Against the Wind

Proverbs 3:16 - 18 Blessings of Wisdom

Length of days is in her right hand,
In her left hand riches and honor.
Her ways are ways of pleasantness,
And all her paths are peace.
She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her,
And happy are all who retain her.

Yes Gail, It’s still from Easter. I’ll eventually get past Easter. I’ve started taking photos in slugs, and not many in between camera occasions.

The boys love their Uncle Justin. I think I understand! He does play and show them a good time.

There’s the seed of an essay taking shape in my head, which I need to write. I have to submit something to my writers’ group and this is what is developing. Slowly. Very slowly.

I’ve blogged before about the Mohamed Al Durah affair, and it was a snoozer to say the least. But there’s been some additional publication on the evolution and so I wanted to rewrite, and try to bring it up to date. Unfortunately, I can’t find where I blogged on it. Tags are supposed to help with this. So I was thinking that an essay would have this outline,

First there is the chronology of events. October 30, an iconic image was taken, film released by France 2, and Charles Enderline, the journalist, and transmitted around the world, blaming Israel for the boy’s, Mohamed al Durah’s, death. The following excerpts are from that long chronology.

Mohammed becomes the motivating theme in the second intifada with photos and poems in his memory.

The iconic image

October 23, 2000

Physicist Nahum Shahaf and engineer Yosef Doriel lead a re-enactment of the scene under the auspices of Yom Tov Samia. The analysis raises serious doubts about Israel’s culpability. Doriel’s report can be seen here.

December 2000

David Kupelian, managing editor of World Net Daily, publishes his exposé, ‘Who Killed Mohammed al-Dura?’ in which he posits that the boy was killed by his own people for purposes of propaganda.

Now the seeds of doubt are sewn. There is no doubt there is injustice in Palestine. But the Palestinians do themselves no favors when the levels of depravity seem to find no depths, and truth is a necessary casualty to the cause.

July 15, 2002

Amnon Lord, Israeli journalist and author publishes ‘Who killed Mohamed al-Dura? Blood Libel—Model 2000’ , arguing that indeed the event was staged.

Now there is a “counter narrative” to the murder by the Isreali Defense Forces.

The law suit:
(2004) Karsenty publishes on his web site, a media watchdog in France, calling for Enderline to resign from France2 for publishing the film, and never coming clean or apologizing for the distortions.

France2 sues Karsenty for defamation.

Karsenty loses in court.

September 15, 2005

Richard Landes, history professor at Boston University, launches his DVD , Pallywood, on the Second Draft website. He argues that al-Durah is merely the most famous instance of a larger practice of staging news events among Palestinians.

May 21, 2008, the appeal was decided. Contrary to the first trial, the film that was not used was examined. Karsenty was vindicated on appeal.

In the last few days, there have been other rumblings. In an article dated July 7, 2008 (ok, that’s a bit more than a week away) a French journalist ran down a good many of her friends over the years who have signed a petition in support of Enderline.

To understand the al-Dura affair, it helps to keep one thing in mind: In France, you can’t own up to a mistake. This is a country where the law of the Circus Maximus still applies: Vae victis, Woe to the vanquished. Slip, and it’s thumbs-down. Not for nothing was Brennus a Gaul. His modern French heirs don’t do apologies well, or at all if they can possibly help it. Why should they? That would be an admission of weakness. Blink, and you become the fall guy.

Meanwhile a blogging psychologist, Shrink Wrapped, that I look at now and again wonders why Isreal is so silent. Why are they making no noise in their own defense in all this. It’s a very interesting study of some of the psycho-dynamics of this whole affair.

How else do you explain so much self-hatred, and lack of tolerance even for Israel’s mistakes in war?

Guilt is a central motivator for Jews and Christians, in marked contrast to Honor-Shame cultures where all behavior is acceptable as long as it is not exposed to a critical observer. Those of us raised in a Judeo-Christian culture would never condone the kinds of “news” creation and manipulation that is normal procedure for Palestinians or the Iraqi insurgents. (Those who cannot imagine that our enemies would manufacture and manipulate the news in such a manner are guilty of the narcissistic crime of imagining that others’ minds are organized the same way theirs is.) It is guilt that supports a too diffident reaction to accusations of child murder (Al-Dura) or war crimes (Haditha). Guilt is the feeling one has when one falls short of one’s ideals. When a child dies or innocents lose their lives during the course of a battle, our immediate impulse is to examine our own behavior and look for the flaws within us that have led to the tragedy. Our enemies do not have such limitations; in fact, the Palestinians and our enemies in Iraq revel in the atrocities they commit.

But, this is an insufficient explanation for a complicated set of behaviors and all human behavior is multiply determined.

For the Jew, normal guilt is often exacerbated by the survivor’s guilt felt by those only two or three generations removed from the Holocaust.

As well, many Jews have unconsciously adopted the anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, anti-Semitic attitudes that are prevalent on the left. These attitudes among Jews arise from a mix of defensive “identification with the aggressor” and conscious and unconscious self-hatred.

The truth is getting it’s shoes on. The lies have traveled around the world many times.

I guess I’ve got the bones of an essay. Now I only need to write it. Thanks for reading this far!

It’s another blog of daily doings. When I try to make myself conform to essay type writing, I just talk myself out of writing at all. Mostly I have nothing “thesisable” to say. I continue living, trying to live as immediately in the present as I can, making as few demands on God as I can, and remembering to be grateful for the many blessings of the day.

First of all, let me clear up the implied credit for the birdie photo. It arrived unattributed in an email, with the subject line, “How to tell if you’re Mom’s Favorite.” Betsi sent it and I loved it. Pete left me a ledge with bird seed which the birds have not yet found but near a window ready for photography. I’m hopefull. But if I ever get a photo anything like that one posted I’ll be shouting from rooftops.

As for staying in the present, I heard Fresh Air on Wednesday, with an interview with Jill Bolte Taylor, recounting some of the effects of her stroke 12 years ago. She has a you tube video on the experience that I’ve linked previously, but heard no responses, so don’t know if anyone had time to follow the link. It’s a marvel. She’s now pitching the book she’s written. Her stroke essentially took out her right brain, and I find her description rivetting. She describes the euphoric experience as she was essentially dying of a stroke, but because of the location of the bleed she was suddenly almost totally left brained. If you have any time for good listening, do follow the link.

Another link recommendation is to David Warren’s essay on Mugabe. It’s a prayerful plea. And perhaps in the face of this evil all we have on offer is prayer. We being you and I here. There are people who could act, and be effective, but they choose not. I don’t believe David Warren has any essentially different information than any of the rest of us, but his response is at least better than mine has been to this point, which is essentially, “avert your eyes: this is upsetting and there’s nothing you’re going to do to help.”

So, these home topics and a photo. I’d appreciate any comments wrt the photo. I’ve photoshopped a good photo. Feed back and suggestions are solicited. Easter at Darryl’s parents house included a set up of the badminton equipment. Darryl squashed Tara, and was having fun doing it, as you can see. Probably more photos to follow. It was a beautiful spring day, and I do have some good photos from the time there.

Yesterday was all too serious…but I do need to keep working on the five paragraph essay, and trying to force some form on my writing. Stream of consciousness is fine if you’re James Joyce or something. I’m not!

But for today, just a photo. The caption is

“Mother always liked you best!”

Have my round robin finished and photographed. I’ll have it in the mail later in the week. Today I actually worked on another project!

Tonight might be a good night to start with a photo. Every Spring this local weed drapes itself kudzu style over the greenery and provides the bridal veil for the marriage of the wood nymphs. There’s a patch of this stuff over by highway 11 near my house, but I’ve never been satisfied with my photos. So Easter, Chuck and Veda invited me to their house, and there was my unidentified bridal beauty.

Tomorrow is writer’s group, so I decided to try to write an essay in the simple five paragraph form they teach in school. This is my effort for the evening.

Truth? You can’t stand the truth!

If, after being born a human being, one gives no heed to the Holy Doctrine, one resembleth a man who returneth empty-handed from a land rich in precious gems; and this is a grievous failure. –Gampopa

Happy is the man who finds wisdom,
And the man who gains understanding;
For her proceeds are better than the profits of silver,
And her gain than fine gold.
She is more precious than rubies,
And all the things you may desire cannot compare with her.

Proverbs 3:13-15

Today, I can easily pull up some of the Proverbs of Solomon, or meditate on the Vedas. This may not be a preocupation of the many of my acquaintance. Such an interest, a quest for the higher truth is truly counter-culture. A tragedy of our modern world is that we have much wisdom at our fingertips, and we trample it like the proverbial pearls before swine.

The love of wisdom, philosophy, has gone from the university. Until recently, philosophy in the academy in America was dominated by one Richard Rorty.

One of the most beguiling and influential American practitioners was Richard Rorty, who until his death in June of 2007 was probably the most influential American academic philosopher of his generation. Once upon a time, Rorty was a serious analytic philosopher. Since the late 1970s, however, he increasingly busied himself explaining why philosophy must jettison its concern with outmoded things like truth and human nature. According to him, philosophy should turn itself into a form of literature or—as he sometimes put it—“fantasizing.” He was set on “blurring the literature-philosophy distinction and promoting the idea of a seamless, undifferentiated ‘general text, ’”

This is the sort of thinking that is published, celebrated, and honored.

Moral relativism is so entrenched in our thinking that to suggest that there might in fact be Truth, is to face guffaws of derision. I’m not sure it’s properly called “humanism” but the belief that we each create our own truths is pretty pervasive. There is plenty of discussion of the nature of debate on the internet, where ad hominem attacks quite often substitute for taking up an issue. You say something I don’t feel is right, well, my truth is just as good as yours so STFU. If there is no agreement as what constitutes the higher value, there really can be no discussion.

As we’ve abandoned truth, we’ve taken up various “ism’s”, substitutes for seeking truth. There’s humanism, consumerism, scientism, Darwinism, communism, environmentalism, ad nauseum, all seeking to distract us with their version of what is the most important truth, the higher principle from which all else can be measured or derived or denied.

A world so unhitched from an interest in searching out higher truth is a world deprived of the divine, frankly stuck on stupid.

My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD, neither be weary of His correction;
for whom the LORD loveth, He correcteth, even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.
Proverbs 3:11-12

Ok, it’s something less than a clamor… you know one person asks what’s up, why no blog. But I miss it. Blogging is like that. Is this like school where I need something of an excuse? Maybe in my own eyes I do.

Life sort of overcame me there for a bit. A friend and bridge partner had enough serious health issues that she sorta misplaced her marbles, and hasn’t been able to locate them all yet. Additionally, in this modern world, her children are all thither and gone, so it’s fallen to me, and willingly, to help her with errands and doctor’s visits and so on while she still was functioning. Then she called one day and said, “D-, I’m in bad shape, what can you do for me?” Turned out, she was not interested in going to the emergency room, but she gave me a name of her kidney doctor. She wanted to go do some lab work when I told her the appointment was at 2:45. So we trundled off to do lab work, and at this point I realized how confused she had become. The doctor also recognized that there was a problem and admitted her directly to the hospital.

One of her children had been home with her a day before she got so sick, plans were underway to move her to Iowa to be close to her daughter, but as of now, she’s in the neurological rehab. She’s located a few of her marbles, two of her children have been through and started working on getting her house closed down and the moving done that needs doing. This has all been ongoing through the last month.

Oddly, D- seems to have gone a route similar to that my father took. As she was more confused, she gave up more and more control, and seems in some ways much more easy going than she was. Maybe a keen intellect is a mixed blessing?

None of this took terribly much of my time and effort, but it surely has weighted on my aging heart. D- has means to cover all the medical expense. My main resource and recourse will be my children as I go aged and decrepit. Frankly looking those facts square in the face rather scares me.

But one day at a time, one foot in front of the other. I continue to walk several mornings a week, and do what I can. Thursday after the bridge game, P- arrived for his twice a year pass through between Houston and Nova Scotia. Funny the extent that getting out of the habit of preparing meals and having people around full time makes for some serious adjusting when you have company. He left this morning, and the house feels empty, and now the solitude seems strange.

Through this last week, I’ve clipped a lot of interesting links, and followed some stories, but they’re all old news by now. I’ll stick with the old photos and not even bother with any links to news and articles I think are worth reading, though not necessarily at everyone’s fingertips.

After Carolyn’s reenactment of wedding vows, the band set up and an evening of dancing and music was enjoyed by all. Or most. I left soon after the band got going! They played some nice music, but dancing alone never did appeal to me.

Proverbs 3: 9-10

Honour the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops;
then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.

That’s in the UK version of the “international version” of the text. The Revised Standard Version that I grew up with and is still in the pews at the Presbyterian church is one that isn’t in the dropdown list at Bible Gateway where I clip the passages I include in the blogs.

I’m not up to biblical commentary, but lack of competence has never stopped me before. It seems a bit of an overpromise that by honoring God with the first and best of our labors the rest will take care of itself. On the otherhand, that does in fact seem to be the way things play out on the ground. My originaly thought was that wealth is mighty easy by this Proverb. But as I rephrase it, first of all it’s not so easy. Giving the first of everything to the Lord’s honor isn’t an easy practice. I can’t say I’ve ever done anything like that, but I do notice that when I think of honoring God with the “firstfruits”, the focus of the day is shifted, and the rest does indeed seem to fall into place on its own.

Today, I’ve been on a righteousness mission. I’ve been here for various and sundry, and I don’t believe that until I’m blogging at 5 in the evening, I’m thinking about honoring the Lord.

I have about an hour left of the day that I can do whatever I want. I want to get a blog done with a complete three paragraph essay with a clear thesis and lots of supporting detail. I want to finish putting the bits that I’ve pieced onto the round robin quilt top, and somehow an hour is not enough to do both.

Since I don’t have the thesis yet for this great essay project, maybe I should have dived into the sewing. But Linda wrote today and said she really loves the Proverbs. So do I. She’s in a bit of a decline, tired of fighting type II diabetes after twenty years, so she kinda threw in the towel. Sadly the enemy doesn’t say “game over” and leave you alone when you quit fighting. But no worthy opponent would. As for me, all I want is a little (or maybe endless) attention or encouragement, and I’ll try to make or do what gets me that. So Linda likes Proverbs, Linda gets Proverbs.

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Clifton makes a good point today.

R. Kelly was just found not guilty today on all counts of child pornography. Apparently that wasn’t him on the tape that millions of people watched all across the country.

Do you know what this means?

There is a tall rich black man who looks like R. Kelly with enough money to have a big ass house and a studio running around making sex tapes with unidentified teenage girls. Since it wasn’t R. Kelly the real pervert is still out walking the streets.

And on a related note, I heard on NPR as I drove home from the quilt shop that a jury was dismissed on a case that took more than a year and a zillion dollars of tax money because they were busy doing Sudoku puzzles in the jury box.

Several questions there. Why the hell does anyone think that a “jury of their peers” is willing to spend more than a year listening to lawyers and experts prattle on? Why couldn’t any case have been wrapped up in a mere month or so? The judge needs to rethink allowing all that blathering. And secondly, why did it take more than a year to figure out they’d quit paying attention in the jury box? Any teacher could have told you whether they were mentally present or not. Someone was angling for a mistrial by dragging out the proceedings. AND who serves on a jury that takes a year? Who can afford to give up a year of productivity for a court case. I’ll tell you who. A few retirees and people who are living on the dole anyway, so they are getting non TV entertainment at the expense of our judicial system. Anyway, the NPR types were busy trying to make the jurors look like idiots. I’m not sure there isn’t blame there, but they don’t run the show. They just voted with their pencils, saying, “This is taking too long and it’s become boring.” Lawyers enjoy putting on their court clothes and posturing. Jurors, other than grand jurors who actually can ask questions and participate, the jurors are just props for the system. Why couldn’t someone have put an end to the puzzle games before it became several jurors over an extended period of time.

Photo of the Day

And more photos from the 25th Wedding anniversary. These poses are nice of Michael and his Brothers and his father.

Time to get moving toward the evening’s engagement. No three paragraph essay today. Don’t hold your breath for tomorrow either!

Proverbs 3: 5-8

Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
Be not wise in your own eyes;
fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.
It will be healing to your flesh*
and refreshment** to your bones.

* (Hebrew) Navel!
** or medicine

Gagdad Bob this morning said the following.

I don’t think I could ever be an Orthodox Jew, partly because I think you need to be immersed in the culture and exposed to it from an early age by people who experience and convey the joy of it. But the whole point of all the laws and rituals is just this: to try to look at virtually everything “from the divine angle.” It is a kind of karma yoga that involves the constant recollection of God in most every activity. Thus, it shouldn’t feel burdensome, but liberating; far from being restrictive, it should open one out to a much “deeper” or “higher” space. But if the living spirit is lost and only the letter remains, one can well understand how it could become about as joyful as Michelle Obama.

Another quote of his reminds me of nothing so much as the law of unintended consequences.

That’s a liberal for you. Always speaking naked power to Truth and comforting or patronizing lies to the powerless. Or, you could say that liberalism is a systematic way to convert good impulses into bad ones through a defective ideology — in particular, compassion into cruelty. It is the mirror image of the free market, which converts supposedly “bad” impulses into mutually beneficial outcomes. For example, when I check my email in the morning, I see that there are dozens of people from all over the world who care deeply about my, er, sexual functioning. Only in a market economy can greed be converted into worldwide concern with another man’s privates. It’s touching, really.

Money is the root of all evil, (or more precisely “love of money..”) But by having a currency readily traded for goods and services, we have an amazing economy. Take money out of the mix, and we’re back to the stone age practically. Suddenly at the ripe old age of nearly 60, I’m becoming increasingly interested in economics and finance. I always disdained money, thought it somehow dirty, unworthy. Now suddenly I’m realizing that money and finance, though they don’t change us as humans, they make a lot of what goes under the name of civilization possible. I don’t have to become acquisitive suddenly, and I haven’t. But I don’t believe there’s something unseemly about business, or profit. Just intriguing that my perspective has shifted.

Meanwhile back in Canada, in the thought crimes courst, David Warren continues to take up the pen against the suppression of expression.

The pen is reputed to be mightier than the sword — and probably is, over the longer stretches of history. Over the shorter stretches, the sword is definitive; or, as that great Leftist sage, Mao Tse-Tung, expressed it: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” With its monopoly on power, the State is equipped to suppress the truth.

And another video clip.. there are so many good ones. This one is hat tip Megan McArdle, and I include it because it’s cute, and the mathematician memorialized here is a name learned as one of the math gods. He invented one of the non-Euclidean geometries. Anyway, this is pure fun.

And the photo of the day is still from the re dedication. C– asked me to take some photos, so I did. Lots of them.

Proverbs 3:1-4

My son, do not forget my teaching,
but let your heart keep my commandments,
for length of days and years of life
and peace they will add to you.

Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you;
bind them around your neck;
write them on the tablet of your heart.
So you will find favor and good success
in the sight of God and man.

There’s nothing to scoff in a prescription for favor and success in the sight of God and man. I went to the Neurological Rehab, which is probably a glorified nursing home, again today. My friend D- G- somehow through the stress of moving to Iowa, getting her home sold, fighting congestive heart failure and kidney failure, somewhere in all that she parked her marbles somewhere and can’t seem to find them. A bit more than a week ago, she called and announced, “I’m in bad shape. What can you do for me?” And I’ve been doing ever since. We got her admitted to the hospital, and now she’s been moved to the Rehab. I went today to see if I could get her daughter’s phone number, but couldn’t find D-. So the quest to get an appointment to get her tooth in place before she leaves town continues. Two of her sons have been through town. I have no idea what they’re doing about moving her or her belongings. I think R-, who was here this last weekend was originally to effect the move to Iowa. D- is in no position to move at this time. I suspect if her blood chemistry can be stabilized and she can get home for a bit a good deal of the confusion would lift.

Trying to find D- today, the halls of Trinity were alive with wheel chairs, and two of them crying plaintively, “Can you help me? Can somebody help me?” But the place is clean, no urine smells. One inmate, who looks very familiar to me was parked at the front desk, and smiling beatifically. I can’t recall where I know her from, but I do know her.

I looked for D- in the activity room and in Physical Therapy. Dealing with all this has left me remembering the sadness as well as all the wear and tear on Mother while Daddy was in Manor Care in Tulsa. But as my father dropped his marbles, he also dropped the scowl that had followed him into his later years. D- doesn’t seem unhappy, though she doesn’t care a bit for her confusion.

These institutions serve a need, but that doesn’t make them fun at all. Maybe in the sense of fun of “fun house mirrors?” So doesn’t hurt to revisit Proverbs. “Let not steadfast love and faithfullness forsake you.” We are all formed as the image of God, and need to remember to be grateful for “the watch over us” as we watch for one another. Luckily I have time tend some to D-.

Ok, It’s nearly 3. Market closed, no transactions but I’m up $30 from the 100 that disappeared Friday. When you don’t buy or sell it’s all a fiction anyway. But slowly I’m learning some things about this game.

Daily Photo

I’ve archived my photos so I can go to the next memory chip. The photo of the day will come from my walking buddy C-’s reenactment of wedding vows. She and Michael threw a nice party to mark 25 years together. It was C-’s second marriage, and she married a man 15 years her junior. But it’s hard to say that the marriage hasn’t “taken.” She fusses at him as we walk, and I extend no sympathy. Loneliness is my main pain so someone else’s dirty socks don’t seem a big deal from my perspective.

M- waiting for C- while his niece from Baton Rouge sings. Her back up music didn’t go, but she sang like a bird unbothered. What a talent!

Link Fest

From the Daily Show, George Will handed the funny man his head, and at least was marked as a worthy adversary. I think the clip is worth watching.

Hat tip to Gates of Vienna

I also ran into an oldie but a goodie. The explanation (2003) of Jane’s Law. John Adam’s said, “the reason we have political parties is to organize our hatreds,” paraphrased from the clip above. Jane says “Being the party out of power makes sane men and women unhinged.” She’s onto something!

The longish link is from American Thinker. In an article titled “The Audacity of the Democrats” Rocco DiPippo asks,

So why is so controversial a candidate even in the running to be president?

Because he reflects his Party’s leftist agenda, has unique, prodigious manipulative talents and equally impressive Hollywood attributes. These are indispensable in closing out the dangerous, deliberate game the Democrats have been playing with America’s security and its perceived stature in the world. It is a game that has been going on beneath our noses since the election of 2000. Its object is simple: the acquisition of power regardless of cost to the Nation. It is something the American people must be reminded of, made aware of, before they enter the voting booth in November.

Ok, ok, I voted for Jimmy Carter. This candidate will get the votes of all three of my kids. But He’ll be a disaster for America.

And if spiritual food is your wish, Gagdad riffs on this quote today. High octane netstuff.

There is a power in sight which is superior to the eyes set in the head and more far-reaching than the heavens and earth…. It stands to reason, if you consider it, that the space occupied by any soul is vastly greater than heaven and earth and God’s entire creation. –Meister Eckhart

And in a moment of lapsed wisdom, I volunteered to hang around for the week of Bible School. I may be the director of VBS. That’s scary. We’ll see how this plays out.

There’s a new refrain. How ’bout them oil prices? Kinda like talking about the weather and just as productive. Betsi asked me today if I thought oil should be taken off the futures market. I found this in the comments section of the “Overcoming Bias” blog. I’d about decided to take it out of the daily reading lineup, and this gem shows up.

Being helpless against stressors is the most painful state of all. When people are confronted with troubles, they want to feel that they can do something in response, even if it’s actually useless. So when people face difficulties that they cannot control or effectively respond to, they seek out self-deceptive beliefs that, if true, would permit control or effective response. This is most especially true when people had some hand in creating the problem that torments them - they don’t wish to acknowledge their own culpability and so need someone else to blame.

People want villains that 1) are malevolent, so they can be struck back at without guilt, 2) have the power to inflict the harms upon them, but 3) don’t have enough actual power to defend themselves or threaten their attackers in reality.

Thus, blaming poor harvests and livestock troubles on witches, evil spirits, Jews, etc. Attacking the scapegoats doesn’t accomplish anything other than making people feel better - but “feeling better” is what drives almost all of the things humans do.

People are looking for scapegoats for the ever-increasing oil prices. They don’t want to reduce their usage. They don’t want to admit the causes for the increase are largely beyond their control and have to be adapted to. They want to punish someone, and they want to believe that will make the problem go away.

So blame the speculators. Let’s have the government to do something. Who cares whether it’s effective. Just don’t stand there. Do something!

How ’bout dem erl prices?

Today’s photo

This is sad. This is truly sad. I worked a long time to take a photo of one of my azaleas and isolate it so I might be able to use it. This is a photoshop abomination. Like some of my contemporaries faces that have seen one too many surgeon’s knives…

I came home from winter in Detroit to spring in blossom in my yard. That was a great trip to Detroit. One of the great gifts I’ve gotten from playing bridge.

I don’t usually link video clips because I read so much faster than I can wait for a video to play through. But this video was too cute to pass up. A comment on a candidate. The rest of my picks of links were all economics, and I’m going to skip it. It’s not called the dreary science without a cause.

It’s Friday morning, and time to hit the beach. Marianne called yesterday evening and said, “Let’s go to Ship Island.” So I’m out probably turning some unsuspecting part of my dermis scarlet.

I enjoy my slow retired homage to the sun, caffeine and the day to come. I watched a bit of the sunrise already, but had to walk away to attend to the details of this day trip. As I turned back to see the golden pinks, the big blueberry bush outside my front window was alive with birds. I walked right up to the window, and the woodpecker, a mockingbird and some brown species were all there not a bit nonplussed by my standing about 4 ft away. A flock of other birds had already flown. Do you suppose I’m being deprived of my blueberry crop this year?

The full press has been on Hillary to bow completely out, and maybe she has by now. But the winning headline from a couple days ago is the following. “In Defeat, Clinton Graciously Pretends to Win” Sorry, but I forgot to clip the name of the paper that summarized it so well.

David Warren takes on the free speech battle going on in British Columbia once again here. This is one of the more important court cases to follow, and he writes it so well, I won’t compete. Read the entire essay. A clip follows.

Everything about this case stinks to high heaven. It was brought before three different “human rights” tribunals simultaneously. The British Columbian venue was openly “jurisdiction shopped” because the province’s human rights tribunals have an especially egregious record for ignoring respondents’ most basic charter rights. The charges were brought more than a year after the article appeared. There was an open attempt at extortion, when representatives of the complainant called a press conference in which an offer was made to retract the charges for unspecified considerations. And so on: a layering of affronts to the most elementary standards of justice and decency.

Seven ayem, and I must move toward the day of leisure in the sun. But one last link before I go. When RFK was just out of college he took a stint with a now defunct newspaper in Boston. For them he wrote from Palestine at the historical point just before the birth of the Israeli state. It’s now 30 years since his assassination, and 60 years since the birth of the nation of Israel. His four dispatches are great reading. They’re hardly “unbiased” journalism, but he reports what he sees of the end of the British empire in the Middle East. Again, worth a read.

When I landed at Lydda Airport I…carried letters of introduction to both Arabs and Jews and at the airport where both sides intermingle it was explained to me by first one and then the other that I was taking a great risk. The Jew said it was all right for me to carry Arab papers in Jewish territory for I wouldn’t be molested, but when I entered Arab territory I had better be rid of all letters to Jews for I would immediately be searched and, if they found anything, would be quickly shot. The Arab said exactly the opposite and I found both to be half right, in that I was never searched by either side.

And last a couple of photos. I saw this art deco table setting at DIA (Detroit Institute of Art) and had to take pictures as something similar could be adapted for Tania’s 20’s themed wedding.