30 June 2013 Anonymous bear

Cassi Creek: On this last day of June 2013, we had an unexpected visitation.  About 0930 A black bear rambled through the front yard and into the upper wooded portion of our property.  Had Gloria not seen it before I did, we might have thought it was a neighbor’s Newfie.  She, however, had a couple seconds longer than I to identify the animal as it went past the window.

          We did a quick check to make certain it was not gobbling birdseed or humming bird food.  It vanished into the undergrowth as quickly as it had appeared.

          Spent a good deal of the morning looking for a painting of Hidatsa dog dancers as painted by Karl Bodmer.  Quite an elaborate costume as ordained for one of the dog societies that existed in the 1830’s in the lands of the upper Missouri River. 

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/media/112047/Dancer-of-the-Hidatsa-Dog-Society-aquatint-by-Karl-Bodmer

29 June 2013 Bits and pieces

Cassi Creek:   Pathfinder follow-up –The only way to repair the climate control system is to remove the AC/GPS/Radio , send it in to Nissan, and hope that they can replace the five little buttons that control the AC/heater.  This will leave a hole the size of a 12 volt battery in the dashboard for however long it takes to rebuild and return the unit. 

          There is also the matter of a catalytic converter that is no longer functioning correctly. 

          These two repairs will cost about 1/4^th of the current purchase price of the 12 year old vehicle.  However, the Pathfinder has been well maintained and has slightly less than 98,000 miles on the odometer.  I’ll make a few phone calls next week to see about prices for repairs. 

28 June 2013 Button, button

Cassi Creek:  Took the Pathfinder in for service this morning.  Over the last several months, the buttons that control the climate control system have begun to break and fall off the dashboard unit.  This seems to be a product of aging, the plastic getting old and degrading.  Beneath the buttons are small metal contacts that actually open and close the operational switches, which then select operational conditions.  Cooler > warmer > cooler. 

          The most important buttons to jump off are the “auto” and “defrost” switches.  The “auto” switch is intended to maintain a specified temperature using the AC circuits.  The “defrost” is self-explanatory.  We can still trip the contacts for the “defrost” setting.  This will provide minimal cooling.  The “auto” switch has become impossible to activate with any tool we have found.  This is going to be quite problematic as summer progresses,

          The Nissan dealership said that they could order a new button set.  My local mechanic said they were impossible to find.  The dealership called yesterday to say the buttons were in.  I rearranged my schedule and drove in this morning for the repair. 

          The buttons did not fit.  It is beginning to look as if salvage yard parts may be the only answer and they will likely suffer the same aging, as have the current buttons.  To be continued.  

27 June 2013 As time goes by

Cassi Creek:  Today, Gloria and I celebrate our 20^th wedding anniversary.  It hardly seems possible that so much time has flown by.  However, a glance into the mirror tells me that it has. 

          She and I have weathered several moves, family losses, severe weather, and interstate travel with each other’s love and support.  It is safe to say that she changed my life radically for the better. 

          Today is a great day, and I am eager for the next twenty years with her.

Happy 20^th, Gloria!  I love you and always will.

26 June 2013 DOMA dumped

Cassi Creek:  after gutting the voting rights act, opening the door for increased voter suppression as was widely practiced by the GOP whenever they could control state legislations, the SCOTUS finally produced two intelligent decisions.

          Today we heard that the DOMA, a truly repressive piece of fundamentalist-driven legislation at the national level, was overturned by the Justices.  Further, the appeal of California’s Proposition 8 was denied, allowing the lower court ruling to stand. 

          Combined with the defeat of a horribly archaic anti-abortion bill, the last 24 hours have offered some hope for the future.  However, through any lens, the culture wars will not only continue, they will intensify.

          The partition of the populace into two major fragments is going to become more evident and possibly more violent.  The progressive folks will expect to make inroads with reason and education.  The reactionaries will do all they can to suppress teaching biological sciences and non-revisionist history.  The American Civil War did not end in 1865.  We just stopped using uniformed troops.

          In other news, Loki was seen for follow up by our veterinarian this morning.  She is fit for limited duty and the bite is healing well.  

25 June 2013 Too dumb to fuck

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/06/24/2201171/texas-legislator-claims-rape-kits-are-a-form-of-abortion/

Texas Legislator Claims Rape Kits Are A Form Of Abortion

By Annie-Rose Strasser on Jun 24, 2013 at 10:45 am

Cassi Creek:  The first time I encountered the diagnosis “TDTF” I ran through my years long list of medical, surgical, and laboratory acronyms, trying to correlate it into the list.  Finally I gave up and asked the OB/Gyn who had written it to expand it for me.  She was charting an H&P for an admission, a 19 year old miltipara , delivering child number four with no insurance, no job, no husband and little idea of why she might be interested in a visit to planned parenthood.  The OB/Gyn said, sadly; “Too dumb to fuck!  If only it were true.”

          Unfortunately, the situation is not at all uncommon.  As a nation, we demand that birth control information be suppressed and unfunded while insisting that unwanted pregnancies be carried to term.  It is as if poor women and poorly educated women are being punished by the religious fundamentalist controlled Congress for daring to ignore laws and traditions that viewed women as property rather than as people.  The religious right does all it can to prevent sexual education in schools at where it might be somewhat effective; choosing instead, to layer on yet another coat of abstinence only sermons, trying to cover up a problem that has existed since the first humans discovered that touching each other’s anatomy could be pleasurable. 

          But we demand that the poorly educated and/or mentally disabled carry accidental and unwanted pregnancies to full term, at which time, the fundamentalists declare them a drag upon society and do everything in their power to disenfranchise such infants and the families that they are borne into. 

          “Too dumb to fuck?”  If only it were true.  We could put a lot of elected representatives into that caucus now that Michelle Bachmann is resigning.  If someone could only explain why so damned many of them come from Texas.

24 June 2013 Celebrate Good ol’ American Stupidity

http://www.politicususa.com/2013/06/24/america-heaven-christians.html

“The GOP Dream: An America Like Heaven that is For Christians Only

Imagine the right wing dream government, where our leaders have nothing to do with anybody who does not accept Jesus as the their savior. That is the recent actions of the mayor of Vero Beach, Fla., writ large..”.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/22/pork-laced-bullets-designed-to-send-muslims-straight-to-hell_n_3480150.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

“Jihawg Ammo: Pork-laced Bullets Designed To Send Muslims Straight ‘To Hell'

Religion News Service | By Tracy SimmonsPosted: 06/22/2013 8:20 am EDT

By Tracy Simmons
Religion News Service

SPOKANE, Wash. (RNS) Still angry about the idea of an Islamic cultural center opening near Ground Zero, a group of Idaho gun enthusiasts decided to fight back with a new line of pork-laced bullets.

South Fork Industries, based in Dalton Gardens, Idaho, claims its ammunition, called Jihawg Ammo, is a “defensive deterrent to those who violently act in the name of Islam.”

The bullets are coated in pork-infused paint, which the company states makes the ammo “haram,” or unclean, and therefore will keep a Muslim who’s shot with one of the bullets from entering paradise...”

Cassi Creek: As July 4^th approaches and we prepare to celebrate the Revolution that, paired with England’s other ongoing wars, allowed us to separate from the British Empire; it seems that others are lining up to prove that a little stupidity goes a long way. 

Today we look at two examples of religious intolerance and just plain religion-based malice.  Someone in Idaho obviously has managed to integrate three or more unverified myths linking the 1857 Indian Army Mutiny, the Philippines HUK uprising,, and supposed Israeli deterrent actions to decrease terrorism. 

          As the Jihawg article states, dead is dead.  Whether the bullet that causes one’s demise is lubricated with lard or Teflon makes little of no difference. 

          As to who gains admission to a mythical cloudland or an also mythical lake of brimstone, Snopes also offers no proof of an afterlife.   Which way you face to pray and in which language you supplicate a mythical superhero with a bent for mass murder   Judaism postulates no afterlife.  When you’ve been killed in battle with ancient Hebrews or modern day Israelis, they expect you to stay dead.  Battle with Christians, Muslims, or other be - here- after cults and they want to wipe out your unproven soul as well. 

          Arizona, not to be outdone in the stupidity competition has introduced legislation to prohibit atheists from graduating high school.  I can’t understand any state being so full of hate and ignorance as to attempt something so obviously unconstitutional.  Well, there are several red states that come close in overall idiocy.  Summer’s barely begun and the scores can easily be changed by the actions of just a few elected officials. 

23 June 2013 Too close for comfort

Cassi Creek:  Yesterday, at approximately 1200, Loki was bitten by some brand of venomous snake.  I was within ten feet of her when it apparently happened.  She did not yelp or otherwise indicate pain.  By the time we were back inside, perhaps 5 minutes, she was refusing to put weight on her left rear leg.  Gloria and I went for the obvious, a burr or like object in her paw.  We saw nothing but the leg remained off the floor and contracted. 

          We broadened our exam, found nothing to indicate injury.  Her foot seemed a little swollen but she let us handle it and it didn’t generate any additional pain signals.  We debated possible bites, stings, etc... However, couldn’t really nail a diagnosis.  Loki was lying down and displayed a mild shivering behavior.  She wasn’t feeling good but accepted a dog biscuit when it was offered.   

          Finally, an hour or so into the afternoon we noticed some blood on her foot that had not been there before.  The foot was noticeably swollen by this time.  We called our Veterinarian, closed office, referral to an ER Vet clinic about an hour away.  We called them and started the trip. 

          The initial exam was inconclusive but suggestive for snakebite, only one puncture mark.  Shaving the area and further exam made the diagnosis as probable as it could be without visual confirmation of the event. 

          She was treated with IV antibiotics and fluids to encourage venom excretion.  The clinic is staffed 24/7 and kept her overnight for further observation and fluids.  We picked her up this morning.  She’s not back at 100 % but she’ll recover and was eager to get into the Pathfinder, jumping in without aid.  (I had to lift her in yesterday). 

          The degree of envenomation she suffered must have been extremely low.  We’re happy to have her home with so little damage. 

          This will raise our own concerns about snakes in proximity to the house and the yard.  We have a resident black snake about 6 feet long that we encourage to remain.  Anything venomous is encouraged to depart quickly.  Said policy will not change.

22 June 2013 Fire on the mountain

Cassi Creek:  This photo series, found on CNN this morning speaks volumes about the inequalities found in war.  A sniper is a single combatant or one of a shooter/spotter pair.  The single finger on the trigger can create confusion, cause injuries to or kill members of the opposing force,   

          In the photographic series linked below, the volume of return fire delivered by U.S. forces in an attempt to kill a sniper firing from higher ground is simply massive.  The red lines are formed by tracer rounds inserted in every 5^th slot in the belts used to feed the 7.62 mm and, 50 caliber machine guns that are firing in these photographs as U.S, troops attempt to locate and kill the sniper. 

          These images document thousands of rounds, seen and unseen, fired by fully automatic weapons against a single opponent. The sniper may carried as few as 10 rounds or as many as 100.  Without a patrol finding him and/or his weapon, it is impossible to accurately describe his load out.

 From the photos, we are privileged to view, it appears nearly impossible for the sniper to have survived.  However, if he chose his position carefully, he may well have walked away after a horrifying night.  The photos can’t tell us what the outcome was, they can only demonstrate how outgunned he and his unit were.  Further, north, across the DMZ, our aircrews flying in to North VietNam faced skies filled with AAA and rockets as well as they carried out their assigned missions.   There is no equality in war.

         

Long exposure photos capture Vietnam firefight

http://us.cnn.com/2013/06/21/world/gallery/vietman-tracers/index.html?hpt=hp_t5

21 June 2013 Solstice celebrations

http://earthsky.org/earth/everything-you-need-to-know-june-solstice

A midsummer day's scene: Revellers rise at dawn to celebrate the solstice with drumming and dancing

·         The solstice is a rare chance for members of the public to walk among the ancient Wiltshire stone circle

·         June 21 is the longest day of the calendar year, with daylight hours getting shorter from now on

·         By sunset last night, 2,000 people had gathered to keep vigil. By 5am, 21,000 people were greeting the sunrise

·         Police praise 'positive, friendly atmosphere' and say they made only 22 arrests, mainly for drug offences

By HELEN LAWSON

PUBLISHED: 04:27 EST, 21 June 2013 | UPDATED: 07:19 EST, 21 June 2013

·          

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2345638/Summer-Solstice-2013-Revellers-rise-dawn-celebrate-drumming-dancing.html#ixzz2WrPnlbyq
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2345638/Summer-Solstice-2013-Revellers-rise-dawn-celebrate-drumming-dancing.html
Solar Power

By Megan McCrary

Hooray! Summer officially begins on June 21, 2013, the longest day of year in the Northern Hemisphere. That prior evening, at exactly 10:04PM PDT, the North Pole will tilt directly toward the sun at about 23.5 degrees, while the sun will reach its farthest distance from the equator, marking the summer solstice. Find out what the occasion means, and how it's celebrated around the globe

http://www.solsticeparade.com/

Fremont Solstice Parade

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fremont_Solstice_Parade

http://alabastro.photoshelter.com/gallery/Solstice-Parade-Bicyclists/G0000el7Ks4rniMs

What started out as a small band of bicyclists riding nude through a local parade, to the consternation of the organizers and the City Council, has grown to hundreds of participants spearheading the annual Fremont Solstice Parade. Participants help to usher in summer, covered in artistically applied body paint and not much else. June 16, 2012 in Seattle, W

Cassi Creek:  Celebration will occur.  Any documentation will most likely remain unpublished.

http://glo.msn.com/relationships/summer-solstice-8322.gallery

20 June 2013 Oreo cream sandwich chocolate covered cream filled cookie blues

Cassi Creek:   yard work 95% finished for another week, more or less. 

Dodging  days with rain can get to be difficult. 

Too much on-camera discussion of the “watermelon” Oreo.  I haven’t eaten an Oreo of any type since high school.  The thought of eating “Crisco” laced with high fructose corn syrup rather leaves me cold.  However, for some people the lure is irresistible.  Listen to Lonnie Mack’s lament.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHr7xGvDBmY

19 June 2013 From the third world to the moon and back again

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/19/world/asia/kazakh-town-fades-its-days-of-space-glory-numbered.html?hp

BAIKONUR JOURNAL

“Russian Space Center in Kazakhstan Counts Down Its Days of Glory

By ANDREW E. KRAMER

Published: June 18, 2013

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan — On a sultry desert evening, as bats fluttered about this town’s riverfront park, a man emerged from a reedy marsh carrying a bundle of grass tied with twine.

Setting it down to brush himself off, he explained that he was keeping a calf in the courtyard of an apartment building across town, where he had settled in recently after the previous occupants, engineers with the Russian space program, moved out…”

Cassi Creek:  Despite the billions of dollars and rubles spent during the Space Race the U.S. space exploration program is waiting for an administration and a Congress with greater interest in scientific research than with enriching corporations.  The rocketry that took us to the moon and back is no longer available.  The former “space coast” is no longer mobbed by people anxious to see shuttle and other launches.  The rocket scientists have largely retired and left the area or migrated to what remains of NASA. 

          It appears that Baikonur is rapidly returning to the third world region that it was until the USSR wanted a place to build and launch rockets secretly.  Now their Germans are long gone and the launch and return technology is decades out of date with little hope of improving.  Only money from NASA and the European space program keep the launches happening for the Cosmodrome. 

          The only active program now building heavy launch vehicles is the DPRC.  That, frankly, scares me.  It should scare everyone.  It is not yet time to privatize space exploration.  Nor is it time for the United States or Russia to allow China to gain ascendency in space exploration at any range. 

18 June 2013 Easy to declare victory hard to win one

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eugene-robinson-giving-arms-to-syrian-rebels-is-a-bad-idea/2013/06/17/aec4a4dc-d777-11e2-a016-92547bf094cc_story.html?hpid=z2

Eugene Robinson

Giving arms to Syrian rebels is a bad idea

“…Not every slope is slippery, but this one looks like a bobsled run. It was August 2011 whenObama issued a statement declaring that “the time has come for President Assad to step aside.” Now that the president has put muscle behind those words, it will be difficult for the United States to accept any other outcome.

There will be pressure to impose a no-fly zone to neutralize Assad’s devastating air power. There will be pressure to contain the war so it does not spill beyond Syria’s borders and destabilize our allies in Turkey and Jordan, or our sort-of, kind-of allies in Iraq. There will be pressure to alleviate the immense suffering of the Syrian people. Perhaps all of this can be accomplished without putting American lives at risk. I doubt it.

Above all, there will be pressure to win a proxy war that Obama never wanted to fight. This is how quagmires begin, with one reluctant step after another toward the yawning abyss. (See: Vietnam.)

We do sometimes win proxy wars — in Afghanistan, for example, where the CIA helped the warlords defeat the mighty Soviet army. In the process, however, we created the chaotic power vacuum that allowed al-Qaeda to set up shop — and ultimately launch the Sept. 11 attacks.

I hope I’m wrong but fear I’m right: This will not end well.”

http://us.cnn.com/2013/06/18/world/asia/afghanistan-handover/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Taliban talks announced as Afghanistan assumes security

By Kyle Almond. Elise Labott and Joe Sterling, CNN

updated 12:01 PM EDT, Tue June 18, 2013

“Are the Afghan troops up to the task?

There are certainly doubts.

A Pentagon review in December found that only one of 23 Afghan army brigades was capable of functioning on its own.

Meanwhile, literacy rates are low, desertion rates are high, and many deserters have joined the insurgency. There also have been a troubling number of "green-on-blue" attacks: Afghan troops attacking their American comrades.

But then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta spoke positively about the progress Afghans had made in growing their army, reducing violence and becoming more self-sufficient. At the time, Afghan forces were leadingnearly 90% of operations across the country.

"We're on the right path to give (Afghanistan) the opportunity to govern itself," Panetta said…”

Cassi Creek:  We find ourselves trying to win another proxy war before disengaging from the currently active one.  We are faced with the necessity of declaring an inept, poorly led, poorly trained to be capable of defending itself against an internal force bent upon conquest and elimination of that portion of the populace that will not agree to be dominated by ideology. 

          Imagine the results of turning over billions of dollars in U.S. military hardware and technology to an army that will only break it, sell it on the black market, or use it against remaining U.S. forces.  How familiar is that image?  We saw it happen in VietNam after we declared the ARVN forces capable of self-defense.  We saw it happen in Iraq as money and materials flowed into private accounts and the Iraqi army fought a civil war that has yet to be decided.  We’re seeing it happen in Afghanistan and the incidence of green on blue attacks will increase in concert with the Taliban’s grasp of American military weaponry.  The Afghani government wants anti-aircraft weapons, tanks, helicopters and drones.  We should provide them with none of the above.  If we do, they will rapidly become tools in yet another Afghani civil war. 

          We have a pattern of declaring victory where none truly exists that leads back to VietNam.  We should have learned by now that we would be better served to simply dump all our equipment still in use in Afghanistan into the ocean before we allow it to be utilized as dues to join the Taliban.    Syria, it is apparent, will only lead to yet another “Glorious Victory.”  We’ll do our best to convince our public that “we won in _____.  We will just have to ignore the battles taking place in civil and proxy wars. 

17 June 2013 What I want to know, how does this song go?

http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/columns/the-platform/editorial-the-awful-terrible-unavoidable-choice-on-syria/article_fc0bcc60-9dcb-556f-ad2a-e1231a0c56ff.html

“Editorial: The awful, terrible, unavoidable choice on Syria

So now the Arab Spring of 2011 will become the U.S. Summer of Syria in 2013. And no doubt the fall and winter of Syria, too, and in all likelihood, not just in 2013. The United States is going to intervene militarily in yet another sectarian war in the Middle East.

What a terrible, awful, inescapable decision this is.

It may well have come too late. It may well not do much good. It could make things worse. But it has to be done — human decency and America’s moral standing in the world demand it. But if it must be done, it must be done well. And that is going to be very tricky indeed.”

Cassi Creek:  I grew up reading Joseph Pulitzer’s newspaper.  I also read the St Louis Globe-Democrat (which wasn’t at all pro-Democrat) until it rolled over belly up.  The St. Louis Post Dispatch has always been a place to find accurate and critical reporting that attempts to maintain the original Pulitzer standards. 

          The article linked above is a reasonable approximation of what I put forward yesterday.  I remain adamantly opposed to any military aid for forces involved in wars that place wiping out religions other than Islam or wiping out other sects of Islam central to the conflict.  Food, perhaps medical support for civilian casualties, and let the militants and the loyalists slug it out until Syria and surrounds are paved with gray concrete fragments and green glass,  That’s likely to be what it takes to end this next war in our future. 

          In the meantime, we would be best served to make the search for non-fossil fuels into the next Manhattan project.  Then we can quit basing foreign policy around appeasing and supporting petro-dictators.  That sentence, no doubt, tripped some corporate Listening post and placed another mark on my disloyalty to big oil score sheet.

16 June 2013 Rewind, replay, regret

http://www.bostonglobe.com/editorials/2013/06/14/obama-decision-arm-rebels-heightens-need-for-continuing-caution-syria/2spOYQ3a6cUnFswC9jhyHN/story.html

Aid for Syria rebels heightens need for continuing caution

·          

THROUGHOUT THE long Syrian uprising, President Obama’s sense of caution has been well-placed. He is aware of how US involvement in the Middle East can alter perceptions of the very groups that Americans aim to assist. He is rightly conscious of the need to engage allies and build coalitions before taking any steps that may lead to deeper entanglements. Now, as the United States increases its role in the Syrian conflict, it must develop a clear sense of how it can change the equation on the ground, and how those changes will advance American interests.

Cassi Creek:         I seldom read the Boston Globe.  It has a somewhat different political viewpoint than I have.  However, the recent addition of a paywall to the Washington Post is going to cause me to seek other sources for news and commentary.  I understand that financial concerns are causing many newspapers to change their business practices.  I can’t use most of the material presented in any major urban newspaper.  The only content I want every day is national/international news and editorial/opinion content.  I have no need for “sports” pages, classifieds, and rarely any need for anything else.  That limitation extends to the local newspaper we already subscribe to, more from habit than for actual news content.

          The decision to arm the Syrian rebels is, I think, a dangerous and flawed move in the politics of the Middle East There are no sectarian rebel groups in Syria, only shades of Islamic power struggles. 

          There are sufficient small arms in the region to equip an old Soviet Motor Rifle division.  The rebels don’t need more small arms.  They want, but should not be provided, anti-aircraft weaponry and their own theater range rocketry.  If we are foolish enough to provide those, they will only wind up in the hands of the various Islamist rebels.  Then, if we allow our nation to be sucked more deeply into another proxy war with Iran, they will be turned against tour own aircraft and air crews. 

          This conflict in Syria is going to become a horribly costly and brutally waged internecine war among the various sects of Islam.  We will be the eventual target for all the current and future jihadists.  The struggle for supremacy between Shia and Sunni will last for decades yet.  Since the major contestants for victory and possession of the “holy places” are Iran and Saudi Arabia, and since both have oil resources to pay for their own weaponry, we should provide only nutrition assistance to the anti-Assad groups.  We can continue to backstop Turkey as they request, Jordan, and Israel.  The remainder of nations in the region can fight amongst their selves until they no longer have sufficient forces to fight nor any further financial backing from the two principals. 

          I’ve seen this video before.  I don’t vare to see it again.

15 June 2013 National standards for education or states’ rights to breed more fast food workers

http://www.democracy-tree.com/michigan-gop-serves-up-delicious-conspiracy-theory/

“Michigan GOP Serves-Up Delicious New Conspiracy Theory

“ Michigan House Rep. Tom McMillan (R-45) is serving-up a brand new, piping hot, conspiracy theory for their enjoyment. The aroma is simply irresistible to them.

McMillan is raising the alarm about a program called Common Core, whose goal is to provide some basic standardization in key learning areas across the U.S. It doesn’t write lesson plans, and no state funding is tied to the program, — it simply brings science, math and writing benchmarks into, more-or-less, alignment across state lines. Their mission statement says:

The Common Core State Standards provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers. With American students fully prepared for the future, our communities will be best positioned to compete successfully in the global economy….”

Cassi Creek:  this is not intended to demean fast food workers.  Many of today’s franchise employees are adults trying to keep food on the table and a roof overhead.  Others are high school students working to help the family budget or students trying to maintain tuition. 

          However, there are some burger franchise workers who are so poorly educated that they can neither read nor write.  They can’t make change; they require pictures on the order-entry system in order to work the counter.

          The opponents of Common Core view it as unconstitutional, overturning the right of states and local school boards to set educational standards.  They fear that science programs will introduce their good little red state students to sex.  They would rather bitch about Russia, China, India, and Europe holding superior positions in the current space race than to educate students about geology, physics, and other technical fields. 

          The GOP and the tea parties would rather see the nation’s technical capabilities rendered obsolete than to allow national standards to be set for education.  They want to continue breeding a populace so incapable and so anti-intellectual that they will never understand the global weather and climate changes that are taking place, which will never realize the dangers of fracking until their water supplies are no longer clean enough to drink, that will continue to vote against its own best interests.  

14 June 2013 Wave that flag

Cassi Creek:

         

          The concept of an all-volunteer military is a noble one.  Among the offered justifications for volunteer staffing is the greater economy of such a plan.  The turnover rate for volunteers is expected to be lower than for a conscript force and the level of training and readiness among the volunteers is expected to be higher. 

          The shift in military manpower and staffing was unfortunately linked to a huge privatization drive that transferred many duties that could be and should be performed by active duty servicemen and servicewomen to private contractors such as the former Blackwater and the still greedy Halliburton. 

          The drive to privatize government functions also led to the outsourcing of other agencies’ functions.  The NSA should be staffed by professionals rather than by contractors such Booz & Allen and their employee Snowden. 

          The current flap over the security breaches and the public awareness of the levels and amount of surveillance taking place would not be a problem for the GOP if Bush II were still in office or if the GOP had been the source of the leak. 

          Touching again on the supposed economy and readiness/efficiency of the “volunteer military concept, it should be pointed out that due to the GOP/teavangelist driven sequester, front line military units now lack the funding to perform training and maintenance duties.  Entire Air Force squadrons are being down checked and declared not ready for operations due to the lack of required training hours.  Pilot and aircrew readiness are seriously degraded.  The same problems are affecting naval aviation, which requires even greater readiness levels. 

          Despite this, private contractors are being paid exorbitant fees to perform tasks that should be performed only by the U.S. government. 

Today is Flag Day.  Locally, the Teavangelists will rally to label the Obama administration as fascists and socialists, trying to associate Obama with Hitler.  The organizers are using a revisionist and fictional history to convince poorly educated local people that they are about to be stripped of their guns, forced to pay taxes they disagree with, and persecuted for their protestant religious views.  Sadly, they will have an easy time doing so.

*Wave the flag, *pop the bag
*Rock the boat, skin the goat
Trap the rat, bell the cat
Ball the jack, chew the fat

Shoot the breeze, lose the keys
Feed the poor, stop the war
Make the signs, connect the lines
Pay your fines, save your dimes

Chorus
*Wave that flag, wave it wide and high
*Summertime done come and gone, my oh my

13 June 2013 Water water everywhere

Cassi Creek: From the rind on the ancient marinara

  We drove into Jonesborough this afternoon.  Between 1330 and 1500 line of thunderstorms rolled through.  We left at 1515 to return home.  At that time, there was no rain but it was imminent.  When it hit, it hit with a vengeance.  It is ca 9 miles from Jonesborough to the TN 107 / 81 junction.  We pulled off once to wait for better visibility.  We noticed many branches and trees down, the road was blocked at two points that we know of by trees and lines.  The alternate roads were all blocked by ponding accumulations and/or flash flooding across the roads.  As long as I could see yellow lines and oncoming traffic, I was able to cross these points.  At the final obstacle, the line was visible but the flow velocity and volume were rather frightening.  Since the water was rising on both sides of us, I used a large truck in the oncoming lane to break the water flow and provide more stability for us.  I’d rather not do that again. 

          It took us over an hour and a half to get home.  There was no damage or high water here.  No film at 2300.

   

12 June 2013 Many a tear has to fall

But it’s all in the name.

Cassi Creek:

          The early rifles used in this nation were used both for meat acquisition and for sharpshooting – dispatching officers and NCOs of opposing forces in order to break chains of command and to spread confusion within the opposing ranks. 

          This technique applied by skilled sharpshooters in the Continental Army and in detached forces was sufficiently effective as to cause British Army officers to protest it as unfair. 

          The standard long gun used from the Revolutionary war period through much of the Civil War was an un-rifled musket or a rifled musket.  These were initially round ball guns with the conical bullet gradually replacing the round ball.  Ballistics for round balls tend to decay rapidly beyond 100 meters.  Other than the Whitworth sniper rifle, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitworth_rifle, armed combat with long guns was not terribly accurate at any but short distances.  The march and volley tactics of the Napoleonic wars defined battles and casualties.

With the advent of bolt-action breech loading rifles, the improvements in metallurgy and chemistry led to rifles accurate to about 500 meters.  .  Accuracy beyond 1000 meters was the standard for sniper rifles through VietNam.  The Iraq wars along with Afghanistan sparked further development.  The ability to build a telescopic sight combined with environmental sensors, a ballistic computer, and laser designation/ranging , when mated with USB ports and the ability to video link every shot for someone’s log and after action reports has led us to the machine linked below. 

          Make no mistake about it, this is not a weapon designed to market to hunters, even though some will most certainly buy and use it to hunt at extreme ranges.  This is a military weapon intended to be used for long range sniping.   

This $22K sniper rifle comes with a WiFi server, USB ports, an iPad mini … and aims itself
Read more at http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/18/this-22k-sniper-rifle-comes-with-a-wifi-server-usb-ports-an-ipad-mini-and-aims-itself/#FKYZyh5tfEDwAu7w.99 

“The shooter simple tells the rifle what he or she is aiming at by locking a laser on the target. The gun’s built-in laser range finder, compass, environmental sensors to gauge wind speeds, inertial measurement unit, ballistics computer, and networked tracking engine then engage. But the rifle only fires when you’re holding it in exactly the right direction to hit the target, ensuring that even the unsteadiest and untrained hands can deploy death from a distance. And every shot is recorded and streamed to your nearby iPad.” “

The technology involved makes this a highly desirable weapon to use in assassinations at long range.  The gun removes the need for a trained marksman and allows the insertion of a throwaway assassin into terrorist strikes. 

          The manufacturer, the advertisers, and the NRA can spend millions obscuring the purpose of this rifle/scope combination.  Regardless, in this instance, it is not all in the game or in the name.

11 June 2013 ignore snowden

Cassi Creek: 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/richard-cohen-nsa-is-doing-what-google-does/2013/06/10/fe969612-d1f7-11e2-8cbe-1bcbee06f8f8_story.html

The NSA is doing what Google does

By Richard Cohen, Published: June 10 E-mail the writer

“…Everything about Edward Snowden is ridiculously cinematic. He is not paranoiac; he is merely narcissistic. He jettisoned a girlfriend, a career and, undoubtedly, his personal freedom to expose programs that were known to our elected officials and could have been deduced by anyone who has ever Googled anything. History will not record him as “one of America’s most consequential whistleblowers.” History is more likely to forget him. Soon, you can Google that.

          Like many people, I’m on the fence about this.  I dislike the idea of outsourced government function.  Privatization serves only those who get the contracts and then kick back to campaign funds. 

          We’ve known that this was going on for decades.  I can recall picking up the phone in an off-campus house that was an unofficial gathering place for SDS and hearing the relays kick in before the dial tone ever came up. 

          We had radio security units in VietNam that primarily monitored U.S. transmissions.  “Don’t say “….” on an open push!”  The capability to obtain legal wiretaps and to proceed with illegal taps kept J. Edgar Hoover in power long after he should have been put out to pasture.  When he was finally retired, the wiretaps remained. 

          There were the Plumbers who cared a lot about outflow but not much about legality.  Watergate brought down Nixon and minions but the lessons learned were more about not being caught than about legalities and constitutional rights of citizens. 

          The Patriot Act rammed into being by Bush and Cheney has shit all to do with patriotism and everything to do with obtaining every bit of data that can be obtained about everyone, everywhere.

          Governments run on taxes and secrets.  Power projection requires information to direct the force.  Not all information should be released to the public.  Some secrecy is required in order to effectively police our borders and to maintain internal security.  External security is even more in need of intelligence and secrecy. 

          I appreciate the need for covert operations and for the names of government employees in security agencies to be kept confidential.  It appalls me that anyone would make public such a list.  It also is appalling that the illusions of privacy are all that remain for U.S. citizens.  However, the genie is out of the security bottle just as the nuclear weapon genie and the space program genie are.  We’re not going to march backwards in the application of technology. 

          I assume that everything I do online is mined by some agency.  There are things I don’t say on line and hopefully never will.  But those things are not political.  I rarely hesitate to voice a political opinion.  Nor will I. 

          I am far less troubled by governmental data mining and outright spying than I am by corporate practices that collect information that I’d rather not share.  I try to minimize corporate access to my life but I know it is futile.  The online world is already too deeply infiltrated to escape the corporations’ chokehold. 

          The government is charged with internal and external security. It maintains that such measures are necessary to detect internal and external plots by terrorists.   I believe that to a large extent the programs that monitor for such plots are necessary. 

          Do they work?  Do such programs prevent new terrorist attacks?  I believe that they may, if we are diligent and lucky in their application.  The thing to remember is that only those terrorist acts that avoid detection make the news.  Those that are detected and foiled may never become known in the media.  In fact, they should not.  It is often far better if the would-be terrorists simply vanish so that there is no feedback about failure to the groups that launched them. 

          Snowden is guilty of leaking classified information.  What other charges are placed against him remain to be seen.  I find his actions unjustifiable.

He is not a latter day incarnation of Daniel Ellsberg.  Verifying the existence of a government program that was truly no longer secret is not a heroic act.  It was a violation of his terms of employment.  Unless his actions result in the death or injury of U.S. troops or agents, he’s a small time criminal.  That’s how he should be regarded now and how he should be remembered.   

11 June 2013 

Cassi Creek: 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/richard-cohen-nsa-is-doing-what-google-does/2013/06/10/fe969612-d1f7-11e2-8cbe-1bcbee06f8f8_story.html

The NSA is doing what Google does

By Richard Cohen, Published: June 10 E-mail the writer

“…Everything about Edward Snowden is ridiculously cinematic. He is not paranoiac; he is merely narcissistic. He jettisoned a girlfriend, a career and, undoubtedly, his personal freedom to expose programs that were known to our elected officials and could have been deduced by anyone who has ever Googled anything. History will not record him as “one of America’s most consequential whistleblowers.” History is more likely to forget him. Soon, you can Google that.

          Like many people, I’m on the fence about this.  I dislike the idea of outsourced government function.  Privatization serves only those who get the contracts and then kick back to campaign funds. 

          We’ve known that this was going on for decades.  I can recall picking up the phone in an off-campus house that was an unofficial gathering place for SDS and hearing the relays kick in before the dial tone ever came up. 

          We had radio security units in VietNam that primarily monitored U.S. transmissions.  “Don’t say “….” on an open push!”  The capability to obtain legal wiretaps and to proceed with illegal taps kept J. Edgar Hoover in power long after he should have been put out to pasture.  When he was finally retired, the wiretaps remained. 

          There were the Plumbers who cared a lot about outflow but not much about legality.  Watergate brought down Nixon and minions but the lessons learned were more about not being caught than about legalities and constitutional rights of citizens. 

          The Patriot Act rammed into being by Bush and Cheney has shit all to do with patriotism and everything to do with obtaining every bit of data that can be obtained about everyone, everywhere.

          Governments run on taxes and secrets.  Power projection requires information to direct the force.  Not all information should be released to the public.  Some secrecy is required in order to effectively police our borders and to maintain internal security.  External security is even more in need of intelligence and secrecy. 

          I appreciate the need for covert operations and for the names of government employees in security agencies to be kept confidential.  It appalls me that anyone would make public such a list.  It also is appalling that the illusions of privacy are all that remain for U.S. citizens.  However, the genie is out of the security bottle just as the nuclear weapon genie and the space program genie are.  We’re not going to march backwards in the application of technology. 

          I assume that everything I do online is mined by some agency.  There are things I don’t say on line and hopefully never will.  But those things are not political.  I rarely hesitate to voice a political opinion.  Nor will I. 

          I am far less troubled by governmental data mining and outright spying than I am by corporate practices that collect information that I’d rather not share.  I try to minimize corporate access to my life but I know it is futile.  The online world is already too deeply infiltrated to escape the corporations’ chokehold. 

          The government is charged with internal and external security. It maintains that such measures are necessary to detect internal and external plots by terrorists.   I believe that to a large extent the programs that monitor for such plots are necessary. 

          Do they work?  Do such programs prevent new terrorist attacks?  I believe that they may, if we are diligent and lucky in their application.  The thing to remember is that only those terrorist acts that avoid detection make the news.  Those that are detected and foiled may never become known in the media.  In fact, they should not.  It is often far better if the would-be terrorists simply vanish so that there is no feedback about failure to the groups that launched them. 

          Snowden is guilty of leaking classified information.  What other charges are placed against him remain to be seen.  I find his actions unjustifiable.

He is not a latter day incarnation of Daniel Ellsberg.  Verifying the existence of a government program that was truly no longer secret is not a heroic act.  It was a violation of his terms of employment.  Unless his actions result in the death or injury of U.S. troops or agents, he’s a small time criminal.  That’s how he should be regarded now and how he should be remembered.   

Don’t waste the money