Obamaville, February 21 - Obama's Higher Education Dilemma

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Life as an Ivy League Elitist from Harvard not Yale

The world is a strange place indeed.  A little over three years ago Barack Obama was sworn in as the eighth U.S. president to have graduated from Harvard University.  Thus he is faced with the suspicion of being an Ivy League elitist, aristocrat, privileged or whatever you may think of Harvard, this bastion of liberalism.

In all fairness, I spent several years going through the tests, stress, interviews, etc., while trying to get into Yale, another one of those Ivy League elitist schools, before finances stopped my dream and I went to the University of Arizona to play basketball.

But the Ivy League certainly has a right to seem conceited or arrogant, I mean every list of the top universities in the world shows about the same thing.  Here are the top five universities in the world.

1.  University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

2.  Harvard, University, United States

3.  Yale University, United States

4.  University College of London, United Kingdom

5.  Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States

The third Ivy League school in this story is Princeton from New Jersey and it ranks number ten in the world.  So these three schools are all in the top ten, and two of the top three universities in the world.  It is pretty impressive.

President Obama is a 1991 graduate of Harvard Law School. He joins former President George W. Bush (M.B.A. ’75) and Presidents John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy as Harvard graduates chosen to serve as the nation’s chief executive.

You don't hear a lot of talk from the eastern establishment about Bush being a Harvard graduate and he does seem a rather odd fit with the likes of John Kennedy and Franklin Roosevelt, not to mention the Adams family.

However, Obama also ended 20 straight years of Yale presidents from Bush senior to Bush junior.  The three straight presidents, Bush, Clinton and Bush, gave Yale three of their four presidents in our history.

Now some of you may wonder how Bush, Jr. could be the last Yale president and still count as a Harvard president.  That is a  real dilemma, explaining how George Bush, Jr. is the only president in our history who graduated from Harvard and Yale.  So he counts as both.  Once again you seldom hear eastern elitists talk about this fact.

Two Ivy League institutions with twelve presidents between them, not bad.  For purposes of discussion and as a matter of loyalty to New Jersey where I lived longer than any other place during my life, I must add Princeton University, the third major Ivy League school that has produced two more presidents.

So Harvard 8 (counting Bush), Yale 3 (not counting Bush) and Princeton 2 have produced a total of 13 of our 44 total US presidents.  It gets better.  Of the 44 presidents, ten never graduated from college, or as we say out east, from an institution of higher learning.

Ironically, leading the pack are the two most popular and beloved of all presidents, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.  Neither attended any institution of higher learning and in Lincoln's case he only had one year of formal education at an institution of lower learning.

For education purposes, the rest of the presidents not graduating are Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Grover Cleveland and Harry S. Truman.

So for purposes of comparison, 10 of our 44 presidents did not graduate from college.  Of the remaining 34 graduates, 13 came from three Ivy League schools, Harvard, Yale and Princeton, meaning the remaining 21 presidents came from the 5,755 other institutions of higher learning in America.

Statistically speaking that means almost 40% of all our graduating presidents (34) came from the elite three Ivy League schools, Harvard, Yale and Princeton.  Nearly four out of every ten graduating presidents are from these three.

The second half of the 20th century has been even more dominated by the elite Ivy League schools.  Since Franklin Roosevelt and World War II there have been 13 presidents.  One did not graduate, Truman.  Seven of the remaining 12 were from Harvard or Yale with little old George Bush, Jr. again representing both.  That means 58% of our graduating presidents since WWII  came from Harvard or Yale.

I say when two schools can dominate the leadership of our nation about 60% of the time, then they must be the cause of our problems brought about by their presidents.  If you do such a good job of molding the minds of our youth, then accept responsibility for the consequences of those minds you so successfully molded.

Just kidding.  But it does raise a few questions.  Still, I would never hold the Ivy League responsible for the minds it molded.  Certainly not any more than I would hold the Nobel Peace Prize committee responsible for giving Harvard's Obama the Nobel Peace Prize and watch him triple the troops fighting in Afghanistan.

Then there is Mount Rushmore National Park.

In 1927 Congress authorized this epic sculpture featuring the faces of four exalted American presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.  Two were dropouts (Washington and Lincoln), one from Harvard (Roosevelt) and one from William and Mary  (Jefferson).

Since this was before FDR and JFK, both Harvard grads, watch for a new Mount Rushmore East, maybe along the  Appalachian Mountains.  I prefer a site in the Montes Agricola mountains, an elongated range of mountains near the eastern edge of the central Oceanus Procellarum lunar mare.  It lies just to the northwest of a plateau containing the craters Herodotus and Aristarchus.  On the moon my friends.

Imagine that, a story about Harvard and no mention of Jeremy Lin.

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Chinese Year of Dragon & New York Knicks

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China + Dragon + Knicks = Power

According to ancient Chinese teaching we have entered the year of the Dragon, one of the most powerful and revered of all Signs.

The Dragon is a symbol of good fortune and intense power in Eastern culture.  In Chinese tradition, the Dragon is regarded as a divine beast.

Just ask the New York Knicks.

Good fortune and power fell in their knickerbockers two weeks ago when they took a chance or read a fortune cookie, whichever story you choose, and put a Chinese-Taiwanese player nobody in the NBA wanted on their roster and into a game.

The rest is history though a short history so far.  The Chinese Dragon smiled down on the Knicks and unknown sensation Jeremy Lin transformed into a superstar, al beit a most unusual humble hero, unusual for the NBA that is.

But the magic of the Dragon was not through with the Knicks.  Just today, Sunday, a second Chinese gift came to the Knicks.

Three days ago American J. R. Smith was playing in a Chinese basketball league in China.

Two days ago he was on a plane headed to NYC having been picked up by the Knicks.

Yesterday he arrived probably suffering from jet lag and too late for team practice.

Today he entered the game having never even practiced with the Knicks and nailed his first two shots from 3 point range.

 

A second gift from the Dragon in two weeks, both with distinct China ties.  Are you beginning to sense some wild Dragon magic might be at work?

Well the Knicks were playing the Dallas Mavericks, the defending national champions and one of the top teams in the NBA.  How about the gifts from the Dragon?  Lin scored 28 points and had 14 assists while Smith scored 15 m0re, a total of 43 points btween them, and enough to lead the Knicks to their 8th win in 9 games since Lin joined the team.

More important, other Knicks are starting to play team basketball and achieve much improved results.  But get this, the star of the Knicks, Carmelo Anthony, has been injured the entire time Lin has played.  Any day he will rejoin the team.

Finally, the Knicks franchised has substantially increased in value on the stock market since Lin joined the team while the greatest fans in America have been fired up with hope for the Knicks following in the New York Giants footsteps to another world championship.

It should be fun.  And then, well if the Dragon is any sign then watch for the blue collar boys from New York to shake things up in the NBA playoffs.   

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Letter to the Reader of the Coltons Point Times

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From Jim Putnam, Publisher

First let me thank you for taking the time to read the Coltons Point Times.  Since 2006 I have published the CPT though my first articles appeared in newspapers 50 years ago in the Des Moines Register in Iowa.  I was in high school at the time.

My letter today is to request your help in bringing the important issues we discuss to the attention of the public.  Today's Internet is not truth friendly and what is perceived as truth are the advertiser driven articles of traditional media trying to give us the same old news in a repackaged format.

We accept no advertising.  We do not allow anyone to advertise directly or through the various Internet service companies cluttering most web pages.  There are two ways people can discover the Coltons Point Times.

First is by independent referral from people like you.  There is a hidden power in the Internet not exploited by crass commercialization and that is the power of people to share information.  No one can stop you from telling your family, friends and associates to check out something interesting on the Net.  Much of the CPT base came through personal referral and we appreciate all those who have helped share our message of truth and awareness.

A second way of creating awareness of the CPT is when other news media or blogs pick up the article.  It was this technique that lifted one article I wrote, "A Trillionaires Delight", to one of the top read articles on the Internet and to this day hundreds of websites still have the article posted.  One site alone logged over 80,000 reads of the article.

Unfortunately a lot of blog sites carry many of my articles and don't attribute them to the Coltons Point Times so people never know the true source of the information.  A lot of cable and network news shows also lift information from the articles but never attribute the source.

Since my goal is to stimulate thought on issues, not tell you what to think, I am not so concerned about such a use of material.  That is the reality of today's media.  Over time people will discover the source of the truth.

So please let people you know hear about the Coltons Point Times and give them the direct link to the site:  http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com/

Now a little about the CPT.  One of the features of CPT is that every article back to 2006 is archived on line and can be easily accessed from the screen.  Occasionally I post the locations of multiple articles about a similar subject, like the 7 part Lyme Disease series, and give links.

You need not always agree with me.  You see,  I was a debater in high school and never agreed with myself on much of anything.  Unfortunately those nuns didn't agree with me much either.  But the debate experience taught me to appreciate and respect both sides of every issue.

I am delighted to receive comments from anyone but my family because I gave up trying to educate them long ago when I became a newspaper reporter and discovered none of my family read the newspaper.  To this day they still ask me what I do.

I do hope you find the articles informative, sometimes entertaining, and mostly thought provoking because if you don't learn to question all those experts in your life you are in serious trouble.

This Coltons Point Times newspaper remains the only absolutely free, identity safe, no advertising allowed newspaper site in cyber space.  All comments can be anonymous and no names or registrations are required so I can't sell an email list.

If you suffer from an addiction to all those pop up ads, banners, special offers and all sorts of wastes of time and money you may not want to read the Coltons Point Times.  On the other hand, if you value your freedom, long for your privacy and cherish the truth then you found a home.

The most recent statistics indicate about 56% of my readers are from the United States, the top states being California, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida, New Jersey, Arizona, Illinois, Ohio and Michigan.  There are readers from all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

Internationally the top countries for readership are Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, Russia, Australia, Philippines and Italy with readers in 64 countries including all of Europe and nations from China to Japan, South Africa to France, and Brazil to Mexico.

Since Coltons Point is a village of about 300 people in Southern Maryland, I am very grateful to the national and worldwide exposure I receive.  However, your assistance in reaching more people will help empower them to think for themselves and question what they learn.

Nothing is more important than seeking truth.

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The Middle East - Hotbed of the World

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The End of the Arab Spring - Dark Clouds over the Horizon

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As the world stands helplessly by

What started over a year ago as an effort to overturn dictators and bring freedom to repressed Arab people has stalled recently and in spite of the success in Egypt and Libya in toppling the leaders, one gets the sense not a lot has really changed.

After successful revolutions in Egypt overthrew Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak and in Libya overthrew Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi it seemed like a ray of hope for the oppressed Arab people in those two neighboring countries.

Yet since the revolutions little in terms of freedom has come to the Arab nations.  In Egypt the military still rules, the same military that served Mubarak, while tribal infighting in Libya has kept any new government from taking control.

In fact, in terms of Middle East peace, the result might worse as Egypt has threatened to terminate their 1979  peace treaty with Israel while electing a majority of Muslim Brotherhood members.  Most recently they have arrested a number of foreign citizens including Americans for trying to undermine the new parliament.

As the Arab Spring moved to Iran and Syria it has met a far different fate.  Both Muslim nations have used violence, and excessive force, to put down the rebel insurgents in spite of threats and sanctions from around the world.  Today a bloodbath is underway in Syria by President Bashar al-Assad to exterminate the thousands of rebels while the world stands helplessly watching.

All of this is an outgrowth of the American invasions of Kuwait and Iraq to stop Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti from capturing the strategic Kuwait oil fields.  Then America invaded Iraq again and Afghanistan after the 9-11 attack on the World Trade Center.

Ten years later we just left Iraq, which has moved ever closer to our bitter enemy Iran, and are trying to unwind the war in Afghanistan as that nation moves ever closer to Iran.

Iran is also backing Syria in denying freedom to the people.  Of all the Middle East nations Iran is the greatest threat to Israel because it is close to developing a nuclear capability, an advantage Israel now holds over all Arab and Muslim nations.

Yet of all the nations of the Middle East most likely to enter a war, Israel and Iran are at the top of the list.  Recently five leading Iranian nuclear scientists were assassinated in Iran, with most fingers pointing at Israel.  No other nation has the intelligence and will to undertake such a mission as the fearless Israelis and their Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In retaliation Israeli diplomats were bombed in several Arab nations though none have been killed yet.  So we have a powder keg ready to explode as time is running out for anyone to stop the nuclear ambitions of Iran, and that anyone is Israel and no one else.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has made it quite clear that the consequences of such an action could result in counter attacks by Iran on Israel or a closing of the Straight of Hormuz, the strategic shipping lifeline for the world's oil supply.

Either action would cripple world economies and threaten to bring many nations into a war in the Middle East, something long feared by the End Times advocates of Armageddon.

At this moment, anything is possible.  Should Israel attack Iran the consequences do not bode well for the Middle East or America, as America is the sole protector of Israel and will be the only defender of that nation should military action result.

Something must happen to stop the escalation of tension in the Middle East between Israel and Iran.  We are helpless and the United Nations is more helpless to intervene.  Action is also desperately needed to stop the bloodbath in Syria.  Once again we are all helpless to stop it.

Is there any way out of this terrible dilemma?  Sometimes the most unexpected person or nation can suddenly be thrust onto the world stage and change the course of history when all else has failed.  Perhaps that time is now.  And perhaps that savior will be a total surprise.

See the next article for a possible peaceful solution.

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Who Can Stop Iran and Syria and head off Armageddon?

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Could he come from the Land of the Russian Bear?

As tensions approach the boiling point and the Mideast braces for a possible escalation of the centuries old Arab Israeli conflict, the world is running out of options to stop it.

The United States is incapable because it is firmly aligned behind Israel. The United Nations can do nothing because Russia and China blocked action by the Security Council.

Sanctions have failed to stop Iran and their President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from pursuing their nuclear capability, supposedly for peaceful purposes. At the same time Iran is rapidly developing their missile capability that could deliver nuclear weapons to Israel.

More recently 5 nuclear scientists have been assassinated in Iran, by the Israelis according to Iranian President Ahmadinejad. Several attacks have taken place since on Israeli diplomats in foreign countries by Iran, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

There is no doubt Israel has the determination and firepower to attack the facilities in Iran, they have before. But this time Iran has the ability to respond. No one knows to what extent they have acquired offensive weapons from Russia or China.

What we do know is they have the missile system in place to close down the Straight of Hormuz and thus cut off much of the world's oil supply. The result would cause chaos in the world energy market and the resulting price spike would force the world into another deep recession.

At the same time the people of Syria who have bravely waged a revolution of sorts against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad now face annihilation if a way can't be found to stop Assad from brutally murdering the opposition. Once again the United Nations and United States are helpless in preventing such a catastrophe.

Is it possible that the key to averting disaster in the Middle East, in Syria, Iran and Israel, lies in the only person who can meet with all the sides of the conflicts? That person may be no other than Russian Prime Minister and former President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.

Now in the midst of an aggressive campaign to again become president of Russia, the election is March 4, Putin may be the only person with the ability to head off the potential disasters.

No doubt leaders from throughout the world shiver at the thought of Putin saving the world from disaster. His unorthodox life style and brash brand of leadership has left people fearful, jealous or disgusted. But he could still be the key to opening the door to resolution of the problems that have the world on the brink of war, a much more serious war than Iraq or Afghanistan.

Love him or hate him, Putin has a relationship with every nation involved in these conflicts and can demand the attention of these hardened opponents.

He has brought Russia back from collapse after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Russia is the only country with the natural resources and military power along with the close proximity to impact on the participants.

Russia has economic incentives to be a peace keeper in the Middle East.

Putin seems to rather enjoy the world stage and it has been a while since he was an actor on it.

Putin could use any such success as a springboard to a popular third term as president.

It would help make Russia a more successful host of the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi.

The combination of benefits that could come to Russia and Putin for intervening in the Middle East crisis more than offset any risk of failure. Putin would be a hero and Russia would enjoy considerable economic benefit.

At present, the Russian veto at the United Nations of any action against Syria along with his support and protection for Iran has cooled his relations with the Western World and any effort to solve these crises would put him in favorable light again.

Putin has led Russia since 1999 as President and Prime Minister. He began his career with 17 years in the KGB, then worked his way up through local politics in the St. Petersburg area.

In 1996 he was called to Moscow to oversee the transfer of Soviet Union assets to the new Russian Federation after the fall of Communism and in 1997 President Boris Yeltsin appointed him to his staff, then named him head of the new Russian Intelligence agency the FSB, successor to the KGB.

In 1999 he became prime minister and when Yeltsin unexpectedly resigned as President on December 31, 1999, Putin was named acting President of the Russian Federation. He was elected president on March 26, 2000, the culmination of his meteoric rise through the often hazardous Russian political system.

Survival is in his genes.

Once elected he is credited with bringing political stability, a decade of economic growth, territorial integrity, and a rapid rise in the living standard to the Russian people.

His passion for athletics and physical activities led to Russia becoming the Olympic host for the 2014 winter games.

Is it possible this controversial personality could become the hero the world needs to avert disaster in the Middle East, a disaster that will reverberate around the globe? You never know.

Someone please forward this to the Russian leader or embassy and maybe a miracle of sorts can happen.
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Obamaville, February 16 - Everyone buys the lies!

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When is a fix a fix and what kind of a fix?

I think you know something is broken when everybody buys the lies.  That seems to be happening in our nation's capitol a lot lately.

Automated Phone Answering Systems

Have you tried calling your government lately?  Computers have taken over the phone system for the government and about everyone else who needs someone to answer phones.  It is certainly a great way to avoid dealing with a frustrated public.

Yesterday I spent 22 minutes talking to government computers trying to get the answer to a simple question.  After failing to answer three requests for different ID numbers which I never heard of before, I never even got to talk to a real person.

The voice was one of those nondescript female voices from a Stepford wife, straight monotone and clearly machine made or maid.  At first I thought of her as Vanna White on Valium but by the time she asked for voice responses to a question for the seventh time and I futilely answered for seventh time her name morphed to Bitch in my head.

Seems I was making a fatal mistake in my mission, I sounded too much like a hayseed from Iowa for my English to be understood.  Quite odd since hayseeds from Iowa were always the top news broadcasters on television because people speaking all the different forms of English in America could understand the hayseeds.

Now I have often reached real people operators, especially at computer companies, who are from foreign countries and you cannot understand a word they say.  But for an American government agency to have an automated computer that doesn't understand hayseed English is a setback for American technology.

I finally hung up on the computer when she asked if I wanted to start over.

Our federal government is supposed to have over 2 million employees.  Why can't they answer the phones?  I say every automated system should reduce the government payroll and somehow compensate people for the nonsense we have to go through to reach our elected and appointed representatives.

What President raised the National Debt the most?

Since both political parties blame the other for the National Debt and the politicians try to confuse us by double talking about both the Federal Budget Deficit and the National Debt, as if they were one and the same, where does the truth lie?  Well, as a matter of English usage truth can never lie as the question implied.

That is the same problem with political parties and politicians.  In Washington they teach you to tell lies so often it becomes the truth, at least your truth, and hopefully the truth for the unsuspecting public.  Are we really that dumb?

For the record, if you took all the national debt in our history for the 39 presidents who preceded Ronald Reagan, all 39, and added them together, it would not equal the total national debt raised by any one president since Ronald Reagan's time.

Bet you never heard that from the Democrats or Republicans.  But the truth is this.  When Reagan got elected and took office in 1981 the National Debt was about $712 billion.  So what happened during the presidential terms since then?  Here are the facts.

Reagan served 8 years and the National Debt rose from $712 billion to $2.1 trillion, an increase of about $1.4 trillion.

Bush 1 served 4 years and increased the National Debt from $2.1 to $4.2 trillion, an increase of about $2.1 trillion.

Clinton served 8 years and increased the National Debt from $4.2 to $5.7 trillion, an increase of $1.5 trillion.

Bush 2 served 8 years and increased the National Debt from $5.7 to $10.6 trillion, an increase of about $4.9 trillion.

Obama served 4 years and increased the National Debt from $10.6 trillion to $16.2 trillion, an increase of about $5.6 trillion.

Was that so hard to understand?  All of our last five presidents are in the exclusive Trillion Dollar League secret society.  Facts being what they are, Obama did increase the National Debt more in four years than the previous record by Bush 2, except Bush 2 took eight years.

Searching for debt ceiling

Did we fix the housing crisis like Obama said?

This week the president announced a $26 billion settlement with banks and mortgage lenders over foreclosed housing in which these big, bad companies must cough up the big bucks.  So far they must pay $21.5 billion to foreclosed people and it is not clear where the other $4.5 billion goes.

Of course a couple of years ago the government announced two programs to help those being foreclosed promising they would end the problem by serving 4 million families.  So far about 900,000 were helped but by no means saved.

In other words government housing programs generally fail based on past experience.

There are a few things I don't understand about the latest effort to wave the magic wand and solve our problems.

There are 4 million foreclosed homes and another 11 million homes delinquent and in foreclosure.  These homes represent over $700 billion in negative equity, meaning value lost.  How does $26 billion from the bad boys cover the $700 billion in lost equity in the homes facing foreclosure, say nothing of the trillions and trillions of dollars in lost equity by those Ame4ricas who did pay for their homes?

Is this just another example of Obamanomics?

Should we really be paying their salaries?

President Obama is in just the early part of his 4th year and has already held around 200 campaign fundraisers raising tens of millions of dollars.  For a mere $38,500 a ticket you can go and rub shoulders with the pres.

During the same time Congress, including both the House and the Senate, has been passing about 1-3 important bills a year while failing to adopt a single budget in four years.

The President, Democrat controlled Senate and Republican controlled House have all failed to address our most critical needs like deficit spending, increasing National Debt, broken health care and dormant housing.

Nor have they addressed the future needs of our nation like Social Security shortfalls, Medicare waste and runaway entitlement costs.

So why don't we pass a People's Constitutional Amendment saying all politicians and their staff must serve the needs of our people and nation or simply not get paid?

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