While having lunch several years ago, I told several co-workers that Michael Jackson would one day be considered the equal of Wolfgang Armadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Johann Sebastian Bach. One of them was astonished that I’d make the statement. After Jackson’s sudden passing last week and taking into account not only America’s but the world’s reaction to it, I stand by my previous prediction.

As the crow flies — or more appropriately as the snake slithers — the Savannah River Ecology Lab in South Carolina is roughly 200 miles from my house.

A 13-year-old boy was recently suspended from his crumbling, inner-city middle school in Michigan.  His family had immigrated to the United States because, in his words, “My parents wanted a better life for us than fighting. There is no government in Somalia, no army or police to keep the peace. Different tribes and groups of people were fighting and killing each other to gain power.”

I applaud Augusta County supervisors’ decision to hire an economic development director, a move that will increase the county’s tax base and job opportunities for the area’s unemployed. But I have several questions.

Suze Orman says it. So do the other financial advisors I see in magazines, newspapers and on television. It keeps popping up. The advice is this: Take care of yourself first; only after you are sure that your financial future is secure do you help anyone else.

In a June 11 column (“Guns, fear being stockpiled”), Nelson Graves asked to be enlightened concerning some issues that appear to be disturbing for him.

It is with the purpose of enlightening him that I now write, and while I do not have room to respond to all of his concerns, I intend to address the points where he needs enlightenment the most.

I hear daily, as do most of you, that the “government” is the enemy. Conservative radio talking heads, most leading Republicans and conservatives and a great many Independents all complain about the government interfering in their lives.

To quote the great philosopher Alice Cooper, “School’s out for summer.”

I am tempted to take a vacation from the news.

Recent reports indicate gun sales are going through the roof.

Newspapers are in trouble.

There are a lot of jobs I know nothing about. I am not talking about astrophysicist. I am talking about jobs that are right here where I live. I have known people in law enforcement, but I have never known personally a bail bonds person. I don’t even know exactly how that business works. I have known people who managed restaurants, but I have never known a person who owned a fast-food franchise. My maternal grandfather was a foreman for road building crews before I was born, but I have never known anyone in road building or paving. I have known people who wrote books, but I have never known anyone in the publishing industry. I have had students who worked as cashiers in grocery stores, but I have never known anyone in grocery store management despite spending a ridiculous amount of time shopping for food. Never until today, that is.

When George W. Bush was selected president (elected if you’re a conservative or a Republican), I was displeased, to say the least. Even so, I resisted immediately criticizing him. I figured he deserved at least a year’s time in office to get his bearings and feet wet.

I love a good auction, especially when they clean out a dead guy’s house, haul his stuff into the yard and let his friends and neighbors fight over it.

I got a pair of snow tires that way.

Every once in awhile I decide to eat everything in my refrigerator except the mustard, chow chow and salad dressings so I can start fresh. It is spring, so I decided a spring cleaning of the refrigerator was in order.

One of President Barack Obama’s campaign pledges was to close the terrorist prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He’s since kept that pledge and recently requested $80 million from Congress to do so. The U.S. Senate’s 90-6 vote, in a rare bipartisan effort, refused to provide funding for Gitmo’s closure thus handing him his first major political setback as president.

Will a midday shower at work result in more creative, productive (and fresher smelling) employees?

People who pay their credit card bills every month feel aggrieved, because if the restructuring of the credit card industry goes through, they will mostly likely be required to pay annual fees. They say it’s unfair to punish the “good” people who pay every month. Now the responsible people will be punished while the irresponsible people will pay less.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the NAACP and every once in awhile somebody questions the relevance of that great organization. Its name originated those many years ago when African Americans were referred to as Colored People and the organization aimed to level America’s economic opportunity and equal justice playing fields.

When Arlen Specter announced that he was leaving the Republican Party, it seemed first and foremost like an attempt at self-preservation. He didn’t think he could win the Republican primary in Pennsylvania because his party had moved too far to the right to elect him, so he became a Democrat. Simple. Or maybe not so simple.

I anxiously awaited the comments and opinions of former Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday morning on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” What he said ran the gamut – predictable, stubborn, unapologetic and non-forgiving. One of his emanations, though, if true, indicates that his boss and America’s former president was a liar.

I should cut the cord, but I’m finding it difficult to do so.

Americans are so competitive!

Springtime is upon us and directs our imaginations and minds toward vacations.

Developers seldom inspire public esteem perhaps because their purpose is principally to make money, which once was a socially acceptable objective in a free-market society but in recent decades has devolved into Hollywood caricature.

May 11-15 is National Etiquette Week, and this year’s theme, “Catch the Manners Virus!” was undoubtedly selected before the global outbreak of swine flu.

A perennial has poked up its little shoot in the last week. This one is not in my yard. It is in my newspaper. Song lyrics are back in the news. A concerned parent raised the issue after hearing offensive music being played at a middle school dance (“Parent: Lewd songs played at school,” April 27). No matter what the school decides, there is no escaping toxic pop culture. It isn’t just song lyrics. It is the anorexic models on the television show “Project Runway.” It is clothing for girls that makes them look like hookers. It is a culture that celebrates money and fame over character. I could go on, and so could you.

A couple of weeks ago I suggested that Virginia should take some of President Barack Obama’s stimulus package money to educate state youth. This week I’ll again urge Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and the state General Assembly to take its part of the stimulus package to also educate Virginians of all ages, especially those who aren’t using and don’t like computers.

In these uncertain economic times, can America afford to fall behind in the international goat-cloning race?

There is no shortage of work to be done in this country.