The rain falling again this morning almost lulled me back to sleep after our wet and rainy 4th. I finally dragged myself out of bed...But, now that I am through with the first (pre-commute) cup of java and have read all of my email the coffee muse isn't musing and…
Keith Olbermann has another of his special commentaries out. It's too bad neither President Bush nor Vice-President Cheney have an iota of understanding about what it is they have done that sets so many Patriotic Americans teeth on edge. And as far as doing the right thing is concerned, Mr.…
People are going to be having fun with the convoluted logic of this step by President Bush right up until he is facing judgment himself. In commuting Lewis "Scooter" Libby Jr.'s 30-month prison sentence on Monday, President Bush drew on the same arguments about the federal sentencing system often made…
The external world, so fascinating, so infinite in its variety, has us firmly in hand and thoroughly mesmerized. Lasting happiness is almost ours – over there, just ahead of us, right around the next corner. When we round that corner and find it has eluded us, something in us says,…
Can you imagine what must have been going on behind the scenes on this day all those years ago in Philadelphia? The discussions, the arguments, the compromises all to commit...treason. Each and every signer of the Declaration of Independence was putting his head in a noose for what he believed…
Just when you thought they couldn't get any more blatant at thumbing their noses at the law...WASHINGTON — President Bush commuted the sentence of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby today, sparing him from a 2 1/2 -year prison term that Bush said was excessive.Bush's move came hours…
I rolled out of bed this morning to the sound of thunder and pouring rain. That seems to be the pattern around here the past week or so. What is unusual about that is thunderstorms, unassociated with a weather front usually don't happen before the sun has had a chance…
This caught my eye this morning in the Houston Chronicle... They're scattered across Houston's neighborhoods like pebbles flung from someone's hand. Now, almost two years into their Houston experience, this displaced population roughly the size of Beaumont longs for an identity free of Hurricane Katrina. Two years later...This is how…
This nation is so angry about Iraq that we sometimes forget what would be obvious if it was a four-alarm blaze in a nearby city. Some fires do have to burn, but leaving the scene isn't an option. - David Ignatius The "firehouse strategy" analogy would be great if it…
As I was reading my email and feeds I hit a link from Earth & Sky Blogs that led to the following video. "See" how the world is changing. Visual imagery can tell stories and truths which would be very hard to capture and communicate otherwise. Hans Rosling, Professor of…
Gray Day on Galveston Bay
I generally don't just copy someone else's full post. This one twigged on a number of levels so I'll let Jim Hightower say it himself. Jim Hightower | WHY NOT "DRINK LOCAL?" Friday, June 29, 2007 Posted by Jim Hightower Listen to this Commentary In a triumph of marketing over…
This mornings Washington Post has some interesting reading. Even David Broder is on Chaney's case this morning. If you haven't checked out the Post's series on the essential Dick Chaney you really should...Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency. But then we get to George Will. I am beginning to think the…
Well after a couple of weeks of playing target practice with a ray gun the sore throat they were promising has arrived. Looks like this most expensive of diets has now kicked into it's starting phase... Checking the news this morning I see Warren Buffett is living up to the…
A great read on the "Buy Local" meme. Heavy on the economics... The Ethicurean: Chew the right thing. » Blog Archive » Guest post: Michael Shuman defends the “buy local” premise Michael Shuman, author of the books “The Small-Mart Revolution” and “Going Local,” wrote the best rebuttal by far to…
As I was perusing through the morning emails the daily forecast started me thinking. Back on our first summer trip to the mountains in August of 2003 the folk down in town of Valle Crucis were all talking about the uncommonly hot weather they were having. I want to say…
Today will be the 9th radiation treatment of 35. You could say we are about a quarter of the way through. The strange thing about these treatments is you never know from one day to the next how your voice will react. Saturday everyone said my voice was stronger, Sunday…
Pushing the Envelope on Presidential Power | Cheney | washingtonpost.com Shortly after the first accused terrorists reached the U.S. naval prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Jan. 11, 2002, a delegation from CIA headquarters arrived in the Situation Room. The agency presented a delicate problem to White House counsel Alberto…
All last week the weather prognosticators were promising us a beautiful, dry and sunny weekend to make up for the unending rain of last weekend...They blew it. The high pressure dome they were expecting to settle in decided to wander over to Phoenix. I don't think they needed it. Yesterday…
One of the blogs I like that comes from the Appalachian Mountains is: Appalachian Treks Here's another bit of advice I read somewhere that changed the way I take pictures: Find a different perspective. The vast majority of all photos are taken from a position 5'2" to 6'2" off the…
Garrison tells us that... Tonight is Midsummer Night's Eve, also called St. John's Eve. St. John is the patron saint of beekeepers. It's a time when the hives are full of honey. The full moon that occurs this month was called the Mead Moon, because honey was fermented to make…
"This is a little bit of a nonissue," Perino said at a briefing dominated by the issue. Cheney is not subject to the executive order, she said, "because the president gets to decide whether or not he should be treated separately, and he's decided that he should."These guys really need…
The article was about the resignation of another Assistant to Gonzales resigning. But the final paragraph reached out and grabbed me... On the same day that letter was written, however, Mercer instructed a GOP staff member to insert language into a USA Patriot Act reauthorization bill allowing federal prosecutors to…
What it is I dream of...
My short answer...If you have heard they have cancer, don't ask "How are you?" Talk about a loaded question with no real answers at the beginning of treatment. "How you feeling?" would be safer...just. "Hi!" is the best and the safest yet. My two cents thrown out into the blogosphere.…
Colin Fletcher (photograph, John Sexton/Appalachian Long Distance Hikers Association) For most of us who care about ecology and the environment, there was some personal experience that brought us there. For me, it was wilderness hiking, beginning 30-plus years ago in the Grand Canyon and continuing across the American West. Two…
I had a funny thought as I lay on the...hmmm, I really don't know what to call it...the platform(?) while x-rays were taken of my throat before my radiation treatments started yesterday. I was recalling my elementary school days during the Cuban Missile Crisis when they would line us up…
So far so good. Other than a raspy voice not much to report after the first weeks radiation treatment. No news is good news I guess. The promised cooling effect of afternoon thunderstorms did not happen yesterday. So it was quite warm as I finished the yard in the late…
Verlyn Klinkenborg has a new piece out. His observations on humanity and our relationship to the natural world do not put humanity in the best of lights...Rightfully so in my humble opinion. Millions of Missing Birds, Vanishing in Plain Sight - New York Times Last week, the Audubon Society released…
