WINDOW EYES, GOOD PLEASURES AND HARD QUESTIONS ABOUT THE POW RELEASE

A POINT OF VIEW

ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW
the pow release

    There's a lot more to the story than the release of American prisoner of war Bowe Bergdahl. 

     First there are the questions about his wandering away from his unit and his capture. They need to be processed. 

     There's the obvious posturing-the Taliban calling the release of five of their own "a great victory."  Republicans criticizing the "deal." The Obama administration trumpeting it as a "sacred obligation" to bring him home. They are falling over themselves to get their narrative to stick in the political trend lines.

      Here's a question for the Taliban, can you be sure none of these senior officials have not been turned? How can you be sure?  

      For the GOP, was it really a deal and negotiation that will embolden our enemies? With thousands dead in Iraq and Afghanistan, and thousands more injured do you think there is any more than our enemies can do to our troops? How does the current crop of GOP explain their criticism of this "negotiation" with the efforts of past republican presidents to get pow's released? Exchanges have been part of diplomacy for ever.  

      Does the Obama administration need to be so eager to hog the spotlight on matters of national defense, security and the like? There is something about this that smacks as though it is an administration perpetually on the campaign trail. Maybe it is simply Obama's personal style of oratory and spotlight grabbing. 

     Buried in the details are the facts that 5 bad guys had been held, but not charged, for years, in a prison the US seems incapable of closing. What's wrong here? If they were enemy and we are sure of that, why couldn't we produce the good to bring them to trial.  Or did we not want a trial, for reasons that can't, won't or shouldn't be discussed? And if that's the case, what the heck does that mean?  What was so good about holding them-at a huge cost?  If we have become so proficient at using drones to "decapitate" the terror cells leadership, how would putting five more on the street pose a grave risk to US security. Maybe a drone could do what we could not do to them in a prison, such as it is.

      For those who think they can find some high moral/philosophical/political ground on this matter, I suggest you read BLIND SPOT-The Secret History of American Counterterrorism.  Written by Timothy Naftali in 2005, it lays bare what has been the real American response since Truman and Eisenhower.  Our record, as exposed by historical fact, should shut up the President, the GOP and the Taliban. That's a problem today though--everybody reacts to the shouting match in the social media barrel and they ignore facts and history.  

CUSTOMS OF THE LOCALS

    About 12 years ago one of our favorite wine makers,

Marc Goldberg and Maggie D'Ambrosia of Windward Vineyards, started the Pinot and Paella fest. Over the year's this fundraiser for youth arts has become one of California's most gentle, enjoyable, delicious Sunday afternoons. Some 15 to 20 chefs compete for the best paella while 20 Paso Robles Pinot makers pour their product. Music is provided by  Incendio an extraordinary world music group, with a heavy Spanish accent.  (Check them out as you slip into your next bottle of wine or cocktail hour.  A YouTube link is embedded below.)

      There is an extraordinary variety of paella creations and these chefs are superb.  So too is the Pinot.

      Caution, these photos may make you hungry.

Selecting a shaded spot, with in view of the bandstand only 

enhances the joy of the afternoon.   

   The frame below needs explanation.  In the Paso Robles wine region there exists the Rhone Rangers-vintners who make wine of Rhone origin. Marc Goldberg, third from the right, wearing glasses, has created a counterpart. Beaune (pronounced bone) is the capital of the French Burgundy and Pinot Noir region-thus the Beaune Rangers.  This is the first official photo of Paso's newest wine group. These men and women are winemakers responsible for the creation and care of one of the world's most temperamental but wonderful wines. Cheers!

AND NOW FOR A MUSICAL INTERLUDE
INCENDIO

MISSING TWO WOMEN & SHOTS OF CLASSICS-HOT COLORS AND HOT WHEELS

MOURNING TWO WOMEN

     Noting the passing of two women over the weekend surprisingly stirred a personal sense of loss and a low rage.

     The end of Margaret Thatcher's long decline into dementia is a merciful release and an occasion to recall her greatness in full power.  I met the Iron Lady and heard her address an American audience.  I didn't agree with all of her politics, but I admired her ability to lead, wield power and was in awe of her use of language.  It was not just her English cadence and pronunciation, it was the eloquence, even the elegance of her word choices and sentence construction.  She was an extraordinarily capable person.     

     Though Meryl Streep's performance was brilliant, I resented the Iron Lady film because its focus on Thatcher's declining years was inappropriate, disrespectful and needless.  

     As a father of daughters I have a special fondness for women of her calibre.

     And perhaps because Ann Smedinghoff is the age of my youngest, I was especially grieved to learn of the death of the US Foreign Service worker in Afghanistan.  She, and other Americans, were killed by terrorists as they delivered textbooks to children.  Her father says the family takes comfort in knowing she was doing something she wanted to do.

    I know, hired and worked with young women and men like Ann Smedinghoff.  Products of good homes, education and sound footing, they choose to work in areas where they could "make a difference" or "provide service."  There are more lucrative and less arduous paths, but some in that generation seek a more active participation in doing something good and meaningful.  She and her colleagues died trying to elevate the third century mentality of that cursed land of war lords, tribes, corruption, and ignorance.

     The Taliban are blamed.  They are the jackal thugs of an evil strain of death breeding zealots who are ignorant cowards that even their own demented version of their god would  surely wish to smite and send to an endless lake of fire. The deaths of the Americans, only the latest chapter as the Taliban once again seeks to destroy reason and leverage the stone age on Afghanistan. 

      Two women, one who fulfilled a life of contribution, the other, at the beginning of her service to humankind, taken tragically.  It's just been hard to shake this sense of loss.

CALIFORNIA CLASSICS

CRUISING CLASSIC

   See you down the trail.

CURRENTS OF THOUGHT

OPEN QUESTIONS

     ARE THE DEBATES WRONG?

     These may not be original musings, but they are relevant.  Anything that gets the candidates thinking and talking in front of a live format is revealing and a lot better than packaged and paid advertising.  But--  I wonder if we didn't cross a Rubicon when JFK and Dick Nixon opened the era of television campaigning and debates.  Charisma became a factor in Presidential Campaigns. Looks, style, manner and "appeal" became "values" by which Americans rate and choose their chief executive. Though it is more sinister than that.

     I know 2 or 3 men, who have played on the national and international stage and who were involved in the presidential sweepstakes who could have made good presidents, but they lacked something- media gloss and sizzle. Probably brighter and deeper thinkers than most of their peers, their intellect and experience got trumped by media appeal.

    Jim Lehrer tried to open a format to allow Obama and Romney to present and counter with some depth, but still the rigidity of debate forces the contestants, and we viewers, into an artificial frame of scoring points by attack,  defense, or presenting a zinger. The goal is to beat the opponent, as if that determines how a man or woman would serve.

     Perhaps the evaluation and revelatory outcome helps us to better understand and to decide, but it all seems like it is spawned from the same mind set of a Super Bowl, or World Series-winner take all.

     The Presidency demands more than presentation or debate skills.  Perhaps helpful in some way, it is still an example of the disconnect between the business, and now industry, of elections and the real job of governance.

    We can count on the media yak hacks to be pumped up

on scoring the next rounds, as though it means something.

     THE SEASON HAS OPENED

   Today delivers the first measurable rain of Central California's "rain season." 

    After an extraordinary year in 2010-2011, last year was under average, so we celebrate each drop.  Though, this is a dicey time of year.  Grape growers and vintners are someplace along in harvest and too much rain at the wrong time is bad news.  Stay tuned for an update from Wine Country where

EVERY DAY IS NOT ROMANTIC

     We may romanticize the life of a winemaker, but do so

at the cost of overlooking how hard is the work.  Case in 

point-during harvest there is an endless list of things to do.

One item is just keeping the equipment clean.  Here we see

premier wine maker John Munch and a colleague doing just that. 

A PARTING THOUGHT

    I had a relative who used the old bromide "There's a place in hell for people like that!"  I don't want to open a theological debate or a discussion about judgement, BUT as I read about the Taliban attack on a teen female who had been an advocate for full educational rights for girls, that old saw came back to mind.  Along with words like, idiots, cowards, ignorant, stone age ass holes and evil.

    Truth is, full equality for women in Islamic nations could do more to remove those evil mullahs and imams and their influence of ignorant fundamentalism than anything else.  Oh, a lake of burning sulfur comes to mind as well!

     Really hard to bring yourself to forgive someone like that isn't it? A struggle!

    See you down the trail.