What do I think?

Death panel, War on Terror, and chicken wings

by Barry Bauer

When Sarah Palin talked about death panels in connection with the new national health care proposal, people kind of looked at her weird and scoffed at the idea.

How can that be in this country, they probably wondered?

The truth is they already exist. People with certain lifestyles are denied liver and heart transplants. And most recently, people 65 and older were denied H1N1 vaccines. As the supply increases, those of us in that 65 and older age group will be included too. It’s understandably a strange feeling being considered that way. As for whether this is discrimination or not, the answer is yes.

Betty did get her H1N1 Flu shot so we’re half-way there. Me, I’m still waiting for signs I’m getting younger – so far no luck.

* * *

I don’t know about anybody else, but I’m getting confused as to whether we’re involved in a war on terror or not. During the last administration it was called the War on Terror. The current administration prefers not to call it that. Well what is it then, another police action in a foreign country?

Now this country’s arguing about what we should do with the foreign terrorist detainees. Should they be tried in a civil court, a military court, treat them as American citizens on trial for a lesser crime, or leave them where they are and treat them as war criminals? The subject even boiled over on The View when guest Judge Jeanine Pirro and the ladies went at one another’s throats. Joy repeatedly told Elizabeth to stop saying what she was saying, and Elizabeth told Joy she wasn’t going to. Whoopi was making some references about our justice system not being perfect. Because she’s black, I think I know where she’s going with that. Don’t get me wrong, I like Whoopi, but I’m not afraid to criticize her.

Ladies, ladies, ladies!

While Whoopi, Joy, Judge Pirro and Elizabeth got all bent out of shape, Sherry sat quietly by and won the calmest person on the show award.

For those who missed Monday’s show it’s on www.hulu.com

So what are we going to do with the foreign prisoners who insist on blowing us to smithereens?

If we’re physically, mentally and financially at war, then it’s war. It has nothing to do with the current administration trying to be politically correct. They can call what we’re doing in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan “meaningful negotiations” if they want; but it only looks silly to the rest of us because we know it’s war. That makes the detainees war criminals for either committing or plotting to commit acts of war against us.

The better solution to dealing with them might be to learn from history and do what we did after World War II. That’s when the Nuremberg Trials took place. Let the current detainees sit where they are until our government decides to pull the military out of these countries and tell us once again, mission accomplished.

And don’t worry so much about waterboarding these guys; it beats the hell out of being beheaded.

* * *

For the first few years after we were married, I thought chickens didn’t come with a heart. The reason is that they never showed up on the plater when the chicken was served. I soon learned that Betty loved chicken hearts even more than I did. I’ve had my fair share of them since then.

That memory has provided us some laughs over the years.

Betty’s Dad loved chicken wings, and I wouldn’t touch them. I thought they were the ugliest part of the chicken and were nothing but skin and pin feathers. After all, chickens don’t fly so how can they have muscles in their wings? And then that gal in Buffalo came up with Buffalo wings. Now I love them, and we fix them on occasion. I haven’t got to the point where I’ll eat wing tips yet.

Never fear; I’m still learning.

All of that brings up the fact that it’s nearing time to think about buying a turkey for Thanksgiving which is only a week away. We’ll pick up a frozen bird and place it in the refrigerator in the garage to thaw. They say it takes about four days, so that’ll work out. We generally decide how big a bird we get not by what our family will eat that day but by how much we want left over.

It’ll make a few delicious meals for us after Thanksgiving.

Until the next time . . .

Now follow Barry on Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1140235673