Occupation of Independence

A couple of immature doves.

I was interested in a recent article in asia times dotcom that speculated on whether China would emphasize aircraft carriers or anti-carrier missiles. With their satellites they know exactly where American aircraft carriers are, and to knock them out it only takes a high-tech missile that costs, what?, 0.3% as much as the aircraft carrier. The missile can be fired from anywhere -- even a fishing trawler. Of course the US Navy believes that nothing projects a country's power like the carrier battle group. One of the most amazing features of modern American life is how much money it spends on its military, and how useless most of it is. Fred Reed is a favorite writer of mine who has a military background that has left him with a respect for military personnel and a savage disrespect for political/military policies. Perhaps the US should recognize that it has a second-rate military at phenomenal cost – an enormous, largely useless national codpiece.

Somebody needs to break the sad news to the curved bill thrashers of the world: ravens are now my favorite bird species.

The North-South cultural split in Europe still intrigues me. Sure, it's fallen off of the front page of the news, but Europe's financial problems are not over with, and they could have quite an impact on the world. Besides, this blog is not enslaved to the Breaking News Syndrome.   I've found a shelf of books at the local college library that seemed like it would enlighten me on the North-South cultural split in Europe. But after reading a half dozen books on the origins of cultures and civilizations, I was disappointed and frustrated. Think of history as a machine that has an input and an output. What is the input other than other books? But there weren't a lot of books written when Germans were being Christianized and de-barbarianized. And what was written doesn't really explain the habits of thought and feeling that evolved in northern Europe and set it apart from the Mediterranean South. (I've already rejected Protestantism as an explanation or Cause; i

In the desert west of Phoenix, a couple years ago. It's been so long since a real cold front blasted through, like they do back east. Wonderful. We went out to explore the desert plain around our new boondocking site near Tonopah, AZ. The altitude was just over 1000 feet. Some of my plastic bottles were flattened by the air pressure. I dreaded returning to the creosote bush-dominated desert of lower Arizona. Perhaps it was monotony of a desert plain dominated by one plant ; or maybe it flatters the ego to live at high altitudes. But someone who has been hiking in thorn and sticker country recently can see creosote bush as a blessing, since it has no stickers or thorns! That is no small miracle. Just a few feet from this monotony you could see the lush boscage of a dry wash. Maybe they were ironwood and elephant trees. Just imagine walking across this hellish plain in June, and finally finding this shade! This desert plain is covered with desert pavement, like at Quartzs