FREEDOM CAN BE THIN

ON THE EDGE

Photo by Scott Nelson for the New York Times

     Continuing disorder and social meltdown in Cairo raises the strength of variable influences. The Muslim Brotherhood had been on the periphery of Egyptian politics.  But violence, anger, suggestions of government backed mobs and disorder only serve to strengthen the potential role of the Brotherhood or radical Islamist elements. When anger seethes it creates a need for leaders.  What began as personal discontent, grows like a stream into a river of combined fury and it is at these times when unanticipated outcomes occur, like the rise of a leader or the direction of a movement.  Symbols and martyrs can arise.

Photo by Ed Ou for the New York Times

      In the beginning it looked as if the Mubarak government was willing to hear from opposition elements, to even negotiate a possible settlement.  That changed when the violence occurred. 

    Situations like Cairo serve to remind us how fragile is our line of civility.  Mob mentality, thuggery and violence returned for violence upends social order.  Journalists

working in such environments do so at great peril.  They strive to keep information flowing.  Left to their own, governments under siege seek to shut off the free flow of information.

                      Gangs Hunt Journalists and Rights Workers-link to story here

CELEBRATING AN OLD FIGHTING SYMBOL

     One hundred years ago today, Governor Hiram Johnson made the "bear flag" the official flag of California.

     The bear flew for the first time in 1846 in Sonoma, raised by American rebels who staged the Bear Flag Revolt. 

      The US tried to negotiate to buy California and New Mexico from the Mexican government.  The Mexicans said no, so the US, under President James Polk, declared war in the spring of 1846.  In June, a group of Americans captured Sonoma and took a leading Mexican General, Mariano Vallejo, captive. They lowered the Mexican flag and sent up the first incarnation of the Bear Flag.

    Historians says William Todd, a cousin of Mary Todd Lincoln was the artist for the design.

DAY BOOK
BLOOMS

       Flowering trees still have a magic hold on me.  I remember the first year I really noticed the blooms of flowering trees. It was as if I had been awakened or made conscious. The grass was green, luxuriantly green, there was a fragrance in the air, the sun seemed to soak away the gray and grit of a cold winter, full of drabness and a sense of relentlessness.  

      I recall the feeling of the moment.  It was an excitement, a sense of new and a limitlessness.  It was early one morning as I walked to a 6:30 AM track practice.  First there was a quiet and then a harmony of bird song filled the rich mix of a warming morning sun and the scent of trees and flowers in bloom. It was probably my freshman year, but the exhilaration I sensed is like a sample from a museum of life that is felt again by simply bringing it to mind. 

I equate flowering trees with the eternal spring that I glimpsed all those years ago as a boy who suddenly became aware of the power of rebirth.

I've noticed that birds, sea birds and those on land like to meditate in morning sun.

    As turbulent scenes play out elsewhere on the web and television, the best I can leave you with are these few scenes of genuine peace and tranquility. So it should be.
See you down the trail.

Getting the Story out

THE BEST YOU CAN DO, UNDER PRESSURE

     We admire the courage as well as the skill of journalists getting the story out of Egypt.

As a kid I learned that media coverage was not without risk. I watched as reporters covered the beatings, fire hose assaults, dog attacks and other violence by southern lawmen on black Americans, white civil rights activists and the journalists themselves.  

     During my years in journalism I found myself in moments of mayhem, violence and danger.  Something would kick in, perhaps a false illusion, that being in pursuit of a story, or facts would somehow protect you.  I learned that is not the truth.

     I also appreciate the ingenious use of personal technology and social networks in gathering and disseminating news.

      ON THAT POINT, HERE IS AN INTERESTING SKIRMISH-A SIDEBAR TO THE LARGER STORY IN EGYPT

     The story will move and change.  Power and control is at issue, so it will also be complex.  Reporters will do what they can to get as much information out as they can manage. That has also become a story. 

      

THE PLANT POLICE

ON THE BEAT ON THE RANCH

     The Fiscalini Ranch is some four hundred acres of magnificent nature, nestled between Cambria and the Pacific.  Years of effort by visionary residents saved the gem from development.  With a network of hiking trails lacing the rolling hills and bluffs, it is cared for and protected by the Friends of Fiscalini Ranch Preserve, a volunteer and donation funded group.  

The Friends have decided to take it native.

For several years, volunteers have toiled to remove a variety of invasive species.  They can be seen laboring away, digging, cutting and removing plants  

determined to be invasive and damaging.

They toil hard on the expanse

 and attempt to complete their work in an environmentally

sensitive way.

After being cut or dug and hauled to dry, the invaders are 

then taken way.

But not everyone is in complete agreement.  It would not be Cambria

if there were not multiple opinions.

This ice plant is not a native to the area, but has been here for generations.

It provides a beautiful bloom and is fire retardant.  However it is aggressive,

weighs down the cliff sides and some argue it contributes to caving and erosion

while snuffing out native species.

Wild mustard and wild radish provide a beautiful blanket of color,

but they too grow aggressively and choke out, poppies, sea daisies, buckwheat and other

native species.

At least one point of contention is when should the calendar for defining native be started?  At what point can the Eco system be viewed as being pristine or the way it should be?  Some argue that animal migration and seeding is a part of nature.  Good arguments are made from several points of view.  Again not surprising given the reasonably informed,  independent and opinionated citizenry of this part of the middle kingdom.

So the plant police remain on the job doing their backbreaking work while the awesome beauty of nature remains. And people grumble, while others labor

     and some of the native audience may wonder about human ways.  That is if

Egrets are considered native.  One may need  to determine the origins of their arrival here. And it needs to be checked with the "proper" source, naturally.

As Cambrians say "this is not like the rest of the world."

SHELTER FROM THE STORM

WE ARE THE CONTRAST

     Cris, a buddy from Indiana called today as he stood on an inch of ice, in a cold gale at Crown Hill Cemetery.  He awaited the arrival of the funeral procession for IMPD officer David Moore, gunned down in the line of duty.  A howling storm taking aim at the nation from the southwest to the upper north east could not stop tribute and devotion.

       I spoke with David's father yesterday.  Spencer Moore, a retired police officer, is an old friend and former broadcast colleague from yesteryear, when we were both young bucks.  Spencer was  holding up well.  His eulogy today was powerful and riveting. Still the storm's assault was relentless and a drive by David's precinct was dropped for a straight line process, in snow and ice to where cold citizens with warm hearts saluted a hero in an act as steadfast as a mountain.

THE BEST WE CAN DO IS OFFER A ROAD FROM WINTER, YOUR FATIGUE FROM WATCHING EGYPT OR YOUR DISAPPOINTMENT IN THE BALL GAME.

MAYBE OUR SCENES WILL PROVIDE WARMTH 

THE PROMISE OF HOPE

OR THOUGHTS OF SPRING

DAY BOOK

THE PROBLEM HERE IS SMALL-

A MATTER OF POLLEN

    The Monterey Pines are "candling," creating pollen saturated cones.

     I shoveled snow for years.  I'd much rather sweep pollen.

For those of you reading at the time of or from the storm we wish you well.

Hope the power stays on and that you stay warm. 

Spring will find you.

 See you down the trail.

      

THE SHAPE OF THINGS

FINDING PLACES IN THE MIND

     It is often the juxtaposition that delights.  Hot orange aloe vera bloom against the white froth and blue of the Pacific along a jagged and rock festooned shore makes a lovely sight. Each element alone has a beauty, but in concert they create a texture that then leaves an impression. The power of each is amplified by its relationship.  Don't words on a page, or thoughts in our mind work that way?

     It may be fine point, but I like to see how public space is filled with shape and then consider the "message" that shape conveys.

     A gate, a divider, becomes a study in separation and picture of contrast.  Both light and dark play with each other.

A rain chain reaches up, to catch rain falling down.

  Curve, straight line, glass, stucco.  Texture

Up and down, against a timeless wash.

If we could detach from our being, and simply observe, would we find that we are a bit like figurines placed against backdrops?  Pause someday and think of yourself as a moving actor in an intricate texture. Does it change what you see?  Are there shapes you 

may have missed? Ponder, it is a private art.

WET, ALL WET AND WET BEHIND THE EARS

ATMOSPHERES

     Gentle rain returned to the Central Coast, ending a dry January with the promise of more in February.  That is important out here since our rainy season is limited.             Fortunately December was record setting. Despite the recent weeks of stunningly gorgeous weather, we look forward to rain in February.

IT TAKES WATER TO MAKE TEA

BUT ARE THEY ALL WET

OR WET BEHIND THE EARS?

     Anger about and at the political process and even specific politicians is healthy, if it is balanced with reason and a true understanding that a democratic republic is a process that demands negotiated settlements, compromise! The best deal is one where all sides leave something on the table.  Adults should realize that.  Children must learn it. 

     The anger coursing through the body politic reminds this observer of children throwing tantrums.  If they can't have it their way, they won't play.  I understand why and how people are fed up.  There are too many empty suits, egos, self aggrandizers, grand standers and buffoons with office space in the House and Senate.  Too many high priced K-Street lobby whores, exert too much influence on a legislative process that has become too byzantine as well as bought and sold.  But it really is a matter of degree.  Read history.  It has always been a little bit thus.  There are many sharper minds who have agonized over what has gone wrong. My little take is, ambition and gain have supplanted decency and intelligent rationality.  There is simply too much score keeping and too much money involved. Sure, campaign finance reform could be an important step, but that is for another day.

     The tea party sentiment lays claim to honest discontent, worry and fear. But anger is a poor intellectual core.  Anger as thesis of a political movement will lead only to destruction.  History is my gospel on this.

     Anger, frustration and resentment is a not even a poor cousin to constructive change, it is the demon child who ultimately seeks not just revenge but a snuffing of that construct of hope where competing interests find a rational and shared course.

INFANTILE POLITICAL BULLIES

     There is a place where these infantile political bullies want to beat their chest and let their rage supplant intellect and they are pretty damned inarticulate in explaining why.


LINK HERE AND READ ABOUT A STATE WHERE SOME WANT TO CELEBRATE THE STAIN OF THE JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY-CLICK TO LEARN  WHERE REASON IS GETTING MUGGED 

     I first covered Richard Lugar when he was a mayor, so I have the benefit of history.

He is now one of the great lions of the Senate.  He has done more to keep this world safe from destruction than most Americans will ever realize.  He has evinced more courage, intellect and visionary legislating than the sum of dozens of others who have served in the upper chamber.  Thank God there are still men and women of his calibre who are willing to slog through the awful process to help preserve what semblance of greatness the republic can still gather in tatters.  

     People who would want to unseat that kind of seniority, intellect, pragmatism, service and devotion should be laughed off the stage.  They don't get it.  Yes they may be angry, but they need to grow up.  In fact they should talk to a few of the whiz bang tea party Illuminati who have now spent a few weeks in Washington.  Many of them have learned that getting angry doesn't even qualify you to be taken seriously.

PARDON THE RANT-NOW FOR SOMETHING ENTIRELY DIFFERENT-almost

A California Quail, cute, but he should find a better place to answer nature's call.

Stretching it slightly, he's like the K-Street hustlers, fouling a place of deliberation.

Looking carefully you may see residue of the pollen that is so plentiful now. Mixed with water, it can become an agent that darkens and stains wood.

Not unlike political anger, fed by shortsighted voting.

Enough already.  Celebrate vitality.

THE WEEKENDER :)

MYSTERY AND HIGH JINX

The bees are into it and pollen is in the air

Is that what's up with the birds?

We'll get to that mystery, but first a word from our sponsor

ASSURE CLEANING

THE POLLEN BUSTER

Photo courtesy Lana

"Pollen is in the air. You need the THE POLLEN BUSTER from

ASSURE CLEANING.  Look at this-Exhibit A

See that patch of dirty yellow?  That's pollen and it's everywhere. See the difference after THE POLLEN BUSTER?

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Now, back to our Mystery.

The locals say they've never seen it quite like this.  Larger swarms of Gulls have massed where Santa Rosa Creek flows into the Pacific.

They've created Gull City.

with thousands of gulls lining up to get in, feathers litter the beach

they fly in frantic swirls

 This has always been a fly in  spot, but something this spring has increased the attraction and number of birds.  It has created some spectacular scenes.

Until the next time, remember when you do battle with pollen, you need

THE POLLEN BUSTER

From ASSURE CLEANING

A Division of Securelawn