A NEW HELPFUL WEBSITE!

The Internet is a huge, dynamic, overwhelming place. Too many choices and the choices change every day. There are millions of websites covering all sorts of subjects. How does one make sense of it all? You need a guide to help you find meaningful, high quality, easy to use websites. Soon, you will have one! A team of geezers is building "awesomegeezer.com". This site will be your wizard to help you navigate the Internet. My long time friend and retiree from the National Security Agency, Patrick D. Fero, and I will soon have the site up and running. Pat comes from a high tech environment of code breaking and code making. I come from the confusing world of insurance. We are both amature computer geeks looking for a challenge. Pat has built a number of websites and I recently built my first one. This new site will be for you! Consequently, we would really like to hear from you. Please tell us what you would like to see on our site. We value your opinion and you will be our most important critic. Let us know what is on your mind. We will be grateful for some feed back. In the near future, awesomegeezer.com will be available. We hope to have your support!

THE GEEZERS' CRUSADE

This Op-Ed column by David Brooks appeared in the February 2 issue of The New York Times. It is so good, I want to share it with you. I am substituting it for my Weds. blog because I am taking a snow day. Enjoy the Article!

We like to think that in days gone by, the young venerated the elderly. But that wasn’t always so. In “As You Like It,”Shakespeare’s morose character, Jaques, calls old age “second childishness and mere oblivion.” Walt Whitman hoped that the tedium and pettiness of his senior years would not infect his poetry.

Developmental psychologists, when they treated old age at all, often regarded it as a period of withdrawal. The elderly slowly separate themselves from the world. They cannot be expected to achieve new transformations. “About the age of fifty,” Freud wrote, “the elasticity of the mental processes on which treatment depends is, as a rule, lacking. Old people are no longer educable.”

Well, that was wrong. Over the past few years, researchers have found that the brain is capable of creating new connections and even new neurons all through life. While some mental processes — like working memory and the ability to quickly solve math problems — clearly deteriorate, others do not. Older people retain their ability to remember emotionally nuanced events. They are able to integrate memories from their left and right hemispheres. Their brains reorganize to help compensate for the effects of aging.

A series of longitudinal studies, begun decades ago, are producing a rosier portrait of life after retirement. These studies don’t portray old age as surrender or even serenity. They portray it as a period of development — and they’re not even talking about über-oldsters jumping out of airplanes.

People are most unhappy in middle age and report being happier as they get older. This could be because as people age they pay less attention to negative emotional stimuli, according to a study by the psychologists Mara Mather, Turhan Canli and others.

Gender roles begin to merge. Many women get more assertive while many men get more emotionally attuned. Personalities often become more vivid as people become more of what they already are. Norma Haan of the University of California, Berkeley, and others conducted a 50-year follow-up of people who had been studied while young and concluded that the subjects had become more outgoing, self-confident and warm with age.

The research paints a comforting picture. And the nicest part is that virtue is rewarded. One of the keys to healthy aging is what George Vaillant of Harvard calls “generativity” — providing for future generations. Seniors who perform service for the young have more positive lives and better marriages than those who don’t. As Vaillant writes in his book “Aging Well,” “Biology flows downhill.” We are naturally inclined to serve those who come after and thrive when performing that role.

The odd thing is that when you turn to political life, we are living in an age of reverse-generativity. Far from serving the young, the old are now taking from them. First, they are taking money. According to Julia Isaacs of the Brookings Institution, the federal government now spends $7 on the elderly for each $1 it spends on children.

Second, they are taking freedom. In 2009, for the first time in American history, every single penny of federal tax revenue went to pay for mandatory spending programs, according to Eugene Steuerle of the Urban Institute. As more money goes to pay off promises made mostly to the old, the young have less control.

Third, they are taking opportunity. For decades, federal spending has hovered around 20 percent of G.D.P. By 2019, it is forecast to be at 25 percent and rising. The higher tax rates implied by that spending will mean less growth and fewer opportunities. Already, pension costs in many states are squeezing education spending.

In the private sphere, in other words, seniors provide wonderful gifts to their grandchildren, loving attention that will linger in young minds, providing support for decades to come. In the public sphere, they take it away.

I used to think that political leaders could avert fiscal suicide. But it’s now clear change will not be led from Washington. On the other hand, over the past couple of years we’ve seen the power of spontaneous social movements: first the movement that formed behind Barack Obama, and now, equally large, the Tea Party movement.

Spontaneous social movements can make the unthinkable thinkable, and they can do it quickly. It now seems clear that the only way the U.S. is going to avoid an economic crisis is if the oldsters take it upon themselves to arise and force change. The young lack the political power. Only the old can lead a generativity revolution — millions of people demanding changes in health care spending and the retirement age to make life better for their grandchildren.

It may seem unrealistic — to expect a generation to organize around the cause of nonselfishness. But in the private sphere, you see it every day. Old people now have the time, the energy and, with the Internet, the tools to organize.

The elderly. They are our future.

INTERESTING PEOPLE I HAVE MET

I enjoy smoking a fine cigar, drinking a pint of Guinness, and having a conversation with a friend. However, I am not allowed to smoke a cigar inside my house and very few public establishments will allow it. However, in the heart of down town Adrian, there is a cigar friendly Pub called the Barley House. It is where I go when I have the urge to indulge. The proprietor of this fine place is an interesting fellow. His beautiful, voluptuous barmaid, who has a charming Russian accent, is also his wife. I asked him how they had met and he told me the story.

Several years ago, while vacationing in the Southern Ural Mountains, he visited a tavern located in a small village. Because he was attracted to the barmaid, he wanted to get to know her but he had a problem. She did not speak English and he did not speak Russian. Fortunately, he had a comprehensive phrase book with him. It had English/Russian and Russian/English sentences. He would point to a sentence and she would respond by pointing to a sentence. In this manner they became acquainted and fell in love. He asked her to marry him and she said yes! He bought a computer for her that could translate Russian to English and vice versa. He went back home to Adrian and they began an e-mail conversation that lasted for a year. That is how long it took them to get through all the red tape necessary to allow her and her two children to emigrate to the U.S.A. He bought the Airline tickets and the rest is history.

Look around you, be friendly, strike up a conversation, and chances are you will meet some interesting people. I did.

FREE EDUCATION ON THE WEB

On the right side of this blog page, there is a list of recommended sites. The second site listed is Open Culture. This is the most amazing site that I have found on the web. It brings together all the free, high-quality educational media that is scattered across the web. Its mission is to centralize all this media and give you access to this content whenever you want it. Free courses, free lectures, free audio books, free eBooks, and free movies, are all available. If you are interested in lifelong learning, this is the site for you. There are 250 online courses from top universities on every subject you can think of! And, did I mention they are FREE? I am currently enrolled in a Computer Science class at Harvard University. I listen to lectures, do workshops, and watch videos, all on line. It is truly an amazing experience. I am learning about hardware, software, the Internet, Multimedia, security, Website Development, as well as programming. I am now a “Harvard Man”. You may want to go to Yale or Stanford or any one of a number of first class universities. You can download these audio and video courses straight to your computer or mp3 player. Check it out! Apache JavaScript Tag a Packet on Gnutella! (Programing jargon)

AN EXCITING WEEK IN MY LIFE

Last week I was in Russia playing simultaneous chess games against Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov. They are, respectively, the Classical World Chess Champion and the FIDE World Chess Champion. Both are highly rated Russian Grand Masters. Russians are famous for being good at chess but Americans have had some great players as well. Remember Bobby Fischer? He beat all the Russians to become World Champion. My goal was to embarrass the Russian Champions by beating both of them at the same time in an exhibition match while being blindfolded. It was quite an ambitious undertaking but I managed to pull it off. I checkmated both champions on move number 18 with a clever combination involving both of my knights. When I removed my blindfold, the crowd roared its approval! Of course, the victory celebration involved a huge quantity of vodka, which left me with a brutal hangover.

Two days later I was in New York to play in a duplicate bridge tournament with my partner, George Teller. In the last round of play, we were matched against Omar Sheriff and Phillip Alder. I opened the bidding with 2 clubs and George answered with a jump bid in spades. After using the Blackwood convention, I bid 7 no trump. Alder doubled and George redoubled. After two brilliant finesses, I not only made the bid, but  also took an overtrick. It was the first time, in the history of bridge, that there was an overtrick in a 7 no trump contract. It happened because of a renege by that sneaky Arab, Sheriff. Needless to say we won the tournament. At the victory celebration, George and I consumed a large number of Manhattan cocktails (after all, we were in Manhattan). The next day I had a brutal hangover.

Two days later, I was walking backwards while rubbing my head and patting my stomach, and reciting the 12 steps program, as I climbed to the summit of Nanga Parbat. Top-flight alpinist considers this mountain to be more difficult to scale than either Everest or K2. Reinhold Messner, recently back from a 1000 mile walk in the Gobi desert, served as my porter. He used conventional climbing methods but I still had to stop and wait for him. Mountain Climber Magazine declared that I was the greatest climber of all time. My picture appears on the cover.

Laetitia Maria Laure Casta read of my exploits and was so impressed; she invited me to stay with her for a weekend on the island of Corsica. She is a beautiful model who ‘Rolling Stone Magazine’ calls “the hottest thing alive”. Just as I was packing to go, my wife woke me up and said, “you did not take the trash out last night so, get up and take care of it.

Hold fast to dreams, for when dreams go, life is a barren field. Shakespeare said that sleep and dreams are the “chief nourishers in life’s feast”. Dreams do offer opportunities for fun, adventure, wish fulfillment, creativity, deep personal insight and healing. Dreams offer all this at no cost and with no line-ups! Keep on dreaming.

THEY HATE US

Islam, as practiced by the Fundamentalist Muslims, is intrinsically an intolerant and violent religion. Fundamentalists have a deep hatred of America. They see us as the supreme obstacle to their goal of applying Islamic Law. Their goals are a penal code based on the Koran, taxation according to Islamic law, and warfare against non-Muslims and ultimately a union of all Muslims living under one ruler. The success of the United States has caused a steep fall in the power and wealth of the Muslim world. The Middle East does not have a modern society with political parties, the rule of law, a free press and a free market. It has dictators, oil money, a few very wealthy Sheiks and lots of poor people with no political rights. This is the land of suicide bombers, flag-burners, and fiery Mullahs. There is something stronger at work here than deprivation, and jealousy. According to the Fundamentalist Muslims, it is a holy war between Islam and the Western world. They want to go back to medieval times. American culture is threatening, its ideology is alien, and its power is feared. (And we are evil people who drink booze and produce pornography!) The Fundamentalist Muslims condemn American culture as loathsome and morally decadent.

The United States is not without fault. The US invaded a country that had not attacked us, dismantled the regime, and took hardly any precautions to prevent the outbreak of violence. In the last 30 years, the United States has killed a large number of Muslims (288,000). Even though we had just cause in some cases (as in the first Gulf War), our actions were indefensible and criminal in others. It is also striking to observe that virtually all of the Muslim deaths were the direct or indirect consequence of official U.S. government policy. By contrast, the small number of Americans (10,325) killed by Muslims was the victim of non-state terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda or the insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. The figures reported above, do not include the Muslims killed by Israel in Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank. Because of our generous support of Israel’s policy toward Arabs, Muslims hold us responsible for those victims, too. Our problem in the Middle East is partly caused by our actions in recent years. Whitewashing our own misconduct makes it harder for Americans to figure out why their country is so hated. It makes it harder to consider different and more effective approaches. When you kill thousands of people in other countries _ and sometimes for no good reason _ you shouldn’t be surprised when people in those countries are enraged by this behavior and interested in revenge. After all, how did we react after September 11? 

I recommend that we stop killing Muslims and become neutral in the endless war between Israel and the Arab nations. Let them settle their differences without our special interest intervention. Don’t ‘mess’ with the Middle East. Eventually, the Arabs will run out of oil and have very little influence on the rest of the world. Any future terrorist acts against Americans must be met with relentless pursuit of the people who plan and help in the operation. They should be punished, their operations disrupted, their finances drained, and their hideouts destroyed. That should be our total focus. We need to let the rest of the world know that we are committed to this narrow and focused response to terrorism. No more ‘messing’ with the Middle East unless we have to go there to find the terrorists that ‘mess’ with us.

The Fundamentalist Muslims are on a dark, evil road to extinction. They are destroying Islam. My question is: Why do the Traditional and Secular Muslims allow this to happen? Why don’t the ‘good’ Muslims stop the ‘bad’ Muslims? Is it because there are really no ‘good’ Muslims? I hope that is not the case!

CHARACTER FLAWS OF CELEBRITIES

Tiger Woods has a lot of “shoulds” and Charlie Sheen, to his wife, is mean. Celebrity character flaws are always in the news. If it isn’t drugs or booze, it is neurosis, psychosis, or immoral behavior. I am thankful for not being famous. Only my friends know about my flaws. Bono is an exception to the rule. He seems to always be doing something good for humanity. He is a very intelligent and talented person. I hope his flaws remain unknown. He is human so, he must have some. So far, he has kept them hidden. A man is the sum of his actions and what he has done. Hopefully, the good outweighs the bad. Shakespeare said, “To err is human, to forgive, divine.” This is a difficult ambition. I am not divine enough to forgive someone like Adolph Hitler. There is a limit on what can be forgiven. Everyone has a different set point.

We all have one thing in common, our imperfections. There are those who have had an achievement which made our world a better place but that does not make them perfect. In a perfect world, we would not judge others nor have prejudices. Learning to tolerate and accept one another is something to aspire for. However, again, there are limits. Common sense tells me to not be tolerant of militant Muslims who are trying to destroy my way of life. I say profile the bastards! Finally, our government has decided that it is politically correct to profile Muslims and other wanna be terrorist from certain countries. It is about time! We were damn lucky that goofy Nigerian just set his pants on fire instead of blowing up an airplane with hundreds of people on board. Wake up people! Fundamentalist Muslims hate us and want to kill us!


Everyone makes mistakes. The trick is to do it when nobody is looking!

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