Sic Semper Tyrannis

"... animals prowl in our abandoned 'ghost villages'" The Guardian

"For many years it seemed that overpopulation was the looming crisis of our age. Back in 1968, the Stanford biologists Paul and Anne Ehrlich infamously predicted that millions would soon starve to death in their bestselling, doom-saying book The Population Bomb; since then, neo-Malthusian rumblings of imminent disaster have been a continual refrain in certain sections of the environmental movement – fears that were recently given voice on David Attenborough’s documentary Life on our Planet.

At the time the Ehrlichs were publishing their dark prophecies, the world was at its peak of population growth, which at that point was increasing at a rate of 2.1% a year. Since then, the global population has ballooned from 3.5 billion to 7.67 billion.

But growth has slowed – and considerably. As women’s empowerment advances, and access to contraception improves, birthrates around the world are stuttering and stalling, and in many countries now there are fewer than 2.1 children per woman – the minimum level required to maintain a stable population.

Falling fertility rates have been a problem in the world’s wealthiest nations – notably in Japan and Germany – for some time. In South Korea last year, birthrates fell to 0.84 per woman, a record low despite extensive government efforts to promote childbearing. From next year, cash bonuses of 2m won (£1,320) will be paid to every couple expecting a child, on top of existing child benefit payments.

The fertility rate is also falling dramatically in England and Wales – from 1.9 children per woman in 2012 to just 1.65 in 2019. Provisional figures from the Office for National Statistics for 2020 suggest it could now be 1.6, which would be the lowest rate since before the second world war. The problem is even more severe in Scotland, where the rate has fallen from 1.67 in 2012 to 1.37 in 2019." 

The Guardian

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New York City looks like a ghost town.  COVID-19 and the machinations of state and city government have accelerated the already present influences of declining birth rates brought on by the empowerment of women and their understandable desire to have fewer children in order to live better lives.  And then, the severe limitation placed by the Trump Tax Law on deductibility of state and local taxes has caused a flight from high priced real estate markets and high local taxes.

I am a bit surprised to learn that the pressures on US population are so universally felt across the world. 

People no longer compete so strongly for space with the fauna.  You can see the effects here in Alexandria, Virginia where wildlife sightings are steadily increasing in the heart of this metropolitan area.  Deer, foxes, opossum, bird predators, coyotes and of course raccoons are caught every night on the camera records of my motion activated security system.  The raccoons climb the drain pipes leading to my roof, walk to the front of the house and sit observing traffic on this street in the heart of the city.

As someone who spent much of his life in the natural world on several continents, I confess to enjoying their company.  pl 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/24/as-birth-rates-fall-animals-prowl-in-our-abandoned-ghost-villages

"La Grande Fete de Merci Donnant" Buchwald - reposted 2020

"They landed at a place called Plymouth (once a famous voiture Americaine ) in a wooden sailing ship called the Mayflower (or Fleur de Mai ) in 1620. But while the Pelerins were killing the dindes, the Peaux-Rouges were killing the Pelerins, and there were several hard winters ahead for both of them. The only way the Peaux-Rouges helped the Pelerins was when they taught them to grow corn (mais). The reason they did this was because they liked corn with their Pelerins.

In 1623, after another harsh year, the Pelerins' crops were so good that they decided to have a celebration and give thanks because more mais was raised by the Pelerins than Pelerins were killed by Peaux-Rouges.

Every year on the Jour de Merci Donnant, parents tell their children an amusing story about the first celebration and "Kilometres Deboutish" (Miles Standish)" 

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/22/opinion/22iht-edbuch.html 

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This secret (esoteric) history of the first Thanksgiving was discovered many years ago by Art Buchwald (a leader of the Brooklyn branch of the "Illuminati") whilst he was doing research in the catacombs located beneath the "Crazy Horse" saloon and "salle des danseuses" in Paris (France) (as opposed to Paris, Virginia). The document had lain there moldering amid the cast off "caches sexes" and empty cheese crates for centuries (maybe).

Buchwald successfully penetrated the exoteric "surface"of the text itself to reveal its true meaning. This technique of discerning the inner truth of history had been acquired by Maitre Buchwald while studying at the feet of a great scholar of such matters in Peoria, Illinois (or somewhere out there in the middle of the country) perhaps during his internship at the University of Chicago?

Here, he shares his wisdom with us.

(PS)  There is a legend that Buchwald found a note from Brigadier General Sir Harry Flashman VC left with the detritus to the effect that Sir Harry had discovered these materials and had gathered them in the basement for some future use.  Presumably Flashman never returned for them, but this story may be apocryphal.

PL 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Flashman

"... mysterious metal monolith deep in the desert." CNN

"What started as routine wildlife assistance took an extraterrestrial turn for Utah's Department of Public Safety after officers stumbled upon a mysterious monolith in the middle of rural Utah.

 

Officers from the Utah Department of Public Safety's Aero Bureau were flying by helicopter last Wednesday, helping the Division of Wildlife Resources count bighorn sheep in southeastern Utah, when they spotted something that seemed right out of "2001: A Space Odyssey."

 

"One of the biologists ... spotted it, and we just happened to fly directly over the top of it," pilot Bret Hutchings told CNN affiliate KSL. "He was like, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa, turn around, turn around!' And I was like, 'What.' And he's like, 'There's this thing back there -- we've got to go look at it!'""  CNN

 

-----------

 

From the terrain this looks like it would be in the SE part of Utah.  What is it?  pl

 

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/utah-monolith-art-trnd/index.html

https://www.deseret.com/utah/2020/11/23/21611655/utah-mysterious-monolith-video-watch

"Trump's recovery is imperative for the free world" Juliet Samuel

"It’s bound to bring out the best, the worst and the most insincere in us. The leader of the free world has fallen ill with a disease that his government has failed to contain. He is clinically obese and aged 74, both raising his risk of complications. Even so, his odds are good: most estimates put the survival rate for his risk profile over 90 per cent. But Covid could still deliver a big knock to his health and campaigning ability in the last five weeks before Election Day.

Predictably, there were those who could not restrain their spite, like the actor Dominic West and a former Hillary Clinton aide called Zara Rahim. Mr West “jumped for joy”; Ms Rahim declared that she “hope[s] he dies”. Others, political allies and opponents alike, declared they were praying for the president. Advocates of the popular QAnon conspiracy theory, who believe that Donald Trump is waging a heroic war to defeat a secret ring of Satanic paedophiles who control the world, claimed to have decoded Mr Trump’s tweet announcing his infection and concluded it was part of a brilliant plot “TO GET HER” – that is, to arrest Ms Clinton.

His survival, by far the more likely outcome, could nonetheless have unpredictable consequences. He may brush off Covid easily, affirming his self-image as “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency”. Perhaps it would help his struggling campaign and encourage him to take an even more relaxed policy approach to the pandemic, unlike our own Prime Minister’s brush with death.

On the other hand, Mr Trump might suffer weeks of debilitating symptoms, irreparably damaging his macho persona and undermining his claims to have controlled or mitigated the impact of coronavirus. A lengthy illness might generate some good wishes and sympathy (as well as schadenfreude), but publics generally do not re-elect severely ailing septuagenarians, especially when gripped by the sense of crisis affecting the US. His replacement by Vice President Mike Pence would leave the Republicans precious little time to make up any lost ground, although if Joe Biden commits some politically fatal gaffe, Mr Pence could conceivably ascend the throne by default."  Juliet Samuel

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"a secret ring of Satanic paedophiles who control the world,"

An intriguing image and conception.  Was Juliet thinking of the Tri-lateral commission, the Bilderburgs, old Etonians,  or the College of Cardinals?  pl

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/10/02/trumps-recoveryis-imperative-forthe-free-world/

Biden’s election will show that the Western alliance is no more - Telegraph

"There are, then, two ways in which a Biden presidency will remove the Europeans’ veil of smug superiority. First, he will follow some Trump-era objectives, because that is what American interests demand, thus showing that Trump was no extremist on China. And second, where he does change approach, he will expose European indifference to the Western Alliance as driven, not by distaste for Trump’s policies, but by Europe’s own cynicism, short-termism and willingness to freeload off US military budgets.

In both respects, Biden’s election will reveal Europe’s dirty secret. It was never Donald Trump who stopped the Europeans being their better selves, taking responsibility for the security of their own citizens, and protecting long-term Western interests. It was always Europe itself."  Nick Timothy in The Telegraph.

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I was struck earlier today by English Outsider's admonition (on SST) directed to ConfusedPonderer (archetype of the Teutons) in which EO said that it was vainglorious and vacuous to bitterly claim that the US "occupies" Germany as it did in 1945 while at the same time relying on US funding of Germany's defense through the USA's enormous military expenditures.  

IMO NATO should have ended with the fall of the USSR.  It now "confronts" a largely imaginary threat, concocted for the purpose of maintaining the status quo in US government expenditures for defense and supporting the imperial dreams of the neocons.

Does anyone really think Russia is going to invade the Baltics?  Really?

The US faces a rapidly escalating political crisis.  The losing party in November will undoubtedly go to the federal courts to claim that their opponents cheated in the process.  These charges will eventually reach SCOTUS.  In this environment US interest in European affairs will decline radically.

The kind of symmetrical disinterest described in Timothy's article will encourage the end of Atlanticism.  pl 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/08/16/bidens-election-will-show-western-alliance-no/

A Bombshell Report from the New CNN

A report by Fred

There I was, first day on the new job. Trying to impress the boss with my worsmithing and insights on life, the universe, and, well - everything. Of course all good writing takes coffee, and some fresh air. So I went for a stroll and imagine, as luck would have it, what came by? I think this is what Joseph Campbell referred to as a 'call to adventure'. Take a look.

 

From Frankenfish to Good Eatin’ Game Fish - TTG

A few years after I settled in Virginia, I began reading frightful stories about the arrival of a dangerous “frankenfish” in the Potomac River and its tributaries. This hideous invader called the northern snakehead was feared to be about to both outbreed all other native Potomac fish and eat every single one of them. Doomsday and Armageddon were upon us. We were advised to kill every one we saw without mercy. To do otherwise would mark one as a scofflaw. 

I recently found these videos which painted a far different picture. The northern snakehead is an invader and is definitely here to stay. But it is not replacing the existing species in the Potomac. Instead it has proven to be an exciting gamefish and good eating to boot. The videos chronicle kayak fishing for snakeheads in Aquia and Accokeek Creeks, two waterways I am very familiar with. The video featuring John Odenkirk, a local wildlife biologist with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries is very informative. He’s been studying the snakeheads up close since their arrival in the area. I might have to take up fishing again, but I’ll need something a little more substantial than my Fenwick ferruleless pack fly rod.

TTG

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HdWNN3HVGQ  (fishing Aquia Creek)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrqvEw9BVpo  (cooking and eating the beast)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R23-ThVeZ8o  (the snakehead “professor”)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYdZ3YjEafM  (fishing Accokeek Creek)

Watermen don’t stop - TTG

This is an AP story that appeared at the bottom of the front page of my local newspaper this morning. It caught my eye because, unlike northern Virginia, the Northern Neck has been largely spared from the coronavirus. That's a good thing for Tangier Island since it is only a short float from the Northern Neck. Given the proximity of the Northern Neck to northern Virginia and DC, I take it as a sign that God also loves this part of Virginia, a peninsula bounded by the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers.

————  

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — Inez Pruitt has watched the coronavirus spread throughout the world from the relative safety of Tangier Island, a small fishing community in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay. But the virus is now as close it can get without crossing the water, infecting people on the Eastern Shore of Virginia and Maryland. “I feel like if we got COVID, it would be devastating,” said Pruitt, a physician assistant who operates the island's health clinic. “In my head it has a very high potential of happening. I just hope to God it doesn’t.”

Reachable only by plane or boat, the dwindling community of fewer than 500 people has reported zero cases of the coronavirus. And though its one school and two churches have shuttered, life has continued at a level of normalcy that much of the nation lost weeks ago. Far fewer people on Tangier are wearing masks than in much of the U.S. Its watermen, who anchor the economy and make up much of the workforce, still pull up crab pots and sell their bushels to buyers on the mainland.

Only one restaurant is open this time of year, so only one had to close its dining room. The island still celebrated Palm Sunday and Easter, albeit in a long procession of golf carts and other vehicles that circled the island. “It’s sort of like we’ve been in a safe haven,” Mayor James “Ooker” Eskridge said. “We feel more protected.” Tangier has come to be viewed by some in America's stifled East Coast cities as the perfect escape. “I’ve had folks call me up from all over and say, ‘Would it be OK if I flew in just to walk on the beach?’” the mayor said.

The mayor said he has discouraged such visits, but small planes have landed in recent weeks. The island also told a New York-based production company that was filming a possible television show about Tangier to stay away until the pandemic subsided. But the community’s protective isolation could also be its undoing if the coronavirus comes ashore. Disease can spread fast in the close-knit community, which hasn’t had a full-time doctor in half a century.

These days, a doctor usually flies to the island every other week. People who get really sick must be taken to a hospital on the mainland. About 40% of Tangier's inhabitants are more than 60 years old and therefore more vulnerable to the virus. Over the winter, a flu spread quickly and infected more than 50 people, Pruitt said. One person almost died. Another had a heart attack.  (continued at AP News)

————

I hope Tangier’s luck holds out. Between rising tides and subsidence, I doubt the island can hold out for another generation. It's loss will be a shame. It is a regional treasure. The Northern Neck will still be with us. The danger here is development, but I have confidence in the people and even the politicians. Congressman Rob Wittman is a great champion of the Bay and the watermen who make their living from her waters.

I found this video produced for a Northern Neck real estate salesman. The subject, Dr. Emory Lewis, is an obviously very well off retired physician who grew up on the water. He served as a Naval lieutenant during Viet Nam and went to medical school on the GI Bill. I hope you enjoy the video as much as I did. And here’s a story from the Richmond Times Dispatch about his retirement hobby as an oysterman. With all the restaurants shut down, I wonder if he’s selling directly to the public.

What gives me hope for the Northern Neck is the way Stafford is treating her Potomac shoreline. We have the Crows Nest Wildlife Preserve, one of the finest natural areas in the Chesapeake Bay region. We have Aquia Park and the newly created Widewater Park. We also have local watermen still able to make a living. Decatur’s Crabs has been in the Widewater area of Stafford long before I moved here. As long as the crabbin’s good, they sell in Fredericksburg daily and on weekends just down the road from me in northern Stafford. Here’s a video of two of their boats, newly refurbished for the season, leaving True North Boat Works, near Stingray Point where the Rappahannock empties into the Bay. And just because I like the water, here's another video of the "Crabman" setting out crab traps and bringing in the Mothers Day crabs.

The photo at the top of this post is of the Potomac River as seen from VRE commuter train. I took that ride from Quantico to Alexandria almost every day for over six years. It was glorious during those times of year when I could catch that sunrise on the way to work. Sometimes I would catch watermen loading their crab traps on their skiff and deadrise workboats. It was a great way to start a day. That’s the Maryland shoreline in the distance. As I recall, this is the River that Claude Devereux crossed in the middle of the night as he infiltrated Union lines on his espionage mission.

TTG 

"Avaaz." The "reseau" that unites the revolutionary Left?

(Antonia Staats)

"Avaaz claims to unite practical idealists from around the world.^[8] Director Ricken Patel said in 2011, "We have no ideology per se. Our mission is to close the gap between the world we have and the world most people everywhere want. Idealists of the world unite!"^[12] In practice, Avaaz often supports causes considered progressive, such as calling for global action on climate change, challenging Monsanto, and building greater global support for refugees.^[13][14][15]

During the 2009 Iranian presidential election protests, Avaaz set up Internet proxy servers to allow protesters to upload videos onto public websites.^[16]

Avaaz supported the establishment of a no-fly zone over Libya, which led to the military intervention in the country in 2011. It was criticized for its pro-intervention stance in the media and blogs.^[17]

Avaaz supported the civil uprising preceding the Syrian Civil War. This included sending $1.5 million of Internet communications equipment to protesters, and training activists. Later it used smuggling routes to send over $2 million of medical equipment into rebel-held areas of Syria. It also smuggled 34 international journalists into Syria.^[10][18] Avaaz coordinated the evacuation of wounded British photographer Paul Conroy from Homs. Thirteen Syrian activists died during the evacuation operation.^[10][19] Some senior members of other non-governmental organizations working in the Middle East have criticized Avaaz for taking sides in a civil war.^[16] As of November 2016, Avaaz continues campaigning for no-fly zones over Syria in general and specifically Aleppo. (Gen. Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States, has said that establishing a no-fly zone means going to war against Syria and Russia.^[20]) It has received criticism from parts of the political blogosphere and has a single digit percentage of its users opposing the petitions, with a number of users ultimately leaving the network. The Avaaz team responded to this criticism by issuing two statements defending their decision to campaign.  wiki

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Yes, pilgrims, my professional deformation leads me to find pattern where there may be none.  BUT, OTOH, there may BE a pattern.  It would be logical for there to exist connective tissue that relates the Sorosistas, The Clintonistas, the media freaks, Tom Perez' DNC, etc., etc., ad nauseam.  And then there are the communist regimes, Cuba, China, North Korea.  Are they  not all soulmates?

And then, there is Neil Ferguson the British epidemiologist who sold #10 on the idea of a national lock-down that looks to destroy the UK economy and political system.  Antonia Staats. his married mistress is a major figure in AVAAZ.  He broke curfew twice to get a little bit of that.  Coincidence?  pl 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avaaz

Introducing the adult juice box... Excelsior! - TTG

Let’s be honest. This is not on the same level as the fusion energy and laser technology breakthroughs that Harper writes about. However, the adult juice box is another “clear reminder that human beings are capable of creative solutions to seemingly impossible challenges."

Two years ago, a couple of retired Coast Guard dudes established a small brewery within walking/staggering distance of my home. A divine blessing, indeed! The Barley Naked Brewing Company is a 3.5 barrel brewhouse and taproom which is packed every night it is open. Food is provided by a wide variety of local food trucks. Business is booming… or it was until the coronavirus lockdown hit Virginia. 

All was not lost. Coast Guard ingenuity was not to be deterred. The brew barrels kept brewing. Instead of selling beer by the glass in the small, crowded taproom, the brewmaster continued to sell beer by the growler at the door. A food truck is still stationed in the parking lot whenever Barley Naked is open. Life remains defiant in the face of calamity. Now this excellent range of microbrews is available in a 64 ounce, refillable adult juice box. You even get a new straw every time you get it refilled. Life is not just good. It is magnificent.

TTG

https://www.facebook.com/BarleyNaked1/  

Everglades Challenge 2020 - TTG

I debated with myself about doing an article this year about the Everglades Challenge. I’ve done them for nine or ten years straight and I was busy with the last bathroom remodel and routing cat5e cable for today’s FIOS install. I pretty much decided to forgo the article until I saw this morning’s comment from Rob Waddell. He’s doing it, by God! The least I could do is publish an article in support of our adventurous fellow correspondent.

So, for the ninth year or so, I invite the SST Committee of Correspondence to follow this year's running of the Everglades Challenge and, especially, follow Rob Waddell’s bold adventure. Let’s cheer him on. 

I discovered this event more than a decade ago. It remains on my bucket list, along with building the boat. The event is organized by a colorful group of adventurers who call themselves the Water Tribe. The Everglades Challenge is an unsupported, expedition style adventure race for kayaks, canoes, and small sailboats. It starts at Fort DeSoto in Saint Petersburg, Florida and ends at Key Largo. The distance is roughly 300 nautical miles depending on one's course selection. There is a time limit of eight days. Updates on the progress and tribulations of the participants will be posted on the Water Tribe forums. The boats are tracked by SPOT satellite. Their progress can be seen on this tracking map. Rob’s WaterTribe name is SouthernCross

Here’s Rob’s comment posted this morning:

In years past about this time TTG posts about the Everglades Challenge, an adventure race from Tampa to Key Largo for all types of small vessels. TTG's enthusiasm for this marine adventure has led this kiwi old salt to sunny St. Peterburg where the 21' Dovekie dory, Southern Cross, has been fitted out to undertake this (now confirmed by fellow competitors) perilous voyage to Key Largo. It's not a one leg trip; three shore based checkpoints along the way require navigational and sailing skill, physical strength and lots of luck with wind and tide We are starting the Everglades Challenge 2020 adventure race this Saturday at 0730 Mullet Cove Pinellas Park St Petersburg FL. One more day sailing practice on our Dovkie 21 then we are off! Winds are 16 to 18 kn from the NE which means a fast but hairy ride. More reports may follow if we survive. RobW from Southern Cross This link will take you a tracking viewer.

:www.watertribe.com/events/ChallengeGMapper.aspx

Here’s Rob’s entry in the WaterTribe roster, “SouthernCross (aka Robert Waddell and SouthernCrossJohnnyMac (aka John MacDonald).” The description of the boat, “21 Dovekie 21 ft semi decked dory with single mainsail and jib 3x previous EC challenges completed with previous owner.” And their parting comment, “Heading north from the land of the Southern Cross 2020. All the way.. well behaved... Just in case it slips away. Rob W & Johnny Mac.”

The Southern Cross on Fort DeSoto Beach awaiting launch 

Heading into Chokoloskee with one reef

The winds are forecast to be generally from the northeast and brisk. That’s good for the Southern Cross. Of course, strong east winds means Florida Bay may be mostly mud. If  that’s the case, I hope Rob takes the Southern Cross the long way around the bay to enjoy broad reaches in deeper water. To see Rob and Johnny Mac off, I offer these words of wisdom from Lyle Lovett along with an illustration from John MacGregor's "A Thousand Miles in the Rob Roy Canoe on rivers and Lakes of Europe."

My younger son and I were in line for ZZQ barbecue a few weeks ago when this tune was playing. I couldn’t help but sing along and imagine I was ghosting along in my sailing kayak. Come to think of it, the Southern Cross is large enough for Rob and Johnny Mac to bring a pony with them. Fair winds and following seas, my friend.

TTG

Happy Valentine's Day!

By Robert Willmann

Celebrated in some parts of the world, today is another positive expression from the Christian tradition, known as Saint Valentine's Day, and is illustrated above in a drawing from 1861 in Harper's Weekly [1].   Fondness, affection, and love do give hope to the human condition, along with music -- the international language.  So, here are a couple of songs for this day.

"My Funny Valentine", appearing in 1937 for the musical Babes in Arms, is now a jazz classic, and was selected in 2014 to be in the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress, with this description [2]--

" 'My Funny Valentine.' The Gerry Mulligan Quartet featuring Chet Baker (1953)

Their studio recording of 'My Funny Valentine' had been a hit for the pianoless Gerry Mulligan Quartet in the autumn of 1952, so it was an established part of their repertoire when this May 20, 1953 live performance was recorded by producer Dick Bock at The Haig jazz club in Hollywood, California. At over five minutes, nearly twice as long as the single, trumpeter Chet Baker and baritone saxophonist Mulligan had room to stretch out. The result is a darker, more expressive version of 'My Funny Valentine,' propelled by a Carson Smith bass line that's simple, but insistent, almost ominous. The popularity of this 1952 studio version may have helped to keep this performance in the vault until the 1960s, but, for many, this extended version has become the definitive Mulligan and Baker collaboration for many."

With an almost haunting melody, but with lyrics showing the strength of real affection and support, here is a recording by Julie London--

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bWYxdNR8bc

Chet Baker performed this signature song during his career, and produced  an extended and beautiful version in a concert in Tokyo, Japan--

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

https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/MyFunnyValentine.pdf

And as a finale, there is nothing better than the Rockettes!  Here they are with Peter Allen, because:  Everything Old Is New Again--

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

 

[1]  http://loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3a51286/

https://www.loc.gov/item/2006679063/?loclr=blogtea

[2]  https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/recording-registry/registry-by-induction-years/2014/

https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/about-this-program/?dates=2002-2099

https://www.congress.gov/bill/106th-congress/house-bill/4846/text/pl

 

Hollywood Goes Full Blacklist and Fails to Grasp the Irony by Larry C Johnson

In the wake of the latest Hollywood buffoonery displayed at the Oscars, I think it is time for the American public to denounce in the strongest possible terms the rampant hypocrisy of sanctimonious cretins who make their living pretending to be someone other than themselves. Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix and Barbara Streisand pop to mind as representative examples. All three are eager to  lecture the American public on the need for equality and non-discrimination. Yet, not one of the recipients of the Oscar gift bags worth $225,000 spoke out against that extraordinary excess nor demanded that the money spent purchasing these "gifts" be used to benefit the poor and the homeless. Nope, take the money and run.

It is especially galling to see how the Hollywood Community has embraced the era of red-baiting Jospeh McCarthy as the new standard for what is acceptable. There was a time that a few brave souls in Hollywood (I am thinking Lucille Ball, Kirk Douglas and Gregory Peck), spoke out against the blacklisting of actors, writers and directors for their past political ties to the Soviet Union. Now I have lived long enough to see the so-called liberals in Hollywood rail against Donald Trump and his supporters as "agents of Russia." Many in Hollywood, who weep crocodile tears over the abuses of the Hollywood Blacklist, are now doing the same damn thing without a hint of irony.

If you are a film buff (and I consider myself one) you should be familiar with these great movies that remind the viewer of the horrors visited upon actors, writers and directors during the Hollywood Blacklist:

• The Front--a 1976 comedy-drama film set against the Hollywood blacklist in the 1950s. It was written by Walter Bernstein, directed by Martin Ritt, and stars Woody Allen and Zero Mostel.
• Good Night, and Good Luck--a 2005 historical drama film directed by George Clooney, tells the story of Edward R. Murrow fighting back against the hysterical red-baiting of Senator Joseph McCarthy.
• Trumbo--a 2015 American biographical drama film directed by Jay Roach that follows the life of Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, who was blacklisted but continued to write award winning movies in alias (e.g. Spartacus).

This was an ugly, awful and evil time in America. It was a period of time fed by fear and ignorance. While it is true that there were Americans who identified as Communists and embraced the politics of the Soviet Union, we scared ourselves into believing that communist subversion was everywhere and that America was teetering on the brink of being submerged in a red tide.

Thirty years ago I reflected on this era and wondered how such mass hysteria could happen. Now I know. We have lived with the same kind of madness since Donald Trump was tagged as a Russian agent in the summer of 2016. And the irony is extraordinary. The very same Hollywood elite that heaped opprobrium on Director Elia Kazan for naming names in Hollywood in front of the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, are now leading the charge in labeling anyone who dares speak out against the failed coup as "stooges" of the Kremlin or Putin.

Hillary Clinton's crazy rant accusing U.S. Army Major and Member of Congress, Tulsi Gabbard, as a Kremlin puppet is not a deviation from the norm. Clinton exemplifies the terrifying norm of the political and cultural elite in this country. Accusing political opponents of being controlled by foreign enemies, real or imagined, is an old political tactic. Makes me wonder what Edward R. Murrow or Dalton Trumbo would say if we could bring them back from the dead.

Bigfoot hikes the Snoqualmie Pass on I-90 - Who knew?

"In a video posted on Twitter, Washington State Department of Transportation wrote: "I think Bigfoot is making the rounds across our mountain passes. WSDOT showed him on Sherman Pass ... now he is on the I-90 wildlife overcrossing, Snoqualmie Pass. By Washington State Department of Transportation

Bigfoot must be traveling through Washington state this week, and the Washington State Department of Transportation has had a front-row seat.

Earlier this week the department apparently captured photos of the creature on its Sherman Pass on State Route 20 webcam.

Now officials are saying they have a video of the legend in a completely different location.

The transportation department’s Twitter account for Snoqualmie Pass traffic shared a video of what appears to be Bigfoot walking along the wildlife overcrossing on Interstate 90."

https://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/state/article239605373.html

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A "wildlife overcrossing?"  What is that?  pl

 

Fiberglass propane tanks - Who knew?

Any "poop" on whether these things are safe, what they weigh, etc.?  pl

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=ow+they+make+fiberglass+propane+tanks&qpvt=ow+they+make+fiberglass+propane+tanks&view=detail&mid=FBB90CC80D25ADA454D1FBB90CC80D25ADA454D1&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dow%2Bthey%2Bmake%2Bfiberglass%2Bpropane%2Btanks%26qpvt%3Dow%2Bthey%2Bmake%2Bfiberglass%2Bpropane%2Btanks%26FORM%3DVDRE

Academic Conformism is the road to "1984."

The world is filled with conformism and groupthink.  Most people do not wish to think for themselves.  Thinking for oneself is dangerous, requires effort and often leads to rejection by the herd of one's peers.

The profession of arms, the intelligence business, the civil service bureaucracy, the wondrous world of groups like the League of Women Voters, Rotary Club as well as the empire of the thinktanks are all rotten with this sickness, an illness which leads inevitably to stereotyped and unrealistic thinking, thinking that does not reflect reality.

The worst locus of this mentally crippling phenomenon is the world of the academics.  I have served on a number of boards that awarded Ph.D  and post doctoral grants.  I was on the Fulbright Fellowship federal board.  I was on the HF Guggenheim program and executive  boards for a long time.  Those are two examples of my exposure to the individual and collective academic minds.

As a class of people I find them unimpressive. The credentialing exercise in acquiring a doctorate is basically a nepotistic process of sucking up to elders and a crutch for ego support as well as an entrance ticket for various hierarchies, among them the world of the academy. The process of degree acquisition itself requires sponsorship by esteemed academics who recommend candidates who do not stray very far from the corpus of known work in whichever narrow field is involved.   The endorsements from RESPECTED  academics are often decisive in the award of grants.

This process is continued throughout a career in academic research.  PEER REVIEW is the sine qua non for acceptance of a "paper," invitation to career making conferences, or to the Holy of Holies, TENURE.

This life experience  forms and creates CONFORMISTS, people who instinctively boot-lick their fellows in a search for the "Good Doggy" moments that make up their lives.  These people are for sale.  Their price may not be money, but they are still for sale.  They want to be accepted as members of their group.  Dissent leads to expulsion or effective rejection from the group. 

This mentality renders doubtful any assertion that a large group of academics supports any stated conclusion.  As a species academics will say or do anything to be included in their caste.

This makes them inherently dangerous.  They will support any party or parties, of any political inclination if that  group has the money, and the potential or actual power to maintain the academics as a tribe.  pl

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conformity

Crossing the Line by Fred

Great and terrible things can happen when  you cross a line. Sometimes it fills you with dread, like it did with Scott, but other times it's just a bunch of fuss and feathers. Both of which might occur in this hear, to use the new expresion of the new millenium, "conversation". Now you might be a wonder'n about how this idea got started, well listen to me now and believe me later when I tell you it happend as a result of listen'n to a planetary climate change expert, one that done dropped out o high school to boot. Can't get much more expert than that, let me tell ya. Now not to worry, this hear tale won't take much o' ya tweleve years. You'll still have plenty of time to send out a planetary SOS (Save Obama's Sand). But that's in the future. So lets all us all get ah started.

"Well mum, I think you should suspend this parliament." "Yes prime minister.."

"Lawmakers reconvene Sept. 3 but under prorogation will disband the following week. They return Oct. 14, just 17 days before Britain's Oct. 31 deadline to leave the European Union.

In 2016, Britain voted in a referendum to leave the EU. Former Prime Minister Theresa May negotiated a divorce deal with the EU but Parliament rejected the agreement three times. The impasse ultimately brought down her government.

Meanwhile, Brexiteers have insisted that despite concerns over economic chaos, Britain must leave even without a deal.

"All these people who are wailing and gnashing of teeth know that there are two ways of doing what they want to do," Rees-Mogg, a member of Johnson's Conservative Party and a confirmed euroskeptic, told the broadcaster. "One, is to change the government and the other is to change the law."

"If they don't have either the courage or the gumption to do either of those then we will leave on the 31st of October in accordance with the referendum result," he added."  NPR

-------------

Brexit?  I don't really care about that.  IMO the Brits will be better off if they crash out of the moribund EU and make a wide reaching trade deal with the US. 

Ireland's internal border?  Really?  The Micks can't solve that problem between north and south?   Really?  As I said, I don't really care what they do with the Brexit issue.

OTOH I am surprised at the evidently automatic action of the sovereign in abjectly submitting to BJ in this clearly political situation.  It would seem to me that if the sovereign is not sovereign then why have a sovereign?  Tourism?  Really?  The whole panoply of Dukes and Duchesses, lords and lordlings is damned expensive.  Some of the lifestyle of the monarchy and its parasitic "followers" is funded from long held properties acquired  through dubious means but a lot of that lifestyle is publicly funded. 

For what?  The British people are so sentimental that they swoon at the sight of people like Harry and his duchess? 

Does anyone here have a realistic estimate of how much money would be saved in the UK's budget by abolishing the monarchy and its other dimensional and separate world?  pl

 

https://www.npr.org/2019/08/29/755326470/many-britons-react-with-anger-over-suspension-of-parliament

AOC does not love Amazon, but I do.

"Real estate firm Redfin named Arlington County and Alexandria in Virginia as America’s two most competitive markets for potential home buyers.

Redfin looked at markets across the country to determine the highest number of competing offers and waived contingencies, how quickly homes are going under contract and for how much above list price.

Arlington County and Alexandria scored 96 out of 100, meaning both are where potential buyers are facing the most intense competition anywhere in the country.

Redfin points at Amazon’s HQ2 as one factor boosting the two markets, which are closest to the tech giant’s future site at Crystal City.

“The Amazon HQ2 effect has become a permanent factor in the Arlington and Alexandria housing markets,” said local Redfin agent Marcia Burgos-Stone.

“Some sellers are still opting to hold on to their homes and wait until it becomes a more concrete reality in the hopes that they will get more money. This has led to a shortage of homes for sale.”

The number of active listings in both Arlington and Alexandria is currently about half what it was a year ago." 

wtop

-------------

Oh yes!  AOC jawboned Amazon out of establishing part of a second headquarters in her congressional district and thereby screwed her constituents out of a lot of money in pay and appreciated real estate prices.

Well pilgrims (and people in Europe) the fair city of Alexandria, Virginia was not so silly as to do that in spite of rule by Yellow Dog Democrats, Yankee immigrants, minorities and a few Blue Dog Democrats.  Rather than do that the city and the commonwealth rolled out the red carpet in the forms of tax breaks, help with re-settlement of employees, etc.

As a result, a house one block from mine sold last week for seven figures after having been on the market for five days.  In that time there had been five bona fide offers above the asking price.  It was a good house but not a great house.,

I am not planning to sell this lovely old 1913 bitch (no mortgage) but I must say I can forgive Bezos for a lot of the crap in the Washington Post in return for this.  You should see my outdoor kitchen.  pl

https://wtop.com/business-finance/2019/08/arlington-alexandria-most-competitive-housing-markets-in-the-country/

We have become ignorant. We are skilled but uneducated ...

"A liberal education is a system or course of education suitable for the cultivation of a free (Latin: liber) human being. It is based on the medieval concept of the liberal arts or, more commonly now, the liberalism of the Age of Enlightenment.^[1] It has been described as "a philosophy of education that empowers individuals with broad knowledge and transferable skills, and a stronger sense of values, ethics, and civic engagement ... characterised by challenging encounters with important issues, and more a way of studying than a specific course or field of study" by the Association of American Colleges and Universities.^[2] Usually global and pluralistic in scope, it can include a general education curriculum which provides broad exposure to multiple disciplines and learning strategies in addition to in-depth study in at least one academic area.

Liberal education was advocated in the 19th century by thinkers such as John Henry Newman, Thomas Huxley, and F. D. Maurice. Sir Wilfred Griffin Eady defined liberal education as being education for its own sake and personal enrichment, with the teaching of values."  wiki

-------------

Churchill and George Marshall.  We don't have leaders like them anymore.

Churchill did not attend a university.  He said that his greatest teacher at "public" school was a man who taught him how to write an English sentence, "subject, verb, object adorned with modifiers as needed" and then to group sentences together in paragraphs with coherent meaning.  Yet Churchill wrote massive works of history, "The Second World War," "A History of the English Speaking Peoples," etc.  I read them when they were published.  I was a boy but the books were so beautifully, and clearly written that I could easily handle them.

George Marshall never wrote anything unofficial that I know of.  Perhaps there is a magazine article somewhere?  In retirement he lived at Dodona Manor, a modest house in Leesburg, Virginia and steadfastly refused all offers of book contracts.  His many papers are stored at the Marshall Library in Lexington, Virginia.  He donated them.  Eisenhower became wealthy from the earnings derived from "Crusade in Europe."

Neither man had anything like a STEM degree.  Neither attended a university like Stanford or Oxford.  But somehow they presided over the triumph of Western Civilization, a triumph of values over mere brute force.

How did they manage that?  They both had open minds that relentlessly sought the truth and then applied what they learned in all the situations they encountered.  Are we still capable of that?  I doubt it.  pl

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_education

Random Tuesday thoughts- 23 april 2019

• Marcus, my avatar and muse seems in good voice today.  This reminds me of the scene in "Tears of the Sun" in which the column passes under a jungle tree limb on which sits a magnificent male mandrill.  I have seen many baboons but, alas, never a mandrill.
• Bernie Sanders says that Bibi is a racist and that the US should treat the Palestinians as though they were equally human in their captive nation plight.  Heavens!  Such statements will never do!  Perhaps he should be de-circumcised, or at least deprived of any support from the righteous.
• The US government, having failed thus far to uproot Hizbullah from its home territory in Lebanon now proposes a reward for suggestions as to how to accomplish this.  The Israelis want Hizbullah, a Lebanese Shia movement, army and political party to be gone but are at a loss as to how to achieve that goal.  The IDF ground forces got a bloody nose in 2006 when the Gucci generation of Israeli conscripts were sent to fight in the Tabbouleh Line complex of fortified villages, tank traps and canalized killing zones.  They do not want to do that again, but the tens of thousands of Hizbullah missiles and artillery rockets that threaten Israeli counter-value targets (towns) are a true strategic threat for which the IDF has no solution.  Well pilgrims, Occam's Razor provides the only viable (irony) answer to the problem.  This would be a heavy bomber stream provided by USAF proceeding to devastate a strip of south Lebanon  for the purpose of eradicating Hizbullah.  What would this suggestion be worth in dollars to some think tank like RAND or IDA?
• I suspect that what Trump wishes to conceal in his financial records and tax returns is that he is nothing like as rich as he pretends to be.  One of the elements of the psychology of entrepreneurial hustlers like him is a relentless need to exaggerate his own importance and to puff himself up and preen like a tropical bird in mating season.  He is probably cash poor.
  
• The Democrats surely know that they have zero chance of impeaching Trump before 2020.  Only dimwits and fanatics can think otherwise.  No, what they are aiming for in their campaign of harassment is to diminish the man enough in the public mind to beat him in that election.  This tactic may well backfire on them.  They look incredibly petty in doing this.
• The Sri Lanka jihadi attacks on Easter Sunday are not something that should surprise.  The jihadis see themselves as waging war against Christianity.  They foolishly hope to break the will of Christian believers.  What better place to find Christian believers than at Easter services?  Expect more of the same.
• I have asked TTG to keep track of the emerging desperation of Pompeo/Bolton in their hostility to Iran.
• French anti-clericalism has been a major theme in their history since the Revolution.  It used to be a feature distinguishing those devoted to Republicanism, but that, thankfully, is gone.  There are not many monarchists in France these days.  The time when the Vendee rebellion of Catholics against the revolutionaries is gone as is the event in which General Thiers broke the back of the Communards by shooting tens of thousand of them in 1871.  A coalition of leftist political parties gained power in France in 1905 and produced a law that confiscated much Church property including Notre Dame and exiled all religious orders (Jesuits, etc) from the country for a time.  Sine that time the country and the government have been relentlessly secular.   Secularism is a feature of the national curriculum in the public schools. Notre Dame is viewed solely as a cultural monument and tourist attraction by the French government.  Should they leave it in ruins?
  
• My genealogist wife tell me that a question regarding citizenship has been historically frequent in US census taking.
• My eldest dog, Lola the Magnificent, A Norwich Terrier bitch, is almost 16  years old.  She went through a bad patch yesterday.  She went comatose for four hours and then suddenly woke up, walked around the TeeVee room and then peed in the middle of a 120 year old Kazak Caucasian Soumak rug.  She is bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning.  She gobbled up her breakfast and went for a stroll around the landscaped back garden in a survey of her domain.   Ah, well, rugs can be cleaned and I like her better than the rug.  She is pretty frisky today.  pl

The Black Velvet Band

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Irish+music&&view=detail&mid=18F6F35EB8A883CD003918F6F35EB8A883CD0039&&FORM=VRDGAR

pl

Everglades Challenge 2019 - TTG

Ratty has always known the score. To be on the water in any kind of craft is therapeutic. The rythmic sound of the surf can only be equalled by the sound of the wind in the pines. Both together… heaven. You can’t buy that kind of therapy with a million dollars. One of the saddest things I often saw on the streets of DC was the herds of young, ambitious suits with ear buds in their ears, eyes and thumbs glued to their smartphones, totally oblivious to their surroundings. Nowadays they’re either fretting over Trump the devil incarnate or fawning over Trump the god emperor. As I have said for so many years now and Colonel Lang has recently reiterated most eloquently, I think we deserve a break... or at least a little vicarious diversion from the madness that surrounds us. 

Funny how this continues to ring true, even after all the years. Once again, I invite the SST Committee of Correspondence to follow the running of the Everglades Challenge which begins this Saturday morning. The event is organized by a colorful group of adventurers who call themselves the Water Tribe. Looking at the age of the usual participants, I’d be just as likely to be called sonny as old timer when I eventually get there. The Everglades Challenge is an unsupported, expedition style adventure race for kayaks, canoes, and small sailboats. It starts at Fort DeSoto in Saint Petersburg, Florida and ends at Key Largo. The distance is roughly 300 nautical miles depending on one's course selection. Updates on the progress and tribulations of the participants will be posted on the WaterTribe Forums. There is also a WaterTribe Facebook page. It’s a closed group, but they let me in so they can’t be too picky. The boats are tracked by SPOT satellite. Their progress can be seen on this tracking map. There is also a tracking map provided through Race Owl. Between the two, the event should be well covered.

A joint resolution about the national emergency at the border may have a vote on 26 February

By Robert Willmann

The declaration of a national emergency at the border by president Trump on 15 February was published in the Federal Register on 20 February [1].  On 22 February, Joaquin Castro, a Democrat from San Antonio, Texas, introduced a joint resolution pursuant to the National Emergencies Act to terminate the national emergency [2]--

https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-joint-resolution/46/text?r=5

The resolution was set up to start with 225 co-sponsors, to show that it will pass.  With 435 members in the House of Representatives, 225 votes can pass it.  The only sponsor in that group from the Republican Party is Justin Amash, from the third district of Michigan.

The calendar of the House Clerk shows that the resolution may be taken up this week, "pursuant to a rule".  The calendar of the majority leader of the House, Steny Hoyer (Dem., Maryland), puts it on 26 February, and gun control and background check bills are up this week as well; Hoyer has them for 27 February--

https://www.majorityleader.gov/content/weekly-leader-friday-february-22-2019

After a vote in the House, the resolution will go to the Senate for consideration.

Joaquin and Julian Castro are twin brothers from San Antonio.  Joaquin was elected to the Texas House of Representatives, and then in 2012 ran and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he is on three committees:  Education and Labor, Intelligence, and Foreign Affairs, as vice chairman.  He is also chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.  Julian was elected mayor of San Antonio.  President Barack Obama appointed him to be Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Julian started that job in July 2014.  He announced as a candidate of the Democratic Party for president in January 2019.  Joaquin is his campaign chairman [3]. 

[1]  https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2019-02-20/pdf/2019-03011.pdf

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/02/20/2019-03011/declaring-a-national-emergency-concerning-the-southern-border-of-the-united-states

[2]  https://www.congress.gov/116/bills/hjres46/BILLS-116hjres46ih.pdf

https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-joint-resolution/46/all-info?r=5

[3]  https://www.texastribune.org/2019/02/21/can-congressman-joaquin-castro-promote-his-brother-president/

 

The Daydreams of Dilbert Dogbert - TTG

This comment was posted earlier today by our friend, dilbertdogbert, at the behest of Colonel Lang. The sentiment expressed by both these gentlemen is one with which I heartedly agree. We can only take so much politics, anger and stupidity before we give the whole thing up.

*********************

“Completely off topic but the good Col Lang asked me to put the link on the blog. It is about small boat adventures. The Col. has linked to the one in Florida. This one is on the Left Coast - Puget Sound. Now the Salish Sea. A place where I have many memories of and many friendships. It is good to get something to think about than the current state of politics and the world in turmoil.”

https://www.facebook.com/groups/285180382147515/

“Here is a google link to more information on the area.”

https://www.google.com/search?salish+sea+100

*********************

The Sailish Sea 100 is a known as a raid, a sail and oar adventure done with small boats as a leisurely pace rather than as a race. There often are some competitive elements involved in a raid. After all, anytime two boats get together there is a race of some kind. But the goal of a raid is comradeship, fun and adventure. This particular raid will take place in a magical location, perhaps literally. I envy dilbertdogbert’s memories of Puget Sound. I’ve never been there. The closest I’ve been was kayaking among the whales, walruses, bald eagles and calving glaciers in Alaska. A magical place all of its own.

I’ve taken up a new nautical interest after my visit to the Draken Harald Harfagre when she paid a port call in Washington DC this October. I was wondering how she was steered without any real keel or centerboard and a comparatively small rudder. A lot of this task is done by sail positioning as with a windsurfer. I started studying the shunting proas of the Pacific. In short, they’re amazing and downright ingenious. This is what I've been day dreaming about lately. But more on that later when I do my annual post on the Everglades 300.

TTG 

Mental Hygiene - TTG

I’ve often sung the praises of the act of reading the local newspaper. Since I’ve retired, I’ve engaged in the morning ritual of putting the kettle on the boil, walking out to the mailbox to fetch the morning paper and then leisurely reading that paper with a mug of tea. No TV. No radio. No internet. It’s a form of meditation or prayer, perhaps in the Ignatian tradition. 

The following story was on the front page of my morning paper. The editors thought it was of such significance that we, the readers in the Fredericksburg area, should pay it some attention. I’m glad they made that call. Everything about this story was nourishing to my soul. I hope some of my fellow correspondents in this committee also find it as pleasing.

*********************

Horse in a hayloft freed by Culpeper County rescue team

By Allison Brophy   Champion Culpeper Star-Exponent   Nov 29, 2018

Enticed by piles of fresh food, a horse on a farm near Luray this week pushed her way into a barn and trotted up the stairs to the hayloft for a prolonged breakfast. Getting “Holly”—a 12-year-old Welsh Percheron cross—down would prove much more challenging, requiring heavy equipment and the assistance of Culpeper County’s own Little Fork Volunteer Fire & Rescue Large Animal Rescue Team—the only volunteer team of its type in all of Virginia.

The four-hour rescue ended successfully, but only after careful planning and maneuvering. “It’s a challenge to rescue an animal that could possibly harm or kill you. It’s just totally different from anything else that we do,” said Little Fork Fire Chief Doug Monaco, one of four from the local company who responded to Monday’s call, about an hour away. “For us to come up on an animal that’s trapped or trapped and injured, they’re under duress, they’re not going to act like they do when they’re just standing there.” 

*********************

Read the rest of this gripping tale at the online edition of the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star. This is the kind of story that should be made into a richly illustrated children’s book. Holly of Page County could easily be as famous as Misty of Chincoteague. There are more photos and the rescue team’s own account of the day’s events on the Facebook page of the Little Fork Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company. If for nothing else, there are several photos of a fine looking little barn. I spent a lot of time in barns in my youth. That's my family barn below.

TTG

https://www.fredericksburg.com/news/local/culpeper/horse-in-a-hayloft-freed-by-culpeper-county-rescue-team/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/littlefork/ 

The Draken Harald Hårfagre is in Washington, DC - TTG

The world's largest modern Viking ship and her international crew of thirty-five arrived at the District Wharf today as part of her North American tour. She will be in DC through 15 October with daily ship tours, a nearby Draken Village and cultural events hosted by the Royal Norwegian Embassy. I missed the port call of the Hōkūleʻa last year. I have no intention of missing the Draken Harald Hårfagre. Wooden Boat magazine had a pretty good write up a while back. I was in awe of the craftsmanship in her construction. I can hardly wait to rub my hands over her timbers and see the iron riveting up close. I want to talk to the crew about how she handles under sail. How close can she sail to the wind without much of a keel? I've been studying the construction and sailing mechanics of South Pacific shunting proas lately. There's a surprisingly large group of proa enthusiasts in Poland and Germany. Maybe I can strike up a discussion on this subject with one of the international crew members. This should be a fun visit to DC next week. Here's a description of the ship from the website.

***************
With great interest for sailing, boatbuilding and vikings the project to build and sail the greatest viking ship of modern times started. The curator of the project, Sigurd Aase, wanted this extraordinary ship to follow in the wake of one of the most challenging viking explorations – the Viking discovery of the New World. In March of 2010, construction began on what would be the largest Viking ship ever built in modern times. Named after Harald Hårfagre, the king who unified Norway into one kingdom, the great dragon ship came together in the town of Haugesund in Western Norway.

The Vikings left almost no record of how they built their ships, or how they sailed them. Draken Harald Hårfagre is a recreation of what the Vikings would call a “Great Ship”, built with archaeological knowledge of found ships, using old boatbuilding traditions and the legends of Viking ships from the Norse sagas.

Plank by plank, nail by nail, more than 10 000 of them, the ship was constructed by a band of experienced boat builders, historians, craftsmen and artists. 115 feet from stem to stern, 26 feet wide, 260 square meters of silk sail and a 79 feet tall mast made from Douglas fir. She is a seaworthy ship, able to sail the Oceans of the World. At a hundred and fourteen feet of crafted oak, twenty-seven feet on the beam, displacing eighty tons, and with a thirty-two hundred square foot sail, this magnificent ship is indeed worthy of a king.

Norway’s leading experts in traditional boat building and the square sail were engaged in the development and construction of the ship. The construction is an experimental archaeological research program, and the aim was to recreate a ship with the superb seaworthiness that characterized the ocean going long ships in the Viking Age.

TTG

https://www.drakenhh.com 

In today's local newspaper - TTG

One of the joys of retirement is having the time to leisurely read the local newspaper while enjoying a mug of tea. Alone. In silence. No internet. No TV or radio. When the weather permits, I may perform this ritual on the deck or in the gazebo in the company of the squirrels and birds. 

This morning’s edition of the Free Lance-Star reminded me why I find such value in the local paper. Three stories dominate the front page. The first is an examination of the environmental damage caused by the construction of a golf course resort overlooking the Rappahanock River near the town of Tappahanock. The planned development sits atop the historically and environmentally sensitive Fones Cliffs. Opposition to the project is spearheaded by two groups dear to my heart, the Friends of the Rappahannock and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. They’ve set the Virginia AG and DEQ on those son-of-a-bitchin’ New York developers. What is it about those guys?

The second story is a continuation of the saga of the slave auction block in downtown Fredericksburg. Should it stay or should it go. They'll figure it out some day.

The front page story accompanied by the largest photo chronicles the life of Milton Kline, the man who ran the University of Mary Washington paint crew for the last 25 years. He retired last month after 40 years at UMW and plans to continue working as a part-time painter at UMW. I love this kind of story. Fortunately, the Free Lance-Star publishes a lot of them.

There is a column that I seldom miss written by a local curmudgeon named Donnie Johnston. He often writes about his crops and the goings-on around his farm. He also chronicles the good old days and not so good old days in the region. Today’s column is entitled “Nothing beats naturally dried clothes.” Donnie’s an acquired taste.

The lead article in today’s Town and Country section is about William Freehling Sr. and his new book. Freehling now calls Fredricksburg his home. His book goes beyond local interest and I thought many of my fellow correspondents here may find it to be of interest. I haven’t read the book, but I plan on doing so. 

******************************

New Lincoln biography by Fredericksburg author examines the man's evolution to greatness

By Emily Jennings  The Free Lance-Star

Radiating from the face of “Abraham Lincoln: The Man,” the magnificent statue that resides in Chicago’s Lincoln Park, is a mixture of anger, submission, sadness—and tenacious persistence.

This face, formed from a life mask of the former U.S. president by Irish sculptor Augustus Saint–Gauden 19 years after Lincoln’s death, fascinated a teenage William W. Freehling Sr., who lived with his family in an apartment that overlooked the park.

“Some tormenting question obsessed him,” Freehling wrote in the introduction of his new book, “Becoming Lincoln,” released Tuesday, Sept. 25, by the University of Virginia Press. “What could make a great victor so sad?”

Freehling, in one way and another, has spent a lifetime pursuing that question, resulting in the decision a few years ago to analyze it more fully with his own biography of our nation’s 16th president.

“Few historians have given enough emphasis to the coming of the Civil War, Lincoln before the presidency—in what ways his life before affected how he filled that role,” Freehling said. “There is no one in history more successful who failed more often.”

Freehling approached the task with unique qualifications, having already completed several noteworthy books on the American South during the antebellum era, including “Prelude to Civil War: The Nullification Controversy in South Carolina,” which won the 1967 Bancroft Prize, and the two-volume “Road to Disunion”—“Secessionists at Bay, 1776–1854,” and “Secessionists Triumphant, 1854–1861.”

Having received his bachelor’s at Harvard College and both his master’s and doctorate degrees at the University of California at Berkeley, Freehling taught at Berkeley and Harvard, held full professorships at the University of Michigan and Johns Hopkins University, and endowed chairs at the State University of New York, Buffalo and the University of Kentucky.

Freehling values studying under such distinguished scholars as Arthur Schlessinger Jr. and Kenneth Stampp, but honors his high school history teacher, Sonia Salk Heller, for sparking an interest in his future career.

“She made it all come alive for me,” Freehling said. “She stressed that political history must be based on social history, which made it all much more interesting to me, and has always influenced my writing.”

Freehling conducted much of his research for “Becoming Lincoln” at the University of Virginia as a permanent Senior Fellow with the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, which brought him to Charlottesville.

Six years ago, Freehling and his wife, Alison, moved to Fredericksburg to live closer to his son and daughter-in-law and their children. William Freehling Jr., is Fredericksburg’s director of economic development and tourism and previously wrote for The Free Lance–Star.

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You can read the rest of the article here if you are moved to do so. If you are wondering, the photo at the top of this article is of a bronze statue of a newspaper delivery boy that stands in front of the offices of the Free Lance Star. When I was about that age, I delivered the New Haven Register from the same kind of shoulder bag... but I never wore knickers.

TTG

Peregrine Falcon vs Rock Doves

One of these came to sit on a limb in my garden yesterday.  It looked down on me for a while.  The Rock Doves have recently disappeared.  I hope they were tasty.  pl

Samuel Gompers and Lenin - “More and More” and “All or Nothing.” - TTG

For some reason, Colonel Lang’s recent essay reminded me of the plight of labor unions in the United States. Derided today by all except those union laborers who have gained entry to the great middle class through their hard work and membership in those unions, the American labor union movement is near extinct. It wasn’t always so. A textbook used in one of my Jesuit high school American history classes was written by a Dominican priest and chaplain general of the French Resistance during World War II, Raymond Leopold Bruckberger. His book, “Image of America,” first published in France in 1958, is a paean to America by a disillusioned European. His last chapter, in particular, sticks in my mind to this day… Samuel Gompers and Lenin - “More and More” and “All or Nothing.” It’s quite thought provoking. I still take it off the bookshelf and read it from time to time. If you can find a copy in a bookstore or library, I recommend reading it.  

Gompers was an immigrant to America during the middle of our Civil War. He was a son of Dutch Jews and worked, as his father did, as a cigar maker. He became a champion of the working man. “In my religion, I am a workingman, and in every nerve, in every fiber, in every aspiration I am on the side which will advance the interests of my fellow workingmen.” But he was not a socialist or anti-capitalist. He also said, “The worst crime against working people is a company which fails to operate at a profit.” His contributions to the American nation and people were in the spirit of working together and compromise.

The following is the last section of an essay Gompers wrote in 1910 entitled “The Significance of Labor Day.” I find it especially appropriate for this Labor Day and our discussion of Colonel Lang’s “E Pluribus Unum no more.”

*************************

“At no time in the history of the world have the workers demonstrated more clearly their purpose not only to be just, but to demand justice. They realize that without organization in this day of concentrated wealth and industry their lives and their liberties are doomed. They have organized, and are organizing, with greater rapidity than ever. The earnestness of their expressions, the sincerity of their actions, the solidarity of their movements, the fraternity which they engender, all bespeak a brighter future for all who toil, for all who are dependent upon them.

Our labor movement has no system to crush. It has nothing to overturn. It purposes to build up, to develop, to rejuvenate humanity.

It stands for the right. It is the greatest protestant against wrong. It is the defender of the weak.

Its members make the sacrifices and bear the brunt of battle to obtain more equitable and humane conditions in the everyday lives of all the people.

It may be true that here and there a setback is encountered in the battle of labor; but it is simply a skirmish, for the grand army is ever moving onward and forward. One column in our ranks may be defeated, yet it is only a retreat for greater organization, better preparation for a more propitious time.

Splendid as has been the progress in organization and federation within the recent past, yet there is much to do to convince the yet unorganized workers that their duty to themselves, their wives and children, their fellow-workers, their fellow-men is to organize and help in the great cause. We must win or regain the confidence of the indifferent, negligent, or ignorant non-unionists, to impress on his mind that he who will not stand with his brother for the right is equally responsible with the wrongdoer for any wrong done. The excuse and justification for tyranny is the servility and indifference of the slaves.

By the organization of the workers we not only quicken the conscience of those inclined to the wrong, but we create a healthier public opinion regarding the great cause for which we stand. Hence, our fellow-unionists, rank and file, officers, organizers, leaders, in fact all, are devoting themselves unfalteringly and persistently to the work of bringing the non-unionists within the fold of organization.

The workers can be free. Justice and right can and must be proclaimed, established, and maintained.

The full realization of these principles and potent purposes can come only by the work, and if necessary, the sacrifices, of the hosts of unionists through whose earnest effort must be fulfilled the mission to unite the world of workers and usher in the dawn of that bright day of which the poets have sung, philosophers dreamed, and the workmen struggled and yearned to achieve for the human family.” 

by Samuel Gompers, September 4, 1910

TTG

https://books.google.com/books/about/Image_of_America.html?id=lmN07jNQHOsC

https://www.whatsoproudlywehail.org/curriculum/the-american-calendar/the-significance-of-labor-day

E Pluribus Unum no more

We Americans were traditionally divided politically and culturally by region.  There is still some of that but the major fault lines are more fuzzy now.

1.  The Establishment.  This group was on parade during the McCain imperial procession across the lands. The sight of the supposedly mutually opposed Republicans and Democrats hobnobbing, backslapping, joking, hugging and passing around the bi-partisan mints while they waited for the stiff to be wheeled in was revealing.  The cavernous nave of the pseudo-Gothic church was a perfect venue for this fête de joie.   A window depicting Robert Lee looked down on this vast space until recently.  That has been taken down to maintain amity between the Yankee and "Southern" wings of the establishment.  The Episcopal Church of today has no use for such as he.  I wonder if the masses who support "the middle" understand how cruelly they are deceived by the pretended mutual animosity of their "betters."  The farce was on display last week.

2.  The Neo-Bolsheviks.  These people have been gathering their strength in the schools since the '60s.  they have indoctrinated the young all this time with a hatred of capitalism, a contempt for American tradition to include the Constitution and a desire to see the country reduced to the status of Cambodia in the Year Zero.  The spectacle of the disintegration of Venezuela after decades of socialist tinkering means nothing to them.  This time we will get it right!  This is their belief.  Disillusioned communists told me all across what had been the Warsaw Pact that Communism was never given a fair chance to prove itself.  The American Bolsheviki think they will get it right this time if they attain power.  The original Bolsheviks seized power with how many members in the vanguard?  20,000?  Tell me.  The governments of New York, California and New Jersey are all seeking to accommodate the Neo-Bolsheviks.  How far will they go?  The Soviet Bolsheviks killed millions of Russian Kulaks and political enemies.  Remember that!

3. The Deplorables.  This is essentially the "country party."  They are the people who know they are being dis-possessed.  These are the people who know they are despised by both the Establishment and the Neo-Bolsheviks and who are acutely aware that these other groups intend to exterminate them as a group if not as individuals.  The Clintons were the ultimate Establishment people.  Bill threw away the Deplorables' jobs in NAFTA in search of the Globalist Utopian vision at the heart of the Establishment's indoctrination in the schools.  Ross Perot was an amusing little freak?  He spoke of a "great sucking sound" that would be heard as Deplorable jobs followed cheap capital across the southern border?  The Deplorables do not think he was funny at all.  They elected Trump to give them hope and he has done that.  They do not want to be governed by Establishment figures like HC who detested them as obstacles so much that she could not refrain from treating the miners with contempt to their faces.  Bette Midler said this week that the Establishmenters cannot fight the Deplorables because people like her have no weapons but PBS tote bags.  An interesting point.

There are a lot of splinter groups and factions.  Tell me what they are.  pl

Will the "Red Hen" survive?

The "Red Hen" is a 26 seat restaurant in Lexington, Virginia in the Shenandoah Valley.  The town is the seat of Rockbridge County, an intensely conservative area while the town which is completely surrounded by the county is very liberal.  the town has 7200 inhabitants, and is a very pretty little place that is the location of Washington and Lee University and Virginia Military Institute, my alma mater.

Sarah Sanders, the president's press secretary was in Lexington for some reason on Friday with seven of her relatives and chose to go to this restaurant for dinner.  The eight of them would have been a major piece of trade in what passes for "fine dining" in the area.  I have never eaten there but remember that when I was a cadet at VMI it was a junk shop and that later it was a BBQ take-out place before ascending to its present grandeur.

The restaurant is expensive for the local dining scene.  Half the population of the town are students at the two colleges.  They are not going to be eating much at the Red Hen unless mom and dad have come to town to visit.  Faculty at the two schools are not paid so much that they are likely to eat there very often. 

Soo, the custom for this little eatery must be the constant stream of alumni, family and friends who flow through scenic and historic Lexington in a pilgrimage to the colleges and to such features as the home of Lt Gen Thomas (Stonewall) Jackson, CSA which is across the street from the Red Hen as well as the graves of Jackson and Robert E. Lee which are a few streets away.

I will predict that the liberal leaning element among the visitors to the town will continue to patronize the restaurant but as the news spreads there will be a drop in patrons among "all others."

Sanders and her party had not broken any furniture.  They were not cursing drunkenly.  They were nevertheless asked to leave on political grounds by the woman owner of the restaurant.  pl 

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/06/23/sarah-sanders-booted-so-restaurant-could-uphold-certain-standards-co-owner-says-report.html

https://redhenlex.com/menu/

 

WE’RE NOT GOING TO BE SUCK THIS YEAR - TTG

The Caps, my beloved Caps and their crazy 8 captain, Alex Ovechkin won the Lord Stanley Cup in Las Vegas tonight. Slava Sasha! During an interview before the season started, Alex was asked how the team would perform this year. Alex’s response was the prophetic, “we’re not going to be suck this year.” 

Na pravda, Ovi, you are not suck this year.

I won’t bore you further with my exuberance. You can catch all the news at the other blog I read religiously, RMNB or Russian Machine Never Breaks, another literary gem coined by Ovi.

https://russianmachineneverbreaks.com

Oh! By the way, Alex Ovechkin and his wife, Nastya Ovechkina, are expecting their first child.

TTG 

I will not eat octopus again.

 

"Octopuses’ brains are in their arms, which is admittedly pretty odd. Two-thirds of an octopus’ neurons reside in the long appendages that many mistakenly call “tentacles” (in modern zoology, a “tentacle” is relatively long and thin, with some kind of clubbed end). This decentralized way of thinking means that even severed arms can “think” for themselves, or at least respond to physical stimuli and try to escape whatever is trying to eat them, which is why people die from trying to swallow live octopus arms only to find that the arm is still fighting back (a reported six people die this way on average each year in South Korea, where the dish is popular).

But their peculiar approach to brains hasn’t stopped them from ranking among the most intelligent creatures that we know of. Octopuses regularly use tools, solve puzzles, and generally cause mayhem by sneaking in and out of their enclosures. They also sometimes accessorize by hopping inside old coconut shells and using them as little mobile homes, all while looking more stylish than most humans.

As they travel, they also taste everything that they walk on since their suckers are all sensory organs. You’d think that would motivate them to swim everywhere, but unfortunately one of their three hearts has to stop beating whenever they swim, which is quite tiring and means that many octopuses prefer to stroll. Their other two hearts provide blood to the gills, but that third heart circulates blood to the central organs. The main organs reside inside the octopus’ bulbous head (called a mantle), which contains no bones. The only truly hard part of an octopus is the beak, which is basically its mouth. This means that the critters can squeeze through almost any opening as long as it’s bigger than the schnoz. Everything else is negotiable.

But perhaps the weirdest thing about octopuses is that, unlike many of the other highly intelligent creatures populating our planet, they don’t live long. Some live just six months, others a few years, and most males die shortly after mating. The females last long enough to protect their clutch of eggs, during which time they slowly starve to death." 

---------------

All of this and mother love as well ... IMO octopus in US territorial waters should be declared Cephalopod Americans.  EEO protections should be considered.  "Is this a great country or what?"  pl

https://www.popsci.com/octopus-aliens

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus

RUSSIAN COLLUSION! OH MY! - TTG

Yes! Absolute proof! And it all became crystal clear last night at PPG Paints Arena during game six overtime of the NHL round two Stanley Cup playoff series between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals. At ground zero of this blatant case of collusion stand two nefarious Russkies, currently stationed in our Nations capital of all places… Evgeny Kuznetsov and Alexander Ovechkin. Cue the outrage! Cue the loud and continuous harumpfs (at least in Pittsburgh).  

The longtime voice of Caps Radio, John Walton, caught this collusion in his usual over the top style. It’s fourteen minutes into overtime. Pittsburgh’s Crosby has the puck and id beginning a drive towards the Capitals net. “Poke-check away and now the counter, hear come the Caps,” Walton says as Crosby turned the puck over in the neutral zone to Alex Ovechkin who passes it forward to Kuznetzov. “Kuznetsov gets loose, Evgeny coming down the middle, a shot and it comes over — he scores! He scores! Evgeny Kuznetsov wins it for Washington. It’s off to the third round! The demons have been exorcised! Good morning, good afternoon, and good night, Pittsburgh! We’re going to Tampa Bay! The Capitals have done it!”

It’s even better when Walton’s Caps Radio call is synced to the NBCSN video courtesy of Cristiano Simonetta, the voice of Illini Hockey. Thanks Cristiano. 

https://twitter.com/CMS_74_/status/993682903849754629

Sports in DC is a seemingly unending series of desperation and frustration. As undoubtedly happens in every sports town, Coach Barry Trotz and every member of the Caps team have been raked over the coals by fans in their seasonal disappointment and frustration. But the stars have aligned. The Caps rookies and veterans are clicking with a burning hunger not seen in a long time. This hunger is somehow aligning with the exasperatingly pig headed admonishment of Trotz, "Stick to the plan." It's working. We’re halfway there. The Caps now face the formidable Tampa Bay Lightning and another formidable team from the Western Conference. The day before this game, Barry Trotz implored all DC sports fans, “Just get behind us, please. That’s all I ask.”

SLAVA KUZY!

SLAVA OVI!

SLAVA CAPS!

Note: No, this is not the big story of the day. Not even close. But damn, people. there are a lot of things in this world, big and small, that we should take in. Keep your heads up.

TTG

The Skripals survived, but their cat and rodents ... not so much.

(the now dead feline)

"Britain has not identified the suspects who carried out the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal but is stepping up protection for other defectors who might also be at risk, the UK's national security adviser said on Tuesday.

Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found slumped on a bench in the southern English city of Salisbury on March 4 after a liquid form the Novichok type of nerve agent was applied to the front door of his home.

Britain says Russia was behind the attack but Moscow has denied any involvement. The ensuing fallout led to the biggest Western expulsions of Russian diplomats since the height of the Cold War.

Asked by lawmakers on the British parliament's defense committee if the suspects behind the poisoning had been identified, Mark Sedwill, the national security adviser to Prime Minister Theresa May, said: "Not yet".

The attack left both Skripal and his daughter critically ill in hospital for weeks. A British policeman was also treated in hospital.

Yulia Skripal, 33, was discharged last month but her father, a former colonel in Russian military intelligence who betrayed dozens of agents to Britain's MI6 foreign spy service, remains in hospital.

Other Russian dissidents and defectors have also been killed in Britain in recent years in circumstances that have raised suspicions.

Police said they had launched a murder investigation into the death of Russian businessman Nikolai Glushkov who was found dead at his London home days after Skripal was poisoned, although detectives said there was nothing to link the two events."  US News and World Report

-------------

 Sir Mark, bless him, has told an MP during a committee meeting, that the armed forces, MI-5, MI-6 and GCHQ do not know who or indeed what sickened the Skripals, pere   et fille, in Salisbury.  He doesn't seem to have mentioned the police.

So, basically, pilgrims, Teresa May, the queen's first minister has insistently and incessantly  accused the Russians of a crime of which our British cousins know precious little.

In a closely related development, it is now revealed that the Britishers sealed up Skripal's house after the poisoning event leaving the black Persian shown above and two guinea pigs to die of thirst and hunger within.  It would seem likely that they knew they were doing this since they would have searched the house first.  No?  Perhaps they thought that the cat might be a threat as a being of possible Iranian descent.

This is impressive stuff. 

pl

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2018-05-01/uk-has-not-yet-identified-skripal-poisoning-suspects

 

Redoubts 9 and 10 - Where the US was born.

 

(In honor of the state visit of president Emanuel Macron this post is re-published 23 April 2018.)

This is a re-enactment drill team from the "Regiment Saintonge."   This was one of the seven French infantry regiments who fought at Yorktown and without whose service and courage Cornwallis would never have surrendered.  Anthony Wayne's Continentals and these men captured these two strong redoubts in night bayonet attacks.  There are a whole lot of these fellows buried out in the woods at Yorktown in their military cemetery.  These were the French king's soldiers and their units passed into history at their own revolution.  Among the men were people from all over France, Rhinelanders from Zweibrucken (Deux Ponts), Irish of course, Poles and a scattering of European professionals of one kind or another.  Are their graves decorated on the 4th of July?  I hope so.  Here is a list of their dead buried in Virginia's soil.  They are listed by regiment.  pl

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMg-PHszyDM

 

Everglades Challenge 2018 - TTG

Ratty knows the score. To be on the water in any kind of craft can be therapeutic. IMHO the sound of the surf can only be equalled by the sound of the wind in the pines. Both together… heaven. You can’t buy that kind of therapy with a million dollars. One of the saddest things I often saw on the streets of DC was the herds of young, ambitious suits with ear buds in their ears, eyes and thumbs glued to their smartphones, totally oblivious to their surroundings. Borg aspirants, no? It is no wonder so much self serving and destructive idiocy is produced in Washington. As I have said for so many years now, I think we deserve a break... or at least a little vicarious diversion from the madness that surrounds us. 

Funny how this rings true year after year, no matter what changes occur in Washington. Once again, I invite the SST Committee of Correspondence to follow the running of the Everglades Challenge which begins this Saturday morning. The event is organized by a colorful group of adventurers who call themselves the Water Tribe. The Everglades Challenge is an unsupported, expedition style adventure race for kayaks, canoes, and small sailboats. It starts at Fort DeSoto in Saint Petersburg, Florida and ends at Key Largo. The distance is roughly 300 nautical miles depending on one's course selection. Updates on the progress and tribulations of the participants will be posted on the Water Tribe forums. There is also a WaterTribe Facebook page. It’s a closed group, but they let me in so they can’t be too picky. The boats are tracked by SPOT satellite. Their progress can be seen on this tracking map. There is also a tracking map provided through Race Owl. Between the two, the event should be well covered. 

To truly get a feel for this event, I recommend you set aside an hour and a half to view this video about the 2013 running of the Everglades Challenge. There’s some excellent banjo and fiddle work as well. 

 

A coupla things ...

1.  A couple of Border Patrol/ICE people tell me that the US does not effectively charge an entry fee to non-US citizen individuals seeking to enter the US legally across the southern border.  The point made by these border and immigration professionals is that the money would enable the construction and installation of more and better border barrier systems.  They make the point that where border barrier systems have been installed the flow of illegal migrants is much reduced.  Mexico evidently collects such a fee in the San Diego sector.  My question for the lawyers is whether or not such a fee would be legal if put in place under an EO or would this require legislation?

2.  We now have had Obama Derangement Syndrome (ODS),  Clinton Derangement Syndrome (CDS),  Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS),  and United States Derangement Syndrome (USDS).  I propose yet another Derangement Syndrome.  This would be the Russia/Iran Derangement Syndrome (RIDS).  In this syndrome now prominent on both sides of the political divide, the Russia of Pushkin, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, etc. disappears to be replaced altogether by Ivan the Terrible, Lenin, Stalin and the Soviet Union writ large to condemn Russia in our minds to the status of crafty inherently hostile barbarians.   Well, pilgrims, maybe it ain't so!  Ukraine?  Are we really solidly behind a coup generated government of Nazi sympathizers in Kiev?  Are we really?  Is there really evidence that Russian Army troops are fighting in eastern Ukraine?  Is there? Or is this claim just another example of Borgist (foreign policy establishment) information operations?  Do we still remember that the Crimea was for centuries an integral part of Russia, not the Ukraine, until Khruschev, a Ukrainian, arbitrarily gave Crimea to the Ukraine.  The Russians took it back?  What a surprise.  What a surprise!  That doesn't fit with the "rules based world order?"  Well, maybe there is something wrong with the rules that the Borg loves so much.  Russia intervened in Syria to prevent a  jihadi/Gulfy/Israeli/US handover of the country to the grip of a salafi satrapi of Saudi Arabia?  Well, God bless them!

3. The Borg evidently thinks it bestrides the world as the standard bearer of the aforementioned "rules," commanding from the imperial capital on the Tiber/Potomac.  A reminder of this "thought," is the statement today in the corporate media that the US "ordered" Soleimani, the IRGC Quds force commander (foreign interventions) not to leave Iran and he has had the effrontery to visit Moscow.  Tell me pilgrims, what is the sense of such a statement.  How is Soleimani a terrorist?  He carries out his country's foreign policy as do our people for US policy.  His men worked with Iraqi insurgents to fight us during our adventure in country building?  Mathis, McMaster and all that crew are so deeply embittered by war that they cannot see the foolishness of that?  They should grow up.  "We fought them and they fought us."  Germany, Japan, Spain, etc.?  Come on!  Grow up!

4.  Pelosi appears to me to be demented.

5.  "Shithole?"  Well, SWMBO and I have lived and visited in many a "shithole."  Haiti, Salvador, Yemen, and any number of African dumps closely resemble that description.  Rude?  Yes, certainly, but he is the "hard hat" president.  IMO most Americans agree with him on this. 

6.  A lot of the newer, younger people on Foxnews' air appear to be making their reportage into the new CNN.  pl

Auld Lang Syne - 2018

 

 

Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind ? Should old acquaintance be forgot, and old lang syne ?

CHORUS: For auld lang syne, my dear, for auld lang syne, we'll take a cup of kindness yet, for auld lang syne.

And surely you’ll buy your pint cup ! and surely I’ll buy mine ! And we'll take a cup o’ kindness yet, for auld lang syne.

(CHORUS)

We two have run about the slopes, and picked the daisies fine ; But we’ve wandered many a weary foot, since auld lang syne.

(CHORUS)

We two have paddled in the stream, from morning sun till dine ; But seas between us broad have roared since auld lang syne.

(CHORUS)

And there’s a hand my trusty friend ! And give us a hand o’ thine ! And we’ll take a right good-will draught, for auld lang syne.

(CHORUS)

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Auld+Lang+Syne+Celtic+Version&&view=detail&mid=37E2B51AB3AC6241AD0B37E2B51AB3AC6241AD0B&&FORM=VDRVRV

New Year's Eve

Caviar, Sour cream, other goodies.  See you in 2018.  pl

Whither 2018?

 

One of the members suggests that we give our opinions as to the coming year's major developments.  Good Idea! Not too long please.  pl

Black Vultures came avisiting.

Around noon today I was out in the back garden.  I heard a lot of splashing about.  I looked up and saw three of these things taking turns in one of SWMBO's fountains.  They looked exactly like this photograph and were about two feet tall.  They observed me for a bit and then flew up to a fence near the fountain where they perched side by side and peered about.  They looked slightly confused.  The white legs are very distinctive.  My wife came out of the house to take pictures of them on the fence.  She approached to within ten feet before they became flustered and flew into a tall tree in the next dor neighbor's yard.  They sat in a row high up and squabbled with each other for a while before flying away.  They are clearly immature.

Twenty years ago I had an office on the tope floor of an office building in Clarendon (Arlington).  A pair of big turkey vultures used the roof as a perch and observation post to survey the streets. They had red heads and were about four feet tall.  I often tapped on the plate glass wall that looked out on the sloping metal roof.  When I did that one would sidle up to the glass and peer in at me.  These are not pretty birds.  pl

An intruder in paradise ...

(a Red Tailed Hawk)

We have a back garden that is filled with an outdoor kitchen, stone terraces, and a small forest of evergreens that enclose the space as well as a willow tree and various flowering trees and shrubs,  There is a Tiffany Studios mosaic (1890) of stylized art nouveau flowers presiding over one of the terraces.  The whole thing has a "Wind in the Willows" atmosphere.

In a far corner there is a Redbud tree.  It is about 30 feet tall and in early Spring is a glory of red-purple flowers.  I have pruned the lower branches into projections from which to hang the various elements of my bird feeding station.  There is a double sided seed feeder with the weight adjustment set to accept birds no larger than a Cardinal.  There is a wooden platform feeder for those who don't want to perch on a moving bar to get fed.  There is a caged suet feeder for the Downy Woodpeckers.  They like cakes of suet studded with insect eggs.  There is another hanging feeder full of bread bits, old dry cereal, etc. 

I have a chair in place about thirty feet away where I can smoke Burma cheroots and watch the action among the birds and squirrels.   Catbirds, a tribe of Cardinals, Woodpeckers, Mourning Doves, Bluejays, and little brown things with great voices.  There are also European starlings (a nuisance), and tiny green hummingbirds who like my wife's flowers.  These are the habitués of my private utopia for birds.

Yesterday I was surveying the scene and puffing contentedly when a red tailed hawk arrived in this scene like a brown cannon ball .  It streaked in through a hole in the foliage along the fence and made a grab for a dove that had been pecking at seed on the platform feeder.  There was an explosion of birds and squirrels in every direction with much screeching and squawking.  The hawk missed the dove.  The intended prey fled across the back garden with the brown rocket in pursuit.  It passed me at about ten feet.  As it went by it saw me and turned its head to look even as it flew a wild course among the many head high plants.  It disappeared around a corner of the house still climbing and still chasing.

God help the dove.  pl

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-tailed_hawk

Not a Gentleman ...

Is it not clear?   A gentleman never speaks publicly and adversely about a woman's appearance.  This is especially true if she is an enemy.  pl

“Ben Finney, Anthropologist Who Debunked Theory on Island Settlement, Dies at 83” - TTG

“On June 4, 1976, the Hokulea, a double-hulled sailing canoe of ancient design, glided into Papeete Harbor in Tahiti, greeted ecstatically by a crowd of 17,000 — more than half the island’s population. For the first time in six centuries, a traditional Polynesian sailing vessel had made the voyage from Hawaii to Tahiti, covering more than 2,700 miles without instruments.

For Ben Finney, an anthropologist at the University of Hawaii, it was sweet vindication. In an effort to prove that the settlement of Polynesia came about through deliberate exploration, rather than aimless drifting — the so-called accidental settlement hypothesis — he oversaw the construction of a 62-foot double canoe based on 18th-century illustrations made by members of Capt. James Cook’s crew.

He then found a master navigator from the Caroline Islands, Mau Piailug, who was capable of guiding the Hokulea (the name means “Star of Joy”) in the age-old way: using the rising points of the stars, supplemented by observations of the sun, the moon and ocean swells, as a natural compass.

Thirty-four days after leaving Honolua Bay, in Maui, on May 1, the Hokulea reached its destination, affirming the navigational expertise of the ancient Polynesians and throwing additional cold water on Thor Heyerdahl’s conjecture that settlers had come from South America, a theory he hoped to prove in his famous 1947 voyage aboard the raft Kon-Tiki.”  (NYT)

****************************** 

I was always enamored of the Hokule’a. I first saw her in the Ala Wai Harbor near the Hale Koa Hotel in Honolulu around Christmas in 1977. She sat in the water all alone. It was just me and her… love at first sight. I was heart broken when I missed her arrival at Alexandria, Virginia last May. This port call was part of her three year circumnavigation of the earth tour. Perhaps some day we will meet again. I have kept the knowledge of this love affair from SWMBO. She thinks we’re just friends. 

I have seen many recreated sailing vessels. Most have auxiliary engines and modern navigational equipment. Not the Hokule’a. She relies on the wind and the stars as well as the sun, moon and ocean wave patterns to reach her destination. That is special. Ben Finney left quite a legacy in the Hokule’a and everything she stands for.

TTG

P.S. - My profound thanks to Colonel Lang for allowing me to indulge my occasional off-the-wall thoughts such as this.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/17/us/ben-finney-dead-hawaii-tahiti.html?_r=0

http://archives.starbulletin.com/1999/06/07/hokulea/story4.html

http://www.hawaii.edu/malamalama/2008/05/f2-voyaging.html

 

Earth Day Close to Home - TTG

“Saint Thérèse of Lisieux invites us to practice the little way of love, not to miss out on a kind word, a smile or any small gesture which sows peace and friendship. An integral ecology is also made up of simple daily gestures which break with the logic of violence, exploitation and selfishness.” 

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This is from Pope Francis’ “Laudato Si” (Paragraph 230). It’s not one of his most moving or controversial passages, but I find it to be a prescription that is eminently doable. I think it’s Papa Frank’s theological way of saying the little things count. It’s something we can all do. It’s something we should all do.

On this Earth Day, I celebrate the little things around me. I rejoice in the many Six-lined Racerunner lizards scampering around the front porch. They were our first neighbors when we moved into this house. They remind me of all those geckos in the townhouse in Mililani Town. The Racerunners were just the vanguard of a host of amazing insects, reptiles, birds and furry mammals in my yard. I’ve been pursuing a policy of no pesticides, abundant natural plantings and little fertilizer to bring on this abundance.

On a grander, but still local, scale, we have the success of our Crow’s Nest Natural Area Preserve. This is a gem in Virginia’s crown that I was able to see come to fruition. I was reminded of this by a column in my local paper this morning by Hal Wiggins. 

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“The April 1 opening of Crow’s Nest Natural Area Preserve was a great event for the people of Stafford County and the world. The preservation of this 2,872-acre fragile ecosystem was an extraordinary effort that took over 15 years of negotiations.

Among the many important biological attributes contained within Crow’s Nest are 2,200 acres of mature hardwood forest, including two forest types that are recognized as globally rare by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Natural Heritage Program. There are 750 acres of tidal and non-tidal wetlands on the Crow’s Nest peninsula that account for 60 percent of all the marshes in Stafford County, and represent some of the best examples of diverse and intact wetland habitats in the Potomac River drainage, along with 21 miles of stream, riparian and wetland buffer.”

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Read the rest of the column at the Free-Lance Star.

I already enjoy the area from my kayak. The canoe/kayak launch is less than thirty minutes from my house on our narrow country roads. What a joy it is.

TTG

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crow%27s_Nest_Natural_Area_Preserve

http://savecrowsnest.com

https://www.facebook.com/CrowsNestNAP/

http://www.virginiaherpetologicalsociety.com/reptiles/lizards/eastern-six-lined-racerunner/eastern_six-lined_racerunner.php

 

Something Different - Thylacenes

 

"Despite their "tiger" sobriquet, thylacines are not members of the cat family. Nor should they be confused with the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii), another carnivorous marsupial that is native to Australia and is still widespread in Tasmania.

Fossil evidence suggests that the modern thylacine — Thylacinus cynocephalus, whose name means "dog-headed pouched one" — emerged about 4 million years ago. Once widespread across Australia, the animal disappeared everywhere except Tasmania about 2,000 years ago, according to the National Museum of Australia (NMA)."  livescience.com

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Seems to me there was a movie a while back in which Willem Dafoe as a hunter stalks the last Tasmanian Tiger.  As a recovering hunter I could really identify with this character and understand his emotions when he finds one that is sick, old and alone and finishes her off.

I sure hope there are some left up there in Queensland hanging out with the box jellies, salt water crocs and all the rest.  pl

http://www.livescience.com/58483-search-for-extinct-tasmanian-tiger.html

"King Charles III" – The Deep State Strikes Back - A Review by Newmarket

Mike Bartlett’s King Charles III at the Harmon Theatre for Performing Arts (directed by Studio Theatre’s David Muse) has caught a wave of popularity that draws on the American people’s innate fascination with anything having to do with the British royals.  The play also exposes the very modern feminist yearnings of those queens, princesses and consorts of yore who, finding themselves mere ornaments in the royal pageant, yearn like Lady Macbeth to become “unsexed” and battle with men on an equal playing field.  Likewise, Prince William’s wife, Kate Middleton (the Duchess of Cambridge), and Charles’s Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, must content themselves with acting through their husbands whom they must convince, cajole and bully to “screw their courage to the sticking place” and “ride the tide in the affairs of men . . . which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.”

Now to the plot:  after waiting around for the better part of six decades, Charles has been elevated to the throne by the death of his mother, Elizabeth II.  In referential Shakespearean iambic pentameters, Bartlett’s Charles bemoans the shrunken self he has become during the long wait.

My better thoughts—they are

From scratch, slow cooked and brewed with time.

My life has been a ling’ring for the throne

Charles, however, is somewhat of a royalist Jacobin.  He feels strongly about the freedom of the press despite the press’s having routinely savaged the royal family over the years.  Having previously paid little attention to the flow of Parliamentary business, Charles is taken aback when the Prime Minister during his first audience with the King requests His Majesty’s approval of legislation passed by Parliament purporting to restrict the press from invading the privacy rights of individuals. 

Charles’s refusal as a matter of constitutional principle to sign the press bill triggers a constitutional crisis as both parties coalesce to defend the Parliament’s supremacy against a King who has chosen to re-assert long abandoned royal prerogatives to nullify legislation -- prerogatives that have not been exercised since the days of George III.  Charles has consulted Walter Bagehot, a 19^th century authority on the unwritten English Constitution, and is disconsolate to learn that his role is limited by precedent to being consulted, proffering advice and, in extremis, warning the government of the day when it appears to be embarking on precipitous action. 

When the parties push back demanding that he sign the bill, Charles rallies and moves to dissolve Parliament and call for a snap election.  Parliament refuses to dissolve itself.  Riots break out in the major cities of the United Kingdom, and there is a fear that the rioters will storm Buckingham Palace.  The King moves additional troops onto the Palace grounds and stations a tank in front of the Palace. 

In the meantime, we are introduced to the next generation of Royals: Prince William (second in line for the throne) and his wife, Kate Middleton, the exemplar of good sturdy Anglo-Saxon stock; and William’s feckless younger brother, Prince Harry, who inhabits the demi-monde of swinging London, takes up with Jessica, an artist from the West Indies, and seems to want to have nothing further to do with his father and stepmother, Camilla. 

The Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition both come forward to demand an audience with Prince William and Kate. They are there, the politicians state, to reassert the constitutional prerogatives of the Parliament against usurpation by the crown.  They drive home the principle that Parliament is “the decider” in the British constitutional system by threatening legislation stripping the Crown of whatever is left of its royal prerogatives unless Charles signs the press bill.  It is at this point that Kate gives William a good spine stiffening, telling him that he is duty bound to stand up to Charles for the sake of both the crown and their son, George, who will someday be King.  Camilla, for her part, counsels Charles equally steadfastly to resurrect and breathe new life into the fast vanishing royal prerogatives and urges him to not go all wobbly on his duty to the crown and its prerogatives.

Kate and William conspire with the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition to launch a coup against Charles.  Kate pushes William into the “sticking place” of mediating the constitutional dispute between Crown and Parliament.   When Charles is about to make a speech to the nation giving the rationale for his actions, Kate and William wrest the microphone from his hands, demand that he sign a letter of abdication and play the “grandchild card” to seal the deal (Charles realizes belatedly that he will never see his grandchildren again if he doesn’t sign). Prince Harry (like the Shakespeare character) gives up his dissolute ways, ditches Jess and takes his place as an heir to the throne.   The play ends with the coronation of William and Kate and Charles slumping off despondently stage right. 

As for the actors, Jeanne Paulsen as Camilla and Allison White as Kate have the requisite Thatcherite steel for their parts, but one wishes that Robert Joy’s Charles were a bit less wimpish.   In keeping with his Shakespearean meme, Bartlett’s Prince Harry is clearly meant to evoke Falstaff’s companion, Prince Hal, but Harry White lacks the range required to transform Prince William from the louche rogue reveling in the world of sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll on the mean streets of London to something approximating the transformation that Prince Hal makes at his father’s deathbed when he realizes that he will soon be King with all the attendant responsibilities of 15^th century kingship.    

The play benefits from catching a wave in the affairs of politics that has thrust it into the midst of the national debate—both here in the USA and in Britain.   When the play was first produced in 2014, it was considered a witty, but a counterfactual, send-up of both the monarchy and Britain.  The conventional wisdom was that it couldn’t happen there (or here). But, first with Brexit and, then, the Tsunami that crashed into America on November 8, 2016, many playgoers now see the play as a metaphor for the “Age of Trump,” in which a new President, aided and abetted by the malevolent likes of Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller, seeks to deconstruct and smash the old order, the Constitution be damned.  In Mike Bartlett’s London, something akin to our emerging notion of the “deep state” struck back to wrest the crown from Charles and return the country to normalcy.  Fifty days on into the new Trump Administration, is the same thing happening in America?

King Charles III ends its run at the Harmon Theatre Arts on March 18.  If you can’t get a ticket or enough of the British royals, download the superb Netflix production, “The Crown,” for a reasonably close approximation of the history of the royals from the abdication of Edward VIII through the resignation of Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his successor’s (Anthony Eden’s) Suez debacle.  John Lithgow’s award-winning reincarnation as Churchill is not to be missed. 

 “The Crown” provides a flashback for King Charles III as it depicts a monarch, Elizabeth II, who comes to the throne believing she has some power, but finds out that it would be inappropriate to suggest to an old and doddering Prime Minister that it’s time to go.  There is no power even, as she soon learns, to regulate her own domestic affairs as Elizabeth finds herself continuously overruled by various courtiers, cabinet ministers, Bishops and dowager queens who tell her that she can’t take her husband’s name, can’t take lodgings outside Buckingham Palace and can’t, as head of the church, sanction the marriage of her sister, Margaret, to a divorced commoner.

You have only five more days to see King Charles III during its current DC run.  Not to worry, though, the American public have five more years to enjoy and dissect “The Crown” as it takes us through the last six decades of the second Elizabethan era, and many will eagerly be awaiting Netflix’s take on the Queen’s opinion of Donald Trump when she meets him during his proposed state visit to Britain, provided of course that he survives his current struggle with the Acela Corridor Establishment (sometimes referred to on this blog as “The Borg) who have furiously united to drive him from office. 

Everglades Challenge 2017 - TTG

Ratty is definitely on to something. To be on the water in any kind of craft can be therapeutic. IMHO the sound of the surf can only be equalled by the sound of the wind in the pines. Both together… heaven. You can’t buy that kind of therapy with a million dollars. One of the saddest things I often saw on the streets of D.C. was the herds of young, ambitious suits with ear buds in their ears, eyes and thumbs glued to their smartphones, totally oblivious to their surroundings. Borg aspirants, no? It is no wonder so much self serving and destructive idiocy is produced in Washington. As I have said for the last five years, I think we deserve a break... or at least a little vicarious diversion from the madness that surrounds us. 

Funny how this rings true year after year, no matter what changes occur in Washington. Once again, I invite the SST Committee of Correspondence to follow the running of the Everglades Challenge which begins this Saturday morning. The event is organized by a colorful group of adventurers who call themselves the Water Tribe. The Everglades Challenge is an unsupported, expedition style adventure race for kayaks, canoes, and small sailboats. It starts at Fort DeSoto in Saint Petersburg, Florida and ends at Key Largo. The distance is roughly 300 nautical miles depending on one's course selection. Updates on the progress and tribulations of the participants will be posted on the Water Tribe forums. The boats are tracked by SPOT satellite. Their progress can be seen on this tracking map. There is also a new tracking map provided through Race Owl. Between the two, the event should be well covered. 

To truly get a feel for this event, I recommend you set aside an hour and a half to view this video about the 2013 running of the Everglades Challenge. There’s some excellent banjo and fiddle work as well. 

This year close to a hundred boats will be taking up the challenge. Some will not make it to Key Largo. Some may not even make it to Fort DeSoto. It’s been said that half the challenge is getting to the start. I believe it. The winners usually make the voyage in two days or so. The allowed time limit for successfully finishing the race is eight days. I would take the full eight days. Why rush to shorten such a grand experience?

     
In line with this more leisurely approach, I see a stalwart pair going by the names of Foghorn and Plumbcrazy are sailing a lug rigged Jim Michalak IMB sail beachboat. This design does not look like it belongs in a long distance expedition style competition. It has an eight foot cabin sitting on a thirteen and a half foot multi-chined pram hull with a leeboard. I have no idea how she is rowed or sculled when inevitably faced with unfavorable winds. There’s no other way to put it. She’s ugly, but she got spunk. I wish her well.

     
There is another Michalak design in the fray. She is the veteran Oaracle, a twenty foot multi-chined, lug rigged yawl with a six foot cabin made to handle rough water. Although not a classic nautical beauty, she does have a certain Michalak charm. The design itself is called the Frolic2. This particular boat and skipper, Lugnut, has completed several Everglades Challenges and won the class 4 race back in 2012. Both Lugnut and Oaracle are not practitioners of the leisurely approach.

Yes, I still plan on doing this some day. Until the day I push off the Fort DeSoto beach, I content myself with some local paddling and sailing in my Pungo 120 kayak. We have some wonderful venues in Stafford, Virginia. Lake Mooney is our new 500 acre reservoir that does not allow the use of gas engines. You see only kayaks and canoes now. On a rare windy day, my homemade sail rig moves my Pungo along quite nicely. We also have the Crow’s Nest Natural Area Preserve on the Potomac River. This area has been left pristine since the Civil War. The wildlife viewable here is magnificent. And the canoe/kayak launch ramp to the Crow’s Nest Water Trail is just flat cool. We also have Abel Reservoir for a short afternoon paddle and commune with nature and the Mallows Bay area just a brisk two and a half mile paddle across the Potomac on the flood tide.

           
I must admit I am quite fickle in my love for boat designs. I have flirted with John Welsford’s Walkabout and Iain Oughtred’s MacGregor canoe. I now have a crush on the new Waterlust Sailing Canoe designed by Chesapeake Light Craft. This is a 17 foot yawl rig canoe with significantly more volume than the MacGregor. The rig is my beloved balanced lug. There is room to sleep within the hull. Secondary propulsion is the Hobie Mirage Drive. The prospect of using my aging, but still capable, leg muscles rather than my aging arm and shoulder muscles is enticing. I can still carry a Greenland paddle for the time when that new-fangled contraption inevitably gives out. A sailing canoe does not need a trailer and will take little space in my garage. Construction with the CLC kit will be a much simpler challenge. Those are significant selling points.

I’ll end this the same way I ended it last year. Some things will not change. In addition to building the boat and getting to Fort DeSoto, I have to obtain a release from SWMBO to undertake such a crazy-assed and dangerous adventure. She has stood by me through thick and thin and, quite frankly, has had her fill of my risking life and limb. She would be happy to have us live out the remainder of our lives quietly, happily and contentedly as hobbits in the shire. This sounds wonderful… but the ring still calls out for me.

TTG

UPDATE:

Plumbcrazy and Foghorn dropped out of the race this morning. I'm still surprised they came this far without demasting, capsizing or just flat being being swallowed by dragons out there. Here's a couple of photos showing their boat. I see ports in the hull that would serve as oar holes when opened. I salute those magnificent bastards for getting this far and for even attempting the race in that thing. 

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