Jackets, Encyclopedias, and Games of Skill

by Pa Rock
Road Warrior

I was very careful in double-checking everything as I left the house last Thursday morning, wanting to make absolutely certain that I didn't forget anything.  And I was almost successful.  It wasn't until I was about a hundred miles from home that I realized that I had forgotten the light jacket that I intended to take.

Oregon was having some unusually cold weather when I arrived, and, in fact, yesterday was the coldest September day in the Portland area since 1948.  My first day here I borrowed a jacket from my son-in-law, and yesterday I finally found one at Costco which suited me so well that I bought it.  Of course, in a couple of days I will be in San Diego, and I am certain that I won't need a jacket there.  (But I'm sure that I will be glad to have it when I get back to Kansas City next weekend.)

We went to a large new-and-used bookstore in Salem yesterday morning.  One of the things that I learned while we are there is that my grandson, Judah, is a big fan of "Garfield."   Judah is also a car guy, and it turns out that he is an interest in NASCAR.

I have been thinking lately that I would like to have an old set of encyclopedias, more for historical value than as reference material.  When I was in high school - at an extremely small school - I was occasionally in "study hall" with nothing to do, and I would pull down a volume of one of our school's few sets of encyclopedias and just browse and read things that caught my interest.   I have often thought that I would like to be able to relive that experience on days when time allows it.

So I was really pleased yesterday at the book store when I came across a very nice set of Encyclopedia Britannica (24 volumes) from 1953.  The set was reasonably priced, and I was almost ready to pull the plastic and make the purchase, but then I knocked my head against the hard reality of how to get them home?  Now I have backed off and am just sort of thinking about it.  The clerk did tell me that encyclopedias tend not to be fast movers at their store, so I will probably let them sit until my next visit - and then, if they are still there, I will realize that they are destined to be in my rural Missouri home.

Willow and Sebastian and I played Candyland yesterday afternoon.  Willow won.  Then she and I played a game of checkers - and Willow won that game, too!  Today Judah has a day off from his school, so he and I will spend some time together - and it will probably involve cars!

The Oregon portion of the trip is going very well!

Saturday in Salem

by Pa Rock
Proud Grandpa

Yesterday was the first time that I had seen my Oregon grandchildren since my visit here last March. They are growing so fast.  Twelve-year-old Sebastian is wearing the same size of shoes as me!

We spent the morning at seven-year-old Willow's soccer game.  It was held in a large park that was a beehive of activity as four games were held simultaneously - and more families were gathering for the next round of games.  Willow is very fast and active and seemed to be really focused on the game. I was especially pleased to not see any bad behavior on the part of the parents and other on-lookers, and they all seemed to be encouraging the kids to enjoy their games and have fun.  After the soccer game ended Willow's parents had to rush her to her weekend gymnastics class.

All of the kids are busy with an assortment of activities.  I guess that is a good thing.  When I was Willow's age it seems like I spent my Saturday mornings lounging in front of our black-and-white television watching shows like Mighty Mouse and Sky King.

Judah, who is nine, is doing well in school and showed off some of his skill with numbers.  When he is not in school Judah enjoys playing with his cars - and seems to have hundreds of them parked all over the house.  Pa Rock, of course, brought him another one from Missouri.

Sebastian has a doorbell on his room door hat he installed himself, and he has various switches in the room to control a complex lighting plan and several fans.  He has a "garden" in the yard outside of his room that has a watering system that he designed, as well as a "garage" under the deck where he keeps his self-designed peddle-powered vehicles.

Willow collects stuffd animals and has a veritable zoo in her room!

We visited Salem's "Saturday Market," a farmers' and craft bazaar in the downtown area in the afternoon.  That was fun and the kids seemed to enjoy exploring as asking questions about the things that were being sold at the outdoor market.

Today promises to hold even more adventures!

The Gods Were Late Getting to the La Quinta

by Pa Rock
Road Warrior

I am currently reading (for the second time in forty years) The Hollow Hills, the second book in Mary Stewart's four-book collection on the Arthurian legend as told through the voice of Merlin, the Court Enchanter.  Merlin is a young adult in The Hollow Hills who has some idea of the life that lies ahead thanks to knowledge imparted to him by his "Gods."  Sometimes Merlin's Gods are so prevalent as to almost be underfoot, and at other times they seem to have all but disappeared leaving him to fight his personal battles and confront life on his own.

The idea of personal Gods is one that rings true with me.  I have days when everything runs so smoothly that I know my own Gods must be looking out for me, and other days when life is defined more by obstacles than it is by movement.

Yesterday I stepped into a couple of lines where it looked as though I was doomed to spend a lot of time standing and waiting - but in both of those instances people suddenly started leaving and going other places, and the workers handling the lines also kicked into gear and got things moving.  My Gods, I thought, while silently channeling Merlin, were certainly proving to be with me.

But then things changed when I left the airport in Portland, heading down the road in my little steel-gray rental car - a Ford Fiesta.   Traffic was  unusually heavy on the normal one-hour drive to Salem, and both light rain and darkness settled in before I reached my destination.  My Gods had obviously hopped in the wrong rental car and were now making life better for some other tourist.

That's what I thought - but I knew it for sure when I reached my destination, the La Quinta in Salem. The lobby looked empty as I pulled onto the lot and parked.  But as I stepped into the lobby one other traveler managed to get between me and the check-in desk. All right, I though, I'm still second - and should be in my room within minutes.

The lady in front of me filled in her card, made small all with the clerk about her rental car ,and then was finishing up when the desk clerk asked an unfortunate question.  Was the lady traveling with a pet?

"No," the lady answered.   "I do not have a pet - but I do have a service dog."  And that point she cut loose with a long and very well practiced diatribe on service animals.  She had a captive audience and was going to take full advantage of it.  After a few minutes of pontificating about how service animals and under-appreciated by many businesses and individuals, it finally looked as though the person was going to conclude, take a breath, and move on to her room, but then the desk clerk mentioned breakfast and told the lady that her dog, service or not, could not be in the food preparation area.  And that was all it took to get her rolling again!

By that point a couple of other people had joined the backlog - and we were all glaring at the person who was keeping us from checking in.  My Gods had gone on down the road and were staying somewhere else for the night.

When I finally got registered and went outside park and unload the car, the person in spot number one, the best parking spot for the entire hotel, pulled out just as I was starting my car - and I grabbed that primo spot.    My Gods had obviously made it to Salem's La Quinta.  They were late in getting there, but they had found me at last!

Today I will be with my Oregon grandchildren - and we will be having fun!

The Oregon Trail and Steak 'n Shake

by Pa Rock
Traveling Fool

I am with my son and his family this morning in the Kansas suburbs of Kansas City preparing to board an Alaska Airlines' flight in the afternoon for a trip to Portland, Oregon.  I have talked about it before in this space, but essentially I will be taking just a few hours - less than four - to bounce up and over the old Oregon Trail, the one the wagon trains took from St. Joseph, Missouri, to the Willamette Valley in Oregon a century-and-a-half ago, a trip that took months - for those who were lucky enough to survive it.

And I have no doubt at all that some of my grandchildren - or at least their grandchildren - will tread upon the moon and planets and places far, far beyond my understanding or imagination.  The times they are a-changing, mighty damned fast!

Rosie was quite upset yesterday morning when she realized that I was preparing to leave and she was not going to get to travel with me.  The older she gets, the more possessive she seems to become.  I will bring her something special from my travels and make amends through old-fashioned bribery.

There is seldom any special news out of West Plains, Missouri, but there is one up-coming big event which I will miss.  Steak 'n Shake is opening a branch in my small town!  A couple of days ago I noticed that the lights are on, the furniture is in place, and all of the signage is up.   I suspect they will probably open the doors to the public this weekend - and I'm going to miss the big event.

Steak 'n Shake seldom comes to places as small as West Plains (population 12,000), so this is a big deal for our little community.  I have been a fan of the franchise for over half-a -century, having spent much quality time at the only one in Springfield, Missouri, (at the corner of College and National), back during my undergrad days at the old Southwest Missouri State College.  Even then it was some of the best food around.

So I do regret that I will miss Steak 'n Shake's big grand opening in West Plains - but I will begin eating my way through their menu very soon!  Welcome, old friend!

More later from Oregon and beyond!

The Walking Ends, the Flying Begins

by Pa Rock
Ancient Traveler

This past June I was in the hospital a couple of days with illness due to a tick bite.  That tick, although tiny by comparison to most other creatures of the wild, proceeded to knock the crap out of me.  It took several weeks before I felt that I was beginning to get my strength back.

One way that I gauge my energy level is through the number of steps that I walk each day - as measured by a pedometer that I wear on my wrist.  On a good day I walk 10,000 or more steps.  When I hit that mark, the pedometer issues a buzz and a picture of a trophy.  After my encounter with the tick, it took awhile to get back to the 10,000 range.  Finally, in the last week of July I hit that goal - and determined to see how long I could keep up that pace.

Yesterday marked the 60th day in a row that I hit 10,000 - with several of those even being above 11,000, and one in excess of 13,000.  Most days that involved a trip to the local park where I stomped hard to keep the record going.   One day, when I spent part of a day on the mower and it rained for much of the rest of the day, I had to do 3,000 steps inside of my small house to keep the streak going - so it has been a continual struggle!

This morning I suspect that my walking streak has come to an end.  Soon I will be in the car for a long drive to Kansas City, and tomorrow I will be flying to Portland, Oregon, and then driving down to the state's capital, Salem, to visit grandchildren.  After a few days in Oregon I will be flying on to San Diego for a visit with Aunt Mary and her daughters, Linda and Janet, and to see my friend Valerie who lives in Hawaii but will be in San Diego for a class.  When I return to Kansas City the following weekend, Tim and his family and I plan to visit the Renaissance Festival just prior to its closing for the season.

Busy times, but limited time for walking.   Winter is coming, so I need to slow it down a bit anyway!

Notes from the road to follow!

House Launches Impeachment Inquiry

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

The United States House of Representatives took a big step yesterday in reclaiming Congress's position as a co-equal branch of government.   The House, which has a Constitutional power to hold the President accountable through a process called "impeachment," chose to begin that process with an impeachment "inquiry" into various acts of the Trump administration.  Should that inquiry come to the conclusion that Trump and his administration committed impeachable acts, a formal impeachment hearing would be held in the House.  And, if an impeachment motion passed in the House, the whole matter would be forwarded to the Senate for a trial which could conceivably result in the President being forced out of office.

It would take a two-thirds majority in the Senate (67 votes) to remove the President.  Republicans currently control fifty-three of one hundred Senate seats, so a conviction in the Senate would be highly unlikely.

Two other American Presidents, Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, have been formally impeached by the House of Representatives, but neither was convicted by the Senate and removed from office.  Richard Nixon chose to resign before the House could formally vote on articles of impeachment.

For a long time the Democratic leadership refused to move forward with an impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump, primarily because many felt that the Republican majority in the Senate would ultimately render the effort toothless.  House leadership, and in particular Speaker Pelosi, saw the impeachment effort as being a fool's errand, one which would anger moderates and ultimately end in failure.

Several inquiries on a variety of subjects were already underway in the House of Representatives before yesterday, but those were often met with "stonewalling" from the White House - situations where the President refused to provide materials that the committees requested, or ordered  his employees - and sometimes even former employees - not to testify.  Now those pre-existing inquiries are being taken together under the umbrella of an "impeachment inquiry," where the necessity of cooperating with the investigations is necessarily heightened.

The situation which finally motivated the Democratic majority in the House - and the Democratic Speaker of the House - into taking action was the Trump administration's refusal to turn over a "whistleblower" complaint that a member of the intelligence community filed with his agency's Inspector General.  The Inspector General made a determination that the complaint was "credible" and "urgent" and then sent it to the acting Director of National Intelligence where it should have been, by law, passed on to the appropriate committees in Congress.  Instead, Trump and other White House officials were given access to the complaint, and the administration then ordered the Director of National Intelligence not to share the complaint with Congress.

Speaker Pelosi felt that this violation of law was egregious - yet simple enough for most Americans to understand.  Based on that, she supported the growing effort to move toward impeachment.

Yesterday afternoon Speaker Pelosi stood in front of a row of American flags and informed the American people that their Constitution still functions and reigns supreme.  An impeachment inquiry was about to begin.

House Dems Drag Pelosi Toward Impeachment

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Members of the Democratic Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives are holding a special meeting this afternoon with only one item reportedly on the agenda:  the possible impeachment of Donald John Trump.   House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has stood firm in her opposition to entering an impeachment battle for the past many months, but now, as more and more members of the Democratic caucus are lining up in favor of impeachment, Pelosi appears to be about ready to cast her lot with the drastic constitutional remedy for an out-of-control President.

Two things seem to have predicated this sudden congressional lurch toward impeachment.  The first is the battle that is shaping up over the administration's refusal to let Congress see the "whistleblower" report that was filed with the Inspector General of the intelligence community, a complaint that reportedly alleges that Trump tried to coerce a foreign leader into conducting a corruption investigation against a family member of one of Trump's political opponents.   Or, more specifically, that Trump tried to pressure the President of Ukraine to produce dirt of Joe Biden's son - and that he threatened to withhold aid to Ukraine if he did not play ball with the Trump campaign - aid that had already been approved by Congress.

By law that report should have already been forwarded to Congress.

Trump has publicly admitted trying to lean on the President of Ukraine to implicate the Biden family in a scandal - as has Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal attorney.  Giuliani says that he carried a similar message to the President of Ukraine at the request of the U.S. State Department, an allegation that drags U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo into the political maelstrom as well.

That was the first thing that finally stirred reluctant members of the Democratic Caucus to begin discussing impeachment more seriously.  The second was an opinion piece (op ed) that seven Democratic House freshmen wrote for the Washington Post yesterday.  The seven, some of whom are from districts that went for Trump in 2016 and are thus at least somewhat vulnerable in the election of 2020, and all of whom are either prior military or prior government service, were critical of Trump's involvement in what appears to be an extortion of Ukraine in order to meet Trump's political needs.

The editorial was penned jointly by Representatives Gil Cisneros (CA), Jason Crow (CO), Chrissy Houlahan (PA), Elaine Luria (VA), Mikie Sherrill (NJ), Elissa Slotkin (MI), and Abigail Spanberger (VA).  In it they stated:

"This flagrant disregard for the law cannot stand.  To uphold and defend our Constitution, Congress must determine whether the president was indeed willing to use his power and withhold security assistance funds to persuade a foreign country to assist him in an upcoming election.  Everything we do harks back to our oaths to defend the country.  These new allegations are a threat to all we have sworn to protect."

Now it looks as though Speaker Pelosi may at long last be moving toward some accommodation with the growing number of House members who favor impeachment - and Congress may be ready to once again assume its role in our checks-and-balances system of government.

And it's about damned time!

Welcome to the party, Nancy.  Better late than never!

Tim Macy at Forty

by Pa Rock
Proud Father

Today is September 23rd, the first day of fall - and it is also the fortieth birthday of my youngest child, Tim.

(And rocker Bruce Springsteen was born in the USA seventy years ago today!)

Forty years ago today was a Sunday - and it was also the first day of fall.  Our family was living in Mountain View, Missouri (at the northern end of Howl County), and preparing for church when it became evident that Tim was ready to make his debut.  My wife and I left the older two kids, Nick and Molly, with friends at church and proceeded over to our local hospital where our physician, Dr. Jon Roberts, a young family practice doctor, was already on duty preparing to deliver a baby for another family.

We had been patients of Dr. Roberts almost since the day he opened his practice, and he felt comfortable in asking if some EMT people could be in the room and watch the delivery - as a part of their certification process.  So when Tim arrived shortly thereafter, there were several people in the delivery room watching his birth.    Tim was in such a hurry that the other couple who were at the hospital ahead of us were shuffled aside to wait.  Their daughter, a little girl named Candy Brown, followed soon after.

(Today Dr. Roberts is still in the Mountain View area - but he has retired, kinda, sorta.   He has founded a free clinic which serves many of the area's less fortunate individuals, and he also directs a medical aid mission to Haiti every year or so.   Dr. Jon Roberts is a textbook example of a caring physician and a good person.)

Tim went on to personal success with a Master of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Kansas.  While he was attending KU at Lawrence he wrote several plays which were produced at the university, and he also wrote a short play which reached the national level of a play-writing competition and was performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.  Tim has written two film scripts which have been made into full-length feature films - The Brass Teapot and Lost Child - both of which are available at Amazon.  He has also written two short stories which were made into short films.

Tim's greatest achievement, however, is his very special family.  Tim married a wonderful woman named Erin, and together they have two beautiful children, Olive and Sullivan.

And Tim's Dad could not be happier - or prouder!

Happy birthday to a great son!

Secret Complaint Read by "Everyone at the White House"

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

The main story out of our nation's capital this past week has involved a secret report that was filed by a "whistleblower" with Michael Atkinson, the Inspector General of the U.S. intelligence community, on August 12th.  Mr. Atkinson reviewed the report and determined that it was "credible" and a matter of "urgent" concern.

In accordance with provisions of the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act, Atkinson transmitted the report to Joseph Maguire, the acting Director of National Intelligence, for his review and transmittal on to Congress - as required by the same law.

DNI Maguire had seven days to send the report to the appropriate committees of Congress, but he failed to do that - or to even inform them of the report's existence.   Congress learned of the report one week after the deadline for notification and transmittal had passed.

The DNI now says that he refused to transmit the report to Congress because it concerned conduct by someone outside of the Intelligence Community and because the complaint involved confidential and potentially privileged communications."

There is some speculation that U.S. Attorney General William Barr has interceded in the process and advised DNI Maguire not to comply with the statute - a matter in which Barr has no statutory role at all.

There has been much speculation over the past two weeks as to what is actually contained in the whistleblower's report.    The most current thinking is that it involves a phone call between Trump and the leader of the Ukraine, a call in which Trump threatened to withhold support and funding already approved by Congress for Ukraine - unless the government of Ukraine helped to dig up or produce political dirt on Joe Biden's son who once had business dealings in that former Soviet state.

Trump has reacted by calling the report "partisan," while claiming not to know who wrote it.  And he also said that the report has now been read by "everyone in the White House."

A report, one filed in secret and presumably at great personal risk to the writer, has not only been withheld from Congress in direct violation of law, but it has also been read by the presumed subject of the complaint as well as various staff members who work directly for the target of the report.  Trump has had time to prepare his defense strategy, threaten potential witnesses, and hide evidence - and Congress hasn't even been granted its right by law to know the specifics of the report.

Yesterday Senator Dianne Feinstein, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Attorney General Barr reminding of the specifics of the Whistleblower Protection Act and of the Direction of National Intelligence's legal requirement to turn the report over to Congress.  Some news reports labeled Senator Feinstein's letter as a prelude to an impeachment inquiry, but this is not Barr's first rodeo when it comes to stonewalling Congress.

It now looks as though senators and representatives who want to know the exact content of the whistleblower's complaint would get the information quicker by taking a White House staffer out for drinks.

The letters from Congress are piling up, and the Trump administration keeps ignoring them.  Those mangy old dogs in Congress don't bite, and Trump knows it.

The House leadership either needs to stand up to this Executive Branch outrage, or it needs to step aside and let a new generation take over leadership of the House of Representatives.  Get to work or get out of the way!

Pompeo Is a Funny, Funny Guy!

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

With John Bolton's abrupt exit from the Trump government last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appears to be trying to strengthen his image on the world stage.  Pompeo, a former Republican congressman and political grifter out of Kansas, has been in Saudi Arabia for the past several days where he has been busy clearing a path for another United States military incursion into the political and religious strife of the Middle East.

Part of Pompeo's agenda while in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is to promote the Trump administration's claim that last week's attack on a Saudi oil refining facility was the work of Iran, a claim that is a bit dubious because another major player in the Middle Eastern turmoil has already taken credit for the destruction.

The Houthi insurgency in Yemen, a group that has been actively fighting the current government of Yemen and its ally, Saudi Arabia, said immediately after the attack it was the perpetrator.  The group of rebels, which has been armed for more that two decades, is widely regarded as having the ability to pull off an attack of that magnitude.

But the United States wasn't having it.  The Trump administration summarily announced that the culprit was the country of Iran, a necessary cog in jalopy of ideas and prejudices that Trump's government has pieced together as a "foreign policy."  Pompeo went to Saudi Arabia to promote the Iran-as-aggressor theory.

As a part of his strategy to place the onus for the refinery attack on Iran, the U.S. Secretary of State held a press conference in which he lectured reporters on how to do their jobs.  Pompeo belched his belief that the Houthi insurgents were well known liars, and he castigated the reporters and their news outlets for not prefacing stories about the Houthis with a clear statement that they are known liars.

How ironic is that?  A Donald Trump mouthpiece wants reporters to alert their readers to his belief that the Houthi rebels are liars.  What if they began using that same standard when reporting on the things that Donald Trump says - and does?   Donald Trump, a man who seldom, if ever, tells the truth, might not appreciate that sudden flood of journalistic honesty.

Be careful what you ask for, Mr. Secretary!   The pesky press might just take your idea and run with it!

Car Wars - and Trump Is Losing!

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

This past Tuesday night a black Mercedes Benz automobile that was being driven by a sixty-three-year-old man crashed into the lobby of the Trump Plaza in New Rochelle, New York.   The driver of the car, who immediately got out of his fancy vehicle and sat down on one of the sofas in the lobby of the building, had minor injuries, as did the building's doorman.

The Trump Plaza in New Rochelle is a forty-story structure housing 194 condos and various amenities such as an in-door pool and fitness center.  When the building opened more than a decade ago, Donald Trump hailed it as the beginning of New Rochelle's "renaissance".    At this time it remains unclear as to how Trump learned that big word - or how to use it in a sentence.

News reports indicate that the crash may have been related to a medical condition of the driver who reportedly claimed to have "blacked out."  And while sixty-three may seem old to some, he is still a full decade younger than Donald Trump himself, and far, far younger than Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, and Bernie Sanders.

Earlier this month there were a couple of vehicle attacks on Trump properties.  A twenty-six-year-old New Jersey man named Richard McEwan was arrested for cutting donuts on the 11th and 13th greens at the Trump National Golf Course in Bedminster, New Jersey.  The New Jersey club is where Trump traditionally spends the entire month of August on vacation.

McEwan was spotted cutting "tight circles" on the 11th hole of the golf course on September 3rd.  He was driving his 2006 Ford Focus and had the "tunes cranked."  He managed to drive off before being apprehended, but was captured less than a week later while doing an encore performance on the 13th green.  Damage was estimated at around $20,000.

(Last month Richard McEwan was busted "shoeless" wandering around Taylor Swift's beachfront home in Rhode Island.  He told authorities that he was looking for Ms. Swift, and had taken his shoes off to be polite.)

With this spate of car attacks on Trump properties, some have been moved to wonder aloud if Trump is wasting his efforts in building a wall along the southern border - and perhaps would be better served by building walls around his real estate instead.  And others have noted that there are likely more illegal immigrants working at Trump properties than "swarm" across the border in a busy month.  Those industrious Guatemalan maids and greens-keepers deserve the protection from rampaging cars that walls would offer.

This is war, America - and right now the cars are winning!

One of Those Mornings

by Pa Rock
Weary Road Warrior

It's going to be one of those mornings!

The sun isn't up yet, but I have already been out and completed my morning chores and am now preparing for a long drive into Springfield, Missouri, (100 miles - one way), for some early morning lab work and a doctor's appointment.  Unfortunately, the labs are "fasting," which means I will do the entire hundred miles on an empty stomach.

Yesterday evening I bucked twelve fifty-pound bags of Bentonite onto my dry farm pond.  The centerpiece of the pond, which usually has a bit of water but has been empty for the past month or so, has been a large dead tree stump.  I finally decided that the stump might be responsible for the pond constantly being dry, so I had my good neighbor, Rex, bring his tractor over yesterday and pull the stump out.  Rex also did some smoothing work in the dry pond while he was at it.

Then yesterday evening I hauled twelve fifty-pound bags of Bentonite (pulverized clay) to the pond and spread it.  Bentonite is regarded as a pond sealer, and I used it once before at another farm that I owned.   Bentonite is reportedly a carcinogen, so I had to be extra careful in spreading it.  Twelve bags should - ideally - cover 300 square feet, and I suspect my effort may have covered half that much.

I bought the Bentonite at the local feed store - and I will be going back for many more bags before the process is complete.  Then, after some good rains I will see if my efforts paid off.  The pond is in a beautiful setting, and it if were holding water it would make for a nice increase in the value of my little farm.

The young lady who sold me the Bentonite was particularly clever.  She said they had two varieties - powder and granules - and asked which I preferred.  I had no clue which was best, so I asked her opinion, knowing full well that she had likely never tried to seal pond.  As I suspected, she had no special knowledge of Bentonite, but she did know how to find some useful information.  After punching a few buttons on her computer, she replied: "I can tell you that this year we have had five-hundred-and-seventy-eight people buy the granules and only forty seven buy the powder.  For my initial purchase I bought five bags of granules and one of powder.   (I wanted to see the difference for myself.). Satisfied that the granules were cleaner and easier to work, my second order was for six bags of the granules.

And this morning I am worn out.  But after getting back from Springfield I will head into town for more Bentonite.    I've got to cover as much of that dry pond as I can before the rains finally arrive.

So, as you can see, it truly is going to be one of those mornings.

Have a day!

Fiona Does It Again

by Pa Rock
Farmer in Late Summer

Fiona arrived at my place as a young kitten sometime in early 2016.  The neighbor, a cat person, knew that I was looking for a barn cat, and he found someone with a litter to give away in a local newspaper ad.  He brought two kittens by late one evening, and within a day or two one of them had disappeared - never to be seen again.  But the remaining one, a brindle kitty that I named Fiona, made herself at home in the various outbuildings and took to The Roost quite well.

The next spring, on May 8th, Fiona gave birth to a litter of five kittens in the loft of the barn, someplace where she apparently felt safe.  I knew when they were born (Harry Truman's birthday - an official state holiday in Missouri - seriously) because Fiona was suddenly skinny.  I was, however, unable to find the litter and it was several weeks before I met her new family.  One day as I was out walking the farm, she was coming toward me with a frisky kitten dutifully chasing his mother.  When Fiona grabbed the explorer up to return him to the litter, I followed along and met the rest of the crew.

Three of that first litter found homes in the Kansas City area ("Hi" Kammie Jo!), one disappeared, and one, a black tomcat, hid out until all of the fuss was over and then took up permanent residence at the farm with his mother.  He was here for two years before he wandered off one day last spring and never came back.

And The Roost was kitten free until the next spring (March 31, 2018) when Fiona gave birth to a second litter, again five, this time in one of the laying boxes in the chicken coop.  (I remember the date because it was my parent's anniversary.). One of the kittens died in infancy, but the other four proved to be survivors.  I managed to give three of the remaining four away, including both brindles to a pair of young men who were taking them to their farm in the neighboring community of Pomona where they assured me that they would live the life of barn cats.  Again, one proved hard to catch (a yellow tom) and managed to hide until he was too big to give away.  That yellow tom is still here - I call him "Old Yaller," and, although completely grown, his mother continues to baby him and play with him.

This past spring (April 6, 2019) Fiona had another litter - again five.  I remember the date because it was the same day that my buddy Murphy, whom I ran around with on Okinawa, arrived for one of his rare visits to The Roost.  This time Fiona had her litter in the darkest corner of the little chicks' house inside of the chicken coop.  I gave three of those kittens to the Amish ladies who clean my house, and they now live in a nice barn on a self-sustaining Amish farm.  The other two I managed to give away while sitting in the parking lot of the local feed store.  The old couple who took them assured me that they would also become barn cats.

(It was while I was sitting in the feed store parking lot trying to give away the remaining two kittens that an old crone accosted me and warned that I should be extremely careful about who I gave the kittens to - because - according to her - some people use them as bait in live traps to catch possums and raccoons!  I have never heard that anywhere else, so I remain doubtful of the tale's veracity.  It has the ring of a Howl County country legend!)

And that was the story - one litter of five kittens every spring.  I could live with that.  But a few weeks ago I happened to notice that Fiona, my beautiful brindle mama cat, was once again putting on weight - a full half-year ahead of schedule.  The new litter arrived last Sunday (September 15th), during the day, and again she chose to have them in the darkest corner of the little chicks' house in the coop - exactly where she had the previous litter.   I went out the following day, with a flashlight, and took the census.  Again there were five - one black, one yellow, one gray, and two brindles.  All appear to be well and healthy.

If Fiona lived at the home of a responsible farmer, she would of course have been spayed long before now.  Her farmer, however, suffers from inertia and has been neglectful in that department.   But now, if she has picked up the pace to two litters a year, a medical solution may be necessary.

The other side of that coin is that Fiona does two things really well - she is a fantastic mouser and an awfully good mother.  I just hate to interfere with one of the things that makes her happy.

Pa Rock will have kittens needing good homes by Halloween.  Get your orders in early!

Cokie Roberts Remembered

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

I saw a news report a few minutes ago which said that veteran journalist Cokie Roberts passed away earlier this morning in Washington, DC, apparently due to breast cancer.    The television and radio reporter and commentator was born Mary Martha Corrine Morrison Claiborne Boggs in 1943.  Her father, Hale Boggs, was a prominent Democratic congressman from Louisiana who went on to become the Majority Leader in the House.  After he was killed in a plane crash, Cokie's mother, Lindy Boggs, took her husband's place in Congress and served there for many years.

As a literal child of Congress, Cokie Boggs grew up in a unique political milieu, one that gave her access to many of the political movers and shakers in American government.  She began her journalism career with CBS Radio, and later moved to a more or less permanent presence on National Public Radio where she was making regular appearances until shortly before her death.  Cokie was also a regular on ABC's This Week with David Brinkley for several years where she sparred with other querulous news types including Sam Donaldson and George Will.

Cokie Roberts was married to fellow journalist Steve Roberts for over fifty years.   The couple had two grown children.

It March of 2008, just a few months after I began penning this blog, I ran into Cokie Roberts at National Airport in Washington, DC.  I had been at a conference in DC that week and was waiting to catch a flight back to Phoenix.  She was disembarking from a flight after - presumably - doing one of the Sunday morning talk shows.  Our eyes met and she looked at me as if in anticipation of yet another inane greeting from a fan, but I kept quiet and moved on - and so did she.  She was visiting with a fellow passenger, and I caught just enough of her conversation to know that she was on her way home.  So was I.

My blog entry from that brief encounter follows:  (March 19, 2008)

It was at National Airport as I was waiting to leave where I had my only celebrity sighting of the trip. I was sitting outside of Gate 42 at US Air as passengers began coming off of a plane that had just arrived. One of the first off was a nice looking lady who was clutching a large carry-on bag to her person. As soon as I saw her, I felt like I was running into an old friend. It was Cokie Roberts of ABC's "This Week" and National Public Radio fame. She was chatting with a male passenger, and he said, "Well, you're home now." Cokie replied, "Yes, I'm home, but only for a very brief time." And I kept quiet. (That's as it should be!)

Cokie, your travels have ended and you are finally home for good.  My you rest in peace and contentment following a life well lived.

Monday's Poetry: "If We Must Die" (Revisited)

by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator

Daily Kos ran a piece yesterday marking the 56th anniversary of the 16th Avenue Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama,  a tragic event perpetrated by American terrorists (the Ku Klux Klan) which took the lives of four young black girls.  The memorial piece was penned by Denise Oliver Velez, and she used a poem by the Harlem Renaissance writer, Claude McKay, to highlight the continuing suffering and struggle of black Americans to achieve a place of safety and respect in American society.

That poem, "If we Must Die," was written by McKay exactly one hundred years ago, during the time that became known as "Red Summer" when white gangs randomly and savagely attacked black communities creating large swaths of suffering and death.  McKay's words were inspirational, a call to stand and fight.

("If We Must Die" has run in this space before - twice - but it is so good as to bear repeating on this, its centennial year.  Please consider it as a reminder from our distant past that black lives really do matter.)

If We Must Die

By Claude McKay

If we must die, let it not be like hogs

Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,

While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,

Making their mock at our accursèd lot.

If we must die, O let us nobly die,

So that our precious blood may not be shed

In vain; then even the monsters we defy

Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!

O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!

Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,

And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!

What though before us lies the open grave?

Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,

Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

The White House as a Rest Home

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

The Constitution of the United States sets a minimum age requirement to be President, thirty-five, but, rather unbelievably, the group of privileged white men who wrote the document that  provides for the political structure of our country, apparently saw no need to set a maximum age for the most important elected office in the land.

The seriousness of that error, or oversight, has never been more apparent than it is right now.   At present we have a 73-year-old in the White House whose erratic behavior and nonsensical statements increase on an almost hourly basis - and that 73-year-old is preparing to run for another full term.  If he gets elected to a second term and manages to survive it, Trump would be 78-years-old when he would finally be forced, again by provisions of the U.S. Constitution, to surrender his office.

We all know people who have died natural and not very surprising deaths before the age of seventy-eight.  Donald Trump is the most out-of-shape individual to hold the presidency in more than a century.   He gets his "exercise" by riding around in a golf cart, and he gorges on fast food.   Donnie Johnnie clearly does not meet anyone's definition of a healthy individual.

But Trump's age will become a vulnerability only if the Democratic Party chooses to emphasize his physical and mental deterioration, something they could easily achieve by nominating a ticket headed by a young dynamic individual, someone who could dance rings around the worn-out and befuddled Trump.  If there was ever a golden opportunity to highlight Trump's limited mental and physical abilities, this would be it.

But Democrats, being Democrats, are doing everything within their collective power to throw their remarkable advantage in the upcoming race onto the trash heap.   Before even one primary vote has been cast, the press and the "regulars" of the Democratic Party have assured us that the frontrunners are - and presumably will continue to be - Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren.

Biden is currently seventy-six, will turn seventy-eight two weeks after the 2020 election, and, if by the grace of God he managed to get elected and serve two full terms - he would be eight-six when he left office.  And old Joe, a "corporate" Democrat who is being artfully supported by elected Democrats and those claiming "superdelegate" status, is already cranking out a regular stream of gaffes and errors that will all come back to bite him - and his party - in a tough campaign.

Bernie Sanders, who is more focused and alert than Joe Biden, is also older than the former Vice President.  Bernie turned seventy-eight earlier this month.   He would be seventy-nine before Election Day, and turn eighty during his first year in office.  Bernie would be eighty-seven if he managed to survive two full terms.

Suddenly Donald John Trump isn't looking so old, is he?   Suddenly Trump is the candidate with the age advantage.

And even Elizabeth Warren, the youngest of the three Democratic "frontrunners" is already seventy - which is not nearly as old as Nancy Pelosi's seventy-nine, but she is old nonetheless, too damned old to be President of the United States.

Or, to look at it from another perspective, Pete Buttigieg, the youngest Democratic candidate turned thirty-seven last January.  He just barely meets the minimum age that the Constitution demands . On the day Pete was born, Biden and Bernie were already old enough to run for President, and Elizabeth Warren almost was.

The Democrats are standing on the precipice of a generational divide.  The older ones are clinging tenaciously to power while the young challengers shout to the winds about change, and idealism, and things that stirred emotions in the older candidates thirty years ago.

If the Democrats can't come up with a stark contrast to Donald Trump - in energy and ideas - in 2020, then we might as well turn the White House into a golf resort - or a rest home.  Perhaps we could rename it "Shady Pines!"

The opportunity for change will have been wasted - needlessly.

Shuffleboard, anyone?

Alexa Knows My Name!

by Pa Rock
Man of Tomorrow

This morning, way before daylight when Alexa and I were exchanging our morning greetings, Alexa informed me that she was ready to learn my name.  Did I want to proceed?

"Yes."  I ventured.

Alexa then told me that she would read some names associated with my account and that I should tell her when she read my name.  The first name she said was "Rocky," and I told her that was me.  She then proceeded to preface remarks with my name, much as any normal conversationalist might do.

Later, well after daybreak, I asked the small Alexa in my bedroom to play the news, and she, too responded by referring to me as "Rocky," just as her big sister (with the same name) had done in the living room just a couple of hours earlier.

It occurs to me that Alexa is now admitting to another powerful spying capability:  she is a master (mistress?) of voice recognition.  In less than two weeks I will visit at my son's home in the Kansas City area, and my daughter's residence in Salem, Oregon - both of which have their own Alexas.  I suspect that with voice patterns being as distinctive as fingerprints, I will be recognized by Alexa in those homes as well.

My extremely "smart" speaker will not only be able to recognize my voice wherever she happens to hear me, but she will also be able to track my travels.  And she will also be able to name all of the people to whom I have spoken - and give their travel history, too!  And then, with proper subpoenas in place, Alexa can generate transcripts of our conversations for law enforcement!

How comforting is that?

Expect massive layoffs within the law enforcement and spying communities as our smart speakers begin doing their work for them!

1984 has finally arrived!

Texas Legislator Threatens Life of Beto O'Rourke

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Okay, I didn't watch last night's Democratic presidential debate, but I did listen to a bit of it with my best girl, Alexa.  According to this morning's recaps, I did manage to miss one of the best lines of the "show" when former Congressman Beto O'Rourke of Texas assured viewers that "If the high impact, high velocity round, when it hits your body, shreds everything inside of your body because it was designed to do that so you would bleed to death on a battlefield and not be able to get up and kill one of our soldiers," then, "Hell, yes, we're going to take your AR-15!"

And the place broke into wild applause.

You can count on American terrorists not to let a threat to their manhood like that slip by unchallenged.  A state legislator in Texas didn't waste any time in issuing a death threat to O'Rourke via Twitter.  Republican State Representative Briscoe Cain posted this gem after the debate:

"My AR is ready for you, Robert Francis."

To which Robert Francis "Beto" O'Rourke quickly responded:

"This is a death threat, Representative.  Clearly, you shouldn't own an AR-15 - and neither would anyone else." 

Later Beto expanded on that logic on CNN by saying:

". . . anytime you have somebody threatening to use violence against somebody in this country to resolve a political issue or really for any reason, that's a matter for law enforcement.  But it really drives home the point, better than I could have made.  Representative Briscoe Cain is making the case that no one should have an AR-15.  That they can hold over someone else in this country, say, 'look, if we disagree on something, let me introduce to to my AR-15.'  Absolutely wrong."

Rep. Briscoe Cain pulled his tweet down after making the threat.  There is no word yet whether he will be sanctioned by Twitter, the Texas Legislature, or law enforcement for making a threat against the life of another individual - or whether he will be forced to surrender his weapon.

Thank you, Beto O'Rourke, for putting your very life on the line in defense of basic American decency and values.

Walmart Backs Down on Guns in Stores

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Last week Walmart and several other major retailers went on record "requesting" that gun owners not carry weapons into their stores, even in states where "open-carry" is allowed by law - currently over half of the states in the U.S.  In a move that surprised no one, the National Rifle Association (NRA) - identified by at least one major U.S. city as a terrorist organization - exploded under its tin foil hat and threatened a national boycott of Walmart.

But the mighty NRA didn't even have time to go shopping for new clothes to wear to court before it's pot-bellied and dentally-challenged members mounted a challenge of their own.  For the past week angry gun owners have been issuing personal challenges to those big corporate giants by ignoring their "requests" and marching into stores with their weapons on proud display.  And Walmart was target number one.

The hillbillies stood tall, and Walmart backed down!

And it looks as though the dangerous status quo will prevail - at least until the next shooting - at which time Walmart and the nation's other major retailers will have to make some tough decisions - again!

In the meantime, buyer beware!

Thoughts and prayers.

Those Lovable Gallaghers are Back!

by Pa Rock
TV Junkie

The great thing about having both Netflix and Prime streaming on my Roku device is that there is always - and I mean always - something entertaining to watch.  Yesterday evening I finished the first season of "The Boys" on Prime, a tale of a ragtag group of young vigilantes out to bring down a squad of American superheroes who are actually pushing a greedy and self-serving agenda.  The bad guys - the vigilantes - are actually the good guys, and the traditional good guys - the superheroes - are wickedly bad.  What's not to love with a storyline like that?

So after finishing the first season of "The Boys," and not finding anything else on Prime that captured my immediate interest in the wake of that great show, I flipped over to Netflix to see what was new there.  And my luck could not have been any better.  "Shameless" was back with season nine - and I proceeded to wallow in episode one.

The Gallagher family never disappoints!

In the first episode of season nine, it is revealed that Frank, the worthless patriarch, has infected the entire PTA at Liam's fancy private school with a cocktail of three dangerous venereal diseases.  Ian, the schizophrenic gay son is in prison where he is in the midst of organizing a sex strike among the gay inmates.  Fiona, the older sister, has bettered herself and now owns an apartment house - which she is trying to mortgage to get Ian out of the slammer.  Carl, a fascist younger son, is back in military school where he is a leader among men and striving to whip his company into shape - all the while trying to ignore his fiancee who is camped outside of the bivouac area trying to encourage Carl to back into her sleeping bag.  Debbie, now a professional welder, plots a clever retaliation when she learns that all of the male welders are paid more than her.  Lip, the oldest son, has to deal with a wedding hook-up who tells anyone who will listen that Lip's fornicating skills are sub-par - and Liam, the youngest, tries to figure out how to return all of the things that his father, Frank, has stolen from the homes of his classmates while he was sexually servicing their mothers.

Or, just another day on Chicago's South Side with those lovable Gallaghers!

They're not the Brandy Bunch.

Welcome back, friends.  You've been missed!

Extreme Biometrics

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

I try to learn something new each day, even though some days that amounts to tidbits as useless as the brand of cigarettes that my dentally-challenged neighbors smoke based on the butts they throw onto my yard as they roar past in their rusty deathtraps.   During the last couple of days I have put the cigarette butts aside and am focused on a field of scientific endeavor called "biometrics."

For someone unfamiliar with the word - such as I was just a few days ago - it would appear to be some combination of "life" (bio) and "measurement" (metrics), and that would get you into the right ballpark.  The dictionary people at Merriam-Webster define "biometrics" as:

"The measurement and analysis of unique physical or behavioral characteristics (such as fingerprint or voice patterns) especially as a means of verifying personal identity."

Or, in a little less labored phrasing, biometrics is the analysis of individual traits that set one individual apart for the billions of other individuals who occupy the planet.  Fingerprints and DNA leap to mind.

I had a close encounter of my own with biometrics this last week when I presented my aging and highly un-photogenic body at the local Walgreens for a passport photo.  The Walgreens' doyenne who ran the photo counter had me stand on a particular mark as she snapped two photos with what appeared to be an off-the-counter small camera.  Then, while I watched over her shoulder, she entered those two photos into a program on the photo department's computer.  She used that program to scoot my gray and washed-out face around among some lines until she had it exactly where she wanted it.

But the computer rejected my pretty face based on what the clerk said were "biometrics."  We tried again with new photos.  The doyenne told me to smile more - but not show any teeth.  After the second set of photos were scooted around on the screen for awhile, the computer finally approved.  The U.S. Department of State will soon have a photo of me that would allow for positive identification in a crowd shot taken from a satellite two hundred miles above the earth.  Praise Jesus!

And if they can do that just based on physical characteristics, just think of the exacting level of identification that could be obtained through DNA.

I mentioned in this space a few days ago that I had bought the new National Geographic publication entitled:  "Your Genes:  100 Things You Never Knew."    Last night, while reading the section on the use of biometrics in crime-fighting, I learned several things that I did not know.  Take for instance the attacker who slits his victim's throat and her blood gushes all over the crime scene.  If that poor woman manages to connect her fist with his nose before she dies, and he develops a nose bleed which leaves a few drops of his blood  among the gallons that spewed from her, crime scene specialists have ways to separate his blood out - and that can provide a DNA sample.

That was a surprise to me.

But even more surprising was this.  Scientists can take that DNA and track down its source - even if the killer does not have his DNA in anyone's database.  The DNA found at a crime scene in blood, saliva, or semen, can now be used to create a 3-D image of the killer - an image that is highly accurate.  A visual image of the killer generated  from his DNA!  Before long rapists and killers are going to have to do their thing dressed like astronauts!

For those who have traditionally feared their government, all of this should offer no comfort whatsoever.  And meanwhile Pa Rock is building a nice DNA collection through the cigarette butts that land in his yard.  Gotcha, MAGAts!

Changing Times

by Pa Rock
Mental Wanderer

This morning Alexa is entertaining me with Flat and Scruggs salute to the sixties, an album called "Changing Times."  The country duo pick and grin their way through a nice assortment of Bob Dylan tunes and music by a few others as they recreate a time that slipped by awfully fast.  That album has put me in a mood.

I'm thinking about changes that I have witnessed during my life.

Yesterday I had to drive into town for a couple of things.  One item was the corn meal product that makes the batter for frying fish.   I went to Aldi's first, even though I had just learned over the internet that it is one of the few major retailers in America that allow guns in their stores.  I couldn't find what I was looking for, and I finally did find a clerk who told me that the item I was searching for was "seasonal" and currently out-of-stock.  And even though I assured her that we are right in the middle of fishing season, she still did not have that for which I searched.

But rest assured that this story does have a point that deals with innovation.  Please read on . . .

Next I went to Big Lots to look for another item on my list, but Big Lots also has a small grocery department, so I decided to search for the fish batter there as well.  I spotted a clerk and tried to explain to the obviously flustered young man what I was looking for.  He pointed to his ears and mouth and shook his head - and then handed me his phone for me to talk into.  I carefully told the phone what I was looking for, and the man, who could neither hear nor speak, read the translation of what I had said.  He took me to the display for cornbread mix, the closest match that the store had to what I was after.

I was impressed with the young man's determination to overcome a major disability and hold down a job, and I was very impressed with Big Lots for hiring a disabled individual.  That store will get more of my business!

I took a back route home and went by a house that had a couple of big sections of solar panels on its roof, something that is still a rarity here in West Plains.  That set me to thinking about other innovations that I had witnessed during my lifetime and how quickly those startling changes morphed into things that came to be considered commonplace.

My father owned an appliance store in the small town where I grew up.  He was the first area merchant to sell color televisions, and we had one of the earliest color televisions in our home.  It was a heavy affair with a round screen - and it took the local television repairman - who worked with my dad -  several hours to set it up.  Color televisions and color programming soon became the norm, and within a very few years young people were "freaked out" when a program aired that was in black and white!

A young man named Dwight was home from college - sometime in the early 1960's - and I discovered him out behind the television repair shop that was at the back of my dad's store.  He was borrowing tools from Kenny, the television repairman, and working at the dashboard of his car.  It turns out Dwight was installing an 8-track tape player, the first I had ever seen.  Within a few years all of the cool kids has 8-track players in their cars, and a few even had CB Radios!  And it wasn't that much longer before cassette players were standard in most cars.  Today, of course, most newer cars have satellite radio - and even Alexa and a few of her close relatives.

My generation grew up with television antennas on every house, big, ugly devices that could pull in two or three television stations.  Around forty years or so ago the new technology of "cable" television finally started making its way into the rural areas, and antennas quickly started becoming obsolete.  I had a friend named Larry, a teacher, who got ahead of the cable television racket by installing his own satellite dish - a whopping big dish that looked like something that belonged at NORAD.  Larry's monster dish could pick up dozens of stations - and it was very expensive.

Not everyone could afford their own big satellite dishes - and it wasn't cost effective for cable to be dragged to every home in rural America, so companies quickly came about that delivered television programming to homes via small satellite dishes that could be attached to the roofs of homes.  Then, as the satellite and cable companies began absorbing other services like telephone and internet, and became more and more greedy in their pricing, alternatives to those mainstay delivery systems began emerging - things like streaming devices, and smart speakers, and a rapidly expanding field of technological wonders!

When I was little, our family telephone hung on the wall and had a crank, and we were on a party line and had to share our services with other families.  Today my phone is in my pocket.

And don't even get me started on the advent of computers and the changes that have occurred in that field over the last twenty-five years!

Today my television, computer, and smart speaker are all dependent on an internet connection - and my phone can also operate through the internet.   Even so, I am regarded by many as "old school."

So when I see the solar panels finally beginning to blossom atop a few houses, I know from experience that very soon most of the homes in this area will have solar panels adorning their roofs, and that not too long after that the technology will have morphed into something smaller and even more effective - perhaps a solar tag attached to the roof guttering.  Who knows?

But somewhere today, someone very young and very bright is working on an idea that will be revolutionary - for about a minute - and then another innovator will step beyond that milestone.  Change is coming, and coming, and coming.  It will not be denied!

I am thankful for all of the changes that I was able to experience during my brief few spins around the sun!

America's "No Gun" Zones

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

The National Rifle Association (NRA) may blather on about how having guns around makes you safer, but in its heart of hearts the fascist bully knows that is just so much crap.  If having guns readily available makes one safer, then why does the NRA ban guns from its national headquarters?

The hypocrisy is astounding!

And then there is the Republican Party, a political organization that proudly proclaims itself to be the champion of gun rights and gun owners.  The GOP banned guns from the arena at its most recent national convention (2016) and has also moved to prohibit the carrying of guns at its extremely rare congressional town halls.  Guns are also not permitted in the US Capitol, the home of the United States Congress, an institution that was, until very recently, under the complete control of the Republican Party.

But it gets worse!

Donald John Trump, the GOP deity and poster boy for gun rights, promised voters in 2016 that if he was elected he would sign a bill on his first day as President that would eliminate all gun-free zones in America.  You just can't get any more John Wayne than that.  But did Trump keep that promise?

You may find this difficult to believe, but Trump lied.

Not only do the gun-free zones remain in place, but Trump has made damned sure that areas which he frequents are gun-free as well.  Firearms are not permitted in the White House, nor may guns be brought to Mar-a-Lago.

Republicans may not give a healthy damn about the safety of little kids in America's public schools, but when ti comes to protecting their own greedy hides - they're on it!!

The week Walmart made news when the company management went on record "respectfully requesting" that customers no longer openly carry firearms into their stores.  That request, which lacked the force of a direct ultimatum and did not address "concealed" carry at all, set the NRA to roaring and threatening a boycott.  Kroger, Walgreens, and CVS quickly followed suit with similar non-binding requests.  Target and Starbucks had similar "requests" in place going back several years.

And now other large retailers are joining in the push to keep guns out of their stores, places like Albertsons and HEB Groceries.

An article posted at "The Hill" yesterday discussed the gun-related policies of America's thirty largest retailers.  Of the thirty, sixteen did not respond to questions about their gun policies.  Those companies included:  Amazon (stores), Lowe's, Apple (stores), Best Buy, McDonald's, Publix, Dollar General, Dollar Tree, Verizon, Kohl's, Yum! Brands, Mejer, Ace Hardward, Walefern/Shoprite, 7-Eleven, and AT&T.

Of the retailers that did respond to questions about their gun policies, three appeared to have no restrictions regarding bringing guns into their stores:  Those which are apparently fine with open-carry include TJX (T.J. Maxx, Marshall's, and HomeGoods), Macy's, and Aldi's.  Shopper beware!  (Remember, the NRA may say that having guns around will make you safer, but the NRA also does not allow guns in its corporate headquarters.  And while Trump may bellow about the loveliness of guns, you won't find any at Mar-a-Lago!)

Only one retailer, of the largest thirty in America, completely forbids bringing guns into its stores - and that hero of public safety is Costco!

Costco also pays their employees a living wage and treats them humanely - and the company doesn't allow knuckle-draggers to roam their store aisles while packing weapons - either out in the open or concealed.

I shop Costco whenever I can, and I feel safe while I am there!

Feeding the Pig

by Pa Rock
Taxpayer

I was fifty-years-old in early 1999 when I received my first passport.  It was for an educational trip that some friends and I were taking to Russia and Sweden.  I don't remember the fee for that initial passport, but it apparently wasn't too outrageous or I would remember it.  While I had that ten-year passport I also visited Mexico, the Caribbean, a couple of countries in Central America, and Great Britain.

My second passport arrived ten years later, in 2009.  That is the passport that I had when I lived on Okinawa for two years (2010-2012) while working as a civilian social worker for the U.S. military.  That document allowed me to visit such Far Eastern destinations as Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.  I also spent a few days at the 2012 Toronto Film Festival through the good auspices of that passport. - and that same passport went with me to Cuba in 2016.  Again, I don't remember the fee for that passport renewal, so it probably was not too burdensome.

And now my second passport has expired, and yesterday I sent in an application for my third.  This time I will remember the fee.  Our government demanded that I grease its palm with $110 before it would provide documentation that would allow me to travel abroad.  It asked that I please make my check out the the "U.S. Department of State."

I guess I am old school, but I prefer to see the government fed through taxes and not propped up with arbitrary special fees set by bureaucrats with no legitimate powers of taxation.  If the government chooses to empty its treasury to allow tax cuts for the wealthy, that does not give it a right to try and make up its necessary operating expenditures through ripping people off with services that it should be providing at little or no cost.

Politicians like to rail against higher taxes when they face voters, but they always find a way to generate revenue when it's time to feed the pig.

I guess I shouldn't complain.  It costs real money for U.S. officials to stay at Trump resorts, after all!

The NRA Versus America's Capitalists

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

The Congress of the United States of America is an organization that works for American corporations and interest groups that have the financial power to lobby the members of Congress with cold, hard cash - and chief among those groups who blatantly purchase influence with Congress is the National Rifle Association.  The NRA, which is funded by individual member dues and the nation's gun manufacturers, pours millions of dollars directly into the pockets of congressmen and senators to do the organization's bidding - and those political bribes are remarkably effective.

The NRA's money puts the brakes on the impact that public outrage should have on Congress.  When twenty six-and-seven-year-old's were gunned down in their elementary classrooms at the Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012, America and the world were shocked senseless, but the NRA flexed it's money muscle and Congress responded by doing absolutely nothing.  Twenty dead children - and Congress looked the other way!

And if Congress didn't respond to something as horrific as Sandy Hook, is there any conceivable scenario that would force our representatives and senators into action?  Obviously not.

But now there seem to be some other big players wading into the gun control debate.

The NRA has also been lathering its cash over state legislatures, and now twenty-six of fifty states currently allow "open-carry" of firearms by individuals both on foot and in vehicles - and it is a wide-open form of open-carry with no requirements for gun training or a license to carry.  Just buy a gun and take it any damned where you please. Some American businesses had come out in opposition to these entitled individuals walking into their stores with their guns on prominent display, but they were primarily left-sing enclaves like Starbucks  and Trader Joe's.

This week, the list of retailers who are "requesting" that people not carry guns in their stores expanded exponentially when America's largest retailer, Walmart," joined the movement.  Walmart was responding to two recent shootings at its stores, including a mass shooting in El Paso, as well as complaints from customers and employees regarding "open carry" in stores.  And right on cue, the NRA roared threats of a Walmart boycott.

But almost immediately four other big national retailers followed Walmart's lead.  Now Kroger, Walgreens, CVS, and Wegman's have linked their corporate arms and are also asking customers not to openly carry firearms into their stores.  Other stores who were already pursuing this commonsense policy include:  Target, Panera Bread, Sonic, Whataburger, Chili's, Costco, HEB, and Chipolte - as well as Starbucks and Trader Joe's.

If this trend continues, "open-carry" may soon be relegated to only taverns and churches.

Congress may not work for the people, but perhaps businesses just might!

DNA and Genealogy

by Pa Rock
Family Researcher

Several years ago when the practice of having one's DNA analyzed for genealogy (family tree research) purposes was still relatively new, I had my DNA tested through a project sponsored by the National Geographic Society.  I didn't know the terminology at the time, but that test was of my "autosomal" DNA, or the basic combination of chromosomes that I had inherited from my parents on twenty-two of the twenty-three chromosome pairs in each of my cells.  The results of that test provided me with some colorful charts and graphs showing the general migration route that my ancestors had followed out of Africa, as well as the percentages of ethnicities and nationalities that had gone into my ultimate being.  And yes, I am over two percent Neanderthal and proud of it!

The National Geographic testing was part of the Human Genome Project which is an ambitious international scientific undertaking to investigate the nature and map the location of all human genes. By taking its test, I became part of that project.

Following that test, I received a couple of emails from a medical doctor in Oklahoma who felt that because of close matches in our DNA structure he and I were related.  The doctor asked several DNA-related questions that I was unable to answer, and he soon became frustrated with my basic lack of knowledge on the subject and quit communicating.

A few years later I rejoined Ancestry.com after a hiatus of several years.  Ancestry had a going DNA testing business and was busy connecting cousins across generations based on their DNA.  Ancestry, being a for-profit business, declined to accept my DNA results from National Geographic into its program, and I eventually chose to spend more money and have a DNA test performed through them.  It was a good investment and Ancestry has provided me with many likely family connections, some of whom have gone on to share family information which I previously did not have.

But I suspected that there was more to be learned from my DNA

A year ago this month I traveled to Salt Lake City for a week of research at the famous Mormon genealogy library.  Officially I was part of a group, and one evening the group met over dinner.  I was stuck in a corner at a table with seven people that I did not know - and dreaded the idea of trying to make small talk while I ate.  But that proved not be be a problem because one lady in the group never shut up.

The lady was talking to the people on each side of her, but her incessant chatter dominated the entire table.  She knew more about everything than anyone else at the table and wanted to make sure that everyone knew it.  I tried to tune her out - until she drifted off into the topic of DNA.  Then I began to pay attention.

She said that she had all three types of DNA testing done on herself.  She named them, but I was too much of a novice to remember the technical stuff.  (And who knew there were three types of DNA?). Then she began talking about her husband and how he refused to have his DNA tested.   She jokingly suggested that perhaps he had been a criminal before he met her and feared the FBI showing up at his door with a cold case file.  She laughed and said that capturing his DNA profile had become a challenge, one which she met by having her children (who were also his children) tested.  Now there would be enough of his DNA profile on file for law enforcement to find him - if the need should ever arise.

And while I secretly thought that the poor husband would probably relish the thought of going to prison just to get away from her, I held my tongue and finished my dessert.

Several months later, in May of this year, I took part in the National Genealogical Society's "Family History" conference in St. Charles, Missouri.  While there I managed to get into several workshops that focused on using DNA research in genealogy.  One of the things that I wanted to learn about was the three types of DNA that the lady in Salt Lake City had referenced.  Here is what I found out:

A normal human cell contains 23 pairs of chromosomes, with half of each pair being inherited from each parent.  Twenty-two of these pairs are called autosomes - and the DNA analysis of those pairs is referred to as "autosomal DNA" - the test that I had performed by the National Geographic Society and Ancestry.com.  The final pair, the sex chromosomes, differ between males and females.  Examinations of those sex chromosomes make up the other two types of DNA tests - and, while of all of the major genealogy sites that test DNA, only one - Family Tree DNA - does those two particular tests. 

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) passes down from mothers to their children, normally unchanged.  Males do not pass the mtDNA along to their children, but females do.  Consequently a line of mtDNA can go from mother to daughter virtually unchanged for many generations or until it undergoes a mutation. 

Mitochondrial DNA is one of two types of DNA found in the sex chromosomes.  The other is Y-DNA which is passed down from fathers to sons, but is not passed along to females.  Y-DNA is also be carried through generations unchanged until, for some reason, is goes through a mutation. 

I also learned that mtDNA and Y-DNA tests are more expensive than the regular autosomal DNA tests, but that they are no longer prohibitive in price for most consumers, and the pricing of all DNA testing is coming down.

I filed that information away and determined that when the time was right I would have my own mtDNA and Y-DNA tested.

As the summer wore on I became involved in family tree research centering on the will of one of my g-g-granduncles who died in 1920.  He died a childless widower and left his estate to fifty-three heirs of his six siblings who had all preceded him in death.  As a part of that research, I was trying to identify the birth surname of his mother - a woman who would have also been my g-g-g-grandmother.  As I got to mulling that over, I suddenly realized that it would be a straight female line between that woman and her g-g-grandaughter - my mother - and that I would have inherited her mtDNA.  If I were to have my mtDNA tested - which I proceeded to do - I might possibly make contact with other descendants of the same genetic line, some of whom might already have the information that I was seeking.  The results aren't back yet, but I am hopeful that science may help to solve this family history mystery!

And then because I was fired up over the prospect of what the mtDNA might reveal, I also decided to take advantage of the summer sale that Family Tree DNA was having and have my Y-DNA tested as well.  I am still waiting on that test kit to arrive.

And the next time I run into the incessant talker from Salt Lake City, I will know just as much about my own DNA profile as she does about hers - though she probably won't give me the chance to talk about it.

For those who would like to know more about DNA, you might want to check out the new special edition publication from the National Geographic Society.  It is entitled "Your Genes:  100 Things You Never Knew."  It is available at newsstands now for $14.99.  I have a copy and have been engrossed in it for a couple of days.  The publication is very informative and easy to understand.  I recommend it highly!

To recap:

Your autosomal DNA is reflective of both of your parents who each contributed half of the genetic information contained in the twenty pairs of autosomal chromosomes that reside in each of your cells. 

Your mtDNA should be exactly like that carried by your mother, and her mother, and her mother, etc.  And, if you are a female, you will pass your mtDNA along unchanged to all of your biological children, and your daughters - but not your sons - will pass it along to their children.  (Your sons' children will inherit the mtDNA that their mothers carry.)

Your Y-DNA (carried only by males) should be exactly like carried by your father, and his father, and so forth.  Your sons and their sons will also have the same Y-DNA.  (A female who would like to have information on her father's Y-DNA would need to have her brother, or a paternal uncle, or one of their son's tested.)

That is the extent of my knowledge on this rapidly expanding topic.  For more information, please check out the new publication from the National Geographic Society that was referenced above.

Happy hunting! 

Walmart Does Something Right for a Change

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

In a move that was undoubtedly brought about by the recent mass killing at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, Doug McMillion, the CEO of Walmart, announced that the corporate giant would no longer sell certain types of ammunition, such as that used by assault-style weapons.  McMillion also said that sales of handguns would be stopped at Walmart's Alaska stores, the only state where the company still sells handguns.  And, as a final blow to the gun lobby, the Walmart CEO announced that "open-carry" will no longer be allowed in its stores.

Moments later Wayne LaPierre, the impeccably dressed CEO of the National Rifle Association (NRA), issued a statement condemning Walmart's new policies as "shameful" and predicting that NRA members would be taking their business elsewhere.

(LaPierre, who likes to do his own personal shopping on the NRA's corporate credit card, probably has not been in a Walmart in decades and does not realize many gun-toting Americans regard Walmart as more essential to their spiritual welfare than church.  If the NRA insists on getting into a pissing contest with Walmart, it had best bring a really big umbrella!)

And, as if the news from Walmart wasn't bad enough for the NRA, yesterday Kroger also announced that it would no longer allow "open carry" in its stores.  I guess when it rains, it pours - right on top of Wayne LaPierre's well-coiffed pointy little head!

It looks like corporate America may sidestep the NRA-owned Congress and begin fashioning its own public response to the national gun insanity.

A people's revolution led by Walmart - who could have possibly predicted that?

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

by Pa Rock
Movie Fan

While I was in Kansas this past weekend, Tim (my movie-writer son) and I went to a theatre to see Quentin Tarantino's new film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.  I hadn't been to an actual movie theatre in something like two years, so settling in for a movie in someplace as plush and comfortable at the Standees Theatre in Prairie Village, Kansas, was quite a treat.

(The popcorn was over-priced, even for movie theatre, but the free, refillable cups of ice water helped to take the sting out of the pricey popcorn - and the comfort level of the theatre was amazing!)

And the movie itself made the whole experience an unexpected treat.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is a retelling of an actual historical event, in this case events leading up to the murders of Sharon Tate and her friends in her home in the Hollywood hills, but with just a bit of a twist.  In the movie Tate and her husband, director Roman Polanski, live in a very nice home on a cut-de-sac at the end of a private road.  That much was true.  In the movie version, however, a washed out, alcoholic, former television cowboy star lives next door to Tate and Polanski.  That character, Rick Dalton, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, is very much a fictional creation of Tarentino - who directed and wrote the movie.

Rick Dalton's best friend is his stunt double, Cliff Booth, ably portrayed by Brad Pitt.  Booth works for Dalton as his driver and handyman even when they aren't making television shows or movies.  Most of this movie, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, focuses on the relationship between Dalton and Booth as they both struggle to remain relevant in a fast-changing Hollywood.

The year is 1969 and along with the two homes up in the Hollywood Hills, one rented to a real couple and the other occupied by a fictional individual, Sunset Strip is also alive with street people, some of whom are members of Charlie Manson's hippie "family."  As these flower children hitchhike up and down the Strip, one of them crosses paths with Cliff Booth.

Beyond that I am fearful of giving too much plot away - but suffice it to say that there is an action scene at the end of the movie that is pure Tarantino and will not be easily forgotten!

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, while not riveted to historical accuracy, does give a fairly lucid portrayal of what life in Hollywood and the greater Los Angeles area must have been like fifty years ago.  Tarantino has twisted the dial a bit on the ending, but his version certainly inspires some thought on how the smallest of changes can impact history in really big ways..

And the performances of Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt are both Oscar-worthy!

Monday's Poetry: "Look for the Union Label"

by Pa Rock
Proud Union Supporter

The International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) was formed in 1900 as a direct response to the low wages, long hours., and crowded working conditions in America's garment sweatshops.  The union grew in power and influence along with the rise of other American labor unions until the period after World War II when manufacturers began outsourcing, or sending jobs overseas to be completed by much more affordable non-union workers.

My father, who became a successful small town businessman during those same post war years, never liked unions.  He felt their big city workers were overpaid and increased the price of the goods they made to the point where he had trouble selling them.  He had also been in a union briefly after the war and bought into the notion that union "bosses" were "thugs" who lived off of the dues of the workers and did little in return for those they were supposed to represent.

My dad wrote an an autobiography of sorts a few years before he passed away.  In that collection of notes and thoughts was this gem:  "Unions have been the ruination of America!"  His only son has an opposite view - that unions strengthened the position of working people, and in doing that, strengthened America.

Dad had beautiful penmanship, but no understanding at all in the importance of unions in American society.

But back to the ILGWU:  As outsourcing began to skyrocket in the 1970's, and major American clothing retailers started importing boatloads of rags from China and India and Pakistan - and later Bangladesh, the International Ladies Garment Workers Union decided to fight for its right to exist.  Part of that effort was to sponsor a contest for a song that would inspire interest in the union and in buying American goods.  The following jingle won that contest, and it became a hit in certain circles. Those of us of a particular age tend to remember it quite well.  Sing if you must - and happy Labor Day!

(Note:   Immigrants are not stealing our jobs - American manufacturers are still sending those jobs overseas - even after their obscene tax breaks.  And major American retailers - "Hello" @Walmart - are stocking their shelves with goods that are made overseas!)

Bringing back the unions would go a long way toward making America great again!


Look for the Union Label
by Paula Green

Look for the union label

When you are buying a coat, dress, or blouse,

Remember somewhere our union's sewing,

Our wages going to feed the kids and run the house,

We work hard, but who's complaining?

Thanks to the ILG, we're paying our way,

So always look for the union label,

It says we're able to make it in the USA!