All posts by Steve Stern

The missing baby

Around home, Current Affairs, Uncategorized

We have a deer with a bad leg that lives near our house and spends a lot of time in our backyard. Last year she had two babies: one with a goiter on its neck that just disappeared, and I saw the other one by the side of the road, dead. A couple of days ago, both Michele and I saw a new born doe by the side of our house. Michele said that when she saw it, it was still wet and when I saw it, it was standing, near its mom, on very shaky legs.

Then the baby was gone.

Last night, just at dawn, Michele looked out and saw the baby with its mom. It makes us both feel better.

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Posters as an answer

Cars, Travel, ,

My grandson, August, loves cars. I mean, he Really loves cars. I know the feeling; this blog started when Michele and I went to China and the impetus to our going the Shanghai Auto Show. As much as he loves cars, August is too young  to know the difference between, say, a Ferrari and a Aston Martin. Between a Ford Taurus and a Mercedes C Class. He does know the difference between a Ferrari and a firetruck – even a red one – but his main informer is still the movie Cars.

August’s mother, Samantha, thought it would be a nice generational bridge if August had atleast one of my car pictures on his wall. But, as I went through them, I could not find one that worked. None of them had any relationship with Augie. After all, what is a D-type Jaguar to him?  Then I got an email from Kirk Moore with the answer.

I had recommended the San Francisco Succulent & Cactus Society Show which he had gone by, camera in hand. The problem is that, while there are alot of nice plants, there are not very many big ones and they are all lined up on tables. Kirk’s solution was to come up with the poster shown above. Stealing, I hope, not copying, that idea -hey! Pablo Picasso started it, he said Bad artists copy. Good artists steal. – I made a poster for Augie. Now there is a tie-in.

 

 

 

 

Power corrupts department

Americana, Obama, Politics, Psychological Musings, Uncategorized, War

 

Maybe I invested too much in Obama changing Washington, maybe it can not be done, maybe nobody can do it, and, maybe, Obama just isn’t even trying. When he was a candidate, he ran on Change, he ran on Transparency, he ran on the Rule of Law.When asked about Bush and Iraq, he said

The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.

Now, in regards to Libya, where we spent a shit-load of money sending cruise missiles – 110 on the first day – and where we sent actual, piloted, A-10 ground attack aircraft to attack Khadafi’s forces, and where we are still involved; the Obama Administration says

The President is of the view that the current U.S. military operations in Libya are consistent with the War Powers Resolution and do not under that law require further congressional authorization, because U.S. military operations are distinct from the kind of ‘hostilities’ contemplated by the Resolution’s 60 day termination provision. U.S. forces are playing a constrained and supporting role in a multinational coalition….

This sounds like one of the Bush Administration’s convoluted justifications and, if they had said it, we liberals would have gone nuts. Now we just sit quietly. It is sad. The Imperial Presidency just keep getting more Imperial. Sometime in 2008 I am not sure where, maybe on the PBS News Hour, Brooks and somebody, probably Shields, were discussing Obama. Brooks talked about Obama and Reinhold Niebuhr and Niebuhr’s theory on power and how it corrupts. Brooks quoted Obama as saying something along the line of  Power corrupts and the hope was that he would get a lot of good done before he got corrupted. Apparently not.