Last week I wrote a little about the Register editorial board, noting that participating in board meetings is one of the highlights of my role at the newspaper.

As a businessman, registered Republican, and retired military officer, I might be expected to agree with the Register’s endorsement of Sen. McCain for president.

I have an important message for Napa voters and the members of Local 180, working members and retirees. I worked as an inside wireman from June 1955, when I graduated from high school, until 1977, when both knees required surgery from 42 years of crawling in attics and under homes and buildings.

In his Oct. 21 letter titled, “Same-sex marriage is morally wrong,” Byron Moats says he is against it on “moral” and “biblical” grounds, based on the New, not the Old Testament. In the Old Testament there are pro and con anecdotes on many precepts, including homosexuality. Showing an idiosyncratic conservative attitude, he says, “marriage has always been defined as a man-woman thing. Why should our generation change what has always been?” Because we do not have to keep on with the practices of the past, such as slavery and stoning adulterers.

Lately there has been a lot of casual usage of the term “socialism,” particularly in reference to Barack Obama. It would be interesting to see what kind of a definition someone using the term would offer if requested to do so. My suspicion is that persons publicly using the word, if questioned separately from each other, would not come up with the same definition. Perhaps that’s because defining the word before using it in a speech would require someone to demonstrate that their pejorative use of the word in reference to Sen. Obama actually fits his perceived plans for the American people. It is clearly a questionable assumption that listeners to a speech, upon hearing the term, all have an agreed upon notion of what socialism means — first, as it exists in the mind of the speaker and second as it is interpreted by the many members of the audience. Without that agreement in place, I submit that use of the word has little or no meaning at all.

I want to thank the Napa Valley Register for its endorsement of John McCain for president of the United States of America. It took a great deal of thought and courage to make this endorsement, especially given the tone and irrational logic expressed in recent letters. It was without question the correct endorsement.

Here is an interesting article from Timothy Carney, which gives a quick and dirty analysis (click here to read) of most of the races around the country including the Presidential race.

Why do I dislike so many political partisans? Let me count the ways.

Some children were out on the playground for recess and found a little lost kitten. Taking it into their classroom, they protected it and comforted it. Finally, one child asked, “Teacher, is the kitten a girl kitten or a boy kitten?” The teacher replied, “how do you think we can tell?” One little boy raised his hand and said, “I know. We can vote!”

His campaign literature says that his name is Barack Hussein Obama II, that he is a U.S. Senator and that he is a U.S. citizen born in the city and county of Honolulu, Hawaii. 

Dear editor, God love America! Only in America can citizens display their choices in an election year. We had yard signs stolen, but we replaced them. Our neighbors display their choices, as we do.

Dear editor, I would like to commend Gary Simpson on his strong leadership in this community. I followed his career as county sheriff and was always impressed by his professionalism, common sense and forward thinking. I know Gary will bring those same qualities to the board of supervisors. He will be a great representative for us.

Dear editor, After months of reading attack letters from all districts of Napa County on the District 5 supervisors election, I would like to weigh in.

Dear editor, I’ve been a Napa County resident for many years and care about the future of this area. We have a lot of challenges ahead. We have roads in disrepair, unacceptable traffic congestion, water supply and protection needs, development pressures and a gang presence in local neighborhoods, just to name a few.

Dear editor, We read with complete disbelief the letter, “The Dangers of Proposition 8” in the Oct. 29 Register.

Dear editor, For my interests, the Register has been doing a pretty good job saving its butt lately by printing letters that disagree with its (?) political endorsement. But will it print this?

Dear editor, I was very impressed by the letter to the editor from Alexis Woodruff, a student who could teach us all a thing or two: be informed, research before making a decision (“We can’t afford to be uninformed,” Oct. 29).

Dear editor, It’s about our election in the United States/Mr. President Bush made a lot of mistakes/He sent our guys to war in Iraq/He said say goodbye ’cause some will never be back/Our country got stuck in a bad recession/You’d think he woulda thought and learned his lesson!/It’s time to go out and vote today/So the American people can have their way!/They say vote for McCain ’cause he’s so special/He went to war and got a gold medal/And what about Palin/She’s down to earth?/Just because she gave birth?/Some say pick Obama ’cause he’s a brother/He’ll treat you good like no other!/It’s hard to choose one, wouldn’t you say?/So go out and make sure you vote today/I’m not a rock star or a rappa/Just a white chick who lives in Napa.

Recently I was looking at all the comments after an article on Obama’s tax plan, and noting how over the top the Republican commenters were about Obama. I thought of writing something sarcastic, like "Obama is going to use his Marxist social engineering policies to support domestic terrorism through an oppressive tax code on teeny tiny business owners while promoting both Muslim terrorism and black liberation theology, thereby installing Bill Ayers as the Secretary of Defense yada yada yada...."

My topic is family dinners. I could use some more ideas for quick, healthy, and inexpensive dinners.

My fourth grade son has an animal report due on Wednesday. I helped him to set a schedule so that all he has to do tonight is to put the pictures he printed on the pages and he is done. No 10 pm on Tuesday and we are still at it! Sometimes being a parent is great.

My 23 month old son is hitting the terrible twos a tad early. Everything is “NO” and “MINE” right now. When I won’t let him do what he wants to do (like pull out all of the DVDs), mostly I say “not for babies” and pull him away (he doesn’t like it, but oh well). Well sometimes, I feel my blood pressure rising and say “NO” myself (not exactly good modeling) and come on too strong; he cries and sometimes I cry.  Sometimes being a parent makes me crazy.

Barack Obama chose Delaware Sen. Joe Biden as his running mate ... what do you think of the choice?

(Editor's note: The comments on this crashed about 9:30 a.m Friday, right after McCain's announcement. We were able to rebuild most but not all of the comments)