CRUCIFY HIM AGAIN

The image of the cop is, I believe, taken from a shot of a Jewish demonstrator arrested outside one of the detention center. 

My title is deliberate. Not only is the detainee not white, doesn't speak English, says he's a carpenter, he is from the Middle East. Obviously a trouble maker, might even be a terrorist. Spotted the image in another blog. I'll get back to the astronomy. Eventually. Seems taking the blog up again took a right turn. Or something. 

In the film Romero, a bio of archbishop Romero, father Rutilio Grande jokes that if the army or police confiscated a Bible all that would be left when you got it back was the cover. He was murdered a little later. A murder that may have started the archbishop on the road to his own martyrdom and sainthood. His people called their monsenor a saint long before the vatican did. 

JFK

Hac a hard time coming up with a title for this one. Lost dreams? Bullets and dreams? Took me back to 1963. 1968 was a bitch of a year too. 

Found this on the web. Damnit Jack you died too damn soon. We are so far from the dream right now. This not the country I thought I thought I was working to build when I got out of high school. Five years after that fatal day in Dallas. 

BONE SPURS

A man who never served in any branch of the military is finally going to get his parade. Complete with tanks. His five deferments for bone spurs in the Viet Nam era have been a running joke. But I got to thinking while watching this travesty of a fourth grow like poison mushrooms.

America's growing involvement began at a time when serving in the military was seen as an asset. And face it. The son of a millionaire was not going to end up slogging through the jungle in Nam. So, why the bone spurs?

I did a little tip  toeing through the net this morning. A regular enlisted has to take tests for aptitude and general knowledge. Money will make sure you are never a private.

You can become an officer in one of the following ways. Graduate from one of the military academies. Getting in is hard.  Graduating is a lot harder. West Point takes pride in graduating engineers.Or a BSc. in liberal arts. Take ROTC in college. It is a four year program. Graduate from college and go to officers candidate school.

We've heard how the schools Trump attended have been pressured to not allow access to his academic records. He boasts that he doesn't read and goes with instincts to make decisions.

So why the bone spurs. He had college degrees. OCS was a possibility. Son of a millionaire he could have spent his time riding a desk somewhere. The U.S.has bases all over the world. Or get himself assigned to a staff position. Dad could have pulled some strings. Some place fairly cushy.But I just cannot picture him taking orders from anyone, any time, anywhere.

I believe Trump could not cut the mustard as they say. Probably figured nobody would dig deep enough for reasons for those deferments to become public. Better than admitting he just could not pass the tests. Even then his ego probably would not have allowed anyone to know that about him.

And given the story about the kid he nearly shoved out the window while in military school he probably would have washed out of boot camp. If military school couldn't help with impulse control I guess nothing else would work.

WARNING BEACONS EARTH SYSTEM

Contemplating the military extravaganza planned for D.C.  tomorrow. All to stroke the bottomless ego pic someone many are calling president bone spurs. More on that in another entry.

Ran across an old entry I titled Beacon at the Edge of the Universe.

 "Sometimes I think that the surest sign that intelligent love exists somewhere is the fact that none of it has tried to contact us." Calvin and Hobbs.

I ran across this quote on the net. Given my sideways sense of humor and love of shows like Babylon 5 or Stargate I think it is just as likely that someone from somewhere did drop by for a fast recon. They took some readings. Took a really good look at  the results , and got the hell out of Dodge.

They paused just long enough tho plant a series of warning beacons around the borders of our solar system broadcasting some version of the following message. "Warning, warning, warning enter at your own risk. Avoid the third planet from the local star. The dominant life form is semi intelligent and very well armed. They tend to shoot first and ask questions later. Sometimes they don't bother to ask questions. Enclosed see footage of what happened to the unmanned exploratio drone.

If you do insist on dropping by for a visit do not bother sending a mayday if you run into trouble. No rescue missions will be attempted. Please use the record function to leave the following information. Name of ship, roster of crew and passengers, planet of origin, flight plan and contact information of next of kin, pouch brothers/sisters, clan affiliation so we can notify them if you don't come back.

If you choose to ignore these warnings don't forget to duck and make sure your engines are on at all times.

SHALL THE CHILDREN LEAD US

Watching a program on Prime called Tales of the First People. Modern telling puff old legends. One telling from the Comanche. How the people forgot that when we take, we have to give back. A great drought came. The people danced, demanding rain.

The eagle came and told the people had too sacrifice something that was prized above all and scatter the ashes to the four winds. The adults refused too sacrifice anything. "It won't work." " Why should we sacrifice anything? " Sound familiar?

There was a small child.  A girl who lost her family to the drought. All she had left was a small doll, that she loved above all. So after night fell she built a fire and gave up her doll. Scattered the ashes to the four winds. When morning came, so came the rain. And with the rain came beautiful blue flowers. Bluebells I believe.

How

NEW HOBBY OR .....

I started playing with my poor, neglected astronomy program and thought "what the heck." I sort of forgot that the sky was the ancient book shelf. Your myths lived in the sky. Which myths depended on where you lived. I am most familiar with the Greeks so that is probably the sand box I will be playing in but, I forgot how interesting this might get. 

This is Cetus from Starry Night. Cetus is a sea monster. However I got the cart before the horse. I mean he was sitting there when I pulled it up this morning. So I went with it. More on the sea monster later. Note this constellation is often called the whale now. Cetus is the root word for cetacean. Whales. 

However to tell his/her story I have to mention Poseidon, the Neriads, Andromeda, her mother Cassiopeia, her father Cepheus, Perseus, possibly Medusa, Herodotus and what the Greeks thought Africa looked like say three thousand years ago, the possible original meaning of the word Ethiopia and I'm not sure what all. Why I couldn't have stumbled on something less complicated. Like the microscope or the sextant?

NOT OUR CHILDREN

I haven't been around for awhile. Frankly typing isn't as easy as it used to be. The political scene is crazy. It seems like everybody and his or her mother wants to be the democratic presidential candidate. The current occupants delusions aside, Mitch McConnell has been busy proving that the true power resides in the senate. He's proved it by blocking every attempt to block the escapades of tRump.

The senate is where the battle for survival of the country my family as almost four centuries invested in. The country I love in spite of the many flaws that are finally coming to the surface. Some asshole on Fox claimed that the treatment of migrant children detained in what amounts to concentration camps isn't a problem because they don't come from Idaho or Texas. They aren't our kids.

When the crammed to the walls of cattle cars trains pulled into the death camps women with small children automatically were "sent to the gas." If the guards were allowing any thoughts to go through their minds I suppose "they aren't our kids." might have flickered through as the prisoners were crammed into the death chambers. Sometimes, in desperation, a mother would hide her child in the piles of clothing left behind. Of course the child would be found. Found and included in the next set of prisoners in the dance of death.

Well. That entry didn't go as planned.

Anyway. I rediscovered my astronomy program. My favorite internet library has 365 Starry Nights. It will due until I can replace my lost copy. I believe I'll follow the stars for awhile and see where it leads me. I know there are some great pictures out there.

WAR DRUMS IN THE PERSIAN GULF WHO BENEFITS?

This started out as a comment on another thread where Rumsfeld was quoted when he claimed that the war in Iraq would "last five months."We're still there. 

I seem to remember that Iraqi oil was going to pay for that war. Anyway the wheels started turning. If the Russians are anything, they are patient. They've had to be to survive. While Moscow thinks in terms of years or decades we can't seem to get past the next election cycle. 

Iran is three times the size of Iraq. Shares a border with Pakistan. American troops in Afghanistan and Iran. Wonder how Islamabad will feel about that. Iran controls access to the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Hormuz. Could potentially tie up access to Suez and the oil terminals on the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. Put Saudi Arabia and Israel to one side for a moment.

What does Russia stand to gain? A weakened Iran and friendly treaties with Georgia, Turkey and Armenia could give Russia what she has dreamed of for centuries. Access to warm water ports. I had a college classmate with a husband who spent his navy hitch in the NSA and majored in poli sci. 

Who the heck is funding the ultra right wing in this country? Takes money to elect idiots guaranteed to keep us trying to keep track of the little pea while the hall is on fire and the roof caves in. Are we talking dollars? Or rubles? We already know McConnell has taken money with ties to Russia. I'm sure he isn't the only one on the list. I'd like to see the tax returns of every member of congress. WAR

Granted billionaires like the Koch brothers have the bucks, at least on paper.I wonder how much liquid capital they actually control. The heck with Trump, I want their tax returns. And Bolton. And Graham. Plenty of money is being funneled to keep the pot boiling. Where is it coming from?

JUST GOOD ENOUGH STILL ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH

A blast from the past.

I ran across a quote from Sam Walton, the founder of WalMart, regarding the wages they pay their employees. “We pay them just as much as we can get by with.” In other words the pay is just good enough to get someone desperate for a job to work for you.

The Portland Oregonian ran a series on WalMart several years ago. It described the process suppliers of items like clothing go through to get their items accepted. If the buyer figures that one item of trim is enough that’s all that is ordered. If you can get by with no trim that’s even better. In other words, the garment is just good enough to get a customer to buy it.

I’ve run across this attitude in a lot of letters to the editor. Especially when the schools or public works departments are trying to get adequate funding. Sam Walton didn’t invent the attitude. WalMart is just the most blatant example.

Just good enough. Imagine if a surgeon does a job that’s just good enough. How about the people who clean up after the operation is over. Do you want to trust your life to just good enough? Do you want the mechanic who works on your brakes to do a job that is just good enough? How about the architect who designed the skyscraper you might be working in and the metal workers who drove the rivets that hold it together-do you want them to do a job that’s just good enough? When it’s time to dump treated wastewater into our rivers, do you want the job to be just good enough? There are a million examples and I know that any of you could come up with a great list of your own. That so many do such a fantastic job with so little is a testament to our shared pride in creation.

If we truly are made in the image of the Creator, and I believe that we are, then there has to be so much more. We share that urge to create and to look at what we create and to see that “it is good.” The ones whose hands and minds and hearts create the clothing, make the cars, build the houses, grow the food, clean our streets, teach our children, and care for our elders deserve the greatest respect. And the way our economy is run right now doesn’t support that drive to create, it tears it down.

What they are doing is creating our world. They are the eyes, the ears, the hands, and the voice of Creation. That is worthy of the highest praise. And JUST GOOD ENOUGH doesn’t cut it.

Just good enough not only does not cut it, it is an insult to Creation and the Creator whoever or whatever you believe in. Reread the first Creation story in Genesis. At each step God pronounces the work as "good" and in the end the results are "very good."

And then we were created. In the image of God, male and and female. IN THE IMAGE OF GOD. Our fellow humans are worth more than "just good enough." And how are we treating the rest of Creation? Far below Just Good Enough. 

MORALITY

Nestle is a Swiss based corporation and we have all heard how great the Swiss are. You know more moral than the rest of us. Just lucky enough to be located in hard to get through mountain passes. 

Back to Nestle of the buy cheap sell dear bottled water. Nestle of the former CEO that stated that human beings have no right to clean water. 

Nestle of the chocolate. Nestle of the spokesman who is probably wishing this hadn't been said.  Go back to the first decades of the nineteenth century. "If we stop using slaves your tobacco and cotton will be more expensive." The more things change the more they stay the same.

YESTERDAY'S POST

I don't remember ever feeling this way before. Cold, No not cold. As if there was a wall in front of my emotions and if that wall fell the rage would consume me. I was raised to believe in the best this country could be, not the worst.

When Martin Luther found that he could not convert the Jews of Germany he unleashed a stream of hate and invective that has surfaced off and on through the centuries. And, deliberately or not, some of that prejudice migrated to this country with the migration of Germans to the colonies and the young United States. At one point Germans made up the largest ethnic group in the country after the British. The English can be anti Semitic too. They are just more polite about it.

The current occupant's grandfather was born in Bavaria, and kicked out of Bavaria for avoiding his mandatory military service. Reports from the post war military government reported a resurgence of underground nazi activity in the province after the war. I suspect that he learned a good deal of his racism within the family

I do not feel like trying to "understand" him or his die hard followers. I do not feel like trying to "understand" the lick spittle collaborators in the senate or the house. Hitler had his Streichers and Von Ribbentrops. Trump has too many equivalents to list.

Those who do not support the dictator in waiting need to focus on this. Stop laughing at his antics. They are not funny. And frankly make him a bit of a martyr to his followers. They deserve our contempt. Nothing more and nothing less. And the opposition needs to get united on a platform that will guarantee his defeat. Final and permanent and so crushing that it can't be weaseled out of.

I hope to God I  never have a reason for that cold, hard reaction again. But, if we throw what may be our last chance to stop the slow erosion of everything that is the best in this nation that contempt can and will find new targets.

I'VE STOPPED LAUGHING

In the eighties two of the last great miniseries were produced based on the the novels The Winds of War and War and Remembrance based on the novels of the same name by Herman Wouk. Not great. Not bad. The DVD version of War and Remembrance are priced in the three figures used. You can catch it on YouTube if you use the right search terms. I dipped into the last two episodes this afternoon. Heavy on the Holocaust.

Like so many other of us I get a kick out of watching the current occupant as the target of sarcasm and humor. This man is as funny as the plague. The cancer that is Trump is spreading world wide. The laughter is over. There is nothing left but contempt. Cold relentless contempt. For him, his enablers and those who still support him even as he kicks them in the teeth. And I will feel the same contempt as I watch the Democrats begin to rip each other apart before the campaign season begins.

DREAMS WORTH HAVING

Quote from the Algebra of Infinite Justice by Arundhati Roy.

"The only dream worth having ... is the dream that you will live while you are alive and only die when you are dead."

"Which means exactly what?"

"To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never forget the unspeakable violence and vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or the complicate what is simple. To respect strength but never power. Above all to watch. To try to understand. To never look away. And to never, never forget."

I DIDN'T GET LOST

just sort of distracted. Can't stand the politics anymore. It snowed from mid February to mid March and seemed like it would never let up.

But it was sunny and warm yesterday. There is a tree on the south side of the building in another lot. Branches still bare. There are a pair of magpies that cruise the neighborhood and yesterday one of them was taking a morning sunbath. I mean that bird was having the time of its little feathered life. Stretching and fluffing and preening. It was a "hello sun it sure is a great morning" kind of day.

Magpies are easy to recognize. Their tails are almost as long as their bodies. This is a black billed magpie. I wish I could find a shot with the wings spread. They are a beautiful bird.