On Politics
Gov. Walker (R-Wis) surviving a recall vote is big news. Anyone proclaiming him as the VP for Mitt Romney lacks credibility.
In Wisconsin’s special election, outside-the-state sources contributed $30.5 million. (Now there is a prime example of the pathetic nature of American politics.)
A friend of mine asked me what Democrats have to do to lure independents. I responded with 1) rely on the Republicans to say something ridiculous (so keep them talking) and 2) listen to me the next time I say beware of overreach.
Given the current political climate, overreach continues to worry me. We know that many politicians deliver talk without action. Well, I’m worried about action without talking and listening.
On Headlines from The Onion
- Sad Sack Bullied by Area Goose
- Man Putting Huge Amount of Pressure on Self to Excel at Completely Meaningless Activity
- Quaker Scientists Formulate World’s Oldest-Fashioned Oatmeal
- Bufferin Sought in Series of Pain Killings
- Romantic Hostage Negotiator Offers Bank Robbers Moon and Stars
- Physicist Discover Our Universe is Fictional Setting of Cop Show called Hard Case
Interesting Reads
The Pastor of the Chinese Underground Railroad
Peggy Noonan on the presidential campaign
Bionic Brains and Beyond
The battle with public employee pensions
A future racket for the tennis players here
Thinking Fast and Slow graphic
Why is the Universe so Special? by John Polkinghorne
On Potpourri
To the bloggers that caught my eye:
Elsye on Normandy
Soma with poetry
Mobius on connections
Otto on values
Shut Up Dad on failure
If you missed this awesome video from NASA showing Venus transit, click here.
As my Cincinnati Reds sit in first place, another round of interleague starts this weekend, which is just another reminder how much I dislike MLB Commissioner Bud Selig.
A classic cartoon post will go up for your Saturday morning.
To send you into the weekend, enjoy a short video of reflecting images from a digital photography competition. Have a safe weekend everyone. In the words of Garrison Keillor, Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.
Thanks for the shout-out Frank.
I’m hoping to keep the Republicans talking. What to do about them polluting the process with their money, however, is a harder question.
Elyse,
The money big-dollar donors are “investing” is unreal … and of course I wonder what is the expected payback to the those donors. Oh well …. I hope someone comes over to see you post. Thanks for stopping by.
I do believe that they want to ensure their own positions as the top .0001% of the top 1%.
I do not want to jinx the Reds so I will say nothing about the Reds being in First Place, as a matter of fact I won’t even say the words “The Reds are in First Place’ I hope you feel better now.
Larry,
If the Reds were a good hitting team, they would be comfortably leading at this point – but – they aren’t a good hitting team. Unfortunately, no team has ever won a pennant or division title in early June. Thanks for commenting and the jinx.
I was wondering Frank if you could please do me a favor. WordPress was acting up for me and was putting all my comments in the spam folder and I think Starla thought I just quit going to her blog but all my comments are in the spam folder. Would you please go to her blog and ask her, for me, if she’d please check it for me. I’d really appreciate it. Thank you so much.
Joy,
Oh no … I went through a period of that. Horrible! I ended up emailing who knows how many bloggers asking them to recover my comments from their Spam folder. I always check that folder (which is where I found your first comment), but other people don’t. Meanwhile, I will help.
Thank you so much. In the meantime, it’s good to meet someone new.
And the winner is:
Man Putting Huge Amount of Pressure on Self to Excel at Completely Meaningless Activity
(Are we talking about a prominent politician here by any chance?)
Fasab,
Thanks for commenting.
It could be … then again, many others qualify for this … probably most of us.
Great that your favourite team is doing so well. Have a great weekend xx
Spiced,
I also note that baseball is a long season, and being first in early June only gets you being first in early June because late September/early October is what matters. Thanks for visiting.
i’ve said that the election will be over as soon as romney has enough chances to talk.
Rich,
During the primaries I noticed that he gets in trouble when he goes off script, so I imagine that will happen less. For me, is script is a collection of taglines and generalities. Oh well … time will tell how it goes. Thanks for commenting.
yep, pandering tag lines. “what state am i in? okay, what do they eat? have to say i eat that too. detroit? okay, i drive cars too!” love when he was in michigan and said “the trees are the right height here.”
I’m still trying to figure out the trees comment.
and dumb enough to tell a city with great unemployment how your wife drives two cadillacs. gives me faith he’ll screw up royally.
Man Putting Huge Amount of Pressure on Self to Excel at Completely Meaningless Activity..now where have i seen it…where ..where…..oh right its every where
Thanks for the link Frank,it is very sweet of you
Soma,
That headline seems to be a big hit here today! Meanwhile, I hope someone visits the poem!!! Thanks for stopping by.
Thanks for highlighing the poem I really enjoyed it Beautiful! :+)
Starla,
Glad you enjoyed Soma’s poem.
I love Garrison Keillor. Way to go Reds. I hear the Red Sox are not doing so well this season.
TBM,
I enjoy listening to his Writer’s Almanac on NPR – which is where I picked up his tagline. By the way, I have a link to the show’s site on sidebar under Potpourri. Shows are short and I think you will enjoy them.
Meanwhile, the Red Sox started very slow, but seem to be playing better now. Problem is the whole division is playing well, but although they are in last – only 3 games out. Thanks for visiting.
Thanks for the WSJ article by Peggy Noonan on the presidential campaign. Her opinions will be watched in the coming months now that the Wall Street money is reportedly flowing toward Romney.
Tim,
I enjoyed the Noonan article as I thought she was fair to both. Meanwhile, I shake my head at the very-high-dollar donors. Thanks for visiting.
Hi
“Man Putting Huge Amount of Pressure on Self to Excel at Completely Meaningless Activity”
This person could be anyone, the list is endless.
“Physicist Discover Our Universe is Fictional Setting of Cop Show called Hard Case”
Now this makes complete sense.
Great video about the pictures, catchy tune as well.
Mags,
Cheers to you for watching and commenting about the video … it is a good one! Meanwhile, the pressured man is the unquestionable favorite so far! Thanks for commenting.
“Man Putting Huge Amount of Pressure on Self to Excel at Completely Meaningless Activity”
“Physicist Discover Our Universe is Fictional Setting of Cop Show called Hard Case” I’m not surprised. :+)
I also enjoyed the video. I really like taking pictures of buildings I should post some some time.
Starla,
The meaningless activity man is the overwhelming favorite on this post. Thanks for being at least the second person to watch the video – which I too thought was really cool. Thanks for commenting.
Sorry I’m kinda late here. Guess it’s all the pressure I’ve put myself under to excel at designing World War 2 cruisers. (Is THAT completely meaningless enough for ya?
)
Did you happen to catch the story on Lt. Billie Harris over on CBS? If not, I highly recommend you go to cbsnews.com and find the story. It’s about a woman who married a fighter pilot in WW2, and only spent 6 weeks with him before he shipped out and was later killed. She stayed faithful to him, never remarrying, and finally found out he had been confirmed KIA (but the Army never told her) a few years ago, whereupon she traveled to France and met the people of a French village that not only adopted and buried him, but honours him EVERY year. It’s a great story of a hero, loved by a lady AND a French village, and how those two finally came to meet and mourn together the man who tied them together over 60 years and the span of the Atlantic Ocean.
Stay cool, my friend, this weekend promises to be a ROASTER!
John, that is an incredibly beautiful story. And so sad. How many mysteries will always be unsolved in this (and other) wars.
Elyse, there is a group, supported by the Department of Defense, that continued to search to this day, to find EVERY soldier listed as “missing in action” and to return them to the US. A team just recently entered brand new areas of northern Vietnam, and a couple months ago, the recovery group brought home the crew of a World War 2 B-24 (used as a transport) from somewhere in the Pacific – one of the islands NW of Australia, though I forget exactly where.
The sad part of the Harris story is that the Army KNEW Lt. Harris was KIA, but somehow neglected to tell his widow. She only found out when a relative was doing some research on military records.
If you want a REAL heart-string tugger, look up the story of the 5 Sullivan brothers, lost in 1942 in the USS Juneau off Guadalcanal in the Pacific. And yes, their story was part of the inspiration for “Saving Private Ryan”. They also have had 2 Navy destroyers named after them, one which is preserved in Buffalo, New York.
Sorry, folks, I’ll shut up now.
Don’t on my account!
Oh, you do NOT want to encourage me! Frank can tell you how long and painfully I can bend an ear on things military. I spent the first 35 years of my life learning about the technology of war, especially WW2 – it was only when I started re-enacting that I began studying the human side, and learned of so many happy, sad, and just plain weird stories. If you need a good Halloween tale, look up the story of the B-24 “Lady Be Good”. She was a bomber returning to a North African base after a bombing run over Italy. She overflew the base by mistake and crashed in the desert. Her crew tried to walk out but died in the desert. The creepy part was, the salvage crew that found her pulled a number of parts off her to use on other aircraft. EVERY plane that received a part of “Lady” crashed without trace, save one. An observation plane got an armrest – it then crashed into the Mediterranean, and the only part ever found was the armrest from “Lady”.
If you ever get to Dayton, Ohio, go to the USAF Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB. Over the visitor’s reception desk is a painting of “Lady”, crash-landed on the desert, with a shimmering ghost of the plane flying overhead. Gets me teary every time I see it.
OK. (Forgive me Frank.) But I would love to hear your take on the story I posted on D-Day: http://fiftyfourandahalf.com/2012/06/05/a-d-day-question/
In deference to Frank, though, let me know your thoughts over there. (I am singing that song, of course).
Will do, my lady, though my response may have to wait until tomorrow. I was up rather early, NOT by my choosing (I am definitely not a morning person), so I might nod off somewhere in here. But I will get back to you as soon as I can, rest assured. Until then, have a good evening, and sorry for the hijack, Frank!
Thanks John. And thanks Frank.
Great articles…I keep them in a folder and eventually get to them. I will read Peggy Noonan first. I really like her! I enjoy your observations on the political sphere. This is going to be a long, disheartening road to November I fear! I look forward to the cartoon
Debra
Debra,
I like Peggy Noonan too – especially when she isn’t partisan. (I also enjoyed her book, Patriotic Grace). Meanwhile, I agree – this is going to be a very dishearting campaign road. Hope your weekend is going well and thanks for commenting.
Frank! I’ll take “useless activity”….rings a bell lately. Read Elyse’s piece, excellent.
Have a great summer.
Les,
That headline has been the overwhelming favorite on this post. Glad you read Elyse’s good post. Thanks for visiting.
I’ll leave the first part alone – I don’t think I can contribute anything useful to it.
Looking forward to checking out the links you’ve given, and I’ll have to go with Bufferin. Though I’m surprised it’s a suspect. I thought it left no traces of the pain…
Guapo,
The political craziness is even causing me to continually shake my head. Now the Bufferin headline is a scoop! Thanks for commenting.
A belated thank you for your pingback.
Otto,
My pleasure!