AgainstTheWind

I've had to migrate yet again. I have this personality flaw to do with keeping passwords, and remembering where I recorded them. That's cost me the word press blog. It's going to require more software sophistication than I care to develop to get me going again.

So the current site... rerun. http://againstthewind-swiftone.blogspot.com/

Abounding? Abiding.

Problems abound.

Here's the sound track for this blog. Going home! It's a video, worth watching, but can serve as the sound track without watching. Doesn't imbed.

Here's a repeat for many of you. The mini saga of my return to New Orleans, from a letter I sent family members while trying to figure how to attack the current blog problems.

I returned alone Wednesday, driving through the rain of Arkansas and tornados in Mississippi (ok, I just drove listening to the reports of watches and warnings on MPR as I drove through same said counties and towns.) Not quite white knuckly stuff, cause I never saw a tornado and very little hard driving rain. Thank God for that.
Left noon on the dot as that was check out time, arrived at 1 am or so, and couldn't figure out how to unlock the house. The clicker didn't work as there was no electricity, ergo no lights so I couldn't find the key. I don't use it often so it was a challenge in the dark. I gave up and went to the back of the house and climbed in through a lowish window and slept soundly for a few hours in my hot bed. Tootie, my mutt, was amused at my acrobatics. I'm sure I saw her laughing at, er with me.

This was all good because it made me glad for the most part to have evacuated! The kids arrived Thursday night, a bit more savvy about the logistics of evacuating, and as they arrived my lights had just come on, and theirs were on as well.

Marianne and Barry (the third pseudo son in law) stayed overnight with Tara, Darryl and the boys. They returned today to New Orleans and an apartment with no lights. Barry doesn't do "pioneer spirit," so would have preferred to evacuate to the local Marriott in Springdale but compromised so I wouldn't be too badly hit in the pocketbook. Going back to the heat and lack of lights I'm sure was not his idea of adventure. Wasn't mine either after one day of it here in Slidell. I sincerely hope they have electricity now. Circuits busy at last check. After Katrina, New Orleans in its permit laden efficiency required everyone have a plumber and an electrician visit their homes before restoring power. Don't get me going on that score.

The emotional psychic toll is another issue altogether. I think this guy has it spot on. Next time we won't leave. I've said all along that the media, the weathermen for hysteria are a lot of the reason people didn't evacuate before Katrina. Every storm is "The big one." Crying wolf has a predictable conclusion.

I've got a lot of clips about Sarah Palin's speech, which I'd not heard until after reading enough punditry to be convinced that she singlehandedly re invented the Rorschak Ink Blot. Everyone saw something different. Different filters, I think.

Anyway, the election grinds on. The election in Louisiana, a primary for senate races, was cancelled for this Saturday. Never happens. Make that rarely, now.

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I've spent a lot of time trying to take photos of birds. You need a lot more telephoto lens than I have. Egrets are big enough, and so Louisiana iconic, that you'd think I would have a zillion good shots. Well, I've got a lot of bad ones! So much so that I'm sharing this half decent shot because it's RARE!



Part of the name of the file refers to the fact that it's a birthday present. After celebrating with Tara and Marianne, this egret was strutting through Tara's neighborhood, and I took about 5 exposures through the car window. That would be the blurs.

Someday I'm going to get some GOOD bird pictures. They're NOT easy.

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Marianne just called from Tara's house. They spent a day in the Big Easy on a slow simmer, and decided to cross the lake to sleep with air conditioning. They're at Tara's again tonight.

Now off to do some maintanence at the other blog site. I do like it better... this one is no longer supported.

And Now headed home--Evacuation Reflections

As I sit in the hotel room desk, gazing at this mirror, I recall that the dressing table in my Aunt Ina May's room in my grandparent's house was referred to as the "vanity." I know why now. Marianne sitting with Barry's laptop was admiring her reflection yesterday in the adjacent room! Now I'm enjoying the nearly 60 y. o. face smiling back at me as I look up from my typing on Tara's graduation present laptop.

Yes it was an unnecessary evacuation, and comes at some cost to all involved. So it's an economic issue. Barry charged his room to a corporate credit card. He's a Haliburton employee doing contract work for Shell. He booked my room at the same time and there's been undue hassle changing the booking through expedia or hotels.com... changing it to my personal card. I do not recommend saving the $3 per night for the third party booking! Too much hassle to do something which should not require an act of congress. For now I'll repay Barry and hope that he repays Haliburton for the one night that should not have been on that account. That was the worst of the unpleasantness, but everyone has endured discomfort of some sort. Those who evacuated to shelters were quoted on the news as saying, next time they will not endure this ordeal. Evacuation even with the amenities of imposing on relative's hospitality is stessfull.

This morning I was reflecting on the Mother of all evacuations... the evacuation in the face of famine in Genesis. Then there was the 40 year return to the land of milk and honey that endures through time in the Jewish people's psyche. The return was no piece of cake... returning to a land now peopled by the Caananites. Are our homes looted? Was our absence noted by those who stayed behind, with aquisitive hearts?

In the ample time in hotel room to read and reflect, I grabbed the dusty Giddeon's bible while not falling easily to sleep last night and read Proverbs 5, which will be featured in my blogging for the next month or so. Proverbs 4 in a nutshell says, seek wisdom always. Proverbs 5 reads on many levels. The change of culture and the changes of language have not rendered it useless, but instead, it seems layered with meaning. Wisdom in Hebrew is a feminine noun, so is personified as a woman throughout the Proverbs. In Proverbs 5 there is the echo of the admonition to the son to stay clear of the strange woman, she of sweet words and lips. It's a clear echo of the Exodus admonition (on those heavy tablets) not to engage in adultery, but also not to adulterize the wise words, the gifts of Solomon, lovingly imparted to his son, and sons through the ages. Anyway, I have no access here to scholarly references, so I'm just reading and letting it filter through the night in my own head, so I may be finding things that are more in my experience, and my head than in the words of Proverbs.

So while enjoying the words of wisdom from the past, from a people whose relationship with God was forged in many flights and evacuations, I've also enjoyed some of the pleasures afforded by NW Arkansas.

It's moving toward 10 am and if I hope to be home by 11, I have to get out of here by check out time. 11 am. I'll smile at the lovely old gal in this mirror, and continue sorting my treasure preparing for a long day on cloudy roads. Tara and Marianne will come home tomorrow. Safe journeys to us all. ds

Springdale Ark

Looks like we missed the major storm business, and we're off to hike in Devil's Den State Park just south of Fayetteville, Ark.

The drive here on I-55 was my first time playing around on expressways re-configured for counterflow. Tara was correct to assume that when we crossed I-55 from Hwy 190 we would not be able to enter the interstate. But the next entrance north was open, and we joined north and southbound lanes all flowing north. Most of the time we traveled at speed, but when we got to crunch and bunch north of McComb, the kids opted correctly to get off and follow old US 51 on north to Crystal Springs.

The hurricane report at 4pm which we heard at Utica made it unlikely that we were going to have a storm worthy of all this evacuation. But here we are evacuated.

All's well.... Thanks for your concerns.

Moved

Some 500+ posts later and I'm abandoning this site. The comments no longer work, and so I've started afresh at
http://www.dloye.com/myblog/wordpress/

And I've no idea yet whether I've remembered all the syntax for a link...

That Lusty Holiday!

Tra La! It's May. I have to shop for the kids... all birthdays are in May. So what makes a good birthday present for grown children? My grandmother sent checks. My Mother sent checks. I'd like to do differently, BUT! I always like home made gifts. But somewhere I read that nothing spells cheap like homemade. Bother. Hell yeah! I'm cheap. Cheap and easy. That still doesn't solve the gift problem!

I'm learning more all the time about trading stocks. Still haven't passed looking at financials 101. I do know if I like doing business with a company or if their products suit me. But today I watched market fluctuations of monumental proportions, and tried to stay sane. I didn't sell in a panic. I bought figuring if nothing else the dividend early next week is worth something. But if I can figure that out so can every other yahoo who knows nothing. It's gotten to where I can cash out for a loss of about $50, or I can hold and wait for a rebound and collect my $4 of dividends. That may be a very expensive $4! But that much is a learning experience. Buy Arm and Hammer products. Help keep me out of the poor house.

Went to the library bee and sat and stitched a stem in place. I'm really running up against the time issue for my round robin this time. Next time I'll go simpler. Applique by needle turn is great for a passtime but on a deadline it's short of brilliant.

I've been fighting borderline depression. My Aunt Helen told me a long while ago I should visit a shrinker and medicate that. Not my style. But paying attention to the details of the moment is my style. So the morning I stepped out and saw this little guy crawling around on the roots of the oak in my back yard, I had to grin. He reminded me of the little dime store turtles. Tootie just couldn't leave him be, so he may have gotten chomped by my pup. I hope not. I like turtles; the speed is just about right for me.



A new found interest is in economics. I always thought of money as somehow tawdry and uninteresting. Not so. I don't need much of it, don't really want much, but studying how people use it, how it facilitates marking a value for a lot of what we do does have a certain fascination. So I've accumulated a few economists blogs that I read. Capital Gains and Losses had an interesting write up on a Senator going about learning about the fiscal side of the global warming debate. Interesting, and a nice change to read about something positive from an elected official.

I'm less a fan of nuclear energy than is indicated about Corker, but he's right to acknowledge that the way out of our energy and environmental challenges is to have fossil fuels that are more expensive, not less expensive, and to insist on that being done in a transparent way. This is what I think a conservative should be doing in the Senate. It's nice to know we've got one, even if he doesn't have much company.

Another I am enjoying is Megan MacArdle who now blogs on the Atlantic website. She used to have her own site, 'assymetrical information'. She is interesting to read, and not afraid to express an opinion.

News anchors in re Hillary's gas tax plan: "The economists don't like it, but there are no easy answers".

Yes, yes there are. There are easy answers. The easy answer is "Don't do stupid things of no possible value to the electorate." Just observe how easy this is. I look at the plan to have a gas tax holiday. I note that it is a stupid thing of no possible value to the electorate. Then I do not support the plan to have a gas tax holiday.

To be sure, having blogged for years, I have some experience in these matters. But I do not want you to think that this can only be done by a few lucky souls whom nature has prepared through extraordinary natural talent, fortunate circumstances, and herculean training. Anyone who is not severely cognitively disabled, functionally illiterate, or named Lou Dobbs, can perform this feat in the privacy of their own living room. You do not even need expensive, specialized equipment. In fact, I will let you in on the secret right now.

And enough of the dreary science. Continuing with the daily Proverb, Proverbs 1:7 (I accidentally orphaned 1:6.. look it up yourself if you care)

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Which reminds me of something else I had clipped, from One Cosmos

The truth is, truth is a kind of violence, in that it necessarily severs one thing from another, just like a surgical procedure, i.e., good from bad, true from false, and beautiful from ugly. This is why "the truth hurts," or at least why it hurts some people sometimes.

But I am human. I am often foolish. But I keep trying.

Seek Wisdom?

I took my first negatives from the view camera into Metairie on Feb 19, and decided to visit with Marianne as I was in the city. So, I took the view camera out of the park while we were at Audubon park and I took a photo of her. Using my digital as a light meter required some of the easy "snap snap snap" sort of photography I'm so spoiled by. When I got the film back I realized the film was loaded backward, so probably this one of Marianne is also a big orange mess. And I've still not taken out the view camera and figured out how to used the metering to get decent exposure settings. So here's the digital anyway.



A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels: Proverbs 1:5-6

Everytime I decide it's time to humor Beth and quit blogging politics someone will say something nice about what I do. This is about a week old, but I find the supreme court a polarizing and fascinating institution. Scalia is a supreme court judge, appointed by Reagan who makes the liberals spit nails. I'm not sure I can buy 'originalism', but my bona fides as a legal scholar are, well I'll look around this house and tell you if they turn up somewhere. Tis a video clip from a TV news magazine. 20/20 or some such. Been too long since I looked at this to recall. It does run about 15 minutes or so.

Another big time eater would be to read the entire series of blogs from ShrinkWrapped on the Arab mind. They're each short, but there are about nine of them now. The link to the first of them is here.

After the 1967 and 1973 Arab-Israel Wars, I believed that the Arabs were "just like us" and that through dialog of equals and some give and take, peace would come. My knowledge of Arab culture and character was gleaned primarily from Television news and newspaper; it did not occur to me for many years that the depictions of the Arab that was all I was privy to were superficial and distorted by blindness and deception

This link was a fairly long read as I recall, but fascinating thoughts on the "Are we alone?" question. Why haven't we heard from other intelligent life? Could we actually be alone? What would that mean?

And I guess I can't help myself. Two views of the Clinton candidacy, both from liberalish views. The first is a firm "Hillary must drop out." The other a "Go, girl go." Hillary is indeed a fighter. But even if she is channelling her inner Republican, I still don't think I want her and the hubby anywhere near the White House. However with the Republicans running from Bush as hard as they can, we'll probably have a Democcrat in the White House. Better Hillary than Obama. Best yet, let's have a brokered convention and have someone else come out of the smoke filled rooms.

Give Prudence to the Simple

One thing I hoped to achieve in blogging was a conversation with some of my friends and family. A hint of one going in the comments to yesterday's blog. I'll try to follow on the health insurance topic as well as foster care soon.

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Part of Marianne's moving routine was toting the treadmill up the stairs of her apartment. I remember Ina May had a similar story about the treadmill in the basement. I took care of Cameron and snapped photos.

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Yesterday I indulged my desire to gamble. I'm a bit compulsive when I find something that interests me. I act exactly as the rat hitting the button that sometimes rewards and sometimes doesn't. Hit, hit, hit. Bridge? I'm getting better. Casinos. I stay out! No need to go there and create a new demon to fight. So yesterday I cashed out of my "positions" in the stock market, scoring another nearly one per cent gain. That left my money available for today. I couldn't cash out today. And I won't be able to watch but a few minutes in the morning, as there is a bridge game. I hope to set a stop loss before I go, to at least limit the damage.

Dimitri Nobokov was on NPR talking about getting his father's last novel to the publisher as I drove home from delivering D-- G-- some milk. I'll take her to the doctor tomorrow to see the surgeon about putting in a port for dialysis. Her kidneys are failing. Nobokov's novel is about love, and death and suicide and such light little themes. I've never read Lolita and only small parts of Pale Fire, but his words are arresting.

In Laura, Nobokov uses a hopelessly fat lepidopterist with a hopelessly nymphomanic wife. The fictional husband is committing a reversible suicide one body part at a time. Nobokov is writing about losing toes and feet as his own feet are plagued with infections.

Daddy, as his memory was fading and the neural connections were flashing out played endless games of solitaire on the computer. It's a method of trying to cling to what control remains. I know because I just finished my Soduko puzzles. And I constantly monitor my feet; the sensation is ever receeding, and my mental acuity dying off. Life and death in a perpetual dance.

It's spring here, and the lizards are dying in droves in the French door. Mosquitoes are buzzing about my head, and the school yard announcements are audible from my back yard. And of course someone has said all this much much better. David Warren had not posted an essay online for so long I made free and wrote his email asking where he'd gone and put himself He last posted an essay on Easter. He's been on annual leave, and taking care of aging parents. He writes today on the precariousness of life.

I recommend pushing a stroke victim out in his wheelchair, under the spring sun amid birdsong -- and the laughter of children playing in a schoolyard -- after he has been shut in the whole winter. An old man who cannot talk, but does not need words to radiate his pleasure, in being still alive. An old man who suddenly defies his condition, to tell his crippled old wife, after sixty-something years through thick and thin together, that he still loves her.

And while we dance the dance of live and love and death, it's on our heads to responsibly know the enemy and fight the good fight as it is necessary. There is an essay on one of my favorite heros, a man of action and words, one of the greats of last century. The Claremont Review, on Churchill. Churchill wrote his mother after being captured in the armored train in the Boer War

"Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result."

The only time I faced a loaded gun, even with no shooting, I don't remember exhilaration at all. I'm a coward. Please God, give me strength!

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Proverbs 1:1-4
The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel;
To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;
To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;
To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.

and an alternate translation of the last is
"To receive instruction in wise dealing, In righteousness and justice and equity;"
"To give prudence to the simple, To the young man knowledge and discretion."

Taxed

When I was in Tulsa, I became aware that my brother, Dana is or was in the midst of fighting property tax valuations. When I saw the article in the WSJ on property tax revolt I thought of him.

...at the very time that states and cities are begging for money from Washington to help distressed homeowners pay their mortgages, property tax hikes could push hundreds of thousands of homeowners under water.

At least property taxes are local. After the fun fulminations of April 15, which are sinking into the back ground, I did want to send the link to Blogodidact's piece, "mugged by a Statist." So as I went back to read it, the first link in it happens to be to a tract I'm reading this evening on Income Tax, the Root of all Evil. It's a 90 page pdf (or adobe reader) file, and I've only gotten through p. 22. The gist of the thing is that

...The Constitution, then, kept the federal government off balance and weak. And a weak government is the corollary of a strong people.

The Sixteenth Amendment changed all that. In the first place, by enabling the federal government to put its hands into the pockets and pay envelopes of the people, it drew their allegiance away from their local governments. It made them citizens of the United States rather than of their respective states. Theft loyalty followed theft money, which was now taken from them not by their local representatives, over whom they had some control, but by the representatives of the other forty-seven states. They became subject to the will of the central government, and their state of subjection was emphasized by every increase in the income-tax levies.

The state governments likewise lost more and more of their autonomy. Not only was their source of revenue being dried up by federal preemption, so that they had less and less for the social services a government should provide, but they were compelled in their extremity to apply to the central authorities for help. In so doing they necessarily gave up some of their independence.

Why do we accept this hand in our pockets? It never backs off and says, thanks, have enough this year, so we'll collect less. In my work as a teacher I was paid by local taxes, Robert, my brother in Civil Service is paid in your income taxes. And he's spending great sums of that tax money letting government contracts. Mother is living off her retirement income from Dow Chemical as well as Social Security and personal savings. So of my four immediate relatives, one is creating wealth, producting product. He's supporting the rest of us! Thanks Dana. Now for the part of my children, they are much less government dependent.

BUT... the parents of my grandchildren are afraid to marry because they'd have to give up the State sponsored health insurance for the kids. And frankly, I'd like to see the costs of bringing little Cameron Oliver to be the pesty, testy two year old he is. He's most likely a million dollar baby.

We've sold off a great deal of our sense of independence and responsibility in these interactions.

I've finally gotten to pictures from February. Only three months behind. This is the balcony of Marianne's new apartment on moving in day. She's getting the apartment really set up nicely. But the balcony is still not used to best advantage.

The world continues to turn

First a bit of home stuff. Tara just called asking me to take care of Cameron yet again tomorrow. I caved, but hopefully I put up enough resistance to cut down on these requests. No, I don't guess anything short of a flat, "no" will do the job there. The news in her life is that she finally got the letter from LSU. She thought when she received it that it was "no." But she was told essentially that she's not got a spot in next year's class, but she's still in the pool. I think the spots have all been offered, but they will keep her app against the possibility that some students don't accept the places. The official "wait list" is made sometime in May. I think in a couple of weeks.

And speaking of Tara, I took a photo of some of the Redman women at the Mardi Gras parade...the one whose photos I'm finally getting to. Tara hates any photo that I take of her. This was a gem. I was standing in the bright sunlight taking a photo, and my shadow is all over the subject of the photo. It's really poorly executed, but I did what I could quickly. They weren't going to stick around for a lot of futzing. Photoshop to the rescue somewhat. I did improve it. However I had a ghastly two color effect on Tara's face. So I tried painting over, and smudging and such. Grimmer and grimmer. Sorry Tara...




Marianne and Barry came over to join us for a "soup kitchen meal." The local soup kitchen needed to raise money for expenses, so they sold fried fish plates for $7 Saturday. I invited all the kids over so we bought 7 plates. I must say that food kitchen food is not fine dining. Very heavy, starchy, lots of calories. This could easily serve for a homeless persons food intake for a day and they'd not keel over. But....suffice it to say that if I was having any luck with dieting last week that meal shot it down with a thud. A blessing.. my biggest problem is controlling the intake!

Today's blog intro is a rather new one on my list of daily reads. Tigerhawk usually has some interesting comments and links. Earlier in the week, he linked Bob Hebert on the problem of the democratic party. Obama's been badly nicked with Wright, Ayers and other self-inflicted wounds. Billary has lined up the vultures just in case a carcass becomes available. Hebert:

One of the problems is that anger is growing like a cancer among Democrats. The Clintons have more than lived up to their polarizing reputations, slicing and dicing the electorate and then gleefully exploiting the myriad divisions.

The straight ahead, dead on analysis comes from the Brits. Gerard Baker from the Times Online, says

How do they do it? How do the Democrats manage to squander repeatedly and with such ease the chance of a lifetime? What inverse alchemy have they created that turns the gold bullion of electoral opportunity into the base metal of political oblivion?...

There's a popular view among Democrats and the media establishment that the reason for the party's current disarray is that it just happens to have two most extraordinary candidates: talented, attractive, and in their gender and race, excitingly new. But there's an alternative explanation, which I suspect the voters have grasped rather better than their necromancers in the media. Both are losers.

The longer the Democratic race goes on, the more obvious it appears that each is deeply, perhaps ineradicably flawed.

I'm worse than an ex smoker batting smoke from my nose. As an ex Dem, I couldn't be happier...why fight them when they're busy committing suicide?

Meanwhile in the world at large there's still a war going on. Again from Tigerhawk, a report of South Lebanon emptied of fighting men, all off training in Syria and Iran for the next big show down with Isreal. And Iran is hold British soldiers hostage.

When the war comes, four things will be certain. First, that Hezbollah fighters will not wear uniforms. Second, that they will camouflage themselves among non-combatants, and fire from positions using non-combatants as shields. Third, that the world's media, NGOs, and chattering classes, with few exceptions, will blame Israel for any non-combatants who die. Finally, many more people will blame the United States for that war than blame Iran.

Suppose for a moment that these two stories are true. Under any reasonable conception of law or morality, both the United Kingdom and Israel would be justified in going to war with Iran now. That is not to say that it would be wise to do so, but is there any reasonable argument that either country does not have casus belli?

It's a crazy world. If Isreal is forced to go after Lebanon again, which of these sterling candidates from the left side of politics do you want as commander in chief? They both scare me. Hillary's ahead by a whisker there, but only a whisker.