Americans Save the Day

I read a encouraging story in the Washington Post about three Americans who averted a huge disaster by tackling and tieing up a gunman on a French high speed train.

Really!

According to the story, "A gunman opened fire on a packed high-speed train running from Amsterdam to Paris on Friday before being tackled and tied up by three Americans, according to family members and French officials, who said their quick work had foiled a major tragedy."

I like reading stories about Americans doing great things while they are traveling around the world. Too often, I hear about the "ugly" Americans who do not represent the best reflection of our country or society. 

Americans — Anthony Sadler (left) of Pittsburg, Calif., and Alek Skarlatos from Roseburg, Ore., helped to overpower the gunman along with Spencer Stone, who is hospitalized. British national Chris Norman of France help to tie him up. (AFP/Getty Images)

"French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve praised the quick work of the Americans, whom he said had helped avert a far bloodier situation." He later used a word that I have never heard to describe their actions: sangfroid, which means coolness under extremely trying situations.

That two of the men are in the military, one is a National Guardsman and the other in the Air Force, just makes the story that much better because the other hero is a student and they are three friends from middle school.

We should always be prepared to lend a hand and avert disaster when we can and these three proved that they we more than ready to meet the task they faced.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

My Take--The Constitution Cannot be Unconstitutional

It was widely reported that presidential candidate Donald Trump has declared that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution is unconstitutional.

Really?

That makes no sense to me on so many levels.

He is reported to have said that it wouldn't hold up in court. This is one of those concepts that amazes me. The amendment is part of the Constitution. It cannot, by definition, be unconstitutional. And, because it is an amendment to the Constitution it is the basis for court decisions.

Get a grip.

Do we really need someone with that much ignorance and lack of history to be President? If the amendment is deemed flawed, it should be repealed. A similar situation existed with the 18th Amendment which was subsequently repeated by the 21st Amendment. 

If the people of the United States feel strongly that the 14th Amendment, which confers citizenship uno everyone born in the United States, an amendment should submitted  to repeal it, but going around and saying that is it unconstitutional is just, in a word, ignorant.

If we repeal the 14th Amendment, then we have truly lost our way in the world and we should consider sending the Statue of Liberty back to France.

Did you see the latest poll that the U.S. is only the 21st most free country in the world? We thought we were higher. We keep falling down the list, and people are shocked!

Pop quiz--which amendment to the Constitution took over 202 years to ratify?

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

The Loss of August

It is happening.

Bills are arriving with due dates in September. I am feeling the loss of summer more with each new September due date. 

The days are growing shorter and many of the evening have been cooler.

The precession of the seasons and the months continues unabated despite my best efforts to remain in perpetual summertime.

Too soon the trees will drop their leaves, my pool will be closed, and my private yard will again become more public as nothing but bare branches separate my neighbors from me.

I feel the loss already, yet it is still summer. I am beginning to mourn something that I still have in anticipation of its loss.

How weird is that?

I need to enjoy each of summer's remaining day to their fullest and then stand tall as autumn arrives and find a way to enjoy each if its cooler days as well.

Well, it's a plan.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Presidential Questions

I think it is time for significant changes to the Presidential election process. 

The race for The White House begins earlier with each election season. The first thing I think we need to do as a nation is to limit the election season and not allow it to begin before February 1st of the year of the election. Nine months should be enough time to select a president. Babies only take that much time to be born.

Next, we need to change the candidate selection process. Instead of having a plethora of choices, We the People should decide upon the qualities we need in a president and draft that person to run for us. The way it is now, the candidates decide the issues, the people need to decide the issues and find the best person to serve. That is how the first few presidents were selected. There was no national primary system followed by a general election.

Finally, we need to continue to support the Electoral College system. The Electoral College has ensured the relevancy of the less populated states and rural areas of the country. Loss of the Electoral College would render anything other than the big cities irrelevant.

Maybe we can find a real person to be President.

We need one--and it surely in not "The Donald."

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Football? In August?

The NFL is desperately trying to give consumers a product that they can appreciate and identify with. 

How can they expect fans to appreciate meaningless games at regular season prices? 

NFL football in the stands is just not a lot of fun. Especially if someone happens to be cheering for the visiting team. There is a thuggish mentality that takes over. And the games do not matter.

Who really cares about a preseason football win? Look at the 2014 season. The Washington Redskins were 3-1 in the preseason , but wound up 4-12 during the regular season.

Conversely, the Indianapolis Colts were 0-4 during preseason, but finished the regular season 11-5.

I saw parts of some of the games this past weekend. The stands were mostly empty. 

The product is just not that good.

If preseason games were free, then they would be a good value. Alternatively, play the games in smaller stadiums and charge less per seat, like baseball! But since the real teams don't take the field until September, it is hard to get excited about meaningless games.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Monday Musings - August 17, 2015

1. Teachers in some counties of Maryland report back to school today. Welcome back teachers, summer is over and it's time to get ready for the next school year.

Golf Carts and Golfers ready for the
Troy Whittemore Classic Golf Tournament

2. There is a lot of sadness as summer vacation comes to an end, but--summer is NOT over! Let's not hasten the demise of summer just because schools are gearing up. Autumn comes too soon as it is without helping it arrive sooner.

Hole Six at the
Troy Whittemore Classic sponsored by
Chris

3. I played in a golf tournament in Upstate New York yesterday. While my team did five or six strokes better than last year, we were hoping to do even better. 

4. Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of my introduction to golf! What a change. Instead of hoping to just hit the ball, I was actually planning how to execute specific shots.

5. How 'bout them Orioles? 18-2 winners over the Athletics yesterday, on a three game winning streak and creeping up to only four games out of the division lead. Good things are happening in Baltimore! More baseball is on tap for today!

Balloon over Hershey, PA
August 15, 2015

6. I had the opportunity to ride and look out the windows on most of my trip to and from Upstate New York this weekend. I saw a hot air balloon over Hershey, PA. 

Lights Reflecting on Cayuga Lake
August 15, 2015

7. I was able to take a few minutes and look at the stars and consider the reflections of the lights in Cayuga Lake on Saturday night. The scene was memorable and I tried to capture it. It made a better memory and image, I guess.

8. Reading the news of the past few days I find it amazing what can be condoned in the name of religion. ISIS has found a way to incorporate rape, sex slaves, murder, and who know what other atrocities and justify them as an offering to god. 

9. Did you read that North Korea now has its own time zone? Actually, it is reverting to the one it used until 1910. Maybe I can declare a personal time zone?

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

An Historic Day: Old Glory Over Havana

I really do not know why I feel the way I do about reestablishing

The Flag being raised at the US Embassy
Havana, Cuba

relations with Cuba, but I am very happy that one of the last vestiges of the Cold War has finally been eradicated.

The raising of the Stars and Stripes over the Embassy in Havana yesterday, on a clear and beautiful August day, was the proper exclamation point to formally begin to reconnect with a country for which we have had an unreasonable paranoia for far too long.

I do not fully understand the Cold War, anti-communism mentality that vilified Cuba--but being unrepentant for so many decades is a travesty. Since 1961, the U.S. has fought a war in Vietnam and then subsequently normalized relations with that country--and we didn't win that war.

The anti-Cuban mentality that many people have is, in my opinion, misguided. Countries (for instance China) with far worse human rights track records are afforded most favored nation status. The embargo has not worked! What will work is entrepreneurship and capitalism. Open Cuba to the world commerce and the commerce of America. Our economic prowess is still a force almost unequalled on the planet and that is what will eventually bring hope, prosperity, and freedom to the Cuban people. 

It was an historic day and it coincided with V-J Day! Coincidence? I think not.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

My Take: Facial Recognition Software is a Problem

I've written before about the subtle but real ways that police and other government agencies are usurping our Fourth Amendment protections. There is a good summary in an article titled, What Does the Fourth Amendment Mean?

The latest in the instances where we need to critically review Fourth Amendment protections was highlighted in a New York Times article yesterday describing how the San Diego police department may be misusing facial recognition software. 

Imagine this--you are stopped by police for a traffic violation. Remember, most traffic offenses are not criminal offenses. The officer takes your picture to run it through facial recognition software and swabs your mouth to collect a DNA sample. 

As quoted from the article, here was the real world response to this situation:

Lt. Scott Wahl, a spokesman for the 1,900-member San Diego Police Department, said the department does not require police officers to file a report when they use the facial recognition technology but do not make an arrest. 

“It is a test product for the region that we’ve allowed officers to use,” he said of facial recognition software and the hand-held devices the police use to take pictures. “We don’t even know how many are out there” in the region.

And that is the real problem. "We don't even know how many are out there."

Why are protections from unreasonable police actions being allowed? Even worse, what is being done to control the technology and the images and DNA samples that were taken. How are these being handled? How long are they being stored? When will they be destroyed, especially more compelling since no criminal charges were files, and in the case of one of the men in the article, no charges of any kind were filed and he was not even suspected of breaking the law.

With the breaches of extremely sensitive and personal data that have splashed through the news lately on a federal government level, what reasonable expectation is there that data collected by local police departments is secure?

Unless there is a reasonable suspicion that criminal activity is involved, personal information should not be collected especially since recent history proves that in an electronic form it cannot be protected.

I do not want my image as collected by law enforcement or my DNA profile available to hackers trolling the internet! And did I mention, that facial recognition software is not 100 percent accurate? There are probabilities associated with the identification and therefore it is possible for an innocent person to be caught up in a legal morass which ultimately will involve time, large sums of money, and lawyers to be exonerated.

This most personal and private of data needs the utmost protection, and even more important should never be collected and therefore not require protection.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Autumn in the Air

After weeks of sweltering, humid temperatures which often left me slipping wet from perspiration after just walking to the car after work, the past two days have definitely been harbingers of autumn.

I first noticed it yesterday afternoon while I was enjoying an extremely slow playing round of golf at The Timbers at Troy. The temperature was comfortable and the humidity was low. It was obvious that many other golfers also wanted to enjoy the pleasant afternoon because the course was full--and it was slow. It took 4 hours and 12 minutes to play 18 holes on the same course where a few weeks ago I played 2 hours and 58 minutes. I made my last putt with just enough visible light to line up my shot. But it was beautiful weather and I thoroughly enjoyed the outing.

The coolness of the impending autumn was far more noticeable this morning as I took the dogs out for their morning activity. The 63 degree temperature was a true slap in the face. It was, to use a word, crisp. I could imagine apples on the trees and leaves collecting in piles on my lawn. I went back out to look for the Persieds meteor shower and it was just cold.

But please, not for two more months!

I want to enjoy summer until October. Already the daylight has begun to fade all too soon. Sunset last evening was at 8:05 PM. Two short weeks ago it was 8:22 PM. We are losing over 2 minutes of daylight per day!

Enjoy the day! 

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

Sunset to Sunrise Vacation

Sunset July 22, 2015
from the Square Grouper, Jupiter, Florida

In reviewing the images we captured during our vacation, it was surprising that even though the weather was great most of the days, Chris and I only captured one sunset and one sunrise that provided the classic images of which memories are made.

I enjoy sunrises and sunsets. The color saturation and the transition of the hues provide a constant stream of changing color.

Sunrise August 2, 2015
Port Everglades, Florida
aboard the Carnival Conquest

Even more interesting than realizing that we only captured one of each, was the fact that the sunset was imaged on the very first night of our vacation while in Jupiter, Florida, with friends and that the sunrise was taken from the balcony of our stateroom on the ship on the morning that we docked signifying the ending of our vacation. 

The setting and rising of the sun bookended our vacation, and nothing in between was nearly as spectacular.

I just found it very interesting--and I remember we watched for the sunsets every evening and I was awake for many of the sunrises--but none were as stunning as the sunset that started our vacation the sunrise that woke the world as we began our last day and traveled back to our day-to-day lives.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD