Occupation of Independence

Yesterday was the most perfect day in a long time.  Oddly, it took very little to make it so good.  All it took was the old trick of going for a bike ride with my little dog, early in the morning, and on the right terrain, the right road, and away from motorsports noise and the misinformation of the RV blogosphere and tourism industry. Better yet, I was away from the desert.  Snowbirds rhapsodize over the "beauty" of the desert, but do they really mean beauty in a positive sense?  Or do they really just mean that they are away from clouds, snow, sleet, thawing snow, mud, and half-frozen slop? But they are connecting with "nature," you say.  Nature should mean more than rubble and cholla, and postcards of  saguaro cacti in front of a red sunset, and the like.  We are animals who need food and water.  There should be some goodies of that type in a "beautiful, natural" environment.    Some balance.      Here, away from the ...

The end of a war certainly is a poignant time.  Think of all those men dying for nothing!  As a war drags out to its bitter end, politicians show how little regard they have their own people.  The politicians only care about holding onto power -- to hell with how many peasants are dying needlessly. It seemed like a good idea to read about the end of other wars.  Since I had never really paid much attention to the Battle of the Bulge at the end of World War II, and had run into the movie at a local library, I bought a book on this battle by a well-known writer. It sounded like a good idea, but it didn't work.  And that is a real shame.  So many details, names, organizational units of the armies, locations.  All it added up to was a meaningless blur.  So I jumped to the Conclusion.   Even that didn't help. 'AI' might improve military history books -- by a lot!  We have certainly heard a lot of hype about its great promise.  Making mil...

I am not as 'fer' south as I am going to get this winter, but it is the end of the desert year.  I leave for the grasslands and oaks of southeastern Arizona when the sun comes up this morning.  Sadly, there was no secondary rainy season in the desert this winter.  But we got lucky with light winds.   Once again I will head north 'too' soon this spring, as is necessary if you want to make it to the inland northwest before the triple digit heat starts.  I am even considering hitting central and eastern Montana, in May perhaps? Digital zoom is doing OK, but you can see why I am getting interested in real optical zoom. My praise for a non-windy winter should have been a little louder than it was, above. Another chance to lust for a real camera.

  Tulsi Gabbard getting confirmed.  Wow!  Auditing the money that the US sent to Ukraine.  Shutting down the slush funds of NGOs.  Freezing foreign aid.  Shutting off the funding for the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the chief meddler in other countries' elections.  What's next -- getting RFK Jr confirmed?  Things have been happening.   It is scary for me to move from a tightly leashed Hope to actual optimistic expectations.   Perhaps professional cynics like me are cowards who use their cynicism to protect themselves from disappointment.   Regardless of whether a person agrees with Trump or not, Trump 2.0 seems drastically more effective than Trump 1.0.  Does this show that it can be beneficial for presidents to have non-consecutive terms?  It makes sense that a four year hiatus for some deep thinking and reorganizing would have an effect.  Consecutive terms make it too easy for failed advise...