Burns Night

SLAINTE. HERE'S TAE YE!!

There is a good chance I won't be feeling well on January 26, but there is a perfectly legitimate reason involving way too much music, poetry, food, and single malt whiskey tomorrow night. There might be an ice bag on my head, but there will be a smile on my face.

On January 25, Scotland celebrates the birth of its greatest poet, Robert Burns, who was born in Ayrshire on that date in 1759. During the celebration, Burns poems are read usually the rather bawdy (Ode to a Fornicator) or most popular (Ode to a Mouse), and the haggis is addressed by a member of the party, ceremonially, in the form of verses from Burns' poem, 'Address to a Haggis' as it is carried into the gathering to the skirl of bagpipes. A typical meal for Burns Night would follow this procedure and service of these dishes

Cock-a-Leekie Soup
Haggis with Tatties-an'-Neeps
Roastit Beef
Tipsy Laird
Dunlop Cheese.

Oh, and did I mention that whisky is also served?

THE FORNICATOR

Ye jovial boys who love the joys,
The blissful joys of Lovers;
Yet dare avow with dauntless brow,
When th' bony lass discovers;
I pray draw near and lend an ear,
And welcome in a Frater,
For I've lately been on quarantine,
A proven Fornicator.

Before the Congregation wide
I pass'd the muster fairly,
My handsome Betsey by my side,
We gat our ditty rarely;
But my downcast eye by chance did spy
What made my lips to water,
Those limbs so clean where I, between,
Commenc'd a Fornicataor.

With rueful face and signs of grace
I pay'd the buttock hire,
The night was dark and thro the park
I could not but convoy her;
A parting kiss, what could I less,
My vows began to scatter,
My Betsey fell ? lal de dal lal lal,
I am a Fornicator.

But for her sake this vow I make,
And solemnly I swear it,
That while I own a single crown,
She's welcome for to share it;
And my roguish boy his Mother's joy,
And the darling of his Pater,
For him I boast my pains and cost,
Although a Fornicator.

Ye wenching blades whose hireling jades
Have tipt you off blue boram,
I tell ye plain, I do disdain
To rank you in the Quorum;
But a bony lass upon the grass
To teach her esse Mater,
And no reward but for regard,
O that's a Fornicator.

Your warlike Kings and Heros bold,
Great Captains and Commanders;
Your mighty Cesars fam'd of old,
And Conquering Alexanders;
In fields they fought and laurels bought
And bulwarks strong did batter,
But still they grac'd our noble list
And ranked a Fornicator!!!



ODE TO A MOUSE

Oh, tiny timorous forlorn beast,
Oh why the panic in your breast ?
You need not dart away in haste
To some corn-rick
I'd never run and chase thee,
With murdering stick.

I'm truly sorry man's dominion
Has broken nature's social union,
And justifies that ill opinion
Which makes thee startle
At me, thy poor earth-born companion,
And fellow mortal.

I do not doubt you have to thieve;
What then? Poor beastie you must live;
One ear of corn that's scarcely missed
Is small enough:
I'll share with you all this year's grist,
Without rebuff.

Thy wee bit housie too in ruin,
Its fragile walls the winds have strewn,
And you've nothing new to build a new one,
Of grasses green;
And bleak December winds ensuing,
Both cold and keen.

You saw the fields laid bare and waste,
And weary winter coming fast,
And cosy there beneath the blast,
Thou thought to dwell,
Till crash; the cruel ploughman crushed
Thy little cell.

Your wee bit heap of leaves and stubble,
Had cost thee many a weary nibble.
Now you're turned out for all thy trouble
Of house and home
To bear the winter's sleety drizzle,
And hoar frost cold.

But, mousie, thou art not alane,
In proving foresight may be in vain,
The best laid schemes of mice and men,
Go oft astray,
And leave us nought but grief and pain,
To rend our day.

Still thou art blessed, compared with me!
The present only touches thee,
But, oh, I backward cast my eye
On prospects drear,
And forward, though I cannot see,
I guess and fear.

Address To A Haggis

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, cheerful
Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!
Aboon them a' ye tak your place, Above
Painch, tripe, or thairm: paunch/guts
Weel are ye worthy of a grace
As lang's my arm.

The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill, buttocks
Your pin wad help to mend a mill skewer
In time o' need,
While thro' your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.

His knife see rustic Labour dight, wipe
An' cut you up wi' ready sleight, skill
Trenching your gushing entrails bright Digging
Like onie ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin, rich! -steaming

Then, horn for horn, they strech an' strive: spoon
Deil tak the hindmost! on they drive,
Till a' their weel-swall'd kytes belyve, bellies/soon
Are bent like drums;
Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive, burst
'Bethanket!' hums.

Is there that owre his French ragout
Or olio that wad staw a sow, sicken
Or fricassee wad mak her spew
Wi' perfect sconner, disgust
Looks down wi' sneering, scornfu' view
On sic a dinner?

Poor devil! see him owre his trash,
As feckless as a wither'd rash, weak/rush
His spindle shank, a guid whip-lash,
His nieve a nit; fist/nut
Thro' bluidy flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!

But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread.
Clap in his walie nieve a blade, choice
He'll make it whissle;
An' legs, an' arms, an' heads will sned, trim
Like taps o' thrissle. tops/thistle

Ye Pow'rs wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o'fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware watery
That jaups in luggies; splashes/porringers
But, if ye wish her gratefu' prayer,
Gie her a Haggis!

Music To Go With Your haggis

Liberal Republicans

Jessie Ann Benton Fremont
John C. Fremont

Once upon a time, Republicans were the liberal party. Long before Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, the first Republican to run for the Presidency and his wife freed their slaves.

While most people know of John C. Fremont as an explorer and instigator of California statehood, he probably never would have risen to political heights without his wife. If you like historical novels, pick up a copy of "Immortal Wife" by Irving Stone, but Jessie Benton Fremont was bigger than fiction. For that you need to get a copy of "The Letters of Jessie Benton Fremont". Despite being raised in an era when most women were not well educated she was an anomoly.

Daughter of a U.S. Senator
Fluent in Spanish and French acting as translater for official Washington
Pioneer traveling extensively between Virginia and California
Political Force within the new Republican Party
Campaign for the Presidency with her husband
Following husband's death supporter of her children through her writing.

Without the pioneer work of the Fremonts and the establishment of the Bear Republic and later the State, the Gold Rush if it happened at all would have been a part of the history of Spain not the United States. Gold Discovery at Sutter's Mill.

This has absolutely nothing to do with the Fremonts, but in checking for interesting events on this date, I found out that my absolutely favorite female in history received her medical degree on this day. So just as an add on, you lucky people get an introduction to Elizabeth Blackwell. She was an abolitionist as well as n Episcopalian, then a Dissenter, then a Unitarian, Elizabeth Blackwell returned to the Episcopal church and became associated with Christian socialism.

1849 : First woman M.D.

Elizabeth Blackwell is granted a medical degree from Geneva College in New York, becoming the first female to be officially recognized as a physician in U.S. history.

Blackwell, born in Bristol, England, came to the United States in her youth and attended the medical faculty of Geneva College, now known as Hobart College. In 1849, she graduated with the highest grades in her class and was granted an M.D.

In 1857, after several years of private practice, she founded the New York Infirmary for Women and Children with her sister, Emily Blackwell, also a doctor.

In 1868, the institution was expanded to include a women's college for the training of nurses and doctors, the first of its kind in America. The next year, Blackwell returned to England, where in 1875 she became professor of gynecology at the London School of Medicine for Women, a medical discipline she had helped to establish.

Time Travel

This week every one and their cousin have thrown their hats into the Presidential ring. It is a long, long time from here to November, and I shall pay attention to them in due course. All those flying hats made me think of a man who knew how to wear one while writing wonderful music, smoking a cigarette, and playing a piano.

If you are old enough to remember or young enough that you don't know. It's time to pay a visit to Hoagy Carmichael. Fred Astaire danced to his music. Louis Armstrong was one of his great friends, Ray Charles recorded one of his greatest hits, and Hoagy got nominated and/or received Oscars as if they were door prizes.

If you are a singer of jazz or ballads, you have probably sung a Hoagy Carmichael song. While you are on the bio site above, take a listen to some of the best.

Seeing Stars

D. W. Griffith


Griffith Jenkins Griffith

There are times when coincidences get almost too spooky for words. In California you can see stars thanks to two men named Griffith. One was a bit of a raffish con man and a master of promotion, D. W. Griffith, who arrived in Los Angeles in 1919 to make movies in the sunshine. The other was an immigrant pillar of the community, Griffith Jenkins Griffith, whose hard working life ended with a magnificent gift to the city that became Griffith Park and a bequest that put Griffith Observatory and the Greek Theater in that park. Courtesy of these two men, there are stars on view on the screen, on the stage, and in the skies.

Just to top off the coincidences, the two gifts came together in an iconic movie: Rebel Without A Cause whose climactic scene takes place at the observatory.

The House at Pooh Corner

My son, Christopher Alan, was supposed to be Christopher Robin. Unfortunately, his father objected strenuously no matter how often I told him "Robin" was a boy's name. Well it doesn't matter what the birth certificate says, Christopher Alan really thinks his name is Christopher Robin.

He got that name simply because when I was five and wanted a life somewhere near normal, books were my companions and there was a poem in my Childcraft set written by A.A. Milne. Years later there was a song by Kenny Loggins. The two items together have made me grateful to Milne for a lifetime. Today is the anniversary of Milne's January 18 birth. In honor of that I give you:


Vespers
A. A. Milne

Little boy kneels at the foot of the bed,
Droops on his little hands little gold head.
Hush hush, whisper. Who dares?
Christopher Robin is saying his prayers:

"God bless Mommy, I know that's right,
And wasn't it fun in the bath tonight,
The cold's so cold and the hot's so hot.
God bless Daddy, I quite forgot.

If I open my eyes just a little bit more
I can see Nanny's dressing-gown on the door;
It's a beautiful blue but it hasn't got a hood,
God bless Nanny and make her good.

Mine has a hood and I lie in bed
And I pull the hood right over my head,
And I shut my eyes and I curl up small
And nobody knows that I'm there at all.

Thank you God, for a lovely day,
And what was the other I wanted to say?
I said, `Bless Daddy', so what could it be?
Now I remember: God bless me".

Little boy kneels at the foot of the bed,
Droops on his little hands on little gold head.
Hush hush, whisper. Who dares?
Christopher Robin is saying his prayers

Farewell

Presidential Portrait










Eisenhower D-Day









Eisenhower West Point Graduation




Unlike the draft dodger currently in residence, Dwight D. Eisenhower knew what war was really like and what it meant to make the decisions about the lives of the young men under his command. He also understood how to take responsibility for those decisions. When authorizing D-Day, there was no "mistakes were made". There was no "If you are looking for a scapegoat." It was the statement in his pocket that said it all: Just before D-Day, Eisenhower wrote in a letter that "if there is any blame or fault in the attempt, it is my own," and not that of the men who fought on the beaches."

It was his fame as a successful general that carried Ike into the White House. He loved his country and wanted what was best for the citizens of this nation. When it came time to say goodbye, he wasn't happy about turning the place over to a Democrat, even behaved a little petuantly, but he did care enough to leave the standard message to his replacement in the Presidential desk and he warned his fellow citizens of future problems in his own straightforward Kansas style. That warning was delivered on January 17, 1961.

"Farewell" is an interesting word. It is not only goodbye but a blessing for the future on the people you are leaving: I am going, may all be well with you ... fare thee well. President Dwight D. Eisenhower warns the American people to keep a careful eye on what he calls the "military-industrial complex" that has developed in the post-World War II years. In his last presidential address to the American people, he expressed those concerns in terms that frankly shocked some of his listeners.

Some of his supporters believed that the man who led the country to victory in Europe in World War II and guided the nation through some of the darkest moments of the Cold War was too negative toward the businesses that were the backbone of America's defense, but to many listeners it seemed clear that Eisenhower was merely stating the obvious, and that this new development could weaken or destroy the very institutions and principles it was designed to protect.

It is a shame that none of his successors really listened and still waste national treasure and lives to maintain their own power.

Still Grateful

Another car bomb in Baghdad. This time it is directed at the University. So far the count is 60 dead and 110+ injured. And the count of grateful people continues: UN reports in excess of 34,000 Iraqi civilians killed in 2006

DULCE ET DECORUM EST1

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace

Behind the wagon that we flung him in,

And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,

His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;

If you could hear, at every jolt,

the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,

Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud

Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

To children ardent for some desperate glory,

The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori.

8 October 1917 - March, 1918

1 DULCE ET DECORUM EST - the first words of a Latin saying (taken from an ode by Horace). The words were widely understood and often quoted at the start of the First World War. They mean "It is sweet and right." The full saying ends the poem: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori - it is sweet and right to die for your country.

SAY WHAT?

What is that definition of delusion again?

Bush on 60 minutes:

"I think the Iraqi people owe the American people a huge debt of gratitude, and I believe most Iraqis express that. I mean, the people understand that we've endured great sacrifice to help them."

How insane and disconnected from his actions does this President have to get before they send him to spend time in a nice warm safe place where he can no longer injure people.

Iraqi Body Count

Coalition Deaths

Injuries

Not for a second do I think Saddam was some sort of martyred saint. There are few people who deserved death more for their crimes. Did the Shiites suffer under his regime? Yes they did. Did he spend little to nothing of the vast oil income on their infrastructure and well being? Yes he did. Yet there is no way we can get around the fact that he was confined to the center of his country. There was absolutely no reason to invade. That invasion has attracted every nut case in the middle east. That invasion has caused the Iraqi middle class to flee the country thus destroying education and medicine. The sooner we get out, the sooner the Iraqis can get back to trying to pick up the pieces of their lives.

Withdraw troops to the borders to prevent the influx of any more combatants. Enter into negotiations with the surrounding countries to assist in getting control of the situation. Provide safe haven refuge areas for Sunnis and Shiites to interrupt the civil war.

Stop the Insanity, Mr. President. They still won't be grateful, but at least they will still be alive.

And from one of the few countries still in the coalition of the willingly deluded.

Australia

Peace Is King

Blessed Are The Peacemakers

Sunday is the anniversary of the birth of Martin Luther King, so before you dash off for the fun of a three day weekend, take a moment to think.


Martin Luther King
The Nobel Peace Prize 1964



"Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love."
--Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Non-violence is the first article of my faith. It is also the last article of my creed."
--Mahatma Gandhi

"There is no way to peace. Peace is the way."
--A. J. Muste

"We cannot be satisfied with a situation in which the world is capable of extinction in a moment of error, or madness, or anger."
--John F. Kennedy

"We plant seeds that will flower as results in our lives, so best to remove the weeds of anger, avarice, envy and doubt, that peace and abundance may manifest for all."
--Dorothy Day

"Nothing could be worse than the fear that one had given up too soon, and left one unexpended effort that might have saved the world."
--Jane Addams, Nobel Peace Prize Winner 1931

"In the hearts of people today there is a deep longing for peace. ... Only when this really happens-- when the spirit of peace awakens and takes possession of men's hearts, can humanity be saved from perishing."
--Albert Schweitzer, Nobel Peace Prize Winner 1952

Connections

There was a television show called Connections that showed how one thing could be connected to another across long periods of time. Almost everyone has heard of the theory of Six Degrees of Separation that says everyone on earth is connected to everyone else through a maximum of six people.

Yesterday I showed how Wyatt Earp was connected to Hugh O'Brian, to me, to my son and courtesy of his work with HOBY probably to every person on the earth. If you connect to me, then I can get you to Scotland, Eastern Europe, Australia, Africa and probably elsewhere if I check the address book.

Well, there is one more very important connection and that person's birthday is today. Dr. Albert Schweitzer was born on January 14, 1875 in Kaysersberg, Alsace, Germany.

Nobel laureate Albert Schweitzer arrived in 1913 in Lambarene, French Equatorial Africa (now Gabon), as a medical missionary. Building the hospital shown here, he treated thousands of residents before his death in 1965. His many years of humanitarian assistance made Schweitzer a model of public service for many. Today Gabon makes a national priority of maternal and infant health.

In 1958, Hugh O'Brian spent nine days with the Nobel Laureate and great humanitarian at his clinic in Africa. Dr. Schweitzer's strong belief that "the most important thing in education is to teach young people to think for themselves" was impressive. Two weeks after his return to the United States, he put Schweitzer's words into action by forming HOBY to bring groups of high school students together with a group of distinguished leaders to interact in order to teach young people "to think for themselves".

So there you have one of those strange series of relationships that extend across time, history, and geography from a lawman to an actor to a physician and humanitarian for a 150 years across three continents.

Albert Schweitzer Quotes
A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him, that of plants and animals as that of his fellow men, and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help.

Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind.

Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.

Do something wonderful, people may imitate it.

Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory.

I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.

I have always held firmly to the thought that each one of us can do a little to bring some portion of misery to an end.

Life becomes harder for us when we live for others, but it also becomes richer and happier.

Man can hardly even recognize the devils of his own creation.

Man has lost the capacity to foresee and to forestall. He will end by destroying the earth.

Revenge... is like a rolling stone, which, when a man hath forced up a hill, will return upon him with a greater violence, and break those bones whose sinews gave it motion.

The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.

There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.

We cannot possibly let ourselves get frozen into regarding everyone we do not know as an absolute stranger.

Whoever is spared personal pain must feel himself called to help in diminishing the pain of others. We must all carry our share of the misery which lies upon the world.

Kissing History

Hugh O'Brian as Wyatt Earp 1955




Wyatt Earp

What we consider as the "Old West" was for the most part the 30 years following the Civil War. Then civilization caught up with them and a lot of gunslingers were out of business and working at regular jobs. Wyatt Earp lived long enough to appear in a silent movie. He was a little more creative than most and had many romantic and personal adventures in his long life, some of which were probably true. Courtesy of a friendly biographer, his fame has become a bit more reel than real, but who wants to ruin a good story? On January 13, in 1929, Wyatt Earp died in Los Angeles was buried in a Jewish Cemetery in Colma which is another good story. Only a little over 25 years later, in 1955, Wyatt got to television for a seven year run in the form of actor Hugh O'Brian playing the marshall of Dodge City. O'Brian was born on April 19, 1925, overlapping the last four years of Earp's life. So much for major coincidences, and the idea that everything is connected to everything.

In 1957, I was a 13 year old who looked 16 enduring one my interminable summers in Fresno. One of the major Polio epidemics had happened in 1952. My stepsister was paralyzed from the neck down and confined to a wheel chair. As a result, I was very active in raising money for the Red Cross. The Salk vaccine had just been approved for massive distribution, but the money that had supported the research, now was helping to fund the injections for all school children. As part of a charitable campaign, Wyatt Earp came to Fresno. If you were female and had a pulse, you were in love with Hugh O'Brian.

On a dare from girlfriends, I took the money I had raised to where the local TV station was showing the telethon, but wouldn't turn it over until he kissed me. It was a rather decorous kiss, but the poor man ended up kissing virtually every woman in Fresno, including my grandmother who collected one on the cheek for each of her 12 grandchildren. He was a good sport about all of this smooching, but when I turned up in the late afternoon, O'Brian pointed at me and said, "You started this!" At which point, I got KISSED. Bent over backwards, strong hug, the works. When I came up for air and the knees were again working, I staggered off stage to an embarrassing round of applause from the audience. He would have probably been scandalized if he knew my real age at the time, if for no other reason than that this is a man who has dedicated his life to the development and encouragement of young people.

In 1957 the fans of "Wyatt Earp" stole the headstone of Wyatt Earp, so that now he has only a flat marker instead of the large monument.


Another 20 years plus later, "The Shootist", John Wayne's last film about a former gunman coming to terms with the changes in the "Old West" and his own mortality is being filmed in Malibu and Burbank. Hugh O'Brian played one of the older gunmen who take him on in his last great gunfight, and Hugh still looked like a greyer version of the TV Wyatt. My son liked to go to the studios and the crews got used to him being there to run errands, so he met Hugh O'Brian and we own a reel of film for the opening of that movie as John Wayne shoots his way through history.

Mr. O'Brian was married for the first time recently at the age of 82 to his long time ladyfriend, Virginia Barber, so he is passing the older Wyatt in age if not quite in legend, all while continuing his charitable ways with his long standing HOBY Foundation. As a symbol of his humor, the wedding "to die for" while formal and celebrated by hundreds of guests was held at Forest Lawn Cemetery. In lieu of gifts the couple requested donations to HOBY.

So there you have it. Four generations covering 128 years connected by the same character and a little story: Wyatt Earp, Hugh O'Brian, me and my son from cemetery to cemetery. Write down your memories. History not recorded is history lost. I'll close with a bit of a speech given by Hugh O'Brian.

"I do NOT believe we are all born equal. Created equal in the eyes of God, yes, but physical and emotional differences, parental guidelines, varying environments, being in the right place at the right time, all play a role in enhancing or limiting an individual's development. But I DO believe every man and woman, if given the opportunity and encouragement to recognize their potential, regardless of background, has the freedom to choose in our world. Will an individual be a taker or a giver in life? Will that person be satisfied merely to exist or seek a meaningful purpose? Will he or she dare to dream the impossible dream?"

Pioneers

Whether you love her, hate her, or are just totally indifferent, these days when you think of a Democrat woman senator with a connection to Arkansas, the name that pops to mind is Hillary Clinton. Within the next couple of years we may be considering the possibility of electing a woman to the Presidency. What is remarkable is that the very first woman senator was a Democrat from Arkansas.

This is the day that Ophelia Wyatt Caraway became the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate. Caraway, born near Bakerville, Tennessee, had been appointed to the Senate two months earlier to fill the vacancy in Arkansas left by her late husband, Thaddeus Horatio Caraway. With the support of Huey Long, a powerful senator from Louisiana, Caraway was elected to the seat. In 1938, she was reelected. After failing to win renomination in 1944, she was appointed to the Federal Employees Compensation Commission by President Franklin Roosevelt.

Although she was the first freely elected female senator, Caraway was preceded in the Senate by Rebecca Latimer Felton, who was appointed in 1922 to fill a vacancy but never ran for election in her own right.

Jeannette Rankin, elected to the House of Representatives as a pacifist from Montana in 1917, was the first woman to ever sit in Congress even though women outside of Montana were not allowed to vote until 1920. She is remembered as a profile in courage because as a pacifist she voted against both WWI and WWII.

Over the many years since suffrage was finally approved in the United States, there have been many women from all parties in the House and Senate, some appointed to replace husbands or sons, others who have faced the voting public in their own right. All of them have brought a viewpoint and strength that Congress did not have before their arrival.

Morning After The Night Before

In 1949 on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, D.C., the cornerstone was laid at the first mosque of note in the United States. Intended to serve as a national mosque for all American Muslims, the Islamic Center was built in a traditional Arabic architectural style, complete with a 160-foot minaret from which prayers were to be announced. A colonnade cloister joined the mosque to two wings containing a library, classrooms, a museum, and administrative offices. In the basement of the mosque was an auditorium built to accommodate several hundred people.

For the almost 60 years of its existance the mosque has been visited by most if not all of the Presidents of the United States including George Bush. At the time he visited it was to plead with Americans not to take violent action against their Muslim neighbors following September 11. The irony is that he has visited more violent action against Muslims than any other human being since the crusades.

In last night's speech he vaguely, sort of, maybe accepted the responsibility for any mistakes that might have been made if there were any. He proposed 20,000 additional military which effectively means 5,000 on the front line except that the Brits will pull out 3,000 by May. So we are adding 2,000 people to a losing cause.

Iraq has always been an artificial construct. It has always required a strong man/dictator to hold it together. As such, it has acted as a counterbalance to Iran in the Middle East. Now thanks to our President, Al Qaida is still active, Iran is really feeling its oats, Turkey and the Kurds are being very nervous with each other, the Saudis are trying to absorb Sunnis, while the Iraqi middle class flees in a massive brain drain and the whole thing could blow up on very short notice. Thanks George.


Try to remember that protecting Muslims here does not require slaughtering 100,000 plus of them there. It does not require killing 3,000 of our young men and women and it does not require sending home another 20,000 with missing parts or rattled brains and psyches.

The best that could happen now is a very loose federation of three distinct parts. It may even be three areas absorbed into neighboring countries. Redeployment is not a dirty word. Facilitate the break up and try to avoid trying to "Cowboy Up" with Syria and Iran at least until we have buried the current dead.

From A Distance

Sixty One years ago today, the first General Assembly of the United Nations, comprising 51 nations, convened at Westminster Central Hall in London, England. This has not been a perfect arrangement, but it is all we've got given the fallibility of mankind. Wars and rumors of wars have run rampant over the earth. Now more than ever is a time to remember that we share this small space.

It doesn't help that we have a man in the office who has never had to do anything hard in his life. Peace is not easy which is probably why our President hasn't tried it. Solving the problems of poverty and ignorance are not easy which is probably why our President hasn't tried it. Delaying or correcting the depredations of global warming are not easy which is probably why our President hasn't tried it. The negotiations that might get us out of the current mess is not easy.

Apparently, Mr. Bush will only do the "hard" things when they are easy for him such as sitting on his pretty yellow ruggie while playing with his soldiers and tanks. Unfortunately the tanks and soldiers are real. The injuries are real. The deaths of Americans and Iraqis are real, and the lack of diplomacy that will stop the carnage has never been tried because it is too hard.

Unlike one of his predecessors, Mr. Bush takes the easy way out. Even worse, he takes the easy way out with an unnecessary war, not something that will actually benefit the country he has sworn to protect.

"We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not only because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."

John F. Kennedy





Westminister Central Hall

And In The Center Ring

It is probably no coincidence that the first American circus opened in Philadelphia in 1792 only three years after the first 1789 Presidential Election. This later expanded to New York City and Boston, and politics being politics, the circus bought a horse from George Washington. To this day, Congress is more of a circus than Ringling Brothers. At least at Ringling Brothers, all the dangerous animals are kept in cages.

The Pelosi led Congress is starting with a bang, lots of good rhetoric and wonderful feel good moments. Whether or not they can keep George from playing Cowboys and Indians is a whole other matter. It is even open to question as to whether they will really want to since his failure is their election issue. When you have a clown in the White House, the acrobats have to do a high wire act on the Hill

The only thing the American public can do is to keep an eye on all three rings at once because it is a sure thing that the one you aren't watching is going to contain something that will bite you.

As P. T. Barnum noted:

There is a sucker born every minute
Each time the second hand sweeps to the top
Like dandelions up they pop
Their ears so big, their eyes so wide
And though I feed ‘em bonafide baloney
With no truth in it
Why you can bet I’ll find some rube to buy my corn.
'Cause there’s a sure-as-shooting sucker born a minute
And I’m referrin’ to the minute you were born.

1871 William Cameron Coup and showman P.T. Barnum opened an enormous circus in Brooklyn that they dubbed "The Greatest Show on Earth." Ten years later, Barnum went into business with James Anthony Bailey; the "Barnum and Bailey" circuses were so large they required simultaneous performances in three rings.

1884, the five Ringling brothers staged their first circus, and they soon were buying out other circus companies, including Barnum and Bailey, which they purchased in 1907. During the next three decades, the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows grew into the largest touring organization in the world, with hundreds of tents and an army of workers and performers. The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey downsized after World War II but continues to tour today.

A Trip Back In Time

There is something about a drizzly day elsewhere that makes a native start California Dreamin'. Not the one that exists now or even a recent one, but the one they remember from the height their childhood. For me that would be the California of 1950 to 1960. The first thing you should know about that California is that it was empty. It had 25 million fewer people than it does today, and even then those in the areas around its three major cities complained about traffic jams that lasted an hour in the morning and again in the afternoon.


The San Fernando Valley barely existed as a place to live. People other than major land owners were just starting to peak over the Hollywood Hills. It had not yet become the bedroom for Los Angeles. Huge chunks of it were still farm country as were the long stretches between the major cities. There is a reason Orange County is called orange county as you could tell from the roadside orange juice stands shaped like oranges. California valleys were the garden of the United States growing every conceivable fruit and nut in areas that are now miles of tract homes.

During this time period my main home was in the Los Angeles area with constant trips to the beaches and Disneyland. Summers were for Fresno. Now this is not the best time to be in Fresno which becomes an outpost of hell in August. This is good for drying grapes into raisins. It is horrendous for the human beings doing it. Without air conditioning more effective than a swamp cooler, there were only two things to do: Be neck deep in the huge Maple Plunge or go to the movies. As a result, I saw virtually every MGM musical and could give Esther Williams a run for her money.

In order to get out of Los Angeles, you could drive by car over the Grapevine. This was not the eight lane mega freeway of Interstate 5. It was this hazardous tangled string of switchbacks which is how it got it's name. You knew you were on the way when you got to see the Los Angeles Aqueduct spilling down the hill. Back then it wasn't a pipe covered conservation eyesore, but a beautiful manmade waterfall spilling down the hills.





Cannery Row in Monterey was still a working city. The restaurants and tourists had not yet taken over the fish packing plants. To get to any of these places from Los Angeles often meant Union Station and the train. Not the ratty service of AMTRAK with bus trips in various places instead of the rail, but porters, comfortable seats and the white tableclothed dining car with straight through service. If airports get any more difficult, it will be easier to go by train again even the stripped down comuter variety, but only if the freight lines will give back the rails.

You can still find bits and pieces of that California, but for the most part it is Paradise Lost to the massive numbers of people hunting for Heaven. I'll go back to being cheerful tomorrow.

All the leaves are brown
And the sky is gray
I've been for a walk
On a winter's day
I'd be safe and warm
If I was in L.A.
California dreaming
On such a winter's day

Open Letter From The Soap Box

MESSAGE TO MEMBERS OF CONGRESS

• You are not a common Man/Woman. If you were, you wouldn't be sitting in Congress. Something or someone gave you the drive, the nurturing, the education, the money, the support, and the votes to put you there. As such, you lost contact with "the average man" a long, long time ago, so don't pretend to be one. We all know differently.

Given the above premise you, or more likely an aide who reports to you, needs to read your email and any blog that happens to mention your name. This is not the same as attending a coffee with some of your polite and courteous constituents where you are the featured event. You need to learn to listen to the constituents who may not be on their best behavior. You know who they are: The ones who scream swear words at the TV set and think you should be hung by your thumbs in the public square as a target for rotten tomatoes.

They may or may not be right, but they are the ones who pay your salary, send their sons and daughters to your wars, try to work for a living in such a way that will put food on the table and a roof over their head. and live with the results of the medical and educational system you design. It is unlikely that you or any of the other 535 members of the legislators have faced any of these situations without the funds and a support system to make things easier. You are the ones who get to enjoy the best education, medicine, and law that money can buy. Whatever your problems, you at least get to enjoy your misery in comfort.

So pay attention to the needs of your constituents before you consider your pocket book, your friends and associates, or the wishes of the powerful. There are more than enough maxims to heed if you want to stay in office and enjoy your comforts, and a little sincere humility is very definitely in order

“A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you're looking down, you can't see something that's above you.” C. S. Lewis

"Pride sullies the noblest character." Claudianus

"The charity that hastens to proclaim its good deeds, ceases to be charity, and is only pride and ostentation. " William Hutton

"Pride is the mask of one's own faults. " Proverb

"In general, pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes." John Ruskin

"Pride is pleasure arising from a man's thinking too highly of himself." Benedict de Spinoza

"Proud people breed sad sorrows for themselves." Emily Bronte

"Pride goeth before a fall." Proverbs

Telling Tales

We all grew up on fairy tales. Most people associate these with the Brothers Grimm, but some of the most familiar were written by Charles Perrault based upon old French peasant tales such as Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Little Red Riding Hood. Hidden within those fairy tales are lessons to be learned which is why they have held up for centuries.

In 1987 Stephen Sondheim combined several of these with other tales from Germany and England to create Into The Woods.

One of the most memorable songs was Hello Little Girl where the Wolf tries to seduce Little Red Riding Hood. For no other reason than "Politics Make Strange Bedfellows" and the fact that for me one idea just naturally leaps willy nilly to another, this makes me think of Nancy Pelosi and the President. All that power can go to one's head. When facing an even more powerful adversary, things can get messy.

Will the wolf be outwitted again?
Will Red be led astray by temptation, power and privilege.
Will she resist with I Know Things Now?

When she is tempted, I would recommend a refresher review of Children Will Listen.

Let There Be Hearings

The Democrats are playing way too nice. This White House has secrets it has kept and lies it has told. It is our service men and women who suffer for those secrets and lies. Those newly in power may want to leave impeachment off the table for the time being, but asking questions and demanding proof is their job.

This President has ignored the will of the people. He appears not to have noticed that an election was held last November. He stubbornly sticks to a failed policy with the aid of cohorts who enjoy their power and influence more than ethical conduct.

The major problem with secrets and lies is that someone eventually finds out what really happened. It is best when this happens while those responsible can be held to account, but sooner or later the truth will out. One of the most famous cases of secrets, lies and the desire of a government to protect its power structure happened in France. To this day The Dreyfus Affair is the symbol of the miscarriage of justice.

Richard Dreyfuss, a descendant of Alfred Dreyfus, spoke at The National Press Club and called for President Bush to be impeached for his role in the NSA warrantless surveillance controversy. So history repeats itself one more time. The public demands truth and openess and those in power deny that demand.

So let the hearings begin before anyone else is killed for the pride of a President.


1895 : Dreyfus Affair in France

French officer Alfred Dreyfus, condemned for passing military secrets to the Germans, is stripped of his rank in a humiliating public ceremony in the courtyard of Paris' Ecole Militaire. Convicted on flimsy evidence in a highly irregular trial, he began his life sentence on the notorious Devil's Island Prison in French Guyana four months later.

In 1896, evidence disclosed that French Major Ferdinand Esterhazy was the guilty party. The army attempted to suppress this information, but a national uproar ensued, and the military had no choice but to put Esterhazy on trial. A court-martial was held in January 1898, and Esterhazy was acquitted within an hour.

In response, the French novelist Emile Zola published an open letter on the front page of the Aurore entitled "J'Accuse," which accused the judges of being under the thumb of the military. By the evening, 200,000 copies had been sold. One month later, Zola was sentenced to jail for libel but managed to escape to England.

In 1898, Major Hubert Henry admitted that he had forged much of the evidence against Dreyfus and committed suicide. Soon after, Esterhazy fled the country. The military was forced to order a new court-martial for Dreyfus. In 1899, he was found guilty in another show trial and sentenced to 10 years in prison. However, a new French administration pardoned him, and in 1906 the supreme court of appeals overturned his conviction.

From George to George

January 7 is the anniversary of the very first Presidential election in 1789. It had taken 13 years since declaring independence from England and King George to get to a point where a war had been won and an election could be held. In case you haven't heard, George Washington got the job and our second president came in second. If the founding fathers had actually been all wise, they would have given us a parliamentary system so that we could throw the inadequate out of the office.

Unfortunately, even they, couldn't envision some of the duds that have followed the first George. They certainly would have been appalled by our current George who seems to have crowned himself king and is studiously trying to single-handedly destroy the documents they cherished and the office they created for an honored leader.

From now until November 2008, we will be taking a look at some of the potential replacements for our locally grown King George. Whomever we select, let's try to do at least as well as the men who ran for the office in the first place. We certainly couldn't do worse than what we have.

Name, State, Electoral Votes Received

George Washington, Virginia, 69
John Adams, Massachusetts, 34
John Jay, New York, 9
Robert H. Harrison, Maryland, 6
John Rutledge, South Carolina, 6
John Hancock, Massachusetts, 4
George Clinton, New York, 3
Samuel Huntington, Connecticut, 2
John Milton, Georgia, 2
James Armstrong, Georgia, 1
Benjamin Lincoln , Massachusetts, 1
Edward Telfair, Georgia, 1

Dear Diary

The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another, and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it.
J M Barrie

One thing that modern historians constantly bemoan is the fact that people no longer write letters and rarely keep diaries. The keeping of diaries has even been banned from many political venues. The excuse is that they are a security risk. The truth probably is fear of dirty laundry aired in some eventual book. Today we write blogs. Let us hope some among us are printing out hard copies.



In Helene's Hamff's marvelous "84 Charing Cross Road" she expresses a love for non fiction by wishing that Chaucer had written about his life as a diplomat in the court of Edward III rather than wasting his time with "The Canterbury Tales". It is the insight of a time and place from someone saying, "I was there".

Over the centuries many famous diaries, memoirs, and autobiographies have been written. Today's pictures are Ann Frank, Anais Nin and Samuel Pepys, three famous diarists who have virtually nothing in common but all of whom shed light on their lives and time. This is the heart of the diarist, the need to speak quietly about their surroundings and then leaving behind a treasure to be discovered by the rest of us.

You work is appreciated Presidents Adams, Grant and Truman. Please accept our gratitude Mary Chestnut, Oscar Wilde, and Ralph Emerson. A bow in your direction Lewis Carroll, Ellen Terry and Frida Kahlo. What would the struggle for civil rights be without a record of your thoughts Frederick Douglas and W. E. B. Dubois? To all the thousands of diarists known and as yet unknown across the centuries: Thank you.

Well don't just sit there: Go write something!

Endings and Beginnings

Janus is the Roman god of gates and doors (ianua), beginnings and endings, and hence represented with a double-faced head, each looking in opposite directions. He was worshipped at the beginning of the harvest time, planting, marriage, birth, and other types of beginnings, especially the beginnings of important events in a person's life. Janus also represents the transition between primitive life and civilization, between the countryside and the city, peace and war, and the growing-up of young people.

We come to the beginning of a new year that we hope will be better than the last. It is fitting that we should today send a very elderly, respected man to his rest in line with the stages of a person's life. Gerald Ford's life was well lived.

Between the countryside and the city, we need to consider the massive changes in weather. Places that shouldn't be under three feet of snow are. Places that should still be cold are seeing the flowers bloom. Mother nature is out of whack and our attention needs to turn to global warming and the other ways that man has injured his surroundings.

Between primative and civilized behavior, there needs to be a call for all members of society to respect each others beliefs and customs. We saw the worst of this with the hanging of Saddam. Justice being carried out and then marred by the sectarian cat calls, virulent hatred, and the retreat to barbarism very much like that practiced by Saddam himself.

Peace still seems illusive and an unnecessary war still rages thanks to a deluded Presidency. Unfortunately too many young people may follow their current commander to their graves. There is nothing Janus can do about the young people who grow up to be soldiers when they are sent where they don't belong. Still those funerals will be a tribute to the individual and the group that does their duty even when leadership is misguided.

The name of this blog "Durward" is the Scottish version of Door Ward, someone who protects the gates of churches, castles, and cities. So as one door closes and another opens, may we all have a better year and positive changes until the next time Janus looks our way.