Monday, February 15, 2010

A VALENTINE OUTING WITH GRANDDAUGHTERS

Reading non-fiction is important at The Study. But so is the delight of delving into fiction.

Lately we have enjoyed several mystery writers, reading five books in a series dealing with a detective operating in California.

We stopped at #5 when an apparent error of logic/consistency appeared.

Email to author’s website went unanswered – and so much for that writer.

And so we searched for another author – and settled on one from an earlier era – Raymond Chandler.

The first volume of his Philip Marlowe series was ordered online along with a non-fiction work dealing with a new perspective on the forging of the Anglo-American Alliance of WW2.

And the price of the history text was ca. half of what it would have been in-store.

Well, three days later the little brown box arrived via UPS whilst I was clearing snow from the driveway.

Happy, happy day!

The mystery book was fine.

The jacket and binding of the history book looked fine.

But when we opened the book, we found that the pages were upside down relative to the spine and book covers.

The phone book located a store-version of the retailer.

Dear Wife and Granddaughters and I made our way there on the day before Valentine’s Day – and it was a grand happening indeed.

The store happily replaced the defective edition. We spent a delightful three hours browsing an immense center of culture – housing even 30,000 used books. We ‘dined’; networked with the staff; shopped; and enjoyed the ambience – and – on a whim, I asked the bookish gentleman in the dvd department if they had a copy of Charley Wilson’s War, knowing that it would probably cost an arm and a leg.

Well, the price was a whopping $9.99 minus 20% off.

Dear Wife and the girls all bought a book each; one dvd; and I had my dvd and the replaced history volume.

We returned to The Study for turkey burgers and the film the girls had bought.

So, out of imperfection sometimes comes perfection. Something like falling into a manure pile and coming up smelling like roses.

I did not make that up.

HAVE COURAGE

February, a short month, a busy month.

I think that one does not really get busier when he or she retires, but one shifts attention to tasks that can go on and on and even blend together – and they often originate not in office or shop, but rather in one’s home base.

It can be difficult to escape, easier to simply change activity.

At The Study, we can prep breakfast; scan world happenings; grocery shop; move furniture; wash and paint a wall; hang pictures; organize books on shelves; replace damaged wall mirrors; chop wood; clean floors, etc., light fire in fireplace; read and send emails and snail mail; write complaints and praises to selected authors of books which have pleased, bored, or infuriated; bathe former show dog; vacuum rugs; shop for winter boots to replace those too old to remember when purchased; do laundry; take a nap; print photos; attend any of several church meetings; prepare lunch and help with dinner; mix drinks and dine out, hopefully with friends and/or family; and so on – you get the idea.

And if one does not write every day, it gets harder to write at all.

One must do it regularly: writing, rewriting, tossing perhaps, saving hopefully, sending it out to be read and even very rarely, to be bought and paid for.

As the teacher-turned-lady-of-the-night once said, “We are going to do it over and over again until we get it right.”

Anyway, life goes on and the bells toll and folks win and lose.
And we often do not get it right.

But Kipling reassures us – happily, it is less important sometimes whether we win or lose – it is frequently more important how we play the game.

That is a helpful perspective.

That is the point of view that gives the faint of heart courage to give it a try.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE CHARLIE WILSON, R.I.P.

Update, 4:47 p.m. :In December congressional hearings, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., invoked Wilson's name in urging the U.S. to make a long-term commitment to Afghanistan. Wilson argued, in the Charlie Rose interview and elsewhere, that by walking away from Afghanistan when the war ended in 1989, the USA created a power vacuum that the Taliban occupied. He told Rose that simple (and relatively cheap) efforts to raise living standards would have been enough to keep the future terrorists at bay.

We only know of United States Congressman Charlie Wilson from a most enjoyable evening of watching the film, Charlie Wilson's War and some very limited research.

We understand that the movie and the book are largely true.

We believe that Representative Wilson was a fascinating individual and a true patriot.

We believe there is evidence that his personal and professional codes of conduct have enough good in them to outweigh any negatives.

We say thank you, Representative Wilson, for what you have done to make our country safer and our political life interesting.

One early news item is below.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2010/02/former-texas-congressman-charlie-wilson-dies-/1

Sunday, February 7, 2010

b.o. CHANGES INTELLIGENCE PROTOCOLS

We wonder if robert gibbs enjoys his job.

We would enjoy his antics if they were not betraying the pathetic nature of the b.o. Administration; if that pathetic nature was not so dangerous to our nation.

We watched him argue that the 50 minute interrogation of the underbomber was all that was needed, assuring the interviewer that the F.B.I. had gotten out of him all he had to say, or words to that effect.

And now we hear from the White House that heavenly day, the underbomber is talking again.

But, but, it must be that he is only repeating himself – for we know from robert that he already has spilled the beans – told all, as it were.
bob assured us that weeks and months of interrogation by skilled questioners was not at all required.

It is wonderful how b.o. has even changed the art of intelligence, of gaining info from enemy, captured barbarians.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

SARAH P. AND THE CONVENTION

By now we suppose that Sarah P. has spoken to the Convention.
Have not read a thing about her doing so or how it went.
Have not heard how the Convention is going.

But we are, in our ignorance, delighted that it is going forward.

Our nation needs an outlet, an expression of the frustration and even grief that the b.o. Administration and the national dems have engendered, caused throughout the land.

It is our hope at The Study that the Convention will not trend in the direction of a third party.

Rather, we hope that the forces at work in the Tea Party efforts will seek to support candidates of whatever party who support conservative solutions/positions to current problems.

It is our assumption that such candidates will come largely from the Republican Party.

We wish the new force in politics well.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MR. PRESIDENT

Today is the 99th anniversary of the birth of Ronald Reagan, President of the United States.
Much can and should and will be said in commemoration.

All we will do here is offer a salute to him and what he stood for and recall one most important quotation:

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.

What a coincidence and fitting that the Tea Party Convention is under way this very weekend.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

GEORGE WILL ON b.o.

There are those who still believe in b.o.

It is one thing to harbor such belief in ignorance. At least then there is an excuse.
It is possible to talk with such persons w/o doubting their intelligence.

On the other hand, if persons are in one way or another acquainted with the facts and they still believe, well, that is another matter.
It becomes difficult to maintain any semblance of respect for their intelligence.

Believers as well as non-believers should follow the link below to an excellent essay by Mr. Will.
It will support the opinions of the well-informed and at least cause the ill-informed to pause and hopefully reconsider.

Thank you, Mr. Will.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/printpage/?url=http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/01/28/faux_contrition_obama_blames_the_public_100081.html

b.o. V. THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH

If President b.o. and Senator schumer and Senator feingold and, in this case, Senator McCain are against it, it might be a good idea to be for it.

We are talking her about a Supreme Court Case, Citizens United v. FEC, the case which declared that Congress should not abridge the free speech of corporations.

The three democrats and the one liberal Republican all were in favor of limiting the free speech of corporate America, implying, even saying, that voters would be forced to vote the way the corporations told them to vote.

Imagine!

And then, in his State of the Union Speech, b.o. criticized the Justices sitting in front of him for their 'atrocity', declaring that something must be done to correct such judicial error.

Strange, miraculous how this old United States has managed to survive all these years w/o the beneficence of b.o. and his minions.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2010953796_guest02maurer.html