Truth

TRUTH: If we were not so over extended in Iraq and Afghanistan, we could easily overthrow the dictators in Burma and Zimbabwe -- it wouldn't take a week.

A SAYING: When you're really good, you don't waste your time trying to get better.

I made up this saying on Saturday afternoon while watching the Fanny Alger band playing at Quinn Thompson's 45th birthday party out at Rexville. Fanny Alger is my favorite rock band -- they make noise, they bang on the drum, they jump up and down -- they ain't trying to get better, they're too good for that.

SCOOP: Frog Hospital scooped the Skagit Valley Herald on the crop forecast. The Herald had a story in their Sunday edition about how the cold spring weather will likely cause a poor yield for local farmers -- but we put that same news out on Saturday afternoon. Of course, several editors and reporters at the Herald read the Frog Hospital -- maybe that's how they found out.

LITTLE IMPROVEMENT: The Channeltown Press, LaConner's weekly newspaper, came up with the brilliant idea of changing their name to the LaConner Weekly News. They also gave themselves a graphic design makeover. Our impression is that they don't look any better than they used to. It's a dull but competent newspaper -- competent in that they publish a decent summary of the week's news in this small community, but needlessly dull.

What LaConner needs is a lively newspaper -- gay friendly, pro-agriculture, and anti-Wal-Mart/big box -- those three editorial themes would resound strongly throughout the community and increase the paper's ad revenue.

But the paper's biggest shortcoming is the editor's failure to appreciate art. Aesthetic judgment is essential in a town that prides itself artistically, but is woefully lacking at the LaConner Weekly News.

GOODBYE: It's goodbye to Rush Limbaugh. This right wing blow hard has made a living for 16 years by creating anti-Clinton hostility. When Hillary and Bill make their expected departure from the national stage, Rush Limbaugh will have no reason to live. Isn't that sweet?

DECENT: I'm serious about a decent campaign between McCain and Obama. I want to see both men at their best -- so we can get the best President. My idea is that the two candidates should make a mutual agreement -- to campaign as hard as they can, but each to go home and take a break on one day each week. It's better if they both stay rested -- you make better decisions that way

Otherwise you end up with a President so worn-out he's like a machine.

JOHN F. KENNEDY. The last time West Virginia had a primary that mattered was 1960, when JFK battled with HHH, Hubert Horatio Humphrey, the Senator from Minnesota. Kennedy swept the state and went on to the nomination.

I remember the 1960 campaign. I was 14. I went to a Kennedy rally near my suburban Chicago home. I greeted him as he jumped out of a limousine into a roaring crowd. Kennedy had to fight his way through the crowd like it was a rugby match, with everybody trying to pound him on the back. The air was electric with excitement.

After the rally I picked up a few "Kennedy for President bumper stickers," which I could not use at the time because I was too young to drive and my folks did not share my enthusiasm for that candidate. So I put the bumper stickers away.

I found them a few days ago, going through a box of old things. Since I had two of them, I decided to use one of them now. If you see my red 1993 Toyota around the valley, look for a "Kennedy for President" sticker on the back bumper -- it's an original.

TOUGH: Barak Obama is the toughest man in America. Obama is tougher than Vladimir Putin. Obama is so tough he doesn't even act tough -- he doesn't need to.