Words Like Locusts Flew From Her Fingers

I Love Jimmy Carter

Salon.com Wire Story: ‘What has happened at Guantanamo Bay … does not represent the will of the American people,’ Carter said. ‘I’m embarrassed about it, I think it’s wrong. I think it does give terrorists an unwarranted excuse to use the despicable means to hurt innocent people.’

Jimmy Carter was a very fine president and he’s one heck of a decent human being. How can you not love this man?

Remember all those great alternative energy programs that were put in place back in the late 70s? That was Jimmy Carter’s work. You can thank Ronald Reagan and that freak, James Watt, for undoing all of Carter’s fine work.

Check out this interesting entry on the Common Dreams web site for a little history lesson on how the Republicans trashed Carter’s energy policies and created the mess we’re in now. (Be aware, the author has mixed in some allegations about Bush I’s relationship with the bin Laden family and with “oil-rich mullahs of Iran” that, in my opinion, distract from the verifiable facts of how the Republicans dismantled Carter’s energy policy. Still, many excellent points are made.) The entry includes quotes from a speech Carter gave in 1977.

‘Ours is the most wasteful nation on earth,’ he said, a point that is still true. ‘We waste more energy than we import. With about the same standard of living, we use twice as much energy per person as do other countries like Germany, Japan and Sweden.’ Carter directly challenged the fossil fuel and automobile industries. ‘One choice,’ he said, ‘is to continue doing what we have been doing before. We can drift along for a few more years. Our consumption of oil would keep going up every year. Our cars would continue to be too large and inefficient.’

And this was before SUVs!!!

‘Three-quarters of them would continue to carry only one person — the driver — while our public transportation system continues to decline.’

You all know George W. Bush wants to completely cut off funding for Amtrak, right?

‘We can delay insulating our houses, and they will continue to lose about 50 percent of their heat in waste. We can continue using scarce oil and natural gas to generate electricity, and continue wasting two-thirds of their fuel value in the process.’

And, of course, that’s exactly what we did — thanks primarily to Ronald Reagan.

…Ronald Reagan’s first official acts of office included removing Jimmy Carter’s solar panels from the roof of the White House, and reversing most of Carter’s conservation and alternative energy policies.

And now, look at our current situation. Fighting a war that’s really all about access to OIL. That’s what I’d call a fuckarow.

This country so desperately needs Jimmy Carter’s moral clarity and common sense.

Jimmy, come back and be president again!

The Passion of Arlene Ripley

The Nest Box
I’d like to introduce you to a really wonderful web site I only recently discovered. It’s The Nest Box — Arlene Ripley’s worthy contribution to beautification of the internet. The site is very pleasing to the eye. Not only is the design really well rendered in general, but Arlene’s photographs of birds and butterflies (and others!) are truly stunning. Truly stunning. I’m not making this up. Go look for yourself. The photograph to the right is one of Arlene’s — used with her kind permission — and, lovely as it is, it’s only a modest example of her talent.

I don’t know much about Arlene Ripley. She lives next door in Maryland, not all that far away. She’s particularly interested in bluebirds, it seems, and has been fortunate to travel to some relatively exotic places to look at and photograph birds.

I don’t know how she got into photography, but she sure is good at it!

Besides her amazing pictures, Arlene’s also got a bunch of helpful information on feeding and caring for birds, identifying butterflies, and more.

Visit her site. It’s like a little vacation for your brain.

Callahan’s “Thought Field Therapy”

This salon.com article is about informercial huckster Kevin Trudeau, but darned if I don’t already know about Dr. Callahan’s “Addiction Breaking System.” It’s also known as “Thought Field Therapy.” An ex-Scientologist social worker I “knew” online was involved with it — to the scorn and general derision of many of us in the same discussion group. People who want to provide this “therapy” can sign up for Callahan’s insanely expensive courses and learn how to diagnose and treat people over the telephone. Such a deal. It’s nice when curing the world’s ills doesn’t take you away from your pedicure.

If you enjoy this sort of thing as much as I do, you’ll want to go here:

Debunking Thought Field Therapy.

The social worker I mentioned earlier did eventually come to her senses and now realizes Thought Field Therapy is bogus. It takes a big person to admit they’ve been wrong about something they really believed in. Here’s her site:

Monica Pignotti, MSW.

Galway at Wolftrap

Mark and I enjoyed an evening out on the lawn at Wolftrap. The hightlight of the evening, for me, was the National Symphony Orchestra playing Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World.” It’s one of my absolute favorites and it was beautifully done. Can anything compare with lying out on a blanket on the grass in the cool night air, sipping a nice Vinho Verde, listening to the New World Symphony? I don’t think so.

Mark also enjoyed himself. So much that he’s already talking about “next time we do this…”

Originally, I bought us tickets on the lawn because it was cheaper than tickets in the pavilion. Now, though, I can’t understand why everyone doesn’t want the lawn! In the pavilion you can’t eat or drink anything other than water. And you’re stuck in a seat crammed in with hundreds of other people. Out on the lawn, though…. Ah! You’ve got your own comfy picnic blanket (and pillows! I’m glad we brought pillows!) and whatever beverage you want (including alcoholic) and a picnic basket full of whatever yummy food you want. Sure, you can’t see the performers as well because you’re further away. Wolftrap’s sound system is excellent, though, and we heard every subtle nuance.

It’s really the superior way to enjoy a concert.

Or, at least, it was last night. We’ve had a break in the very hot and humid weather and last night was as close to a perfect summer night as you can get.

Of course, I can’t end this without talking about James Galway’s performance! I remain convinced the man is actually an alien from outer space. His technique is phenomenal. Wow! How does he double tongue that fast?! (The old joke, from Fritz Kreisler, I think: Young man asking for directions says, “How do I get to Carnegie Hall?” Kreisler answers, “Practice, son, practice.”) Galway and Lady Jeanne played the Cimarosa Concerto in G for Two Flutes and it was quite nice. As an encore, they played the Monzart Rondo a’la Turk and Galway told the same joke about Mozart’s fax machine that he told earlier this year at the Kennedy Center. Oops! I guess when you tour a lot, you forget which city has heard your jokes before. (Or maybe he just doesn’t care!)

Sir James’ big solo piece was the Mozart Concerto in D Major — a favorite of pretty much every flutist. He played from memory. What a guy. Of course, he’s performed it about a zillion times. I particularly enjoyed his cadenzas in the first and third movements. Very nice. I presume he wrote them himself. The third movement cadenza reminded me a bit of Michel DeBost’s. (Though I may very well be confusing my cadenze composers.)

Of course, Galway is an amazingly good player — but I do have one quibble with how he performed the Mozart. Here it is: TOO MUCH RUBATO. It got to the point where the rubato on the leading notes of 16th-note runs was distracting. You don’t want Mozart to sound like a sewing machine, but jeez… save the rubato for use as an occasional accent. Not so much, Jimmy.

The Cooper’s Hawk

Amazing!! As I sit here at my dining room table — this very moment! — there is a Cooper’s hawk walking around on the deck railing right outside my livingroom window.

I was alerted to the hawk’s presence by Marjie, my faithless birdwatching cat. She’s sitting on the dining room table, hoping for a little of my breakfast. She made her little “mip!” sound that she makes when she sees a bird nearby outside and I followed her gaze to the window.

Lo! A hawk!

How very cool! I’d take a picture but If I got up to get the camera I’d very likely scare her away. Here’s a picture from the Cornell Ornithology Lab’s web site, though. Click on the picture to open a new window on their site. Listen to the recording they have of a Cooper’s hawk!! I’m really surprised. I’ve heard that sound many times before and always assumed it was some kind of woodpecker. Live and learn, eh?

The hawk is not here for the nuts I put out on the deck railing, of course. She’s here for the smaller birds who’ve come to eat the nuts. I’ve seen Cooper’s hawks around before. In the last couple of years they’ve become much more common. Once I even saw one with a full-grown pigeon pinned down on the backyard lawn.

Until recently, Cooper’s hawks were thought of as woodland birds. As the woods around northern Virginia have been ripped down to build townhouses, though, the hawks have had to adapt. Birds around suburban bird feeders make relatively easy pickings.

The hawk has flown away now. I didn’t hear her leave — just like I didn’t hear her arrive. For such a big bird, she’s amazingly quiet in her flight. And now I hear blue jays outside debating whether its safe to come in to eat yet.

Stop the Energy Bill!

Tell-A-Friend: Stop the Energy Bill

Congress has finally finished its work on the Energy Bill, and they’re expected to vote on it as early as tomorrow (Thursday) or Friday.

We need your help to stop this dirty, short-sighted bill! Click the link below now to send a message to your members of Congress asking them to vote NO on the Energy Bill before it’s too late.

Among other things, the bill could speed oil drilling off of the California, Florida, North Carolina, and other coasts. It would also allow oil companies to pollute rivers and drinking water with toxic wastes.

At the same time, the Energy Bill ignores high gas prices, dependence on foreign oil, renewable energy, and global warming. In fact, it would actually weaken existing fuel economy standards!

We must stop this Energy Bill from becoming law. Please join us in contacting your members of Congress right now to urge them to vote against this bill.

Click here now to send your free message.

In addition, the Energy Bill would give billions of dollars in subsidies and tax credits to big oil, nuclear and other energy companies for their pet projects while providing relatively little to energy efficiency and renewable energy.

In short, this bill is a disaster that will make our nation dirtier while ignoring practical solutions to looming energy crises.

That’s why it’s so important that your Senators and Representative hear from you today! Please take a minute to urge that they oppose the Energy Bill.

Once you’ve taken action, please forward the URL for this to your friends, family and coworkers to urge that they join in the effort to stop this anti-environmental Energy Bill.

Another Reason to Not Move to Kansas

Kansas, as you’ll recall, is the state where they removed evolution from the science curriculum in the public schools. If that didn’t tell you enough about the low level of brain activity among Kansas state politicians, consider that there is no minimum age for marriage in Kansas as long as the minor has parental permission.

In this particular story, a 13 year old Nebraska girl became pregnant by her 22 year old “boyfriend”. Instead of doing the rational thing — setting up an adoption for the new baby and reporting the scummy pedophile “boyfriend” to the police, the girl’s dim-bulb mother sent her next door to Kansas so she could MARRY the creep.

Good for AG Bruning! Now if he could only do something about the Kansas State Board of Education…

Faster Than Sound

Shuttle Lifts Off: Click on the picture for some very cool video of the space shuttle Discovery lifting off this morning. As many times as I see stuff like this, I’m still exhilarated! What an amazing species we are! At the point where the video cuts off, the shuttle is going over 3000 miles per hour!!!!

Zowie!!!

Follow-Up on Peter Slevin’s “Message Group” Article

This is from Peter Slevin, the author of a Washington Post article I pretty much slammed in a recent blog entry.

He did a an online follow-up Q&A session last Thursday where he cleared up some of the questions I had about what he was trying to accomplish with his article. Check it out — people had some interesting questions and comments.

According to Slevin,

I think maybe I misjudged Peter Slevin, eh?

A Heapin’ Helpin’ of PTC Hospitality!

I read the Parents Television Council’s complaint to the FCC and from the sound of it, “The Inside” is probably not a show I would enjoy. That’s why I won’t be watching it! (Duh!)

This part of the PTC’s complaint caught my eye:

Innards?? I’m surprised the grannies over at PTC who wrote the complaint were able to see the show, being busy cooking up a big ol’ batch of ‘possum stew and all…

Innards. Ha! Ha! I mock your silly backwoods-isms, PTC! Ha!

At any rate, if you’d like the FCC to know you’re quite capable of turning off any television shows you don’t happen to like, let Amanda over at SpeakSpeak make it easy for you. Click here to send a letter right this minute!

Y’all come back now, y’hear?