“The List”

“The List”

By

Mike Scinto

Are you on “The List”? If you are, you know it by now. If you’re not, you’ll likely be wondering why after reading this. But it is open to additions (and deletions). I’m talking about the Scinto Family Christmas card list.

I’m sure there’s a master list somewhere but all I have is in bits and pieces on this laptop, or that desktop. Some of it is on my external hard drive and some is simply in Kathy’s old handwritten address book.

I’m not even privy to the origins of the list or the criteria for staying on, or being banished from, the list. So, at best, these are guesses since my sole role is creating the annual newsletter/update, printing off the labels and taking them to the post office.

I believe the very first parchment with names of the fortunate ones was penned following our wedding nearly 35 years ago. But that original list is hidden better than the Holy Grail. It somehow comes together (most years anyway) and sneaks into my database.

Once you’re on it, it’s tantamount to a lifetime appointment. I’m sure divorce, prison or death can mean an exit for you. In some cases there seems to be a two year rule; If you don’t reciprocate with a card for 24 months you’re thrown under the bus for good………or until you prove yourself worthy again; that is to the “Keeper of the List”.

I know I saw names on there this year that we haven’t heard from in a couple of decades. When I sheepishly ask her about them, I get “the stare” and go back to printing labels.

Don’t shoot the messenger. I’m just delivering the message for Kathy (unofficially). I’m almost afraid to suggest it but if you’d like to make the list, you might discretely ask her. But don’t push it! Be good, try not to cross her this year and you may just have something special in your mailbox about ten months from now……..then again, you may not!

Issue #3 a Real Roll of the Dice for Scinto

By Mike Scinto

I need some help. I don’t say that very often, but I’m saying it now. I need your input to help me decide how to vote on Issue 3 in the upcoming election. Oh, I understand the issue. I just don’t know which side I favor. I’m riding the proverbial fence until it’s, well, quite painful!

In case you’ve been in a monastery or biosphere and don’t know about issue 3, it’s a proposed Constitutional Amendment (to the Ohio Constitution) that would open the state up to legalized casino gambling specifically in 4 key locations – Cleveland, Toledo, Columbus, and Cincinnati

I believe gambling, if it’s for financial gain, is for fools. I would just as soon use my cash to start one of my autumn bonfires as use it to feed the craps tables, slot machines or roulette wheels. It would serve a more useful purpose that way; for my wallet anyway.

I also believe that a good number of patrons frequenting casinos are folks who should not be there. They may be on government assistance, have a gambling addiction or are bordering on both of those areas. My compassionate side asks if we want to feed those desires and needs. Is that how we want to “fix” our economy, through the misguided greed of those less fortunate?

The Conservative/Libertarian in me, who wants an individual to be free to make his or her own choices without government edicts, says if that’s what you want to do with your money, it’s not my problem!

The parent/good neighbor in me acknowledges that, as contradictory as it might sound, I don’t want prostitution (another vice)to be legalized and a brothel to open up in the vacant property down the block. It just isn’t right. So we do allow our morals to dictate behaviors………at least I allow them to affect MY judgment.

I don’t believe the 34,000 new jobs propaganda, the claims that jobs will ONLY be filled by unseemly characters from out of state, or that the money generated will repair our sagging economy. I think there are grains of truth on both sides of the issue. I still remember when Governor Jack Gilligan told us that the Ohio Lottery would assure a solid monetary foundation for our schools in Ohio. What happened to that promise? But Buckeyes bought it hook, line and sinker.

I absolutely believe gambling attracts unsavory characters, is a major enticement to those trying to find an easy way out of life’s financial woes and can be a crippling noose around the necks of those who (depending on whether or not you buy the addiction angle) can’t stay away from it. It did, after all, destroy the lives and dreams of many players including two famous area legends; Pete Rose and Art Schlichter, the Ohio State quarterback who had such great potential until gambling took its hold on him. I also acknowledge that some of us, including this writer, might like spending a Friday night having some fun at a local casino.

It really is a conundrum for me. I would love to hear your input. Drop me a line and share your views on this one before I have to go into the voting booth. While I don’t let others’ opinions control my decisions, I do weigh those views. My contact information, as always, is listed at the end of this column. I look forward to hearing from you.

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Mike Scinto has served as a radio talk show host for three decades. He can be heard on the syndicated “The Mike Gallagher Show” and seen as a contributor on the Fox News Channel. You can reach Mike by phone at 937-506-4288, via his blog at http://mikescinto.blogspot.com/ or by email at mikescintoshow@gmail.com.

Please Deposit $.50 for Your Next 3 Minutes

by Mike Scinto

It doesn’t take much to get my inquisitive mind wandering. This past weekend, it was my cell phone. It wasn’t charged as I was about to make a run into town, so I had to leave it behind. We live in the township and the trip back and forth (including stops) could have taken as much as an hour. What was I going to do? My communication with the outside world was gone! I felt like one of the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 on “Lost”.

My first thought was to look in the garage for my old Midland 40 channel CB radio from the 1970s. That baby got me out of more than a few tight situations. I found it but couldn’t bring myself to dislocate the poor insects that had taken up residence in there. They looked like they were preparing for winter. So I suppose this journey had to be made sans radio or phone. Could I make it?

I did. And I’m here to tell about it. That little bout of insecurity likely takes place in homes like ours, and yours, almost daily. And that made me ask the question about how things in our lives have changed; and was it really for the better?

You see, I reminded myself that not so long ago, if you weren’t anchored to a wall in your house by a twisted up wire that seemed to get shorter with time, you couldn’t be on the phone at all. And if you were planning to call Uncle Billy in Missouri, you’d better have deep pockets to cover the long distance charges.

If your phone service was down, you could always run to the nearby corner gas station or shopping center and use one of the myriad of pay phones you’d practically trip over. In my recent panic I did a visual search of the territory I covered, in case of an emergency; not a phone booth to be seen ANYWHERE! All I saw were the empty shells where that link with the outside world used to reside, awaiting our dimes and quarters; and perhaps Clark Kent’s quick change into Superman. I guess he has to use the back seat of his car now.

I don’t know about you but I feel absolutely naked when I am out in the real world without my phone. And try to get a teen to part with theirs. This is not one of those “I remember when gas used to be a nickel a gallon” stories from the turn of the last century. This has happened in the blink of an eye. The technology is growing so fast it’s really hard to keep up.

My wife and I just recently joined the iphone crowd. I’m not bragging. They had to get me there kicking and screaming until I realized how amazing this little thing can be. My wife is a systems engineer, and has been for three decades. Our phones, besides calling Uncle Billy for free, can do calculations it used to take an entire room of her mainframes to handle. It’s a phone, a road map, a computer, an alarm clock, a trip planner, an egg timer, a phone book, a Day-Timer and a gaming device. It fits in my shirt pocket!

Our problems today don’t revolve around that anchored landline. No, the problem today is watching out for the other drivers texting while behind the wheel going 80 MPH. Then there are the drivers who used to be easily distracted by a carload of passengers yakking away, now doing the same thing into their handheld devices. And what about the choice of restaurant, not being based on the menu but on whether the establishment offers free Wi-Fi?

So the $64,000 question is; are we better off with these little gadgets that connect us with the world? My answer is that we probably are, as long as we don’t become even more dependent on them than our old landline phones had to be to that wall mount.

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Mike Scinto has served as a radio talk show host for three decades. He can be heard on the syndicated “The Mike Gallagher Show” and seen as a contributor on the Fox News Channel. You can reach Mike by phone at 937-506-4288, via his blog at http://mikescinto.blogspot.com/ or by email at mikescintoshow@gmail.com.

Break out the Shackles-by Mike Scinto

A reader recently provided me with the following dissertation:

"A Democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on the majority always vote for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a Democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependency back again to bondage."

Keep in mind we are not a democracy, as the reader points out, but a republic. However the message of this writing could apply to both forms of government and, more importantly, transcends that message. It is a roadmap for our journey as a nation; and I might add we are frightfully close to our destination in that journey with the socialist who now sits in the White House.

These words were written over two hundred years ago by English historian Alexander Fraser Tyler about the fall of the Athenian Republic but hold so true today about the “ME” generation in America.

The reader points out that we have become apathetic and self-centered. We expect to be cared for from womb to tomb. We took a Social Security system that was supposed to supplement our retirement years and turned it into our sole means of support, thus nearly destroying it. Our banks and major corporations are now being commanded by King Obama. The free market system which, unfettered, is designed to function at its best is being dismantled. Obama Motor Car Company now replaces the “Big Three”. We give Americans a free pass if they choose not to work, defend their country or obey our laws. And now we have elected a President who is enabling us continuing to continue those practices; heck, he WANTS us to!

We don’t bother to go carry out what was our most cherished birthright, the right to vote. And many of those who do at least bother, have no clue for whom, or what, they are casting their ballot.

Yes, if you carefully study Tyler’s words again, you’ll see we have just about run full circle. And, as my reader so aptly concluded his letter to me; How soon bondage?

Ambassador Alan Keyes on the Legitimacy of “President” Obama and more

It was my sincere honor, and pleasure to dine with Ambassador Keyes in 2000. He is genuine, direct and usually right. I found this commentary on Barack Obama posted and wanted to share it with all of you.

“Amerika” the Changed; Let’s Hum a Few Bars-by Mike Scinto

Folks, what’s happening to our country is beyond novel, interesting, historic or part of “how the system works”. What this President is doing amounts to dictatorial power-grabbing and we are just letting him, along with the help of Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and the other Liberal numbskulls, rewrite our laws, destroy free enterprise and irreparably alter our economic system; bankrupting our great country for our children and grandchildren.

This past week Barack Obama fired Rick Wagoner, CEO of General Motors, and dictated which models of cars the once great carmaker would be “allowed” to continue to build. He planted his own hack in the CEO’s chair to make sure the Obama magic can really go to work at GM. And we’re just sitting back and watching!

We are letting him dictate to Chrysler that it merge (again) with a foreign car maker. Again, we’re just kicked back in the Lazy Boy watching King Barack I bark out the commands for his minions to carry out.

If it weren’t so serious, it would almost be sit-com funny. Who would have thought that a young, inexperienced lawyer would assume the highest office in this land and proceed to dismantle it and reform it into a Euro-Socialistic state. Well, I suppose if you had looked at his limited track record as an office holder, and what he SAID he wanted to do while campaigning, maybe you would have figured that out……..Duh!

What’s next? Will he come to our quaint little dot on a map and tell us how to spend our tax money? Will he direct our Parks Board on which projects are good and which should be scrapped? Could he possibly decide that our economy could be better served if our local hardware store and grocery store (which I prefer to frequent) folded and let ONLY Menard’s and Wal-Mart handle the business? And don’t you think for a minute he can’t do it. Oh, maybe not by sending in one of his flunkies, but through his hands-on control of the Commerce Department and the IRS; the reins of which he turned over to a man who really didn’t think paying HIS taxes was that important anyway.

You folks who were swept up in the majesty of the new “Camelot” still believe this “change” is for the better. We tried to warn you. I was tarred and feathered and run off the Mum Festival stage for making a joke about His Highness. I was thrown out of a thirty year career by refusing to bow at his altar and accept his “stimulus” package as anything but a blueprint to national bankruptcy. And fear not, the rest of you will get yours too. He has enough in his bag of tricks to work his magic on every one of us to some degree.

How do we fix it? It may very well be too late. But we need to write, call, let our voices be heard in places like our local, state and national office holder’s phone lines, email boxes and through snail mail. And we don’t stop. We sound off continuously in places like the Independent Voice blog site; one of the few places (at least for now) the King can’t stop us. Or, as some of you have chosen to do in the past, just roll over and let His Majesty’s men rub your tummy and make everything right for you.

There’s a scary, but all too real scenario that could play out. You see, this great nation has managed to overcome greater obstacles than this would-be dictator. And it may just be strong enough to overcome his power and come out of the financial struggles on its own. If that happens, he’ll get credit and will be able to write his ticket for the next 7 ½ years. But trust me; someday future generations will pay the multi-trillion dollar price tag of this sweeping change blowing across our land! But, not to worry, as with the G-20 conference, I’m sure Michelle’s wardrobe and fashion will take our minds off the real problems at hand.

Censorship is Alive and Well in the Gem City

As our President’s stimulus package continues to drag the stock market down to decades-old positions and millions are becoming statistics as companies brace for the new tax burdens they will be facing, Yours Truly joined the ranks of those suffering under the Obama-Reid-Pelosi regime. What I am about to relate, I assure you, is NOT sour grapes…….but you take from it what you will.

I was told yesterday, almost ten years to the day after moving my radio talk show to the black-oriented Liberal WDAO radio, that the show needed to go in a different direction. What I believe, based on many signals, is that it meant it needed to go in the Obama direction. And that Kool-Aid didn’t wash down well with me at all.

Posted here is the sign that I stared at since the inauguration. It says that Obama must be referred to as President Barack Obama. And if a caller slipped through and just said “Obama”, or if I said “Obama Administration” I was called on the carpet. These weren’t negative references either, but commonly accepted terminology for all administrations. This was quite obviously a term of my employment.

My thoughts may have become all-too-apparent in my facial expressions as I wondered why, during the previous eight years, I didn’t see a similar memo when callers referred to George W. Bush as a war monger, drunk, moron or other tasteless terms. They called Bush everything BUT “President George W. Bush”.

And even though I tried my best to walk that thin line, I had several confrontations with the owner about my lack of support for the stimulus package. It came to the point that he suggested we just not talk about the economic plans at all if it meant dissension.

Heck, here I am, a white conservative talk show host on a liberal black radio station and for about two months prior to the most historic election battle in our nation’s history, we couldn’t’ talk about the Presidential race at all! We couldn’t mention Obama or McCain…….period! And we heard about it if we let a caller slip through and mention one of their names or the race itself. Is that what a talk radio show is supposed to be like? I must have missed that page in the manual.

Look, Jim Johnson (WDAO Owner and General Manger) is my friend and has been for 30 plus years. He can be a very nice man and has a good technology skill………..he can build a radio studio from scratch. I just question his motivation in handling this censorship issue the way he did. Look, it’s not a crime, or even a character flaw. It just means he could be shortchanging himself and the people of this community, both black and white.

Censorship on the public airwaves is bad enough. Being less than honest about your reasons for that censorship is even worse. I can only assume that WDAO has already gotten its marching orders from the Obama camp to begin the elimination of conservatives from the air before the “Fairness” Doctrine can kick in. At the very least I feel very comfortable that I have maintained my integrity throughout this situation.

WDAO was the only station left in the market offering a local balanced (until recently) channel for the community to speak out. I can only hope the other fine radio stations (some of which I have been affiliated with over the decades) decide to assume that role. And I encourage you to suggest that to them with a very loud voice. Or we may only hear what station owners, like my former employer, DECIDE we can hear!

Now in his 33^rd year Mike Scinto has served as a radio talk show host. Call Mike at 937-506-4288. Email him at mike@themikescintoshow.com. And visit Mike Scinto at http://www.facebook.com or http://www.youtube.com/scintoonfilm.