Much Too Do and Much has been Done

What a couple of weeks! Billions of dollars of damage and hundreds of lives lost in the South from nasty weather; major floods in the central part of the country; a Royal wedding; bin Laden killed; POTUS is revealed to be an American, and Trump is revealed to be a jerkoff.

No wonder I feel a bit overloaded. Oh, and snakes in my ponds. Lots of them. And I haven’t been able to identify them yet. Possible s few Queen Snakes, maybe a banded water snake and possible an exotic of some kind. All very wary. My snake grabber arrives today and then the fight is really on. Get in the small pond and drain it, then take down the rock walls the snakes are using for a home, catch the snakes, then redo the bottom and sides, replace the rocks and voila! a new and snake-free pond.

Then get the snakes out of the big pond. Ditto procedure except no rock wall. Just a mass of roots and crap to sort through. It needs to be cleaned out anyway, but the addition of a couple of unknown reptiles adds a bit of spice to the mix.

And yesterday I finished getting the riding mower going, not so easy a project BTW. New battery and starter, some tune-up adjustments and off she went. Today the new battery is DEAD and the rear tire is so flat I call it Twiggy. Must be a trickle leak in the electrical system somewhere. Crap.

But, the orchids are blooming their little buds off, and the spring is glorious. Sigh.

Image: http://www.freesnake.com/queensnake5.html

Osama gets a Sausage (but it's a virgin!)

Now it starts. Osama the martyr. Osama the aggrieved because he was killed at home; Osama the martyr because he died on land and was buried at sea; Osama isn’t really dead just hiding, captured, wounded, Who The F (bomb) Knows?

Ok, there are some hokey things and maybe my friend Z can illuminate one of them; How could they confirm his DNA in 8 hours? I don’t say they can’t, I just don’t know.

On the martyr issue I have real problems. This guy was clearly a very bad guy from the view of the free world. He is by his own words responsible for the death of thousands of innocent people including thousands of Muslims. Why the hell should he get to heaven and sleep on a Brocade Couch, be served (if you know what I mean) by as many celestial virgins as he wants and eat perfect fruit from Mohammed’s own orchards. Bullcrap to that. I hope they stuffed a nice fresh pork sausage down his miserable throat before they buried him at sea. That might keep his unclean terrorist corpse out of heaven.

Image: www.richie-loves-the-pork.com

Tired of the Conservative Crap

I get so tired of the same old conservative Republican crap that denigrates Obama and his presidency without ever giving credit for anything. No point in going over the dozens of things accomplished over the last few years. Today there are two examples that serve:

One: the decisive and patient running of the bin Laden affair;

Two: the remarkable response of FEMA after the devastation of the South last week.

The bin Laden affair was bungled badly in the past, and handled beautifully by the President. No leaks, no false moves tarnished this operation. SEAL team 6 carried out the orders of the Commander in Chief flawlessly, bravely and perfectly. They were the boots on the ground, Obama was the Commander. Where is there room for denigration here?

Go back to Katrina. FEMA was a disaster in itself. Lack of leadership from the top (wonder who that could be?) left New Orleans devastated for months and crippled for years. One of Obama’s early efforts was the reorganization of FEMA and a retooling of all of their procedures. Repeat: this was done under the Presidents directives. Fast forward to the devastating storms last week and FEMA was there in hours, massively and decisively. BIG DIFFERENCE, don’t you think.

Come on boys and girls, get real. Even the Republican leadership acknowledges that the President has done a few things right.

Image: www.jonathanmmitchell.blogspot.com

The Spillway - DUHHHH

They live in “The Spillway”, a part of the flood plain designated to be the place where water will be dumped when the river reaches dangerous heights. “The Spillway?” Hello?
You have to be sorry for the families that are wiped out by the blasting open of the levee. Here is a hint: Most were unable to get insurance or even financing to build their homes in this flood plain. To risky. The next problem is the secondary levee on the other side of the spillway. Never been tested by flood.
The better question is this: Why are they there in the first place? Did anyone really think living below the river level was a smart strategy? And another better question is this: Where the hell is all this water coming from? Ahh. Easy. Unprecedented rains.
Unprecedented rains; unprecedented floods; unprecedented global climate change. One hundred or more years ignoring warnings that sooner or later a flood would wipe out the development of the flood plain. Now it happens. Why should anyone be surprised? My students aren’t. I’m not. The Corps of Engineers isn’t.

Seems like only the conservative Republicans are. I suggest that they pray away the waters like they pray away hurricanes in Florida.

Information: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/03/us/03levee.html?hp
Image: www.carbon-based-ghg.blogspot.com

The Bastard is Dead

I watched then go down. I watched them die. I watched the cleanup, the grief and the war caused by the terrorist bin Laden. And now I have watched the unfolding of the end of the bastard.

Good.

Image: www. montrealradioguy.wordpress.com

Sorry, friend.

Something about a conversation I had with a friend bothered me. But what was it?
Friday I heard Terry Gross in a 1985 interview with James Farmer, Jr. Farmer was a civil rights activist and one of the Freedom Riders who along with many others finally broke the back of Jim Crow in the south. In the interview he described the intentional non-violent actions he and others did to get arrested in order to bring the media in. He described the white jail guards, some not so ugly and others more so verbally abusing them with “Boy” this and “Boy” that, and of course the “N” word.
It hit me. This friend is a 30+ year master sergeant with an armload of gold stripes for service. I had asked someone what the stripes meant and was told they signified time in service and the color signified behavior in a way. Gold meant that the wearer had never been in trouble.
The next time I saw my friend I said “Now I know what all that gold is for, and I know you have been a good boy, too.” My black friend said “I’ll take that from you” and then explained the stripes and the differences between the Army and Marines in this regard.

“I’ll take that from you.” And when I heard James Farmer I got it. “Boy”. In a thousand years I would never intentionally insult a black man by calling him “Boy”. I know what it means. I know the history. I hate it. I did not mean it as a racial slur. How do you apologize for an unintentional remark that hurts someone? My way is to write it down and share it, and ask for forgiveness. I’m sorry Master Sergeant . No offense meant.

Image: http://www.airforcetimes.com

One More Lesson in Life

The Cardinal family built a nest in the Loropetalum beneath our kitchen window. We watched it go up, three tiny eggs appear, three tiny babies hatch. We watched as the pair worked all day every day until yesterday to feed the hungry mouths, and we watched the babies grow with astonishing speed. From featherless pinkies to primary wing feathers on small wings in a week.

They were our family, too. Our babies.

This morning I found the nest in the driveway, babies crushed and dead. Nothing to do but mourn a little, then bury the remains of nest and babies in the flowers. I suspect our lovely dog Millie did this, but will never know. Another animal would have eaten the young. Dogs don’t do things out of meanness. They react with reflex. I suppose she spotted one of the parents go to the nest, went to have a look, and did what dogs do. So no recriminations there. ("Damn your eyes you baby bird killer" went unsaid.)

The lesson once again is “Drink the Good Wine First”, because you never know what is waiting around the corner. A mindless accident or a planned attack. It happens suddenly and is over. No turning back.