This sucks like a centrifugal pump

I had to embiggen my screen display on my laptop. The desktop icons are bigger, these words display larger. It was to the point where I was scrunched up and squinting like a two-eyed sea pirate just to see the screen. It is hard to use a computer when you are holding a magnifying glass to see the graphics. I do not need any distractions to increase my risk of offering up yet another typo.

Disease, genetics, age, too many sessions flying solo as a youth -- who knows why my nearsightedness is getting worse. I am 51. Some days I feel like I am 81.

Post-Racial Lynch Mobs

I have never been shy about expressing my opinion. I will readily admit when it comes to race I have no idea what it feels like to be a minority. My life has been insulated by geography and economics. I grew up in a small farm town not far from Nowhere, Indiana.  During the entirety of my public school years there lived exactly one black family in the entire county. They were only there for a few years. I can't say I ever had a conversation with the girl in my grade. Not because she was a person of color, I do not remember her being in any of my classes. There was a significant Hispanic population, especially in my elementary school years. They were just the kids with accents. Skin color was of no matter. My parents established that training early.

I can honestly say my first conversation with an African-American occurred at Boy Scout camp. The occupants of the next campsite down were from Indianapolis and the troop was entirely black. We hung out just like we would have with any kids the next campsite over. One boy tried in vain to put cornrows into my thick wavy hair.

There were a few African-Americans in my college fraternity. But as one of them explained to me once, they were all Oreos (think on it). I am not sure the sons of doctors and lawyers could relate the the plight of the inner-city gang-banger any better than my rural cracker ass.

With that long preamble, I am not sure how anyone who watched or read about the Zimmerman trial could think the facts were there for a conviction. It is true Zimmerman should have never left his vehicle. After that, it is all a terrible tragedy. Trying to pinpoint the exact moment the two men's fate intertwined is like trying to know just which Twinkie caused my diabetes. I believe that is called an exercise in futility.

I have seen no evidence to support Zimmerman followed or targeted Martin because he was black. There is no Federal Civil Rights case here. Sometimes juries fail to reach conclusions we desire. Casey Anthony walked, after all. We can bitch and moan about the OJ trial, but when the jury saw things differently it was not an excuse to riot, burn or take to the airwaves in outrage and demand extra charges from the Feds.

Justice should be blind. Skin color, or economics, or social standing are not relevant. Is it always so?  I do not think so, but that is no reason to argue the system is broken. Six citizens made a decision based on the facts as they heard them. Our system is designed for justice to be deliberative. A lynch mob works through emotion, not fact. We should not want it any other way. The entire situation is tragic and the families involved will never be the same.

The Sharptons and Jacksons and outraged leaders of the black community should look at the tragedy in the nation; the unfathomable rate of black-on-black crime, the astonishing rates of teen aged pregnancy and high unemployment right down the street in the black neighborhoods of our cities. One case in Florida is not a symbol of race relations. Throwing Zimmerman in jail will not solve that massive problem.

 The grievance theater is never really about the specific case, the specific shooting, it's about the links between the social problems of the black community, the compromises of civil liberties necessary to keep entire cities from turning into Detroit and the inability of the media to address the sources of crime as anything but the phantoms of white racism. It's about a black leadership that is more interested in posturing as angry activists and shaking loose some money than in healing the problems of their own communities. source

Let us stop blaming our great-great grandfathers for the ills of today's inner cities.

It is well past time we heed the words of MLK and start judging each other by the content of our character instead of the color of our skin. I am pretty sure Mr. King would agree that sentiment should be a two-way street.

Friday Music

Awesome, right?

How about a bonus, since the sun is shining and I am in a good mood?



You are welcome.

Catching up

As is often the case some of my posts this week were canned. You know that ocasionally happens. But I use a combination of salt, Fruit Fresh, Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA),  butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) and my own secret preservative recipe to make my words, thoughts, opinions, and overall wisdom seem freshly produced from the field and factory.

Sometimes not having convenient access to the interwebz during my travels means I cannot keep you updated on the latest adventures in my fun-filled life.  For instance I was on this flight. I can only compliment the captain and crew for their professionalism and care for their passengers. The ground personnel at the Indianapolis Airport and bus drivers were wonderful. Once in the terminal the airline sent 1 (ONE!) customer service rep to reschedule and rebook the 78 passengers. That was not so wonderful.  I was told by some of my fellow travelers the next day the hotel accommodations arranged by the airline were beyond dismal.  As one lady put it, "crack whores and hookers would even refuse to stay there".  A couple of people looked at the rooms and went back to the airport to sleep on the floor.

It was almost 8 PM by the time I left the parking garage. My working Wednesday was almost 14 hours. Such is my life .

The next morning my rebooked flight left shortly after 5 AM. That means I had to leave home around 3 AM. I did my business and got home last night just a few minutes short of 9 PM. That equates to an 18 hour day, if my history major math holds up. I gave my employer 32 hours over two days.

I think of weeks like this when people tell me "I wish I had your job."

My boss was complaining on Wednesday morning in a conference call he had worked 9 hours on Tuesday. 

What he said part 2

On the other hand, consider OJ

My local fishwrap carries a column by Gene Lyons, an unabashed liberal's liberal.  He never met a Republican he did not hate, and often crows the Fox News/George Bush/ Dick Cheney mantra of liberal disdain.

But this week's effort is spot on. Lyons calls out MSNBC for shoddy reporting and gives an honest take on the Zimmerman trial.

However, to convict George Zimmerman of second-degree murder, a jury must imagine this scenario: Determined to kill an innocent stranger, a man first dials 911, stays on the phone while stalking his victim, remains at the crime scene rather than fleeing, surrenders peacefully, waives his Miranda rights and voluntarily answers hundreds of police questions.

Hard to believe, no?source

In a clear case of I really, really hope I am wrong, I think the race baiters and professional victims and even the current occupant of the White House are waiting to unleash a dose of outrage if the verdict goes not according to justice, but according to race.  There are people looking to cause violence for real and imagined slights; that believe WE, as a society, owe them for 500 years of real and imagined oppression.

I think there are some who welcome a crisis as an excuse to increase their power.  What better way to get a civilian "army" than to quell 1967-type rioting across the nation?

Am I cynical beyond reason? Probably. I would sure like to admit I am wrong. In this case it would be a pleasure.

What he said part 1

Here is a post that sums up today's world in 9 words.

There is really nothing to add.

Food Pic Haters Rejoice

Yesterday I fired up my decrepit gas grill and threw on a couple of brats. I heated a can of Bavarian sauerkraut* and enjoyed a lunch fit for a Frankish King, or at least a prosperous Burgermeister. Unfortunately, I gobbled down the feast before I remembered to take a picture to excite your jealousy.
 
Lunch reminded me of a trip through Bavaria on my way to Austria several years ago.  We stopped at a city along the Donau (Danube).  There was an open air restaurant beside the river.  A fat waiter in a white apron spoke to my German friend. My buddy laughed and said "Only in Bavaria.  You can only have bratwurst and kraut, but what kind of beer do you want?" Unfortunately, I did not have a beer with my lunch yesterday. 

* I do not know the difference between the Bavarian style and regular sauerkraut other than perhaps the inclusion of a few scattered caraway seeds.

Mud and guns

Last week there was some discussion around here about the Siege of Vicksburg. As I mentioned, the newspapers of the time touted Grant's victory as far more impressive than the three day slaughter at Gettysburg. That was an amazing fact given the incredible Eastern theater-centric reporting of the day. In that sense, nothing has changed, the big, but infrequent battles of the East are far more famous than the bloody war west of the Appalachians.

Anyway, I was walking through the bookstore at the mall last evening when I noticed Jeff Shaara has just published his second novel about the western front of the Civil War. A Chain of Thunder  is about the siege of Vicksburg. By coincidence my wife had gifted me a gift card from Amazon, so I had the funds to score a Kindle copy when I got home.

Like all of the books by the Shaara family,  I expect this book to be well researched and fairly accurate to the historical record. Jeff's novel of the battle of Shiloh, A Blaze of Glory, is a novel nearly equal to his father's Killer Angels, which is arguably the best novel of the Civil War ever written.  If you want to argue that point in the comments,  I will listen to reason as long as your choice is not that romantic tripe Gone With the Wind.

An appropriate title goes here

Here we are on a Monday, fresh off a four day weekend and I have nothing of interest to report. I could tell you about mowing my yard, trimming my bushes but even my eyes glaze over in sheer boredom thinking about it.  The best writer in history could not make my weekend interesting to you.

Perhaps Clio or Thalia will inspire me to write a worthwhile post later this morning. Since I do not believe in the Greek gods and goddesses, it is unlikely the muses will cooperate.

Deep Thoughts for a Sunday Morning inJuly

Peanut M&Ms and hot black coffee -- the breakfast of champions (with apologies to the fine folks at General Mills and their Wheaties TM Brand.

New boss, same as the old boss

 I found myself awake and quietly treading the floors of my tiny house at o'middle of the night on Independence Day. After a time I sat down and surfed the interwebz. I took the time to reread the DoI on my July 4th post and I was struck by the list of abuses perpetrated by King George and how many our current Government has copied.

I spent some detailing those similarities for a post to be published today.. I should have just read Ed's blog -- he did the work for me. I guess it is true that great minds think alike.

See what I get for not supplying you with the very freshest of content?  See my reward for writing the old blog a few days in advance? Not only does Ed write better, he scoops me too!

I could whine and complain (I am) I could vow to get even for the imagined slight (that would take years, millions of dollars, an cost countless lives).

I would like to say I could learn from this situation.

I cannot, since I am writing this on Friday morning to publish on Saturday.

Oh, the Wells Fargo (actually UPS) Wagon is a-coming down the street...

In other news, the DVD copy of Five Masters of Death I ordered for less than $5 from Amazon is due to arrive sometime today. Also called the Five Shaolin Masters, this was one of my favorite Martial Arts flicks back in the day.

By "back in the day" I am referencing my semi-drunken college days in the early 1980's when HBO (or Showtime --whatever) had Kung Fu flicks on the schedule. We sat down in the basement of the fraternity* and watched this one repeatedly, bad dubbing and all.  It is a true classic, at least in my faded reflection.

I hope the movie lives up to my memories. If not, it was less than $5 and that is cheap entertainment in today's world.

If we can only get the great flick Waterloo re-released on DVD, my life would be nearly complete.I have a VHS copy, but it is worn out.



* I will give a silent nod to my late fraternity brother Ernie who dug Kung Fu flicks immensely.  RIP my friend. .

The other big battle

There has been a lot of press over the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. From July 1-3, 1863 Union and Confederate forces joined in a mighty battle near a small hamlet in southern Pennsylvania. Casualties topped 50,000. Pickett's Charge on the last day over the bare fields and near breakthrough of the Union center is often described as the "high water mark of the Confederacy". Only the hindsight of time can give us that perspective.

In point of fact, historians and contemporary pundits view Lee's foray into Pennsylvania as a disaster.  The campaign did little to relieve the Union pressure in the Shenandoah Valley. The battle can only be described as Confederate loss, and Lee could ill-afford the resulting 20,000-plus casualties. Mead, the Union commander, was heavily criticized for not following up the defeated Confederates, but in reality the army was exhausted and in no position to chase Lee.

Can we truly look upon Gettysburg as the "high water mark"? Nothing was accomplished by the invasion of Pennsylvania. Nothing was gained by the Union in victory. In fact, it was a battle that concluded the very next day that garnered the headlines of the times. That battle was also a Union victory, but it was won not in Pennsylvania, but 1,047 miles away at Vicksburg, Mississippi.

Grant's victory at Vicksburg put the entire Mississippi River under Union control. The Confederacy was effectively cut in half. The rich agricultural lands of Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri now could no longer support the Rebel army. The fall of Vicksburg was the proverbial straw that broke the Confederacy's back. Not Gettysburg.

New Orleans and Memphis were in Federal Control. The important rail center at Nashville was captured previously. That fall Union troops would move across Tennessee to cut the Confederacy again, and  bloody Chicamauga would result. The following year the Confederate States would see Atlanta fall and at that point the end result was never in doubt.

Gettysburg may be the popular winner of the most famous of Civil War battles, but it was the lessor and far more important fall of Vicksburg that was the crown in Union victories. One further point to prove my theory: It was Grant who was picked by Lincoln to head up the United States Army, not George Mead, after their respective July 1863 victories.

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

---

The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:
Column 1
Georgia:
   Button Gwinnett
   Lyman Hall
   George Walton
Column 2
North Carolina:
   William Hooper
   Joseph Hewes
   John Penn
South Carolina:
   Edward Rutledge
   Thomas Heyward, Jr.
   Thomas Lynch, Jr.
   Arthur Middleton
Column 3
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton
Column 4
Pennsylvania:
   Robert Morris
   Benjamin Rush
   Benjamin Franklin
   John Morton
   George Clymer
   James Smith
   George Taylor
   James Wilson
   George Ross
Delaware:
   Caesar Rodney
   George Read
   Thomas McKean
Column 5
New York:
   William Floyd
   Philip Livingston
   Francis Lewis
   Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
   Richard Stockton
   John Witherspoon
   Francis Hopkinson
   John Hart
   Abraham Clark
Column 6
New Hampshire:
   Josiah Bartlett
   William Whipple
Massachusetts:
   Samuel Adams
   John Adams
   Robert Treat Paine
   Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
   Stephen Hopkins
   William Ellery
Connecticut:
   Roger Sherman
   Samuel Huntington
   William Williams
   Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
   Matthew Thornton

How about some tunes to move us into the weekend?

Sometime in the mid-1970s I was at Boy Scout camp. At one of the evening campfires one of the staff members sat down in front of the dying flames with a 12 string guitar and performed this song. It was beautiful.

When you can snatch the pebble from my hand...

Here is another view of the building from this post

Good morning

Confession:

I often write posts and publish them hours or days and sometimes weeks in advance.  I make up the time stamps to fit the whim of the moment. This post is live, fresh not frozen. I am using my stubby fingers to hunt and peck away at the keyboard in real time. Locally it is 4:43. That would be in the morning. My buddy insomnia popped by  just before three and we have been hanging out since. We watched some TV. Then we decided to pay some bills and send out some work-related emails. I think we will work on our expense reports after bit.

I have always been very good at compartmentalizing. I developed the habit in college and honed it to a fine craft when I was a Customer Service Manager. It was not unusual to have a dozen problems in process on my desk at once in those busy days. The phone did not stop ringing just because I was in the middle of tracking down parts or expediting a production run. This skill allowed me to focus on the issue at hand.

In a like matter, compartmentalization allows me to relax and forget about the daily tumult and problems life and work throw at me. Until lately.

I have always been subjected to occasional bouts of insomnia. Lately it has been almost every night.   I cannot find the inner switch that allows me to shut of my brain. I thought about taking an over the counter sleep aid or even asking doctor for a script. I have always had an aversion to sleep aids and I am reluctant to take them still. In my youth I often managed to function on four hours of sleep.  At 51 I think it is a little more difficult.

Imagine my surprise

I was sitting in a comfy chair at the mall while the wife did whatever she does for what seems like hours in the stores. I was playing with my phone, checking emails, ball scores, the old blog. I played a few games of Euchre with computer opponents and partner. Bored, I clicked on my Kindle app to read a bit. On my China trip I had started a collection of Hemingway short stories. I joined the program already in progress and ran across this passage:

They came to Paris and most of their friends from the boat came back too. They were tired of Dijon and anyway would now be able to say that after leaving Harvard or Columbia or Wabash they had studied at the University of Dijon down in the Cote d'Or. *

Harvard, Columbia and Wabash. Really?  Little Wabash College is an all-male liberal arts college located in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Its total enrollment is about 900. When Hemingway penned this story it was even smaller.  How did a good, but insignificant little college located in the vast hinterlands make it into a story by Ernest Hemingway published in 1925? 

Here is a hint. Look up Ezra Pound. Click the link, I did the research for you.  All you have to do is connect the dots.

What do I know of Wabash College?  That is easy, I graduated from there in 1984.



*Mr. and Mrs. Elliott from The Complete Stories of Ernest Hemingway The Finca Vigia edition 1987

A stumbling and bumbling start to my Monday

I am not sure how this day is starting. I had a glass of milk with my donut for breakfast. As I neared the last drink I noticed there was a dried chocolate ring on the bottom of the glass the dishwasher failed to clean. This is a result of the boy leaving dirty glasses in his room for days at a time.  I dumped the last of the glass into the sink and scrubbed the glass. I felt half sick.

When  I went to sign into the old blog, my password was rejected three straight times. My first thought was I had been hacked, but then I remembered I had entered a gift card on to my Amazon account and had the caps lock on. My second thought is that a hack job would be an excuse to quit this silly hobby. Fortunately/unfortunately (depending upon your POV) you guys are my cowboy high atop Brokeback Mountain -- I cain't quit you.

It seems almost everyone in my company is on vacation this week. Not me though.   I am here at my desk early; toiling away. That is when I am not wasting time at this piece o'crap. But my workday does not officially start until 8:30, so the few minutes I waste here is OK,  especially since I logged on and started through my emails at 6:30.

It looks like we can expect another few days of rain.  I hope it dries out by the end of the week.  My oldest boy is scheduled to play a show the next town over on Friday as part of the July 4th festivities. I have not seen his band live for a few months and I am looking forward to hearing them live once again.

Don't tell my doctor, I made some homemade ice cream last night.  Sorry, no pictures.  It did not last long enough. And yes,  I did cover my portion in cashews, caramel and chocolate syrup. If I am going to spike my blood sugar, I might as well go all out!