OUR INTRUDER , 2 SURE BETS, A LOSS OF THOUGHT and PACIFIC SPRING

FRESH

VARIATIONS ON A RIGHT FRAME

THE INTRUDER

    A midmorning call by one of our neighborhood Bobcats.

      This guy is considerably larger than Hemingway and Joy who were napping on the porch, or perhaps hiding under the deck.

THEY'LL MAKE YOU THINK

    If you like real life intrigue and are fascinated by science PARTICLE FEVER and TIM'S VERMEER are two documentary films you'll want to see.  Both are in general release, but if your art house or cinema doesn't offer them, they'd be great views at home.

       Particle Fever, directed by Mark Levinson is a brilliant, entertaining and even amusing suspense as the Large Hadron Collider at CERN comes on line and seeks evidence of the Higgs particle.  6 brilliant and charismatic scientists are your guide.  They are extraordinary and the drama is real.  

      Tim's Vermeer follows brilliant inventor, millionaire Tim Jenison on a six year quest to learn how the Dutch painter Vermeer (Girl with a Pearl Earring) captured light, glow and painted so realistically.  The film is produced by Pen Jilette and Teller. It features Martin Mull, British painter David Hockney and professor Philip Steadman.  It is a fascinating journey, amazing in what lengths Jenison will go to pursue the riddle.  

      I took personal pleasure in the viewing of both because they reaffirm the best of humanity, our desire to seek answers, learn, quest and take on mystery and to delight in the challenge.

     Which brings us to an however....

WITHOUT BENEFIT OF REASON

    Shouting into the wind or standing at the shore and telling the surf to subside may have the same efficacy as this, but here we go. It is appalling at how rapidly western culture is disposing of its once guiding trajectory of reason.

    Intellectual diligence, study and learning were either foundational expectations or the normative behavior of a culture that moved from superstition and ignorance to harvesting the benefits of knowledge and science.  Along the way we bipeds were encouraged to think and to wrestle with conflicting or opposing concepts or points of logic. Not so much anymore. 

    Knee jerk reactions threaten to become the norm. In social psychology they call it a rigidifying of the self concept.  People hear an idea they disagree with, feel threatened by it and throw up a defense, often launching  a response that doesn't seek conversation and in turn the other person responds in kind.  It's a bit like launching missiles back and forth. No diplomacy, or seeking an understanding, just an escalating scorched earth belligerence. 

    It's all over cable current affairs programming, in politics, especially posessed by zealots both in the public square and in religion and even in our little village.  Everyone seems to have adopted the "I'M RIGHT-YOUR WRONG" mind set.

     Had our forbearers been so inclined we'd still be hunting with stones and hoping for the invention of fire. We may never have learned to talk.

The New Blooms

With apologies to my pal Griff, who believes this blog is too heavy on California flora.

   As my friend Bob Foster, who's bone marrow transplant and battle with Leukemia I chronicled here over the last few years, said as he called today "Life is so good."  

    He was calling from Minnesota after driving from Northern Iowa, where spring is still only a hope. He said he has not felt this good in years. And he is especially grateful for the return of his quick and facile mind.  

   To paraphrase the old military cliche' "If you've got'em smoke 'em," if you've got a brain, use it.

   See you down the trail.

THE SENSITIVE PLANT AND SENSITIVITY

WHEN LEADERSHIP FAILS

       The doubles tennis foursome is a mixed group, conservative, liberal, democrat and

republican. In all the time we've played there is never conversation about politics.  We cover a lot of stuff and it is an affable group, but today there was anger, disappointment and outrage over the sad, sad, political sideshow of the debt ceiling issue. 

        Republicans embarrassed, democrats disappointed, all felt there was a lack of leadership and an ignoring of national best interests. 

        Broaden the conversation beyond the tennis court and I hear respected republican analysts admit the nation is almost ungovernable. Conservatives who are sensitive

about loosing a claim of integrity because of tea party "legislative terrorism", liberals

angered that Obama moved so far to the right and caved to what they consider to be

extortion.

        For my two cents-we continue to spend Trillions on two wars of dubious value, one of which was started based on lies and fabrications and should never have been launched.

In the aftermath however large corporations are making big money on both war material and reconstruction. Smart?  Smart in a time of financial crisis?  The end of Afghanistan will be a departure with a toll of trillions spent and thousands of broken bodies, lives and far too many deaths.  The result will be for Afghanistan to return the old Testament tribal world that is has always been. Smart?

       So we spend trillions there, but we cut funding to education and infrastructure.  We cut in these areas while the Chinese invest. Which nation do you think will be best equipped to deal with the future and demands of jobs of the future?  And here I'll anger some of you.  We cut social spending but refuse to provide a revenue increase because we refuse to tax fairly. In some cases we refuse to tax.  

      How can Warren Buffet, who by the way is willing to pay more, actually pay less than his secretary in taxes?  How can a corporation pay almost no taxes and in some cases pay none at all?  This is while their CEO is earning millions in bonus money because the profit margin is so high?  How can a congress allow companies who are providing no bid contract services in Iraq and Afghanistan to be sheltered in the Cayman Islands so while they are taking US Tax dollars and paying their employees they are withholding no tax money because "they are not a US company?"  How can a congress be held hostage by a small sect of "true believers" who would rather see the nation fail at meeting it's obligations than think of a big picture and the future? How can Republican leadership and Democratic Leadership and the White House fail so miserably at something that has been done 102 times previously without a government crisis?  

      Compromise is not a problem nor an evil.  It is what gave us the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and our Constitutional Amendments. The history of this Republic is written by leaders who understand compromise is the glue of legislation.

Yes we have problems.  Yes government costs and spends.  Life is more complicated than a simple notion of a smaller government and no taxes.  Compromise is a road map to problem solving.  Not to compromise is to create a government or a state where totalitarian regimes rule.  Joe Stalin and Adolph Hitler were pretty good at refusing to compromise. 

How can such weak leadership prevail?  We have struck a low in American history.  Where is vision? Where is a sense of the future? Where is the art of governance? Where is creative problem solving?  Where is the skill at providing leadership for a nation on the ropes?  Where indeed? 


Sorry for the rant.  But these are days that demand response.

       

DAY BOOK

THE SENSITIVE PLANT

      The popular name is the Sensitive Plant. The fern like leaves restrict and close when touched.  In a few moments they begin to open again.  The bloom is something we've never seen before.

      In these shots, the time of day was perfect to capture a nice bit of shadow play.

See you down the trail.