Against the Wind

This Dutch public service announcement is supposedly banned.

The Christian Science Monitor has a report on the happenings in Honduras which comport with what bits of information I’ve seen that seem consistent. The opening is quoted. Read the article.

Tegucigalpa, Honduras - Sometimes, the whole world prefers a lie to the truth. The White House, the United Nations, the Organization of American States, and much of the media have condemned the ouster of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya this past weekend as a coup d’état.

That is nonsense.

In fact, what happened here is nothing short of the triumph of the rule of law.

When I first heard of the “coup” I thought, “Oh My, the military is imposing its will again on the people of Honduras.” But counter to what was the pattern 30 years ago, it looks like this is something else.

What is truly disheartening is that our president who took his jolly sweet time to realize something important was going on in Iran, not wanting to interfer with the despots in charge, here, he is in a mighty big hurry to reinstate a despot wannabe that the military has ridden out of town so the rule of law can be reign. He and Chavez want to aid Mel Zelaya in his tinpot thuggery. I hope the people of Honduras can withstand the pressure from El Norte, the OAS and the UN.

I took photos of the wall art in the park that I walk a couple days a week a month ago. I won’t claim this is great art, but it’s very time appropriate.

I never see pictures of the statue of liberty but what I’m reminded of the comment of a student of mine. The first day of school she had all her folders and notebooks ready to go, and on her math folder was a nice picture of the Statue of Liberty. I admired it and her response was, “yes, I like to have pictures of the saints while I’m in school.” Well maybe in her simplicity, she was quite profound? Lady Liberty is a bit of a patron Saint of the USA. A secular saint as it were. May we cherish our liberty and the responsibility it implies. Liberty must be defended to pass on the generations to come. Freedom of speech, Freedom of Press, Freedom of Association, and Freedom to practice religion as you choose. These are great gifts and easily abridged. Care for them.

Marianne and I cooked up some strawberries. Used some of the sugar free preserves in a strawberry chocolate cheesecake I took to bridge today. It was good enough they couldn’t believe I made it instead of bought it.

The photo, however is out of focus, the white balance is wrong and it’s over exposed. Other than that it’s a great photo. In truth I’m finding that much as I like architecture and landscapes, people react more to pictures that include people. I don’t have any famous folk on offer, but here we are.

Now a couple political links… it is my blog after all.

The Ricci case was momentous. The bad news is that it was decided 5 - 4. It’s a reverse racism case that needs to have several follow-ons to make the point completely clear. “The Seamy Side of Racial Politics.”

The Supreme Court’s decision in Ricci v. DeStefano, the case of the New Haven firefighters, was a ringing endorsement of the Civil Rights Act of 1964’s ban on racial discrimination and a repudiation of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s decision in the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. While five justices flatly rejected Sotomayor’s ruling, even the four dissenters wouldn’t have let stand her ruling allowing the results of a promotion exam to be set aside because no black firefighter had a top score.

Ricci is also something else: a riveting lesson in political sociology, thanks to the concurring opinion by Justice Samuel Alito. It shows how a combination of vote-hungry politicians and local political agitators…employ racial quotas and preferences in defiance of the words of the Civil Rights Act.

As they say, read the whole thing at RealClearPolitics.

The second is about government. Watch their feet. Follow the money. In California without a budget, who gets paid and who gets IOUS?

Want to know who goverment is run for? Look at who gets paid in cash and who gets the IOUs from California.

Ok… came in 3rd in bridge today. We had a good time but not a great game. Our opponents bid 7H against us. Quite a hand!

Now I’ve got to get the house slicked up a bit for Quilt Bee here tonight. Need to get the desert done.

Marianne swore me to secrecy until she had a chance to show her father her diamond ring, but she and Barry are on the airplane now, so I don’t think Carlo will have his surprise spoiled here. It’s official. Marianne is engaged. That’s the beauty on the left here. I’m half done with marrying off three daughters. I don’t think I could have survived five of them! (Reference to the description of Mrs. Bennett at the beginning of Pride and Prejudice.)

I have so many interesting clips, some about Honduras. I do have more insight though ancient to that locale. More later.

This is an old story of an old song. I suggest you read the link to the background story first.

For more than 45 years, the approach of July 31 has caused me nightmares of jungle combat, a queasy stomach, and a drifting away of my concentration . . . to a dank little island in the South Pacific.

But their deeds can never be silenced.

Do yourself a favor and read the whole thing.

Then take a listen to the song sung a capella from you tube. Sorry I couldn’t find how to embed this one.

I suppose it’s possible to be cynical in the face of such heroism, but I cannot but cry, glad of such men, such deeds. Merely human, but rising to the full dignity of our possibilities. People are capable of such meanness of spirit, and such grandeur. Please, God, let me aim to be my best in what little things I do.

Michael Jackson. Oxycontin. Discussion question for libertarians: assume we all agree that drugs should be legal. Is a doctor who enables an addicted patient to take fatal doses a good doctor, or should he be liable for malpractice? Discussion question for non-libertarians: how, pray tell, is this an argument in support of our current draconian drug laws?

I’m off with the grand boys and will think about these later. They are interesting questions. Linda seemed a bit surprised I didn’t respond to the MJ demise. What’s to say when the world’s most talented pedophile dies? I was reading blogs on Big Hollywood about military heros that day so I happily missed most of the hullabaloo. As for his dying broke… he had assets and business acumen it seems. But he had a retinue of hangers on that blew threw money faster than he was generating it. Tough cookies, unless he owes you. Then really tough cookies. And what were you doing business with a known pedophile for anyway?

Ok, Ok, I know you’re dying to know what I’ve done in the way of interesting reading, and you truly are jonesing for a photo of the day. Maybe not, but “whatever.”

Yesterday I was ready to get a decision made about the next bit of round robin and start cutting fabric. Need to measure this piece so I can get the planning done in more specific terms than up to this point. I bought a replacement for my 120 inch tape measure after Cameron misplaced mine. Then I found the old one. Now I have two. I cleaned house the other day and thought as I put them away, I need to remember where these are. Now they’re both missing. I have a place where they should be. I guess I forgot where I think they belong when I put them both “away.” Today, I likely will be come the owner of a third 120 in. tape measure.

Meanwhile I put together another block from last year’s shop hop at the Houston festival. Oddest colors ever. But I’m kinda of liking them. I’ll aim to do another today.

Since I’m about as interested in getting something written as I am in mowing the yard, I have no clue why this grabbed me. A novel is not my aim in any case. But here’s why first time novelists aren’t the young things you might want to see on the dust jacket. “Why New Novelists are kinda Old.” Good writing, and a topic I found interesting.

…you know what? Writing sixty to one hundred thousand words of fiction is not something most people cannonball through, even if they assure you, with the appropriate amount of false modesty, that they’re really better at long-form fiction. Maybe they are, but they still had a long walk to get there. I’m better at long-form and it took me until I was 28 before I could do it. Meanwhile I’d been writing short for years up to that point, in the form of reviews and columns and humor pieces and (yes) occasional attempts at short fiction that I mostly abandoned after a page or two.

Now there’s some political humor that likely has gone viral. I didn’t find the embeddable on YouTube, but Jib Jab’s whack at Obama is here. Seems like it ought to be at least mildly funny even to the liberal types. I’m going to try henceforth to keep my political commentary at least on the humorous side. Here to save the day

The other day, I said I’d gotten links from Cousin Jim to some of his first photos. I personally loved a picture from Tulsa of the Philtower lit up and reflecting in a more modern glass monstrosity at night. It was some excellent night photography. But is will be recognizable to most.
Jim’s photo of Paris. My thought is that he needs to set up a place where he can sell 8 x 10 prints of that. I’d buy one of that and another of the Philtower photo.

And finally, from Wretchard, some of his excellent “overview” sort of writing. This guy sees the world…well his experiences are unique and he writes and puts together ideas in whys that astound me. The Molten Calf

The ability to recognize the face of tyranny is a fragile skill which cannot really be passed on, except as a critical attitude. As the twentieth century recedes into the past, a kind of antiquity has descended over the prophets of the past, who speak to us now only through old, cloth-covered books from second-hand bookshops or lying in corners at garage sales or lending libraries. Even 1984 is set in a time so long ago that it can only be portrayed in film as steampunk. We can no longer imagine “a boot in a human face forever” in a world where the Croc sandal may be the preferred footwear of militants. ‘A Croc sandal stamping on a human face forever?’ Who could credit such a tyranny, even if it were true? But the face of evil ever renews itself.

Lagniappe! It’s a two photo day. This from May 20 on the bridge over Bayou Lacombe. Three generations. I am such a beauty…. why did my modeling career never take off?

Yesterday I was rueing the state of my computational equipment… now I can post a photo.

Tara and Marianne got a bee in their bonnet about a month ago to take a long bike ride.  They rode about 15 miles… and well I did too, only I went half way with them and turned around and took the pickup to the end of their ride and picked them up.   My turn around point was Bayou Lacombe on the Tammany Trace.  The rebuilt railroad bridge over the bayou provides some jigsaw sorts of photos ready to roll.

From the bridge

I took several photos there, so more to come. The group shot was out of focus.. what’s up with that! My very expensive point and shoot didn’t function correctly?? I probably had it on manual focus from doing something else.

So bathwater awaits, and there’s a day to get into.

I went about setting everything out to reinstall windows on Marianne’s old computer, and discovered that I wasn’t sure the set of “numbers” I have are the product key for the operating system on my older Dell.   She long ago disposed of her installation disks.  So when I wasn’t sure I’d get past the product key business, I tryed a system restore.  The machine just balks.  An hour or two later I shut it down.

Computer repairman I am not.  But I’m sure enjoying the monitor.  Tomorrow is a bridge day so I won’t be thinking quilting or writing or anything else.

Two beautiful things hit my day today.   The Round Robin was in my mailbox.  I’ve fired up Electric Quilt and done some desiging.  Nothing’s grabbed me as the real deal.  What I wanted to do didn’t look right.  So I’ve been experimenting.  The other item of beauty came from Cousin Jim sending some of his favorite photos from the ones he’s taken with his new camera.  WOW!  I meant to ask if I could link to my favorite of the lot.  He’s really put some time and effort into some great photos.  I’d pay for them.

My friend Pete encouraged me to buy an internal disk drive, but I haven’t looked to install that yet because I wasn’t sure which computer I’d be using.  Now looks like I need to see if this old dusty case can accomdate another drive.  It’s been a while since I played amateur hardware repairman.

I feel like Mother, when she’d just give up and go spend a bunch of money on a new computer.  Sara suggested taking the puter to the electronics classes at school… wouldn’t be quick but probably a whole lot easier to repair than me trying to figure it out.

Sleeping on it seems right at this point.   No photo because the computer isn ‘t seeing the chip reader now.  Better day tomorrow.

Well flit!

Marianne decided since she has a brand spanking new laptop, she didn’t need her desktop computer, so she passed it on to me.  That’s grand and it’s easier to set up a lot of things than it used to be, BUT….

Sara I’ll send you a photo when I get email set up.  If I do.   Bellsouth insists I use Outlook or spend $99 for tech support.    I don’t think so!

So I went back, hooked up the old computer, copied down all the account settings and tried to fire it up again.  No luck.  And of course I need to print out all the pass words I’m missing… I may go back and totally clean this disk drive, and reinstall windows, but it was looking hopeful I wouldn’t have to go that route.

And much as I whine, I do have my old computer and it works.  So I can just fire it up, and probably will in the morning.  I spent a long while making a backup copy of my C drive a little while back, but it seems program files were not copied.

Ok, more than enough whining.  Of to bed.  Tomorrow I continue the fight.