Sunday, December 07, 2008
My life is for the birds
"Note to everyone who knows me or even has a passing acquaintance or who thinks he might need to contact me, let it be known than from dawn to dusk from now to somewhere in the coming spring, I am probably going to be very hard to contact. Okay, I do have a phone next to my computer, but that is as good as it gets. I will be glued to my computer watching two bald eagles building their nest, reacting with one another and, I hope, raising their young. What could be more important?
Many tasks will simply not get done: Dishes may pile up. Weeds may grow beyond acceptable limits; I may lose pounds because of failure to cook or even snack; shopping is out of the question (so much for Christmas!); the only clean room in the house is my computer room, but I may have to bring in a food supply, a mini fridge and microwave if I am to survive. The best plan is probably to become totally nocturnal and squeeze in all my eating and sleeping and all human contact between sunset and sunrise. If anyone wonders about me, wait until after sundown, although even then I will be rather busy catching up with my daily necessities.
Today I woke up to the two birds building, or more likely refurbishing, their nest. I really had to leave for church, and when I came back home, the nest was at least twice as tall, but not (as it seemed) wider. It is getting to look “cozier,” perhaps for an upcoming intimacy? Hmm. Just before sundown, they both came back to the nest, went beak to beak for a while. (Hi, Honey, how was your day?) Then one got interested in the rear end of the other. Is something going on here? So much for privacy! Then came the evening blackout. My alarm is set for sunrise!"
These eagles have an interesting background, and they come back to this nest every winter after a summer in Alaska where the salmon are more plentiful. Their nest here is very close to some loud and disruptive bridge construction, but they are determined to use that same nest year after year despite the noise and distraction and despite the efforts of the California Fish and Game people and the California Transportation Department. If anyone has the interest and the time I highly recommend visiting this site as often as feasible. They will be there for at least a couple of months if they successfully incubate and raise an eaglet.
Go to http://turtlebay.org/caltranseaglecam.php during daylight in the Pacific Standard Time zone, approximately 6 am to 5 pm at this time of year. Tonight, they were still rebuilding their nest and flying in and out. They are truly fascinating.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
We are known by the company we keep
Sunday, August 31, 2008
The Case Against Barack Obama
As for "Change, what kind of change does Biden represent? Business as usual is not change. He opted for a dyed-in-the-wool Washington insider whose last wish would be change of the status quo. AND he is the third most liberal voter in the Senate (read higher taxes, more gov't control, more socialistic programs, etc.). He has been in the Senate since Obama was a little boy. So what is supposed to make us believe that Obama's "right hand man" in the VP position will contribute to that wonderful vague concept of CHANGE? Hah! How dumb does he think we are? Oh, and the latest thing Obama and Biden are touting is that Biden was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Why? Even though he has not lived there for most of his life, PA is a swing state that Obama lost in the primary, so suddenly he becomes a Pennsylvania native son. Hand me my barf bag.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Fun at the Equinox
Friday, February 01, 2008
Notes on candidates
I have been studying a lot lately on the various candidates running for President of the
Case in point: Obama, as an Illinois State Senator opposed a bill to define as “a person,” a fully born baby who survived an abortion. Before I go on, picture a fully formed and breathing infant who was caused to be born via labor induction. Should it then be murdered under the definition of legal “abortion”? Better yet, all you mothers, visualize your own sweet newborn lying on a gurnery alive, fully developed, and breathing. Can you imagine allowing it to be killed, because some law did not define it as a human being? Obama was Chairman of the Health and Human Services Committee of the Illinois State Senate. He did bring up the bill for a vote, but voted against it.
The so called “born alive” bill came up in three successive years. In 2001 three bills were proposed to help babies who survived induced-labor abortions. (This obviously happened only because the little baby was born too fast for the doctor to bash its brains out before his whole self emerged from the vagina.) One of the bills defined a living homo sapiens “wholly emerged from his mother” should be treated as a “person, human being , child, individual.” On all three bills, Obama voted “present.” In 2002 he voted “no.” Gutless and heartless would be my labels for such behavior.
Obama is one of those who is an eloquent speaker who at the same time says nothing substantial. He speaks in great sounding phrases with buzz words like “change” and “hope” and “forward” and so forth but does not connect any of these high sounding phrases to any concrete program or plan. Besides the above described situation, I see him as an empty helmet, possibly with some vague good intentions but nothing to back up his vagueries. We need to look deeper into his voting record. I admit I do not plan to bother, as I have nor ever have had the intention of voting for him. This abortion issue just cemented my decision.
I feel sorry for the Democrats who have only two lousy candidates to choose from for the nomination. But if McCain wins the Republican nomination, we are guaranteed a liberal no matter who wins in November. Obama and Clinton are just to the left of Lenin, but it is a given that the Dems will always choose a liberal. I find it hard to believe that McCain has garnered so much Republican support. And I have noticed that even the Democrats like McCain, and would prefer for him to be the Republican nominee because even if they lose to him they still have someone of their own ilk. McCain has demonstrated time and again that he can out-lib the Dems. For example, there is the McCain Feingold bill that severely limits political speech, in direct violation of the Constitution. Bush wimped out on that one and actually signed it rather than vetoing it as he knew he should. I guess he thought he could pass that buck to the Supreme Court. Big Surprise, it didn’t work. That still dumbfounds me.
McCain would give the war criminals, or enemy combatants, access to our justice system with all its rights and privileges, which I find outrageous. He was also strongly supportive of the disastrous immigration bill that was defeated only because of the great and concentrated groundswell of opposition from the American voters last summer.
McCain is another of the gullible politicitians who have been suckered into the Global Warming Hoax and who have caved to the Enviros who are out to regulate us out of using our own resources. For example, he has 4 times voted against drilling for oil in ANWR. (In case you are of the persuasion that this would destroy the “pristine beauty” of the
I suspect he is also on the side of all those who would prevent our access to our own oil in other places such as the Gulf and other off shore areas.
I don’t trust him to keep taxes in line. He admits he is not knowledgeable about economics, an absolute requirement for the job. He has never worked in or directed or managed any part of private industry, which is definitely far far different from military, which has been his life long profession.
His lack of experience outside of military and government is also the flaw most evident in at least two others running for resident, Clinton and Obama . I don’t know about Huckabee (who, by the way is another one that the Dems hope to see as the Republican candidate because they see him as most beatable).
To sum up a few more of his unacceptable positions in my view: He opposed the Bush Tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, which resulted in greatly increased revenue, more jobs and a healthy economic growth. He is against repeal of the death tax, would raise Social Security taxes, favors embryonic stem cell research, even though it is not necessary since adult stem cells have produced treatments and cures of over 80 diseases and ailments and show much promise in the future.
Finally, consider one more thing, his temper. He definitely lacks self control and the dignity befitting a president, another trait he shares with Hillary the harridan. I think of McCain as Hilary in drag. But whatever happens in this election, I hope we will not let the media pick for us.
Looks like the field is narrowing down to Romney, Huckabee or Ron Paul as far as I am concerned. Huckabee can't beat Obama or Hilary, so no point there, Romney looks good, but I may have to vote for Ron Paul as a protest. I am with him all the way except for foreign policy, and that is a big item. Toughest election I have faced in my lifetime.....
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Friday, January 25, 2008
When I tell him to seek and find, he listens for the object and when I say "shoe," he dashes into the bedroom and returns with a shoe. Of course, I send him back for shoe number two. In the morning I open the door and send him out for the newspaper by saying. "Get the paper, Max," and off he goes, but he may stop to pee on a bush, as, after all, he has been confined all night. He is mostly Lab, and has mostly Lab characteristics, as you can tell by the pix, but he has a fuller face and a black and pink tongue, which says that maybe there is some chow in there.