Welcome, Our New Readers 

     When we share our views with you, please don't snitch. We don't want the FBI coming to our door, weapons drawn, at 6 a.m. 😊

     Okay, our son-in-law encouraged me to start blogging about 12 years ago. I write Views by the Sea on Florida's west coast. Almost. 

     I am Jimmy Donut. The IRS knows me by a different name. 

     I've been breathing since December, 1938...a depression baby. And WW II allowed little time to stimulate children's brains. And no one knew I needed glasses until I was in fifth grade. 

     In college I switched from business to journalism, finding my niche at last. Later in Westinghouse Electric Corp. they taught us how to write with the readers in mind...in this case, factory workers. I have you in mind whenever I touch my keyboard.

     I retired after eight years with Westinghouse under the Dept. of Energy at "the bomb plant," not far from where they play the Masters golf tournament. Five nuclear reactors were decommissioned, and me as well.  

     In Florida someday I might be "retired" by a python. Meanwhile, allow me to explain why I often quote the Bible. 

     I married at age 30, and we became active in church. After 18 years, she wanted both God and me out of her life. I hurt badly for our kids. Did I say, "badly"? Then, working about 60 miles from home, I couldn't convince them to leave their home and friends. Not good.

     Evenings after work, I was on my apartment floor reading the Bible, appealing to God. How could he allow this? I even questioned his existence. From October into January, my health was failing. 

     The first Sunday night in January, I attended a Pittsburgh church. Nothing. As I opened my car door in the dark, awesome joy flooded over me. I drove up the highway laughing and crying, pounding the steering wheel. God does exist!!! This lasted three weeks, although I behaved myself in the office, and most everyone saw the new Jimmy. 

     Fast forward. No desire to remarry. Unkown to me, a woman in my former church told her sister in Pittsburgh that I needed a church. Her sister said, "I don't know about a church, but I have a wife for him." 

     Marge and I met for dinner - a blind date. Talked for three hours. No sooner had I retired in my apartment, the Lord spoke seven words - silently to my mind: I have reserved her for your wife. 

     Our generation sang hymns...which resonated with me more than sermons. Now, I sometimes wake up with the music of a hymn on my mind. Tuesday morning, it came with the words: What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear...

And I wish to be your friend.

  

    

       

     

A Rift, a Wedge and a Muddle 

     Here in our royal chair, April 29, staff in hand, servants on their knees, we ponder judgment. 

     Today, pro-Palestinian students and/or outsiders are daring authorities at Columbia University to arrest and expel them. The truth - they are anti-Semitic, not pro anyone. We rule: arrest and expel.

     President Biden is under pressure to roll back support for Israel, for votes, creating a rift. We rule: roll back the president. 

     The issue is driving a wedge within the Democratic Party. We rule: drive the wedge larger.

     US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer wants new elections in Israel. We rule: elect a new Senate Majority Leader. 

     The UN Security Council voted in favor of a Gaza cease-fire. More people will die over time if Israel doesn't destroy Hamas. Death and hardship can't be avoided. Terrorism's defeat will be best for Palestinians and the region. We rule: destroy Hamas. 

     Donald Trump's rhetoric has been "muddled" as he avoids alienating swing-state voters. We rule: ??? Even a king can be stumped. 

Tomorrow: Time out for a message to our newest readers

     

     

Uncle Sam Wanted Me? 

     I took off work and drove to Harrisburg for three days including the drive. The tests were not formidable, and the interview seemed friendly enough. One catch: I would need to gain 15 pounds. 

     It was fall 1961, and Russians were bent on interrupting my career, which had only begun. Guys as old as 22 were getting drafted. (For young readers: When the government wanted you in the military, they sent a letter telling you when and where to show up for the bus.) 

     Now where was I? Oh, in early December, I opened my mail. Draft notice! What would Uncle Sam want with a 6-foot, 130-pound Remington Ranger? 

     Remington typewriter, that is.    

     I told our Uncle I was expecting a decision by his Air Force, and he kindly delayed me one month. Most important, I avoided frostbite so many guys suffered at Ft. Knox early that January. 

     January 22, 1962. Yours truly, then 145 pounds (thanks to bananas), road the night train from Pittsburgh to Ft. Knox along with two fellow employees of our newspaper, and a few other guys I knew. 

     Three weeks later, Dad called me to say the Air Force - not aware I was learning to march and carry a rifle at the same time - accepted my application. I could immediately leave KP and 4 a.m. wakeups and show myself in Texas on April 1. And serve four years. 

     I thought hard for five seconds - the cook in our division was really good. Besides, I never could get a model airplane to fly. About half the guys in our barracks were headed to the infantry. I returned home on leave weighing 170, unable to button the top of a dress shirt. 

         Jimmy

      

Western Civilization - Part 4

     From the speech at Hillsdale: "You can have proportional diversity, or you can have meritocracy. You cannot have both."

     "In the post-George Floyd era, black juveniles are shot at 100 times the rate of white juveniles. Blacks between age ten and 24 are killed in drive by shootings at nearly 25 times the rate of whites in that same age range. The country turns its eyes away."

     Police cannot restore law and order without having a disparate impact on black criminals. So, our political class has decided not to restore law and order (for you and me). As long as racism remains the only allowable explanation, the Left wins, and our civilization will continue to crumble." 

"We must stop apologizing for Western Civilization. The ongoing attack on colorblind excellence is putting our scientific edge at risk. China, which cares nothing for identity politics, throws everything it has at its most talented students. China ranks number one in tests of K-12 math, science and reading skills. The U.S. ranks 25th." 

     "China is racing ahead in critical defense technologies. The American Mathematical Association declares math to be racist. President Biden puts a soil geologist with no background in physics at the top of the Department of Energy's science programs."

     "What do we do? We proclaim that excellence is not racist. We assert that categories like race, gender and sexual preference are never qualifications for a job. I know for a fact that being female is not an accomplishment. I am equally sure that being gay or black are also not accomplishments."

     "It is the progressive elites, not their conservative opponents, who are engaging in cultural revolution! Most conservatives today are not even playing defense. Conservatives should promote the virtues of free markets and limited government, but the diversity regime is the nemesis of both."

     "Lowering standards helps no one. High expectations are the key to achievement. We must speak the truth, and never apologize and never back down."  

Tomorrow: your Remington Ranger

     

Western Civilization - part 3

     "Some stores people need are closing because confronting shoplifters would be - you know - disproportionate. Historic Macy's in New York City was sued because they were 'racist' in their response to shoplifters."

     "Even colorblind technology is racist. Speeding and red-light cameras disproportionately identify a certain race. Throw out the cameras."

     "The result of this has been widespread urban anarchy. Thousands more black lives have been lost to drive-by shootings. Dozens of black children have been fatally gunned down. No one says the names of the assailants, because they were not police or white supremacists. They were other blacks."

Uncomfortable facts

     "The racial (imbalance) across a range of meritocratic fields is the academic skills gap. The racial (imbalance) in the criminal justice system is the crime gap. If we cannot acknowledge the skills gap and the behavior gap, we are going to continue destroying our civilizational legacy."

     "Thousands within underperforming groups out-perform those in their own group and great numbers of people within other groups as well. Politicians and others vilify Americans as racist, without considering why disparities exist and how to close them."

Jimmy's story 

     In the 1980s I was the human resources guy in a Westinghouse office of 100+ engineers, clerical and managers. Every year I had to complete a government report about our percentage of whites and non-whites, and I think men & women also. 

     We had a married couple from India in sales engineering. But no black engineers. Those qualified to work for us were more interested in stimulating occupations - not designing electric transformers. How dull! 

     Before my time, after Pearl Harbor, American & Hawaiian Japanese were isolated - no day in court. Westinghouse had a Japanese American engineer in its large transformer plant. Management came to his defense and prevailed. I met him years later. They could have thrived without him, but he deserved his liberty.  

 Tomorrow: Diversity or meritocracy

Western Civilization - part 2

      "After the George Floyd race riots of 2020" institutions from big law, big business and big finance adopted the racial discrimination theme. Even museums and orchestras. 

     "The fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics are all in. The American Medical Association insists that medicine is characterized by white supremacy. Nature magazine and the Smithsonian Institution" denounce "totalitarian whiteness." 

     "Disparate impact analysis ... replaces meritocracy. Hospitals choosing residents can no longer distinguish between high and low achieving students. A quarter of the questions on the Medical College Achievement Test (include) focus on social issues and psychology. Heads of medical schools and departments are being selected on the basis of identity, not knowledge." 

"What is at stake?" she asks. "Future medical progress and ultimately, lives. President Biden announced he would no longer submit judicial nominees to the Bar Assocation for a preliminary rating. That would be incompatible with the 'diversification' of the judiciary. State bar associations are also watering down standards." 

     "If you wonder why police officers are not making certain arrests, or why district attorneys are not prosecuting categories of crimes ... it is because (that would) have a disparate impact on black criminals."

 Tomorrow: Uncomfortable facts 

Western Civilization at Stake 

     "The West has liberated the world from universal squalor and disease, thanks to scientific method and the Western passion for discovery and knowledge," said Heather Mac Donald, a Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, in a speech at Hillsdale College. 

     "It has given the world plumbing, hot showers, flight, clean water, steel, antibiotics, and just about every structure and every device that we take for granted." 

     She spoke of our "privileged" existence. referring to anyone whose life "has been transformed by Western ingenuity...that is, virtually every human being on the planet. It was in the West that the ideas of constitutional government and civil rights were born." 

     "Stop apologizing for Western Civilization," she said. "To be sure, slavery and segregation were grotesque violations of America's founding ideals. Black Americans suffered injustice and cruelty. Today however, every mainstream institution is twisting itself into knots to hire and promote as many 'underrepresented' minorities as possible." 

      "To our shame, we had slavery. What civilization did not? But only (British and American) expended lives and capital to end the universal practice. Every ideal that the Left uses today to bash the West - such as equality or tolerance - originated in the West." 

Tomorrow, Part 2: the George Floyd riots.