Rose Gold

It’s starting to seem like spring. Even though it has been a very mild winter around here, it was still winter. Winter with it’s short days and flat light. The lack of snow didn’t help much, the flat winter light just made the gray-brown colors of the grass and trees seem even more bleak and listless. Everything looks so tired in the winter.

Ah, but when spring begins to creep in, sneaking up on us, the days get longer. Suddenly, you realize that it’s not completely dark when you wake up, and not already dark when you leave work. It was like that tonight as I left work, the sun was low in the west, but it was still above the horizon. As I drove home, I noticed the light of the setting sun on the hills above town. It turned even the ugly, winter-bleached hills a warm, reddish-gold color. "The color of rose gold", I thought. Those words suddenly hit me - rose gold.

And I remembered where I knew those words from, "rose gold". Many years ago, after my father died, my mother gave me his old watch. It was a Benrus with a rectangular face and a flexible metal link band. "It’s made of rose gold", she told me. And it was a warm, reddish gold color, a truly beautiful color. The watch didn’t work, though. Still, it was very nice to look at. Mom promised that if she could  afford it, she’d have it fixed. She never did, money was always too hard to come by. Repairing an old watch was not a high priority.

Besides, as pretty as it was, the old Benrus watch had belonged to my father. I didn’t really want to think about him. So I tucked the watch into a drawer and only looked at it when I stumbled across it looking for something else. It did catch the eye, that pretty red-gold color. But after a while, I realized I hadn’t seen the watch in a long time. We’d been through many moves, from one apartment to the next in the years since Mom gave it to me. I searched everywhere, but finally realized it was gone. It must have been lost in one of the packing/unpacking cycles.

So there I was, driving home and seeing that warm rose gold color painted on the hills by the falling sun. The old watch, my Mom who never did get it fixed for me, the thoughtless boy who didn’t take care of it very well and a lot of other painful memories. Still, it caught the eye, that pretty reddish gold color. Even the memories could not take away the beauty.

Mom passed away just about this time last year. Rest in Peace, Mom.

It’s Not Paranoia

If they really are out to get you, is it? Eugene Volokh has a really good discussion on when Islamophobia is not irrational.

"This is telling evidence, it seems to me, that there is something very wrong in Islam today, and not just in some lunatic terrorist fringe. Doubtless many, I would hope most, Muslims would not endorse executing converts. But a strand of the religion, and a strand that is not far from the levers of political power in at least some countries, does seem to endorse such a position. This is deeply dangerous, most obviously to residents of countries in which radical Islamism has broad support, but also to residents of Western countries as well".

Volokh touches on something here that has been on my mind a great deal lately. Anyone who points out things of this nature - real, serious issues with certain behaviors by a very vocal islamist element - there is an almost instantaneous attack on that person, calling the person a racist, an Islamophobe or whatever. Putting aside the absurdity of calling Islam a race, these attacks serve only to attempt to silence discussion.

But are you being paranoid when they are out to get you?

The West must not stand silent while extreme elements grow bolder. The less we discuss behavior that is deeply dangerous and should be offensive to all people of good will, the more we enable that behavior.

I

Tell Me Again…

What campaign finance reform means?

It seems a Democratic candidate for the US Senate has been caught doing some highly dubious campaign financing.

"Late last year, Brown received $25,000 from the state Democratic parties in Hawaii, Maine and Massachusetts. Shortly afterward, four of his top donors gave $30,000 to those parties. The donors had already given Brown the maximum allowed under federal law, $4,200".

I have noted a number of times before, corruption is an equal opportunity scandal. The Democrats should be very careful about using it as a weapon. It tends to be a two-edged sword.

New Zealand News

Rarely (if ever) are there two stories in the world press about New Zealand on the same day. So how weird is it to get two stories from that corner of the world, both involving amputees?

Item one: A mountaineer from New Zealand who lost both his legs to frostbite in 1982 is setting out to climb Mount Everest.

"Mark Inglis nearly died in 1982 when he lay in a snow cave near the peak of Mount Cook, New Zealand’s highest mountain, and waited 14 days to be rescued in an incident he now describes as "a very public hiccup to my climbing profession".

"Inglis said he will start climbing from the Tibetan side of Everest and aims to be at the base camp by the end of the first week of April, with the ascent of Everest possibly taking two months.

He will keep a daily public diary of the climb on www.legsoneverest.com.

Besides the personal satisfaction of the climb, Inglis hopes his expedition will raise several hundred thousand dollars for the Cambodia Trust’s limb centre in Kompong Chhnang which provides rehabilitation for landmine amputees, polio victims and other disabled people".

Well, he’s doing it for a good cause, best of luck, sir.

Item Two: New Zealand police made a routine traffic stop on a car that was traveling at 75mph. They were very surprised to find that the unlicensed driver didn’t have a license for a reason - the driver had no arms.

"The 32-year-old disabled driver was using one foot to steer and the other to operate the pedals when he was stopped in the Bay of Plenty on the west coast of the North Island".

Acting Senior Sergeant Deidre Lackfor said she had spoken to several officers with lengthy careers and none had heard of anything remotely like it.

She said she had nothing against people with disabilities driving but "obviously driving at a speed like that, arms or not, you’re just waiting for an accident".

I’m going out on a limb here, but I’d say this is a pretty odd day even for New Zealand.

BOHICA!

A favorite word in the Army, according to my source, is "Bohica". It is simultaneously an accurate description, a cry of defiance and a fatalistic observation.

Well, it seems that Randy Quaid is having a Bohica moment right now. In a lawsuit he just filed, he charges that the producers of Brokeback Mountain lied to him to get him to accept a smaller than usual salary. He charges that he was told the movie would be a low-budget art house type film. Instead, had a much higher budget than usual and was given very, very wide release. Brokeback Mountain has grossed more than $85 million in the US alone.

So, the producers of a movie about gay shepherds who like to - well - screw each other, also appear to enjoy screwing the talent.

Or to put it another way - BOHICA!

Everything Old is New Again

I grew up under the shadow of the Cold War. I remember doing duck and cover drills in school (you know, the bend over and kiss your ass goodbye drills). I remember the Soviet Union, proxy wars, missile gaps and Mutually Assured Destruction. Then the Soviet Union collapsed and peace broke out all over.

*Snort*

Well, some things never change, I guess. It turns out the Russian ambassador to Saddam’s Iraq gave Saddam military intelligence about our planned invasion.

"Based on a captured Iraqi document — a memo to Saddam from his Ministry of Foreign Affairs, dated April 2 — Russian intelligence reported through its ambassador that the American forces were moving to cut off Baghdad from the south, east and north, with the heaviest concentration of troops in the Karbala area. It said the Americans had 12,000 troops in the area, along with 1,000 vehicles".

Now, tell me again why Russia can be trusted to help deal with Iran? Is the lull in the Cold War over?

Life Imitates Saturday Night Live

A woman in Bonita Springs, Florida answered a knock on her door. She was a bit nonplussed to find that the caller was an eight-foot alligator. Trapper John French snared the bull gator after it went back to a nearby lake.

"You’re starting into what’s called the crawl season, the breeding season," he said. "We get them out of front porches, out of garages, out of swimming pools."

Not to worry, ma’am, he’s just looking for love!

All this, of course, brought this to mind.

Ah, The French

French president Jacques Chirac and the entire French delegation to a European Union summit walked out of the meeting when a French lobbyist switched from speaking French to the English language.

"I have to say I was profoundly shocked to see a Frenchman express himself in English at the (EU) Council table. That’s why the French delegation and myself walked out rather than listen to that," Chirac told reporters.

"It is not just national interest, it is in the interest of culture and the dialogue of cultures. You cannot build the world of the future on just one language and, hence one culture."

It seems old Jacques and George Lucas think a lot alike.

Thankfully, my forebears had the intelligence and good taste to get themselves thrown out of France.

Underwater Archaeology On Dry Land

Workers at the Pensacola Naval Air Station have uncovered a Spanish ship buried under 75 feet of sand.

The vessel could date to the mid-1500s, when the first Spanish settlement in what is now the United States was founded here, the archaeologists said.

Construction workers found the wreckage while rebuilding the swim rescue school at the base. The Navy has no plans to do extensive study of the find since it is so deeply buried. They plan to cover the exposed portions, however.

Bad News From Belarus

President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus sent troops to quash protests over his contested election landslide.

About 100 black-helmeted riot police swooped on October Square in central Minsk in the dead of night and herded protesters spending their fourth consecutive night there into green trucks with barred windows.

The totalitarian response is unsurprising given the rather blatant fraud involved in the election itself:

Opposition protests began at the closing of polls Sunday when Milinkevich told 10,000 supporters on October Square that the election — slammed in the West as neither free nor fair — should be annulled.

According to official results, he won only 6.1 percent of Sunday’s vote, to 83 percent for Lukashenko.

Election results like that are highly suspicious given the obvious open support the opposition has demonstrated. I’m surprised Jimmy Carter hasn’t endorsed the election, though. He’s never met a dictator he didn’t love or a rigged election he couldn’t embrace.

UPDATE: Well, the US and the EU are putting sanctions in place and the opposition is not backing down despite the crackdown.

"Belarus’ opposition called for a mass rally in a new show of force against the regime of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko as the West vowed to slap sanctions on its leadership".

Given the latest revelation about the Russian Ambassador giving US military information to Iraq in the run-up to the war, I think the US is doing the right thing here. Keep up the pressure on Moscow.

Missouri Soldier In Need Of Help

Gateway Pundit has a long post about Air National Guard Master Sgt. Rhys Wilson of Savannah Missouri.

Wilson recently returned from active duty in Iraq after his wife Therese was diagnosed with 4th stage neuro-endocrine cancer which will require extremely intense and expensive treatment, much of which will not be covered by health insurance.

This man served his country despite having a child with medical problems, a son who is also serving in Iraq and now a desperately ill wife to contend with. He deserves our help. Please pass the word on and help if you can.

Who: Rep. Colonel Jack Jackson, Veteran’s Commission Ombudsman Pat Rowe Kerr and members of Therese and Master Sgt. Rhys Wilson’s Family.
What: Press Conference to announce start of “Operation on Spirits Wings.”
When: Saturday March 25th, 2:30 pm.
Where: Platte Woods United Methodist Church. 7310 NW Prairie View Rd. Platte Woods Missouri, 64151.

Please help out if you can.
For more information you may contact paul@jackjackson.org

Well, We Can Be Sure Of One Thing

When all the details of this come out, it will not paint a pretty picture.

The wife of a Tennessee minister will be charged with his murder. The minister, Matthew Winkler, was found shot to death inside the family home in Selmer, Tennessee. Mary Winkler was found with the couple’s three young daughters late Thursday in Orange Beach, Alabama.

"We’ve known from the beginning that she was either a suspect or a victim," said TBI spokeswoman Jennifer Johnson.

Of course, everyone who knew the couple say they were nice people and that they where astonished that this could happen to such nice people. Don’t worry, though, by the time the lawyers get done this will be very, very sordid indeed.

Whoo Hoo

It appears that there was an error in the FTP to upload the new editor. Blue Host was very, very helpful in getting the FTP accomplished properly. The new editor appears to be working fine now.

It’s not getting any better

I’ll be limping along today since I have lost most of my text editing capabilities.

A little knowledge is a very dangerous thing.

I am going to be trying to use Word as the editor and see if that will work for now at least.