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.

VOCALIZING

MEN AND THEIR OATHS

Photo Courtesy of Coast Guard, California Highway Patrol and the Associated Press

     It sounds as though the 77 year old pilot and his son were pretty cool as they waited two hours to be pulled from the sinking pontoon plane.

     The AP reports the son says his dad landed it well, in the Pacific, a mile off shore of San Simeon, north of Cambria.

They were on their way for an annual Alaskan fishing trip when the engine died.  Their locator beacon worked and in a couple of hours the Coast Guard chopper was at work pulling them up, just as the plane was beginning to sink.

      What do you think a dad and son would have to say to each other as they bobbed amongst elephant seals, great white sharks and took the waves in a dead plane? Few conversations get that kind of setting.

COACHING YOURSELF IN OUTBURSTS

AND OTHER OATHS

    It was amusing to hear what came from other tennis courts as our group took a break between sets.  Guys were being vocal with them self, berating their own play or lack of control.  Since the courts are on a school campus there is a club policy against profanity. In that context I heard a few God    Bless Americas! being hurled in that voice that seems as if it struggles with control.  Mostly, guys talking to themselves, like a coach; keep your eye on the ball (insert name), stroke it, don't poke it (insert name), oh!, where were you going with that shot (insert name)? 

     In a few minutes I was back on the court, and probably 

fully engaged in that "hybrid coaching" well.

     We love our games don't we?

     See you down the trail.

ON HANDS AND KNEES

ARTISTS AT WORK

The annual I Maddonari Italian street painting

festival in San Luis Obispo provided these

frames of artists at work.

They are beautiful if fleeting pieces. It provides a great weekend on the Mission Plaza. But what backbreaking work, to say nothing of the hands and knees.

See you down the trail.

THE WEEKENDER

WONDERMENT

     INTELLIGENT IDEAS

              John Muir appreciated wonders of nature. 

        His sensitivity points us to behold the power and even mystery of life beyond or beside human parameters. 

             Out there, up there, even in there are forces and natural occurrences that form the basis of science and dumbfounds rational tools.  We theorize.

              Watching star populated night skies over the Pacific and lightless mountains propounds the dazzling concept of interstellar space.  Seeing depth in a star field lends credibility to the vast distances of space and time. Out there are perhaps dark holes, worm holes and theories  we can't fully explain.  And now the little Voyagers are about to pass the limits we biped's have postulated to in up there. 

              Learning about in there is accelerating in a post DNA gene sequencing world. Medicine is getting more precise. The closer we look, the more we see forces beyond our making and which influence destiny.

           And there are spirit, heart, soul, religion and philosophy which bind an alternative in there. Wisdoms, truths, transcendence and riddles are pondered yet they too  stand in the face of mystery.

           

           Let something give you a sense of wonder.

           See you down the trail.

WHO ARE WE?

TO YOUR CORNERS

     The national political convention television shows have  done a good job of defining differences haven't they?

        Sense of the job to be done, fairness, inclusiveness, exclusivity, expectations of government, responsibility for self, for others, ability to tell the truth, diversity, vision, overcoming, gender rights, owning up to history, and more.

         America really has an opportunity to decide between vastly different attitudes about government and who we are, who we have been and what we might become.

         It is a contest and battle of will, sense of right and wrong and history.

         PS-the old reporter in me chuckled when Bill Clinton mentioned both Presidents Bush and his cooperation with them.  I think he gave George H. W. and George W. more airtime than either man got from their party in Tampa.

DAY FILE
PICTURES OF BLUE

    If you look carefully at the frame below you may spot a water spout from one of the passing humpback whales.

See you down the trail.   

EXPLORATION

PUSHING BOUNDARIES

     Here's some context.  Jimmy Carter was in the White House, Magic Johnson was at Michigan State, Stephen King released The Shining, Tom Watson won the Masters and Apple released their new color logo. 
     35 years ago today one of this planet's greatest accomplishments was launched. Voyager 1 began the journey that today has taken it 11 Billion miles and to the edge of our solar system.  Voyager 1 and companion Voyager 2, now some 9.3 Billion miles in another direction, continue to mine data of deep space, soon to be interstellar space. Voyager has gone the farthest human kind has reached.
     On board are those gold discs containing sounds, data and renderings of human life, in case an intelligence encounters our sub-compact car sized "human offspring" wandering beyond our knowledge base.
     Alicia Chang of the Associated Press reports each Voyager "has only 68 kilobytes of computer memory.  To put that in perspective, the smallest iPod-an 8 gigabyte Nano-is 100,000 times more powerful. Each also has an eight-track tape recorder."
     Mind bending isn't it?

THE OTHER BOUNDARY

      Jack Kerouac's cult classic On The Road was published by Viking Press on this day in 1957.

From back cover of ON THE ROAD

       The original manuscript, a long continuous roll of type written script, now belongs to Jimmy Irsay, owner of the Indianapolis Colts.  

        A few years ago the late George Plimpton told me he was in an office as the On The Road manuscript roll was being read and considered.  He said while it may be revered now on that particular day, people in the office were having  fun unrolling it across the floor and back, like a kid's toy.

Photo from mountholly-lamano.com

DAY FILE

GARDEN NOTES

      We've got a "volunteer" and "mystery" squash growing
down the back hill side.  

     Not sure what it is-something like a butternut or summer squash.  We've had a few and it bakes and sautés nicely and is great in a casserole.  I decided to pick a few when they were smaller.  One that had "hidden" beneath a slope side leaf grew to the size of a small pumpkin. That "prize" went home with a stone mason working on a neighbor's fire pit. He was delighted.

     A tomato update.  The "beautiful" greenhouse continues to endure evening breezes and winds and the crop inside flourishes. It ain't pretty, but the crop is.

      It continues to amaze us that we can grow tomatoes in this climate near the Pacific fed by the cooler than 
hot and humid mid-west conditions which favor tomatoes.

See you down the trail.

LABOR DAY

A WORKING DAY

     Labor day was just one more working day in a newsroom.  Yet there was a kind of cosmic foreshadowing that occurred in my kid hood.  

       As a grade school kid I became fascinated with radio news. There was something special about those voices coming in from great distances, telling about events of significance.  Perceptive man that my father was, he made sure I paid attention and thought about the process.  As it turns out, he knew the local radio and TV newsman.  

      Fred Moore Hinshaw had been an NBC announcer and legend had it that he and Lorne Greene (later of Bonanza) were the deep voices of NBC East and West back in the days when radio news reached more people than TV.  Fred came to Muncie Indiana, following his wife who was the local drama teacher.  Fred became a founder of the local television station and its news director.  Hinshaw Edits the News not only aired on radio, but in the early days of television, became the only source for local news on the tube.  Dad made sure I watched and listened to Hinshaw edit the news.

      Well one labor day, a rare day for my dad to be home and not at work, he loaded me into the car and we drove a ways into what I recognized was a "nicer" part of Muncie. The homes were larger, many of them were brick and they all had beautiful large yards with plenty of shrubs, hedges and shade trees. There on a slight slopping large green lawn was a man, sweating and wearing a cap as he shoved a lawn mower, the non powered type, over the lawn.  Dad pulled to the curb and honked.  The fellow turned, recognized dad and came over to the car.  It took a moment for me recognize the sweating man as Hinshaw, from Hinshaw Edits the News. I was stunned.  

     Dad and he chatted about politics and then said I was interested in the news.  I can't remember what passed in that conversation, but I was struck by the fact the man on the radio and television was mowing the lawn. At our house, my brother and I mowed the lawn.  

     Then that evening as the clatter of the teletype and the announcer intoned that Hinshaw Edits the News I was struck by the fact the man behind the desk with the deep voice and serious look had been the profusely sweating fellow on the nice lawn.  I'm not sure what I expected, that perhaps Hinshaw never left the station, was always on alert for news.  It then dawned on me that on this big deal holiday when working men and women had the day off, this guy was  there, working.  And just a few hours earlier he had really been working, breaking a sweat on a beautiful lawn.

     By the time I was working in a newsroom, I was not at all surprised by the fact that a holiday, even for working men and women, didn't mean a thing other than the stories we covered-parades, picnics and people working in their yards.  Like Christmas, New Year's eve and Thanksgiving, it was just another day of work.

     A quick post script.  Years later when I was in college and working as a radio news reporter in Muncie, my boss was Fred Moore Hinshaw. He was a brilliant writer, journalist, thinker and a bit of a rascal poet. Had he chosen the lights of a big city he would have succeeded, might even have been Chet Huntley.  He chose family, home and making a contribution where he lived, even if it meant sweating a couple of times on Labor Day.  My dad and Fred were of the same generation.  They were great teachers.

    See you down the trail.