Our nation has spent a fortune on coverage of the presidential election. I'm not sure what most people think but this writer thinks it was a race between two equals and that if they were both added together they still wouldn't equal much.
Looking back at past campaigns perhaps the Reagan campaign was typical. We were given the most conservative rhetoric. Oh!!! America loved every word of it. Sharp criticism of the spendthrift ways of the previous administration. "If you had a stack of Thousand Dollar Bills, 4 inches thick you would be a millionaire! (By the election public debt had exceeded one trillion dollars.) "It would take a stack of thousand dollar bills 67 miles high to make a trillion dollars!" Something had to be done about this!
Reagan was elected and that administration spend several more trillions. In just 8 years! Very conservative!!
More and more the greed and appetites of the special interests and international banks are the only ones served.
It's quite as if there were two campaigns, one for the public in which candidates posture their ideas of patriotism and responsibility, and another, quite secret, in which the candidates are like excited schoolboys anxious to curry favor with the teacher, raising their hands, hoping to be selected, shouting "Me." "Choose me!" "I'll sell the interests and the future of my countrymen faster and cheaper than anyone else!"
Not absolutely sure here but I believe that both of our candidates are members of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). I can just see them laughing on their way back to their CFR clubhouse, finding it hilarious that anyone actually believed that there was one dime's worth of difference between them.

The other day I read in the Fairbanks Daily News Miner about the shooting of a young man. According to the report, the driver of a van was driving recklessly. Police tried to stop him but the driver of the van would not stop. The chase became high speed so police broke off the chase in the interest of public safety. Later, police set up a roadblock which evidently failed its purpose but did manage to slow the van to about 5 MPH.
A policeman somehow boarded the van, „plasteringū himself across the windshield. When the driver of the van still refused to stop, the officer shot the driver in the face three times, killing him.
Ižm not sure how it is now but the last time I checked, failure to stop for the police or reckless driving would cost onežs drivers license and Ižm not sure again how much in fines, jail time etc.. I have never heard that these things were capital offenses.
If the van were slowed to 5 MPH, couldnžt the policeman have shot a tire or the cooling system or who knows what else in order to disable the van? Couldnžt the police have shot the driver in order to wound or disable rather than kill the driver? The incident occurred just a few blocks from the hospital.
I donžt doubt that the driver was a menace. I believe that, whenever possible, steps should be taken to reduce the chance of serious accident. Most reckless drivers fortunately do no harm whatsoever to anyone other than themselves. At the least all make fools of themselves. Some only damage their own property. Some damage the property of others as well as their own property and some hurt themselves as well as someone else. One thing common to all reckless drivers is we can only guess at the probability of a damage to people and property. Not so when someone aims a loaded gun at the face of another and pulls the trigger!
We know with a high degree of accuracy what is going to happen! Failure of firearms or of ammunition is rare! Again I donžt know the exact figures, but Ižm willing to guess that over 99% of all attempts to fire a gun are successful. My God! Sometimes a gun is successfully fired without even trying at all.
The next day or so I saw another article assuring the public that the shooting was „justifiedū. Nothing in the article convinces me that the police were really down to the last resort of killing the driver of the van. I am left with the opinion and impression that there has been a senseless waste of a young life. A little more thought is in order concerning how to handle these situations. Better training for our police could be in order.
Perhaps some training could be given on how to make a successful roadblock, for instance maybe some old cars could be used to block the road. Maybe then policemen wouldnžt feel compelled to stand in front of a reckless driver. Some training on how to disable a vehicle or someone without causing a death could be given. Maybe some training on how not to be so theatrical is in order. Perhaps our officer watches to much TV and has learned his methods from a few hundred if not thousands of garden variety Hollywood scripts.
One thing for sure. Most people I talk to are sick and tired of high handed government and overbearing government officials. This is about as high handed and as stupid as it ever needs to get! There are lots of people at age 22 who are confused, who donžt see to well into the future, who arenžt doing so well with life. Most of them by age 32 will be much better off if they are allowed to live that long. Jim Perkins