Wind Rose Hotel

Three Ring Circus-Letters from America

2009-07-18T17:47:00.006+02:00

The last two weeks or so have been a three ring circus. The center ring producing the biggest event, but certainly not the most important, is Michael Jackson’s death. In a side ring is the health care (aka Obamacare) non-debate. The third ring is the “wise Latina” Sonia Sotomayor, being nominated for a life tenure to the US Supreme Court.

Jackson coverage has been wall to wall, 24/7. If possible, this has been getting more coverage than Princess Di. Every night for two weeks the entertainment shows talked only about Jackson. A majority of time on regular news is given to him. LA got locked down, and freeways closed during his memorial service. An unnecessary precaution since millions less showed up in the streets than predicted. It saddens seeing a mere celebrity, a troubled human being at that, get so much attention, when actual life impacting people barely get noted. That’s the Age of Celebrity. I liked some of Jackson’s music, and his dancing may be the best since Gregory Hines, or going back, Fred Astair. Ultimately I agree with commentator Mark Steyn, who observed people “feasting on round-the-clock coverage of a self-mutilated misfit of dubious sexual predilections a bit too crude to be plausible.” A commentator, Princeton African American Studies Professor Cornel West, Statist and Racist, "It's almost like a crucifixion, in terms of the cross you have to bear. We reap the fruits of the resurrection, in terms of the power that emanates from [Michael Jackson's] sacrifice. He sacrificed his childhood because he loved us so. He didn't just entertain us, he sustained us.” I’m thinking, well then, who needs Jesus? We've got a deceased pedophile drug addict to worship now. Yikes! Michael Jackson, RIP

In the next ring are the confirmation hearings for Justice of the US Supreme Court. Judge Sotomayer is of the Obama mold, racist, Statist and liar. She’ll get confirmed because the Senate, whose Constitutional mandate is to ‘advise and consent’ regarding judicial appointments, has a filibuster proof majority, and so can’t be stopped. Her biggest challenge was to overcome her racist statement, "I would hope that a wise Latina woman, with the richness of her experiences, would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life." Can you image a white guy saying that a wise white man with the richness of his experiences would reach a better conclusion than (fill in the blank…woman, black…) The “Wise Latina” comment was used in 1994, 1999, 2002, 2004, and 2001 speeches. The challenge is that justice is blind, and should not be informed by ethnicity, gender, or anything personal. She has also said, “Personal experiences affect the facts that judges choose to see.” She’s affiliated with the Puerto Rican Bar Association, the Hispanic National Bar Association, the Association of Judges of Hispanic Heritage and the National Council of La Raza. This last, translated “The Race” is an unapologetic racist group that advocates the overthrow of the US government and the taking back of the American Southwest and returned to Mexico. Historical note, the Southwest was never controlled by Mexico. The Supreme Court is to judge using the US Constitution, and she advocates using international law. She spun it during the hearing, ‘that’s not what I really meant’. The Second Amendment, the right to bear arms, hugely supported by the American people, she’s spoken against and doesn’t support, and spun it during the hearing, ‘that’s not what I really meant’. Risking going over long here, but she’s made speech after speech advocating anti-democratic and racist statements, and had to spin them all, by lying. She sounded like she was to the right of Justice Scalia (conservative justice) during the whole process. She’s replacing a Statist, so the change of the makeup of the court won’t be that much. Her opinions will just be radical leftist and less balanced and reasoned, but the effect will be the same.

In the third ring is health care, being referred to as “Obamacare”. This is supposed to reduce the health care costs of everybody. The Director of the Congressional Budget Office (appointed by the Democrat leadership) said the costs are unsustainable. The CBO is the last and most trusted word on budget issues. That sent the Dems scrambling, because it was their guy that said it! Hopefully that’ll kill the bill. This is a government take over of about 20% of the US economy. It creates forty-eight new bureaucratic offices. Health care will be rationed. Obama said everyone can keep their current insurance if they want to. There’s a provision on page 16 that once this goes into effect, a citizen with private insurance can’t change it or add anybody to it. That means that in five to ten years pretty much everybody will be in the government run health system. There’s a penalty for businesses that don’t provide healthcare for employees that will shut down small business because they can’t afford it (small business is about 70% of the economic base), and large business can save money by paying the penalty and not ensuring its employees. There’s also a provision for “Community Transformation Groups”. These will be government health enforcers that can go into restaurants to ensure there are healthy items on the menu, can “visit” homes! to enforce that people are engaging in healthy behaviors. The ‘veggie shirts’ are coming! No discussion or debate allowed; Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said this will be passed on schedule, and debate will be limited to ensure it’s passed by the end of August. The strategy here, like all recent legislation, is to get this passed during the summer when Americans are playing and vacationing and paying even less attention to the news than usual.

If Obamacare passes, then Obama has succeeded implementing his Statist agenda within the first eight months of his rule. He’s got control of a majority of the automobile business (Ford Motor Co has escaped government control so far), the energy sector with the recently passed “Cap and Trade” legislation, the financial and insurance sectors with the TARP and ‘stimulus’ legislation, and now the health sector. By the way, in the promised “age of transparency”, none of this legislation was posted on the ‘dot gov’ site, none of it read by any congressman or senator, and it was passed with limited debate, and rushed though.

~~The Metaphysical Peregrine

Happy Holidays!

2009-07-07T02:20:00.006+02:00

The last few days have been quite busy for me, and the next won’t be much different. Until Friday, when I’ll be free from work, but not from preparations for holidays.. So let me get this straight, folks, I am taking a temporary leave from this blog. Yet, before saying goodbye to you, I would like to thank once again Mirino—who took his leave wishing “happy holidays” just one post ago—and The Metaphysical Peregrine for joining this blog as regular contributors. I think their coming has been a blessing for this blog, and I know that you have thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated their first contributions.

I’ll be back in about three weeks. In the meantime, enjoy the summer weather, holidays and outdoor activities. Take care and God bless!

Rainbow

2009-07-05T08:35:00.021+02:00

In the same way that rainbows often give way to clear skies, children close their school books to enjoy their summer holidays.
So 'let's leave the last letter and lessons at least' until early August and join the Harvest mouse, Nicholas, to bask and play in the sunshine.

Happy holidays!

___

Swinging on a wheat stalk
Swaying in the breeze,
With braces and catapult
To shoot at bumblebees.

No school for Nicholas
For harvest time is here.
Fare and fun for everyone,
Pop-corn and gingerbeer.

___

© Mirino (PW) July, 2009
___

K and L

Rainbow alphabet doggerel (K,L)

2009-07-03T06:14:00.031+02:00

K is for Kite

If a king can eat a kipper
And a queen can kiss a knight,
Then a knave can kick a kettle
And a kid can fly a kite.

___

L is for Laugh

"I like to laugh",
Lord Lovelock lisped,
"And leapfrog
On the lawn,
Learn Latin whilst
I lie in bed
At least from dusk
To dawn

If lingering long
In lonely lanes

To me is quite
Delightful,
For others such
Leisures in life
Might likely look
Quite frightful."

___

Lecture

If you don't listen you won't learn
If you're dishonest you will lie
If you're late you will be last
If you're sad then you might cry.
But if you're joyful you will laugh
And if you look then you will see
And if you do everything with love
Then always happy you will be.

___

Text & images © Mirino (PW) image © Binta. July, 2009

___

I and J

Iran: this is no time for hesitation

2009-06-30T20:50:00.005+02:00

Former prime minister of Spain José Maria Aznar in today’s Wall Street Journal: (thanks: Teresa Gomez)

If there hadn't been dissidents in the Soviet Union, the Communist regime never would have crumbled. And if the West hadn't been concerned about their fate, Soviet leaders would have ruthlessly done away with them. They didn't because the Kremlin feared the response of the Free World.
Just like the Soviet dissidents who resisted communism, those who dare to march through the streets of Tehran and stand up against the Islamic regime founded by the Ayatollah Khomeini 30 years ago represent the greatest hope for change in a country built on the repression of its people. At stake is nothing less than the legitimacy of a system incompatible with respect for individual rights.
[…]
This is no time for hesitation on the part of the West. If, as part of an attempt to reach an agreement on the Iranian nuclear program, the leaders of democratic nations turn their backs on the dissidents they will be making a terrible mistake.
President Obama has said he refuses to "meddle" in Iran's internal affairs, but this is a poor excuse for passivity. If the international community is not able to stop, or at least set limits on, the repressive violence of the Islamic regime, the protesters will end up as so many have in the past -- in exile, in prison, or in the cemetery. And with them, all hope for change will be gone.
To be clear: Nobody in the circles of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei or Ahmadinejad is going to reward us for silence or inaction. On the contrary, failing to support the regime's critics will leave us with an emboldened Ahmadinejad, an atomic Iran, and dissidents that are disenchanted and critical of us. We cannot talk about freedom and democracy if we abandon our own principles.

Sudarsan Raghavan in last Sunday’s Washington Post: (via normblog)

As Iran's theocracy appears on the verge of silencing the biggest challenge to its authority since it was established in 1979, female activists in the region say they are inspired by the prominent role women are playing in the country's opposition movement. Many hope it will have a crossover effect on the struggle for women's rights in their own countries and help shatter Western perceptions of Middle Eastern women as subjugated in a male-dominated culture.
In a region that reveres men who die in battle, some of the major icons to emerge from the Iranian demonstrations have been women. Neda Agha Soltan, the music student whose bloody death on June 20 was videotaped and broadcast around the world, became an instant symbol of the opposition movement and sparked widespread outrage. Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi 's wife, Zahra Rahnavard, has also taken on a prominent role as she accompanied her husband on the campaign trail and more recently spoke out against an election result that the opposition says was fraudulent.
"This is our time, women's time," said Khoulod Al Fahed, a Saudi businesswoman and blogger. "It is the time for women to speak up and demand the rights that have been stolen from us in the name of religion and culture."

The “necessary” blog

2009-06-30T01:17:00.006+02:00

The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks. Glenn Reynolds asks whether there is one for inappropriate apostrophes, too—ah the “human insatiability”!

Rainbow alphabet doggerel (I,J)

2009-06-29T12:47:00.018+02:00

I is for Immodest

Inside, outside
Up and down,
The inane King
Can't find his gown.
His courtesans
Have no right to frown
Because he wears
His royal crown.
___

J is for Jump

Jack was a judicious man
And just the job as a judge,
Although he joked and jumped
About at each trial,
His wig never seemed to budge.
___

Mother made a jelly,
Jimmy jumped for joy.
Mother, jolted
Dropped the jelly.
Jimmy is a clumsy boy.

Text & images © Mirino (PW) image © Binta. June, 2009
___

K and L

G and H

UK Embassy workers arrested in Iran

2009-06-28T19:20:00.003+02:00

— BREAKING NEWS —

— Staff working at the British embassy in Iran have been arrested:

— Iran “must free UK embassy staff.” EU ministers meeting in Greece warned that “harassment or intimidation” of embassy staff would be met with a “strong and collective” response (BBC).

— Riot police clashed with up to 3,000 protesters..

Riot police clashed with up to 3,000 protesters near a mosque in north Tehran on Sunday, using tear gas and truncheons to break up Iran's first post-election demonstration in five days, witnesses said.
Witnesses told The Associated Press that some protesters fought back, chanting: "Where is my vote?" They said others described scenes of brutality including the alleged police beating of an elderly woman in the clashes around the Ghoba Mosque.

Read the full story

'Killing Me Softly'

2009-06-27T23:58:00.036+02:00

~ “LETTERS FROM AMERICA” - by The Metaphysical Peregrine ~

“Killing Me Softly” was a hit song popularized by Roberta Flack back in the ‘70’s. It can now be the theme song for what the Democrat Party and Barack Obama is doing to Liberty in America.

This past Friday, June 26, 2009, the soft tyranny of Statists was strengthened. Even though there was no public support for it, and massive opposition (tens of thousands of phone calls crashed the Capitol Hill phone system), the Cap and Trade Bill was passed 219 – 212. Eight Republicans voted for it, and Forty-four Democrats against it. If the eight Republicans in Name Only (RINO’s) had voted with their party, it would not have passed. Kudos to the Democrats that voted against this. There is already a movement within the Party to gin up a campaign against them this next election cycle.

From the testimony before the Senate Republican Conference June 22, 2009 by Ben Lieberman, the Senior Policy Analyst for Energy and Environment in the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation:
"...analysis we conducted at The Heritage Foundation, which is attached to my written statement, the higher energy costs kick in as soon as the bill's provisions take effect in 2012. For a household of four, energy costs go up $436 that year, and they eventually reach $1,241 in 2035 and average $829 annually over that span. Electricity costs go up 90 percent by 2035, gasoline by 58 percent, and natural gas by 55 percent by 2035. The cumulative higher energy costs for a family of four by then will be nearly $20,000."

"But direct energy costs are only part of the consumer impact. Nearly everything goes up, since higher energy costs raise production costs. If you look at the total cost of Waxman-Markey, it works out to an average of $2,979 annually from 2012-2035 for a household of four. By 2035 alone, the total cost is over $4,600."

We estimate job losses averaging 1,145,000 at any given time from 2012-2035."

Of course the Democrats deny all that, even after the January 2008 video of Obama stating, "Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket." "Coal-powered plants, you know, natural gas, you name it, whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers."

When it’s pointed out that this will drive companies overseas to where Cap and Trade doesn’t exist, we’re told we have to go first with this to provide leadership. Anyone really think China will follow? Russia? India? If companies stay and pay the costs, those millions of dollars will be passed on to the consumer. This bill is supposed to create “green” jobs as well. Spain has tried this, and 2.2 jobs are lost for every green job created; Spain’s unemployment is hovering about 18%.

Just how intrusive is the Cap and Tax Bill? There’s even a law that specifies where in the garage of a new house an outlet will be placed, and the size of the outlet, for your new Obamamobile.

Not one person in Congress has read this bill. It’s over 1200 pages. Three hundred pages of amendments were delivered at 4 AM the morning of the debate and vote. Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” is about that long, and certainly makes a lot more sense. By the way, TARP, the Omnibus Bill, and no amendments to anything have been read entirely by any member of this Congress. (Polls show that the American people were against all those bills too, and Congress passed them anyway.) [During his campaign, Obama said all pending legislation would be posted on Recovery.gov for five days before debate and vote, and not once has this happened. I’m a political geek, and I watch.] Hopefully this massive move to deny the Liberty of the American people will not make it through the Senate.

In less than two hundred days, this Statist President and his Statist party have gained control or have nearly gained control of the automotive industry, financial industry, and insurance industry; is about to take control of the energy industry, and in the next couple weeks the healthcare industry. Where is that plug supposed to go again?

Killing me softly. Soft tyranny is still tyranny.

Italy's Dolomites a new World Heritage site

2009-06-27T14:25:00.004+02:00

Well, of course I’m not neutral about this particular issue, and therefore I feel like I am not responsible for any exaggeration I might be guilty of in dealing with the decision taken yesterday in Seville, Spain, by the United Nations agency’s World Heritage Committee: Italy’s Dolomite mountains have been added to the World Heritage list!

I think it’s simply great that one of the most beautiful mountain landscapes anywhere was awarded with this prestigious acknowledgement. One moment, you may say this is my first exaggeration.., well not exactly, those words are not mine, but rather they come from the panel itself!

The truth is that the Dolomites are completely unique—they cannot be compared to any other mountain range in the world. Their beauty derives from the contrast between the green of the meadows and the vertical rock faces and the composition of the rock itself, which changes color throughout the day. It also comes from the fact that each mountain in the range has its own unique, recognizable face and its own peculiar characteristics.

Yet another exaggeration? Well, it may be so, but, once again, I have intentionally omitted the inverted commas, since it was Reinhold Messner, the famed mountaineer who has been climbing in the Dolomites for six decades, who spoke those words. But, er, I can understand his enthusiasm, because the Dolomites are.. beyond human description, and furthermore—to say it à la Thomas Carlyle—“they are my own mountains!”

Ahmadinejad, a dreadful video

2009-06-26T15:34:00.003+02:00

In his Facebook page French philosopher and writer Bernard-Henri Lévy has a video, which was clandestinely shot and brought out of Iran, showing “president-non-elect” Mahmoud Ahmadinejad—as Lévy himself calls the Iranian despot—while announcing to his most loyal followers and in the presence of his mentor and spiritual adviser, ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi, “un grand bouleversement sur la planète” (a great bouleversement on the planet). The speech was delivered on June 13, 2009. This is what BHL himself says about the video (in French):

Ce document vidéo est tout à fait extraordinaire. Filmé à l’insu de ses acteurs, sorti clandestinement d’Iran, il représente Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, à Qom, en compagnie de son mentor, l’Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, ainsi que d’un cénacle d’élèves et de fidèles. La vidéo est sortie d’Iran via internet. Elle daterait du 13 juin 2009 soit le lendemain de la victoire supposée de Mahmoud Ahmadinéjad (datation que tendraient à corroborer tant les remerciements réitérés que le programme annoncé « d’islamisation radicale » ). On ignore qui a capturé ces images, puis a choisi de les diffuser, mais il s’agit, à l’évidence, de personnes issues de ce cénacle même (peut-être un téléphone portable ?). C’est une réunion privée, et en petit comité, dont le contenu ne s’adressait visiblement pas à la foule, mais à des initiés auxquels on s’adresse, parfois, en langage codé. On va y voir le « Président non élu » remercier son mentor et ses invités pour leur soutien et les services rendus (lesquels ?). Il leur assure, que grâce à leur aide, la « grande victoire » (laquelle ?) est proche. Le tout sur un ton et dans une terminologie dont la teneur messianique est particulièrement accusée. Voyez.
Fariba Hachtroudi et Bernard-Henri Lévy

Via Liberation
Thanks: Marina Valensise

Who is shaking the Iranian regime?

2009-06-25T22:00:00.006+02:00

Not Obama, nor Bush, nor Twitter, nor Facebook. It’s women who are shaking the regime, wrote Anne Applebaum in last Tuesday’s Washington Post. Years of work and effort lie behind this public display of defiance, as much as “there is a connection between the violence in Iran over the past week and the women’s rights movement that has slowly gained strength in Iran over the past several years.” That’s why Neda, the 26 year-old philosophy student—whose name means “voice” in Farsi—shot dead on the streets of Teheran while attending a protest against vote-rigging in the presidential election, has become this revolution’s symbolic martyr.

As so many martyrs have in the past, Neda has been buried in secret and her family is being persecuted. Neighbours said government officials warned them not to discuss Neda’s death or to protest, and ordered them to leave their apartment in east Tehran. The government also banned mourning ceremonies

Arash Hejazi, the doctor who tried to save Neda, spoke to the BBC’s Rachel Harvey about the incident and the girl’s final moments. Here is the video.

In the meantime, Iranian authorities briefly have arrested dozens of university professors who met with opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who from his web site has just said that he is vowing to persevere with his election challenge despite the apparent attempt to isolate him from his supporters. This seems to be the best way to honor the memory of those who have died for Iran’s freedom.

Good luck mediating, Mr Pottering!

2009-06-25T01:36:00.002+02:00

—Hans-Gert Pottering, president of the European Parliament, has offered to lead a mission of EU lawmakers to Iran. “We are willing to offer our support and mediation to bring about a peaceful solution,” he says. Meanwhile, eye witness reports from Tehran indicate that the Police are assailing unarmed protestors with axes. As Emanuele Ottolenghi puts it, “Good luck mediating, Mr Pottering!”

—An email from a normblog reader in Iran.

—Theocratic crowd control: (via Michael J. Totten)

How to win elections while losing them

2009-06-24T23:31:00.007+02:00

Just a quick update on the results of Italian local election runoffs at the weekend (30 cities and 62 provinces), with both the government and the opposition claiming good results—a classic case, no doubt, but this time it should have been much harder than usual for one of the two sides (the center-left) to do so, given that the evidence overwhelmingly suggests that the winner is, once again, the ruling center-right coalition. In fact, what actually happened is that Berlusconi’s People of Freedom and its ally the Northern League won 34 provinces, an increase of 22, while the opposition Democratic Party (PD) won 28, a decrease of 22. Furthermore, in city elections, the center-right took 14 cities, an increase of 10, while the center-left took 16, a decrease of 10.

That’s why, when PD leader Dario Franceschini spoke of a “positive result” for his party and hailed the start of the ”decline of the right,” after the PD held onto the cities of Bologna, Florence and Bari and was beaten by only a narrow margin in the former cener-left provinces of Milan and Venice, one can’t help but assume that there is no limit to what you can say if you are a politician.. Of course Berlusconi—who has his own troubles, though—slammed Francheschini’s remarks, saying: “If the opposition considers this a victory, we'll always want to lose like this.” With that said I don’t think there is much more I can add. But if you want to learn more about the subject here (and here) is where you can find what you need to know.

P.S. Please, don't let yourdelf be deceived: despite the similarities (and the title) this is a wholly different post from that one..

Rainbow alphabet doggerel (G,H)

2009-06-23T17:31:00.020+02:00

G is for Ghost

I once played host
To a ghastly ghost
And offered him some tea.
With a gruesome voice
He refused my choice
Preferring eau-de-vie.

___

H is for Heavy

Hoggish Harris
Had heaps of pasta
On his holidays
In Rome
And became
So huge and heavy
He had a hard time
Getting home.

___

Text & image © Mirino (PW) image © Claire. June, 2009
_____

I and J

E and F

Do you know the land where the lemon trees flower?

2009-06-22T23:00:00.004+02:00

“See Italy and Die” (Voir l'Italie et mourir. Photographie et peinture dans l'Italie du XIXe siècle), Musée d'Orsay (Exhibition hall), Paris, April 7th through July 19th, 2009.

Images of Italy based around several recurring themes and fantasies: archaeological and antique remains, major sites of European culture and the continued presence of the ancient world among today’s population.

What the title seems to suggest is not exactly what visitors would wish for if they had three wishes, but fortunately what the title expresses is merely that everyone should see Italy at least once before dying..

From the official presentation:

The "Grand Tour" did not disappear at the end of the French Age of Enlightenment, nor with the emergence of aesthetic models other than those from Italy. Its popularity with artists and ordinary tourists was such that, even after 1850, there was a considerable boom, promoted by advances in communications and in photography.

The nostalgia inextricably linked with the land of Virgil, and the attraction of its still remaining sights encouraged many more images to be produced. The exhibition sets these out around a number of recurrent themes and fantasies which circulated from one medium to another: archaeological and ancient remains, major cultural sites of Europe and the resilience of the ancient world amongst the present day population.
It is Italy of our heart's desire, that no-one ever really leaves.

Read the rest.

The Iranian Tempest

2009-06-22T22:14:00.002+02:00

By an artist friend of mine, the petition that only needs one signatory.

Letters from America - 1

2009-06-21T17:27:00.005+02:00

I had thought there could be no one more self obsessed and camera hungry than Bill Clinton; or a Press that could be so supportive and such apologists. Was I wrong. We now live in the “Age of Obama”. All Obama all the time. This guy is in every news story all day every day. He infects every aspect of our lives.

ABC news has been dubbed the ‘All Barack Channel’. It’ll be doing a special from the White House with Obama to promote his single payer healthcare program. That will be followed by an hour long infomercial promoting it. He denies its single payer, but he’s made several statements in the past stating he wants a single payer program. Health here is close to 20% of the economy, so that would be a boon to even more government control of our lives. In less than two hundred days in office, he’s taken over much of the auto industry, financial institutions, and insurance institutions. The press for all practical purposes is now state run. You’ll only find media criticism on Fox News and in the blogosphere.

The Republican Party and the group ‘Conservatives for Patients Rights’ ask to present an opposing view and was denied. They said they would pay for it, and ABC said no. A couple weeks ago NBC News with anchor Brian Williams did a fawning special, in the White House, that was all fluff and praise. Brian Williams even bowed to him! Thank goodness for bloggers or nothing this guy does to overthrow the Constitution would get reported.

About the funniest thing, and so indicative of the swooning slobbering press here, is when he swatted a fly. It was breaking news, and made headlines!
David Gregory on the "Today" show: "You just have to appreciate the, the concentration and the precision! Just a few things going on in the world but it's as if everything was stopped and at a standstill for the President to lower the boom."
Chris Wragge on "The Early Show": "We've also just confirmed the President is a Ninja."
Chris Cuomo on "Good Morning America" describing the event on a telestrator: "You see? He stares at the fly. How many times have each of us tried to do this? Look at the hand coming up. The poise. The cupping. And the quick slap...Just knocked it away, very rare."

All this following the statement from Newsweek Magazine editor Evan Thomas: "I mean, in a way, Obama's standing above the country, above -- above the world, he's sort of God."

Journalism in America is dead except for bloggers.

One last thing not being reported or Obama being criticized for in the Main Stream Media (MSM), is his cowardly, spineless response to what’s going on in Iran. He should have, at the jump, said he supports the People, supports free speech and supports Liberty.
Instead he made vacuous statements meaning nothing. Then again, free speech, justice and liberty he doesn’t even support in America.

~The Metaphysical Peregrine

Rainbow alphabet doggerel (E,F)

2009-06-20T06:20:00.025+02:00

E is for Empty

Empty, full
Early, late
Easy, hard
Love or hate

East or West
Beginning, end
Odds or evens
Break or mend

Ever, never
Dislike, enjoy
Enter, exit
Girl or boy

Expand, retract
Enemy, friend
Ease, discomfort
Earn or spend

___

F is for Find

Fat, thin
Future, past
Front, back
First or last

True or false
Foolish, wise
Fact or fiction
Fall or rise

Lost, found
Friend or foe
Succeed or fail
Fast or slow

Strong or frail
Tied or free
Without its opposite
Can it be?

____

There is always
A way to find out
If there is any doubt
Of what one wants
To know about
___

Text © Mirino (PW) image © Lisa. June, 2009
___

G and H

C and D

An Age of words

2009-06-19T17:54:00.002+02:00

“ An education in things is not. We are all involved in the condemnation of words, an age of words. We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for ten or fifteen years & come out at last with a bellyful of words & do not know a thing. We cannot use our hands, or our legs, or our eyes, or our arms. We do not know an edible root in the woods. We cannot tell our course by the stars, nor the hour of the day by the sun. It is well if we can swim & skate. We are afraid of a horse, of a cow, of a dog, of a cat, of a spider. Far better was the Roman rule to teach a boy nothing that he could not learn standing.
Now here are my wise young neighbors who instead of getting like the wordmen into a railroad-car where they have not even the activity of holding the reins, have got into a boat which they have built with their own hands, with sails which they have contrived to serve as a tent, & gone up the river Merrimack to live by their wits on the fish of the stream & the berries of the wood. My worthy neighbor Dr. Bartlett expressed a true parental instinct when he desired to send his boy with them to learn something.
The farm, the farm is the right school. The reason of my deep respect for the farmer is that he is a realist & not a dictionary. The farm is a piece of the world, the School house is not. The farm by training the physical rectifies & invigorates the metaphysical & moral nature.”

—Ralph Waldo Emerson [from his journals, Sept. 14, 1839], in EMERSON IN HIS JOURNALS, selected and edited by Joel Porte, Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Massachusetts) - London (England), 1982.

Hope and Change -- but Not for Iran

2009-06-19T16:29:00.001+02:00

Charles Krauthammer in today’s Washington Post (also here):

Millions of Iranians take to the streets to defy a theocratic dictatorship that, among its other finer qualities, is a self-declared enemy of America and the tolerance and liberties it represents. The demonstrators are fighting on their own, but they await just a word that America is on their side.

And what do they hear from the president of the United States? Silence. Then, worse. Three days in, the president makes clear his policy: continued "dialogue" with their clerical masters.

Dialogue with a regime that is breaking heads, shooting demonstrators, expelling journalists, arresting activists. Engagement with -- which inevitably confers legitimacy upon -- leaders elected in a process that begins as a sham (only four handpicked candidates permitted out of 476) and ends in overt rigging.
[…]
And where is our president? Afraid of "meddling." Afraid to take sides between the head-breaking, women-shackling exporters of terror -- and the people in the street yearning to breathe free. This from a president who fancies himself the restorer of America's moral standing in the world.

Thanks: Sandra Kennedy

Service

2009-06-18T00:53:00.006+02:00

I am not an expert on voluntary service, unless I consider what I’m doing a service, and I must admit that I am often tempted to do so. I am a blogger, and blogging is not only a voluntary form of self-expression, it may also be a voluntary form of service, a way of contributing to the common good. But that’s not what I want to talk about this time. I’ll talk about “service” in the strict sense of the word, instead, referring to a recent casual meeting with a group of volunteers.

It was a Friday night and we (my family and I) were stopping at a highway rest area, more than 150 miles far from home. We were going south for the weekend with our camper. At a certain moment the rest area was invaded by about twenty yellow and green cars, minibuses and small trucks. Each and every one of the vehicles of the convoy had an inscription on it: Protezione Civile, ANA, that is Civil Protection, National Alpini Association. The Alpini (English: the Alpines) are the elite mountain warfare soldiers of the Italian Army, while the ANA is a registered society representing the former members of the Alpini corps. Those former soldiers usually see themselves as merely “on leave” rather than veterans, which makes them possibly the most gigantic and best oiled “solidarity machine” in Italy. Where there is an earthquake or whatever calamity, they go. An army of carpenters, masons, electricians, plumbers, farmers (but also some physicians, school teachers, engineers..), a two weeks shift. Some twenty or thirty of them are able to set up a relief camp and a field hospital for quake victims in a few hours and in a completely autonomous way.

There were few doubts that the convoy was headed to L’Aquila, which only a few days earlier, on April 6, 2009, had been struck by a devastating earthquake. But what initially made me curious about the “invasion” was that some of those people had the typical accent of my father’s native village, which lies just at the foot of the Alps, at the border between Veneto and Friuli, in Northern Italy. So we went out and buttonholed some of them. Both my wife and I were willing to have a chat, but above all we wanted our thirteen year old daughter to have a chance to listen to those people, to pay attention to them.

And it was worth while. It was a long conversation, because some parts of the convoy were still absent because of heavy traffic along the highway, so all those who were present had to wait for the rest of the convoy.

Well, I can’t express how enriching that talk was for us, the incredible generosity of those rough-mannered but large-hearted men, their abnegation, their sense of duty and discipline.

When they realized that both my wife an I are school teachers, they strongly expressed their concern about the way young people are brought up nowadays, and asked us a lot of questions about our school system and both its lack of severity and its ethical weakness and spiritual mediocrity, if not its spiritual bankruptcy—almost as if they had read in advance the quote by Tagore I posted a few days ago..

One more thing. I would never have thought I would have found among them someone somehow related to my parents. As a matter of fact, one was the plumber who had been working at my parent’s house some twenty years ago (he was able to remember both the house and my parents once I had explained to him where the house is sited), another said his grandfather and mine were bosom friends. But who surprised me most during that night’s talk was a man of about 65 years who was somehow familiar to me, although I didn't know why, nor could I remember when and where we might have met before. It was my wife who recognized him as the man who had been working to carve a tombstone on my father’s grave, about three years ago. Actually, while I couldn’t remember his face, I had a vivid recollection of him, of that “country philosopher” who had words of wisdom to my mother and my then ten year old daughter. He quoted old proverbs, most of them in the local dialect—a gold mine of folk wisdom, tact and sensitiveness hidden behind a rough and tough exterior.

That night he also told us the story of the years when he was an emigrant in Canada, how he won the respect of his Canadian hosts, by working hard and conforming himself to the laws, standards and customs of the nation to where he had immigrated.

I thought that it would be great to bring volunteers into schools. Long life to the Alpini.

___________

First written for The Greatest Among You

The fresh breeze of change..

2009-06-17T16:40:00.018+02:00

Witnessing the unfolding of events such as those of Iran. Having this increasingly sophisticated access of information, one is aware of the velocity in which the world is changing.
To try to block this access as part of a futile attempt to perpetuate unsubtle myths such as the clumsy scenario of 'Iranian democracy' only increases one's awareness of this fresh breeze of change. Naturally it also increases the determination of well informed people to reject the lies or exaggerations of those who pretend to represent them.

One sees that the young Iranian students, despite the efforts of the Iranian regime to insulate Iran from Western influence, and despite religious diversity, are really no different from the young students of Europe and the USA.
They too are the inheritors of fabulous history, and theirs is far more ancient than that of European civilisation. Their history is also their guaranty, that no one, especially those who are not worthy of them, can deprive them from the freedom they have every right to. The freedom of choice that is the essence of democracy.

The claim of this freedom, as well as international awareness, are superbly revealed by the placards on which one can read English and French inscriptions- "Where's my vote", "Solidarité nationale, Iran est dans le sang", "A bas le dictateur", etc.

This resemblance thus indicates a remarkable increase in international awareness through the sharing of information and culture via Internet. It's truly revolutionary.

The rabid efforts of fundamentalists who consider freedom to be a direct threat to their obsolete cause, the pathetic masquerade of democracy in Iran and elsewhere, the dated, military, ambitions of die-hard junta in countries such as North Korea, Burma, and still to an extent in Libya, China and Russia, can never control the elements, the tides, the winds, nor even these little, fresh breezes.

Naturally this process, the sharing of information, cannot be controlled, prohibited or censored for any great length of time. It would be like forcing a family to live locked up in a house without windows..Windows that would otherwise be open to let in this fresh breeze of change.
This little breeze can really be felt, and it's an exhilarating feeling.

When the economical crisis seriously began in the USA in 2008, most of the world including Europe, smugly supposed that it was 'their problem', and that it was 'inevitable', etc. Some even seemed delighted about it, predicting the end of 'Western capitalism' and the reign of the dollar as a world currency. They never considered the domino effect. It had never occurred to them that the world is like Noah's Ark and if it leaks in one place, we are all going to eventually get wet. So we've all got to help repair the Ark and bail it out to prevent it from sinking.

Naturally ecological problems are parallel. If China or any country believes it can abuse nature, waste and pollute her resources by continuing to churn out far more products than are necessary, and this with impunity, it's on a disaster course, possibly dragging a good part of the world in its wake.

Today in Europe there is more intercontinental exchange of view points and sharing of information than ever. There is a need to establish a European identity, not as a mere 'common market' identity, but as Europeans who defend European values, have a common objective, a reason of being, an ideal and aspirations. Europeans, and proud of being so.

Perhaps this is another reason why there seems to be a disorientation of national political polarity. There is no longer a right wing or a left wing way of governing. There is only the best way possible. And this is determined by international, economical and environmental constraints and considerations, 'geopolitics' and international security.

European identity is gradually developing into an ideal that may eventually dwarf national political tendencies. If this is so, it can only be a natural and positive process.

We are all together on this small planet, our Noah's Ark, and it's the only one we have. Whatever one's religion there is no doubt that we all share the same dream of freedom, simply because it's human nature.
It's not 'Western corruption' or an American invention or dream. It's the aspiration of every human being who merits the freedom of being him or herself, to realise his or her full potential. The dream of all men and women who want the best for their families.
The freedom to open the window, to see the sun rise again, to smile and take a deep breath of fresh air.

_____

First written for Viewfinder
(Click main title for Italian version).

When Left is right & Right is left

2009-06-17T12:35:00.006+02:00

Roger L. Simon on President Obama’s reaction to the current situation in Iran:

What Obama wants more than anything is not to be seen as treading in the path of George W. Bush. Democracy promotion is not his game. That’s neocon stuff. Barack’s not going there, no how, no way, as he made clear in his Cairo speech. It would undermine everything he pretends to stand for, everything he proclaimed in his campaign.

But wait. I’m confused. Back when I identified as a liberal, democracy promotion was very much what we stood for. We would have done anything to get rid of the likes of Pinochet and Somoza. When Pinochet was up against it in Chile, every liberal I knew was jumping for joy, cheering on Salvador Allende. Why not the Iranian demonstrators against Ahmadinejad and the mullahs who, in many ways, are worse even than Pinochet? The Chilean dictator didn’t oppress women and gays to anywhere near the extent of the Islamists. He also wasn’t building a nuclear weapon and denying the Holocaust. Is everything standing on its head? What’s going on here? Left is right. Right is left. Liberal is… reactionary?

Rainbow alphabet doggerel (C,D)

2009-06-16T13:49:00.031+02:00

C is for Cucumber

The crazy cook would prepare
His favourite dish with great care-
Curried crab with cold custard,
Crumble cake with Colman's Mustard,
Chocolate and cheese with cod
And sliced cucumber (which seems odd)
All clumped together with clammy rice,
The taste of which he claims is nice.

____

D is for Do

The little riddle of example

If I do
What you do
And he does
The same

Then they do
What we do
Who first is
To blame?

____

Text © Mirino (PW) image © Lisa. June, 2009
____

E and F

A and B