Dining Out

Something below from Paul Rahe, which pretty well sums one of the main reasons the country is turning its collective back on the democrats. Despite Obama's and his fluffing media's insistence on the non-issues of Romney's tax returns and on his time at Bain, the momentum has swung and the democrats appear to be headed for a serious and stunning defeat at the poles. That is unless major vote fraud, or some form of 'national emergency' occurs, and don't rule that out.

How Hatred Became a Liberal Value

Paul A. Rahe · 

Politics is generational. Consider the thuggery practiced by the Democrats recently in Wisconsin. Force, intimidation, and openly partisan, unprofessional conduct on the part of judges, civil servants, physicians, and policemen became on the part of left-liberals the order of the day, and no one on the left stood up to denounce this conduct. Now, thanks to our President’s admiration for the tactics of Saul Alinsky, others in other states are imitating the deportment of the Wisconsin left-liberals – not only heckling Republican candidates but attempting to storm the platforms on which they speak.

I remember when left-liberals insisted on civility. I remember when they condemned the tactics of intimidation championed by the New Left. I remember when progressives insisted on impartiality on the part of judges, civil servants, policemen, and those who purported to be reporting the news (as opposed to espousing opinion). There were always exceptions to the rule. Dan Rather was playing tricks as early as 1963. But, when caught and exposed, these exceptions took it on the chin. Today they rarely even apologize.

I remember when liberals sported on their automobiles bumper stickers reading, “Hatred is not a Family Value.” Then, back in 2003, in The New Republic, Jonathan Chait wrote an essay explaining why it was legitimate to hate George W. Bush, and the dam burst. Civility is no longer a liberal ideal. And now – as yesterday’s armed attack on the Family Research Council in Washington, the five-hour delay in President Obama’s condemnation of the act as he calculated whether it was in his interest to comment or not, and the mainstream media’s initial reluctance to report on the event, much less highlight the activist LGBT connections of the shooter suggest – left liberals are willing to wink at violence. It may be regrettable, they think, but, like stealing elections, it is all in a good cause – and before figuring out how to respond to an outbreak of violence on the part of their allies, they pause to calculate the political consequences. You will not hear liberals arguing for a crackdown on the use of force by animal-rights activists, environmental activists, union thugs, and the Occupy movement. Instead, you will find in them a desperate hankering to pin on the Tea Party responsibility for conduct the Tea-Partiers abhor and a willingness to engage in race-baiting and talk of class warfare on a stunning scale.

The truth is that it is a short distance from the hatred preached by Jonathan Chait to assassination, and five and six years ago there was a great deal of open, public fantasizing along these lines by left liberals.

 Don't forget, as the democrats wish you would, this is what the elections about, not Romney's tax returns. The democrats are trying to put us on the same road as Greece.

Breezy

Dine & Dash

Ofcourse, if you're this guy, you don't really need to dash...

Where did the time go?

My daughter has hockey tryouts tomorrow. It seems like we just ended last season. Here begins another long slog to March...

Powerline Pass

An evening view, looking north across Powerline Pass. This is an HDR image composed of three exposures. It was taken hand-held, I was bicycling with my daughter up the trail one evening  and had to stop to take in the evening view.

Summer's Long Afternoon

The fireweed are in full bloom and night is returning. Summer is nearing an end. Another month and we'll be heading into autumn. Where has the time went?

Caption Contest!

Add your caption, win no prizes, get a good laugh!

2012 U19 Girls Rec. Champions

I did not take this photo.

I'm posting it on my blog though because I didn't have my camera when the girls won the Cook Inlet Soccer Club's 2012 U19 girls Rec. division championship.
They beat a team that had beaten them on three separate occasions during the season and was a heavy favorite to take their 3rd straight title.

The game ended in a 1-1 tie. A 10 minute extra period also ended tied. A five shot per team shoot off ended tied and we finally prevailed during a sudden death shoot out. I'm really proud of these girls for showing character and coming from behind to win.  Especially against a team that was actually more of a comp. team playing beneath their collective talents.

Great job ladies!

In Memorium...

In lieu of the shootings in Aurora Co., it seems the media is in over-drive, focusing on the shooter, who he was, what were his motivations, what was his life like... ad nauseum. Witnesses are trotted in front of the camera to describe the grisly horror of those moments in the theater for the titillation of the couch potato audience. Only too happy to comply and get their 15 minutes of fame. Already political grist is being made out of this tragedy. I've even seen such items on Flickr for God's sake, subtly advocating disarming the law abiding public.

Perhaps everyone should just STFU and take a moment in silence for those who didn't live to see the next day. Perhaps we might even reflect on the fact that we who do get to see another day, maybe ought to try to act like it might be our last. Maybe, just maybe if we really gave a shit...

Nah, that's crazy talk!

Through the Fog

My wife is an avid reader, more so than me. She also has very good taste in her reading material. It's almost uncanny. So when she recommends a book or an author, I usually try to read it/them.

Yesterday a book came in the mail that she ordered. God's Hotel, by Victoria Sweet who is in addition to an author, a real doctor. Obviously I haven't read it, yet but it seems very interesting. 

From the inside flap, More than 20 years ago, Dr. Victoria Sweet arrived at San Francisco's Laguna Honda Hospital, intending to stay for a brief time. A descendant of the Hotel-Dieu (God's Hotel) that cared for the sick poor in the Middle Ages.Laguna Honda was the last alms house in the country. ...
At Laguna Honda lower-tech but human-paced, Sweet had the opportunity to practice a kind of "slow medicine" that has almost vanished, and falling under the hospital's spell, she decided to stay. Gradually, her remarkable patients transformed the way she understood medicine. Alongside the modern view of the body as a machine to be repaired, they evoked an older idea, of the body as a garden to be tended. God's Hotel is their story, and the story of the hospital itself, which--as efficiency experts, politicians, and architects descended, determined to turn it into a modern "health care facility"-- revealed its own surprising truths about the essence, cost, and value of caring for the body and soul.

Needless to say, she has first crack at it, but I intend to read it as soon as she's finished. I've already sneaked in a few pages in the first chapter, and she's made comments to me as she reads it. I think it will be an interesting read. I'm giving it a premature endorsement.

Summers Past