2009-16 GEORGETOWN

I am comforted that the world has paused for a few seconds to remember D-Day, and the contribution of British, American, and Canadian forces toward the liberation of Europe. Recent history has recorded the glee which much of the planet derives from dumping on America, so it’s nice to remember the day in which sacrifice was rewarded with gratitude.

Much has been made of the weather surrounding the Normandy landing (not an “invasion” as some describe, as it was a military effort to retake occupied territory). But history has forgotten the contribution of my namesake and uncle, Major Harry Richard Seiwell, assigned to the Allied Command General Staff. As one of the planet’s first PhD Oceanographers, it was his advice that helped convince General Eisenhower, despite nasty weather, to proceed with the mission.

While a majority of consultants sued for delay, chief meteorologist British Group Captain J. M. Stagg, with urging from Major Seiwell, argued for the mission to proceed. Seiwell maintained that it was not the weather itself, but its effect on the sea and ultimately on the amphibious aircraft that was the critical factor. It was Major Seiwell’s analysis of weather’s impact on Channel swells that provided the clinching data.

Captain Stagg garnered a place in history, while Major Seiwell quietly returned to his family and research at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts. Several years later, along with his wife and two young daughters, all were killed instantly while on a skiing vacation in Quebec, when in a blinding snowstorm their car was broadsided by a Canadian National Railway freight train at an unmarked crossing. The engineer was alleged in local news accounts to be speeding while intoxicated but was not charged.

Major Seiwell was a bright branch on a family tree that includes many undistinguished limbs, but few miscreants and no (identified) ax murders.

#####

Are we entering the age of Sarkobama? Perhaps. But in the joint press conference I watched on C-SPAN, my President was 98.4% in the spotlight and a pensive Sarko sat quietly, nodding occasionally, and appearing as though he wished he were somewhere else. There is always a risk when you share the stage with a rock star that your own light will rest unseen under the proverbial bushel. Not a promising prospect for any politician.

#####

Don’t hold your breath in anticipation of an outcome for the 2 journalists held by Pyongyang to replicate the happy ending afforded the young woman held in Tehran. While Iran is still hopeful of winning some international support (and maintains friends in Russia and China), North Korea appears willing to go down in flames, and thus has little incentive to make conciliatory gestures. The lesson should be that when a bully sticks a finger in your eye, doing nothing (or posturing with meaningless threats) is not a good omen for your other eye.

#####

A word on who does and does not pay income tax. Dueling BLOGS left and right make a hash of the subject, both employing convoluted math and logic to spin their predetermined convictions. And so we turn to the IRS, which states that in 2005, the last year they bothered to compile the figures, 43.8 million tax returns – 32.6% of the total filed, paid no income tax. Statistical projection places that number well over 40% for the year 2008, and Obama’s promises to “reform” the tax code, if realized, will certainly push that number over the half century mark.

And so each of you reading this who actually pay U. S. income taxes must realize that the burden you feel as you slog along the trail of life is the weight of a non-paying American you carry. Now that might illicit some comfort if you picture the slogee as a Simon Legreesque, handlebar moustache sporting, black hat wearing evil businessman, but I will venture there are readers among you of quite modest means who bear a tax burden year in and out, while somehow half of the citizenry escapes the ignominy of April 15.

You might deduce from this statistic that fully half of America is so bereft of recourses that they are unable to share, even in small measure, in the tax burden. Either that or perhaps we have crafted a tax code that in the nation with the highest standard of living in the history of the planet, fully half the citizenry can rely on the other half to foot the bill.

#####

I don’t consider myself a particularly moralistic person, but I’m troubled by the “enlightened” view that illicit sex is a victimless crime, that intimate relations are nobody’s business but the participants. As a conservative I don’t fancy government functionaries poking their noses into the nation’s bedrooms. But I was disturbed by my former President’s dalliance in The People’s House (I’ll stop bringing this up when leftists cease the “Bush stole the 2000 election” refrain). What he and whatshername engaged in matters not one whit to me, save the lesson it sent to the nation and particularly our young.

When I hear that some schools and social organizations are promoting oral sex to young teenage girls as a convenient means of avoiding pregnancy, I wonder whether the path we travel is paved with shifting sand. Where oh where are the feminists on this? For years they have attacked all manner of chauvinism from men’s magazines to workplace harassment, yet I hear nary a word about such advice imparted to impressionable young women.

#####

I think I mentioned that I have but 28 channels on my TV, equally divided among Spanish language, religion, community feel-good, sports and the Boob Channel, a collection of top-heavy flaxen lovelies toiling assiduously to confirm every demeaning slur against their sub-culture. It arrives on my TV a bit grey and fuzzy, as though some celestial censor is attempting to shield me from depravity.

But there is AMC with its bewildering array of offerings. I’ve never been one for macho movies nor chick flicks – I’m simply not a movie aficionado. But on this cold, rainy morning I watched the syrupy A Kiss at Midnight and experienced an odd sensation, akin to sentimentality, which I also felt at age 8 when Zippy my pet goldfish expired. Just one more slide on the slippery slope toward dementia, I suppose. I then watched A Thousand Clowns with Jason Robards and Barbara Harris and The Longest Day, produced I would assume as an audio/visual aid for those with the shortest memories.

…Tourists have descended on Georgetown, swelling the town’s population. I’ve always wondered at the local proclivity to condemn the very population that supports them, yet I do notice that those who travel for pleasure often forget to pack their common sense and good manners. The Adventure is swept along with the roiling Clear Creek, emboldened by Continental Divide runoff. A-Basin, the last area ski resort holdout, closes today…the seasons turn, turn, turn…And by the way, the snow shower last Sunday was brief and followed by bright sun…
.
.