Frontiersman, December 2007

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Frontiersman, December 2007

The Pardon of Eden: Made In God's Image
Sam Aurelius Milam III

And in the End Times, and yea even in the New Beginning, verily spake the Lord in His Mighty Wrath even unto the very Earth, ²using thereunto a Mighty Voice that rang even unto the very Heavens and, yea verily, even Unto Hell, ³spake He then even thereunto, saying "Reboot!"

I was explaining a startling thought to a man in a dream. I suggested that maybe it isn't our fault. Maybe we're all doing absolutely the very best that it's possible for us to do. Maybe we behave the way that we do because God did a bad job on us. Maybe God just isn't capable of making people any better than we are.
It was such a startling thought that it jarred me awake, right out of my dream. I looked at my clock. It was 3:08 A.M. in the wee hours of the morning on Tuesday, March 6, 2007.
I got up and turned on my computer, which doesn't work very well. None of the computers work very well but they're the best that we can do. I typed this article into the computer and ran the spelling checker because I don't spell very well. I saved the file and made a backup copy because hard disks aren't very reliable. I decided to print the article on paper because backup disks aren't very reliable, either. Predictably, the printer was out of paper. I should have added paper and pressed the Resume Button but I didn't think of that. Instead, I canceled the print job, added paper, and tried again to print the article. Of course, the computer couldn't find the printer. It never can find the printer after a print job has been canceled. I knew that when I canceled the print job. I had to turn the printer off, turn it back on, select it again, and then try again to print the article. After it was finally printed, I turned off the computer and went back to bed. At the time, it seemed like the best thing to do.
Later that morning, I got up and looked again at the article. I realized that it wasn't very good. I had to rewrite it. I've been rewriting it ever since. This is the best that I can do, so far.
It isn't surprising that the Garden of Eden legend ends the way that it does. God should have expected it. Since we're made in His image, it wouldn't surprise me if He tries again.

Stray Thoughts
Sam Aurelius Milam III

Commemorating Lost Legitimacy — It's interesting that Americans commemorate the defeat at Pearl Harbor but not the victories at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Regardless of how those events were viewed at the time, the ethical differences between them are profound. The attacks on the Japanese civilian targets, which attacks killed tens of thousands of unarmed civilians are in stark contrast to the attack on Pearl Harbor, a legitimate and heavily armed military target, which attack killed a few thousand military personnel. As usual, the U.S. government behaved more shamefully than its enemy in order to defeat that enemy. I suppose that it's better to commemorate an legitimate defeat than a dishonorable victory.

Hark! The PC Angels Sing! — The old song used to go, "offspring of the Virgin's womb". A version that I heard recently goes "offspring of the favored one." It seems that womb and virgin aren't politically correct words any more.

Shamerica — I've heard from a man that I trust, who says that he's seen it himself, that there are women with children in this country who haunt the dumps and the land-fills, looking for food. I've seen with my own eyes a human being eating from the trash cans at a fast food restaurant. This isn't the America that our ancestors planned. It's a sham America that we've created. Voluntary cooperation equals endorsement. Anybody who willingly cooperates with the corrupted processes that have taken over this country ought to hang his head in shame and cry for what he's condoning.

Please use the enclosed envelope to send a contribution. I prefer cash. For checks or money orders, please inquire.
For PayPal payments, use editor@frontiersman.my3website.net.

December 2007

Frontiersman, ^c/o 2305 W. Sylvester Circle, Show Low, Arizona 85901

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Diploma Mill
Jim Sullivan

Outrage over diploma mills is a major theme in today's print and TV news editorials, where the pundits rail against the marketing of bogus U.S. college and university degrees to anyone who'll pay for them. Every level of post high school degree, from a Bachelor's degree to a Master's and even up to a Ph.D. is being sold to Americans for a price that is well below that of a regular college degree and with only minor or no classroom study required. Most purchasers of such degrees never set foot inside of an institution of higher learning.

Not surprisingly, news editorials cry out, "These bogus credentials are unfair to people who have actually earned, paid dearly for, and still owe on college and university diplomas from accredited schools. And hasn't such immoral and unethical antics as selling spurious degrees cheapened the holders of legitimate credentials and those who paid for them (not always the same person)?"

Well, yes and no. When a diploma mill sells a bachelor's degree in, oh, "Post-Industrial Business Management" from, say, Darpnell Southwest National Business Institute and Advanced School of Culinary Arts and Crafts, who really cares? The purchaser has a job credential, phoney though it may be, at low cost, to use to get a position that has a job requirement, phony though it may be, for a formal degree of higher learning.

Going to a recognized school might be the best way to become educated¹ but it isn't the only way. There are other, perhaps more difficult or less organized and possibly more painful ways of getting educated: self-study, apprenticeship, life experiences to name just a few.

The buying and selling of phony degrees has arisen from two negative conditions existing in the U.S. economy. The first is the phony job requirement for a college or university credential. Most jobs and professions have an entrance test anyway. Lawyers must pass a bar exam, physicians have to pass a medical board's test, and accountants are required to pass the CPA examinations. Such written or oral quizzes are usually rigorous and thorough. Few informally educated people could ever pass such exams. Yes, there are the old saws that go, "who wants to be operated on by a surgeon who didn't go to medical school?" or "who wants to be flown by an airline pilot who never went to flight school?" Okay, those and a few others might be exceptions for the informally educated. But most employers could safely waive the formal education requirement.

Proof is, no one issued engineering degrees to those who built the pyramids. How about Abe Lincoln who didn't go to college or to law school but who nevertheless became a successful lawyer? Then there was President Harry Truman who didn't get beyond high school. In reality, the list of such people is short. But those informally educated people were more than adequate for the jobs that they performed.²

If, though, human resource (HR) executives, once called personnel managers, know the above but still are in the habit of hiring only on the basis of a diploma, then there must be a reason. Could it be that HR people don't know of a way to determine just how educated an individual really is? That's hardly likely. Well then, is it laziness? Who knows?

And another thing. Even legitimate colleges and universities, including the Ivy Leagues, sometimes graduate people who can't read, write, speak, think logically and critically, apply the scientific method, or do math correctly. Only an employment entrance exam will suffice to determine if a college graduate, regardless

Getting a "higher education" often consists of learning more and more about less and less while understanding less and less about more and more.

— editor

I knew a woman who was a high school dropout but who was nevertheless a competent and much-respected quality assurance inspector of nuclear reactor control panels in the panel assembly shop at the Nuclear Energy Division of the General Electric Company, in San Jose, California. She had acquired the necessary skills and knowledge by way of on-the-job training and by taking classes that were offered within the company. She eventually moved up to the position of on-site inspections and traveled widely to nuclear facilities all over the country. My grandfather taught himself algebra by reading books. I know a woman who learned to do marvelous hand-crochet work entirely by watching other women at work. I learned to do HTML by building my own websites. I suspect that the list of self-taught or informally educated people who are (or were) entirely competent to do their jobs is far longer than Mr. Sullivan suggests in his article. I expect that the list, if it was possible to compile it, would be endless.

— editor

Please use the enclosed envelope to send a contribution. I prefer cash. For checks or money orders, please inquire.
For PayPal payments, use editor@frontiersman.my3website.net.

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Frontiersman, ^c/o 2305 W. Sylvester Circle, Show Low, Arizona 85901

December 2007

of the school's reputation, or anyone else who doesn't hold a recognized degree, is capable of doing what's expected for the job being filled. Degrees can no longer be trusted, if they ever could be.

The second negative condition that drives the business of the diploma mills is the astronomical cost of obtaining a degree. Phony diplomas are alluring today because the cost of higher education keeps soaring. Students are graduated with thousands of dollars in college debt. What a millstone to put around a young person's neck. If someone, therefore, can become educated in a less costly fashion, isn't that a prudent thing to do? Sure it is. Of course, if fewer people go off to college to get a degree, then college professors' jobs might be jeopardized. No one would want that to happen, would they? And here's another thought. Could this emphasis on employing only college graduates be the dark underbelly and unintended consequence of the highly touted G.I. Bill Program?

Perhaps if employers would stop demanding formal educations for their workers and merely secure competent workers by the use of employment entrance exams, this would lower the demand for college degrees, phony or legitimate, and the problem of the diploma mills would dry up. Overcrowding on regular campuses would subside, too. Surely, America should promote education. How that is accomplished, through formal or informal means, however, is immaterial.

Request for Help
Sam Aurelius Milam III

A Summary of My Situation — In spite of the fact that, in the James Majeski Living Trust and by word-of-mouth, James Majeski promised me donated accommodations for the rest of my life, he has recently announced that, starting in January of 2008, he will require me to make rent payments of $250 per month in addition to paying half of the utilities. In addition, he has forced me to vacate my bedroom and find temporary sleeping accommodations elsewhere. In spite of the fact that I've been living in the Trust house for four years and have performed all of the maintenance and repairs on the house for the past two years, he has announced that I must pay a security deposit of $375. For now, I'm continuing to perform most of the duties to which I originally agreed when we made the deal, plus a few additional duties. However, I must find somewhere else to live.

I previously had an offer from a concerned family member to buy a house for me in this vicinity. That family member has recently withdrawn the offer. Because of my inability to pay the cost of moving my possessions to a remote location, and for other good reasons, I'd very much like to remain in this local vicinity. The cost of a small mobile home on a small lot in this area begins at about $60,000 and goes up from there. I'm hereby requesting contributions toward the acquisition of such property or the actual acquisition of the property for me. If I'm not able to acquire something appropriate in this local area, then I'll also need contributions to cover the cost of moving to another location.

A Summary of My Needs — I'll need at least 700 sq. ft. of floor space plus kitchen, laundry, and bathroom facilities. That's about what's normally provided in a 14x60 single-wide mobile home. I'll need access to the U.S. mail, a telephone line, and the internet. Due to my undocumented status, I'll need for someone else to legally own the place. That being the case, I'll need some kind of an arrangement, such as a trust or a will, whereby I'll be authorized to stay in the place for the rest of my life if the owner dies before I do. Sharing space with another person has always caused problems for me, as in the present situation. Therefore, I don't want to share the space with anybody else. I want to live alone.

Please contact me if you can provide such an arrangement or if you can provide contributions toward such an arrangement.

Old Timer's Lore
Overheard by Sam Aurelius Milam III
A Friend in Need — Friends help you move. REAL friends help you move bodies.
Sage Advice — Don't loan your motorcycle, your LP's, or your wife, in that order.
Sage Observation — You can pick your friends and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your friend's nose.

Please use the enclosed envelope to send a contribution. I prefer cash. For checks or money orders, please inquire.
For PayPal payments, use editor@frontiersman.my3website.net.

December 2007

Frontiersman, ^c/o 2305 W. Sylvester Circle, Show Low, Arizona 85901

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Frontiersman
^c/o 2305 W. Sylvester Circle
Show Low, Arizona 85901

The difference between freedom and permission is usually overlooked.

— October 20, 1978
Milam's Notes

Acknowledgments

My thanks to the following: SantaClara Bob; Lady Jan the Voluptuous; Lord Jeffrey the Studious; my mother; Ernie and Claire, of Show Low, Arizona; Jules, of Tucson, Arizona; and Jim, of South Bend, Indiana.

— editor

Bible Questions and Answers
Original Source Unknown. Forwarded by ccrandal.

Q What do they call pastors in Germany?

A German Shepherds.

Q What's the longest recorded case of constipation in the Bible?

A It's in Kings, where it says that David sat on the Throne for forty years.

Changing Times
Original Source Unknown.
Forwarded by Steve, of Fremont, California.
Scenario: Johnny takes apart some firecrackers that were left over from the 4th of July, puts them into a model airplane paint bottle, and blows up a red ant nest.
1956: A few ants die.
2006: The BATF, Homeland Security, and the FBI are called. Johnny is charged with domestic terrorism. The FBI investigates Johnny's parents. His siblings are removed from their home and all of the family's computers are confiscated. Johnny's entire family goes onto a terrorist watch list and none of them are ever allowed to ride in an airplane again.

Frontiersman

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Reprint Policy — Permission is hereby granted to reproduce this newsletter in its entirety or to reproduce material from it, provided that the reproduction is accurate and that proper credit is given. Please note that I do not have the authority to give permission to reprint material that I have reprinted from other sources. For that permission, you must go to the original source. I would appreciate receiving a courtesy copy of any document or publication in which you reprint my material.

Submissions — I solicit letters, articles, and cartoons for the newsletter, but I don't pay for them. Short items are more likely to be printed. I suggest that letters and articles be shorter than 500 words but that's flexible depending on space available and the content of the piece. I give credit for all items printed unless the author specifies otherwise.

Payment — This newsletter isn't for sale. If you care to make a voluntary contribution, then I prefer cash or U.S. postage stamps. For checks or money orders please inquire. For PayPal payments, use editor@frontiersman.my3website.net. The continued existence of the newsletter will depend, in part, on such contributions. I don't accept anything that requires me to provide ID to receive it. In case anybody's curious, I also accept gold, silver, platinum, etc.

— Sam Aurelius Milam III, editor

Please use the enclosed envelope to send a contribution. I prefer cash. For checks or money orders, please inquire.
For PayPal payments, use editor@frontiersman.my3website.net.

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Frontiersman, ^c/o 2305 W. Sylvester Circle, Show Low, Arizona 85901

December 2007

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