Occupation of Independence

 It is probably shocking to many people how ancient superstitions still affect big events in today's modern world.  I would like to add modern superstitions to the last sentence. The notion of Progress has almost become a Deity the last couple centuries.  I mockingly call that point-of-view the "Whig Interpretation of History."  You'd think that World Wars I and II would have weakened the blind faith in Progress. Onto the World Wars, let's add the current genocide in Gaza.  I wish I knew Israelis a bit better.  But it seems as though they don't really worship Yahweh so much as they worship being Jewish.  But what does it mean to be Jewish?  To wear a cloth disk on your head's bald spot?  To grow curly ringlets on the side of your head?  Certain petty rules about food, unique national holidays, or speaking Hebrew? Such things are interesting and help to put more variety into the world, but they seem too trivial to worship as a pseudo-d...

People like me who aren't 'water people' should envy those who are.    I am not planning on changing, but it is satisfying to appreciate their point of view more and more, over the years. The older a person gets, the less excuse they have for being a blockhead.  For instance, every summer I fight summer instead of just surrendering to it and then adapting to it.  I had a friend once in a bicycle club who got tired of hearing people gripe about the heat.  He told them, "It's summer.  It's supposed to be hot."  He was right, and I knew it at the time. The biggest source of worry in summer is my little dog getting hot in the van, in a parking lot.  I already owned this 'Breeze' fan from Fantastic but didn't use it much.  So I moved it into the van and found a way to mount it.  Then it plugs into the cigarette light.  It helps. Of course if you didn't already own the Breeze fan, you could just buy one of those USB-rechargeable mini-fan...

There really are junkies out there who watch too many dog rescue videos.   You know the routine: weepy, sentimental tear-jerkers, with soft solo piano music playing in the background.  So I can be forgiven for eagerly responding to a brown hound dog who was walking up a 2000' hill that I had just driven down. My first instinct, as a lifelong bicyclist, was to keep him out of traffic.  He didn't have a collar.  I was surprised by how tight his eye contact with me was.  (He was a hunting dog, not a border collie.)  Then he looked right at me and did the lip-smacking trick that my own dog does at home when she thinks it's time for dinner. My instinct was to get a bowl of water down, first.  But he wasn't interested.  Using an extra dog leash I fashioned a loop to go over his head.  I brought him to the back of the van and opened a can of pinto beans -- fortunately they had pop-tops.  He was very thin, but otherwise healthy-acting.  He...

I doubt that anything good can come from expressing my disgust with the foreign policy of my own country, especially in Gaza.  Caitlin Johnstone does a better job than I could. And yet there are hopeful signs that many in the Western world are becoming more critical of Israel.  Hope?  That is what interests me today.  Hope, naivete, delusion, wishful thinking, and escapism overlap and become so confusing.   A person can be well-educated and well-read, but does it really help them understand the overlap between these terms, when applied to a specific slaughter like Gaza?  Perhaps the only thing that seems certain is the notion that it is important for people in a 'free' society to actively and courageously confront mass-slaughter.   We also need to be realistic about our ability and stamina to consider such grim and horrible events without giving up.  We all have our limits.  If we overshoot and then surrender our attention to easy a...

Recently I watched an episode of an old TV western.  I didn't care for the episode, nor did some of the reviewers, who called it a knock-off of (1952) "High Noon", starring Gary Cooper.  I didn't even care for "High Noon" all that much, despite it being considered a classic movie. Of course there is more than one level or angle for appreciating a classic anything, and maybe "High Noon" is worth rewatching.  Think of a classic as a general template, a Platonic Form, that can be reincarnated in different eras and locations.  We shouldn't dismiss the reincarnation as an unoriginal knock-off.  Novelty isn't what matters. It is "mind-expanding" to be concerned with a tangible person or situation today, and then suddenly realize that it fits a timeless template.  You walk out of the small pond of Today, Here, and Now and paddle off to a large and long river nearby, one that represents the general flow of the human condition. "High ...

 Now the hounds -- several of them -- were baying their heads off.  The man in the pickup truck came by.  He explained that the hounds had probably treed something.  His Garmin radio collar system told him that the hounds were only a couple hundred yards away. He suggested that I turn my little dog loose to join in the fun.  I was not tempted.  Then the man moved forward aways, parked, grabbed a walking stick, and slid down the steep slope to the tree where the hounds were howling.  I decided to stay on the road where vegetation wouldn't block my vision. He had five hounds at it.  Three of them had run away to chase something else.  "We oughtta' be able to see it," he said. I have a long way to go before the BBC or National Geographic hires me as photographer for one of their wildlife shows.  But I think this one is better: The bear drooled almost continually and pooped occasionally when he was up the tree.  I guess this black bear ...

It is worthwhile  to write about the interesting things that can be heard in the outdoor world.  But we tend not to.  We tend to give too much attention to things that are visually and trivially pretty. This morning it was easy to escape that syndrome.  As is often true, the birds were chirping at dawn.  But a mile away or so, a pack of hounds were baying their heads off.  What an interesting sound at the 'bird hour.'  I have seen somebody moving a pack of hounds in his pickup truck, in this area.  What are they hunting for, or are they being trained to hunt? As a result of this, I will have to add hounds to my Sounds-Greatest-Hits album, along with a train rumbling about three miles away. Another thing that deserves more praise is interesting, but non-pretty, sights.  The morning sun highlighted the 'extreme woodpecker events' on this tree.  I have hardly even never noticed woodpeckers holes in my life: Everyday there are other examples...

Western Idaho.  It has  been a couple years since I rode at this marvelous place.  I laugh when thinking of a tourist book entitled, "America's Top Ten Ditch Hikes/Rides."  But there should be. By 'ditch' I mean a water diversion canal that moves water from one creek to another, usually for agricultural purposes.  There aren't as many of these diversion canals as you would think in the dry states of the West.  I wish there was an efficient method of finding more of them. What fun it would be to see one of these diversion ditches dug.  The mountainside was steep on the downhill side.  I guess they just push the rocks to the downhill side to form the levee, and count on the sharp-cornered rocks to have a high angle of repose. Earlier I wrote my annual paean to Santa Sombra. (shade in Spanish)  If She is not wonderful enough, she has associates just as divine.  Santa Aqua for instance.  My little honey enjoyed a delicious drink of wat...

 Nothing quite stimulates the imagination like desperation.  Trump 2.0 is committing political suicide right in front of our eyes.  The Epstein files are the straw that broke the camel's back.  Rather than think about his demise I am hoping with all my heart that MAGA is looking past Trump, and is giving serious thought to finding a new leader.   And a real leader, not a showman.  Not a bombastic, flip-flopping buffoon.  They need to rally behind an intelligent and experienced leader who knows a lot about the world, and who is primarily loyal to the Americans who elect them, rather than to Israel, the Pentagon, or the CIA. MAGA needs a leader who says, 'No more wars,' gets inaugurated, and then ends the damn wars.

 The daily news can help a person get interested in books that pertain to the same topic, or somewhat the same.  And we need some help, many times.  The news of Trumpanyahu's attack on Iran got me interested in a book about ancient Iranian religion, "In Search of Zarathustra," by Paul Kriwaczek. It was one of those books that requires a lot of skipping, although I admit to doing a lot of skipping with any book, these days.  Sometimes, when a certain section of the book did not interest me, my eyes drifted over to a couple movies: the first was "Winged Migration," one you might remember from years ago.  I found it at a local thrift shop.    The second one was Hitchcock's "The Birds." When finishing the second movie, I suddenly laughed at what an odd pair these two made.  They were Manichean opposites, in fact.  Manichean?  That is what the book was about.   What a joke my own mind had played on me.  If I had deli...

  Over the last year, everything on the internet has been slapped with a monthly charge.  They top that off with hammering your email every day with unwanted junk that leads to even more expenses.  Believe it or not I am happy about that. Many people (including me) have probably been sucked into too much "screen time" in their lives.  Willpower can go a certain way to reducing any bad habit.  But willpower needs to be combined with other things. Think of how weak an individual fiber of cotton is, yet how strong a woven cotton fabric is.  It is beneficial to get angry at these monthly charges on the internet and start weaning yourself from the screen.  Frugality can be seen as personal self-defense. It is easy to resent these small monthly charges.  Think of a guy in a rowboat who allows tiny holes to be drilled in the bottom of his boat.  He will not be comforted with the argument that it was only a small drill bit. I had the pleasure of u...

The best place to be on Independence Day, now mis-labeled 'The Fourth', is in a small city or big town.  There, they celebrate the holiday in traditional ways that I and many people consider nostalgic and pleasant. The holiday would be even better if it were a real celebration of independence, not the independence from British king George III, 250 years ago.  Independence should be concerned about the present, not the past.  Today we need our independence from the idea of an American Empire, from a foreign policy subservient to Israel, and from the industry of China.  The list is longer than that, actually. Perhaps independence is not something that the average peasant yearns for in most countries, most of the time.  I wonder what causes the yearning to arise here and there, now and then?