The Lone Elm

Sunday Snippets

Susan Nielsen has it about right -- she talks about how the "devil" follows us around, encouraging us to live more like the Jones's across the street - a hot tub, fancier car, bigger house.  In the process, we end up buying things we can't afford or don't need.  It's definitely tough fending off the spending devil!

Yesterday, September 23, was the autumnal equinox, where the day and night were equal.  From here on out until December, daylight is going to continue to decline.  While fall is beautiful, this is not the easiest time of year -- too much is going on:  work, all of the family's birthdays happen within about a month and a half, and then Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.  In the past I've also had rounds with seasonal affective disorder (SAD) where the lack of light really affects my emotional state.  Von del Chamberlain dashes water on the idea that one can balance eggs on the equinox.

Maybe the way to make it through the fall is by eating soup!  The Soupsong website is a fabulous resource, not only of recipes but of all the lore surrounding soup.  Check out the special Halloween soup!  Also a spectacular array of international soups.  And if you're feeling a little off, perhaps this Belgian chicken soup would do the trick.  Patricia Solley also has a book on soup - An Exaltation of Soups which has positive reviews on Amazon.

Up Close and Personal with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

In an interview with Ximena Ortiz, Maurice Greenberg reports on his reaction to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  Greenberg is the former chairman and CEO of AIG, an experienced businessman.  He met Ahmadinejad at a small gathering sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations. (Hat tip to The American Thinker.)  This is mandatory reading.  Greenberg judges Ahmadinejad to be "crazy like a fox" and says "He's offensive. He's smug. He's a danger."  Greenberg concludes that: "We can't deal with him. You can't deal with this guy. I do not believe that we should let him come into possession of the capabilities to manufacture a nuclear device, or achieve it by an indirect means, such as buying it from somebody else."  

Speculation regarding Osama bin Laden

Ace of Spades sums up evidence that indicates Osama bin Laden may have passed away after a short bout with typhoid.  At this point, the story has not been picked up by the MSM - it will be interesting to see where this goes.  Also, it is not clear that it is going to make much of a dent in the enemy's capabilities to inflict harm.  See also All Things Beautiful and Riehl World View.

Its Monday!

Well, there are plenty of dismal things going on, and I'd rather not be going to work, but that's life!  Some cheery little things I ambled onto in my Google wanderings include:

> When we go to do anything even remotely "dangerous,"  the sponsoring business makes us sign a waiver.  Well, Coyote Blog has the ultimate of all waivers put out by a private nature park.  A couple of snippets include: " If you climb, you may die or be seriously injured. This is true whether you are experienced or not, trained or not, equipped or not, though training and equipment may help. It's a fact, climbing is extremely dangerous. If you don't like it, stay at home. You really shouldn't be doing it anyway."  Another:  " By entering the Preserve, you are agreeing that we owe you no duty of care or any other duty. We promise you nothing. We do not and will not even try to keep the premises safe for any purpose. The premises are not safe for any purpose."  Talk about plain English!

> The Bunny Rabbit is becoming an accomplished unicyclist.  It turns out that there are all sorts of unicycling sub-sports and related specialized unicycles.  You can go touring on your unicycle (see Unicycle Tours). A unitour in southern China with wonderful photos and a diary is worth a look.  There is also competitive unicycling.  See this amazing show by a Japanese unicyclist on YouTube.  There are Unicycle Clubs -- the New York Unicycle Club presents a nice film on YouTube as well.

Have a great day!

Political Correctness Run Amok?

The Muslim community has reacted to Pope Benedict's speech from last Tuesday -- not with reasoned debate.   No, no, no, instead with, as Michelle Malkin puts it, "firebombs and fatwas."  As the BBC reports, efforts to clarify the Pope's speech have not been sufficient, possibly because the outraged Muslim community has chosen to misinterpret the speech.  I am sure that the militant elements were just waiting for another event that they could use to fan the anger of the masses. 

Yet again we are reminded that any statements that our radical Muslim populations disagree with should be withdrawn, apologized for or otherwise negated -- or else, these folks will kill people and destroy our homes, churches and lives!   What are the choices?  Shall we let them destroy our right of free speech by appeasing them through "political correct" speech designed not to make them mad?  In that case, we are on the way to living in a world run by these so-called Islamo-fascists  (maybe someone can come up with a better name, but for now that will have to do) - who are going to tell us what to worship, what to say, what to wear, how many children to have, whether women can work, whether we can watch or make the movies we want, etc. 

For more commentary, see Tigerhawk, Protein Wisdom, The American Thinker, and The Jawa Report.

 

Walking in George Bush's Shoes

Communications can be helped enormously when we put ourselves in someone else's shoes, thinking about what they are facing and dealing with.  Instapunk has an outstanding post that, in the end, tries to help us understand George W. Bush's position -- the guy that hears the security briefing every morning, the guy that knows that LA or Chicago or the Capitol Building in Washington DC could be the next target.  He also is likely to hear about the movie that dramatizes his  assasination. He is also the target of a long shopping list of invective and completely baseless accusations, incessantly continuing day after day.  How many of us could walk in his shoes and still function as a leader of the country?

Two questions follow from this analysis -- how did we get to this state, and how can we improve the dialogue?  The latter is the more important regardless of the historical trail, but the diagnosis may be required to fix the problem.  I think that one of Instapunk's commenters is right -- the lack of dialogue started when Al Gore and the ideological democrats decided they weren't going to concede the election of 2000, that they believed was "stolen" from them.  From there, no dialogue of any sort was possible. I also think that the Republican Congress has been no blessing for the President.  (There is an interesting series of articles by Republicans in the Washington Monthly discussing the advantages of a divided government.)  Perhaps to start, we have to visit the "psychbloggers" -- my favorites being Dr. Sanity (see this post on Bush Derangement Syndrome), Shrinkwrapped (see this fascinating recent post on Terror and Societal Regression) and Sigmund, Carl and Alfred (recent post A Nation with No Soul Pays Dearly).

9/11 Remembered

I certainly remember where I was the morning of 9/11/2001. This recollection is as vivid as only one other event -- the morning when John F. Kennedy was assasinated (it was morning in Oregon).  Here in southern NH, 9/11/2001 was one of those clear, clean, sparkly, cloudless, early fall days -- like today.  I was working at my computer, and my sister called to tell me about what was happening.  I turned on the TV and watched as the second tower was hit, and both towers fell in.  It was horrible.  The next most awful moment was figuring out how to explain events to my 10 year old son when he came home from school (mercifully, the school did not discuss the events with the children).  Today, what is hardest is observing and rebutting the denial of a vocal part of the American population, perhaps most exemplified by their vocal critique of ABC's 9/11 movie.  Fact is that this did happen, and it was not a conspiracy of the U.S. government.  Further, we had actually suffered a number of terrorist attacks before 9/11, one of which was also on the World Trade Center, during those "wonderful" Clinton years. It was well known that the terrorists had been considering using passenger airplanes as a terror instrument.  As Mark Steyn points out this morning, the terrorists are here waiting for their moment to execute another dastardly deed against our people in our homeland.  For lots and lots of reference to various 9/11 related material, go to Lorie Byrd's compilation at Wizbang -- there is no point in recreating what has been done so well. 

I will not forget.

The Attack on ABC's 9/11 Film

Regarding the ABC 9/11 film, Mary Katherine Ham pretty much sums up where I stand on this. The over-arching problem is that the activist Democratic preoccupation with this sort of issue is not productive. Hugh Hewitt points out that the talking point critiquers of the film don't even know the key players, such as Ramsi Yusef!  Makes you wonder about how they have any basis for commenting on anything in the film.  Doug Ross makes the comparison between Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 and the ABC 9/11 movie (found via Hugh Hewitt).

The Democrats are spending their time and energy revising the history of the past rather than developing and selling a persuasive and strong policy position on the big issues that now face the U.S., like immigration, homeland security, Iraq, health care etc.  By creating such a firestorm over the film, they have also ensured that the audience for this show is going to be vastly greater than it might have been otherwise. Thomas Lifson points out that YouTube outtakes will also be popular.  In fact, the Democrats are simply digging their own grave even deeper by pushing these sorts of revisionist history vendettas. The activists of the party are moving it further and further left, causing many to leave the flock.  See, for example, this statement by Ari Kaufman, a young man, former Democrat and now a "Conservative Libertarian".   I am sure that he is not alone.  Will Americans sit out the coming mid-term election out of frustration with both parties?

 

Centenarians

I just finished reading If I Live to be 100: Lessons from the Centenarians, by Neenah Ellis. This was an excellent read, and good for most of my plane ride back from Phoenix. Note that this book is not quite what the title promises -- it is more about what Ms. Ellis learned about herself by engaging in the the project of interviewing centenarians.

Willow Lake, Prescott AZ

On our recent trip to Prescott AZ, The Sapling and I visited Willow Lake Park, one of several run by the City of Prescott.  The park is on the north side of town between Highway 89 and Willow Lake Road, not far from Watson Lake.   The day was pretty hot, in the upper 80's, so The Sapling and I returned to the car after only a brief walk.  The photo above is facing north about as far as we got up the trail. We drove north to Chino Valley, and took a left just before the main part of town off of 89, on the Outer Loop Road.  We then took a left on Williamson Valley Road and wound our way back to Prescott.  We saw several antelope in the fields. Overall a nice little drive with pleasant changes in topography and a good view of Granite Mountain.