NO WET PAWS & WHY BOEHNER IS A BONE HEAD

NO WET PAWS, PLEASE

Neither Hemingway nor Joy like wet paws.

But Hemingway is especially reluctant. Our recent light rains gave him plenty of reason to stay on the chair.

EMERGING SPRING

BOEHNER IS A BONE HEAD

    Some of our founders must be spinning over the jack ass moves of John Boehner.

     The constitution gives exclusive powers to the President to receive ambassadors and public ministers of foreign governments. Boehner violated that historic and important principal by inviting Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu to address congress. His vindictive winner take all style of opposition politics might earn him applause from the far right and anti Obama forces, but it is dead wrong. It could be a disastrous precedent in an increasingly dangerous and complex world.

    The US Congress is an independent body of course, but historically partisan politics end at the shore. In foreign policy and diplomacy, the US has and must speak with a single voice. The reasons are obvious and borne out by history.  

   The US cannot deal with other nations with more than a single voice and intent. That is not to say we cannot have robust internal debate, but in bilateral relationships, only the Chief Executive has the power to engage foreign officials and especially heads of state. 

    Boehner is an inept Speaker and now he becomes an historic blunderer.  Even if you are a conservative, Republican, or not a fan of Barack Obama, you must still respect the institution and history of the Presidency and its exclusive role in bilateral relationships. Boehner is a fool and a mean spirited one at that.  His move on Netanyahu, meant to embarrass the President and to boost Netanyahu in his own political race, is wrong and indicative of how low the Republican party is stooping. As a matter of fact I suspect Ev Dirksen, John Foster Dulles, Teddy Roosevelt, William McKinley, Henry Clay, Robert Lafollete, Robert Taft and many other Republicans are spinning as well.

    Boehner should spend the remainder of this term of congress with a bright yellow A emblazoned on his forehead.

    See you down the trail.   

A MONSTER ENEMY-PERFORMERS FROM THE DEEP-AND WHY THE LONG FACES AT THIS BIRTHDAY

DESTRUCTION OF THE ISLAMIC STATE

     If you've been paying attention to foreign policy experts you've heard a wide range of views of what to do about Islamic State. There is consensus that something must be done. Russia, China, Europe as well as the US are duly concerned about the onslaught of these primitivist barbarians. Their immediate threat is in the middle east.
     The outrage at the beheading of a second American journalist is natural, and indeed justice must be done even if it takes chasing them "to the gates of hell" as Vice President Biden pledged. 
      The need to stop IS goes beyond judicial vengeance.  Barbarism and inhumanity is not unknown even in the middle east, cradle of the world's leading religions and faith systems, but such butchery, done in a flaunting and antagonistic way needs a harsh response from the rest of the world. The IS sadism says a lot about the nature of this enemy.  Indeed they are an enemy of civility, humanity and modernity.  They've been called evil. Comparisons to the inhumanity of the Nazis, Josef Stalin or Pol Pot have been made. They are zealots, on what they think is a holy mission, apostles of a cult of death and frighteningly, they are very capable. Somehow the established nations of the world need to find a way to destroy the Islamic State.

THEY ALSO SERVE WHO INFORM

      The beheading of Steven Sotloff, like that of James Foley underscores the extraordinary risk that journalists undertake to present us with information.  Before they were captured and eventually murdered Sotloff and Foley worked in war zones. Unlike military personnel, or intelligence officers, journalists, medical and NGO relief workers endure the dangers of combat, without weapons. The death of a reporter or aid worker is no less than that of a warrior. Those who kill the unarmed are nothing less than cowards. Those who wear masks and do so must be chased down and be made to pay.  
   

AN EXTRAORDINARY SHOW

     Ocean conditions have been perfect for plenty of this-

Humpback whales feeding on a bait ball, just yards off the pier at San Simeon Cove.

      I'm sorry I did not think to put the camera into a video mode so as to capture the awesome sound of these behemoths exhaling, breaking water and diving.

  It was a spectacular show with whales feeding, dolphins playing, otters passing by, seals making an appearance and a variety of water birds taking advantage of the anchovies feeding on phytoplankton. Gulls, pelicans, cormorants and thousands of shearwaters created clouds on the water. 

    The dark ring is the massing of thousands of shearwaters surrounding a "puff" that is the spout from a whale about to surface.

  To do justice to this show of nature, one needs gear like this.

    Several nationalities were represented in the growing throng of excited observers.

   Thousands of images were captured  and my guess is some of the best came from the shooters on the kayak.

  THE UNHAPPY BIRTHDAY

THROWBACK

   It was brother John's second birthday. He is standing between Susie, the blonde and yours truly, the big brother. None of us look too happy.  Kathy, the little gal on the left must be looking at her mom off screen.  Sorry I can't recall the name of the little gal in tears.  Mickie too seems mesmerized by something off camera. John looks perplexed and I look a bit sad that it's not my cake, that or it was nap time!

   See you down the trail

TEAPOT TEMPESTS AND MORE

PROPORTIONALITY

     The best information to date is the Innocence of Muslims  was a badly made and cheap film that attracted only a handful of viewers at a screening in LA.  It could have died there and never been heard of again. But social media changes all the old rules.

      Clips of the film circulated on YouTube and fanned Muslim anger.  Strains of fundamental Islam take little to work them into a frenzy.  Those who hew to a rigid line of never thinking critically about their own faith, or even thinking in an open minded and rational way are quick to foam and be seized by manic anger.  What apparently is a piece of trash with mysterious origin has now become a pivot point of anger, foment and a genuine foreign policy issue.  For all that is good about a wired world and communication power, an incident like this points to its dark side.

       Ignorance is just that, whether in a film, or in a response to it. Ignorance is rampant in the world, and it wears Muslim, Christian and Jewish garb.  A decentralized, non aggregated, free-for-all communication web can simply add fuel to a fire.  It obviously can also set sparks. When so much ignorance plays in the tinderbox, the world is more dangerous.

       This is the kind of world where the US foreign policy and national security apparatus must operate.  It reminds me of muddy and muck filled rivers populated by crocodiles and snakes.  I was glad to have a veteran at the helm.  Hysterics in this climate can be lethal, but they abound.

ROMNEY'S DANGEROUS MISTAKE

     Now before my Republican, conservative or Romney backing readers have apoplexy, this is not about politics.

Indeed even right leaning or right wing commentators as well as old fashioned mainstream Republicans have criticized the Republican candidate for his opportunistic and political attack on the administration.  He was accused of speaking too early, or looking weak among other non presidential qualities.  The Democrats were more pointed, but since this is not about politics, we leave the comment to his own kind.

     From a center court seat and with an historic perspective, his desperation to score political points reflected a lack of judgement, seasoning, sense of depth and class.  At a time of international crisis, the US speaks with one voice. And Romney's sense of timing was bad, at the very least.  

     When Americans and diplomatic personnel are under attack, politics has no place. When those personnel die, any attempt to score political points is not only repugnant and offensive, it is a stupid miscalculation in a grave moment.  It was a cheap, stupid and tactless thing to do.  Romney and his advisers should be ashamed and are rightly being criticized.

     So there you have it.  Stupid X's 3.  Stupid film, stupid fundamental reaction, stupid politics.  What should have been a tempest in a teapot reveals fatal flaws and fault-lines in a dangerous world.

AND NOW SOMETHING DIFFERENT

A Kitten's First Climb

See you down the trail.