Butterflies are free

I saw my first 2011 butterfly today.

It was a yellow and black and I immediately felt better. Butterflies belong to spring and summer and I could sure use some spring.

I was on the John Deere cutting the grass for the first time this year and I immediately stopped it and emoted:

Earth gets its price for what Earth gives us;
The beggar is taxed for a corner to die in,
The priest hath his fee who comes and shrives us,
We bargain for the graves we lie in;
At the Devil’s booth are all things sold
Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold;
For a cap and bells our lives we pay,
Bubbles we earn with a whole soul’s tasking:
‘T is heaven alone that is given away,
‘T is only God may be had for the asking;
There is no price set on the lavish summer,
And June may be had by the poorest comer.

And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
..... James Russell Lowell

You believe that, right? I mean me emoting the poem.

I have my cabbage and onions set out. The bell pepper is set and the cucumbers planted and the crook neck squash planted. I am now agonizing over when I should do the tomatoes and okra. My wife says wait two weeks for both but I have consulted all my sources and think perhaps an early three or four tomato plants wouldn't be a bad thing.

It is sure to bring cold wet weather and perhaps a light frost.

But it's not to early for squash. Crook neck and zucchini to cook with the onions. Sliced tomatoes on the side with some butter beans topped with a slab of butter..hot corn bread cooked thin and sugar free.

Only Yankees put sugar in cornbread and all that do should be horsewhipped.

Baseball practice continues. The kids, being the highly trained athletes some of the parents think they are, have become bored making it necessary to hit some sharp grounders and throw some fast balls while they bat to convince them they need to practice, practice, practice.

"Pete Rose," I tell them, "one of the game's greatest hitters, took batting practice before every game." Problem is, they don't know, or care, who Pete Rose was. He has become a non-person as surely as if he lived in the old Soviet Union.

In the meantime gasoline continues to rocket towards $4.00 and our esteemed leaders appear totally unconcerned. They had rather argue over 2% of this year's budget and our Supreme Being thinks we should just buy new cars.

That's a Hooverism. Why?? Because Hoover said if everyone would just buy a new car the depression would be over.

While I'm on the subject, why do so many people think releasing oil from the Strategic Reserve would reduce prices?

Oh, I know that the theory is that oil is a commodity and an increase in supply is supposed to cause a drop in prices.

That only works when the pricing mechanism is not a monopoly backed up by speculators who bid up prices on rumors of shortages. We push 10 billion barrels into the system and OPEC reduces 10 billion barrels.

We don't have shortages. We have an increasing demand met by governments artificially matching the demand with a controlled supply.

That's called a monopoly. That's also illegal. Anybody for enforcing the law?

I haven't posted anything in a while that will let my ole bud Jondee claim that I am a racist. I can't let him down:

These are tough times for Minnesota schools. In Lakeville, for example, the school board recently announced wrenching cuts of almost $7 million. Ninety-four teachers will lose their jobs, arts programs will suffer and a school will be closed. There was wailing and gnashing of teeth, but the board set its jaw: There's not a dime for anything extra.

Unless you've got an ax to grind with white folks. Then the money spigots open. The Lakeville schools are sending a delegation of teachers to the 12th annual "White Privilege Conference" at the Bloomington Sheraton from April 13-16. The district is shelling out $160 a pop -- plus $125 a day for teacher subs -- for this "white guilt" festival.

Organizers say they expect attendees from a number of other Minnesota districts.

The conference is "built on the premise that the U.S. was started by white people, for white people," according to conference materials. Its mission is to get participants to confront their biases in a "journey in understanding white supremacy, whiteness, privilege, power and oppression," and to "agree to take action in [their] own circle of power."

Hat tip to Powerline.

I mean, only a racist would think that spending money on a white guilt conference when you have laid off teachers is wrong.

Right? Rightttttttttt!

And they wonder why we think educators are among some of the dumbest people in the land.

BTW - I've stayed at the Bloomington Sheraton. It's a classy joint.

"Teach, enjoy taking advantage of the tax paying citizens."

Keeping up with more from PowerLine, we find this from Indonesia, Obamie's childhood home.

Indonesia has long been held out as a country where moderate forms of Islam flourish. Perhaps so. But sharia law has been adopted in a number of areas in Indonesia. The effect was seen yesterday, when four people were caned in Aceh province on the island of Sumatra. The presumed offense was adultery, although commission of the actual act was not clear; the couples were punished, technically, for being in "close proximity." Here, a woman named Irdayanti Mukhtar is caned:

Can you imagine what they would do to Charlie Sheen???

Speaking of things Arabic... .

Startling Stories

January 1952

In January 1952 the Arab  world was not at the top of the US public 's worry list. That was held by then USSR. And any consideration that Islam got was as proxy players in the cold war,

Maybe we should have been paying better attention, eh?

The lead story by Murray Leinster was a fun fantasy adventure bit, totally forgettable. Leinster's real name was William Fitzgerald Jenkins and he wrote from 1918 into the 70's. He was a proflic writer who provided us with fun readable stories.

OnTwitter I am Lesabre1

"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper

“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants. It is the creed of slaves.” - William Pitt

"Logic. There is little logic among the cultural elite, maybe because there is little omnipresent fear of job losses or the absence of money, and so arises a rather comfortable margin to indulge in nonsense." - Victor Davis Hanson

Be nice

The older you are and the longer you have been married, the funnier this is.

The wife and I were sitting around the breakfast table one lazy Sunday morning.

I said to her, “If I were to die suddenly, I want you to immediately sell all my stuff.”

“Now why would you want me to do something like that?” she asked.

“I figure that you would eventually remarry and I don’t want some other asshole using my stuff.”

She looked at me and said: “What makes you think I’d marry another asshole?”

Hat tip to Jimmy M!

OnTwitter I am Lesabre1 "Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper “Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants. It is the creed of slaves.” - William Pitt "Logic. There is little logic among the cultural elite, maybe because there is little omnipresent fear of job losses or the absence of money, and so arises a rather comfortable margin to indulge in nonsense." - Victor Davis Hanson

A German's View on Islam

Larry P sent this. I think it makes some very good points.

The author of this email is said to be Dr. Emanuel Tanay, a well-known and well-respected psychiatrist.

A man, whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War II, owned a number of large industries and estates. When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude toward fanaticism.

'Very few people were true Nazis,' he said, 'but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care.

I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come. My family lost everything. I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories.'

We are told again and again by 'experts' and 'talking heads' that Islam is the religion of peace and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the spectre of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam.

The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history. It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Chris tian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honour-kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. It is the fanatics who teach their young to kill and to become suicide bombers.

The hard, quantifiable fact is that the peaceful majority, the 'silent majority,' is cowed and extraneous.

Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of about 40 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. China's huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.

The average Japanese individual prior to World War II was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel, and bayonet.

And who can forget Rwanda , which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were 'peace loving'?

History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason, we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points:

Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence.

Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don't speak up, because like my friend from Germany , they will awaken one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun.

Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late. As for us who watch it all unfold, we must pay attention to the only group that counts--the fanatics who threaten our way of life.

Lastly, anyone who doubts that the issue is serious and just deletes this email without sending it on, is contributing to the passiveness that allows the problems to expand. So, extend yourself a bit and send this on and on and on! Let us hope that thousands, world-wide, read this and think about it.

OnTwitter I am Lesabre1

"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper

“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants. It is the creed of slaves.” - William Pitt

"Logic. There is little logic among the cultural elite, maybe because there is little omnipresent fear of job losses or the absence of money, and so arises a rather comfortable margin to indulge in nonsense." - Victor Davis Hanson

Senator Graham has the facts explained to him

The following two videos have Senator Graham being soundly criticized followed by reading quotations from the Koran to demonstrate the gulf between Islam and Christianity. A Koran is then burned.

Do not watch if political uncorrectness bothers you.

Link1

Link2

My guess is that they will be gone from YouTube by 6AM 4/6/11.

OnTwitter I am Lesabre1

"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper

“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants. It is the creed of slaves.” - William Pitt

"Logic. There is little logic among the cultural elite, maybe because there is little omnipresent fear of job losses or the absence of money, and so arises a rather comfortable margin to indulge in nonsense." - Victor Davis Hanson

Elephant walk

Elephants have long memories. And they always remember how they walk to various places.

And when someone builds a hotel blocking their path, well they just assert their rights.

Hmmm, this is new.

I wonder if OSHA knows about these steps.

We've been walking through here for hundreds of years.

No, a single American Plan is not acceptable.

I wonder if I will get points for this stay.

Someone sent these to me, I think Jimmy M or Larry P, but I am suffering from a senior moment... any way,  Thanks!


OnTwitter I am Lesabre1

"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper

“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants. It is the creed of slaves.” - William Pitt

"Logic. There is little logic among the cultural elite, maybe because there is little omnipresent fear of job losses or the absence of money, and so arises a rather comfortable margin to indulge in nonsense." - Victor Davis Hanson

Mules, horses, Faulkner, Capote, Williams and Weird Tales.

"A mule will labor 10 years willingly and patiently, for the privilege of kicking you once."

--William Faulkner

We had mules. I remember two we had before my Father joined the Marines in a vain attempt to control a small part of his life. He had decided he didn't want to be in the army. If fighting was what they wanted then he thought the Marines best, or at least that is my guess at his motives because he never said why, or for that matter spoke much about what he did during the war. He was more forth coming about time spent in Hawaii waiting for enough "points" to send him home.

The mules were Pretty Boy and Peter Dick and they were a fine pair. I can remember riding in the wagon as they struck a trot taking us to town with him standing up while rolling a cigarette and never wasting a flake of Bull Durham.

After the war we had a team of horses and a tractor. Mules will kick and bite and horses bite and kick. Every now and then one of these, while being harnessed, would turn and try to take a chunk out him. Dad would hit the horse on the end of his nose and continue harnessing him. The mare, that's a female horse for you city folks, never did that. But she would kick on the odd occasion my dog decided to get too close to her rear hoofs.

She never hit the dog and the horse never bit my Dad.

I have never read Faulkner, Capote, Caldwell or Williams to any extent because I found them not of my liking, although Faulkner made many memorable quotes. I always felt that they were pimping Southerners. I found the introspection and hinted at incest and other nasty crimes around the corner too much by half again.

The Southerners I knew were busy trying to scrape a living from the soil or leaving the medieval sharecropper society for the northern cities and the promise of steady jobs.

Capote wrote some fantasy/horror stories. And I think Tennessee Williams' first published story, "The Vengeance of Nitocris," was in Weird Tales August of 1928.

Weird Tales predated Amazing Stories but it was horror/fantasy not science fiction although some writers moved back and forth between the two genres. If T and A was thought to sell space opera, then T and A with a bit of BDSM thrown in was just the thing.

Faulkner also wrote something to the effect that if you sat in the lobby of the Peabody hotel in Memphis long enough you would see everyone of any importance in the Mississippe delta.

Since I never got near the Peabody until long after Faulkner was dead he could not have been right.

Of course I didn't live in the delta, much less be of any importance.
OnTwitter I am Lesabre1

"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper

“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants. It is the creed of slaves.” - William Pitt

"Logic. There is little logic among the cultural elite, maybe because there is little omnipresent fear of job losses or the absence of money, and so arises a rather comfortable margin to indulge in nonsense." - Victor Davis Hanson

Petareus should resign

I see that General Petareus has decided to condemn in the strongest terms the burning of a copy of the Koran by the nut case in Florida.

The General should remember that he is leading men engaged in a fight to allow that nut case to do exactly that.  So if he has a problem with that he should resign.


OnTwitter I am Lesabre1

"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper

“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants. It is the creed of slaves.” - William Pitt

"Logic. There is little logic among the cultural elite, maybe because there is little omnipresent fear of job losses or the absence of money, and so arises a rather comfortable margin to indulge in nonsense." - Victor Davis Hanson