How It Ought To Be, Damn It!:

This book began as a series, with segments included in each issue of my monthly blog, Bainstorming. The Bainstorming blog ran each month for about six years. It appeared on my web site, one segment in each issue. Unfortunately, my years have caught up with me and it got to the point where I could either continue the Bainstorming blog or continue to write fiction but not both--so I compromised by cutting down on the fiction somewhat and writing another issue of Bainstorming every six months or so, rather than every month.

Just as a note, Congress could use that little example of what they should be doing: Compromising and getting something useful accomplished. And as another note, every issue of Bainstorming is archived on my web site, , complete with a search engine. If you use the search engine to see if I've written about topics that might interest you, try searching for Love vs. Lust, which just happens to be my favorite piece of all the subjects I wrote about during those six years of monthly issues (and the one I had the most comments on). Or if you're a lazy cuss like me, just go to the November 2005 issue and again to the January 2008 issue.

This book is not organized or written as a professional pundit would do it. It's just observations by a citizen, me, and what I've learned over the years from a voracious reading habit and from paying attention to what is going on in our nation and the world.

So, where did the title, How It Ought To Be, Damn It! come from? It should be self-explanatory, but just to be certain readers understand what this book is about right from the beginning, it is simply how I believe things in these great, big, huge, wonderful United States of America ought to be--but aren't. I won't mince words, I won't try to be politically correct and I'll do my best to tell it in a way I think a great many of our citizens would like to hear someone say it.

Some of the subjects I've written about in my blog, in no particular order, are education, medical care, taxes, my favorite books, antics of the four-footed furry members of the family, environment, dishonesty, books I've written, slowing down, aging, corruption in government, drugs, history, energy, silly laws, the difference between love and lust, my wonderful wife, Betty and a whole haystack of other stuff that caught my interest while indulging in my second most favorite activity, reading, and I do mean voracious reading in a multitude of subjects.

I guess most of what I've written about, and will be writing about in this book, are the things you see yourself in everyday life while watching television, hanging out on social media groups, reading newspapers, talking with friends (and enemies) and so forth. If you're interested, the personal items I included in Bainstorming, plus my own life history can be found in my autobiography, It's Never Too Late. This book you're presently reading is mostly about the state of the United States and solutions I believe would help.

Will I get everything right? Almost certainly not. I'm no more perfect than you are. Will I get the majority of it right? I believe so, and I believe most people will agree with most of the content in this book. Will I repeat myself? Most likely. Some of the observations in this book are worth repeating.

Since I mostly write fiction and have never attempted a non-fiction work like this one, please don't expect it to be perfectly organized or absolutely correct or to cover every subject under the sun. I gave a lot of thought on how to present my opinions and finally arrived at what I believe to be the best approach.

How It Ought To Be, Damn it! will consist of three parts. The first part will cover all the things I believe are wrong with our country, then the second part will present my proposed solutions to the problems, and the last part will be some miscellaneous observations and probably some hindsight, telling what should have been done. Everyone is good at that, huh? Really, I will be as serious in the miscellaneous section as in the other two parts of the book, so don't skip it. Maybe that's not how a professional political pundit would do it but to heck with them. This is my book and I'll write it like I want to.