Why do you suppose our President has pushed so hard for Health Care Reform legislation to be passed before the August recess? He claims it is because of the anguished letters he reads every day from folks across the land pleading for relief. Could it also be that he is in peptic distress over the earfull individual Congressfolk will receive when they return home for the summer break?
And don’t you love Rep. Henry Waxman who, because he won’t allow members of his own party to “hand over control of (his) Committee to the Republicans” is threatening to simply circumvent a 200-year process and bypass Committee action on the Health Care Bill. He did express his preference for “regular order,” except, apparently, when he doesn’t get his way. Similar situations exist in pre-schools across the land, where a “time-out” is typically the remedy.
Of course Republicans pull similar shenanigans where possible, but they are not the folk continually vowing to “clean up Washington” and “restore public confidence” to the political process. Hypocrisy practiced by politicians is akin to the vertically challenged practicing being short.
#####
The other day while weeding through some mental detritus I came across Winston Churchill’s oft repeated quote: “If you're not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you're not a conservative at forty you have no brain.” This helped clarify for me the status of the Hollywood elite. These folks simply live in a fantasy world ala Michael Jackson and have never grown up, hence their stunted maturity. And it confirms as well my impression of the mental capacity of that creative enclave.
Speaking of California, despite all-night sessions to resolve its financial crisis, it appears but a matter of time until the rest of America will be called upon to bail out the lifestyle that so many find economically unsustainable and often bizarre. As liberal Democrats are fond of condemning subsidies for special interests, might they join conservatives in resistance? When swine soar!
#####
And on health care, I’m confused (as usual) by the duel Democrat claims of massive unnecessary expenditures in the system (which I define as the outrageous cost of insuring the medical community against frivolous lawsuits) and allegations that insurance companies routinely deny necessary procedures to their clients.
Debating the morality and value of health care reform can take many voices, but the smoke and mirror approach of suggesting that exposing 43 million uninsured Americans to comprehensive health care will somehow lower costs is appallingly transparent. It is sad that simply saying “it will cost a bundle but it’s the right thing to do” is not politically acceptable. Voting with the heart and the pocketbook are as dissimilar as love and marriage.
And although it will likely be disputed, I postulate that such differences transcend political boundaries. Many years ago I was in line at the local copy center behind a magnificently attired blue-haired matron, who when asked “recycled paper?” for the 7 copies of her 2-page Garden Club letter, huffed indignantly “why recycled, of course.” When informed that it would (as in those days it did) cost one cent additional per page, she lowered her voice and said “regular, then.” Funny how economics can influence our social conscience.
Certain “inconvenient realities” persist on the landscape. Much of the planet that can afford to do so continues to breach American shores for medical treatment. Remember that Yasser Arafat, deprived of that option, chose France for his treatment and was shipped home in a box.
Yet massive dislocations do exist. As a volunteer first responder I learned that when prescription medicine is expended, the disadvantaged routinely call 911 with vague complaints, resulting in an ambulance call, a trip to the emergency room, and a free prescription refill, all at massive cost to the taxpayer. And there is no evidence I‘ve encountered to suggest that extensive demonstration programs designed to encourage healthy living among the poor do anything to improve the status quo. Childhood obesity continues unchecked despite substantial federal, state, and local spending.
Until we are willing to reward healthy living and penalize the obverse, the situation will not improve. Now to some that may sound like social engineering, and conservatives must be constantly vigilant against creeping do-goodism. Yet penalties can be defined as withholding rewards for questionable behavior, such as Medicare providing free scooters to the morbidly obese, lung surgery for smokers, and kidney transplants for alcoholics.
#####
As much as I am tempted to jump into the Gates/Cambridge police controversy, I have learned that while politics and religion were once the taboo subjects of polite conversation, race has overtaken that appellation. Like global warming and health care reform, in America today if you are not on the politically correct side, you are vilified as (at best) a cretin and potentially placed in physical danger.
Suffice to say I find it inconceivable that our President calmed the waters by his press conference allegation of police stupidity. Yes, he did allow as how he could have “calibrated” his remarks differently. Now there’s a thought! Might we consider passing out political calibrators to politicians everywhere?
And yet his straightforward approach to diffuse the issue – inviting Gates and Crowley to the White House “for a beer,” and what will certainly be a Kum-bah-yah moment, is not rocket science but a master stroke. If a similar approach might work with Ahmadinejad and Kim Jung Il, the Vatican may be tempted to launch sainthood proceedings at an early stage. It’s not the mistakes we make but how we correct them.
#####
I rose early today and found John Conyers addressing the National Press Club luncheon on C-SPAN. A true Comedy Central presentation, mocking all things Republican and conservative. Not debating, not disagreeing, but mocking. And not surprising. The laughter was raucous. A fine time was had by all.
At the conclusion, the speaker’s schedule for the next 2 months was announced: Barney Frank, John Kerry, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, Ken Burns. And finally a discussion of the need for diversity in journalism. But certainly not political diversity, judging from the unbroken string of liberal Democrats on the speaker invite list. To be certain they do toss in a conservative or Republican now and then to (I assume) maintain their tax exempt status. But the trend is unmistakable.
And my liberal friends continue to be angered by allegations of a liberal press and biased media. Despite the overwhelming sentiment, I recall in my lifetime only Jack Germond of the Baltimore Sun having the honesty to admit his liberal bias. Not to be confused with O’Reilly, Olbermann, et al, “analysts” who are free to wear their bias openly.
#####
Almost August and not a murmur in the Atlantic. The Adventure stands at the ready despite fair winds and azure skies…
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.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Saturday, July 18, 2009
2009-19 GEORGETOWN
History (for those intrepid enough to study it without bias and spin) tells us that in time of national crisis governments tend to overreact. Just one comparison in my own backyard, that of WW-II and 911, shows us that in the former, the Roosevelt Administration indiscriminately jailed Japanese-American citizens and the Truman Administration firebombed civilians in Dresden and of course unleashed atomic terror on Japan. Though widely applauded at the time, history has come to question such extreme acts, and that is what history is designed to accomplish – dispassionate analysis from a distance, after the fervor of the moment has dissipated.
Conversely, the alleged overreactions of 911, including portions of the Patriot Act, NSA wiretaps, Guantanamo detentions, et al, have received widespread condemnation, with scant acknowledgement that to the extent they were overreactions, they were a predictable response to an unprecedented attack upon our homeland.
It is interesting to contemplate why liberal darlings FDR and Truman both then and now get a pass for their actions while Cheney and Bush are labeled war criminals and produce a blood lust for vengeance on the left.
If excesses motivated by Pearl Harbor can be explained by historical occurrence, why not similar reactions inspired by destruction of the Twin Towers? Might it be just another example of the left forever excusing its actions due to perceived moral superiority while condemning all actions from the right as brutish thuggery? Perhaps.
#####
As much of the nation bakes under an unrelenting sun, I continue to begin each slumber under 2 blankets, though by morning one (but never both) is often discarded. And this, absent the ubiquitous A/C, without which the planet would appear to shrivel and expire. Notwithstanding that the 2nd century Chinese inventor Ding Huan invented a rotary fan for air conditioning, modern A/C was virtually unknown a scant half-century ago, yet we somehow survived the centuries, if uncomfortably so. Are we tough, or what!
#####
Interesting though predictable that Judge Sotomayor has emerged with twin yet diametrically opposed personas – the first a dispassionate, letter-of-the-law, no nonsense, down-the-middle, respectful of precedent jurist, conversely the biased, emotionally disposed, liberally inclined, sentiment-trumping-Constitution adjudicator. We should know the truth in a few years. But it is interesting that her supporters on the left portray her as the former, while it is painfully obvious that they hunger for the latter. Similarly, Roberts and Alito said much and revealed nothing in their confirmation hearings, the rationale being not to tell the truth but to be confirmed. And so Advise and Consent becomes Much Ado About Nothing.
#####
One aspect of my struggle with religion (I find that as one ages there is a tendency to grapple with issues that escape the radar of the young) is the concept of using to the fullest one’s God given talent as opposed to subsuming reason in favor of belief. The twin theological juggernauts of “don’t question, just believe,” and “don’t ask, because we can’t tell,” are vexing restrictions in an atmosphere where we are admonished to “reach high and far”.
Reminds me a bit of the young woman from my former hometown away attending a Christian college. While strolling with a friend on a trail atop a steep hill, the ground gave way and she experienced a terrifying tumble of nearly one hundred feet that left her gravely injured. Upon her recovery while still in hospital she announced that Jesus was with her at the bottom and saved her life. Should one assume that as her fall commenced the Son of God was on a coffee break and therefore missed the opportunity to save her from this trauma?
And while on the subject, I note that religion, so mocked and derided during Republican days in Washington has found favor now that some other folks are in charge. I have never once seen nor heard a single slur against the Black Church (the flak over Obama’s minister was targeted solely at him and carefully avoided any slight against his institution), while snide smirks and spiteful smears against the Evangelical community are an enduring staple at toney gatherings of liberal sophisticates across the land.
Incidentally, lest cynics take heart or true believers umbrage, I find it the existence of a creator to be above debate. I have no clue as to what form he/she/it takes, but the idea that billions of neurons in each human brain firing in perfect sequence were created by random explosion is farcical.
#####
I was pressed, several evenings ago, into domestic service when a server on our special dinner train acquired a malady rendering him unfit to pursue his duties. Inching down aisles barely able to accommodate my modest girth (I had welts on both thighs the next morning) with red in the left hand and white in the right, it was amply reconfirmed that the dispensation of comestibles is trivial in comparison to the need to parry boorish and inane commentary from the assembled throng.
There was some comfort in the knowledge that truly excessive behavior could be dealt with by expulsion from the train, while such solutions are not available to those who dispense similar services in the skies. Although, perhaps…
#####
There appears occasionally in the press some report of a loyal employee feted upon retirement after 40+ years in a position acquired out of high school. Such consistency is judged commendable and it got me to thinking that in both métier and geography I have been a bit flighty. Without having given this much prior thought I now realize that for reasons not entirely apparent, such peripaticity has been an essential element of my passage on the planet.
While I have greatly enjoyed my time in many locations (Paris, Nairobi, Singapore, Hattiesburg, Georgetown) and languished in others (Taiwan, Tokyo (but not the rest of that glorious country), Galveston) and experienced similar emotional highs and lows in various positions I have held this past half-century, it occurs that the element of change has been crucial to the process. Running toward or away from, perhaps, a sort of wandering Gentile in pursuit of the unknown.
While working in Paris decades ago a friend from the rural south confided that his fiancée had never ventured from the South Carolina county into which she was born, had no desire to do so, and let it be known that she would resist any geographical shift. As he discovered the pleasures of new continents and cultures I could see his pain in the inevitable choice he would eventually be forced to make. I wonder what happened?
And that illuminates my own decisions yet to come. While I have quite enjoyed Clear Creek County and the front range of the Rockies, it will soon be time to skedaddle. So many possibilities to which the Adventure has yet to be exposed…
.
.
Conversely, the alleged overreactions of 911, including portions of the Patriot Act, NSA wiretaps, Guantanamo detentions, et al, have received widespread condemnation, with scant acknowledgement that to the extent they were overreactions, they were a predictable response to an unprecedented attack upon our homeland.
It is interesting to contemplate why liberal darlings FDR and Truman both then and now get a pass for their actions while Cheney and Bush are labeled war criminals and produce a blood lust for vengeance on the left.
If excesses motivated by Pearl Harbor can be explained by historical occurrence, why not similar reactions inspired by destruction of the Twin Towers? Might it be just another example of the left forever excusing its actions due to perceived moral superiority while condemning all actions from the right as brutish thuggery? Perhaps.
#####
As much of the nation bakes under an unrelenting sun, I continue to begin each slumber under 2 blankets, though by morning one (but never both) is often discarded. And this, absent the ubiquitous A/C, without which the planet would appear to shrivel and expire. Notwithstanding that the 2nd century Chinese inventor Ding Huan invented a rotary fan for air conditioning, modern A/C was virtually unknown a scant half-century ago, yet we somehow survived the centuries, if uncomfortably so. Are we tough, or what!
#####
Interesting though predictable that Judge Sotomayor has emerged with twin yet diametrically opposed personas – the first a dispassionate, letter-of-the-law, no nonsense, down-the-middle, respectful of precedent jurist, conversely the biased, emotionally disposed, liberally inclined, sentiment-trumping-Constitution adjudicator. We should know the truth in a few years. But it is interesting that her supporters on the left portray her as the former, while it is painfully obvious that they hunger for the latter. Similarly, Roberts and Alito said much and revealed nothing in their confirmation hearings, the rationale being not to tell the truth but to be confirmed. And so Advise and Consent becomes Much Ado About Nothing.
#####
One aspect of my struggle with religion (I find that as one ages there is a tendency to grapple with issues that escape the radar of the young) is the concept of using to the fullest one’s God given talent as opposed to subsuming reason in favor of belief. The twin theological juggernauts of “don’t question, just believe,” and “don’t ask, because we can’t tell,” are vexing restrictions in an atmosphere where we are admonished to “reach high and far”.
Reminds me a bit of the young woman from my former hometown away attending a Christian college. While strolling with a friend on a trail atop a steep hill, the ground gave way and she experienced a terrifying tumble of nearly one hundred feet that left her gravely injured. Upon her recovery while still in hospital she announced that Jesus was with her at the bottom and saved her life. Should one assume that as her fall commenced the Son of God was on a coffee break and therefore missed the opportunity to save her from this trauma?
And while on the subject, I note that religion, so mocked and derided during Republican days in Washington has found favor now that some other folks are in charge. I have never once seen nor heard a single slur against the Black Church (the flak over Obama’s minister was targeted solely at him and carefully avoided any slight against his institution), while snide smirks and spiteful smears against the Evangelical community are an enduring staple at toney gatherings of liberal sophisticates across the land.
Incidentally, lest cynics take heart or true believers umbrage, I find it the existence of a creator to be above debate. I have no clue as to what form he/she/it takes, but the idea that billions of neurons in each human brain firing in perfect sequence were created by random explosion is farcical.
#####
I was pressed, several evenings ago, into domestic service when a server on our special dinner train acquired a malady rendering him unfit to pursue his duties. Inching down aisles barely able to accommodate my modest girth (I had welts on both thighs the next morning) with red in the left hand and white in the right, it was amply reconfirmed that the dispensation of comestibles is trivial in comparison to the need to parry boorish and inane commentary from the assembled throng.
There was some comfort in the knowledge that truly excessive behavior could be dealt with by expulsion from the train, while such solutions are not available to those who dispense similar services in the skies. Although, perhaps…
#####
There appears occasionally in the press some report of a loyal employee feted upon retirement after 40+ years in a position acquired out of high school. Such consistency is judged commendable and it got me to thinking that in both métier and geography I have been a bit flighty. Without having given this much prior thought I now realize that for reasons not entirely apparent, such peripaticity has been an essential element of my passage on the planet.
While I have greatly enjoyed my time in many locations (Paris, Nairobi, Singapore, Hattiesburg, Georgetown) and languished in others (Taiwan, Tokyo (but not the rest of that glorious country), Galveston) and experienced similar emotional highs and lows in various positions I have held this past half-century, it occurs that the element of change has been crucial to the process. Running toward or away from, perhaps, a sort of wandering Gentile in pursuit of the unknown.
While working in Paris decades ago a friend from the rural south confided that his fiancée had never ventured from the South Carolina county into which she was born, had no desire to do so, and let it be known that she would resist any geographical shift. As he discovered the pleasures of new continents and cultures I could see his pain in the inevitable choice he would eventually be forced to make. I wonder what happened?
And that illuminates my own decisions yet to come. While I have quite enjoyed Clear Creek County and the front range of the Rockies, it will soon be time to skedaddle. So many possibilities to which the Adventure has yet to be exposed…
.
.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
2009-18 GEORGETOWN
Call me cruel and heartless, but I am disturbed by the magnitude and breadth of the grief expressed over the untimely passing of Michael Jackson. While any such unfortunate event should be met with solemnity and condolence, the event was not in my mind of the cataclysmic proportions to which media, Congress with its moment of silence, The White House, the clogged Internet, and various social organizations propelled it. I can well imagine MTV in mourning, but when CNBC suspended reporting on the global economic crisis to run full-time helicopter coverage of crowds gathered outside the UCLA Medical Center, I sensed a cosmic imbalance.
This was a man who proclaimed on worldwide TV that sharing his bed with young boys was “an act of love,” (I bet it was!), and who avoided jail time by offering multi-million dollar settlements to the parents of children in his care. His claims to fame included dangling his infant child off the balcony of a German hotel and cosmetic surgery that even his own mother once commented was “strange.” Yes, he could dance backwards, and perhaps that tells us something about the culture we have become.
He was labeled the “king of pop.” In my day that appellation fell to Dr. Pepper.
Poor Farah Fawcett’s departure was scheduled for the same day, and as such her considerable talent, including a seminal performance as an abused wife in The Burning Bed was sorely eclipsed in news reporting. For the limited coverage she did receive, the media, always with a sharp eye to the relative importance of events, focused almost entirely on her pinup and Charlie’s Angles days, while her dramatic achievements were left nearly unmentioned.
#####
It has been remarked with some justification that I can claim no natural affinity to the merchant trade, for reasons among others that I do not believe that anyone, least of all the customer, is always right. When the visiting attorney (I knew he was before he so announced for all to hear) whose credit card was declined while attempting to buy train tickets, demanded an immediate audience with our corporate attorney and our “software engineer,” then grabbed a telephone from the hands of my young associate, I was ready to call 911, but dutiful employee that I am I referred him to my manager. There ensued nearly 15 minutes of harangue during which he refused to move from the head of the ticket line, rendering all subsequent sales impossible.
At one point a bearded mountain man several steps back in line offered to “take him out” in return for a free train ride, then relenting said, “aw hell, I’ll pay for the train, just let me take him out.” Temptation was never so compelling as when in 4th grade Sandy Smith offered to “show me hers,” if I would “show her mine.”
Turns out his card was invalid as the night before his credit card company had been sold and a new card expressed to his home in Pennsylvania. My revenge came in the form of a delightful phone conversation (sad that I could hear only his side) with a third-world citizen explaining the new rules of the game. The counselor must have uttered (with increasing volume) a dozen times “I’m in Colorado for crisssakes, what good is a card mailed to my Pennsylvania home going to do me here?” Clearly the Indian sub-continent customer service rep on the other end was not well schooled in North American geography. Salvaged my day.
It is abundantly true that 1% of customers deliver 99% of all grief, and while I am highly motivated to return the favor several fold, my employee handbook instructs, contrary to biblical teaching, that I must suffer fools gladly.
#####
There are myriad locations on the planet where the locals are fond of saying “if you don’t like the weather, wait 5 minutes.” Out my window in the Paris Marais I once witnessed brilliant sunshine, ominous threatening black clouds, sun, snow showers, then a return to brilliant sun, all within the course of une demi-heure.
It is certainly that way in Clear Creek County, Colorado. Yesterday as dark clouds rolled down the valley and the skies opened with fury, a customer was outraged that I was required to levy a cancellation fee for the train ride 40 minutes hence to which he would in no way subject his fragile family unit. Parroting the official company policy that we “operate rain or shine,” I tried to ease the tension by commenting that “by departure time the sun will probably re-emerge.” Face contorted with self-righteous rage he flung back “that’s bull****, I bet you $100 there won’t be any sun for the rest of the day.” I mumbled something about having my gambling problem under control, then beat a hasty retreat from his wrath.
Sure enough by boarding time sun glasses covered the eyes of one and all, and I positioned myself strategically as passengers alighted at the end of the ride, but I couldn’t make eye contact with the gambler as his attention was suddenly focused elsewhere.
It’s what one does to derive simple percs while working for modest wages. As when delivering phone books last year, on occasion I remarked to those inclined to refuse the free book, that buried in its pages was a “secret passage” which, if discovered, qualified the finder for entrance into a drawing for a free ride on the Space Shuttle. Believe it or don’t, it was the tipping point for several acceptances. And in truth my manager did once comment on a bizarre phone inquiry she received as to the exact page in the book containing the coupon for the free space ride.
#####
Well, an entire Post devoid of reference to politics! Disappointment for a few perhaps, but relief I suspect to the many. You get what you pay for. The Adventure ambles along the plains even as the anticipation of a mountainous storm season emerges…..
.
.
This was a man who proclaimed on worldwide TV that sharing his bed with young boys was “an act of love,” (I bet it was!), and who avoided jail time by offering multi-million dollar settlements to the parents of children in his care. His claims to fame included dangling his infant child off the balcony of a German hotel and cosmetic surgery that even his own mother once commented was “strange.” Yes, he could dance backwards, and perhaps that tells us something about the culture we have become.
He was labeled the “king of pop.” In my day that appellation fell to Dr. Pepper.
Poor Farah Fawcett’s departure was scheduled for the same day, and as such her considerable talent, including a seminal performance as an abused wife in The Burning Bed was sorely eclipsed in news reporting. For the limited coverage she did receive, the media, always with a sharp eye to the relative importance of events, focused almost entirely on her pinup and Charlie’s Angles days, while her dramatic achievements were left nearly unmentioned.
#####
It has been remarked with some justification that I can claim no natural affinity to the merchant trade, for reasons among others that I do not believe that anyone, least of all the customer, is always right. When the visiting attorney (I knew he was before he so announced for all to hear) whose credit card was declined while attempting to buy train tickets, demanded an immediate audience with our corporate attorney and our “software engineer,” then grabbed a telephone from the hands of my young associate, I was ready to call 911, but dutiful employee that I am I referred him to my manager. There ensued nearly 15 minutes of harangue during which he refused to move from the head of the ticket line, rendering all subsequent sales impossible.
At one point a bearded mountain man several steps back in line offered to “take him out” in return for a free train ride, then relenting said, “aw hell, I’ll pay for the train, just let me take him out.” Temptation was never so compelling as when in 4th grade Sandy Smith offered to “show me hers,” if I would “show her mine.”
Turns out his card was invalid as the night before his credit card company had been sold and a new card expressed to his home in Pennsylvania. My revenge came in the form of a delightful phone conversation (sad that I could hear only his side) with a third-world citizen explaining the new rules of the game. The counselor must have uttered (with increasing volume) a dozen times “I’m in Colorado for crisssakes, what good is a card mailed to my Pennsylvania home going to do me here?” Clearly the Indian sub-continent customer service rep on the other end was not well schooled in North American geography. Salvaged my day.
It is abundantly true that 1% of customers deliver 99% of all grief, and while I am highly motivated to return the favor several fold, my employee handbook instructs, contrary to biblical teaching, that I must suffer fools gladly.
#####
There are myriad locations on the planet where the locals are fond of saying “if you don’t like the weather, wait 5 minutes.” Out my window in the Paris Marais I once witnessed brilliant sunshine, ominous threatening black clouds, sun, snow showers, then a return to brilliant sun, all within the course of une demi-heure.
It is certainly that way in Clear Creek County, Colorado. Yesterday as dark clouds rolled down the valley and the skies opened with fury, a customer was outraged that I was required to levy a cancellation fee for the train ride 40 minutes hence to which he would in no way subject his fragile family unit. Parroting the official company policy that we “operate rain or shine,” I tried to ease the tension by commenting that “by departure time the sun will probably re-emerge.” Face contorted with self-righteous rage he flung back “that’s bull****, I bet you $100 there won’t be any sun for the rest of the day.” I mumbled something about having my gambling problem under control, then beat a hasty retreat from his wrath.
Sure enough by boarding time sun glasses covered the eyes of one and all, and I positioned myself strategically as passengers alighted at the end of the ride, but I couldn’t make eye contact with the gambler as his attention was suddenly focused elsewhere.
It’s what one does to derive simple percs while working for modest wages. As when delivering phone books last year, on occasion I remarked to those inclined to refuse the free book, that buried in its pages was a “secret passage” which, if discovered, qualified the finder for entrance into a drawing for a free ride on the Space Shuttle. Believe it or don’t, it was the tipping point for several acceptances. And in truth my manager did once comment on a bizarre phone inquiry she received as to the exact page in the book containing the coupon for the free space ride.
#####
Well, an entire Post devoid of reference to politics! Disappointment for a few perhaps, but relief I suspect to the many. You get what you pay for. The Adventure ambles along the plains even as the anticipation of a mountainous storm season emerges…..
.
.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
2009-17 GEORGETOWN
.
Mea culpa. Maybe.
Chrysler’s sale to Fiat is accomplished in record time in part through a redefinition of bankruptcy law that has stood for some 200 years. My President promised, and I doubted, dazzling velocity in navigating a process that historically has required many months and even years. Illustrative of the unprecedented stroke the White House currently wields, unparalleled speed ensued, and even a plea to the Supreme Court (albeit that it fell fortuitously to its most liberal member) could not derail the freight train of Obama destiny. Of course those standing on the tracks as the train barreled past got mowed down, but what’s a little carnage in the name of progress.
#####
A reader has questioned my use of the term “my President” and occasionally “our President.” Well, he is! The terminology is in part a rejoinder to the throngs of the past who petulantly proclaimed “Bush is not my President.” That only works if you void and mail in your Passport to the Department of State. Remember the hordes who vowed to emigrate to Canada in 2004? I saw neither a mass exodus then nor a rush to return four years later.
#####
Good leftists have a talent for never letting a tragedy pass unexploited. Left wing BLOGS are aflutter with cries of right wing hate, after the Holocaust Museum shooting and the murder of Robert Tiller. Right wing hate crimes? Certainly they exist. Similar acts of violence on the left? Yeah, they subsist as well. Remember Lee Harvey Oswald? Recall the ELF and PETA slash and burn tactics to further their “causes?”
A continuing theme of this BLOG has been that those on either side of the political spectrum who believe they have cornered the market on decency and morality, and conversely those on the other have a monopoly on hate and violence, perpetuate a cruel hoax and provide useful data on how their synapses fire.
Of course Hollywood does this every day to the delight of the far left. Frank Burns, the bumbling MASH surgeon, Rose Nylan, the dipsy mid-Western Golden Girl, and of course, Archie Bunker, Republicans all. While liberals Hawkeye, Maude, the West Wing guy, proliferate and prosper. Just Hollywood’s way of using the appellation to proclaim someone to be insensitive, morally repulsive, or genetically deficient. How easy to mark someone as a dolt (or worse) simply by applying a label.
Academia is not far behind. Recall the Duke University philosophy professor when asked why there are not more conservatives in the profession, responded that they lack the intellectual capacity to engage in such eclectic endeavors. And when was the last time you heard of a left-wing speaker being pummeled with fruit and driven from the podium at one of our citadels of “free and open discussion?” Happens to conservatives with regularity.
Now if this leads to a self-satisfied smirk and a poke in the ribs of your far left cohorts – “see, I knew it was true,” then you join a robust band of those who also believe(d) in the superiority of one culture over others. Those folks in Germany who were convinced of the inferiority of the Jews, racists in the American south and elsewhere who treated people of color as chattel, homophobes everywhere who label gay men as limp-wristed pansies and Lesbians as testosterone-laden tomboys. There are vivid descriptions for those who harbor such beliefs.
Paranoid, you say? Perhaps. But name one Hollywood hero of the last quarter century portrayed on the screen or tube as a proud conservative? John Wayne is out of fashion. You might point to the Terminator or the idiot Steven Segal, but movie moguls fashion them as brutish, knuckle-dragging trogs, all the more mockable by the sophisticated Chardonnay set.
Leftists are simply so unfailingly convinced of their superiority that they cannot fathom alternate philosophies and beliefs. The closed mind is a terrible thing to let roam loose.
#####
During the Campaign, McCain advisor Senator Phil Graham made a seminal statement to the effect that America and American’s were not as bad off as they made it seem, and suggested in most un-PC terms that they “stop whining.” He was beset with anguished wails “oh how can you be so cruel when the country and its citizenry are in such pain.” Personally I thought he made sense. While there was (and remains) suffering for sure, on a relative scale it was either exceedingly moderate or our threshold of acceptance dipped lower than the Dow Jones average.
No, I am not going into competition with Oprah, but I do offer a novel for the exercise of measuring our pain against that of contemporaries. The Monkey House by John Fullerton, a journalist who reported the Bosnian war from Sarajevo, paints a stark but realistic picture of the siege of that city. Read it and tell me if you believe any American would trade their pain for that experienced in this once glorious city of the former Yugoslavia.
#####
I’m not a fan of the slippery slope theory. When the NRA suggests that taking members’ AK-47s is but a precursor to feel-good liberals confiscating children’s BB guns, I have difficulty connecting the dots. When liberals vow that 12-year old girls should have unobstructed right to abortion without parents’ consent lest this precious “human right!” begin to crumble, I am similarly flummoxed. But piercing (not piercing commentary, but body piercing), which for decades was confined to ears (a benign practice yet one I fail to comprehend) has now expanded to eyelashes, navels, tongues (ugh), not to mention body parts that were once considered private and unassailable to the needle.
Establishing one’s unique identity is often put forth as a rationale for such bizarre behavior. I don’t recall ever feeling the need to so self-identify (at least not in such extreme fashion) and that may explain some of the deficiencies under which I struggle.
But piercing?
Early on I had a bad experience with a needle at the hands of a rural doctor (or so I was told; I don’t recall seeing a diploma on the wall). And that may account for the aversion. But why anyone would voluntarily stick a bolt through their tongue or mangle a body part designed for suckling infants is, I’m afraid, a practice that no matter how I try, I can neither fathom nor justify. Fogey though I be, I am not in favor of breaking skin for pleasure.
#####
Both Atlantic and Pacific Basins remain tranquil, but the response trade is rumbling awake, and I am receiving inquiries as to my quickness (as opposed to my deadness) and availability if and when…
.
.
Mea culpa. Maybe.
Chrysler’s sale to Fiat is accomplished in record time in part through a redefinition of bankruptcy law that has stood for some 200 years. My President promised, and I doubted, dazzling velocity in navigating a process that historically has required many months and even years. Illustrative of the unprecedented stroke the White House currently wields, unparalleled speed ensued, and even a plea to the Supreme Court (albeit that it fell fortuitously to its most liberal member) could not derail the freight train of Obama destiny. Of course those standing on the tracks as the train barreled past got mowed down, but what’s a little carnage in the name of progress.
#####
A reader has questioned my use of the term “my President” and occasionally “our President.” Well, he is! The terminology is in part a rejoinder to the throngs of the past who petulantly proclaimed “Bush is not my President.” That only works if you void and mail in your Passport to the Department of State. Remember the hordes who vowed to emigrate to Canada in 2004? I saw neither a mass exodus then nor a rush to return four years later.
#####
Good leftists have a talent for never letting a tragedy pass unexploited. Left wing BLOGS are aflutter with cries of right wing hate, after the Holocaust Museum shooting and the murder of Robert Tiller. Right wing hate crimes? Certainly they exist. Similar acts of violence on the left? Yeah, they subsist as well. Remember Lee Harvey Oswald? Recall the ELF and PETA slash and burn tactics to further their “causes?”
A continuing theme of this BLOG has been that those on either side of the political spectrum who believe they have cornered the market on decency and morality, and conversely those on the other have a monopoly on hate and violence, perpetuate a cruel hoax and provide useful data on how their synapses fire.
Of course Hollywood does this every day to the delight of the far left. Frank Burns, the bumbling MASH surgeon, Rose Nylan, the dipsy mid-Western Golden Girl, and of course, Archie Bunker, Republicans all. While liberals Hawkeye, Maude, the West Wing guy, proliferate and prosper. Just Hollywood’s way of using the appellation to proclaim someone to be insensitive, morally repulsive, or genetically deficient. How easy to mark someone as a dolt (or worse) simply by applying a label.
Academia is not far behind. Recall the Duke University philosophy professor when asked why there are not more conservatives in the profession, responded that they lack the intellectual capacity to engage in such eclectic endeavors. And when was the last time you heard of a left-wing speaker being pummeled with fruit and driven from the podium at one of our citadels of “free and open discussion?” Happens to conservatives with regularity.
Now if this leads to a self-satisfied smirk and a poke in the ribs of your far left cohorts – “see, I knew it was true,” then you join a robust band of those who also believe(d) in the superiority of one culture over others. Those folks in Germany who were convinced of the inferiority of the Jews, racists in the American south and elsewhere who treated people of color as chattel, homophobes everywhere who label gay men as limp-wristed pansies and Lesbians as testosterone-laden tomboys. There are vivid descriptions for those who harbor such beliefs.
Paranoid, you say? Perhaps. But name one Hollywood hero of the last quarter century portrayed on the screen or tube as a proud conservative? John Wayne is out of fashion. You might point to the Terminator or the idiot Steven Segal, but movie moguls fashion them as brutish, knuckle-dragging trogs, all the more mockable by the sophisticated Chardonnay set.
Leftists are simply so unfailingly convinced of their superiority that they cannot fathom alternate philosophies and beliefs. The closed mind is a terrible thing to let roam loose.
#####
During the Campaign, McCain advisor Senator Phil Graham made a seminal statement to the effect that America and American’s were not as bad off as they made it seem, and suggested in most un-PC terms that they “stop whining.” He was beset with anguished wails “oh how can you be so cruel when the country and its citizenry are in such pain.” Personally I thought he made sense. While there was (and remains) suffering for sure, on a relative scale it was either exceedingly moderate or our threshold of acceptance dipped lower than the Dow Jones average.
No, I am not going into competition with Oprah, but I do offer a novel for the exercise of measuring our pain against that of contemporaries. The Monkey House by John Fullerton, a journalist who reported the Bosnian war from Sarajevo, paints a stark but realistic picture of the siege of that city. Read it and tell me if you believe any American would trade their pain for that experienced in this once glorious city of the former Yugoslavia.
#####
I’m not a fan of the slippery slope theory. When the NRA suggests that taking members’ AK-47s is but a precursor to feel-good liberals confiscating children’s BB guns, I have difficulty connecting the dots. When liberals vow that 12-year old girls should have unobstructed right to abortion without parents’ consent lest this precious “human right!” begin to crumble, I am similarly flummoxed. But piercing (not piercing commentary, but body piercing), which for decades was confined to ears (a benign practice yet one I fail to comprehend) has now expanded to eyelashes, navels, tongues (ugh), not to mention body parts that were once considered private and unassailable to the needle.
Establishing one’s unique identity is often put forth as a rationale for such bizarre behavior. I don’t recall ever feeling the need to so self-identify (at least not in such extreme fashion) and that may explain some of the deficiencies under which I struggle.
But piercing?
Early on I had a bad experience with a needle at the hands of a rural doctor (or so I was told; I don’t recall seeing a diploma on the wall). And that may account for the aversion. But why anyone would voluntarily stick a bolt through their tongue or mangle a body part designed for suckling infants is, I’m afraid, a practice that no matter how I try, I can neither fathom nor justify. Fogey though I be, I am not in favor of breaking skin for pleasure.
#####
Both Atlantic and Pacific Basins remain tranquil, but the response trade is rumbling awake, and I am receiving inquiries as to my quickness (as opposed to my deadness) and availability if and when…
.
.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
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…
.
.
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…
.
.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
2009-15 GEORGETOWN
Today is one which in winter would be glorious. Steady precip, creating a wonderland of snowfall, perfect for a walk through town or a stroll in the woods. But now that the Vernal Equinox is upon us, an identical weather pattern produces biting cold rain that encapsulates the bones and an ominous fog that hangs over the valley housing Georgetown. A good day to BLOG.
And in a rare example of harmonious geophysical alignment, on this cheerless day the Georgetown Loop Railroad is out of commission, as 18-hours ago a sizable boulder tumbled down and into one of the open cars filled with enthusiastic riders contemplating nothing more aggressive than a cloudy chill replacing springtime sun. The car did not derail, no injuries resulted, but the rock made further passage impossible, and a second train was hurriedly dispatched to transfer passengers and return them to the station where they received full refunds. I found them surprisingly tolerant of the inconvenience. One German lad sitting in the very car struck by the chute de pierre labeled the occurrence the high point of his visit to America. One wonders as to his worst experience!
The Georgetown Loop Railroad features open gondolas and “covered” cars, i.e. roof but no side cover. I am amazed at the hearty souls who brave the elements – wind, drizzle, mid 40’s temperature – to glimpse a bygone era. Yesterday I took my mandatory familiarization ride and mine tour in “partly cloudy” conditions. By nature I avoid tours of any stripe, but did enjoy this one. Traveling through narrow passages cut into steep terrain, crossing (4 times) Clear Creek (near the height of its ferocity propelled by Continental Divide runoff), viewing the odd bighorn sheep, traversing the High Bridge, a narrow trestle several hundred feet above a steep canyon long ago named Devil’s Gate. The guide was informative and mercifully un-hokey. All in all a good day.
#####
I have some sympathy for Ms. Sotomayor, as every syllable she has uttered since puberty is now under a microscope. Don’t know about you, but I would certainly wither under such scrutiny. Both sides of the aisle play the gotcha game and both shriek in righteous indignation when the other side employs the tactic.
Is she qualified? Undoubtedly! But so was Robert Bork. Unquestionably. Though his judicial philosophy was unacceptable to the left. No less so than her remarks suggesting Latina women are more intelligent than white men are offensive to the right (and to other political philosophies, one would hope). And the Choice folks are twitching, as our President apparently neglected to inquire as to her abortion stance (exceeding hard to believe), and a little-reported factoid is that her ascendancy would mean a two-thirds Roman Catholic majority on the Court. That would mean that over half of all Catholics serving in the history of the High Court are currently sitting. Can you imagine the pressure on our President when the next vacancy occurs to appoint a Jew, a Muslim (Sunni, Shiite?), GLBT, et. al.
And I may have to ramp up my predictive tendencies. Despite much speculation as to the eventual nominee, it appeared to me a slam-dunk that the twin actualities of gender and ethnicity made Ms. Sotomayor an odds-on favorite.
#####
A troubling thought as Iran moves toward elections next month. It is plausible that its power structure, specifically its President, who honed his political skills in the “takeover” (a PC term favored by the media that actually means “terrorist siege”) of the American Embassy in Tehran some 3 decades ago, is actively baiting Israel to launch a pre-emptive attack. Unlike those of the last century, when troops massing on Israel’s borders provided clear evidence of impending danger (and thus some limited international sympathy), it seems that Iran may have a nuclear strike capability long before definitive proof can be laid before the United Nations, which in any event would posture and dither and issue empty warnings (Saddam was issued 19 “final” warnings as I recall).
This poses a true dilemma for America and illustrates an enduring geopolitical quandary – talk vs. action. It is clear that much of the planet, led by Europe, favors the former while the USA labels empty rhetoric as hypocrisy and charges headlong into the tall grass and nettles to varying world opinion: WWII, hero; Iraq, goat.
#####
And yes, as Ronald Reagan would say, “here they go again.” North Korea fires missiles. The UN Security Council scurries into Executive Session and hastily crafts a “severe response”. Result: North Korea launches more missiles and abrogates the 1953 Armistice. The planetary geopolitical geniuses certainly have the little dictator shivering in his boots, don’t they now?
And just this morning an “unnamed” White House source suggested that our President may have to “go it alone” if repeated UN warnings are unheeded. Say what? Could that be? Who was that other guy savagely vilified by having the temerity to “go it alone” when 19 UN “final warnings” failed to deter the Butcher of Baghdad?
#####
I have long believed that were some interplanetary voyagers to alight on our shores and request treatises describing all the major geopolitical "isms" practiced on earth – after study and contemplation they would likely embrace some form of communism or socialism. It sounds so good; but it does not work.
Today I arose hours before sunrise to hear my President address the Muslim world from Cairo. He sounds so good; I hope his words ring true. So far we have only the promise. But it is promise confronting centuries of history that tell a different story. Many will say that promise trumps its antonym. But promise sans fulfillment rings hollow and breeds false expectation. One can (and should) always hope, but the cynic in me urges caution. One indisputable fact remains however; our President has mastered speech as the French have conquered cuisine.
….Hurricane season is upon us, and the tragedy of Air France 447 reminds us that M. Nature is a formidable mistress…
.
.
And in a rare example of harmonious geophysical alignment, on this cheerless day the Georgetown Loop Railroad is out of commission, as 18-hours ago a sizable boulder tumbled down and into one of the open cars filled with enthusiastic riders contemplating nothing more aggressive than a cloudy chill replacing springtime sun. The car did not derail, no injuries resulted, but the rock made further passage impossible, and a second train was hurriedly dispatched to transfer passengers and return them to the station where they received full refunds. I found them surprisingly tolerant of the inconvenience. One German lad sitting in the very car struck by the chute de pierre labeled the occurrence the high point of his visit to America. One wonders as to his worst experience!
The Georgetown Loop Railroad features open gondolas and “covered” cars, i.e. roof but no side cover. I am amazed at the hearty souls who brave the elements – wind, drizzle, mid 40’s temperature – to glimpse a bygone era. Yesterday I took my mandatory familiarization ride and mine tour in “partly cloudy” conditions. By nature I avoid tours of any stripe, but did enjoy this one. Traveling through narrow passages cut into steep terrain, crossing (4 times) Clear Creek (near the height of its ferocity propelled by Continental Divide runoff), viewing the odd bighorn sheep, traversing the High Bridge, a narrow trestle several hundred feet above a steep canyon long ago named Devil’s Gate. The guide was informative and mercifully un-hokey. All in all a good day.
#####
I have some sympathy for Ms. Sotomayor, as every syllable she has uttered since puberty is now under a microscope. Don’t know about you, but I would certainly wither under such scrutiny. Both sides of the aisle play the gotcha game and both shriek in righteous indignation when the other side employs the tactic.
Is she qualified? Undoubtedly! But so was Robert Bork. Unquestionably. Though his judicial philosophy was unacceptable to the left. No less so than her remarks suggesting Latina women are more intelligent than white men are offensive to the right (and to other political philosophies, one would hope). And the Choice folks are twitching, as our President apparently neglected to inquire as to her abortion stance (exceeding hard to believe), and a little-reported factoid is that her ascendancy would mean a two-thirds Roman Catholic majority on the Court. That would mean that over half of all Catholics serving in the history of the High Court are currently sitting. Can you imagine the pressure on our President when the next vacancy occurs to appoint a Jew, a Muslim (Sunni, Shiite?), GLBT, et. al.
And I may have to ramp up my predictive tendencies. Despite much speculation as to the eventual nominee, it appeared to me a slam-dunk that the twin actualities of gender and ethnicity made Ms. Sotomayor an odds-on favorite.
#####
A troubling thought as Iran moves toward elections next month. It is plausible that its power structure, specifically its President, who honed his political skills in the “takeover” (a PC term favored by the media that actually means “terrorist siege”) of the American Embassy in Tehran some 3 decades ago, is actively baiting Israel to launch a pre-emptive attack. Unlike those of the last century, when troops massing on Israel’s borders provided clear evidence of impending danger (and thus some limited international sympathy), it seems that Iran may have a nuclear strike capability long before definitive proof can be laid before the United Nations, which in any event would posture and dither and issue empty warnings (Saddam was issued 19 “final” warnings as I recall).
This poses a true dilemma for America and illustrates an enduring geopolitical quandary – talk vs. action. It is clear that much of the planet, led by Europe, favors the former while the USA labels empty rhetoric as hypocrisy and charges headlong into the tall grass and nettles to varying world opinion: WWII, hero; Iraq, goat.
#####
And yes, as Ronald Reagan would say, “here they go again.” North Korea fires missiles. The UN Security Council scurries into Executive Session and hastily crafts a “severe response”. Result: North Korea launches more missiles and abrogates the 1953 Armistice. The planetary geopolitical geniuses certainly have the little dictator shivering in his boots, don’t they now?
And just this morning an “unnamed” White House source suggested that our President may have to “go it alone” if repeated UN warnings are unheeded. Say what? Could that be? Who was that other guy savagely vilified by having the temerity to “go it alone” when 19 UN “final warnings” failed to deter the Butcher of Baghdad?
#####
I have long believed that were some interplanetary voyagers to alight on our shores and request treatises describing all the major geopolitical "isms" practiced on earth – after study and contemplation they would likely embrace some form of communism or socialism. It sounds so good; but it does not work.
Today I arose hours before sunrise to hear my President address the Muslim world from Cairo. He sounds so good; I hope his words ring true. So far we have only the promise. But it is promise confronting centuries of history that tell a different story. Many will say that promise trumps its antonym. But promise sans fulfillment rings hollow and breeds false expectation. One can (and should) always hope, but the cynic in me urges caution. One indisputable fact remains however; our President has mastered speech as the French have conquered cuisine.
….Hurricane season is upon us, and the tragedy of Air France 447 reminds us that M. Nature is a formidable mistress…
.
.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
2009-14 GEORGETOWN
As some had predicted, the Iranian-American journalist jailed in Tehran has been released and leftists the planet over are in thrall. “Shocking and wonderful” gushed PBS while several network talking heads speculated this might be sign of a “thaw” in U.S.-Iranian relations. Good golly Ms. Molly, I too am happy for the young woman, but to ascribe this as a “humanitarian gesture” is ludicrous. A bit like robbing a bank then giving half back and expecting to be nominated for Citizen of the Year.
#####
I have suggested that we monitor closely the promises made by our new President for an indication of progress on his pledge to bring honesty, transparency, and integrity to Washington. Broken political promises are as common as skeeters on a stagnant summer pond, but liberals (who harbor metaphysical convictions of moral superiority) typically sashay into office with promises to vanquish past malevolence.
Recall Pilosi’s “culture of Republican corruption” (witness LA congressman Jefferson; cabinet nominees Richardson, Daschle, et al; tax cheats Geithner, Killefer, et al, former Democrat Governor Blagojevitch, etc). And I could bore you with similar assurances by Carter and Clinton. Suffice to say that despite liberal smirking arrogance, there is enough malfeasance on both sides of the aisle to thrill a cosmic Lucifer scrambling to fill his annual quota of lost souls.
There are already serious fissures in the litany of Obama promises, and a swarm of skepticism on his ability to deliver on others. If passed in its current form, Cap & Trade will (even Democrats agree) increase the taxes of all those who use gas, electricity, and other utilities. Well, Cap & Trade is not technically a tax, but I wonder how much comfort is derived by Americans having their pockets lightened through sleight of word that assigns the filch a more politically palatable (i.e. deceptive) moniker.
We now hear from a White House source that the Chrysler bankruptcy, which our President promised would take 30-60 days, may in fact stretch out for 2 years! But wait. The official noted that the promise related only to the “sale of Chrysler's best assets to a new entity.” Wow, was that fierce wind I just experienced a massive spin twirling across the land?
Add the closing of Guantanamo, reduction of the debt by 50%, health care for all paid for by none, et al. Yes, yes, yes, stipulated there is no monopoly on breaking promises, but the arrogance of one who in the most precise and concrete terms assures us that the villainy of the past will exist no more, and who in his first 100 days is already shattering pledges with the ferocity of plates crashing at a Greek wedding, suggests that the hope for a more honest future is no less illusive than peace on earth or a controversy-free Miss USA pageant.
#####
Note to Europe: The EU is flexing its regulatory muscle, with the latest smackdown a nearly $1.5 billion fine levied on Intel. Be prepared for pushback focused on European firms rushing to snap up American commercial assets at fire sale prices. Sometimes when you start a stone rolling downhill it crushes unintended targets.
Set a trap for Cheney; catch a Pilosi!
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Conservatives have long complained of a double standard in American politics. Liberals roll their eyes and sue for secession of the whining, as one would admonish a petulant child. But examples abound. When Abu Greib surfaced several years ago, liberal outrage generated a virtual firestorm of demand for full disclosure and worldwide circulation of grizzly and humiliating photos. Yet now when a new round of abuse is uncovered our President is hailed as patriotic for refusing to release images “that might endanger our troops.” If disclosure is wrong now it was wrong then.
Republican Senator Mark Hatfield was drummed out of Washington after being accused of a pattern of inappropriate behavior, but when a Democrat President was found to have had sex in the White House – The People’s House – with a young intern under his control, and then lied about it, somehow this became a “personal affair,” unworthy of public concern. Women’s groups that marshaled relentless salvos against Hatfield called the Clinton affair “unfortunate.” D’ya think?
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott lost his leadership position after making an offhand (and non-incendiary) comment at a birthday celebration for former segregationist Strom Thurmond. Now Leader Pelosi appears caught in a web of deceit about her knowledge of “enhanced” interrogation techniques and is transferring the accusation of deception to the CIA in an attempt to squirm out of the box. We’ll see how this transpires, but you will find none of my breath held in anticipation.
It raises the question of whether public indifference, conservative ineptitude, or liberal connivance is responsible for this phenomenon. All three, perhaps, but exist it does.
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This post is heavily larded with political commentary (actually, an assault on hypocrisy, a favorite theme), but the tracks are nearly repaired, the ticketing machine is oiled and clacking away, and the engineer has donned his blue and white striped uniform and red kerchief, so soon there may be observations more serene if less compelling. All aboard…
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I have suggested that we monitor closely the promises made by our new President for an indication of progress on his pledge to bring honesty, transparency, and integrity to Washington. Broken political promises are as common as skeeters on a stagnant summer pond, but liberals (who harbor metaphysical convictions of moral superiority) typically sashay into office with promises to vanquish past malevolence.
Recall Pilosi’s “culture of Republican corruption” (witness LA congressman Jefferson; cabinet nominees Richardson, Daschle, et al; tax cheats Geithner, Killefer, et al, former Democrat Governor Blagojevitch, etc). And I could bore you with similar assurances by Carter and Clinton. Suffice to say that despite liberal smirking arrogance, there is enough malfeasance on both sides of the aisle to thrill a cosmic Lucifer scrambling to fill his annual quota of lost souls.
There are already serious fissures in the litany of Obama promises, and a swarm of skepticism on his ability to deliver on others. If passed in its current form, Cap & Trade will (even Democrats agree) increase the taxes of all those who use gas, electricity, and other utilities. Well, Cap & Trade is not technically a tax, but I wonder how much comfort is derived by Americans having their pockets lightened through sleight of word that assigns the filch a more politically palatable (i.e. deceptive) moniker.
We now hear from a White House source that the Chrysler bankruptcy, which our President promised would take 30-60 days, may in fact stretch out for 2 years! But wait. The official noted that the promise related only to the “sale of Chrysler's best assets to a new entity.” Wow, was that fierce wind I just experienced a massive spin twirling across the land?
Add the closing of Guantanamo, reduction of the debt by 50%, health care for all paid for by none, et al. Yes, yes, yes, stipulated there is no monopoly on breaking promises, but the arrogance of one who in the most precise and concrete terms assures us that the villainy of the past will exist no more, and who in his first 100 days is already shattering pledges with the ferocity of plates crashing at a Greek wedding, suggests that the hope for a more honest future is no less illusive than peace on earth or a controversy-free Miss USA pageant.
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Note to Europe: The EU is flexing its regulatory muscle, with the latest smackdown a nearly $1.5 billion fine levied on Intel. Be prepared for pushback focused on European firms rushing to snap up American commercial assets at fire sale prices. Sometimes when you start a stone rolling downhill it crushes unintended targets.
Set a trap for Cheney; catch a Pilosi!
#####
Conservatives have long complained of a double standard in American politics. Liberals roll their eyes and sue for secession of the whining, as one would admonish a petulant child. But examples abound. When Abu Greib surfaced several years ago, liberal outrage generated a virtual firestorm of demand for full disclosure and worldwide circulation of grizzly and humiliating photos. Yet now when a new round of abuse is uncovered our President is hailed as patriotic for refusing to release images “that might endanger our troops.” If disclosure is wrong now it was wrong then.
Republican Senator Mark Hatfield was drummed out of Washington after being accused of a pattern of inappropriate behavior, but when a Democrat President was found to have had sex in the White House – The People’s House – with a young intern under his control, and then lied about it, somehow this became a “personal affair,” unworthy of public concern. Women’s groups that marshaled relentless salvos against Hatfield called the Clinton affair “unfortunate.” D’ya think?
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott lost his leadership position after making an offhand (and non-incendiary) comment at a birthday celebration for former segregationist Strom Thurmond. Now Leader Pelosi appears caught in a web of deceit about her knowledge of “enhanced” interrogation techniques and is transferring the accusation of deception to the CIA in an attempt to squirm out of the box. We’ll see how this transpires, but you will find none of my breath held in anticipation.
It raises the question of whether public indifference, conservative ineptitude, or liberal connivance is responsible for this phenomenon. All three, perhaps, but exist it does.
#####
This post is heavily larded with political commentary (actually, an assault on hypocrisy, a favorite theme), but the tracks are nearly repaired, the ticketing machine is oiled and clacking away, and the engineer has donned his blue and white striped uniform and red kerchief, so soon there may be observations more serene if less compelling. All aboard…
.
.
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