personal
Major League Baseball spring training is underway and my sons little league opening day is this week.
For a baseball nut like me, it’s Christmas in the spring.
The gift of the Cactus League, with the addition of the Los Angeles Dodgers last year, make spring training that much better. With the Diamondbacks moving from Tucson to the Valley soon for spring training, makes the Cactus League that must stronger.
Play ball!
Ninety-one years ago today, Woodrow Wilson signed legislation designating the Grand Canyon as a national park.
I have been to the Grand Canyon many times, and each time the experience is a little different. Yes, I’ve had the Clark Griswold experience of taking five seconds to look at the view and then tell the kids, “Wow, isn’t that cool? Now let’s go get lunch.”
But I’ve also had the experiences of the solitude of taking in the awesome beauty and the totality of the size and grandeur of one of the true wonders of the world.
Happy Birthday Grand Canyon.
Just for kicks, here is the clip from the 1983 film Vacation.
My argument that Ron Paul has outlived his usefulness enrages many a Paulite. What they don’t know, is that I was a Paulite long before most of the current Paulite’s had ever even heard of Ron Paul.
You have to know a little about my past to understand this. I grew up in Show Low, Arizona, a small ranching and timber town in the White Mountains of eastern Arizona. There is a lot less ranching and almost no timbering now, it’s mostly vacation homes and tourism.
I was reared by very conservative parents. My first political memory is seeing tears in my mother’s eyes in 1976 with Carter beat Ford and her saying, “We’re going to be beaten by the Soviets now.” Anti-communism was a staple in our household growing up. The two political magazines that showed up in the mailbox were The New American and National Review (I didn’t learn until years later the massive battle between the John Birch Society and William F. Buckley).
When the U.S. Olympic hockey team beat the Soviets, you would have thought I had won the lottery. I was a kid running around the living room with my fists pumping and you would have thought that we had just defeated Communism in one, fell swoop.
I made phone calls for Reagan in 1980, passed out literature for him in 1984 and then reality hit me in 1988 when I realized that Reagan would no longer be the President.
My parents were very skeptical about George H.W. Bush. His history as a Washington insider was a stark contrast with Ronald Reagan’s populism. As the campaign between Dukakis and Bush went on, I felt more and more that Bush would NOT carryon the Reagan legacy.
I turned 18 in the summer of 1988, and the first vote I cast in my life was for Ron Paul for President in November 1988.
For you younger folk, Ron Paul was the Libertarian candidate for President in 1988. I had read up on him in The New American, and read a couple interviews with him. I didn’t really know much about the Libertarian Party platform (I was registered Republican, as I always have been) but his comments about the role of government, monetary policy (yes, I was an early proponent of getting us back on the gold standard – and I still am), and tax policy were music to me. I glossed over the drug legalization stuff and proudly cast my vote for Ron Paul.
I couldn’t tell whether my mother was proud of me or not. She said Paul was more principled but that it was a “wasted vote.” Was it? Probably. But it had an impact on me, because at the first opportunity I had to participate in this great republic (it’s not a democracy) I cast a vote on principle. And I think it set the tone for every vote I have cast since – including my wasted vote for Ross Perot in 1992, and my wasted vote for the Libertarian Harry Browne in 1996. In fact, I was 30 years old before I cast a vote for a Republican for President.
When I was a Congressional staffer I had a lot of fun chiding Ron Paul’s Congressional staff for not being “true” Paulites. For the 14 years I work in Congress I am the only staffer that I know of that actually voted for Paul for President in 1988.
But his time has passed. If there was anything that struck me coming out of CPAC 2010 this last weekend, it was a feeling that Ron Paul’s fans need to focus less on a 74 year-old mediocre Congressman, and more on how to actually affect real change in the political process.
Ron Paul won the CPAC2010 presidential straw poll thus immediately diminishing the impact that CPAC could have on providing conservatives with some direction on who some of our future national leaders might be. Ron Paul certainly won’t be. I’m not saying that to be critical, it’s just a fact.
More and more average Americans are getting involved in the political process through the Tea Party Patriots and other movements. They are real people, with real lives and most have never been involved in the political process beyond voting. The more they learn about Ron Paul, the less he will appeal to him. His dovish stance on the war on terror and his support for earmarking (the gateway drug to huge spending) won’t wear well with newly inspired activists worried about federal spending and the debt. Either you are a fiscal conservative, or you’re not. Unfortunately, Ron Paul is not at the most basic level.
So, conservatives, tea partiers, libertarians… Americans, let’s find those who stick to fiscal conservatism, limited government and less spending and then support them like the future depends on it, because it does.
Back in 2004 Dr. Tom Coburn, who had been a member of the revolutionary class of 1994 and then left Congress under a self-imposed term limit pledge, decided to run for the U.S. Senate. In early September I got a call from Congressman John Shadegg saying that my help was needed in Coburn’s Senate race.
A couple days later I flew to Tulsa and then drove to Muskogee, Dr. Coburn’s hometown and where the campaign headquarters was located. For the next eight weeks I lived in the Holiday Inn Express while I worked on the campaign.
The Muskogee Chamber of Commerce recently produced a video to Merle Haggard’s classic “Okie from Muskogee.” It brought back memories of the good ol’ days.
Thanks to Curt Price for passing it along.
The hit TV series Lost continues to wow me. This week’s episode actually answers more questions than it raises, much to my enjoyment and relief.
Now we know where the lists of names comes from and we have a better understanding of what Jacob was up to. The challenge is whether we believe that Jacob is evil or the man in black, now personified as John Locke.
Whereas previous seasons nibbled around the edges of good versus evil, this season has overt religious overtones. It is sure to keep Lost fans buzzing about what it all means, and I am guessing that the Lost writers are good enough to throw some major twists into the plot in this final season.
The John Locke-centered episode this week we learn a lot more about Locke, but we also catch glimpses of a different side of Ben and Hurley. Ben is much less confident and the Hurly that lands in L.A. continues to act as if he’s the luckiest guy in the world – a stark contrast to the Hurley on the island that believes he is cursed.
It is a rare moment for me to get to the end of a TV show and actually feel enriched for having watched it. I’m crossing my fingers that the rest of the season of Lost will have some big payoffs.
This is tragic, and hits close to home. I’ve known Tom Stewart for a number of years, and was always impressed by his commitment to the American Dream. He was a guy who put his money where his mouth was, walked the walked, talked the talk. He was a freedom fighter.
No one will ever know how much of an impact he had on conservatism in America, because no one person knows all the different things in which he engaged. What small part I saw in that world was impressive by itself, but I know it was just a smidgen of his influence.
Tom Stewart was a “great American” before being a great American was cool. Not only did he create thousands and thousands of jobs, he worked hard at protecting the system that allowed him to be successful. He didn’t just take his piece of the pie, he made sure there was a bigger pie left behind.
When I learned of his death, it rattled me. Bad. I realize now it is because it is not just the passing of a man, but the passing of era.
Our prayers go out to the families of Tom and Madena Stewart. RIP.
UPDATE
An updated story here. The official statement from SGA below.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (Feb. 15, 2010) – Services Group of America (SGA) has announced that Chairman & CEO Thomas J. Stewart was killed in a helicopter accident yesterday (Feb. 14) north of Scottsdale at approximately 3 p.m.
The company helicopter was en route to Scottsdale Air Park from the Flagstaff area when it crashed in a desert wash.
A total of five passengers were aboard the helicopter when it departed from the Flagstaff area. Authorities conducted a thorough ground and air search of the crash area Sunday afternoon and into the night. They are certain there were no survivors. Authorities are advising that it will take some time to identify all of the passengers.
The cause of the crash is not known at this time and the company is working closely with the investigating agencies.
Stewart, 64, was a long-time philanthropist who supported education and the arts; a community activist championing free enterprise; a life-long adventurer; and a foodservice industry leader.
Services Group of America is a $2.7 billion company which is ranked 157th on the Forbes’ Largest Private Companies in the U.S. list. The company is the parent company of a number of companies including Food Services of America, Systems Services of America, Amerifresh, Ameristar Meats and Development Services of America. The roots of the company go back 40 years when Stewart was building Stevedoring Services of America in Seattle.
He moved the corporate headquarters from Seattle to Scottsdale in 2006.
The company is privately-held and family-owned, a structure that will not change despite the accident, according to Peter K. Smith, president and COO of SGA.
“Tom was first and foremost a visionary,” he said. “He had a clear and concise continuity plan for the enterprise in place and was completely confident in the current leadership team.”
“With our people, our processes and our technology, we will continue our current operations without missing a beat,” said Smith. “That’s how Tom planned it and that’s what he wanted. We continue to be a privately-held, family-owned business that offers the highest level of service in our industries. That will never change.”
Stewart was known for being a deft financier and a calculating risk taker. During his career, he formed or acquired 45 companies; sold or spun-off 22; merged 18 into other companies and closed 79. He is legendary for his epic adventures including a horseback trip with his family riding the 2,600-mile Pacific Crest trail from Mexico to Canada and a jeep safari across the continent of Africa. He was an avid golfer, horseman, rancher, fisherman, skier, scuba diver and team roper.
The Stewart family is currently making memorial service arrangements which will be announced at a later date.
For more historical information on SGA and Tom Stewart, go to www.servicesgroupofamerica.com
We’re only two weeks into the final season of Lost and I’m more confused than ever. More questions are being asked than answers given to previous questions. I feel like the guy in a kayake paddling upstream and not actually moving.
What. Is. It. With. This. Show?
The addiction of it is enough to frustrate me just to the point of actual anger, but I can’t walk away from it.
The parallel experience that the show has taken only adds to the confusion. How creepy is it to see Ethan in the hospital treating Claire? (shudder)
Sawyer’s heartbreak was unexpected. I really thought Kate was the real holder of the key to his heart.
The unwinding of this giant ball of string seems to be taking some weird turns – and I’m starting to worry that the end is not going to be the payoff that we long-time fans deserve.
The startling end of the second episode was a good payoff though… Claire has taken the place of Rousseau?
Patrick Kennedy’s announcement that he will not seek reelection in November will be the complete end of the era of Camelot. As the son of the late Senator Edward Kennedy, his departure from Congress will mean that for the first time in five decades that a Kennedy will not serve in either the House or the Senate.
I have my own little personal story about Patrick Kennedy. I was in the conference room of the Resources Committee during a hearing and briefing Congressman John Shadegg on some issue before the committee. We were eating sandwiches when a young guy set down a packaged salad from Cannon carryout and walked away. Shadegg needed some salt for his sandwich and so I figured I could take the salt packet out of the salad of the staffer and gave it to Shadegg.
The young guy walked back to sit down and eat his salad, and I looked up and realized that it was freshman Congressman Patrick Kennedy. Here I thought he was a staffer (he’s barely older than me – so at the time he couldn’t have been older than 26 or 27) and took his salt packet.
I never got to apologize to him for that. So, Mr. Kennedy, I’m sorry, and I owe you a salt packet.
Here is Congressman Kennedy’s video announcement of his retirement.
This is outside my door in D.C. It’s impressive snow, even for a kid from the White Mountains of Arizona.
This is pretty funny - and all the more real because I am hunkered down in a what is being described as “snowmaggeden” “snowpocalypse” or “snOMG.” As you can see, folks in the D.C. area don’t react well to a little snow.
