7 June 2010 Trespassers may become shot
Yesterday afternoon Gloria and Loki encountered a 2.5-3 foot long Timber Rattlesnake in our front yard. She heard and saw it, told Loki to stay and Loki chose to obey. Gloria brought her around back and into the house, told me about the snake, rather calmly.
I loaded our Mossberg 500 with flechette rounds and went out the front door. The snake had moved from where Gloria had seen it and was headed for the upper, wooded area of our property. Fortunately for us, I was able to pick it up visually. My hearing deficit is really becoming problematic. One round of flechette was adequate for the job but, as with all rattlesnakes, it retained muscle activity and bite reflex for a significant and potentially dangerous time. We separated the head from the body and put it on a wood pile out of Loki’s reach. The body went into the creek bed.
The adrenaline burst was far too heavy and lasted much longer than I would prefer.
I had just been thinking that the shotgun should be loaded. It is a primary home defense tool and is only a club if unloaded. It will be loaded from today forward.
From a safety stand point, only the two of us live here or have any access to the firearms. Gloria knows that the weapons are all loaded and has her own personal weapon for defense. No one else is authorized to be in the house, let alone handle our firearms. They are kept under lock and key or on our persons.
This is the first venomous snake we’ve seen on our property. Since we’ve been here, Mike killed one on his bridge from driveway to house and someone from the family compound at the head of the valley ran over one in the road about 2/3 of the way from our drive to the upper property line. So we know they’re out there, just normally not crossing our paths. Something to watch out for when outside and when letting the dog roam a bit.
I dislike killing snakes, even venomous snakes. However, this one was a threat to our well-being and to Loki. Had it been on the property edge, leaving our land, I’d have left it alone if possible. It will certainly be bright lights tonight when outdoors with the dog.
Gloria gets credit for her calm control of Loki and quick response. I lose points for lacking half my search, tracking and targeting systems down due to battle damage. I must make a serious effort to wear my hearing aids whenever outside. They’re not water-resistant but I will have to figure out a way to deal with that problem.
Needless to say, all the cracks, crevices, weedy areas, and berry patches are suspect today. The road edges during today’s hike with Mike were suspect too. Not just poison ivy to be concerned about.
Spent about half an hour today patterning the shotgun, using the various rounds I have available. I sent sabot/slug rounds, 00 buckshot, “super speed” #7 1/2 game loads, and flechette down range at a man shaped target at 20 meters. Any snake inside that range would best be met with the game loads. The flechette I used yesterday has 19 darts/round. I shot better than I have in a long time.
Spent an hour and a half cleaning the Mossberg. That is always a problem with shooting; it takes a long time to really clean a weapon. The recoil I did not notice yesterday was very much in evidence today. A 12 gauge shotgun is not a target gun.
Gloria was in the pool today after we peeled back the solar blanket and cleaned the pool. She’s happy!
Monday, June 7, 2010
Sunday, June 6, 2010
6 June 2010 We con the world
6 June 2010 We con the world
Very good band last night at the contra dance in Jonesborough. Perpetual e-Motion is the band. They played Friday night at the Spanish Ballroom in Glen Echo and will play there again Sunday night. They’re logging a lot of miles to lay down some fantastic music.
The pool pump is still running after being switched off and on a few times to allow for maintenance on the pool. We put the new solar blanket on the pool this morning. We’ll give it 2-3 days to flatten out before trimming it down to size. If it stays cloudy, at least it will help keep the pool clean. I’ve got to install some grommets and figure out a way to unroll it without help.
I’m planning on steaks (chuck eyes) and corn on the cob for dinner. I’ll fire up some charcoal if the weather allows. If not, I’ll cook indoors. Either way it will be enjoyable.
We had a 55 minute power outage this morning. We almost never know what causes them. It could have been someone hitting a power pole, unlikely due to the short nature of the outage. It could have been a suicidal squirrel doing the power line dance. Whatever the cause, it happened after we were awake and moving, and ended before we finished the paper. I’d already made coffee so we were not bothered overly much.
Another D-Day anniversary rolls around and I’m reminded of the bravery of the thousands who made that landing in the face of everything the Nazis could throw at them.
Israel continues to stand nearly alone.
A parody by a Jerusalem Post writer. Many Israelis feel this way.
http://www.carolineglick.com/e/2010/06/we-con-the-world---the-gaza-fl.php
Very good band last night at the contra dance in Jonesborough. Perpetual e-Motion is the band. They played Friday night at the Spanish Ballroom in Glen Echo and will play there again Sunday night. They’re logging a lot of miles to lay down some fantastic music.
The pool pump is still running after being switched off and on a few times to allow for maintenance on the pool. We put the new solar blanket on the pool this morning. We’ll give it 2-3 days to flatten out before trimming it down to size. If it stays cloudy, at least it will help keep the pool clean. I’ve got to install some grommets and figure out a way to unroll it without help.
I’m planning on steaks (chuck eyes) and corn on the cob for dinner. I’ll fire up some charcoal if the weather allows. If not, I’ll cook indoors. Either way it will be enjoyable.
We had a 55 minute power outage this morning. We almost never know what causes them. It could have been someone hitting a power pole, unlikely due to the short nature of the outage. It could have been a suicidal squirrel doing the power line dance. Whatever the cause, it happened after we were awake and moving, and ended before we finished the paper. I’d already made coffee so we were not bothered overly much.
Another D-Day anniversary rolls around and I’m reminded of the bravery of the thousands who made that landing in the face of everything the Nazis could throw at them.
Israel continues to stand nearly alone.
A parody by a Jerusalem Post writer. Many Israelis feel this way.
http://www.carolineglick.com/e/2010/06/we-con-the-world---the-gaza-fl.php
Saturday, June 5, 2010
5 June 2010 Odds and ends intellect, hope, beauty, and anger
5 June 2010 Odds and ends
Last night we went to hear and see Donna The Buffalo. We left home during a severe thunder storm. The dog was not at all pleased to be left alone. We received 0.75 inches of rain yesterday evening. When we reached Highway 107 the rain, for the most part, stopped; allowing us to travel at highway speeds without fear of hydroplaning off the road or into something. We had dinner reservations at a new Japanese restaurant and met a friend of Gloria’s from the contra dancing community.
Dinner was quite good, service was good to excellent and the restaurant surprisingly empty for a Friday evening. Perhaps all the festivals in the area were responsible for the dearth of customers. We found no fault at all with the food. As we left, the staff actually bowed us out the door. I’ve never had this happen at any Japanese restaurant in the CONUS. We plan on returning.
While we were eating, the thunderstorm we left in Chuckey, or a close relation, caught up with us and we worried about being able to see the band. But the storm moved on and we had no more rain to deal with last night.
We managed to find parking spots within 300 meters of the stage where we wanted to be. We sat up our chairs and waited for a decent zydeco band to finish and for DTB to set up.
The band is a well known jam band, with roots similar to The Grateful Dead, String Cheese Incident, Leftover Salmon, etc. They are well worth the travel time to hear them. Last night they were, unfortunately, lacking a good sound person. The mix was atrocious. The drums were far too forward in the mix, the bass also too heavy. The vocals were down in the clutter and muddy. Since the band has interesting lyrics and good vocal performers, half the performance was substandard. When they opened up and jammed, the mix became tolerable but still lacking with respect to being able to hear all the instruments and voices. The practice of using local sound people, who tend to mix everything like Country or Rap, is detrimental to a good band.
The rain never returned the crowd was reasonably innocuous; no one spilled beer on us or fell over us. The music was, all-in-all, worth the trip. The evening cooled off nicely, breezes kept it cool. The band is always worth listening to, catch them if you can.
Practicing magical thinking of my own, I flipped the switch on the pool pump this morning and it brought the pump into operation. While it may be the pump motor, I’m going to buy a replacement switch and keep it on hand for the next failure. Every day without having to buy a new motor is good. If it continues to work, we’ll open up the new solar blanket and let it stretch out before cutting it to size.
This is the beginning of a movie review from the Washington Post. I rarely read movie reviews and even less seldom find them causing me to become interested in the movie reviewed. This one caught me. I want to see “Agora.” I hope it goes to cable soon as I don’t think it will play in this region at all. The review is long but worth reading. I offer it to you.
Reason is the star of "Agora
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/spirited_atheist/2010/06/agora_a_rare_movie_with_reason_as_its_star.html?hpid=talkbox1
By Susan Jacoby
June 2, 2010; 4:31 PM ET
Also long but worth reading is this history and commentary on one of the great pieces of sculpture. I became aware of this sculpture in a “Classics” comic book. The link provides history of the work and comparisons to other “messenger” themed works of art. I have my friend, Dr. Paul Scotten, to think for directing me to the marvelous archeology web site that provided this link.
A closer look at the Victory of Samothrace
http://www.louvre.fr/templates/llv/flash/victoiredesamothrace/victoiredesamothrace_acc_en.html
Last, this link from the Washington Post to an article by Dana Milbank is worthy of the time it takes to read it and become outraged. The GOP apologists for the damages caused by greed in today’s corporate structures are now claiming that the BP ravages to the Gulf of Mexico are “acts of God.” This is in keeping with the legal view declaring corporations have “rights” equitable to those of actual persons. If so, they also have responsibilities and should serve prison sentences. I have no problem with jailing BP’s corporate officers and executives, as well as their board of directors for the ecological damages they are causing due to their corporate policies, practices, and greed. They can blame this on a divine causation if they like. I don’t buy it.
In fact, I want to see all the corporate sky pilots and televangelists trying to mesh the science and geology of sub-oceanic oil deposits with the theocratic fundamentalists insistence that the world is only a few thousand years old. I’m sure it is only a matter of time until the GOP theocrats and Tea Party mobs start blaming this spill on gays, lesbians, atheists, Jews, and socialists.
If oil spill is 'an act of God,' BP merits divine retribution
By Dana Milbank
Sunday, June 6, 2010
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/04/AR2010060402701.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
Shabbat Shalom!
Last night we went to hear and see Donna The Buffalo. We left home during a severe thunder storm. The dog was not at all pleased to be left alone. We received 0.75 inches of rain yesterday evening. When we reached Highway 107 the rain, for the most part, stopped; allowing us to travel at highway speeds without fear of hydroplaning off the road or into something. We had dinner reservations at a new Japanese restaurant and met a friend of Gloria’s from the contra dancing community.
Dinner was quite good, service was good to excellent and the restaurant surprisingly empty for a Friday evening. Perhaps all the festivals in the area were responsible for the dearth of customers. We found no fault at all with the food. As we left, the staff actually bowed us out the door. I’ve never had this happen at any Japanese restaurant in the CONUS. We plan on returning.
While we were eating, the thunderstorm we left in Chuckey, or a close relation, caught up with us and we worried about being able to see the band. But the storm moved on and we had no more rain to deal with last night.
We managed to find parking spots within 300 meters of the stage where we wanted to be. We sat up our chairs and waited for a decent zydeco band to finish and for DTB to set up.
The band is a well known jam band, with roots similar to The Grateful Dead, String Cheese Incident, Leftover Salmon, etc. They are well worth the travel time to hear them. Last night they were, unfortunately, lacking a good sound person. The mix was atrocious. The drums were far too forward in the mix, the bass also too heavy. The vocals were down in the clutter and muddy. Since the band has interesting lyrics and good vocal performers, half the performance was substandard. When they opened up and jammed, the mix became tolerable but still lacking with respect to being able to hear all the instruments and voices. The practice of using local sound people, who tend to mix everything like Country or Rap, is detrimental to a good band.
The rain never returned the crowd was reasonably innocuous; no one spilled beer on us or fell over us. The music was, all-in-all, worth the trip. The evening cooled off nicely, breezes kept it cool. The band is always worth listening to, catch them if you can.
Practicing magical thinking of my own, I flipped the switch on the pool pump this morning and it brought the pump into operation. While it may be the pump motor, I’m going to buy a replacement switch and keep it on hand for the next failure. Every day without having to buy a new motor is good. If it continues to work, we’ll open up the new solar blanket and let it stretch out before cutting it to size.
This is the beginning of a movie review from the Washington Post. I rarely read movie reviews and even less seldom find them causing me to become interested in the movie reviewed. This one caught me. I want to see “Agora.” I hope it goes to cable soon as I don’t think it will play in this region at all. The review is long but worth reading. I offer it to you.
Reason is the star of "Agora
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/spirited_atheist/2010/06/agora_a_rare_movie_with_reason_as_its_star.html?hpid=talkbox1
By Susan Jacoby
June 2, 2010; 4:31 PM ET
Also long but worth reading is this history and commentary on one of the great pieces of sculpture. I became aware of this sculpture in a “Classics” comic book. The link provides history of the work and comparisons to other “messenger” themed works of art. I have my friend, Dr. Paul Scotten, to think for directing me to the marvelous archeology web site that provided this link.
A closer look at the Victory of Samothrace
http://www.louvre.fr/templates/llv/flash/victoiredesamothrace/victoiredesamothrace_acc_en.html
Last, this link from the Washington Post to an article by Dana Milbank is worthy of the time it takes to read it and become outraged. The GOP apologists for the damages caused by greed in today’s corporate structures are now claiming that the BP ravages to the Gulf of Mexico are “acts of God.” This is in keeping with the legal view declaring corporations have “rights” equitable to those of actual persons. If so, they also have responsibilities and should serve prison sentences. I have no problem with jailing BP’s corporate officers and executives, as well as their board of directors for the ecological damages they are causing due to their corporate policies, practices, and greed. They can blame this on a divine causation if they like. I don’t buy it.
In fact, I want to see all the corporate sky pilots and televangelists trying to mesh the science and geology of sub-oceanic oil deposits with the theocratic fundamentalists insistence that the world is only a few thousand years old. I’m sure it is only a matter of time until the GOP theocrats and Tea Party mobs start blaming this spill on gays, lesbians, atheists, Jews, and socialists.
If oil spill is 'an act of God,' BP merits divine retribution
By Dana Milbank
Sunday, June 6, 2010
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/04/AR2010060402701.html?hpid=opinionsbox1
Shabbat Shalom!
Friday, June 4, 2010
4 June 2010 Friday rolls around again
4 June 2010 Friday rolls around again
We received 0.62 inches of rain between 0030 and 0400 this morning. A series of heavy thunderstorms rolled along the ridges and tracked right over us. I don’t normally wake up for rainfall. These storms work me. It wasn’t the lightning and thunder, which had Loki quite upset, but the noise of the rain falling on a metal roof that woke me several times. The rainfall was heavy enough and loud enough that I really think there was some hail mixed in with it.
So a tired start to the morning and a hot and sticky hike with Mike left me ready for a shower. But I needed to backwash the pool filter and remove the old solar blanket from the reel first. The reel is now ready for the new blanket. The filter pump refused to restart after I flipped it off. Not a good sign. It is possibly a bad switch that caused problems when they opened the pool a week ago. But more likely it is a pump motor. We’ll find out but I suspect the cheap fix is not an option.
We’re going into Johnson City to night for free music at a street festival. Donna the Buffalo will be playing. We’ve not see them since Live Oak in 1997. Japanese food prior to going to the festival area. Neither of us needs street food and I really don’t trust a lot of the vendors to maintain safe and healthy conditions. I also don’t care to stand in line with families with strollers, kids, and diaper bags who think that their status as parents affords them special status. We’d both rather eat a bit more healthily and do so in cool air at a clean table. Should be good music.
We will be missing the mostly gospel music performances at Elizabethton’s Covered Bridge Festival and a lot of bad country and bad Christian at a Vietnam Veteran’s Homecoming laid on by a local vet and a biker church. Not at all hard to miss this little bit of self-pity. There have been enough such “home comings” for us VietNam vets. We all know we’re home, most of us have learned to deal with our PTSD, we’re getting health care from VA and no amount of bible thumping is going to cure the rest of us who were lost before becoming cannon fodder.
Perhaps a chance to sleep in tomorrow?
Shabbat Shalom.
We received 0.62 inches of rain between 0030 and 0400 this morning. A series of heavy thunderstorms rolled along the ridges and tracked right over us. I don’t normally wake up for rainfall. These storms work me. It wasn’t the lightning and thunder, which had Loki quite upset, but the noise of the rain falling on a metal roof that woke me several times. The rainfall was heavy enough and loud enough that I really think there was some hail mixed in with it.
So a tired start to the morning and a hot and sticky hike with Mike left me ready for a shower. But I needed to backwash the pool filter and remove the old solar blanket from the reel first. The reel is now ready for the new blanket. The filter pump refused to restart after I flipped it off. Not a good sign. It is possibly a bad switch that caused problems when they opened the pool a week ago. But more likely it is a pump motor. We’ll find out but I suspect the cheap fix is not an option.
We’re going into Johnson City to night for free music at a street festival. Donna the Buffalo will be playing. We’ve not see them since Live Oak in 1997. Japanese food prior to going to the festival area. Neither of us needs street food and I really don’t trust a lot of the vendors to maintain safe and healthy conditions. I also don’t care to stand in line with families with strollers, kids, and diaper bags who think that their status as parents affords them special status. We’d both rather eat a bit more healthily and do so in cool air at a clean table. Should be good music.
We will be missing the mostly gospel music performances at Elizabethton’s Covered Bridge Festival and a lot of bad country and bad Christian at a Vietnam Veteran’s Homecoming laid on by a local vet and a biker church. Not at all hard to miss this little bit of self-pity. There have been enough such “home comings” for us VietNam vets. We all know we’re home, most of us have learned to deal with our PTSD, we’re getting health care from VA and no amount of bible thumping is going to cure the rest of us who were lost before becoming cannon fodder.
Perhaps a chance to sleep in tomorrow?
Shabbat Shalom.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
3 June 2010 Palin offended by NBC - good!
3 June 2010 Palin offended by NBC
“Palin was in contact with the “Today" show the day before McGinniss's appearance and provided a statement responding to the author before the interview.
“McGinniss has followed us for some time now, from showing up on our doorstep last winter, bidding over $60,000 for a military charity auction dinner with me, writing the hit pieces, attending at least one Outside book event, etc,” Palin said. “He has a right to pursue his subject, I suppose, and certainly has a right to live wherever he wants, but my family also has a right to expect privacy, and hopefully to enjoy peace this summer. Good fences do make for good neighbors. The fence is now up, and I hope that we can enjoy peace. During his interview on “Today,” McGinniss accused Palin of using “Nazi” tactics to incite her supporters to go after him. But Palin’s response to the interview initially was not aired.
Palin then took to her Facebook page to complain that the network “broke their promise” to run her statement, going on to lump NBC in with “a corrupt, deceptive, and manipulative media” that can “ruin the lives of good people, disrupt families, destroy reputations and ultimately hurt our country.”
On Wednesday morning, NBC anchor Ann Curry read part of Palin’s statement, but without mentioning that it was intended for the previous day or that Palin had complained about the network’s coverage.
“Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is speaking out about comments made by author Joe McGinniss on this broadcast on Tuesday,” Curry said. “[McGinniss] has claimed he's received death threats, and he's complained about what he called the power Palin has to incite hatred.”
“On her Facebook page, Palin claims that the left has been inciting hatred against her for the last two years,” Curry added. “Referring to McGinniss, she tells NBC News, ‘He has a right to pursue his subject, I suppose, and certainly has a right to live wherever he wants, but my family also has a right to expect privacy and hopefully enjoy peace this summer. The media sensationalizes the recent McGinniss tactic so the public will tune in to whatever the latest episode is, always with ratings in mind, and that’s unfortunate.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/38033.html#ixzz0pisVOTWW
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/38033.html#ixzz0pikHE6ik
How sad that the resignator, former governor Palin, feels the press is treating her unfairly. If she would participate in a normal interview instead of hiding behind a ghost-written statement she might eventually feel less persecuted.
But since her inability to speak and stand erect simultaneously precludes her being interviewed by any real journalist, on any real news service, she will continue to hide on Face book where she can block any person who might possibly “be mean to her.” Any genuine interview would only highlight her lack of familiarity with English grammar, with logic and reason, and with truth. The resignator would never allow herself to have to answer questions that she hasn’t had time to send to a ghost-writer.
She blatantly accused author Joe McGinnis of pedophilia and provided his e-mail address to her rabid supporters. One can only imagine the height of her hysteria if someone posted her private e-mail address and accused her of child abuse/neglect in a public forum. In fact, we don’t have to imagine her response. She became so distraught that she could no longer carry out her elected duties. She published one set of lies after another, claiming various men were stalking her daughters. She habitually uses her children as stage props and then lies about doing so. In the McGinnis interview segment he specifically stated that he was not calling her a Nazi. So, of course, she leapt onto the word and accused him of calling her a Nazi. She hears only what she wants to hear, truth is whatever she might believe it to be, and facts don’t matter anymore than does science.
Her insistence that her privacy is being violated, along with that of her children, is yet another example of her “magical thinking.” She was nominated for VPOTUS, and had she won that election, would have acquired some protection from intrusion for her and her family. But since she was not elected, and since she resigned her gubernatorial position, she is no more entitled to any “Extra” privacy than I am.
She complains that NBC ruined “their Memorial Day”, requiring her to be on the phone. Had she deigned to be interviewed by an actual journalist on a real news program, there would have been no need to make phone calls. And for what it is worth, she’s not employed and could have deferred any phone calls to the following work days. Nothing she has to say is so important as to require ruining a family celebration. That is, of course, unless one is worried that one’s name might not appear on television that day.
Her concern for privacy seems to vanish with the increase in proximity of a TV camera to her. Then she turns her ghost writer loose on Face Book and drags her kids out once again to demonstrate how they are being stalked and threatened. The stalkers in the neighborhood live in the Palin house.
It would be a rare treat to see her interviewed by a real journalist. The Couric interview was only a preview of how dysfunctional she would become if asked the right questions.
NBC should offer her the opportunity to appear on cameral to discuss her statement. So should CBS, ABC, and CNN. Then no major news network should cover anything she says or does until she quits hiding behind her ghost-written Face book page or admits that she is unqualified for any national office.
“Palin was in contact with the “Today" show the day before McGinniss's appearance and provided a statement responding to the author before the interview.
“McGinniss has followed us for some time now, from showing up on our doorstep last winter, bidding over $60,000 for a military charity auction dinner with me, writing the hit pieces, attending at least one Outside book event, etc,” Palin said. “He has a right to pursue his subject, I suppose, and certainly has a right to live wherever he wants, but my family also has a right to expect privacy, and hopefully to enjoy peace this summer. Good fences do make for good neighbors. The fence is now up, and I hope that we can enjoy peace. During his interview on “Today,” McGinniss accused Palin of using “Nazi” tactics to incite her supporters to go after him. But Palin’s response to the interview initially was not aired.
Palin then took to her Facebook page to complain that the network “broke their promise” to run her statement, going on to lump NBC in with “a corrupt, deceptive, and manipulative media” that can “ruin the lives of good people, disrupt families, destroy reputations and ultimately hurt our country.”
On Wednesday morning, NBC anchor Ann Curry read part of Palin’s statement, but without mentioning that it was intended for the previous day or that Palin had complained about the network’s coverage.
“Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is speaking out about comments made by author Joe McGinniss on this broadcast on Tuesday,” Curry said. “[McGinniss] has claimed he's received death threats, and he's complained about what he called the power Palin has to incite hatred.”
“On her Facebook page, Palin claims that the left has been inciting hatred against her for the last two years,” Curry added. “Referring to McGinniss, she tells NBC News, ‘He has a right to pursue his subject, I suppose, and certainly has a right to live wherever he wants, but my family also has a right to expect privacy and hopefully enjoy peace this summer. The media sensationalizes the recent McGinniss tactic so the public will tune in to whatever the latest episode is, always with ratings in mind, and that’s unfortunate.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/38033.html#ixzz0pisVOTWW
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/38033.html#ixzz0pikHE6ik
How sad that the resignator, former governor Palin, feels the press is treating her unfairly. If she would participate in a normal interview instead of hiding behind a ghost-written statement she might eventually feel less persecuted.
But since her inability to speak and stand erect simultaneously precludes her being interviewed by any real journalist, on any real news service, she will continue to hide on Face book where she can block any person who might possibly “be mean to her.” Any genuine interview would only highlight her lack of familiarity with English grammar, with logic and reason, and with truth. The resignator would never allow herself to have to answer questions that she hasn’t had time to send to a ghost-writer.
She blatantly accused author Joe McGinnis of pedophilia and provided his e-mail address to her rabid supporters. One can only imagine the height of her hysteria if someone posted her private e-mail address and accused her of child abuse/neglect in a public forum. In fact, we don’t have to imagine her response. She became so distraught that she could no longer carry out her elected duties. She published one set of lies after another, claiming various men were stalking her daughters. She habitually uses her children as stage props and then lies about doing so. In the McGinnis interview segment he specifically stated that he was not calling her a Nazi. So, of course, she leapt onto the word and accused him of calling her a Nazi. She hears only what she wants to hear, truth is whatever she might believe it to be, and facts don’t matter anymore than does science.
Her insistence that her privacy is being violated, along with that of her children, is yet another example of her “magical thinking.” She was nominated for VPOTUS, and had she won that election, would have acquired some protection from intrusion for her and her family. But since she was not elected, and since she resigned her gubernatorial position, she is no more entitled to any “Extra” privacy than I am.
She complains that NBC ruined “their Memorial Day”, requiring her to be on the phone. Had she deigned to be interviewed by an actual journalist on a real news program, there would have been no need to make phone calls. And for what it is worth, she’s not employed and could have deferred any phone calls to the following work days. Nothing she has to say is so important as to require ruining a family celebration. That is, of course, unless one is worried that one’s name might not appear on television that day.
Her concern for privacy seems to vanish with the increase in proximity of a TV camera to her. Then she turns her ghost writer loose on Face Book and drags her kids out once again to demonstrate how they are being stalked and threatened. The stalkers in the neighborhood live in the Palin house.
It would be a rare treat to see her interviewed by a real journalist. The Couric interview was only a preview of how dysfunctional she would become if asked the right questions.
NBC should offer her the opportunity to appear on cameral to discuss her statement. So should CBS, ABC, and CNN. Then no major news network should cover anything she says or does until she quits hiding behind her ghost-written Face book page or admits that she is unqualified for any national office.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
2 June 2010 Obscenely unseen and unheard
2 June 2010 Obscenely unseen and unheard
Artist Tattoos Indelible Iraq Memorial Into His Skin
by Lara Pellegrinelli
June 1, 2010
On Memorial Day, Americans paused to remember the nation's men and women who died in combat. For Iraqi-born visual artist Wafaa Bilal, the effort to remember casualties of war is an ongoing and permanent project — tattooed into his skin.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127348258&sc=fb&cc=fp
More and more this nation ignores, forgets, and simply fails to see its wars’ dead and injured. Our men and women in uniform train, deploy, fight, die, and return with no one but their families aware of their wounds, their broken lives, and their deaths.
In previous wars, newspapers printed weekly casualty reports announcing who was injured, who was missing, and who was dead. This seems to have ended with WWII. In Korea, there were fewer unit deployments. By the time VietNam was full-blown unit deployments were uncommon, soldiers received individual orders, deployed, were assigned in country, and left as their tour of duty was up. Casualty reports were minimized and, of course, much smaller than those of previous wars. Fewer casualties, easier to gloss over the wounded, missing, and dead.
So little attention did our casualties receive beyond the confines of family that we seem even to have forgotten the terms: WIA, MIA, and KIA. We actually have car dealerships selling cars with the letters “KIA” prominently displayed. Ignoring the fact that the product line is a cheap and relatively safety deficient automobile; there is no way I would ever be so unconcerned for our history as to buy and drive such a vehicle. I don’t know what the letters mean in Korea. I don’t care.
Even more overlooked are the casualties inflicted upon non-combatants now. The video game appearance of remote warfare has desensitized our combatants and our civilians beyond concern for the “collateral damage” we cause. While no war is ever free of civilian injuries and death, while war is designed to inflict injuries and death on the opposing forces, no injuries or deaths should ever be regarded lightly. The safety of our troops in time of war is of utmost importance, little to no concern for the enemy’s numbers should be a factor in how we carry out our wars until we have done everything possible to protect our own troops. Peace activists, and anti-war protestors have no place in the planning and execution of a military campaign. They should not be allowed on battlefields, should not be allowed to interfere in a campaign by intrusion into hostilities, and should be treated as the idiots they are if they attempt to block military actions.
The Bush administration did all it could to minimize the awareness of our casualties and to fully ignore the number of enemy combatants and civilians killed. Our wounded were warehoused under shameful conditions until the press began to uncover and publicize their treatment. The dead were treated equally shamefully, brought back secretly with no public awareness of how many and when they were returned.
No one killed in war should become nameless and forgotten. But the use of UV ink to remember them is noteworthy and should somehow become part of every future monument to our war dead. We ask the ultimate sacrifice of them and then choose to hide their sacrifice and memory from the public.
Artist Tattoos Indelible Iraq Memorial Into His Skin
by Lara Pellegrinelli
June 1, 2010
On Memorial Day, Americans paused to remember the nation's men and women who died in combat. For Iraqi-born visual artist Wafaa Bilal, the effort to remember casualties of war is an ongoing and permanent project — tattooed into his skin.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127348258&sc=fb&cc=fp
More and more this nation ignores, forgets, and simply fails to see its wars’ dead and injured. Our men and women in uniform train, deploy, fight, die, and return with no one but their families aware of their wounds, their broken lives, and their deaths.
In previous wars, newspapers printed weekly casualty reports announcing who was injured, who was missing, and who was dead. This seems to have ended with WWII. In Korea, there were fewer unit deployments. By the time VietNam was full-blown unit deployments were uncommon, soldiers received individual orders, deployed, were assigned in country, and left as their tour of duty was up. Casualty reports were minimized and, of course, much smaller than those of previous wars. Fewer casualties, easier to gloss over the wounded, missing, and dead.
So little attention did our casualties receive beyond the confines of family that we seem even to have forgotten the terms: WIA, MIA, and KIA. We actually have car dealerships selling cars with the letters “KIA” prominently displayed. Ignoring the fact that the product line is a cheap and relatively safety deficient automobile; there is no way I would ever be so unconcerned for our history as to buy and drive such a vehicle. I don’t know what the letters mean in Korea. I don’t care.
Even more overlooked are the casualties inflicted upon non-combatants now. The video game appearance of remote warfare has desensitized our combatants and our civilians beyond concern for the “collateral damage” we cause. While no war is ever free of civilian injuries and death, while war is designed to inflict injuries and death on the opposing forces, no injuries or deaths should ever be regarded lightly. The safety of our troops in time of war is of utmost importance, little to no concern for the enemy’s numbers should be a factor in how we carry out our wars until we have done everything possible to protect our own troops. Peace activists, and anti-war protestors have no place in the planning and execution of a military campaign. They should not be allowed on battlefields, should not be allowed to interfere in a campaign by intrusion into hostilities, and should be treated as the idiots they are if they attempt to block military actions.
The Bush administration did all it could to minimize the awareness of our casualties and to fully ignore the number of enemy combatants and civilians killed. Our wounded were warehoused under shameful conditions until the press began to uncover and publicize their treatment. The dead were treated equally shamefully, brought back secretly with no public awareness of how many and when they were returned.
No one killed in war should become nameless and forgotten. But the use of UV ink to remember them is noteworthy and should somehow become part of every future monument to our war dead. We ask the ultimate sacrifice of them and then choose to hide their sacrifice and memory from the public.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
1 June 2010 Reagan deserves more blame
1 June 2010 Reagan deserves more blame
The legacy of 'drill, baby, drill'
By Julian Zelizer, Special to CNN
June 1, 2010 9:53 a.m. EDT
“For over four decades, some conservatives and centrist Democrats have waged war on the environmental infrastructure that was put into place during the 1960s and 1970s (including under Republican President Nixon).
At first, President Reagan hoped to directly overturn as many environmental regulations as possible. He appointed James Watt as secretary of Interior and Anne Gorsuch as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, both of whom opposed many aspects of the environmental movement.
Yet Reagan's efforts to eliminate the regulatory apparatus largely failed. He ran up against an environmental movement that was far more powerful than he expected. His efforts against the regulations in fact stimulated the movement to become even more active.
The next strategy for his administration was to start weakening oversight, using administrative decisions to protect industry and undermine the quality of the agencies responsible for these programs. Watt and Gorsuch, for example, didn't fight against proposed budget cuts that would clearly strain the capacity of their employees and accepted cost-benefit analyses that favored industry.
Gorsuch boasted that under her leadership, the EPA reduced the size of the clean water regulations manual from six inches to half an inch The EPA didn't make sure that companies were complying with regulations such as requirements to use modern pollution control equipment.
This pattern continued under President George W. Bush. As the contributors of my forthcoming book, "The Presidency of George W. Bush: The First Historical Assessment (Princeton University Press)" have argued, Bush administration officials frequently rejected scientific expertise when making decisions and staffed bureaucratic positions with people who were not sympathetic to the goals of their own organization.”
http://us.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/06/01/zelizer.deregulation.oil/index.html?hpt=T1
The rest of the article bears reading.
I’ve always held Reagan to be one of the worst three or four men to ever hold the office of POTUS. While his acting ability and appearance allowed him to sell his image to many of the voter base, he was ready to sell the nation’s assets to anyone who would plunk down enough cash. Even the national parks were up for sale. Watt would have sold every square inch of land and every living organism in the national park system if he could have gotten by with it.
Like Nixon before him, his campaign strategy called for him to court the southern states, playing to racism, evangelical Christianity, the myth of “states’ rights” and social conservatism. Reagan, and advisors, are largely responsible for the rapid spread of HIV infection in the U.S. because they saw it as disease which infected only homosexuals. Their homophobia combined with the hatred and misinformation spewing from televangelists was instrumental in assuring the rapid spread into the heterosexual populace. The idea that AIDS was divine retribution and punishment dovetailed into the negation of science in favor of religious mythology in public health and education.
Many of the people I’ve fished with lionize Reagan. They firmly believe that he ended the Cold War by outspending the Soviets. We outspent them, but savaged our own economy in doing so. There was no need to wage that economic war; the Soviets were already doomed by the time Reagan took office. These same acquaintances credit Reagan with the return of the Iranian hostages. They are all too willing to overlook the fact that his advisors and cronies negotiated their release to take place only after Carter left office. To keep our troops in captivity even one hour longer than necessary is treason and I firmly hold the belief that Reagan behaved in a treasonous manner with regard to our troops.
When others tell me how “great” he was, I see only a senile man, never qualified or fit for the office, willing to sell the nation, savage the middle class, destroy the social, economic, public health, and other regulatory agencies that made us a modern nation rather than a third world pit like Mexico. I thought he was displaying senility when first elected and there was no doubt when he was re-elected. He deserves much of the blame for the economic mess we are dealing with today. The rest falls to Bush/Cheney.
The legacy of 'drill, baby, drill'
By Julian Zelizer, Special to CNN
June 1, 2010 9:53 a.m. EDT
“For over four decades, some conservatives and centrist Democrats have waged war on the environmental infrastructure that was put into place during the 1960s and 1970s (including under Republican President Nixon).
At first, President Reagan hoped to directly overturn as many environmental regulations as possible. He appointed James Watt as secretary of Interior and Anne Gorsuch as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, both of whom opposed many aspects of the environmental movement.
Yet Reagan's efforts to eliminate the regulatory apparatus largely failed. He ran up against an environmental movement that was far more powerful than he expected. His efforts against the regulations in fact stimulated the movement to become even more active.
The next strategy for his administration was to start weakening oversight, using administrative decisions to protect industry and undermine the quality of the agencies responsible for these programs. Watt and Gorsuch, for example, didn't fight against proposed budget cuts that would clearly strain the capacity of their employees and accepted cost-benefit analyses that favored industry.
Gorsuch boasted that under her leadership, the EPA reduced the size of the clean water regulations manual from six inches to half an inch The EPA didn't make sure that companies were complying with regulations such as requirements to use modern pollution control equipment.
This pattern continued under President George W. Bush. As the contributors of my forthcoming book, "The Presidency of George W. Bush: The First Historical Assessment (Princeton University Press)" have argued, Bush administration officials frequently rejected scientific expertise when making decisions and staffed bureaucratic positions with people who were not sympathetic to the goals of their own organization.”
http://us.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/06/01/zelizer.deregulation.oil/index.html?hpt=T1
The rest of the article bears reading.
I’ve always held Reagan to be one of the worst three or four men to ever hold the office of POTUS. While his acting ability and appearance allowed him to sell his image to many of the voter base, he was ready to sell the nation’s assets to anyone who would plunk down enough cash. Even the national parks were up for sale. Watt would have sold every square inch of land and every living organism in the national park system if he could have gotten by with it.
Like Nixon before him, his campaign strategy called for him to court the southern states, playing to racism, evangelical Christianity, the myth of “states’ rights” and social conservatism. Reagan, and advisors, are largely responsible for the rapid spread of HIV infection in the U.S. because they saw it as disease which infected only homosexuals. Their homophobia combined with the hatred and misinformation spewing from televangelists was instrumental in assuring the rapid spread into the heterosexual populace. The idea that AIDS was divine retribution and punishment dovetailed into the negation of science in favor of religious mythology in public health and education.
Many of the people I’ve fished with lionize Reagan. They firmly believe that he ended the Cold War by outspending the Soviets. We outspent them, but savaged our own economy in doing so. There was no need to wage that economic war; the Soviets were already doomed by the time Reagan took office. These same acquaintances credit Reagan with the return of the Iranian hostages. They are all too willing to overlook the fact that his advisors and cronies negotiated their release to take place only after Carter left office. To keep our troops in captivity even one hour longer than necessary is treason and I firmly hold the belief that Reagan behaved in a treasonous manner with regard to our troops.
When others tell me how “great” he was, I see only a senile man, never qualified or fit for the office, willing to sell the nation, savage the middle class, destroy the social, economic, public health, and other regulatory agencies that made us a modern nation rather than a third world pit like Mexico. I thought he was displaying senility when first elected and there was no doubt when he was re-elected. He deserves much of the blame for the economic mess we are dealing with today. The rest falls to Bush/Cheney.
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