ON THE UPPER CONNECTICUT RIVER
CAPE ESCAPE
RUSSIAN ROULETTE IN THE RACE?
One lesson we should have learned from Watergate is that inside information from a rival’s political campaign can be used to wreak havoc in the democratic process. If you know their plans, you can thwart them. It’s like knowing your opponent’s hand when you’re playing poker. The burglary, after all, stole from the Democratic Party headquarters and involved former CIA spooks. And it’s all a high-stakes game.
When the plot unraveled, it was enough to bring down a sitting president. A crooked president, at that.
The WikiLeaks thefts, by Russian spies, is far worse. No matter what they turn up, their goal is to undermine an American election in the Kremlin’s favor. You know, the kind of nightmare the right-wing used to warn us against in screaming about the threat of the Kremlin and left-wing pinkos. I just wish those folks in the Trump camp would hear that warning more clearly, rushing up behind them.
A DANDY DINER
PUTTING AN INTERPRETATION TO THE ULTIMATE TEST
Here’s a proposal for those who believe unlimited, unregulated gun ownership and gun use are the sole point of the Second Amendment. If you’re so convinced that a firearm improves the safety of you and your family, please move to a neighborhood like South Los Angeles or sections of Philadelphia or Chicago where drive-by shootings are commonplace. Join a gang, if you, must, but come back in a year and a day to tell us how reality has impacted your opinions and notions. If you’ve survived. Or life even matters.
PLYING THE SUGAR RIVER
When I see this …
… I think of this.
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NAMING TODAY’S FORBIDDEN FRUIT
As I contend in my latest book release at Thistle/Flinch editions, the Biblical story of the Garden of Eden goes much deeper than the traditional children’s telling or, for that matter, the conventional interpretation that focuses on disobedience and a teaching imposed much later, the one known as Original Sin.
The surprisingly short Creation story – the second one in the Bible, actually – is one of those texts that just won’t let go of me, and the new layers of understanding just keep on surfacing.
The other morning I was struck by a consideration of what the Forbidden Fruit might be in our own time. Nowadays we could consider things like global warming (more accurately, climatic instability), overpopulation, or nuclear arms proliferation, just for starters – things caused by our own curiosity and consumption, one way or another. Each bears an ultimate warning, “and you are not to touch it, lest you die.” Each one is a negative consequence of advances that seemed good at the time they were introduced.
So here we are, in a situation very much like Adam and Eve in the aftermath, looking for direction and restored balance.
For my earlier musings on the original text, take a look at Eden Embraced. I’d say it really is all about the timeless human condition.
SO JUST WHO’S NUTS?
Am I really a squirrel, as my wife suggests?
Sometimes I wonder.
~*~
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ONE BRUSH STROKE OR ROLLER AT A TIME
One of the places I’ll admit there’s progress is in the realm of house paint. The mere fact you can go in and have a custom color on the spot that will match one you had mixed earlier is a huge advance. No more guessing. And that’s even before we get to latex, which cleans up with water, rather than oil-based or lead-infused paints.
No more color chips that were way off what showed up on the walls. Oh, how I remember my mother’s lamenting on that one, especially when they’d hired a family friend who was part of a professional painting crew. She hated the color, especially after they tried to correct it.
Now, if the blue tape only worked so well.
WHY DO THE RUSSIANS SO WANT TRUMP TO WIN?
The WikiLeaks releases seem to answer the question.
Apparently, the former Secretary of State is stronger than they’d like. Just how did Hillary Clinton so thoroughly best Vladimir Putin in the past? Or was it just her husband, Bill? Either way, it’s obvious the Kremlin couldn’t stand up to her.
Don’t be distracted, folks. Vote against Russian aggression, which is what these leaks are. The ones past, present, and threatened in the future.
Unlike Donald J. Trump, with his bromance with Vladimir. Even with Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort kicked out of the circle, there’s much more of this connection to make headlines.
Jnana's Red Barn 