As the Republican Party faithful vet Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul in the primary election process, there is little question in my mind that they will snub the only man in this group who can actually beat Barack Obama in November.

To win the Presidency in 2012 the Republican Party is going to have convince a large number of independent “middle ground” voters to come over to their side.  As Romney, Santorum and Gingrich argue about which of them is the most “conservative”, Ron Paul is characterized as the “odd ball” of the group that no “real Republican” takes seriously.

Middle ground voters do not want the government involved in their personal reproductive decisions, including their decision to possibly have an abortion.  They are sick of the war on drugs and consider drug use an addiction and not a crime.  They are tired of seeing their friends and family called off to undeclared wars, such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan

The Republican Party will not have any of this because they are committed to the Christian right (our own brand of American Ayatollahs) who tie their hands on abortion, the war on drugs, and the military industrial complex.  As such, the majority of the “middle ground” voters will gravitate to Obama, despite the fact that they are convinced that federal spending must be slashed.

If the Republicans would nominate Ron Paul, they would get the vast majority of “middle ground” voters.  The Christian right could then decide whether relinquishing their influence on birth control and the drug war is worth four more years of Barack Obama and an almost certain economic collapse.  I’m betting the Christian right won’t throw down and support Obama.  I’m certain that the middle ground independents would enthusiastically choose Ron Paul over Barack Obama.  I think Paul could beat Obama by 4-5 points in a Presidential election.

If you don’t think Ron Paul would do well against Obama, you might want to take a look at this link from realclearpolitics.com

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/us/general_election_paul_vs_obama-1750.html

The Republicans will nominate either Romney or Gingrich.  Romney is a Wall Streeter who supported the tarp program.  He wants profits privatized and losses socialized; he’s no advocate of free markets.  Gingrich is a Washington insider, boiled over and stale as they come.  The economy notwithstanding, I predict that Obama will beat either of these gentlemen by 7 points in the 2012 election.  Meanwhile, at least 10 percent of Obama’s vote would have gone to Ron Paul, if only the Republican Party had been wise enough to put him on the ballot.

This is a story about Teutonic people and their comparison with non-Teutonic people on the high seas.  First a definition:

Adj. 1. Teutonic - of or pertaining to the ancient Teutons or their languages; “Teutonic peoples such as Germans and Scandinavians and British”; “Germanic mythology”  Germanic

In a nutshell, Germans, British, and Scandinavians are Teutonic people.  The peoples of southern Europe, including Italians and Greeks, are non-Teutonic.

A review of the behavior of Teutonic and non-Teutonic Captains and Crew seems to indicate that Teutonic seafarers are more willing to follow set procedures, are more duty bound and diligent, and perhaps even more courageous than their southern European counterparts.

April 15th, 1912.  The British registered HMS Titanic sinks on a cold, calm night on the north Atlantic.  Captain Edward J. Smith (Teutonic) went down with the ship along with all of his crew not needed to man lifeboats.  2,223 people were on board the Titanic and only 571 were saved; mostly female passengers and children.  Throughout that horrific night the crew, mostly British, maintained orderly control of the evacuation procedure, doing their best before finally settling into watery graves.

July 25, 1956.  The MS Stockholm, under Swedish registry and with a Swedish (Teutonic) Captain and Crew, rammed the Italian Liner, the SS Andrea Doria, (Captained by Italian Piero Calamai), in a dense fog near Nantucket.  The front of the Stockholm was smashed, but she remained seaworthy.  The beautiful Italian liner listed to the side, but it took 11 hours before she finally plunged to the bottom.  Fortunately, out of 1134 passengers and 572 crew members aboard the Andrea Doria, only 46 souls were lost.  Five passengers died on the Stockholm.

Once it was determined that the Stockholm was sea worthy, the crew from the Stockholm started receiving passengers from the Andrea Doria’s lifeboats.  However, the first lifeboats contained mostly Andrea Doria crew (waiters and stewards) rather than passengers.  So dismayed were the Swedes at this maritime cowardice that fights broke out between the Swedish (Teutonic) crew and Italian (non-Teutonic) crew members.  Later in the night, when passengers from and Italian liner finally boarded the Stockholm, Andrea Doria crew members were already grazing at the buffet line.

SS Andrea Doria

MS Stockholm

While his non-Teutonic crew acted disgracefully, Captain Piero Calamai, an Italian, acted as courageously as any seaman possibly could after the collision had taken place.  After all passengers and crew had evacuated the beautiful Andrea Doria, Calamai told his crew he wished to die at the helm as atonement for the loss of his vessel.  At the insistence of his officers, Calamai was the last man to step off the Andrea Doria.  He never again commanded another vessel and died a broken man in 1972.

August 4, 1991.  The Oceanos, a Greek cruise shop sailing from Capetown to Durban, encountered rough seas and sank.  One account says, “Realizing the fate of the ship, the crew fled in panic, neglecting to close the lower deck portholes, which is standard policy during emergency procedures. No alarm was raised. Passengers remained ignorant of the events taking place until they themselves witnessed the first signs of flooding in the lower decks. At this stage, eyewitness accounts reveal that many of the crew, including Greek Captain Avranas, were already packed and ready to depart, seemingly unconcerned with the safety of the passengers.”  Later Avranas told an inquiry that he left the ship first to aid in the off-shore rescue efforts.  In later inquiry Avranas testified, “When I give the order abandon ship, it doesn’t matter what time I leave.  Abandon is for everybody.  If some people want to stay, they can stay.”

The Oceanos was captained and crewed by non-Teutons exclusively, except for the entertainment staff and British Cruise Director Lorraine Betts.  Hours after the Captain had abandoned ship and had been rescued, Betts and her entertainment staff assisted the last of the Oceanos’ 571 passengers to safety.  Betts wasn’t the captain, but she had a Captain’s courage, being the last to leave the foundering vessel.

January 13, 2012:  The Costa Concordia an Italian registered cruise ship ran aground and capsized in the Tyrrhenian Sea just off the shore of Isola del Giglio on the western coast of Italy.  The Captain, Italian Francesco Schettino, left the ship with hundreds of passengers aboard and has become the front line story of the disaster.  In one communication with the Italian coast guard, Schettino is told to get back on the ship and handle the evacuation; he refuses, being the latest non-Teutonic coward to Captain a large vessel.  It is too bad that Andrea Doria Captain Calamai isn’t around to remind Schettino how all ship captains, Teutonic or otherwise, should behave.

This week a 42-second video shot last year in Afghanistan went viral.  It showed some marines peeing on the corpses of three Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.  Defense Secretary Leon Panetta called the video “utterly deplorable.”  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed “total dismay” over the video, stating that the “vast, vast” majority of American Military personnel would not engage in such actions.  The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned the desecration of the corpses, calling for a full investigation and punishment of the perpetrators to the fullest extent of the law.

Peeing on corpses isn’t a good idea I suppose, but when you send a bunch of teenagers into a hellish, dangerous place where people are trying to kill them every minute, there are going to be some indiscretions.  When our soldiers kill Taliban who were trying to kill them with sniper fire or a roadside bomb, they have a reason to be damned upset.  Add to this the fact that if the tables were turned the Taliban would have cut off the heads of those Marines.

Politicians will posture, but Marines have their lives on the line.  It is utterly amazing that we don’t have more videos like this floating around the internet.  I’ll wager that those videos are all over the country, not on the internet but in the personal computers of those who have served.

When people are trying to kill you it is war.  The honored US Marines who killed thousands of Japanese soldiers during World War II made their comrades who peed on Taliban look like choir boys.  Surely Panetta or Clinton have seen those black and white reels from Iwo Jima.

Again, I’m not saying that these Marines in Afghanistan were right.  However, I hope that the investigation is completed quickly and that their penalty is a big, fat, slap on the hand.

For years I’ve heard the words “Father of the Bride” and haven’t given them much thought.  Yesterday my only daughter, Tara, was married here in Winona.  Like many things in life, you must experience them to truly understand their full significance.

First of all, Deb and I gained a whole new family to add to our family!  Howard and Debra Venable gave us a son-in law, their oldest boy, Bob.  He is a great guy and has brought a lot of joy to Tara and to us.  The Venables have three other children, two of whom are married and one of whom has a son!  All of them were at the wedding and we bonded like glue!

The sacrament of Marriage took place at the beautiful, vintage  Baptist church on Broadway street.  This house of worship is a classic, intimate building complete with incredible stained-glass windows and an antique pipe organ.   Elder Ken Berg, who married our son 8 years ago, did the honors for Tara on an incredibly warm January afternoon.  Our thanks to Pastor Hudson for being such a great host as we made many trips back and forth getting the church decorated for the wedding.

Right before the wedding Michael, Bob’s brother and best man told me, “Don, I don’t think that I’ve ever seen Bob happier in all his life.”  All you had to do was look at the smile on my daughter’s face to realize that the bride and groom were ecstatic to be at this time and at this place in their lives.

My thanks go out to many friends and relatives who traveled great distances to be with us.  Unfortunately weddings don’t give you much time to catch up, but let me solicit to all of you an invitation to come and see us soon when we can treasure more hours together.

Finally I want to hold before you my wife, Deb, who has struggled through many obstacles to make it to this day.  May this be just one of many family events that we can share with you honey, by far the bravest among us!

Happy New Year to you and your family!  Six years ago, on Sunday, January 1, 2006 I made a New Year’s Wish List (Below).  My January 1, 2012 comments on each wish are in bold italics.

1.    That the United States will aggressively embark on an energy policy designed to lessen our dependence on foreign oil.  Geo-political considerations are reason enough to expand our nuclear, coal, and alternative fuel sources.  Thanks to President Obama we have become more dependent on foreign oil.  He’s not even given approval to a pipeline from Canada to Texas for “environmental reasons.”  The Canadians will ship the oil to China if we don’t build the pipeline.

2.    That Iraqi citizens will have enough pride in their country to turn in terrorists and secure a peaceful future for their children.  If Iraqis don’t care enough about their homeland to do this for themselves, they can’t expect us to spill our blood and treasure forever.  Thankfully we’re out of Iraq now.  The Iranians will rush in and Iraq will revert to the hell hole it once was.  But silently in their homes at night the Iraqi’s will long for the days when the Americans were there, and how it felt to have this precious thing called “freedom”.

3.    That the US economy will continue to be as resilient as it has been in the last four years.   In spite of the shocks of 911, Iraq expenses and several hurricanes, our economy has compensated, recovered and continued to grow.  The US economy is indeed resilient, but it might have met the one obstacle that will ruin it forever; Barack Obama.

4.    That the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will search fewer 80 year-old grandmas and start searching more shifty-eyed nervous young men.  What an ineffective, expensive bureaucracy the TSA has become.  That’s what happens when you replace private firms and replace them with government agencies staffed by unionized employees.

5.    That the United States can continue to “import” enough engineers, scientists, and physicians from South Asia to keep our country strong.  They don’t teach “Self Esteem 101” in Indian high schools; they teach science and mathematics. Believe it or not we’re making it harder to import people with these skills.  And our public education system is still a joke by international standards.

6.    That we can continue to make progress in the treatment and cures for cancer, especially breast and ovarian cancer. In 2010 my wife has been diagnosed with cancer.  What was a sentiment to me in 2006 has suddenly become a priority.  God bless all of you who fight illness.

7.    That Americans will exercise more and eat less.  The societal costs of obesity are larger than any of us can imagine. I know this a great goal.  I’ve gained 20 pounds since 2006; I need to take my own advice.

8.    That Democrats will finally learn that profits are not evil but are the direct result of the creation of products and services that benefit society.  Profits are good.  Robin Hood is evil.  Whatever hope existed that Democrats would learn economics has been dealt a severe blow, especially since Barack Obama has unleashed full-fledged class warfare.

9.    That Republicans will stop their excessive federal spending and finally learn that a woman’s body belongs to her.  This still hasn’t happened.  The Republicans can’t moderate demands from the Christian right, making their appeal unacceptable to many voters who would otherwise vote for them.   The country will suffer as a result.

10.    That the Chicago Cubs will win the World Series.  Hell has already frozen over twice with the Red Sox and White Sox, so now it is the Cubs’ turn!  The Cubs have new owners and Theo Epstein as their general manager.  I’m modifying my wish; that when the Cubs win the world series I will still be on this earth!

While in Chicago last week I saw a TV news story about a craze that has spread throughout the United States this Christmas season.  Anonymous donors have been coming to Kmart and paying off the layaway accounts of parents who had “laid away” toys and clothing for their children.  No one knows where this phenomenon started, but there were early reports of “Kmart Angels” in southern California, Omaha, Michigan, and Indiana, followed by donors in the entire country.

It works like this.  A donor goes to the Kmart layaway department and asks the clerk to find a layaway order containing toys or clothing for children.  The employee comes back to the counter and tells the donor that there is an order for $51.00 and another for $104.50…etc.  The donor decides to pay off one or more account balances, except for one penny.  Kmart then phones the customer and tells them that a complete stranger has paid off their layaway balance.  When the customer arrives they pay only one cent, which officially closes out the layaway account!

This sudden and unexpected outburst of pure charity has brought tears of happiness to parents, children, donors, and Kmart employees alike.  Who would have guessed that in 2011 the true meaning of Christmas would be found at the layaway department of Kmart?

Now wait, you say.  “The true meaning of Christmas was the birth of Jesus Christ, the savior of the world.  Isn’t it stretching it a bit to say that a bunch of Kmart donors could possibly be compared to the birth of the savior?”

Let’s take a look at it more closely.  Jesus wasn’t born in a fancy Inn (Bloomingdales), but was instead destined to be born in a manger (Kmart).  He came to be with all of us, not just some of us.  If Jesus walked into a Kmart with a hundred bucks to pay off some layaway account, what qualifications would he put on the donation?  Would Jesus want to make sure that the parent was employed and not some lazy bum collecting unemployment?  Would he want to make sure that the mother and father were good parents who loved their children, or would he pay off the layaway balance even if he knew that the parents had a substance abuse problem and neglected their children?

Would Jesus judge the potential beneficiaries of his donation to make sure they were perfect?  Or did Jesus come to all of us, whether we are perfect or not?  I think all Christians know the answer to that question and so do the Kmart angels.  They give because they love.  Without judgment they donate.  Without qualification they love those kids they will never meet.  That, my friends, is the true meaning of Christmas!

Note:  The readers of this blog are primarily Christians living in the United States, but many of my readers are Hindus living in South Asia.  I don’t have to be “politically correct” to my Hindu brothers and sisters when I speak of my Christian faith.  I have been in their temples and prayed with them at their home altars.  I know their hearts and they celebrate with all Christians the joy that Christmas brings to us, while I love them for their serious and unconditional belief in God.  May everyone in the world be blessed!

Forty years ago today I stood in the back room of a church in Rockford, IL.  My childhood friend, Dave, held a ring in his pocket and my brother was there as well.   I hadn’t been nervous any time leading up to this wedding, but when the organist started to play, the anxiety took over.  After all, who was this girl that I would pledge to live my life with?  Even though we had known each other for nearly two years, does anybody really know for sure if they are making the right decision?

I knew that Deb was beautiful, loyal, and strong and mind and spirit.  She was independent; not a woman who would want me to make decisions for her.  This would be a marriage of two dominant personalities, teaming up to make a go of it.  That’s exactly the kind of woman I wanted.

After the wedding we headed out to Colorado in Dad’s 61 Chevy.  We probably had a couple hundred dollars in our pocket.  We honeymooned in a small cabin in the snowy Rocky Mountains.  The first night Deb made spaghetti, but we didn’t boil the noodles long enough for the higher altitude.  When I commented on the texture of the noodles, Deb said, “Oh I thought you liked your spaghetti chewy!”  We laughed.

Four years later our son, Tad was born.  A month after that we moved from Kansas to a small town in Minnesota that I had never heard of, a place called Winona.  Within two years we had purchased a big white house on Main Street.  Only a fool would have bought a place that needed so much repair.  We lined up; willing fools!  It was Deb’s dream house and she fell in love with it.  Four years later our daughter, Tara was born.  They brought her home from Community Memorial Hospital in a Christmas stocking.

Some people like the towns they live in.  Others absolutely fall in love with a place.  That is how Deb feels about Winona.  I know that she would have made any town a great home for us, but Winona fit us well, like a pair of old slippers.  Over the years we’ve worked hard to make a living.  Deb started a Bed and Breakfast in our old Carriage House.   We’re still open after 26 years.  Every second of every day Deb kept our home clean and neat.  She once told me, “If I was poor and lived in a house with a dirt floor, I’d sweep that floor every day.”

They say that marriage is one of the most important decisions a person ever makes.  I know that this is true.  I write this blog in Chicago, surrounded by my wife, our children and two grand children.  For me, a nervous skinny kid from Omaha, I was standing at the right place 40 years ago today.  It was the right church in the right town.  Best of all, it was the right woman walking down the aisle.

As the 14th week of the 2011 National Football League season approaches, teams are vying for playoff spots on the road to the Super Bowl.  The league is full of talented players, but unfortunately some of them end up playing with poor organizations that stunt their otherwise promising careers.  Other players are fortunate enough to play for well-run football organizations that allow them to maximize their performance and achieve their potential.

NFL teams are businesses.  There is a “culture” within business firms, whether they actively promote it or not.  For example, the Oakland Raiders have a “bad boy” aura around their club that has persisted for years.  The Detroit Lions are developing a similar image with a management and coaching staff hasn’t shown the resolve to control their “man child” Ndamukong Suh.  On the other side of the coin, the New England Patriots football club has maintained an excellence both on and off the field that is the envy of most NFL fans.  The Pittsburgh Steelers are another NFL organization that has displayed consistent excellence over the years, as have the Green Bay Packers.

FoxSports.com releases an annual ranking of football organizations.  These are not power rankings, but an overall view of the excellence of each football organization.  Fox grades each team on six vital categories — owner, quarterback, head coach, front office, coaching staff and intangibles, which include facilities, fan support and public relations.

The 2011 rankings put the Packers as #1 followed by New Orleans, Pittsburgh, and the New England Patriots.  The worst organization goes to the Buffalo Bills, with Carolina, Tennessee, and Cincinnati rounding out the bottom four organizations.  The full Foxsports rankings can be seen at:

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/green-bay-packers-are-best-nfl-organization-in-2011-rankings-060111

As a resident of Minnesota I view the Minnesota Vikings organization with a lot of sadness. They are ranked 25th out of 32 NFL organizations in 2011.  Unfortunately, the Vikings have suffered from poor ownership and management for decades.  You have to go back to the Bud Grant era to find true excellence in the Viking organization.  Each week that I see Adrian Peterson and Jarred Allen working their hearts out on the gridiron I feel badly that they had to play for an organization like the Vikings.  Allen in particular, is an outstanding player and human being.  There is no team in the NFL (including the Packers) that wouldn’t want him on their roster.  Yet, week after week he must play football for a strip mall developer who hasn’t a clue about running a football club.

One wonders what Barry Sanders’ career stats would have looked like if he hadn’t been forced to play for the Lions for nine years.  He retired early and healthy after it became apparent that the Lions were not going to let him go to either the Green Bay Packers or Miami Dolphins.  Where you play and where you work makes a difference.

Today the snow came to Minnesota.  The neighborhood is full of people with shovels, snow blowers, and other winter apparatus who must clear the snow from roads, driveways, and sidewalks.  The first snow is usually welcomed; it virtually guarantees a “White Christmas” and serves as a beautiful sound insulator.  A meteorological calmness settles in.  Outside activities, while enjoyed by many people, keep most of us inside for most of the time.  With the change in daylight savings time, it gets dark very early and the days grow shorter and colder.  We northerners are “cooped up” inside for several months.

We can watch television for five months, hang out in bars, or we can turn to intellectual pursuits such as reading, writing, and (yes) thinking.  In places like Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Dakotas, and Michigan, for those of us who don’t spend a lot of time before the television, winter is the season for intellectual activity.  Hence, I’ve coined the term “Intellectual Blizzard” for the increased intellectual activity that occurs from December through March.

I don’t have any proof that intellectual activity is positively correlated to the weather cycle, but I’ve got some anecdotal evidence that I’ve noticed as a college professor.

1. A lot less partying goes on in college towns when cold weather comes early in the fall.

2. A lot more partying goes on in college towns when spring comes unusually early.

3. Students are much more distracted prior to major exams when the weather is warm.

4. During the dead of winter students appear more lethargic, but are less distracted from studies.

When winter comes to Winona I try to find activities that keep me outside, but it isn’t long before I’m in the chair reading academic material or even a good novel.  There must be thousands like me in this state.  Hopefully some great wisdom will come as a result of our brain-busting efforts!

Once in a while you see a quote that touches you in a special way.  During the past two weeks Deb and I have spent quite a few days at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.  In addition to her oncology appointments Deb had major shoulder surgery, along with a couple of days in St. Mary’s Hospital.  She is doing well, with less pain each day.

During the hours that Deb is sleeping in her hospital bed, I roam around the huge Mayo complex.  Something like 25,000 people are employed in Mayo’s Rochester facility.  When I go to the employee cafeteria (they haven’t kicked me out yet) I observe the broad range of occupations wearing the Mayo badge.  There are nurses and doctors, of course.  But there are IT specialists, counselors, business analysts, housekeepers, plumbers, carpenters, bus drivers, cooks, electricians, doorkeepers, receptionists; you name the occupation, they employ them at the Mayo Clinic.

Each patient has their own story; their own dream that they bring to this place on the Minnesota prairie.  No one goes to the Mayo Clinic for a hangnail; these are usually seriously ill patients.  Some of them have been coming to Mayo for decades with illnesses which can be managed.  Others are diagnosed with terminal diseases and come to know only that they must get their affairs in order; a sad reality for many.  The mental anguish of these patients and their loved ones is readily apparent in every hallway and every elevator.  They come from near and far; a Muslim woman from Saudi Arabia sits side by side with the straw-hated Amish farmer from twenty miles away.  They would never meet under normal circumstances, but their common desire for survival allows them to chat in a patient lounge on 10 th floor of the Gonda Building.

When I was young I used to think that being a Physician was a good gig; especially the money and prestige.  As I’ve observed my wife’s Doctors, it is obvious to me that they are in this “game” for the patients; they are public servants that work onerous hours.  The families of these physicians share the sacrifices made by their husbands, wives and parents.

The question still remains, “What drives these Mayo employees?”  Of what stuff are they motivated?

As I walked through a hallway the other day I saw a quote from founder William J. Mayo that might give us some insight to that motivation.

“They give me of their dreams, and I give them of my experience,
and I get the better of the exchange.”

William J. Mayo, M.D.