Category Archives: Current Affairs

Happy 4th….redux

Americana, Current Affairs, Photography, Travel

On the 4th I went to what seemed like my first, small town, 4th Of July parade. But, upon reflection, it was really my second 4th of July parade: my first was a parade in Downieville, California in 1957. I don't remember much about that parade except that, afterwards, I was eliminated – in the second heat – in the town footraces.

My second, small town, parade was in Sonoma. It was very small town. It was much fun, and, I hope, it will be as long before I go to my third, small town, parade. I don't know what I expected, certainly not the Rose Parade, but something more than what we got. Maybe not more, different. I don't mean to knock the parade, but I do want to say that it was more charming looking back at it than standing in the hot sun looking at it.

I kept thinking how the parade reflected California and, more specifically, Northern California, and how much different – and the same – it would be if we were watching an Iowa small town parade.

Sonoma Parade-9056 

What I didn't expect, but should have, is that most of the floats were by service groups, promoting their causes. This one, by a mentoring group, was typical.
Sonoma Parade-9060 

What I did expect was that lots of groups used somebody's car to promote their group.

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I was a little surprised that there were so few Mexican entries. Maybe not Sonoma proper, but the Sonoma area must be primarily Mexican – it is a farming community after all, even if the farming is mostly grapes for wine.

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A couple of great looking draft horses turned into riding horses.

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It wouldn't be a California parade without atleast one dragon.

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This grandfather and his two grandkids representing nothing more than their family, charmed me.

 

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I am not sure what the deal was with these zombies and their dollar truck – and if anyone has an idea, I would love to hear it – but I did think they were great fun. 

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And they were a contrast to the fuzzy puppy (Bichon) entry.

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Of course, I expected veterans, but is still a shock when the veterans turn out to be young kids from a war we are still fighting and not some old guys from WWII. This particular vet, I think the only one in the parade, was almost a parody. 

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Sonoma Parade-9114

I had come to get a picture of a fire-engine with flags, but we had to wait until the end of the parade.

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Maybe they are at the end because – in small towns all over America – everybody has come to see the
fire-engines with flags.

 

This whole McChrystal thing fascinates me

Americana, Current Affairs, War

It seems to me, as somebody who has fired people and seen alot more people fired, that some people just want to be fired. Why else would General Stanley A. McChrystal put himself in this position. We are loosing the war under McChrystal and he seems to know it but it would be very hard to quit. 

McChrystal-1

Why we are loosing the war is not important – not enough troops, wrong strategy, ineffective allies, not enough US civilian agency support, corrupt Afghani government, whatever – what is important is that McChrystal bought in to being able to win the war with what he had and, it seems, he can't. For all the knock on generals being stupid, being a general, in wartime, is a very competitive job and McChrystal is not making it.

Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday to me.

Americana, Current Affairs, Evolution, San Mateo County

Yesterday was my 70th Birthday. It is a bigger deal than I expected. Michele suggested that we celebrate -partially – by weeding. It was a great Idea.

Part of the rebuilding of the Portola Valley Town Hall was digging up the pipe and re-naturalizing part of a creek that used to flow through the Town Hall area – only sort of re-naturalizing because, here, the creek was probably a flood plain. The new creek fragment has been planted with natives by Acterra a self-described Environmental education and action nonprofit.

The new plants are thriving but so are the invasive non-natives. The good thing about natives is that the native bugs1 like them. In the past, I would have thought that was a bad thing, but now that I am over 70 – and wiser – I realize that it is a good thing. Bigger bugs and birds like the little bugs and need them to survive. Bugs eating plants is the first step of the food chain.

Because bugs haven't yet adapted to and don't eat – in general – non-native plants, a great looking South African bulb like Crinum macowanii might as well be plastic. They look great but are not part of the food chain. 

Crinum macowanii 

So we spent a couple of hours, under Acterra's tutelage, weeding. It turns out to be a great way to spend a couple of hours on a birthday: getting rid of those things that – while they may look good – don't add to our lives. Sort of like taking stock….with action points. And, when we were finished, the creek looked like we hadn't been there.

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TownHallGarden-2-4635
 

1 bugs as in insects, not bugs in the more limited sense of beetles only.

Fast-Roping 101

Current Affairs, Politics, War

We got back from the Smoke Creek late Tuesday only to see “Israel attacks flotilla”. Having had no news for three days, I don’t have a good picture of what happened except even India is pissed.1 It is as if Israel has been taken over by the Tea Bag Party. Andrew Sullivan, in a blog post entitled The Capitan Speaks,  quotes and comments on an article in Haaretz.Com.

An interesting account:

“I was the second to be lowered in by rope,” said Captain R. “My comrade who had already been dropped in was surrounded by a bunch of people. It started off as a one-on-one fight, but then more and more people started jumping us. I had to fight against quite a few terrorists who
were armed with knives and batons.”

I note two things. It began with a one-on-one fight. This was not a lynch mob primed to kill. It was a reaction that spread as more soldiers arrived. The second thing I note is that the captain describes the passengers as “terrorists.”

This picture, from the Center for a New American Security from where I blatantly ripped it off, is labeled Too Soon? and filed under Israel. 

 

Helos

1. We were in India at the camel festival at Pushkar when Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in 1995. The Indian government shut everything down and declared a national couple of days of morning. They were that pro-Israel. 

Adrian Newey and the theory of “everything is progressive”

Cars, Current Affairs, Sports

General Grant once said War is progressive, when he was accused of not following the old rules faithfully enough. I will go a step further and say Everything is progressive. Everything is built on the past which was, of course, built on its past. Especially in sports which are – when you think about it – war with a better set of rules.

Part of  Everything is progressive. is that nobody stays on top for long. Think football. Every decade, there is a Team of the Decade, but then new coaches come along and build on what was the newest latest thing but no longer is. For example, the San Francisco 49ers' Bill Walsh. He was a genius and he changed professional football, but, after a while, his opponents began to understand what he was doing, then how to stop him and then incorporate what he was doing and then build on it.

Like football, Formula One Racing is a team sport, and like football, a team is strong for a while, then another team comes along and replaces it. Except for teams that have Adrian Newey. Newey is an racecar engineer specializing in aerodynamics.
When he worked on CART cars in the United States he took Al Unser and then, Bobby Rahal to championships in the 1980s. In the 90s, he worked for Williams in Formula One and took them to several championships. Then he moved to McLaren F1 and they won. Now he is at Red Bull as the technical director and they are the fastest car, by far, this year.