Tuesday, December 30, 2008

MIXED REACTION - AGAIN

It is not news that war is once again breaking out in the Middle East on the Gaza Front.
Forces are staging and great volleys are being exchanged.

We are struck by the variety of world reactions to the growing hostilities.

On the one hand, prior to the outbreak of fighting, Israel was the target of a huge number of indiscriminate missile launches which cascaded down, blindly, on cities and towns and the like.

Only good fortune, good luck, or the Grace of God prevented numerous casualties.
The Study, perusing the news reports of those recent days, sees nothing of world outrage about this.
No outrage against the Arab barbarians carrying out these attacks. No outrage at all.

On the contrary, Israel is tacitly or overtly blamed for making such barrages ‘necessary’.

And then, when the counterattack is undertaken by the IDF, the outraged demonstrations begin.

We are busy here at The Study with happier thoughts about happier things, thank the Good Lord, but this Gaza matter is a biggie and is one to watch.

More to follow.

And we will endeavor to end this year of postings with some positive entries.

It is a sad note that some observers would have it that a successful Israeli offensive might be the best news we can hope for in that troubled part of the world.

2008 - RIP



Ah Friends, dear friends, as years go on
And heads get gray
Touch hands, touch hands, with those that stay.


Quoted above is a short verse discovered some years ago. Regretfully, no citation is available, lost in the course of time.

But the sense of it fits the closing days of 2008.

What a year it has been!

We are sure that the events of this year will be catalogued, probed, and dissected by folks for a very long time.

The Study hopes to be a part of those goingson [is that a word?].

An early contribution to that effort is the observation that a lot of really good people, mature folks we were very aware of when we were young (er), are now passing from the scene.

A partial list:

Sir Edmund Hillary; Bobby Fischer; Margaret Truman; Van Johnson; Eartha Kitt; Doug Fraser; Paul Newman; Richard Widmark; Edie Adams; Charlton Heston; Eddy Arnold; Dick Martin; Cyd Charisse; George Carlin; and Dr. Mike Debakey.

We rather doubt that every year sees such an attrition of the important and the interesting.
At least we hope not.
And this is but a partial list.

Take a moment on the Eve of the New Year to touch a hand or to at least raise a glass to friends and relatives, living and dead, who have been or who are a part of your lives.

There is at least a very good chance that we will pass this way but once.
It is good not to miss the opportunity.




Friday, December 19, 2008

THE NEW AMERICA...QUOTED IN POWERLINE

The link below will take you to an item in Powerline which is terrific food for thought.

In a few words, "...the times they are achangin'" for the good ole USA.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2008/12/022333.php

TEN INCHES OF SNOW FELL

Ten inches of snow fell on us this AM.
That is a lot of snow.

That is a lot of snow blowing and shoveling. We did both today.

And we are writing Christmas cards and sending off packages and making lists and checking them a couple of times and giving a party and going to some and doing other fun stuff.

And it is Christmastime.

The birdfeeder is full and the wood is stacked by the back door.

As we wrote in our annual Christmas Letter:

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.

In 1872, Christina Rossetti wrote what would become the beautiful carol In the Bleak Midwinter. The first stanza, quoted above, could easily have been written for this Christmas Season of 2008. A hard, cold winter has come upon many of us, and it is a good time to thank God for family, friends, and our many blessings.

AUTO BRIDGE LOAN

The Executive Branch has acted, for better or worse.

Legislative under nancy and harry failed to act, for worse.

President Bush did so reluctantly. Imagine a Chief Executive worrying about forever modifying, perhaps not for the best, the American economic system.

But anyway, help was needed in some form. Congress could not provide it – was not able, competent enough to do so.

So the President acted. b.o. will have to carry the ball after inauguration.

God help us.

President Bush took the authority provided by the inept Congress and did what he felt was necessary.

As we write, the stock market is up a bit.

We at The Study are confused. We do not know who is right. But we know who some of the wrongs are.

PIRATES - THEIR TIME IS COMING

Nations are getting exercised about the pirate problem.

About time.

Big problem: what to do with captured pirates.

Can you believe it? There is no judicial mechanism at present to try these captured barbarians.

But at least nations are getting interested.

BLACKWATER WORLDWIDE TARGETED – 16 DECEMBER 2007?

AP is reporting that US prosecutors of Blackwater Worldwide have just received radio logs indicating that the charged Blackwater guards received 8 minutes of incoming fire from “insurgents and Iraqi police”.

Fom Iraqi cops??????

And the US Government is setting up to prosecute this security force.

We wonder how john murtha feels about this case?

UNMENTIONED CULPRIT(S) IN AUTO CRISIS

I read it somewhere, have forgotten where…
And most of the pundits, Fox News included, are not mentioning it…
But there are more culprits in this debacle than bad management; labor; crash of financial area, etc..
The big unmentioned is the American auto buyer who consistently and irrationally refused to buy cars made by the Big Three.

Why in God’s Earth would anyone in recent years refuse to buy American?

b.o. criticizes management. Labor does the same. Conservatives criticize the ‘greens’ and labor.

NO ONE CRITICIZES AMERICANS WHO BUY FOREIGN CARS !!

Everyone who needs a car should go out and buy GM; Ford; and even Chrysler.

Do it!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

THE BRIDGE LOAN

The US needs GM and Ford.
Ford claims that it does not need the loan.

GM needs it.

GM and Ford do not need government control of their companies.
They are plagued by enough of that already.

Such is the dilemma.

It or they need help.
The government can extend help.

But the government can also ruin the companies.

We at The Study do not know the answer.
We hope someone does.

We at The Study do not want to drive the cars that harry and nancy want us to drive.

Running a country and an iconic (?) business is not an easy job.

ON A HAPPIER NOTE

Our bird feeder has never attracted a better mix of birds: woodpeckers, cardinals, bluejays, sparrows, and others that I do not know the names of .

The snow cover is beautiful...long lasting, not too heavy - especially nice since our snow blower is still out of action.

J.L. Hudson's current incarnation as Macy's is superb!
A repeat visit yesterday to two larger outlets of this excellent store confirmed our belief that there is still some of the 'old store' left after half a century of our patronage...
And there have been a lot of changes...

SWEET

Newsweek, the New York Times, and NPR [upper case this one time] – The Study has the impression that all of these flaming liberal organs are in some difficulty.
Numbers of readers, listeners are down.
Print circulation is down.
Advertising revenue is down.

And we believe that liberal network news/opinion is suffering as well.

How sweet it is.

NPR - LAYOFFS, CUTBACKS

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/10/AR2008121002064_pf.html

npr suffering income decline?
Programming cuts?
Staff layoffs?
Loss of audience??

Who would have thought that a biased, flaming liberal network would have such problems??

I am sooooo glad that I have never willingly contributed a flaming red cent to this network.
Here at The Study, we USE npr, we do not support it.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

MOST COMMONLY STOLEN

Heard on radio today that the two most commonly stolen cars in the USA today are Hummer and Escalade.
Announcer opined that this is because these two vehicle types are vehicles that people like.

And he went on to suggest that nancy p. and harry r. and greens want to see Americans buy and drive crap...that this would reduce the crime rate because crooks tend not to steal crap.

Good goin' nan and harry.

CROOK COUNTY

The Governor of the State of Illinois looks like a little boy.
He is not a little boy.

We are given to understand that he oozed up out of Crook County.

Other prominent potiticians, past and present, have oozed up out of there too.

7 DECEMBER 1941...A BELATED NOTE

67 years have passed.
The year of my birth.

A lot of water under the dam.

Official commemoration will be slightly different this year.
More about that after it occurs. We will see.

What can one say about 7 December 1941, The Day that will live in infamy.

The war to end all wars didn’t do the job.

It happened again.

And we have fought plenty of them since.
And are doing so as I write.

What can one say?
Is there a lesson for us today?
Is there a danger of ‘learning’ the wrong lesson?
The answer is yes, the danger is great and some have learned the wrong lesson.

Maybe the leader of our greatest ally in that war of 1941-45 said it best:

I do not hold that we should rearm in order to fight. I hold that we should rearm in order to parley.

And,

Peace will not be preserved by pious sentiments expressed in terms of platitudes or by official grimaces and diplomatic correctitude, however desirable this may be from time to time. It will not be preserved by casting aside in dangerous years the panoply of warlike strength.

The United States, was not ready for 7 December, 1941.

Maybe that is why it happened.


Thursday, December 4, 2008

SOMETHINGS BIG THIS WAY COME

Something big this way comes is a quote I think I remember with some accuracy.
No idea of origin.

A paraphrase for today might well be somethings big this way come, for this last month of 2008 is chock full of really unbelievable happenings.

The implication, the connotation, is not positive.

To name just a few of the things :

The Episcopal Church of the United States continues to split/splinter and to threaten to splinter again.
The Presiding Bishop (upper case intentional, out of courtesy) should expect no less of the militant conservatives.
It is so tiresome to see/read/hear of her deposing this or that dissident bishop whilst the ‘reforming’ processes swirl around her and the ECUSA.

Mumbai – what can one say about Mumbai? One question for sure: where else could it/will it happen?
India apparently did not take appropriate precautions; did not respond effectively.
Wonder how the US would do? Or any other civilized country.
As the g.d. flaming lib national dems might say, Who needs a Patriot Act?

A luxury cruise ship is attacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden. It escapes, but what a way to run a war!!
We need the old ways back: convoys perhaps; summary punishments;
armed merchantmen/women; contracted maritime security.

Bailouts/bridge loans/nationalizations/inanity/wisdom are all mixed up together as, as one writer has put it, our nation, our economy is crossing the Rubicon.
Americans want to save the Big Three, as it were, but lots and lots of Americans buy foreign.
It is hard to forgive rotten, lousy, poor judgment.

A mob of shoppers tramples a store employee to death as it rushes to begin shopping.
Absolutely beyond belief!
But it is true.
We have come a long way, baby.