Watching Bigfoot

   I have found my second-best face shot (after Gimlin-Patterson's Patty) of a Bigfoot. It was spectacular! It is part of a video of a man near Scranton, Pennsylvania searching for a Bigfoot at night. The face shot is only one second, but it is great.The Bigfoot is only ten or twelve feet away. He moves off much faster than a human. In addition, he is white.  Another very interesting video clip is that of a Bigfoot swinging in a tree and grabbing a baby. The analysts at Facebook-Finding Bigfoot say that the two creatures subsequently fell from the tree, but that wasn't clear to me. Search with "athletic, auburn sasquatch tiptoes across gap in trees-southwest Ontario, 2010."
  Bigfoot seems to be on the tip of the tongue of many people around the world. For instance, a man gets shot in the back, and the shooter says he was with a group of people hunting for Bigfoot and when he heard a noise, he shot what he thought was a Bigfoot, but it turned out to be one of the Bigfoot hunters. The "Bigfoot" is in stable condition at a hospital. The shooter, a Mr. Pineda, is charged with reckless conduct with a firearm. Also, Mr. Pineda, as well as his girlfriend, are charged with obstructing an officer. A Mr. Perry is charged with throwing the shooter's gun into a lake. All this happened in Catoosa, Oklahoma.
  Happy Trails.

What's Better In The News? For People Who Want A Positive Perspective

What's Better With Health Care And The Republicans? What's Better is that the timid Republicans are actually considering some health care reforms. Note that they are "considering." They are afraid that if they come out with any proposals, Obama and the media will tear them apart. Then why not resign or join the Democrat Party? As Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker wrote in his Wall Street Journal op-ed, " too many people in politics spend their time trying not to lose instead of trying to do the right thing." This is like a soldier who goes into a battle and does whatever is necessary to survive instead of trying to help win the battle. We would not call such a soldier patriotic. Our Republican representatives who don't try but just quail and hunker down can't be called patriots either. They are weak and selfish opportunists who want the power and prestige but no risk. If they won't change, I say vote 'em out.
  What's Better For Women in India? What's better is an ad that is becoming a sensation in India. The ad depicts a woman with a six or seven year old daughter. The two of them are happily talking with the mother's groom right before the wedding ceremony. This ad is ambiguous but however it is interpreted, it is all wrong in much of backward India. First, if the woman is getting married for the first time, she has a child from premarital sex, a no-no in India. If she is getting married for the second time, that's wrong too. Second marriages are another no-no. The chief of the conservative Hindu organization Swayamsevak Sangh has said that the ad is in bad taste. The ad was paid for by a big jewelry concern in an attempt to get people to think about their values.
  What's Better With Wild Monk Parakeets In Britain? There are 55 to 87 (gasp!) wild monk parakeets in Britain, and the central government is taking them and themselves very seriously. It is up in arms to eradicate the tropical birds whom they consider a menace to fruit crops and public safety. Apparently, the birds do make a din screeching. But the parakeet trappings and killings are being sabotaged by bird lovers who warn the parakeets away from approaching hostile forces. They also hit the government with freedom of information requests about what happens to the little, colorful birds after they are taken into custody. This is embarrassing to the government which has to admit that numbers of them "die" in government care. A charitable organization, Animal Aid, is also trying to protect the birds. Florida has colonies of wild monk parakeets and infinitely greater fruit crops than Britain, yet it hasn't gone into a killing frenzy.
  These commentaries are based upon news stories from the Wall Street Journal, America's most trustworthy national newspaper.
  Peter Nickerson, Philosophy Major, William and Mary, Class of '68

What's Better In The News: For People Who Want Honesty And Choices, Not Deception And Orders

  What's Better With Slavery? What's better is that three women just escaped slavery in England. One woman had been a slave for 30 years, a record number of years, as far as is publicly known, for Britain. The women had some privileges and responded to Freedom Charity's TV documentary about forced marriages. They called the given hotline number, discussed their situation, and the London Metropolitan Police, also known as Scotland Yard, was notified.
  What's Better With The "Scottsboro Boys?" The Alabama Parole Board has given posthumous pardons to three of the black teenagers- who became known as the "Scottsboro Boys"- falsely accused of raping two white female teenagers on a train. Eight of nine were tried, convicted, and sentenced to death within a couple of weeks. "Justice" was swift. Twice the case went to the Supreme Court resulting in reforms that protected blacks. None of the eight were killed, but they did spend time in prison until they were either paroled, pardoned, or freed. The psychological trauma must have been tremendous. This happened in the early 20th Century, and all nine have died.
  What's Better With Women and The Marines? Three women became the first to graduate from the Marine Infantry Course. They completed almost three months of training that included carrying an 80 lb. pack almost thirteen miles, and met all the same standards as men. There are some 40 other women in stack to follow these three very strong women. At this point women will still not serve in combat except for the women fighter pilots in the Marines. But the policy is being reviewed. 
Peter Nickerson, Philosophy Major, William and Mary, Class of '68

What's Beter In The News: For People Who Want Honesty And Choices, Not Deception And Orders

  What's Better With The French President? Israel gave French President Hollande a hero's welcome when he arrived in Tel Aviv. This is an indication that Israel believes France is going to stand strong on not selling out the world by a toothless nuclear agreement with Iran. The Obama administration is pushing such a deal. Why? Besides the fact that Obama is pro-Muslim, he also has an unfounded belief in the ability of discussions, negotiations, treaties, and the United Nations to keep peace.
  What's Better With Islamic Martyrdom? What's better is that the Pakistani
Government is insisting that its soldiers are martyrs when they are killed fighting terrorists. This is contrary to what the leader of Pakistan's islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, contends. This has opened a debate in Pakistan about what is martyrdom. Any discussion that is rational and honest will only weaken Islamofascism.
  What's Better In Understanding The 2008 Financial Meltdown? This has emerged after the government's huge shakedown of J.P. Morgan: The settlement began its long process when Justice Department officials discovered that in 2006 J.P. Morgan executives had decided at a meeting to continue selling dubious, now notorious, mortgage securities in spite of warnings that should have stopped them (of course, hindsight is always
perfect). Most of these mortgages would never have been made by banks if the banks were not under extreme pressure by the federal government to make them. The government wanted everyone to be a homeowner. The ability of home buyers to pay their mortgages was not even a consideration.  In fact,the government insanely said those considerations were indications of discrimination. The feds demanded financial recklessness by the banks, the banks kowtowed and adopted the same corruption and recklessness in making, for a while, huge commissions selling these soon-to-be almost worthless mortgages in bundles called mortgage securities.Then people discovered they couldn't pay their mortgages, and the house of cards fell.
Peter Nickerson, Philosophy Major, William and Mary, Class of '68.

What's Better In The News: For People Who Want Honesty and Choices Not Deception And Orders

What's Better With Books? A new book, "Magnificent Delusions," by Hussan Haqqani backs up a common belief among thinking people that the treasure chest of intelligence found at Osama bin Laden's home in Abbottabad, Pakistan proved that the Pakistani government knew that Osama was living in Abbottabad. Since the Navy Seals found this information and bagged it for U.S. intelligence, it should mean that Obama knows it, though Obama is very adept at saying he wasn't in the loop for things that go wrong. If Obama does know about it, then he hasn't told the American people about it. Besides being generally pro-Muslim, there is probably another reason for it: He didn't want Americans demanding reprisals against the Pakistani government for hiding Osama. That concern has validity for the U.S. does not want to completely alienate all of the Pakistani. We still have deep friendships with officers we have trained and trained with. These are probably proving invaluable to us, and we see that the military is reacting negatively and strongly to Islamofascist dictates that Pakistani army soldiers killed fighting terrorists are not engaged in jihad and therefore not automatically going to heaven and enjoying the company of virgins and other deeply spiritual events. It seems an insult to the intelligence and maturity of We, the People if Obama decided he could not tell us about the Pakistani sheltering Osama for fear we would demand drastic reprisals. If Obama can be nuanced, there's no reason we can't be too.
  What's Better With Ethanol? That there isn't going to be more we have to put into our vehicles, at least for now. The Enviromental Protection Agency (EPA) is finally lowering the federal dicktat about how much Ethanol has to be put into America's gas tank. Technically, it is only negation of an increase in Ethanol which was about to happen. The increase was going to be 16 percent, but that increase has been halted, and the standard of 10% of the fuel put into your gas tanks being Ethanol remains. This is a small victory over the Levanthian. The EPA is responding - a little- to the realization that raising corn for Ethanol puts more CO2 into the air than simply not using Ethanol. However, Ethanol has been getting federal subsidies for 35 years, and industries have grown up on those subsidies. These organizations and the people they buy are not going to give up ethanol use and more importantly, ethanol subsidies easily.
Peter Nickerson, Philosopher, William and Mary, Class of '68
  

What's Better In The News: For People Who Want Honesty and Choices Not Deception And Orders

What's Better With JFK and the Internet? What's better is that the Internet with its treasure trove of information is helping to show that President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was a conservative. He was for limited government through cutting taxes and was profoundly anti-communist. In 1963 his main objective as president was to get Congress to cut the marginal tax rates. This was done by law after his death and resulted in American enjoying years of strong economic growth. The Internet exposed the fact that both Ted Sorenson and Arthur Schlesinger, two of JFK's advisers, wrote books that - deliberately, it appears- reversed the dates of two of JFK's speeches to make it appear that he was moving to the left.
  Using a linked profile of an archives collector, this quote in 1947 from Representative John Kennedy was found: " The Allis-Chambers strike was a commie strike." Sounds like the remark of a visceral anti-communist. In addition, JFK was dedicated to removing the communist Premier Fidel Castro from power in Cuba, and his brother, Bobbie, called the CIA almost daily to ask what the CIA had done about it. Castro was so concerned about efforts toward his demise that he issued a statement that the leaders of foreign powers could be targeted by Cuba if they were trying to kill him.
  This commentary was based upon news from the Wall Street Journal, America's most trustworthy national newspaper. Peter Nickerson, Philosopher. Class of 1968, William and Mary, 352-359-0850

What's Better In The News: For People Who Want Honesty and Choices, Not Deception and Orders

What's Better For Books? A federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit begun in 2005 to stop Google from copying books and thus allowing worldwide access to them, though the books will only be viewable in limited parts.
  What's Better With France? What's better is that the French showed courage when they exploded the silly agreement the Obama administration wanted with Iran over Iran's nuclear development. The agreement would have amounted to accepting unaccountable promises by Iran essentially to go slower on their nuclear programs. The deal died when the French Foreign Minister Laudent Fabius rightly called it a "sucker's deal."
  What's Better With ObamaCare? What's better is that the Wall Street Journal's editorial page has offered a better alternative which is a flat tax benefit for health insurance coverage for all Americans. This tax refund would give Americans the money to buy, as consumers, the kind of health insurance the particular individual or family wanted. For low income people and those with pre-existing medical conditions subsidies to their accounts would be necessary. Now such an idea needs to be worked into a bill with a sponsor.
  This commentary was based upon items found in the Wall Street Journal,
America's most trustworthy major newspaper. Peter Nickerson, Philosopher, College of William and Mary, Class of 1968. Trying to do the best with the little God gave me. 352-359-0850