“even Jimmy Carter would have given that order”

Americana, Politics

Obama is using the anniversary of SEAL Team Six killing Osama bin Laden in a campaign ad and it seems to be driving the Republicans nuts. They say he shouldn’t be politicizing it.  I can understand that argument although bragging about one’s successes seems to be fairly standard political fare. Romney, in trying to discount President Obama’s call on ordering Team Six into Pakistan said “even Jimmy Carter would have given that order” as if it were nothing.

I am not a big Jimmy Carter fan, I don’t think he had the right personality to be president – certainly not at that time – but Romney’s offhanded, even casual, slur against Carter pisses me off. Carter has more military expearance – ten years as a officer on Nuclear subs – than Romney’s whole family – about ten years more – and a much better idea of the risks involved. Cater’s call was gutsy and failed – it was close to working according to Mark Bowden in The Desert One Debacle – ruining Carter’s chances of reelection.

Romney will say anything in his effort to get elected. What an asshole.

Spring is springing

Around home, Uncategorized

After rain, cold rain, warm rain,late rain, and then a hot week, our garden is alive. When I go for a walk in the woods – that seems a little pretentious and wildness seems way too pretentious, but both are more or less true – behind our lot, everything is growing but not much is blooming. But, in the garden, everything seems to be blooming. I am not sure why there is a disparity between the two although most of the stuff in the garden has been picked because it blooms.

When Michele’s dad died, twelve years ago, she bought a dogwood that was blooming so that – each year – it would be a a memorial and this year, our Fremontia – Fremontodendron californicum, a California native – joined it in a big way.

Along with some native irises ( Iris douglasiana) .

And lots of rhoddies whose tags have been lost and their names forgotten.

Spring is my favorite time of year and nothing says death and rebirth as much as a garden.

 

Christopher Hitchens (R.I.P.) on overrated pleasures

Psychological Musings

 

He actually died last December, but somebody put together a public  memorial for him last week. Hitchens was the kind of public intellectual that only France is supposed to have and I will miss reading him and thinking Well that’s crazy, well, maybe only sort of half crazy.   He was an atheist but wanted to be know as an antitheist because he didn’t want there to be a god. Apparently, the memorial was crawling with other British ex-pats and one of them, Stephen Fry, said “Hitch thought the four most overrated things in the world were champagne, lobster, anal sex and picnics.”

That list appeals to me and I have thought about it – off and on – all week. I can’t think of a better list or anything I would take out – although I would add Lever House – it is just so out of left field and so true.