Well.....

So is Pope Francis for or agin' gays?  He can't be saying "who am I to judge" regarding gay people, and then excommunicating a pro-gay priest in the same week.  Of course, you can't believe everything you read.  Stay tuned.....

October 11--Historical Events on This Date*

First ten historical dates cited:

732 - Battle at Tours: France under Karel Martel beat Moors
1138 - A massive earthquake struck Aleppo, Syria.
1521 - Pope Leo X titles King Henry VIII of England "Defender of the Faith"
1531 - Battle at Kappel: Swiss Roman Catholic kantons beat protestant forces of Zurich
1531 - Huldrych Zwingli Swiss reformation leader is killed at the Battle at Kappel
1540 - Emperor Karel names his son Philip, Duke of Milan
1573 - Battle of South Seas - Dutch rebels beat Spanish navy
1614 - Adriaen Block and 12 Amsterdam merchants petition the States General for exclusive trading rights in the New Netherland colony.
1634 - the Burchardi flood — "the second Grote Mandrenke" killed around 15,000 men in North Friesland, Denmark and Germany.
1643 - Battle at Wincebt: English New Model-army beats royalists.

Last ten historical dates cited:

1995 - O J Simpson cancels a TV appearance on Dateline
1996 - Ford buys rights to named Detroit domed stadium for $40 million
Basketball Player Dennis Rodman

1997 - Dennis Rodman returns from 2nd longest NBA suspension (11 games)
1998 - A Congo Airlines Boeing 727 is shot down by rebels in Kindu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing 40 people.
2000 - The 100th Space Shuttle mission (STS-92) is flown.
2001 - The Polaroid Corporation files for federal bankruptcy protection.
2002 - A bomb attack in a shopping mall in Vantaa, Finland kills seven.
2012 - A further 83 people are killed throughout Syria by the Syrian army
2012 - A US appeal court overturns a district court ruling banning the sale of Samsung
2012 - Mo Yan, a hallucinatory realist writer, wins the 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature

Hmm...It seems we in modern times have a fairly limited notion of history.  Ya think?

* Cited on HistoryOrb.com

5 things.....

I suspect that....

1. My laptop is leaving BROAD HINTS with all the junk mail arriving on "assisted senior living" and "local senior living options."  Hmph.

2. I shall soon come to truly, truly DISLIKE all the freaking advertising that has cropped up in the past week on any video clip I should be so silly as to open (especially from newspapers)!   This even happens on one of my favorite blogs of late, though not on the other one. And so far, the blizzard of videoclips of my great-grandsons are ad-free! Thanks, y'alls, for not succumbing.

3. The people doing the hiring for the contractors at the Navy Yard have their heads up their butts.  They hired a guy who had been discharged from the Navy for a gun-related offense and apparently gave him a special card that lets him get into the building through the only door that does not have people (marines and the like) watching and allowing them to come in and out--or not. Yesterday, he walked in with a shotgun, used it to shoot a security guard, and took the person's weapon (weapons? they still haven't figured out how he also got one of those nasty automatic rifle things), and used those to shoot and kill almost a dozen people. 

4. The guy who threw the firecracker over the White House fence at suppertime (nice touch, turistico!!) yesterday was a tourist. Did you see the outfit? Maybe he was just from Virginia or Murlan'.

5. Yes, we do have brave men, and they do work for the SS. The SS guys, in the photo* I saw of firecracker guy's capture, managed just fine without major weapons displays and fancy black protective gear with white lettering. One of them, however, was big, standing way over firecracker guy and the two other SS guys holding FG's arms in a steely grip.  (Well, at second glance, he was not ALL that big.)

*Believe me, I wanted to link to this, but I got a) ADS and b) Fox News, which is a nono in chez XE!!

About Syria....

Juan Cole's post today starts with this:

Ambrose Bierce is said to be the author of the saying “War is God’s way of teaching Americans geography.” Despite the vigorous national debate about intervening in Syria, there is some reason to think that most Americans could not find it on a map. Here are some key points about Syria that this blog has been trying to underline.

I recommend this post if you are not well acquainted with the actual country of Syria.  I certainly learned a lot--about its size, for one thing, and its cultural makeup to name just two items.  My thanks to Juan Cole for his contribution to our knowledge.  Cole's post has two helpful maps:  Syria in relation to all the other Mediterranean and Mideastern countries and Syria's Balkanization.

Cop Car's Post for today, September 11, 2013

Just as I groaned at the prospect of reading more about September 11, 2001, Cop Car, one of my favorite brilliant bloggers, published this:

Visible from space, a smoke plume rises from the Manhattan area after two planes crashed into the towers of the World Trade Center. This photo was taken of metropolitan New York City (and other parts of New York as well as New Jersey) the morning of September 11, 2001. "Our prayers and thoughts go out to all the people there, and everywhere else," said Station Commander Frank Culbertson of Expedition 3, after the terrorists' attacks.

The following day, he posted a public letter that captured his initial thoughts....

More in this Incredible post. 

Commander Culbertson was in space,  yet this letter brings back many memories of this day.  I was
at the dentist, and when I arrived, they had set up a TV set on one of the dental chairs.  We all watched, unbelieving. 

I Am Not A Cook, Either.....

The "local" Trader Joe's--it's still in the city limits, but it takes at least 45 minutes to get there--has labels like these on the ready-made items.  All you have to do is take them home and either eat them after you walk in the door or heat them first. 

Recent Pictures.....(getting sick of war, etc.)

Green leaves!  I love this plant....it's some kind of ornamental, but the green is VERY bright!

 

Soup, soup, beautiful soup....soup of the hour, soup of the day!  (well, yesterday).  Used all the veggies on hand except a big bunch of kale, which is still very fresh.  Love making soup to clear out the fridge.

Can you believe this is the BOY SCOUT monument in DC?  a woman, a young boy, and a naked man??  Much puzzling over this one. 

What Are John McCain, John Boehner, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, and Barack Obama Thinking?? They're Not....

Here's Juan Cole today:

Some excerpts:

President Obama’s plan to bomb Syria with cruise missiles will do nothing to hasten the end of the conflict. Instead, it will likely prolong it.
It should be remembered that the US couldn’t end the Iraqi civil war despite having over 100,000 boots on the ground in that country. It is highly unlikely that Washington can end this one from 30,000 feet.

Fed up with the supposed support for U.S. intervention?  Consider this:

By striking Syria, Obama has all but guaranteed that a negotiated solution becomes impossible for years to come. In the absence of serious negotiations, the civil war will continue and likely get worse. The US should give serious thought to what the likely actual (as opposed to ideal) reaction in Syria will be to the landing of a few cruise missiles. The anti-regime elements will celebrate, convinced that it will all be over quickly if the US gets involved. The last thing they will want will be to negotiate with the regime.

 Remember what the Quakers say:  "War is not the answer!"

Yes and yes!

Here's Digby's wonderful view on today's events....

Just a note to say that while I'm glad the president has decided to get congressional authorization --- it is a necessary concession to democratic principles --- it does not change my calculus about the wisdom of bombing Syria. I've thought a lot about this since the war with Iraq, when I made arguments repeatedly about "norms" and just war theory and constitutional requirements and the necessity of UN approval.  And I realized later that it was all a dodge on a certain level.  Yes, international norms are important as are our adherence to treaties and constitutional obligations.  But they don't trump the fact that it is unwise to take certain actions even if all those conditions are met. I do not think it makes sense to bomb Syria on the merits, regardless of who approves it.  I think the US is needlessly running into a buzzsaw and may very likely make things worse. In my view, the correct approach for the US is energetic diplomacy with an eye toward pulling Russia and China away from their positions and getting the other Middle Eastern countries to put pressure on Assad. We have become dependent on the idea that bombing and killing is the only way to affect change despite the evidence that it doesn't work any better than using other approaches. The US has a lot of power and influence aside from an ability to launch cruise missiles.  I think we've gotten tremendously uncreative. Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Thoughts for the Day...

1.  Went to the MLK anniversary event on the Mall yesterday--no big TV screens available for the crowd in back.  Thanks, Republicans, for cutting funding for anything that benefits the people as opposed to the rich. 

2.  Got this on Twitter from @AJEnglish this a.m.: http://aje.me/1dSI1DR "Obama is closer to Nixon than MLK"?  O has outdone RMN in prosecuting leakers.

3.  War is stupid in addition to all the other evils it is.  

The Chelsea and Larry Show....

Let's leave our distraction du jour, Chelsea Manning, for a moment to live her brave life and read some more about the world financial situation.  I want to find out just WHY OH WHY our preznit is so big on Larry Summers.  Can you figure that one out?  Not me.  It's like we voted for one person and got someone else.  Someone very different.

There's a great post on Greg Palast's VICE that sheds some light on this.  One of my favorite blogs is Juan Cole's Informed Comment, and he leads off today's post by asking "Is the US Government the Managing Committee of the Pirate Banks?"

Pirate Banks?

Managing Committee??

Larry Summers, for pete's sake??

Free Bradley Manning! (And More....) (And More Yet!)

Three years of torture* is enough punishment.  Why are we being so vindictive toward him?  The real scoundrels of the Iraq war are walking around free, smiling, acting like big shots.  Manning has helped us see the real cost of this war.  For once, the NYT and I agree.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/22/opinion/bradley-mannings-sentence-is-excessive.html

Addendum:  http://www.juancole.com/2013/08/36925.html

 Cole's last paragraph:

Manning was tortured for nearly a year*, and that should have been sentence enough. Without him, we might not even know about the Panopticon of total suveillance in which we are living. Manning helped spark a new civil rights movement. He deserves Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize in a way the president does not.  [Italics mine]

*Well, depends on what you consider torture.  

The following paragraph is from The Nation in an article by Chase Madar. 

Update, 8/22/2013: Yesterday, Bradley Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison. Today, Chelsea Elizabeth Manning announced through her lawyer that she will live the rest of her life as a woman, and we have amended our comment from yesterday in conformity with who she is. Chelsea Manning will most likely be imprisoned at Fort Leavenworth, which like all other US military prisons and many civilian ones, does not provide hormone therapy or gender transition surgery to transgender prisoners. These policies should be reversed immediately.

 God love ya, Chelsea!  You're one hell of a brave woman, a true American heroine.

Anyone Else Wonder What's Going On??

Juan Cole has a wonderful column on the "10 easy steps" to creating a dictatorship.  I fear we in the US are going down the wrong path with our obsession with "security."  Freedom these days seems to
scare more people than captivity. 

Meanwhile, I learned from Facebook last night that my oldest child and her husband have taken another diving vacation.  Guess where?  Egypt!  Now I know that Sharm El Sheikh (one of their favorite diving venues) is not Cairo, but still....Nothing slows that woman down, however.  She adores diving, is a registered diving instructor in Scotland, and she has loved diving in the Red Sea especially. 

Be safe, dear Peggy and Henry. 

Thanks, Eydie!

Singer Eydie Gorme died two days ago.  Her first big hit, "Blame It on the Bossa Nova" came out in 1963, the year I lost my hearing.  Nice to be able to listen to this on YouTube.  Interesting to me that Gorme grew up speaking Spanish as a Sephardic Jew in the Bronx.  She was a cousin of Neil Sedaka.

   

Curious about what the bossa nova looks like as a dance, I went back to youtube and found this cute bossa nova line dance.  Looks like fun!!

From the Right-Hand Column.....

Earlier this summer I copied and pasted some advice on writing by Sarah Schulman on the "Thoughts for th' Day" on XE's home page.  I love Sarah Schulman's writing, and she is one of the kindest people I know.   She spoke at a conference in Montreal recently about how change is made.  She opened her remarks by saying, "Just change is made on the governmental level in the same way that it is made on a personal level.  Just change is made when all affected parties are taken into account. Injustice is by definition unilateral."  Her talk emphasized communication, among many other things.  Schulman believes in communication, so I want to reemphasize the Thought for th' Day. 

Today's lesson in writing class: Other people are real. Ask people for their experiences, there are always more sides to a story than you realize, don't condemn, be compassionate. If someone makes a mistake, forgive. Understand. Be decent. Don't denounce. Be able to apologize and forgive. When offered a chance to communicate take it. All this is necessary to be a good writer. You don't have the right to punish. Care. Shift your position, listen. Negotiate. Negotiate. Negotiate. Reach out. Talk. Share.
--Sarah Schulman

That's a tall order these days.  Many of us are so ready to condemn (poisonous)* people like Karl Rove or Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck or that blonde woman....what's her name?....Ann Coulter.  And Republicans in the House of Representatives seem to want to destroy American society, not just wipe out Obamacare or Obama's administration/legacy, period.

I don't know what's going on here, other than great turmoil. Clearly we need to talk.

*oops

WashPost.....

Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post.  Or, as the WaPo has it today, "After decades of presiding over The Washington Post, the Graham family quietly and quickly maneuvered a deal with Jeff Bezos to give the newspaper what they believe is its best shot at success."  Whew.  I'm so relieved to learn the Graham family was behind this, not Bezos.  THEY offered their paper to HIM.  He didn't go begging to buy it, he just agreed to take it off their hands before they lose their shirts*.  And for billionaire Bezos, isn't $250 million something like chump change?  It'll still take about 60 days for the check to clear the bank, but we're sure it will.

We on the outskirts of the village are happy to learn that "nothing will change."  Katherine Graham's granddaughter (the one who came up with the idea of having important people PAY THEM to eat dinner at their house so as to, um....what?) will still be the publisher, and Charles Krauthammer will still be around on Fridays to give us his right-wing views (notice they announced this on Monday). 

*stuffed

Gracias a la Vida....

This is one of my favorite songs, composed by the Chilean poet and singer, Violetta Parra.  The singer is Mercedes Sosa, a native of Argentina.  Parra's famous song has become one of Sosa's signature offerings.  I think of this song when I am very happy.  I'm usually happy, but sometimes my heart is full.  Today was one of those days.  Welcome home, chica!

English Lyrics for "Gracias a la Vida" ("Thanks to Life")

Posted By: hobie [Send E-Mail]
Date: Sunday, 4-Oct-2009 15:24:36

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyOJ-A5iv5I
Mercedes Sosa - Thanks to life (written by Violeta Parra)

Thanks to life, which has given me so much.
It gave me two beams of light, that when opened,
Can perfectly distinguish black from white
And in the sky above, her starry backdrop,
And from within the multitude
The one that I love.

Thanks to life, which has given me so much.
It gave me an ear that, in all of its width
Records— night and day—crickets and canaries,
Hammers and turbines and bricks and storms,
And the tender voice of my beloved. 

Thanks to life, which has given me so much.
It gave me sound and the alphabet.
With them the words that I think and declare:
"Mother," "Friend," "Brother" and the light shining.
The route of the soul from which comes love. 

Thanks to life, which has given me so much.
It gave me the ability to walk with my tired feet.
With them I have traversed cities and puddles
Valleys and deserts, mountains and plains.
And your house, your street and your patio.

Thanks to life, which has given me so much.
It gave me a heart, that causes my frame to shudder,
When I see the fruit of the human brain,
When I see good so far from bad,
When I see within the clarity of your eyes... 

Thanks to life, which has given me so much.
It gave me laughter and it gave me longing.
With them I distinguish happiness and pain—
The two materials from which my songs are formed,
And your song, as well, which is the same song.
And everyone's song, which is my very song. 

Thanks to life
Thanks to life
Thanks to life
Thanks to life

Another look at energy.....

My friend Dr, Anna Bucy posted this on Facebook this morning. The author is Aaron Freeman, who is the "funniest black Jewish comedian on NPR".  Clearly he has his serious moments!!

You want a physicist to speak at your funeral. You want the physicist to talk to your grieving family about the conservation of energy, so they will understand that your energy has not died. You want the physicist to remind your sobbing mother about the first law of thermodynamics; that no energy gets created in the universe, and none is destroyed. You want your mother to know that all your energy, every vibration, every Btu of heat, every wave of every particle that was her beloved child remains with her in this world. You want the physicist to tell your weeping father that amid energies of the cosmos, you gave as good as you got.
And at one point you'd hope that the physicist would step down from the pulpit and walk to your brokenhearted spouse there in the pew and tell him that all the photons that ever bounced off your face, all the particles whose paths were interrupted by your smile, by the touch of your hair, hundreds of trillions of particles, have raced off like children, their ways forever changed by you. And as your widow rocks in the arms of a loving family, may the physicist let her know that all the photons that bounced from you were gathered in the particle detectors that are her eyes, that those photons created within her constellations of electromagnetically charged neurons whose energy will go on forever.

And the physicist will remind the congregation of how much of all our energy is given off as heat. There may be a few fanning themselves with their programs as he says it. And he will tell them that the warmth that flowed through you in life is still here, still part of all that we are, even as we who mourn continue the heat of our own lives.
And you'll want the physicist to explain to those who loved you that they need not have faith; indeed, they should not have faith. Let them know that they can measure, that scientists have measured precisely the conservation of energy and found it accurate, verifiable and consistent across space and time. You can hope your family will examine the evidence and satisfy themselves that the science is sound and that they'll be comforted to know your energy's still around. According to the law of the conservation of energy, not a bit of you is gone; you're just less orderly. Amen.

-Aaron Freeman.

Had Enough of the Heat?

Time to break out the ND blizzard stories.   This is from the State Historical Society of ND, and it's about Hazel Miner, about whom we all heard when we were school kids. 

One of North Dakota’s heroes is a young girl named Hazel Miner who died in a blizzard March 16, 1920.
Hazel, the 16 year old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Miner, had gone to school with her younger brother Emmet (11) and sister, Myrdith (8) on Monday March 15. They drove a horse-drawn sleigh from their farmhouse 2 ½ miles north of the rural school. In the afternoon a blizzard came up and the children’s father rode his horse to the school to bring the children home.
Mr. Miner hitched the sleigh horse and then went to get his saddle horse from the school barn. In the meantime, the sleigh horse started out of the school yard and took what the children thought was the road home. Mr. Miner could not find them in the blizzard and they could not hear him call above the wind.
Instead of heading north to their home, they headed east. Mr. Miner went home and with his wife went back out to look for the children. The sleigh crossed the road and came to the gate of a farmyard which they could not enter because of a big drift. They drove a few yards further, and then the sleigh tipped over into a ravine. Though a haystack and the farmhouse were nearby, they could not see their way to shelter.
After the sleigh tipped, Hazel tried to keep the wind off the children by holding the sleigh blankets for shelter, but the wind kept blowing the blankets down. Finally, she pulled the blankets over the smaller children and lay down on top of the blanket to keep it in place and to keep the younger children warm. Hazel talked to Emmet and Myrdith through the night and told them to keep moving their feet. She punched them to keep them awake and kicked off the snow that was seeping in under the blankets.
Sometime during the night, Hazel died. When a search party found the sleigh the next morning, Emmet and Myrdith were still alive. Hazel’s love, clear thinking, and brave actions saved her brother’s and sister’s lives.
Hazel Miner’s courage was honored with a statue that stands in front of the Oliver County courthouse. The statue was commissioned by former Governor L. B. Hanna in 1936.

Bison Restoring Prairie

This is good news!!  I'm remembering the bison at the Dakota Zoo--just across the field from our house in Bismarck.  They were huge beasts and incredibly strong.  The zoo keepers would give them old tractor tires--weighing 130-140 lbs each--to play with, and they'd toss them in the air with their horns and spin them around like the flimsiest hula hoops ever made. 

http://blog.nwf.org/2013/07/yellowstone-bison-revitalize-prairie-on-fort-peck-reservation-in-one-year/?s_email_id=20130714_MEM_ENG_WLO_July_Edition|SLPMem