is on the government’s prohibited list.) Crazy people are remitted to the care of their families, who can’t possibly cope with them. Just ask poor Nancy Lanza. From there, they often wind up on the streets, where our real mental health professionals–police officers–are stuck with dealing with them. If they commit enough felonies, they will finally be sentenced to prison, where, if they are lucky, they will be diverted to a prison-associated mental hospital. That is how it goes in our liberated 21st century.

“Red flag” laws may be a good idea, but it would be better if dangerously crazy people could be hospitalized and cared for, not just deprived, temporarily, of firearms. Who knows? Maybe liberals have gotten over their romantic infatuation with mental illness, and might be willing to collaborate on a rational mental health care system. It isn’t likely, but we can hope.

 

On Trump’s Excellent Speech

My Miller Analogies Test Saved My Life

“The test aims to measure an individual’s logical and analytical reasoning through the use of partial analogies. A sample test question might be

Bach : Composing :: Monet :

• a. painting
• b. composing
• c. writing
• d. orating

This should be read as “Bach is to (:) Composing as (::) Monet is to (:) _______.” The answer would be a. painting because just as Bach is most known for composing music, Monet is most known for his painting. The open slot may appear in any of the four positions.

Unlike analogies found on past editions of the GRE and the SAT, the MAT’s analogies demand a broad knowledge of Western culture, testing subjects such as science, music, literature, philosophy, mathematics, art, and history. Thus, exemplary success on the MAT requires more than a nuanced and cultivated vocabulary.”

I was born in 1934 and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota destined to love accumulating knowledge.  My favorite word in life from 3 years old  on to high school and beyond, was accumulating answers to the  question word…”WHY”.

I was horribly dyslexic…..long before that word and trouble was ever discovered.   I was crippled throughout grade school (1939 to 1948) unless vision was involved.    By third grade I could draw maps of the United States and its states by heart.   I was already collecting road maps, because when our neighbor, Mr. Dieckman went off to War in 1942, he gave me a dozen of his AAA State Road Maps to keep so I would remember him.  (I still have most of them among about 200 I eventually collected road maps from Skelly, Standard, Phillips 66, Pure Oil, Deep Rock, and many other gas station corporations which then handed road maps out free to customers.)

I learned classical music masterpieces and masterpiece gardens  from Mom’s punishment for me  asking too many questions.   From age 4 to 7 I spent countless  hours standing erect as a soldier in front of an blank wall  across from  our front door.   Far above my child’s left shoulder where I stood each time for 60 minutes hung  a welcoming picture, a beautiful landscape garden picture painted by a nineteenth century Canadian, R. Atkinson Fox….written at the bottom right corner of the setting.

Mom was a flower garden gal, mostly perennials….especially during the war.   Mom was from a German family…..a perfectionist in everything she did….sewing, cooking, reading, dancing, skating.  During the War she undertook nursing for the War effort.   Dad at 41 was an air raid warden in our very modest part of St. Paul, throughout the Spring and Summer of 1942.

“If you ask me one more question, you’re going to the wall, Glenn Ray….Do you understand me?”….she’d shout in desperation.    I always obeyed……for four or five minutes, before I’d be driven to ask  another “Why” or “What” question, especially when she was working.    It was in June, 1942 I could read newspaper sections of the Sunday St. Paul Pioneer Press that covered the war…..the front pages, and especially the rotogravure war cover section filled with pictures and paragraphs bringing the reality of war battles to the home front.    Shortly thereafter I found myself reading whatever throughout the newspaper……!

But, I couldn’t read story books.   I have never been able to read a novel from cover to cover and often page to page.   I couldn’t remember whatever I had just read.

In third grade one of my favorite teachers of all time welcomed me to read her 1920 to 1943 National Geographics which she supplied for the curious in her classes.   I could practically  speed read when there were pictures…all black and white, of course, of all sorts of people and animals throughout the world.   Mother had bought my first world atlas the Christmas of 1942…..and then a globe the next year’s Christmas…..

She did so to stop me asking her questions…..something I didn’t know until teen years.

My sister entered kindergarten a year older than I.   Mother’s habit that kept me at the wall especially between 10 and 11AM five days a week  rose from her love of  listening  to  classical music on radio…..from Chicago in the late 1930s to 40s  of all places.  (Mom and dad had met competing in ballroom dancing).

Think of the radio  static that would meet and sometimes conquer the beautiful music of Beethoven, Johann Strauss,  Grieg, and so on during a weekday then from Chicago!   I wanted to please her, but I’d forget every five minutes and ask her  questions stirring in my mind.

So, at four, I am at the wall.  My sister is at kindergarten that morning I had a big question to ask…..It was Spring….and I had been at that wall over twenty times already.  I was used to the routine and had learned to be quiet, or else!    So I began being absorbed by the beautiful music while viewing a beautiful idealized garden painting of R. Atkinson Fox.  After all, Mother was a devoted flower gardener, so I already knew what  peonies and hollyhocks were.  I knew it was an elm tree growing on our ‘boulevard’ section near the street and most of the names of the  flowers in her garden.

……”I wonder what the name of those beautiful trees are” came to mind while studying the painting .  I had recognized the peonies and hollyhocks  looked like mom’e plants.  I noticed the lovely trees looked just like Mrs. Rowell’s front yard tree.  “I’ll go and ask her!”…and did so exactly when the sixty minutes of picture staring was over.

Kids then were confined to tend to the back or side doors of neighbor’s homes  in those days.  It was my first visit to Mrs. Rowell’s house next door.

I remember she was very surprised to see me….I had a question for her….”Mrs. Rowell, what is the name of the tree you have in the front yard.

“Why, Glenn……That is a Lombardy Popular!”  I can still see her face bright and smiling in front of me.

“Thank you”, I responded as I was programmed to do.  I can still remember she used the word “Whatever”  in her  question…..”caused you to ask?”

I didn’t know how to answer….but said, “Thank you” as I was trained to do.

I have been captured by great Classical music all of my life since.   In May of 1942 I became the chief gardener tending and also planting for our war effort “Victory Garden”, and became its sole director and caretaker of until until the end of 1945.

My hobby and then my career  in Landscape Gardening led me to create “Masterpiece Landscaping” in 1990.    How could I get to be  so lucky, still working in the world I love?

I loved accumulating knowledge.   Yet, after my first B/A degree, a major in Geography, I didn’t know where to go, what to do, so I joined  the Army.    But, I loved learning, so I thought I might return to the University (Minnesota at the time) to get an Education degree.  But, I had to take a new exam, a  PSAT requirement  to be accepted.   I had never had such a test before.    Most of my grades were well earned A or B graded.  But I missed honors, as I did in high school because of my reading disability….I failed in Geomorphology and nearly so in Cartography.

The PSAT exam seemed  like being forced to read and remember “Vanity Fair”  when a junior in high school.   I couldn’t read a page and remember anything, so I went to Classic Comics to get the gist of  matters and escape a foul grade.

But PSAT was different…..and my worry was worthy.  I got notice I was turned down by the College of Education at the University of Minnesota.   “What an crushing insult”, I thought! I loved learning.  I knew a lot of learning stuff in a lot of fields.   But, I had become aware of my reading disorder. Nevertheless,   I made a complaint to the University.   I had graduated from a then  outstanding  high school in St. Paul, tops in several studies….but lows in others….Yet, I had amassed a lot of school knowledge despite my reading difficulties as many grades had indicated.

I was allowed to see a University Dean of some sort regarding my cause.   “I’ve never been a scholastic failure”, was my cause.  Yes, some grades were below par, Geometry and English….yet top grades in some sciences, social studies, history, and Latin.

The Dean was polite.  He asked me if I’d  take a new test in the scholastic market….”a Miller Analogies Test”, he said.   It would be my only hope, he warned.    It was spring, 1959, as I recall…..60 years ago.  He told me not to expect much, but he’d let me take the test anyway.

A week or so later the Dean called  asking me very blandly  to come to his office.  He needed to talk to me directly.   (I did think  the ‘exam’ was rather easy….quite easy…more like algebra, but with words rather than numbers.  I got good grades in high school algebra.

“You managed the test quite well.  I’ll even tell you what you rated…..97th percentile!”

I’ll be 85 next month.   I have surrounding me throughout my house  around a  thousand books, mostly histories, biographies,  Roman and ancient culture oriented, and hundreds of  books of the plant world.   I have studied many areas, especially biographies of Stalin, Hitler, Lenin, American history, and nearly all of the plant world texts, referring to many of them when needed.   I did receive that  Bachelor’s degree in Education, and later a  graduate degree in Soviet Studies in Russian at Middlebury, and one degree from  earning  a Master’s degree in Horticulture at the University of Minnesota.

I became quite fluent with my Russian and practiced it in the old USSR twice, in 1966 when it was still quite savage, and again in 1990 with a Minnesota church group who had raised money to aid victims of the Chernobyl disaster.

In 1990 I  began  the  landscape garden company, Masterpiece Landscaping,  at which I still work in creating beautiful settings….forty hours a week in my own half acre, and 20 hours a week still making beautiful settings with  the company.

But, I don’t remember the name of that  kind Dean who allowed me to be tested with the Miller Analogies Test.   I wanted to thank him so many times!