Archive for the Solstice Category

Brave 1984 Farm: The Best Of All Possible Worlds (March 19, 2012)

Posted in Civil Rights/Civil Liberties, Consumerism, Facebook, Google, Internet, Military Commissions Act, Move To Amend, National Defense Authorization Act / FY 2012, Occupy Movement, Pogo Plight, Privacy, Society, Solstice, USA PATRIOT Act on March 19, 2012 by e-ssay.org

. . .

C1          “All I really needed to know I learned in junior high school.  Three junior high school standbys provide the road maps delineating our current collision course.  Brave New World chronicles a craven world sated and sotted with diversions and divertissements.”

C2          “Some say the phrase ‘bread and circuses’ captures the contemporary zeitgeist.  But bread will soon cost a lot more bread.  And a day at the circus may cost a month’s wages at the job lost by the breadwinner last May.”

C1          “And 1984 is the ‘how to’ manual for the emerging police state in America.  The USA PATRIOT ACT and the NDAA of 2012 provide the ‘legal’ cover.”

C2          “Some are concerned.  For over a century, the thinking set has struggled with the emerging notion of privacy.  An academic treatment in 1890, a judicial pronouncement in 1965 and a trenchant comment or two today raise real and troubling concerns.  However, without a real debate, discussion, plebiscite or referendum, we surrendered our privacy a few years ago.  It appears to be over.”

C1          “So now we good citizens can watch our favorite gladiators invade another town and vanquish fellow citizens on plasma tv while the government videos us on closed circuit video tv and Google and Facebook monitor us on our home monitors.  We should heed the warning in Animal Farm and the advice in the Old Farmer’s Almanac and make the sojourn back to the farm and the garden.”

C2          “The Occupy Movement and Move To Amend are the Black Swan taking slow flight and moving us off the couch and into the streets.  Six months ago, a few kids looked around and concluded that something is wrong and something must be done.”

. . .

[See the Fresh Air radio program on drones and the threats to privacy at http://www.npr.org/2012/03/12/148293470/drones-over-america-what-can-they-see]

[See the “e-ssay” titled “USA PATRIOT ACT (April 4, 2005)”]

Bumper stickers of the week:

T For Truth; J For Justice

Panem et Circenses

Il faut cultiver notre jardin.  We must cultivate our garden.  Candide, Voltaire

Do something different on the Equinox

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Another Solstice (June 20, 2011)

Posted in Society, Solstice on June 20, 2011 by e-ssay.org

. . .

O          “Solstice is a regular reminder of something more ominous.  The Last Sunset.  Seems like a day to mourn rather to celebrate.  The day is heralded as the beginning of Summer, yet the day harbingers the ending of additional day light.  Summer is otherwise just dawning and just finishing the first quarter, yet Nature reverses the rheostat and lowers the lights.”

Y          “Summer is more like a hockey game.  The lights go up during the first period – Memorial Day – and then down before the second period – Independence Day.  The third period – Labor Day – eases the transition to Fall.”

O          “The lights should stay on until half time.  Keep them lit until July 21.”

Y          “It is what it is.  The second period may not offer as much light, yet it is still warm.  There is lots of time to play.”

O          “And each Solstice appears to arrive sooner every year.  We should be inspired by the golden-crowned sparrow that enchants us with its plaintive song all Summer.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Carpe Diem

Why not enjoy the day

Fishing is fast; catching is slow.

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On The Vernal Equinox (March 21, 2011)

Posted in Guns, Society, Solstice, Sports on March 21, 2011 by e-ssay.org

. . .

A1       “The equinox is the ‘equal night day.’  The science jocks contend that the equinox is the time when the sun crosses the equator and creates a night and thus a day of equal length.  Another marker from the Heavens of an ending and of a beginning.  Winter is going.  Summer is coming.”

A2       “And another biathlon season is going.  Hard to fault an event that mixes cross country skiing and target shooting.  The biathlete in the long race skis 5 kilometres and then takes a bout of 5 shots at metal targets from the prone position with a .22 long rifle round.  And then skis another 5 klicks before taking another bout of 5 shots from the standing position.  And then skis another 5 klicks before repeating it again.  The heart pounds and sounds like a Pfaff sewing machine wired to 220 volts.”

A1       “Always seems akin to boxing one round and then playing the violin and then boxing one round and then playing the violin and repeating it again.”

A2       “The perfect outlet for rambunctious Buddhists.”

A1       “Chess boxing.  That is the real thing.  And you can participate year round.”

A2       “Buddhists don’t usually box.  And a real winter event requires snow.  And atonement.  A missed target must be ‘atoned for’ by either skiing a penalty lap or taking a time penalty.  Miss a penalty loop and you are disqualified; miscount and ski any extra penalty loop and you are lost.  As usual, the one who spends the least time on the trail and at the range prevails.  Time to put up the skis and lock up the gun and transition to God’s game.”

A1       “Soccer is a great workout, yet it does allow for idle hands.”

A2       “That is where women’s lacrosse comes into play.  The women’s game remains true to the original rules of America’s first sport.  The women’s game is poetry.  The men’s game is doggerel prose.  Both are demanding and fast-paced.”

A1       “Helmets or no helmets?”

A2       “They should require helmets for women.  The game requires one to use one’s head which should be protected.”

A1       “And despite all the rapid social and cultural changes, you can play the traditional and timeless co-ed inner tube water polo year round.”

. . .

[See the “e-ssay” titled “Less Government Regulation Series: Motorcycle Helmets (June 15, 2009).”]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Co-ed inner tube water polo rules

Idle hands and feet are the devil’s workshop.

The Equinox is a time of equanimity

Compost . . . because a rind is a terrible thing to waste

Spring bird musings:

Songs – to breed (to attract a mate)

Calls – to communicate (to repel a transgressor, usually)

Song – “Over here, baby.”

Call  -   “Go away, Jack.”

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Solstice (June 21, 2010)

Posted in Society, Solstice on June 21, 2010 by e-ssay.org

. . .

#          “They say that the Earth’s axis of rotation is not perpendicular to its orbital plane.  That is convenient because we get the Solstice with yards of sun in June and July.  And because it is not an official holiday, we are not required to shop.”

%          “Almost all other events on the calendar are man-made concoctions.  The Solstice is Nature’s contribution, the apex and the zenith, an alpha and an omega.  The day that marks the beginning of the formal summer season in the northern hemisphere is also the day that marks the ending of increasing sun light.  The transition never changes, yet it should.  We should not start losing sun light until September.”

#          “That is an immutable reality we cannot do much to change.”

. . .

Bumper sticker of the week:

Celebrate The Solstice Responsibly

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Tea Party Patriots? (Dec. 21, 2009)

Posted in Bailout/Bribe, Bush, Debt/Deficits, O'Bama, Race, Solstice, Tea Party, USA PATRIOT Act on December 21, 2009 by e-ssay.org

. . .

“Are the Tea Party Patriots really veiled members of the Klan (Ku Klux Klan) running around in their civvies?  Is ‘Nazi’ the code word for the ‘n-word’?”

“They certainly ‘drank the Kool-Aid’ for eight years of reckless Republican (and Democratic) spending without a rally or a ruckus before they drank the tea.”

“They are a little late to the party.  The Tea Party types never railed against the USA PATRIOT Act when it was parsed and passed.  The Tea Party types never demonstrated against the TARP imposed by Bush and Paulson.  Their anger, fright and frustration are legitimate, yet they seem at core really angry, frightened and frustrated that an African-Irish-American is in the White House.”

“There is a lot of undigested anger percolating out there.  Our futures are not promising and those of the kids are even bleaker.  The public senses that America in so many ways is in decline even if they can’t articulate why.”

“I don’t care if he, or she for that matter, is chartreuse, I want competence.  Ronnie Reagan’s statement that ‘Deficits don’t matter’ is one of the ten greatest lies in the history of the American Republic.”

“And the line was repeated repeatedly by former President Cheney and former Vice-President Bush.”

“They made deficit spending the national sport.  At least O’Bama recognizes that long-term deficits represent a threat to the financial integrity and security of the country.  His spending does trouble those few of us left in America who believe in fiscal responsibility.  O’Bama is making and taking a huge gamble.”

“O’Bama also represents a threat to some members of the public because of class differences and what passes for education in America.”

“The anti-intellectualism leaves me as an intellectual in the cold, although those who pass for the intellectuals in America are often charlatans and con artists.  The Tea Types don’t even realize that they should be railing against their rousers.  I would like to see just one of them carrying a sign that proclaims:  ‘It all started under Reagan.’  When the Tea Types start carrying caricatures of McConnell and Boehner and their clan, I will pay them some heed.  Until then, most of them seem to be little more than contemporary Klansmen in coveralls.  However there may be some unaffiliated iconoclasts who march with them because they have no other drummer to inspire them.”

. . .

[See the “e-ssay” dated June 1, 2009 titled “The Humongous Gamble” discussing the great gamble pursued by O’Bama and the risk to the future of America, dated January 19, 2009 titled "The TARP Is A Trap," dated Oct. 6, 2008 titled "A Bleak Day: The Trillion Dollar Tragedy," dated Sept. 29, 2008 titled "Futile Efforts" and dated April 4, 2005 titled "USA PATRIOT Act."]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Fiscal responsibility:  Good; Racism Veiled as Fiscal Responsibility:  Bad

It’s evening in America.

It’s always darkest on the Winter Solstice.

Nonetheless, there is much to celebrate in this good country

As a political compromise, Alaska was admitted as a “Democratic” state (49th) and Hawaii as a “Republican” state (50th).  Alaska gave us Sarah Plain/Palin; Hawaii gave us Barack O’Bama.

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