Occupation of Independence

Every year I stop in at a canyon system in southeastern Nevada.  It is the official beginning of the  crowded desert camping season.   As  a newbie camper I made an effort to talk to my 'fellow'' campers.  That ambition has died over the years.  So it was a pleasant surprise to talk to three camping neighbors on the first day.    Perhaps some momentary good luck at conviviality is the perfect way to start the holiday season.   Why have I disliked the Holidays so much?  Perhaps it is the music that we are tortured with in virtually every store, and these days at the gasoline pump.   Can I do better than listen to soft-rap versions of 'Frostie' or 'Rudolph' blaring over crappy speakers at the grocery store?  Yes!  It works great to listen to sprightly baroque music, played by small ensembles. Such music evokes images of folk traditions, feasting in the village, folk dances, flirting between the young people, and e...

Many people are already feeling betrayed by Trump II.  He has appointed quite a few warmongers to his team.  Is he just staking out a really strong position against Putin?  Maybe he just wants pull off a deal with Putin that makes Donald Trump look like the great master of the "Art of the Deal." But will he get the last laugh?  Or will he just get sucked into the trap of turning the old president's lost war into the new president's lost war?  Remember how Americans thought they were getting out of the Vietnam debacle in 1968 when they elected Nixon on a peace platform.  Then he fell into the "peace with honor" mistake.  The agony dragged on to 1975.   Until Trump proves me wrong, I will continue to believe that the best way out of the Ukraine mess is to come in as the new president and announce that: 1.  Expanding NATO was a mistake made by a Democrat president in the 1990s. 2.  Helping the coup d'état in Kiev in 2014 was a mistake made ...

Northwestern Arizona.  It is never wise to get greedy with Mother Nature, and I wasn't.  I accept that "weather" in the Southwest does not consist of temperature or rain, but only of hellish wind on some days, and not-so-hellish on other days. And yet, we had a generous rain of a couple hundredths of an inch.  Everything smelled wonderful the next day.  There was enough moisture to actually form pretty cumulus clouds.  And what fun they can be, as they dapple the lunar mountains with dark patches and shadows.  

Recently I was watching some old Charlie Chaplin movies that were edited and re-issued by him in a later era.   He added music and replaced the captions with his own voice-overs.  I thought it was an interesting -- and effective -- combination of old and new techniques.   Perhaps this suggests how a modern media consumer can be more than a passive consumer.  As an example, consider how numb and passive we have become to news of slaughter in Gaza.  It bothers me that I object to the sadistic murder of children in a purely intellectual or philosophical way, but don't really feel anything. It's not that I consider feelings more important than thought.  There are people who do consider feelings a more essential and authentic part of their soul.  Recall the classic movie, "Lawrence of Arabia:" the newspaper reporter asked the Arab king, 'Isn't mercy a passion with Lawrence?"  The king replied that yes it was with Lawrence, but with the king ...