John T. Reed’s news blog

This is a check list I created for my own use. It occurred to me that others could benefit from it so why not put it at my Web site. I took my car in for a recall and service this morning, drove all the way home in a loaner car and realized my house key was with my car key at the dealership. A wasted hour of driving back to get the house key. I also forgot to take one of my Coke Zero’s out of the trunk and thereby blew my diet at McDonalds drinking a regular Coke....

Copyright 2015 John T. Reed A pilot and a military policewoman? I just read in today’s paper about the branches of the two female rangers: aviation and military police. WTF? The school’s purpose is to train leaders of foot patrols behind enemy lines (remember those?—you can see them in movies about World War II). No pilot or MP would ever do such a thing. Uninhabited jungle only In my article on ranger, I said you can’t use rangers or SEALs in a land area where there are dogs, farm animals (see my comments on Lone Survivor movie), or people who have...

Copyright John T. Reed Trump says he’s worth $10 billion and that he proved it in his campaign disclosure. I doubt that. Forbes does an annual issue in which they list what they call The Forbes 400—the 400 richest people in the U.S. Forbes and The Donald have a running battle over his net worth. Forbes says it’s about $4 billion. Trump says they’re way low. “Show us the proof,” says Forbes. Donald refuses. The key point appears to be the value of Trump’s name—called “good will” by accountants.  I’ll go with the Forbes estimate, which is still a lot...

Copyright 2015 John T. Reed Like most Americans, I am really proud of the three guys in France who stopped the Moroccan terrorist on the French train. The group was reminiscent of one of those suspiciously diverse World War II movie infantry squads where they had an Italian-American, a German-American, a Jewish-American, an Irish-American, etc. The three Americans were Sadler (black), Skarlatos (Greek I assume), and the main hero, Spencer Stone. Unarmed white and black guys attacking an armed Islamic terrorist—it’s a good thing they didn’t do it in Ferguson The bad guy had an AK, pistol, and knives. The...

If you could call an omniscient being on the phone and ask which of all the 2016 presidential candidates is the actual best, it may be Jeb Bush. I saw one TV program compare the records of the various Republican governors: Bush, Kasich, Christie, Pataki, Huckabee, and Jyndal. Bush was the best, by far, with regard to Republican issues like fiscal responsibility, growth, education reform, taxes. He seems to have two knocks against him: his name and his relatively weak performance in the “debates.” First, the “not another Bush” stuff is childish analysis. You elect the best guy and who...