A conservative for freeing the slaves shot liberal Abe Lincoln. But by today’s standards he might be shot by an impatient liberal if freedom and equality didn’t happen the very next day. Liberals today demand instant success unless they are responsible for achieving it.

You might remember that liberal millionaire Franklin Roosevelt and conservative Winston Churchill worked together to defeat Hitler and his insane ideology.

Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher ignored both liberals and nervous conservatives to end communism in the world’s largest nation. Our contemporary media and liberal politicians denigrated their unflinching efforts but history soon recorded them as courageous leaders. The wall came down, the missiles stayed in their silos.

Liberal Tony Blair and conservative George Bush evaluated the best available information and, with legislative approval, launched successful military action to replace a murderous dictator with a democracy. But today, polling by liberal media and supported by liberal politicians is casting our leaders as ineffective because a militant minority in Iraq is blocking democratization that was approved by the previously silenced Iraqi majority. Everyone should read that sentence again.

Discrediting political parties in power is never productive. More important, history does not record even one instance when our leaders have gone to war with a comprehensive plan for peace in hand, nor has any U. S. congress ever demanded one, until the liberals today. Liberals should read that sentence again.

Here is a chance for our council to endear itself with Suffolk citizens by going to work right this minute on tax rate cuts following the news that our homes are mysteriously worth 20 percent more in one year. Was this balloon raised to prepare us for the needle they will stick in us to get more blood? City hall has so many downtown and other projects for enhancement underway they may insist they need every dime the assessor can produce. It seems it is easy for council to forget who provides the dimes.

Surely they consider us as fat cats, certainly willing to part with more of our dollars we would normally use for food and now gasoline. There is absolutely no chance at all that our council can thwart the ideology of our city manager who, when he determines what is best for us, will find a way. Imagine if you can, all it takes is four council members to stop the bloodletting. The numbers are already there…a 20 percent increase will produce &uot;X&uot; dollars and a tax rate reduction of &uot;X&uot; will eliminate that additional damage to our wallets and purses. All it requires is a little courage and less sanctimonious use of the term, &uot;public good.&uot; Council, now’s your chance to redeem yourself.

It’s called water…two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen. How in the world they get those two parts mixed and stuck together is a mystery to me. The hydrogen part could easily run automobiles but that’s another story you’ll be hearing a lot about. Seventy percent of Americans are chronically dehydrated, probably including you. In 37 percent of Americans the thirst mechanism is so weak it’s often mistaken for hunger, and they eat. Even mild dehydration slows down your metabolism.

One glass of water, read this carefully, will shut down midnight hunger pangs for a hundred percent of the dieters, but they would rather have cookies and milk. Lack of water is the number one trigger of daytime fatigue and medical research indicates that eight glasses of water a day could ease back and joint pain for nearly all sufferers. So why don’t you try it?

A mere 2 percent drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page. Even five glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45 percent, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 80 percent…and one is 50 percent less likely to develop bladder cancer. So what are you waiting for?

Oh, you’d rather pop a nice cold Coke? Know this; in many states the highway patrol carries two gallons of coke in the trunk to remove blood from the highway after a car accident. Put a T-bone steak in a bowl of coke and it will be gone in two days. To clean your toilet just pour a can of it in the bowl and let the &uot;real thing&uot; sit for one hour.

To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers rub with a rumpled-up piece of aluminum foil dipped in Coke. You know about cleaning corrosion from car battery terminals by pouring Coke over the terminals to bubble away the corrosion. To loosen a rusted bolt apply a cloth soaked in Coke to the rusted bolt for several minutes. To remove grease from clothes dump a can into the washer, add detergent and run a regular cycle. It will clean road haze from your windshield, or dissolve a nail in about 4 days. To carry Coke syrup (the concentrate) commercial trucks must use the &uot;hazardous material&uot; sign reserved for highly corrosive stuff. The distributors of Coke have been using it to clean the engines of their trucks for about 20 years! OK council, nor more Coke…it’s water or Kool Aid, we need sharp thinkers to battle the Manager.

Robert Pocklington lives in Suffolk and is a regular News-Herald columnist. He can be reached at robert.pocklington@suffolknewsherald.com.