#231 Returning Sooner or Later

... but most likely soon after the SUN reaches the point on the celestial sphere opposite the Summer Solstice (right ascension: 18 hours; declination:--23.5 degrees), at which the ecliptic is furthest south, the SUN appearing in the noontime sky at its lowest altitude above the horizon. See you then.

Likewise for Mosteller Musings.

#93 Sunday Sundries

In no particular order...

• Can the Republican attack ads get more scurrilous and out-of-context deceptive? My favorite: "Obama favors sex-ed for Kindergartners [or some such]--sex before they can even read!" Wow ... Obama must be a pedophile. The earlier the better as far as I'm concerned, but the Kinder-class in question is a lot more innocuous--but absolutely life-and-death important--than these sleaze-spinners would have you believe. It involves "how-to" instruction on avoiding molestation by older folk. Sheer pornography, what?
  

• Or, when not dragging the campaign through the mud, will they strain credulity beyond the breaking point? Case in point: Obama and the "liberal Democrats in Congress," according to a McCain-approved TV ad I just witnessed, are responsible for for the rampant DEREGULATION of our financial institutions, thus leading to our our current crisis (cue shot of a Joe Six-Pack out of work). Can you believe it?! The bedrock of Neocon-Republican mis-thinking since they have been in charge is now whipping-boyed on the back of Barack.

• Or, can McCain/Palin partisan-defenders finally break through the ceiling of ultimate inanity? Not sure, but here's one that's breathtaking: OUTRAGE over the Palin Newsweek cover this week. Was it a scathing Tina-Fey-like satire or ironic New-Yorker-like caricature that stoked their ire? Nope. It's a life-photo of the Governor in extreme and not un-flattering (how could it be otherwise, really) CLOSE-UP. What's the problem? Well, for the rabid Republican women (including the anchor) interviewed in a Fox News program (uh, oh) the magazine's cover reflected extreme radical-liberal left-wing media bias because the photo WAS NOT RETOUCHED or otherwise prettified to their liking. Kid you not. And I guess you could see a blemish or two (haven't seen the hard copy). Regardless ... "For a major publication not to retouch a major celebrity [or some such] is an outrage--why, look at this one of Obama [as she holds up his not-very-flattering cover-shot]--obviously retouched!" Again, wow.

• But at the same time, the moral-political Zeitgeist moves forward in a nicely Libertarian way, over in the state of Connecticut. The supreme court there has affirmed the right/rite of marriage for same-sex couples. Now only 49 left behind.

• Global Warming continues right off my back porch. Love it ... Thunor-the-Weather-God help me. Record-high mid-summer temps in Raleigh next week. Great for my chronic S.A.D. Hey, I've got a condition--let the grandkids (all smart) handle the problem. They'll just have to grow up as quickly as possible. All they need to do is stop the Greenland ice-sheet from plopping into the North Atlantic (within 50 years probably), thereby preventing a gazillion cubic miles of fresh-water from disrupting the Thermohaline Circulation and thus blocking the Gulf Stream and thereby plunging us into an irreversible Ice Age culminating in another Snowball Earth. They can do it.

Finally...

BANANAS

TammyRose could eat no ripe,

J.D. could eat no green;

So betwixt the two of them,

They peeled the platter clean.

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#73 Sunday Sundries

Worst of the Week

• Not so much Hurricane Ike himself/itself, but those incredible blockheads who refused to evacuate--why?: some said "pets" forcryingoutloud--thereby needlessly delaying and overtaxing legitimate rescue and recovery efforts.

• Not so much the scurrility of the political discourse of late--the former can be kinda fun, and, anyway, be ultimately self-defeating--but the inanity of the scurrility. Positively jejune. "The lipstick is analogous to what?" "The pig to which?" "How does the pit-bull fit in?" "Or was it a Basset-hound?"

• Not so much the high gas prices--we're gonna have those forever--but the mind-boggling, virtually instantaneous GOUGE...and pump-panic. Caused us to cancel a planned, relatively short trip, in hopes that things would at least stabilize soon.

Best of the Week

• I'm groping for one here, but, alas, it's just been a bad week all around. Too much of Arnold's "darkling plain, where ignorant armies clash by night"...and by morning, noon, and all over the place, it seems. More light in the world next week perhaps. Lux Esto.

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#67 Sunday Sundries

Worst of the Week

• RNC in general. Tone. I don't think I'm being overly partisan here, but, from the excerpts I observed, the speeches, when they weren't larded with Republican platitudes (which one cannot overly condemn)--reeked of smug sarcasm. Why should should the drum-beat references to Obama's early work as a "community organizer" bring on the snarky giggles, as if an audience-prompter were flashed on. Well, I guess it was. The line was always delivered with the SMIRK signal--Giuliani's was the best and smarmiest. Must've learned it from you-know-who.
  

• The Palin pick. Wow!--McCain and Company thought--a Christianist and a Feminist all in one! She was cynically chosen to appeal to undecided women and/or evangelicals--very dubious odds there--but she may appeal to the true idiots amongst them. Much more about her in a closer-to-home context later.

• US Open tennis. Stupid seeding, bad theater. Why did we have to see at least one of the brilliant Williams-sisters inevitably eliminated--Little over Big as it turned out-- in the quarter-finals section of the draw? They both should have stayed in for another couple of rounds, leading perhaps to another exciting finale on the order of Wimbledon last.

Best of the Week

• US Open tennis. As it turned out though, the sisters gave us a virtual finale, on the women's side. Two hard-fought, tie-breaker sets--7-6, 7-6 in favor of Serena--meaning (think about it) that they were exactly even in games, the margin of victory decided by only a couple of points in each of the tie-breaks. As for the actual final (delayed by OUR tropical storm Hanna) between Serena and Jelena?--the latter gave it a good shot, but she weren't no Venus. By the bye, Could all these girly-girly names get any prettier? Among other examples, the Russian Darina Safina came close to making the finals!
  

• Hurricane-manque' Hanna. Lots of free moisture for a drought-ridden land. Minimal damage, but still a delight for the now-Gustav-crazed weather-guys.

• GRANDPARENTS' DAY today, as if you Myriads weren't aware. I've got about half-a-dozen (grandkids, that is) and, in one of those cosmic synchronicities that delight us seemingly all the time--today is also the BIRTHDAY of one of my lovely daughters-in-law, Kim. She's been one of the donors, you know.

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#26 Sunday Sundries

Worst of the Week

• After retreating from his earlier positions on FISA's warrantless wiretapping and pro-choice, Obama now seems to be waffling on Iraq. Next, it'll be health care. Troubling. It's reported that he's "shifted from stressing withdrawal" to "assessing the situation" in Iraq. Where's he been for five years and five thousand dead soldiers?! I'm tempted to take my "McGovern-anti-war-vote" back, the one I planned to recast and award to Obama after all these years. But no, much as I admire John McCain as a true warrior-hero in the Beowulfian mold (we all know that he refused a preferential release in his first year as POW until his "less-connected" fellow-prisoners were also set free, and for that remained in captivity for another FIVE years!)-- the country, as we know it, just literally couldn't survive another Republican administration... as we know it. It's not a question of Obama's moving Right or Left; he's in a real DOWN here--undermining his brave progressive rhetoric with, I guess, political expediency. He and his team are deluded. Just look to what happened to Gore and Kerry when they took that road. But I'll still vote for the guy, unless he really screws up and picks Joe Lieberman as his running-mate. You have my word.
• The Drought in NC.

Best of the Week

• Ted Kennedy returns to the Senate. After successful brain surgery right down the road here at Duke, the dissipated old warrior broke an obstructionist-Republican-threatened- filibuster involving Medicare on his FIRST DAY BACK. What a guy. I only hope that he can survive long enough to shepherd through health-care reform, under President Obama, before the cancer gets him. (I know this last sounds cold-blooded--what else is new--but think about it. Ted K. is a very lucky man, and not just because he's alive. He now knows his "death-day"--information provided to a select few. He has lived a long and productive life. Lucky. And with only a few admittedly serious divigations (fill in the blanks) that didn't ultimately impede his success. Lucky. And now Duke has given him a couple more years. Lucky. Finally, and most important: from this point on he need have no illusions, procrastinations, etc. etc.--he MUST, almost as a matter of course, definitively plan out this last measure of life to accomplish the very best he is capable of, and doubtless do it. Lucky, QED.)
• The Rain in NC. Did its thing all week.

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#22 Sunday Sundries

Worst of the Week

• Obama waffles on on Pro-Choice position.

• Obama to extend Bush's "faith-based initiatives."

• Obama compromises on warrant-less surveillance.

(What's going on with this guy? More in a later post.*)

• NC legislator introduces bill to raise misdemeanor "hate crime" of displaying noose or cross to a FELONY if intent is to "intimidate." Free speech issue here.*

• Tom Hanks' Charlie Wilson's War.*

Best of the Week

• Jesse Helms dies.*

• Tropical depression upgraded to tropical storm and dubbed "Bertha." Will it be a BIG Bertha? The TV Weatherguys&girls sure hope so. You can't miss the wild gleam in their eyes as they fondle their doppler. Katrina-addled, they seem to be mentally screaming Colin Clive's famous line, "It's alive! It's alive!" from Frankenstein. Finally. It's been two, long, dry years for them, despite always-hopeful predictions. They're hungry.

• Wimbledon finals. Nadal over Federer. I just witnessed five hours (!) and five sets of the most competitive and entertaining tennis I've seen since the Borg/McEnroe years. (But wait, didn't I utter those very words last Sunday? OK...no extra charge for prescience.) Let's hope their rivalry endures for a while longer. Same goes for the Williams duo who excelled in the other exciting final. Venus finally beats "little" sister at Wimbledon. What a great All-England-Croquet-and-Lawn-Tennis Championship! I wonder who won the the Croquet play-offs?
  

• Independence Day.*

• McKenzie's 4th birthday.

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