Rocky Clinton and Professor Gore

By Ron Dupuis

If you were a Pulitzer Prize-winning author you couldn't make this stuff up if you tried.

Last week, Hillary "Rocky" Clinton claimed that along with her daughter, and upon the completion of a tactical, defensive-type landing in Bosnia, a heads-down run for the car was necessary because of sniper fire. This claim was not just made once, but during several recent campaign speeches. Other prevarications include "Rocky" Clinton's role in the Irish Peace Accords, her support/opposition for NAFTA, and for those of you with short memories, her claim to not have made a dime in the Madison Guarantee Savings and Loan scandal.

Most people lie sometime during their life. They lie for varied reasons: To protect themselves, protect a friend, to create a favorable situation, create an unfavorable situation for others, and finally, to puff their own importance and ego. The last being why most all politicians lie.

Hillary's mentor and most ardent supporter is her husband, former President Bill Clinton. Let's not forget despite all his charm and charisma, Bill Clinton is a disgraced, disbarred lawyer, who among other discretions, lied to Congress, judges and the American people. Who can ever forget that obnoxious pointy finger scene and the "I did not have sex with that woman" fabrication? If, in fact, lying to Congress precludes you from practicing law, in Hillary's case, lying to the American people should preclude you from being president of the United States. Besides, who among us can bear the thought of Bill wandering throughout the White House with nothing to do except prey on women and young interns?

Other issues: One of my favorite musicals of all time is Meredith Wilson's "The Music Man." In the story, con man Professor Harold Hill convinces an unsuspecting Midwest town of a perceived problem "made clear by the presence of a pool table right here in your community." Not to worry though. Like every good con man, Professor Hill has a solution in the form of a boy's band, which is nothing more than a scheme to collect money and skip town.

"In My Humble Opinion" is here to warn unsuspecting earthlings that Professor Hill is back in the form of Al Gore. Professor Gore has not only identified the problem for us mere unsuspecting mortals: "Man is destroying life as we know it," he has graciously provided the solution in the form of "carbon credits." These "credits" are merely part of a scheme set up by Professor Gore in the form of a company he heads called Generation Investment Management. This legitimate company is going to take funds from large corporations and pension funds that want to ostensibly invest in a greener Earth but more importantly the carbon-offset market. A little more sophisticated than Harold Hill, but nonetheless, a money making scheme. I wonder if Professor Gore intends to skip town like Professor Hill's plan.

More on China: The Dupuis family, despite illness, managed to spend the first few days in Beijing doing all the touristy things visitors do in this mysterious city. There were visits to parks and temples observing local residents in their daily routine of exercise and socialization. There were visits to jade carving factories and pearl markets. The culmination was a walk along The Great Wall. Beijing, at the time of our visit, was a spotlessly clean city. The people were accommodating, however, not necessarily friendly.

An incident at Tiananmen Square gave me cause for concern. Around Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, in fact, throughout Beijing for that matter, the military is everywhere. When a group of citizens gathered and became a little vocal about concerns in Tibet a squad of soldiers quickly and quietly gathered them up, put them in trucks and hauled them off to God knows where. Not a riot by any standard, however for the remaining time in this city we kept our distance from any type of gatherings.