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The Man & the Myths

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The Man & the Myths $2.50 25,000 Blue Chip Readers VOL. 41, NO. 18 An Independent Journal of Commentary OCTOBER 10, 2009 Henry Bellmon 1921-2009 The Man & The Myths By Frosty Troy No sooner than Henry Bellmon would be no liquor served at the Man- died at 88, losing his long battle with sion. He kiddingly added that there Parkinson’s disease, than the myths would be plenty of sweet milk. He was began to fly and political hypocrites stunned when reporters turned that crawled out of the woodwork to praise into “buttermilk” – which he hated. him. Forever after wherever he went First, let’s dispel some of the where food was served, he was pre- myths: sented with a large quantity of butter- Myth: He was a champion of bi-par- milk. He never drank it. tisanship, reaching across the aisle to Myth: Democratic Gov. Raymond pass legislation. Gary, defeated by Bill Atkinson, be- When he was elected the first Re- came a key supporter of Bellmon in publican governor Democrats out- his victory over Atkinson. numbered Republicans five to one. Not once during the campaign did Who else was he going to work with? he speak to Gary, but many Gary sup- Myth: He eschewed partisanship. porters flocked to him. It was only af- He was a hard Republican partisan ter his victory that he called Gary and but a crafty public official who could went to his home for a two-hour visit. hide it when necessary. Gary’s advice: The media will work Myth: He faithfully represented the you over day after day. Don’t respond. views of the people. It will keep the attack alive. When it More crap. He initially ran on a “no gets too bad, quit reading the news- new taxes” platform, then raised the papers or watching TV or listening to gas tax six cents per gallon. the radio. Bellmon said he followed He repeated the “no new tax” pledge that excellent advice. when he ran a second time, yet pro- Myth: Bellmon was the darling of the posed a huge tax hike to fund educa- Oklahoma Education Association. tion reform [HB 1017]. It passed but Wrong! He vetoed a $1,000 teacher the Daily Oklahoman led the cam- pay raise because there was no money paign to put it on the ballot. Bellmon to fund it. OEA boss Furman Phillips won. went after Bellmon tooth and nail. When he lectured at OU and later Myth: He had the inside track with at OSU, he always explained the dif- the Gaylord empire – the state’s larg- ference between a democracy and were furious when he cast his bal- public schools – a tour he never for- est newspaper, plus WKY Radio and a republic. A republic is when you lot in the U.S. Senate for integration got. WKY-TV. elect representatives to study the is- – requiring crosstown busing. His ear- The Daily Oklahoman attacked him The Gaylords always were right- sues, debate the issues, then cast a lier tour of Oklahoma City inner-city again when, as a U.S. senator, he pro- wing Republicans – a faction of the ballot – regardless of what the folks schools had left him sickened. posed eliminating the Electoral Col- party that Bellmon privately disliked. who elected you feel. In a democracy, He wanted to be the first governor lege, which he considered grossly un- Ed Gaylord called Sen. Bellmon “the a majority rules. to integrate the governor’s staff, so fair. [Al Gore would agree.] senator from Moscow” when he voted Myth: He represented the views of he hired Beulah Ponder. She opened Myth: He loved the media. As gover- for the Panama Canal Treaty. ordinary Oklahomans. many doors for him in the black com- nor, he held six press conferences a In his second term as governor Bell- Hardly. “Ordinary Oklahomans” munity. She took him on tour of the week and answered any and all ques- mon pushed through HB 1017 – a total tions. revamp of public education, requiring In reality he deplored the media to the largest tax hike in state history. his last day in office. He said they The Gaylord empire fought him all the mainly focus on the negative and sel- way. dom on the positive. Why then did Bellmon go birdhunt- He brought a trained media eye to ing with Ed Gylord? public office – he was a reporter for Therein lies a remarkable tale. the A&M O’Collegian in his last three When Bellmon was going through Ma- semesters. He learned to manipu- rine Corps basic training he bunked late the media – I know, I was one of with a person he disliked more than them. anyone he had ever met. Myth: Buttermilk Bellmon wore his Then he began thinking – if he made anti-booze like a badge of honor. a friend out of this guy who he hated, He told a news conference there See MYTHS Page 19 Observations Born Liars Is someone you know a born liar? good news for little girls. The brains of some people are built to A private company has developed a lie, say psychologists at the University product called the Baby Gender Men- of Southern California after screening tor Home DNA Gender Testing Kit, 108 people, classifying them as either which enables a couple to determine habitual liars or truth-tellers. a fetus’ sex as early as five weeks into Using magnetic resonance imaging a pregnancy. [MRI], they scanned subjects’ pre- Mail a tiny blood sample from Mom frontal cortexes, the area of the brain to the company, and – presto! – her that controls moral behavior and strat- embryo’s sex is e-mailed to her faster egizing. It turned out that liars’ brains than Netflix can send her next video. had 26% more of the white matter that The new quickie test raises a trou- manages complex planning, and 14% bling prospect: Very early in preg- less gray matter, the brain tissue that nancy, when abortions may seem less regulates impulse control. fraught with moral meaning, a couple Thus, the liars’ brains appear to be will have the chance to ask: “Do we wired for deceit: combining a greater really want a child of this sex? Or capacity for quick thinking with a re- should we try again?” duced ability to feel remorse. In traditional countries such as “Lying is cognitively complex,” chief China and India, where male offspring researcher Adrian Raine told the Los are preferred, an estimated 100 mil- Angeles Times. “It’s certainly more lion girls were never born, due to sex- difficult than telling the truth. Some selection practices and abortion. people have a biological advantage.” In the U.S., you’d think we’d be be- They serve in Congress. yond such immoral thinking. But sex – Steve Hill selection has become a million-dollar industry – so clearly, some parents re- ogy. more than $50 million in earnings Defrosting ally are determined to have a boy [or, President Obama recently called for have been generated by the board of if they already have two or three, a girl an American renaissance, a new pro- investors. Don’t tell Sen. Jim Inhofe, but global this time]. gram designed to meet the growing The endowment today is $429 mil- warming has arrived. The most pow- As products like the Gender Mentor technological challenges from China, lion – and it’s needed since Oklaho- erful sign so far – a Russian transport Kit become widely available, do we re- India, and South Korea. ma provides more than its share of ship sailed straight from St. Peters- ally want to “normalize” sex selection To hear the critics, these emerging smoking and dipping. Investment of burg to the North Pole without assis- – and make it a valid reason for abor- Asian empires are rapidly outpacing the funds is managed by the Board of tance from an icebreaker. tion? the U.S. in high school science and Investors. Russian scientists said the feat was That’s a big step toward “a new eu- math education, new engineering de- If you know someone who wants to a first in the history of seafaring. Ar- genics,” in which we build our babies grees, technology patents, and aca- quit, share this number with them: thur Chilingarov, a respected polar to suit our tastes and preferences, demic prizes. 1.800.QUIT.NOW [1.800.784.8669]. scientist, said the voyage shows that instead of waiting to see what nature Actually, America’s decline has once-thick ice has melted to a thin has given us. been greatly exaggerated. The U.S. coating – proof of a substantial warm- Alfalfa Bill made international news economy accounts for the same per- Tort Reform? ing of the planet’s climate. by pushing eugenics while serving as centage of the world’s gross domestic The transport ship was carrying governor of Oklahoma. The U.S. Su- product as it did 35 years ago, before Brace yourself: The biggest cost in researchers to replace the team at a preme Court told him to take a hike. the rise of China, India, and Japan. health care is not malpractice awards, floating polar station. During the trip, We still spend more on research and which annually drive up U.S. health scientists also measured the borders development than all other industrial- care costs by 1% to 2% – $20 billion of Russia’s continental shelf. ized nations combined. America has to $40 billion a year – although that’s Myth Making 22 of the 30 top universities in the bad enough.
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