Well, Lenie made deadline. Issue no. 108 (Nov/Dec 2007) has begun its long road to the newsstands and subscribers’ mailboxes. When finally distributed, in mid-October, the issue will conclude our 18th year publishing BHM.

Nice run so far. We’re still as independent as we were with Issue no. 1. Nobody owns us. We are not beholden to advertisers or to some big corporation that must always be careful not to write anything that could be misconstrued as offensive to some obscure group. It’s a wonderful feeling to be your own man — or woman. Oops! How do I say that? … your own person, your own societal entity? You get what I mean.

Of course, the best part about being an independent anything is that you are your own boss. You don’t have to answer to anyone. I don’t care if you’re a publisher, an owner/electrician, a store keeper, or a self-employed truck driver. If you are your own boss, you’ve got the world by the old yubangees.

Meanwhile, Subway continues to emerge at the front of our building. The plumbing is in, the windows are in, and the electrical started going in today. The franchise owners, Shannon Lawhorn and his father, Keith, own five other Subway franchises, including the one in Brookings, the nearest town to the south of us. Both hard workers, Keith brought in his tile cutting equipment and intends to cut and install all the tile in the new franchise himself. He and his son are typical of how owners work: They started out with one franchise and both worked themselves silly until they got six. They are still working themselves silly. Some day, a group representing a bunch of lazy people will probably accuse them of being rich people who don’t deserve their success. Luckily, however, America still has plenty of hard workers like the Lawhorns who seize the American dream and make the most of it.

John Silveira is writing the editorial this issue. When I said the issue went to the printer, I forgot to mention that it was minus the editorial. I started writing it but was in a dark mood about the state of America. Paragraphs like this came out:

… On the BHM website, we run a catchy ad for my book, Can American Be Saved from Stupid People, that contains a little oval button with the words “Click Here to find out.” Don’t bother clicking that button. I’ll tell you the answer: It can’t! I should have made the book just those two words and saved everybody a lot of time.

American can’t be saved because nobody wants it saved. More accurately, it’s not even a topic of discussion, except among a few fringe people. America is dead. With its most important freedoms largely gone, America is a shell of its former self.

I can see the outrage among some of you. How can I say this. America is still the freeest country in the world. That’s debatable, and even if it’s true it’s like saying a dirty wall is still cleaner than a filthy wall. We are the most regulated society in history, and we have a higher percentage of our population in prison that any society ever.

Want examples? Read my editorials from the past 18 years. They’re all online free, or in the Stupid People book. Read John Silveira’s too. They’re also online free. We’ve both railed against the attacks on America’s freedoms for 18 years in these pages. But now it’s over. America has lost. …

I finally said “Enough!” It’s too bleak, plus I didn’t cite any supporting data to back up my assertions. I also just felt tired. I called John and asked him to write an editorial about global warming. We had been talking about it the day before, and he has a much better grasp of the salient issues. I get bombarded daily by email from global warming proponents. Most are just socialists in green skin, but their numbers are overwhelming. What’s the old saying — “If you say an untruth often enough, it becomes true in the public mind.” That’s global warming. John is a lot more knowledgeable than I am in this area, so he’s the one to write this.

……

It’s the next day. John’s still smoothing out the editorial. Nice calm ocean. I think I’ll go fishing.