Lunatic Move Would Make Schools Even Less Safe

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

At a time when more and more American schools seem to be functioning as shooting galleries for angry, impotent young men, along comes an attention-seeking, elderly male politician with an insane plan to make our nation's schools even more dangerous.

Last weekend at a campaign rally in Richmond, Virginia, Donald Trump, a man who makes former Republican President George W. Bush look like a Rhodes Scholar, laid this threat on America's schools:

"I will not give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate or a mask mandate."

Trump, of course was not talking about his own pennies, he was talking about ours - the public treasury - and while the federal government is not the primary funder of America's public schools, loss of federal funds would have a staggering impact on our nation's schools and cause many to close.

Trump's declaration in Richmond came as part of a long rambling diatribe in which he seemed to be, at best, tenuously tethered to reality.  At one point during his ramblings he spoke as though the current US president was Obama.  After the campaign speech, some of the people who clean up his messes were quick to declare that Trump had not meant what he had said - and that he was talking only about COVID vaccine mandates.  Others, however, with clear hindsight, know that sometimes what Trump says, whether it sounds like nonsense or not, is exactly what he means and precisely where he is headed.  

Trump said exactly the same thing in Rock Hill, South Carolina last month.  It is a red meat line that he enjoys tossing to his extremist base who not only want to own the libs, but to tear them apart and feed them to their dogs for breakfast.  Libs are their mortal enemies.   Libs are often educated, and they become educated by going to school, so why not destroy the schools as a way to stamp out libs?

There would be no need to worry about Critical Race Theory if there was no place left to teach it.  Closing schools would close the school libraries, and many kids would no longer be able to get those subversive books that the teachers want them to read.  Taxpaying patriots would no longer have to spend sleepless nights worrying about who was using who's bathrooms at the local schools, or playing on which sports' teams.  Gone would be concerns about pronouns, and furries!  Getting rid of schools would just take care of so many important social problems all at once.  

And then America's kids would be free to become rich using their own big brains and initiative - just like Donald Trump did!

But here are some other facts, facts that came about through the study of hard science and not theology, phrenology, reflexology, numerology, or even cosmetology:

• Every state in the union has vaccine mandates that they impose of their public schools, and often other schools in the state as well - even the most conservative states.  Virginia, where Trump succumbed to his verbal diarrhea last weekend, has eleven vaccine requirements for students attending schools or other child care facilities.  
• Massachusetts has had vaccine requirements for schools since 1853.
• Trump, himself, was vaccinated against COVID.

Donald Trump is not a visionary whose aim is to lead us to a bright and shining future.  He is a mean-spirited and vindictive tyrant of a man who operates on grudges and retribution.   If he says that he is going to do something that would be a death knell for American education, we had best believe him.

Donald Trump's concern for America begins and ends with what is in his own interests - and school students certainly don't make that cut.

Now instead of just worrying about where to hide when some crazy shooter rushes into their school, students will also be burdened with concerns about becoming ill or even dying from things like measles, mumps, chicken pox, polio, COVID, RSV, the Plague, and God knows what all!  

Some day soon we will all be as smart as Trump - if we can just get rid of the damned schools!  

And if we can't get rid of the schools, let's at least make them so dangerous that parents will be afraid to send their kids there.  

Keep 'em stupid, Trump.  It's great politics!

Something Else for Congress to Investigate

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

I have learned quite a bit about helium (He) recently, and quite unintentionally, just by reading a scattering of news sites on the internet.  I know, for instance, that that helium is so rare and important that it forms the basis of a billion dollar business.  One thing I learned from the news recently was that once the balloon bursts and the helium floats off, it is gone forever.  For the billion dollar industry to survive, more must be found.

Yesterday there was a news story about a big helium discovery in Minnesota.  The initial discovery actually occurred in 2011 when a crew drilling for platinum and palladium in Minnesota's Iron Range drilled into a pocket of gas that contained 10.5% helium, the second highest concentration of helium ever found in North America.  Drillings at the site in the last month have yielded even better results with concentrations of helium ranging up to 12.4 percent.    That's roughly thirty times the standard for commercial helium.

The gas was found at depths between 1,750 feet and 2,200 feet.

Another thing which I have learned recently is that only about three percent of helium is used to fill balloons.  The precious gas is also used for an industrial coolant and in the production of fiber optics, semiconductors, and rocket components - and it is necessary in the running of MRI machines.  Clearly balloons are a fun distraction that waste an extremely valuable and rare resource which has many more important uses.

Now, please bear with me as I digress far afield.

Concentrating on helium concentrations led me to ponder the ultimate fate of my two favorite balloons in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade:  Rocky and Bullwinkle.  And reflecting on those two great Americans brought me to the realization that there is another floating element, one which was discovered  by Bullwinkle's Uncle Dewlap.  That element is a metal called "upsidaisium," which is not yet listed on the Periodic Table of Elements.  Dewlap left his upsidaisium mine, which was located on Mt. Flatten, to Bullwinkle, and that event inspired 36 segments of his and Rocky's hit television show during its second season in 1960-61.

There were problems associated with that bequest, of course, primarily caused by Russian agents Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale.

The exact location of Mt. Flatten was never given on the show, perhaps out of national security concerns, but considering the fact that Rocky and Bullwinkle were both Minnesota natives - from Frostbite Falls - it would seem entirely possible that Uncle Dewlap was from that area also - and ergo, his mine might there as well.

Now, I am definitely not a believer in coincidences, but if helium and upsidaisium are both naturally occurring elements beneath the ground and lakes of Minnesota, perhaps we should be taking extreme measures to protect those valuable resources and keep them safe.  Boris and Natasha are still around, you know, only now they work for Putin, and he is far more dangerous than their old boss, Khrushchev.

Chances are Boris and Natasha are already holed up at Mar-a-Lago, poring over their charts and maps, and planning to steal the new helium supply and float it off to Moscow in a Chinese spy balloon.

Congress should investigate.  Congress MUIST investigate!  It's not like they have anything better to do!

It's Not Immigrants Who are Poisoning America

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

In Adolf Hitler's manifesto, "Mein Kämpf" he used the term "blood poisoning" to criticize what he saw as the "mixing" of the races, and he was particularly distraught at the idea of German blood being "poisoned" by Jews.  The notion of poisoned blood is a strong racist sentiment that is deeply rooted in Nazi totalitarian movement that took over much of Europe and threatened the entire world during World War Two.  Unfortunately, that sentiment is still promoted and thriving in certain fascist and authoritarian countries and milieus today - including among modern day Nazis.

Donald Trump obviously likes to promote racist tripe like that because it helps to keep his low-information and less-educated base stirred up and focused on the southern border while also distracting them from Trump's criminal history, lies, and grifting.  In December while campaigning in New Hampshire, Trump went off on one of his tirades about immigrants by thundering at a rally in Durham, "They're poisoning the blood of our country.    They're coming into our country from Africa, from Asia, all over the world."

Spewing about "blood poisoning" and then citing Africa and Asia as offending exporters of immigrant populations - places when the majority populations are non-white, hits all of the right notes in Trump's dog whistle symphony.

Trump particularly likes to focus on Mexico and our southern border because that is the immigration issue which is easiest for him to use to manipulate his voters.   One of his tired, old rants about the immigrants out of Mexico is:  "They're bringing drugs.   They're bringing crime.  They're rapists."  Drugs, crime, rape - odd selections to focus on for that particular orator.

Alaska's senior US Senator, Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, also thinks America is being poisoned, but Murkowski sees the poisoning as having an entirely different source than the tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free.   Lisa Murkowski, the Republican senator from Alaska, believes the source of the poisoning of America is Donald John Trump.  Back about the time Trump was venting his spleen on the subject of "poisoning American blood," Senator Murkowski issued this rebuttal on Twitter:

"With the exception of Alaska Natives and Native Peoples, most of us are daughters and sons of immigrants who came to this country to build a better life for themselves and their families.  Legal immigration from people across the world is woven into the fabric of American exceptionalism, and comments from the former president couldn't be further from the truth.  This is more hateful, harmful rhetoric from Donald Trump that is poisoning our country."

Senator Murkowski said yesterday that she will not vote for Donald Trump in November - nor will she vote for Biden.  Senator Mitt Romney, a Republican senator from Utah, has also said that he will not vote for Trump in November.  Romney, a former Republican presidential nominee, said that he will probably write in his wife, Ann Romney, for president.  A third Republican senator, Susan Collins of Maine, has stated that she is not currently supporting Trump's bid for the White House.

Today is "Super Tuesday," the day in the election calendar when people in certain states get to cement in the nominees for the major political parties that the rest of us are supposed to feel obligated to support - and on this Super Tuesday the Republicans are having a presidential primary election in Maine (the home of Republican Senator Susan Collins), and presidential caucuses in Alaska (the home of Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski) and Utah (the home of Republican Senator Mitt Romney).  

Wouldn't it be great if the Republican voters in those three states - Maine, Alaska, and Utah - could summon the integrity and moral courage of their senators, push the poison aside, and do what is best for the nation.  If they want a strong conservative, Nikki Haley is on the ballot, and she isn't dragging along criminal and racist baggage.

The immigrants are not the problem.  Donald John Trump is.

Jeanette Rankin Stood Tall for her Beliefs

 

by Pa Rock

History Enthusiast

A young suffragette and peace activist from Montana by the name of Jeanette Rankin became the first woman in history to be seated in the United States Congress on this date in 1917.  She had been elected, as a Republican, the preceding November to one of two at-large House seats that had been allocated to Montana based on the relatively new state's population.  

Rep. Rankin became a member of the US House of Representatives more than three full years before women across the entire United States received the right to vote with the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution in August of 1920.  By the time that women's suffrage (the right to vote) was granted nationwide by the Constitution, it was already in effect in several western states including more than a half century in Wyoming (1869) and Utah (1870).  Rep. Rankin's own state of Montana had granted women the right to vote in 1914, two years before Rankin won her seat in Congress.  She had been an activist in the fight to get the vote for women in Montana.

Jeanette Rankin made her mark in American history by being the first female elected to Congress, but she didn't stop there.  It was as a peace activist where she truly had an impact.  The lady from Montana had been serving in the House for exactly one month when President Woodrow Wilson came before a Joint Session of Congress and gave a speech requesting a formal declaration of war against Germany.  Jeanette Rankin was one of fifty House members to vote "no" on the request to take the United States into what would become known as World War I.  (Six senators also voted "no.")

The following year the Montana legislature changed the congressional delegation selection from two at-large seats to two single district seats, and gerrymandered Rankin into a strongly Democratic district, so she chose to run for the Senate instead and lost that election decisively.  Her opposition to the entry of the US in World War I has been seen as part of the reason she lost that election.

On that vote in opposition to the US entering the war, Jeanette Rankin later said, "I felt the first time a woman had a chance to say no to war, she should say it."

In 1940 Jeanette Rankin again ran for Congress in the state of Montana and managed to win that election .  She was sworn into office on January 3rd, 1941, and during most of her first year in Congress there was a great deal of national dialogue about whether the United States should engage in the wars which were spreading around the globe.   However, public opinion on the matter was not solidified until December 7th, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.  Then, of course, President Franklin D. Roosevelt went before a Joint Session of Congress  - as President Wilson had done during Jeanette Rankin's first term in Congress. - and asked for a Declaration of War against Japan.

The vote for entry into the Second World War was far more lopsided than the vote for entry into the First World War had been.   This time only one member of either chamber, the House or Senate, voted against entry into the war - and that member was Jeanette Rankin of Montana.  There were boos and hisses from the House gallery and recriminations nationwide.  Rep. Everett Dirksen of Illinois tried to get her to change her vote, or to at least abstain, but the principled congresswoman refused.  She was chased into the House cloakroom by a gaggle of reporters and took refuge in a phone booth until she could be rescued by Capitol Police.   Photos of Rankin in the phone booth ran in newspapers across the country.

Jeanette Rankin said of her second vote against going to war:  "As a woman I can't go to war, and I refuse to send anyone else."

Her political career was over after two single terms in the US House of Representatives, but Jeanette Rankin was not finished as an activist.  She traveled extensively and visited India on multiple occasions where she studied the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi.  

During the 1960's and early 1970's the indomitable Miss Rankin was out and about leading protests against US involvement in the war in Vietnam.  "The Jeanette Rankin Brigade," a coalition of women's peace groups, held an anti-war march in Washington DC, that was the largest women's demonstration in the US since the days of the suffragist movement, and Rankin herself, then in her late eighties, led a march of 5,000 women from Union Station to the Capitol Building where they presented a peace petition to the Speaker of the House.

Jeanette Rankin passed away in Carmel, California, on May 18th, 1973, at the age of ninety-two.   She has been memorialized with a statue in Statuary Hall at the US Capitol as well as in the Montana state capitol, and she has also been inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.

When it came to standing up for her beliefs, few have stood as tall as Jeanette Rankin.  She talked the talk and walked the walk - and never worried about mundane matters like getting re-elected!

A Nomination for Our Next National Anthem

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

I came across a historical blurb on the internet this morning stating that "The Star-Spangled Banner" became our official national anthem on this date in 1931 as the result of a resolution passed by Congress and signed into law by President Herbert Hoover.  That means that seven years from now it will have been our official national song for a full century. 

Perhaps now might be an appropriate time to consider an upgrade - and that is something that I do not propose lightly.  The current anthem is a description of the "defense of Fort McHenry" (aka the British bombardment of Baltimore) during the War of 1812.  It was, as many of us learned in elementary school, penned by Francis Scott Key on the morning following the battle when he saw the American flag still flying. 

Francis Scott Key not only wrote the words to what would become our national anthem, he also paired them to the tune of an old British drinking song called "To Anacreon in Heaven," a song that was popular in the men's social clubs of London in the 1700's.  (So while the words were a counterpunch to British military might, the tune paid homage to British life and culture.)   It is the same tune (?) that is still in use with the song today.

A variety of songs had been used to show American patriotism before the "Star-Spangled Banner" became officially enshrined as our national anthem, and some were much more pleasant to the ear and easier to sing.  One often cited is "My Country Tis of Thee" which was written by Samuel Francis Smith in 1832, just twenty years after Key penned his poem and song.  We've all heard it, and we all can sing it.  Here is the opening chorus:

"My country, 'tis of thee,

sweet land of liberty, 

of thee I sing:

land where my fathers died,

land of the pilgrims' pride,

from every mountain side

let freedom ring!"

And there are plenty of other patriotic songs that could inspire Americans to stand and cheer and sing.  My personal favorite, and the one I would nominate as a replacement to our current less-than-riveting national anthem is "This Land Is Your Land" by American musician, singer, poet, and  patriot, Woody Guthrie.  Guthrie wrote his iconic, people-based vision of America in 1940 as a response to Irving Berlin's religiously-laced offering, "God Bless America."

Here is America as seen through the unflinching eyes of Woody Guthrie.  I'm smiling and singing along  as I type!

This Land is Your Land

by Woody Guthrie

This land is your land, and this land is my land

From California to the New York island

From the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream waters

This land was made for you and me

As I went walking that ribbon of highway

And I saw above me that endless skyway

I saw below me that golden valley

This land was made for you and me

I've roamed and rambled, and I've followed my footsteps

To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts

All around me, a voice was sounding

This land was made for you and me

There was a big, high wall there that tried to stop me

A sign painted said "Private Property"

But on the backside, it didn't say nothing

This land was made for you and me

When the sun come shining, then I was strolling

And the wheat fields waving, and the dust clouds rolling

The voice was chanting as the fog was lifting

This land was made for you and me

This land is your land, and this land is my land

From California to the New York island

From the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream waters

This land was made for you and me

Human Rights Should Still Matter

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Palestinian health authorities in Gaza have reported that at least 112 Palestinian civilians were killed and more that 280 wounded this past Thursday when Israeli forces opened fire on a large group of people as they were trying to get to aid trucks carrying food near Gaza City.

Israeli forces, while not denying that they fired into the crowd, attributed the "dozens" of deaths to people being trampled.

Meanwhile the World Health Organization yesterday officially listed its tenth fatality report of a Palestinian child having starved to death.

Desperate people who are starving and whose children are literally dying of malnutrition and starvation are climbing over one another through flying bullets trying to grab anything that could prolong their wretched lives.  There have been reports of humans and rats fighting over scraps of food.  The situation is horrible beyond description, beyond measure.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have both accused Israel of blocking relief aid headed to Gaza.

The death toll in Gaza is now over 30,000.

There is talk of an extended ceasefire, and talks are occurring in Qatar, but Israeli Prime Minister  Netanyahu does not seem to be ready to halt the assaults on Gaza.  President Biden is talking about using the US military to air-drop food and medicine into Gaza as a way to get around Israel's blocking of aid delivery, but so far that is only talk and nothing is airborne.

Yesterday there was a photo on multiple internet news sites of a group of female Israeli soldiers standing on a rise in front of bombed-out stretch of urban landscape in Gaza.   They were smiling into their cell phones and taking "selfies."   What their cell phone cameras undoubtedly failed to capture was the misery clawing around in all of that rubble for anything edible, even garbage.

At what point will it be politically correct in the United States of America to openly refer to what is happening in Gaza as "genocide"?   When will Americans be able to complain about the overreach and cruelty of the Israeli government and military without being vilified as being "anti-semitic"?  Will there come a time when we can recognize this atrocity for what it is and quit funding it?

Human rights should still matter.

(Update:  News reports today state that the US has just dropped 38,000 prepared meals into Gaza.  Well done, Joe!  Don't stop now - keep it up!)

Notes on the Passing of Brian Mulroney

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

I have seen five US Presidents in my life time, three before they were elected to that office, one while he was actually serving, and one after he completed his tenure, but I never actually got close enough to any of them to shake their hands or to offer up sage advice.  But I did have one close encounter with the leader of another country.  In 1990 I walked up to Brian Mulroney, who was then the Prime Minister of Canada, as he was dealing with reporters outside of the Canadian Parliament building in Ottawa, and I shook his hand.  Mulroney was every inch the well-dressed, conservative politician who had just finished a major address to a joint session of Parliament and to the Canadian people, and I was an an American tourist who looked as though he might be aspiring to be the next Chevy Chase in a film called "Canadian Vacation."  

Mulroney was not nearly as impressed with our encounter as I was.

This morning I heard that Brian Mulroney, who served as Prime Minister of Canada from 1984 until 1993, has died.  He passed away yesterday in Palm Beach, Florida, at the age of eighty-four.

The following  is a piece that I wrote for this blog on October 24th, 2014, which discussed that very brief encounter which I had with the Prime Minister of Canada on what was one of the most important days of his tenure in that high office.

"Terrorism Comes to Canada"

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

A young Canadian man and possible recent convert to Islam (according to Fox Noise) shot a soldier at the Canadian War Memorial in Ottawa a couple of days ago, then commandeered a car and driver and made his way to Parliament where he managed to get inside of the building and fire off a couple of more rounds before he was fatally shot by Parliament's Sergeant-at-Arms.  The shooter, 32-year-old Michael Zehaf-Bibeau,  had recently had his passport revoked by the Canadian government and was reportedly a person of interest to the government.  He was using a lever-action hunting rifle that, without reloading - which he did not do - could fire a maximum of eight single shots.

The Canadian Parliament has been remarkably easy to access.  When the shooter was killed, he was reportedly outside of the room where Prime Minister Stephen Harper was meeting with his party caucus.

I heard on the radio this morning that the grounds of the Canadian Parliament are used by the public on a daily basis - for strolling, playing frisbee, and even yoga classes.  Now, sadly, security is likely to be ramped up with the result being something like the nearly inaccessible United States Capitol.

In the summer of 1990 our family took a leisurely vacation drive through much of Ontario and Quebec.  One Saturday as we were driving toward Ottawa, the capital, the Prime Minister at the time, Brian Mulroney, was on all of the local radio stations promoting the Meech Lake Accord, an agreement that he and the ten provincial premiers had reached regarding five new proposed amendments to the Canadian Constitution.  The amendments, which ultimately failed to make it into the constitution, were designed to make the residents of Quebec, a province with a strong historical French culture,  feel more respected and accepted by the rest of Canada.  Mulroney was giving his radio address from the Parliament building in Ottawa.

Mulroney was still speaking as we rolled into Ottawa and onto the grounds of Parliament.  We had just parked and were climbing out of our van when a group of reporters rushed by and one said that the Prime Minister was about to come out.  Being tourists, we followed the crowd to a set of large ornate doors which immediately swung open and discharged Prime Minister Mulroney, his wife, and a squad of government bureaucrats out into the small crowd.   The elected leader of Canada paused long enough to shake a few hands, including mine, and then climbed into his limo and was whisked away from the unwashed masses.

I thought at the time how refreshingly different Canada was from Reagan's fortress America.  I hope this week's shooting doesn't result in them becoming as paranoid and as isolated from their halls of government as we are.

Canada, do not overreact.  You're better than that!

If You're Confused, Blame Greg

 

by Pa Rock

Calendrical Calculator

If my parents had possessed the good sense to conceive their first pregnancy just twenty-three days before they actually hit the jackpot back in the 1940's, I would be celebrating my 19th birthday today instead of staring down the shotgun barrel at the imminent arrival of number seventy-six in just a little over three weeks.

Wouldn't that be something, to be sitting down to a birthday cake with my name on it and just nineteen candles!  Of course I would still be 912 months old - aka 27,759 days old - and possibly not have enough wind or energy to blow out nineteen flames!

Welcome to Leap Year 2024 - the only time the month of February will have twenty-nine days between the February that occurred in 2020 and the one that will happen in 2028.  The solar calendar, the one used by most of the world, was designed to reflect a complete cycle of the Earth's orbit around the Sun, but that orbit actually takes about three hundred and sixty-five and one-quarter days, so an extra day (February 29th) was added every four years to keep the calendar and the seasons aligned.  We call that auspicious date "Leap Year."

But even the adjustment of an extra day every four years does not  completely end the discrepancy, and to bring the solar calendar into even tighter alignment with the time it actually takes for the Earth to travel around the Sun, one Leap Year has to be dropped in three of every four centuries.  In the Gregorian calendar, the one established by Pope Gregory XIII and the one we use today, there is no Leap Year for years ending in double zeros - unless those years are divisible by four.  So, after Greg finished putting his new calendar together in 1582, and 1600 rolled around, there was a Leap Year because 1600 is divisible by four.  But there was no Leap Year in the years 1700, 1800, or 1900.    But, when 2000 arrived - our beloved New Millennium - there was a Leap Year - which would have given me my 19th candle - if today was my birthday - which it isn't.

If you're confused, blame Greg - and tax the church!

Happy Leap Year anyway!

Number 24 Keeps his Mouth Shut

by Pa Rock

Senior in a Warm Spell

Yesterday was beautiful, absolutely gorgeous.  When Alexa woke me before daylight, she announced that the temperature outside was already in the mid-fifties, and during the day it would likely reach the mid-eighties.   That's not too shabby for late February with several weeks yet to go before spring officially arrives.  

I've had jonquils blooming for two weeks, and the narcissus are just a couple of days away from showing their own blossoms.

I spent yesterday morning in front of the computer, like I always do, banging out some thoughts for the blog.  As I watched the birds at the feeders being blown off of their perches by the warm, gusty spring breezes, I typed a posting about people who set themselves on fire and burn to death as a form of social protest.  Then, when that obligation was complete, I decided to capitalize on the beautiful day by doing something entirely for me - and I grabbed a few supporting documents and headed off to the local DMV to get my driver's license renewed!

Ah, spring!

The DMV was crowded, like it always is, but they have a system set up where customers "take a number" from a dispenser when they enter the building.   I headed straight to where the little ticket dispenser had stood on a counter for the past several years, and was panicked to discover that it was no longer where it belonged.   Finally a good Samaratan (Number 23) who was sitting next to the door, directed me to the ticket dispenser's new location and I pulled out ticket Number 24.  The counter on the wall said that Number 15 was currently being served, so I found a comfy spot out of the way and began concentrating on clearing the spam from my phone.

"Sixteen."  Great, we were starting to move!

I have the unique ability to entertain myself in group settings without bothering others, but unfortunately that does not seem to be a skill shared by the people who tend to congregate around me.   As I sat there trying to do my own thing, I kept being drawn toward the conversation of two old coots sitting further down the row.  Both of the men were there for driver's license renewals, just like me, and one was busy describing to the other a piece of land and an old house that he owned in a community that is about seventy-five miles away from West Plains, the place where the discussion was occurring.

As the man got into his spiel I quickly realized that although I did not recognize him, the land and house that he was describing were familiar to me.  I had heard that same long-winded description given in the very same office at some point in the past.  Perhaps he and I had both been there on the same day three years earlier when we had our drivers' licenses renewed the last time!

I didn't hear the property owner give his age, but the listener, a well dressed man who was there with his wife, announced that he would be ninety-two in a few days - which means the he likely got his first license on just about the day I was born.

A couple of clerks finished their dealings with customers, and instead of calling new numbers, disappeared.  It was lunch time and the office which didn't close for lunch, nevertheless allowed its employees to eat.  Just my luck.

"Seventeen."  There went the man with the out-of-county property.  I focused on my phone with a vengeance out of fear that his 92-year-old buddy would turn on me for conversation.

"Eighteen."  The property owner had been sent out to secure another document, and his clerk was open for a new customer.

"Nineteen.  Twenty.  Twenty-one."  A worker had returned from lunch and the first two numbers he called had apparently given up and left.  I had cleared my in-box and messages, and was working on emptying the spam and trash when things in the office suddenly began to get interesting.

"Twenty-two."

A very old and large man who had been holed-up in the most remote corner of the lobby slowly got to his feet, leaned on his lethal-looking cane, and said in a loud, yet solemn voice, "What happened to twelve?"

"Twelve?"  A young worker at the counter asked with more than a little trepidation in her voice.

"I'm number twelve and I'm still waiting on my turn."  The man was bald, but there was a small black storm cloud gathering above his head that resembled a toupee.

"Sir, we've already called twelve and nobody answered."

"No you didn't."  He did not look or sound like the type of person who would take "no" gracefully.  

There was undoubtedly a sign somewhere that said firearms weren't permitted inside of the DMV, but I hadn't seen it - and we were in Missouri - so I started looking for cover, but that proved to be unnecessary.  The lady who was dealing with the man had apparently been to an inservice training based on just this contingency, and she handled the matter expertly.  The clerk apologized and promised the individual that he would be the next served, and nobody down the food chain, including the usually problematic Number 24, offered any objections whatsoever.

And thirty minutes another clerk called my number, I yelled "bingo," and thirty minutes after that I was home and typing again.

Today it's colder, but I will still head out to cardiac rehab in an hour or so dressed in gym shorts and a sweatshirt.  When you're my age, you live life with the throttle wide open!

The Shock and Power of Self-Immolation

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

A young man with a Palestinian flag set himself on fire outside of the Israeli Consulate in Atlanta on December 1st, and while he did not die in the incident he did suffer very serious injuries in his highly personal protest of Israel's unrelenting attacks on the civilians and children of Gaza.

This past Sunday Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old member of the United States Air Force, set himself on fire outside of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC, again over the savagery that the Israeli military has been unleashing on the Palestinians in Gaza.  Airman Bushnell, who live-streamed his self-immolation on social media, died from his injuries the following day.

That type of personal protest, setting oneself on fire, is not original, but it does tend to be highly effective in drawing the eyes of the world to a specific problem.

On June 11th, 1963, a Buddhist monk who was living and working at a monastery and orphanage Hue, the old capital of Vietnam, decided that he would set himself on fire as a protest to the United States' growing involvement in the civil war in his homeland.  The monk, Thich Quang Duc, loaded his Austin Westminster Sedan with a few younger monks and a couple of cans of gasoline - and drove off to Saigon where he notified several foreign journalists of a planned "shocking political protest" that he was going to hold against the government of South Vietnam which was being backed by the United States.  The monk told the journalists where and when the protest would be held, but only one showed up, a photojournalist named Malcolm Wilde Browne who wound up winning a Pulitzer Prize for taking the time to attend the monk's protest.

When Thich Quang Duc arrived at the scene he seated himself on the curb in the lotus position and waited as several hundred people gathered.  Then the young monks carefully and thoroughly doused him in gasoline, and the seated monk struck a match and set himself ablaze.  For the next couple of minutes the burning monk chanted prayers while the flames consumed him - and the journalist took photos

The ;photographs of the burning monk resonated with people around the world, and President Kennedy was reportedly so affected by the image that he began to reevaluate his position on the war in Vietnam.

Self-immolation is a drastic measure of passion and self-sacrifice that is very effective at drawing attention to an issue.  We may question the ultimate sanity of those who choose this recourse, but their commitment to the cause is beyond doubt.

Rod Stewart is Still Making his Music

 

by Pa Rock

Music Fan

Alexa and I are listening to Rod Stewart and Jools Holland's new album, Swing Fever, this morning, and it has the house a-rockin'!

Rod Stewart first pounced on the music scene with Maggie May, more than half a century ago (1971), and he has gone on to sell more that 120 million records including ten number one albums and six top singles.  In his spare time Stewart has shared his life with five long-term female partners and three wives - and accumulated eight children and a knighthood along the way.  Today, at seventy-nine, Sir Roderick David Stewart is still performing fifty or sixty live shows a year - and continuing to share his full-throated, raspy voice with the world.

Stewart's latest, the swing-jazz collection, Swing Fever, is a collaboration with British pianist an band leader, Jools Holland, and it is a clear change of pace for the old rocker - very smooth, rhythmic, and jazzy - and a pleasing break from the Rod Stewart we have known and enjoyed over the many years that he has been performing.  In some ways the new album reminds me of when Willie Nelson changed his pace with the Stardust album or when Linda Ronstadt's What's New with Nelson Riddle and his Orchestra took her and us to another time.

The cuts on Swing Fever, which just came out three days ago, are:   Lullaby of Broadway (with tap dancing!), Oh Marie, Sentimental Journey, Pennies from Heaven, Night Train, Love is the Sweetest Thing, Them There Eyes, Good Rockin' Tonight, Ain't Misbehaving', Frankie and Johnnie, Walkin' My Baby Back Home, Almost Like Being in Love, and Tennessee Waltz.

(Yes, Stewart and Holland even jazzed up Patti Page's old hit, Tennessee Waltz, and gave it new life!)

Young Rod probably could have stolen his daddy's cue back in the 1960's and make a living out of shooting pool, but this tired old typist, for one, is mighty glad that he didn't!

Rock on, Sir Rod!

More Political Interference in Reproductive Rights

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Reproductive rights were in the news again last week when a group of Cracker Jack lawyers calling itself the Supreme Court of Alabama issued a ruling declaring that frozen human embryos are de facto human babies and deserve the same rights and protections that Alabama hopefully gives to its babies who have passed through a birth canal and are now breathing air.  A day or so later GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley, a married Christian mother of two grown children, entered the discussion by saying that she also regards human embryos as babies.

In vitro fertilization is a procedure in which eggs are removed from a woman's ovary and combined with sperm cells outside the body to form embryos.  The embryos are grown in the laboratory for several days and then placed in a woman's uterus or cryopreserved (frozen) for future use.  The overall process is generally referred to as IVF.

Last week's decision by the Alabama Supreme Court was in response to couples who lost their frozen embryos because of an accident in a south Alabama storage facility.  The court said that the couples could sue under the state's wrongful death law.  That sent shock waves through hospitals and laboratories involved in IVF, and three Alabama hospitals - including the University of Alabama Hospital - have since announced that they will no longer be involved in IVF procedures until the law is clarified and personnel involved in the procedures have legal protections.

IVF is a fairly common procedure used by couples who encounter difficulties in procreating.  There are currently an estimated 800,000 to one million frozen embryos in the United States.

Politicians, and Republican politicians in particular, who often have an outsized interest in reproductive issues, and who have generally been opposed to procedures like abortion, surrogacy, and even birth control, seem to have been caught off guard by the wide public support of IVF, and many are now scrambling to get onboard with the well established medical process.   Donald Trump, a politician who reportedly favors a national abortion ban, has sprung to the defense of IVF and called on the Alabama state legislature to pass a law safeguarding the procedure.   Joe Biden, a more ardent supporter of reproductive rights than Trump, has called the decision by the Alabama Supreme Court "outrageous and unacceptable."

With the Big Kahunas of both major political parties spurning the Alabama decision, perhaps it will be legislated away before the elderly politicians (of both genders) on the US Supreme Court feel compelled to weigh in - and God only knows what type of egg they would hatch!    A quick legislative solution at the national level would be ideal, but, of course, the current Congress is one of the most ineffective in the history of the republic, so a remedy from them is unlikely.   The impending lack of a quick, national solution opens a whole Pandora's box of other issues.

If a frozen embryo has a right to life, what other rights does it have?  Should it have representation in government as a person - or perhaps as a "partial" person as the Founding Fathers originally deemed slaves in America to be?  Will it have a right to legal counsel or public assistance in the event it is abandoned by its donors?

It is truly a shame that our political leaders do not take the same level of interest in meeting the basic needs of living, breathing children as they do the "babies" in the freezer.

Letitia James Kicks Political Butt!

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

New York's relentless and ferocious attorney general, Letitia James, has just felled her third political giant in less that four years - and the second in less than a month - feats that mark her as a political force in her own right 

In 2021 Ms. James began looking into allegations of sexual harassment of female state employees by the three-term Democratic governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, the son of a former governor and the brother of a well-known national news television correspondent.  The state attorney general, herself a Democrat, did not let party affiliation interfere with her investigation of the women's complaints against the governor, and in August of that year she issued a finding and a lengthy report stating that Cuomo had harassed current and former state employees as well as a number of women outside of state government.  A couple of weeks after her report was released, Cuomo bowed to mounting public pressure and resigned as governor.

Score one for the giant killer!

Ms. James also brought a fraud case against Donald Trump in the state of New York alleging that he had defrauded the state out of millions of dollars by intentionally distorting and misreporting the values of his properties in order to obtain preferential loan and tax tax rates.  A little over a week ago the judge in that case ruled that Trump owes the state of New York in the neighborhood of $450 million - nearly a quarter of which is back interest on that debt.  (Post-judgment interest on that debt is nearly $112,000 per day.)  Trump is whining about political persecution, and Ms. James is countering that the state will begin seizing his New York assets if he does not pay up - and she was reportedly looking at Trump Tower when she said it.

Score two!

The National Rifle Association, a non-profit gun-rights group which was based in New York, became a target in 2020 when Attorney General James sued the the group for violating state law governing how charities registered in New York can operate.   A particular target of the suit was alleged extravagant personal spending  by Wayne LaPierre, the group's leader for the past three decades, as well as spending by some other members of top NRA leadership.  LaPierre resigned his position within the group as the trial began, but that did not allow him to escape legal consequences for his past actions.  Yesterday the National Rifle Association and Wayne LaPierre were found liable for misspending millions of dollars on extravagant perks.  LaPierre himself was found liable for $5.4 million in damages - much of which went for expensive vacations, flights on private jets, and fine Italian suits.

And that makes a three-bagger!

Letitia James is a political dynamo, someone who is not afraid to deal with corruption where she finds it and to face down the political giants of our time - of either party.  Some would have us believe that that there are no US political leaders-in-waiting who are capable dealing with Kim Jong-un, Xi Jinping, or Putin, but Letitia James would no doubt disagree - and so might Andrew Cuomo, Donald Trump, and Wayne LaPierre.  And at sixty-five years of age, she is still a pup by the standards of both major political parties, but that pup sure can bite!

February Is Now be the Cruelest Month

 

by Pa Rock

Observer of Nature

For those who plan their lives around a calendar, spring traditionally begins during the third full week of March, and for others of a more intuitive nature spring has sprung when the roses begin budding and blooming, the baby birds are hatching out, and the sounds of lawnmowers start to fill the air - and all of that often happens in April, or at least it did up until a few years ago.

The 14th century poet, Geoffrey Chaucer, saw April as the time of rebirth.  In the prologue to his "Canterbury Tales," Chaucer declared:  

"When April the sweet showers fall

And pierce the drought of March to the root, and all

The veins are bathed in liquor of such power

As brings about the engendering of the flower . . . "

And nearly six centuries later American and British poet T.S. Eliot expressed a very similar view in the opening lines to his epic poem, "The Waste Land:"

"April is the cruellest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain."

But weather patterns have changed and poets today who want to bang on about the arrival of spring might feel pressured by reality to forgo the pleasant two-syllable "April" and instead go with the clunkier four-syllable "February" in celebrating nature's annual rebirth.

The temperature was in the seventies here in the Ozarks yesterday, and it will be again today - as well as much of next week.  Winter almost never happened, and it certainly did not get cold enough for long enough to interfere with the coming summer's crop of ticks and chiggers.  This summer will likely be an itching and scratching fiasco!  

The sprawling old lilac bush that stands in front of my house and tries to pull me off of the mower whenever I get too close is already heavy with green buds.  It's veins are drawing liquor from the dead land and preparing to burst forth into fragrant flowers - and it's only February!

Can the dandelions be far behind?

The arrival of spring stayed fairly constant during the five hundred and thirty years between the time Chaucer penned his Canterbury Tales in 1392 and Eliot described his Waste Land in 1922, but now, just one century past Eliot's classic, spring has advanced two full months.

It's called global warming, and it is a product of global capitalism raping, and smothering, and poisoning the only home that we have, the home we all must share - and it has been done solely through greed so that some may live better than others.

Chaucer and Eliot would both be aghast and ashamed, and all of us should be.

(Note for language purists:  Yes, I realize that I spelled "cruelest' two different ways.  It has one "l" in the title because that is the American spelling and this is an American blog-posting, and the word has 'two "l's" in the quote from "The Waste Land," because that is the British spelling and the poem was composed and published in Great Britain, and that is the spelling which was used by the poet - who was actually a native of Missouri.)

A Politician Pimping Sneakers

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

One day after a judge in New York hit Donald Trump with a whopping $355 million dollar fine in a business fraud trial, the consumate huckster was back at it with all of his grifter flags a-flying.    Trump showed up at Sneaker Con in Philadelphia promoting his new golden, high-top "Never Surrender" line of sneakers.  The gleaming, golden footwear are adorned with American flags on their backsides and a capital "T" embossed on each individual shoe.  They sell for just $399 per pair - and the pre-sale of 1,000 pairs apparently had already sold out by the time Trump took the stage in Philadelphia to tout his latest retail sales triumph.

Over the years Trump has also sold hats, wine, steaks, a board game, and "university" degrees - and there is apparently no shortage of customers for his wares.  In fact, there is probably one born every minute.

Newsweek made an effort to find out where the Trump shoes were being manufactured, but has so far been unsuccessful.  The business responsible for the shoes in headquartered in Wyoming - on paper, at least.  Looking for the union label would probably be a waste of time.

Congratulations on the launch of your new business, Donald.   The state of New York and E. Jean Carroll are cheering you on!

The Agony of de Feet

 

by Pa Rock

Rural Resident

(Note:  The following story was told to me by my old college friend, Mike Box, over breakfast this past  weekend in Mission, Kansas.  It had occurred last fall in Howell County, Missouri, the rural southern Missouri county where I reside, and Mike's retelling of the news account was the first that I had heard of the gruesome tale which follows.  My friend has since forwarded a copy of the newspaper article where he got his information.  It was in the February 15, 2024, edition of the "Springfield (Missouri) News-Leader,"  The article, written by Ryan Collingwood, was entitled "Willow Springs man staged farm accident, paid someone to cut off his feet, authorities say."  The title for today's blog posting was provided by my old friend.  Thanks, Mike.)

This story begins in November of last year when the Howell County Sheriff's Office was notified of a farm "accident" near the town of Willow Springs where an elderly person, a man in his sixties, had lost his feet in a brush-hogging accident.  (A brush-hog is a mower deck that attaches to the back of a tractor and is used to clear large acerages of sprouts and brush.)  

The sheriff's office responded by sending out an experienced investigator to see exactly what was going on, and the investigator quickly developed concerns about the truthfulness of the report.  For one thing, the man's feet appeared to be truly lost - they could not be located by the medics or deputies who responded to the call.    The investigator also noted that the wounds where the feet had been removed were too clean to have been the work of a brush-hog, which would have left them more mangled.  Another curiosity was the fact that the man's legs had tourniquets applied before the responders arrived, and it was unclear who had provided that first-aid treatment.

The man's feet were eventually discovered by a relative.  They were hidden in a bucket and obscured by some tires.

There were too many questions and too few answers for the tale the tale that law enforcement and medics were being given.

The sheriff's investigator determined that it had been a "staged accident" and a news release was put out to that effect not long after the incident occurred.  The "victim," who was known to be a paraplegic in his lower extremities, hired a man from Florida to come to Missouri and chop off his feet with a hatchet, with the ultimate objective being insurance fraud.

(He put out a "hit" on his own feet!)

The "victim" was not arrested because he ultimately did not follow through with the insurance claim and had therefore not committed fraud, and he was not charged with wasting law enforcement time and resources because the sheriff's office did not want to go through the expense and bother of incarcerating what would have been an expensive and problematic patient/prisoner.  He also was not mentioned by name in the article in the Springfield newspaper because the Howell County prosecutor never charged the man with a crime.  He did, however, have a prolonged stay in the hospital.

The case was recently closed, but it remains one of the more interesting tales to emerge from the Ozarks in recent years.  If there is ever a sequel to "Winter's Bone," perhaps this bloody incident will merit a cameo!

Missouri's Presidential Preference Selection Process is a Mess

 

by Pa Rock

Missouri Citizen Journalist

Voters in Missouri do not register by political parties.  The state has an "open primary" system in which people who show up to vote in a primary election may choose the ballot of either party, even if it is not the party that they generally voted for in the past. 

There are two major ways in which ordinary citizens make their voices heard in the selection of presidential candidates, by presidential primary elections or by party caucuses.  Caucuses, which are precinct or county meetings of voters in a particular party, are a burden for people with full-time jobs or young children, so often a very small percentage of actual voters show up at caucuses, and the party leaders and elected officials dominate the process.   Presidential primaries are simpler and just involve going to the polls and voting.

Years ago my state, Missouri, used party caucuses to select their delegates to the presidential conventions.   By using caucuses the party bosses and political leaders kept the power of delegate selection to themselves and essentially froze the common people out of the process.  It was the anthesis of democracy - where the people would get to decide.

In 1984 I was responsible for setting up a presidential preference caucus in a rural Missouri county.  It took a lot of work to find a good location, advertise, get the rules printed, provide for refreshments, etc, but my team and I managed to pull it off.  The caucus was held in the county courthouse, and about forty people showed up - and of those, about a third were actually members of the other political party who had attended just to mess with our results.  Forty people from an entire county bothered to attend, and most of them were party committee people, office holders, and saboteurs.  The general public essentially had no say in that highly important political matter.

Not long after that, Missouri, is a gush of democracy, switched over to a presidential primary system, one that lasted through 2020.  Then, in 2022, our Republican-heavy legislature decided that the state had had enough democracy and switched to a goofball system which let the political parties decide for themselves. how they would select their delegates to the national conventions.

Missouri Republicans, not being big fans of democracy, chose (or their party leaders chose) to use a caucus system and return to the good old days of the party bosses running things.  The state Democratic  Party went with a primary election system, but since the state is now officially out of the process, the Democrats are funding and conducting the primary on their own.  It is far from a perfect system, and in the case of the Republican caucuses, it is far from being a fair system, but it is what it is, and the requirements of the law are being met - so far.

But certain people are worried that there will be some "cheating" occurring by people who cross party lines and participate in the other party's process - like those people who didn't belong at the county caucus that I organized in 1984, but showed up anyway - or the people who chose the other party's ballot in a presidential primaries.

So enter Missouri's illustrious Republican secretary of state, Jay Ashcroft, the man responsible for elections in the "show me" state.  Ashcroft is apparently paranoid that the selection processes won't remain pure, and he has released some garbled information which seems to be aimed at getting Missourians to register an affiliation with one party or the other.

The following was taken from an article entitled "GOP to hold caucuses, Dems to vote by ballot" on page A-5 of "The West Plains Daily Quill" on February 14, 2024:

"No longer are voters able to choose a ballot, regardless of party, to weigh in on their nominees of choice;  instead, voters must choose a ballot in alignment with their official registration.  The three recognized parties in Missouri, according to the office of Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, are the Republican, Democratic, and Libertarian Parties.  Voters who do not want to choose a party ballot may request a ballot containing issues, provided the jurisdiction in which they are voting has issues on which to vote, the office adds."

Missouri law does not require voters to register by political party!

When I read that article, I picked up the phone and called the county courthouse.  No, the nice lady told me, Missouri does not register voters by party, but I could declare an "affiliation" if I wanted to.  She also informed me that when I showed up to vote in our state's August primary election I could choose whichever party ballot I desired.  Missouri is still an "open primary" state.

Then I called the newspaper and spoke with the editor, who was also the person who had written the article that had gotten me wound up.   Yes, she said, you must register by political party to be involved in the presidential preference selection process, but as we talked she seemed to agree that the process was confused and that she did not understand it herself. Much of it seemed to be based on a press release from Jay Ashcroft.  But there was some original reporting in the piece.  The editor/reporter had spoken with local organizers of the upcoming county GOP caucus and quoted them as saying that a prospective participant should be a "true and faithful Republican."

That does not sound like a requirement to officially register or "affiliate" to this skeptical old codger - who will participate in one party's selection process without registering an affiliation.

Over the past two years there have been a couple of state legislative attempts to redefine Missouri's voting system to some sort of registration or affiliation by party, but so far those have not been successful.

Missouri had a system that worked, and our legislature broke it.  Next Jay Ashcroft tried to define it to suit his, and his party's, agenda, and now we have a fermenting mess.

Perhaps it's time to for Missouri to replace its legislators with chimpanzees who carry laptop computers.  They would certainly be less harmful than what we have now - and they might actually accomplish something that would make life better for the citizens of the state.

Missouri does not require voters to register or even affiliate by party regardless of what our Secretary of State would like for us to think.

Jay Ashcroft wants to be our governor.

Have mercy!

End of spiel.

Tuck Everlasting, the Musical

by Pa Rock

Proud Grandpa

"Tuck Everlasting" by Natalie Babbit is a pre-teen and teen novel that has been regarded as a classic in the genre almost ever since it was first published in 1975.  I read the book in the late 1970's while taking a "Children's Literature" class in college, and found the story so compelling and enthralling that it has stuck with me through the ensuing decades.  This past Saturday night I was able to enjoy Natalie Babbit's wonderful story again as I watched a youth performance of the material presented in a musical stage format.

"Tuck Everlasting" is the story of a young family named Tuck - a father, mother, and two teen sons - who are early American pioneers.   At some point a couple of centuries ago they had the good fortune, or perhaps the misfortune, to drink from a spring hidden in the woods, and the spring water turned them into immortals.  From that point on they never aged, nor could they be killed.  They were constantly challenged with finding ways to stay hidden in society and not forming long-term relationships with others.   A century or so later when a little girl from the community meets them and discovers their secret, she is given the opportunity to join the Tuck family on their never-ending ride through time - but would that be something that a person would really want to do?

The play was performed by a cast of dozens of "older" students (ages 12-18) with the Culture House of Olathe, Kansas, staged at the Goppert Center on the campus of Avila University in the Kansas City area, and produced four times over a three-day period.   I had a great seat for the final performance on Saturday night.  I was there to support my very talented granddaughter, Olive Macy (age 12), who was a member of the dancing chorus and was on stage much of the evening.  She was, as always, marvelous - and so were all of the other young singers, dancers, and thespians who created such a stunning and memorable show.

Unfortunately, when I arrived back in the Ozarks yesterday I found that I had neglected to bring a program of the play home with me, so I am unable to give accolades to cast members by name.  Some of the older cast members have been involved in Culture House productions for several years, and they are becoming quite proficient  in performing on stage.  Seven were seniors in high school, and some of them, if not all, will undoubtedly be treading the boards in college productions over the next few years.  

I do know that the director and choreographer of this Culture House production was a young woman by the name of Lana Gage (I looked her up) who did an amazing job of getting the show from first-read through opening night in less that six weeks.  (As a former teacher, it would take me almost that long just to get the students seated and listening!)   The people, whoever they were, who adapted the novel to a stage format and wrote the musical score, were also extraordinary.  It all stayed very true to the book.

"Tuck Everlasting" was another great production, Culture House.  You are doing really fine work.

Olive, your old grandpa remains very proud of you.  Never stop reaching for the stars!

Ivanhoe

 

by Pa Rock

Reader

I’ve just finished reading the classic tale of chivalry and romance in medieval England, “Ivanhoe,” by Sir Walter Scott.  The fictionalized story of life and excitement in the 12^th century was originally published in three volumes in 1819.   The version that I tackled was a 200^th anniversary edition of the original, and it weighed in at 457 pages of beautiful, and often challenging, writing, that did not lend itself to a quick read.  It also had some very good illustrations of life in that period.
 
The central character of the book is Wilfred, the Knight of Ivanhoe and the son of an important Saxon noble.   The knight (aka Wilfred, aka Ivanhoe) had just returned from fighting the Muslim infidels in the Holy Land along with England’s Norman king, Richard (Plantagenet) the Lionheart.   Ivanhoe was returning to a father who had disowned him, and Richard was coming home to a brother who had betrayed him.  Both came back to England in disguise, and both were intent on regaining the positions that they held in the social order before they left for the Crusades.
  
At the point where this story begins unfolding there were three dominant political forces in England: the Saxons, or the past rulers of the country who had been displaced by the French conquerors from the Normandy region of France in 1066, the Normans (as the descendants of William the Conqueror were called) who had become the dominant nobility of the country after the Battle of Hastings in 1066, and the Catholic) clergy.  All three groups are ably represented in Sir Walter Scott’s tale of England as it was more than six centuries before he put quill to paper to craft his story of that age.
 
(All references to the “Church” in this tale are to the Catholic Church, basically the only Christian denomination of the time.)
 
Two other components of society were also present in the story of Ivanhoe:  the Jews, who were reviled by the church and others because the Christian stance against usury (money-lending for interest) left the practice the exclusive domain the Jews, allowing some to become very rich and influential as they loaned money to the nobles, and the poor as represented in the novel by the notorious outlaws such as those of Sherwood Forest – Robin Hood and his band of merry thieves, poachers, and highwaymen.
 
Sir Walter Scott laced his account of life in Middle Ages with tournaments including competitions like jousting and archery, castles with moats and dungeons, knights laden with armor and riding astride horses bred for battle, beautiful damsels in distress, a jester, and even a swineherd.   His plot wends its way wistfully through romantic settings and situations, and always strives to comport with the rules of chivalry.
 
While Ivanhoe (Wilfred) the title character is fictitious, some of the action in the book is tied to actual historical individuals such King Richard the Lionheart, the evil Prince John, and Robin Hood.  The action also alludes to and explains some of the history of that era:  the assassination of Thomas Becket (the “meddlesome” priest) at the order or suggestion of Henry II (the father of Richard and John), the centuries-long conflict between the Saxons and Normans, the impact of the Catholic clergy on the different strata of society, and a basic understanding of how the Knights Templar operated.
 
“Ivanhoe” offers an expansive view of history in the 12^th century as it was playing out through the social and economic structure of feudal system, rules of chivalry, the Church, and the rising independent spirit of the masses.  On the one hand it is an exciting tale of good versus evil painted on a medieval canvas, and on the other it is a very relatable way in understanding a unique period in European and world history.
 
Reading “Ivanhoe” took me to medieval England.  It wasn’t easy to get there, but the journey was worth the effort.     The book is a literary classic which I highly recommend.

A Delicious Start to the Day

 

by Pa Rock

Breakfast Gourmand

Mike Box, an old friend from college in the 1960's, swung by Tim and Erin's and picked me up for breakfast at 7:00 this morning.   As I climbed into my friend's nearly new pickup truck, I was proud that I had almost 600 steps already on my pedometer.  Mike, whose  daily walking routine begins in the dark, was already at 8,200!

We ate at "The Big Biscuit," a locally-owned, chain restaurant franchise that specializes in breakfast and lunch, in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, about two or three miles from the home of the Macy's of Roeland Park.    The relatively new restaurant was easy to access and comfortably roomy with plenty of parking and seating  - and a fine assortment of selections on the menu.    The wait staff was some of the most cheerful and pleasant people that I have ever encountered in any eating establishment.

My friend, who had eaten there before,  settled on the "waffle platter," one of the very first items on the menu, and, it being my first time at a "Big Biscuit," I decided it would be prudent to follow his lead.  And it was a very wise choice!  The meal centered on a large Belgian waffle that was absolutely the most delicious waffle I have ever eaten.  It was accompanied by two eggs, breakfast potatoes, and a choice of bacon or sausage.  Mike washed his down with coffee on ice and I had iced tea.

Our breakfast was an exceptionally fine meal punctuated with lots of discussion about grandchildren and other things of mutual interest.

It was a delicious and most enjoyable way to start the day.  (I brought some of it home for Rosie, and her day is off to a great start as well!)

Now I am listening to "Bookends" by Simon and Garfunkel.  That is where my head is at as this beautiful new day begins to unfold.

Thanks for breakfast, Mike.  It's always great spending time with old friends!

Pissing in the Snow

 

by Pa Rock

Traveling Fool

(Note:  The title of this piece, 'Pissing in the Snow," was shamelessly taken from a collection of Ozark humor with the same title that was published by the late Ozark folklorist, Vance Randolph, many years ago.   It is highly recommended by this tired old typist, if you can find a copy.)

Rosie and I are in Roeland Park, Kansas (a suburb of Kansas City), after nearly five hours on the road.  We are here to see my granddaughter, Olive, sing in a play tomorrow night.  Our drive north today from West Plains, was long (279 miles) and unusually difficult.    The first one hundred miles were calm and relaxing, except that I chose to listen to my favorite political podcast, "Pod Save America," the entire way - and those young men, all in their thirties and forties and veterans of the Obama administration, are always wired - and fun and informative to listen to.  So by the time we hit Springfield I was  getting fired-up about the upcoming presidential election.

But there was a sudden change of weather in Springfield right at the start of mile one-oh-one, when a hard rain began.  Then by the time I pulled on to Interstate 40 for a three-mile jaunt over to the next highway north, the skies opened and we found ourselves trying to navigate one of the busiest truck routes in America with very limited visibility.  We stopped thirty more miles up the road in Bolivar, the home of Missouri's current useless governor, for bathroom breaks, and Rosie reluctantly did her business in a heavy mist.  But, sixty  miles on in the big town of Clinton, Missouri, we had to go again, and that time Rosie had to walk and squat in a steady snowfall with snow already accumulating on the ground.  (Hence the title of this blog posting.)  Rosie was not amused.  

Pa Rock, an elitist, was able to go inside of the convenience store and use their facilities to relieve himself.  While I was in the store, I did purchase a hotdog which I shared with Rosie as we travelled on toward Kansas City, and she was mollified a bit.

The play that Olive is in is called Tuck Everlasting, and it is based on an award-winning adolescent novel that I read many years ago in a literature class.  I enjoyed the book and am anxious to see the play.  I always love performances which feature any of my grandchildren!

Breakfast tomorrow with old friend, xobekim, at a new place in town called The Big Biscuit.  Looking forward to it!

Home Sunday.

Chief's Celebration Ends in Gunfire

 

by Pa Rock

Missourian

Missouri, one of the gun-happiest states in the US, chalked up another mass-shooting yesterday when a victory celebration for the Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs was brought to an end with gunfire that killed one and injured more than twenty others, nine of them children.   Some of the wounded are reportedly in critical condition.   The woman who was killed was a Kansas City area radio DJ and the mother of two children.  There was also a report that the children of the woman who was killed were injured in the shooting.

Two fans tackled and brought down one man with a gun.  Police reportedly have three people in custody who may have played a role in the shooting.

The shooting occurred at the end of the parade route near historic Union Station in Kansas City where more than a million people had gathered to honor the Kansas City Chiefs after their overtime win against the San Francisco 49ers in last Sunday evening's Super Bowl LVIII.  In addition to the Kansas City Chiefs' team members, owners, and management, the crowd also included Kansas City's mayor, chief of police, and many local dignitaries.  One news report stated that over eight hundred area police were on duty in and around Union Station at the time of the shooting.

Missouri's Republican governor, Mike Parson, and his wife were also at the event, and after the report of the shooting, Parson, a former rural county sheriff and gun rights supporter, was throwing out thoughts and prayers like they were parade confetti.

The Missouri Republican legislature has done everything within its power to insure that tragedies such as what happened in Kansas City yesterday go right on occurring.  The state lawmakers have checked every box on the NRA's wishlist.   In Missouri you do not need a permit to purchase rifles, shotguns, or handguns, nor do you have to register any of those weapons.   Owners of guns are not required to be licensed in the "show me" state, and permits to carry are not required, even for concealed handguns or open-carry guns.

The "Wild West" begins at the St. Louis Arch, and our politicians are proud of it.

Stand strong, Kansas City, in defiance of the craziness.   Ignorance and violence cannot be permitted to prevail and rule our lives.

An American Game, an American Hero, and an American Response!

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Three weeks ago three men pulled onto a baseball diamond at a park in Wichita, Kansas, cut a life-sized, bronze statue of baseball great Jackie Robinson off at the ankles, put it in the back of their pickup truck, and then drove off into the night.  The statue was a focal point for a baseball league of disadvantaged youth called League 42 - so named in honor of Robinson's uniform number 42 which he wore during his decade with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Wichita Police announced yesterday that one of the three men who were seen on security camera video removing the statue has been arrested, a 45-year-old male named Ricky Alderete, and they said that they anticipate the arrest of the other two people who participated in the desecration of the ballpark and the theft of the statue as well in the near future.  Police further indicated that some other individuals may have had involvement in the incident after-the fact.

Police found parts of the statue in a burn barrel at a nearby park, and they have also located and are in possession of the pickup truck used in the crime.

Mr. Alderete has been charged with felony theft (an item of over $25,000 in value), aggravated criminal damage to property, identity theft, and making false information.

There was originally some thought that the theft of the statue of Robinson, a civil rights icon who broke the color barrier in professional baseball, could have been a hate crime, a crime based on his race and history with the civil rights movement in America.  Wichita police now believe, however, that the criminals were motivated by greed.  They wanted to melt the bronze statue down and sell it for scrap.

The community, and indeed the country, has rallied to support the kids of Wichita as they deal with the loss of their important point of pride.  Reports indicate that donations of nearly $300,000 have poured into the league to support the young players and the replacement of the statue of Jackie Robinson.   Additionally, several major league baseball teams and individual players wanted to be a part of the effort, and Major League Baseball has said that their organization will pay for the statue's replacement.  The extra money that has come in will be used for repairs and upgrades to the host park and its athletic facilities.

The original bronze statue cost $50,000 to create and cast, and officials placed its current value at $75,000.  The artist who made it has since died, but the original mold still exists and a firm in Colorado will cast the replacement.  

All of those involved in this quick resolution of the crime and the rapid response to getting a statue of Jackie Robinson back in the local ballpark should certainly be proud of their efforts!  It's an American game, an American hero, and an American response!

Salute!