“Do you have the patience to wait until your mud settles, and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving until the right action arises by itself?” ~ Lao-tzu

 

“Commonly, people believe that defeat is characterized by a general bustle and a feverish rush. Bustle and rush are the signs of victory, not of defeat. Victory is a thing of action. It is a house in the act of being built. Every participant in victory sweats and puffs, carrying the stones for the building of the house. But defeat is a thing of weariness, of incoherence, of boredom. And above all of futility.” ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

    

 I just could not decide what image to use for this first section. I was looking for the perfect political cartoon. Then I came across this one on Comics I Don’t Understand, and I thought to myself, “Eureka, self. That’s it.”

    

I’ve been waiting for the mud to settle, but it’s taking quite awhile. Yesterday I was more than half-way through a post when my computer locked up on me. Consequently, I lost everything. To say that I was a tad annoyed is a vast understatement. 

As a result I stopped everything that I was doing and set about performing a thorough scan and cleaning of my hard drive, and then I defragged. Things seem to be running a bit smoother today, but I’m not going to chance anything major. 

Today I came back to my blog, ready to do a smaller recap of yesterday’s post, and what did I find but a draft of the post that disappeared yesterday. Now I am certain of it: My computer is in on the conspiracy of inanimate objects (using the term loosely) to try to further deplete me of the little sanity I have remaining. 

It’s working . . . 

“Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society.  If we’re looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn’t test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.”  ~ P.J. O’Rourke

"I smell dorkfish somewhere nearby."

Moving along . . . In other offensive and absolutely take-my-breath-away-with-your-hypocrisy news, a Tea Bagger leader has referred to Allah as “monkey-god” and to Muslims as “the animals of Allah.” Mark Williams, the conservative talk radio host who is listed as chairman of the Tea Party Express and acts as a frequent spokesman for the group, wrote on his blog: “The longest, most heavily researched and footnoted chapter in my book is about the fruit baskets and nut wads that gravitate to Islam and why it attracts such mental cases . . . ” Williams also posted an image of the prophet Muhammad with a swastika on top of his head. 

Nice. Ecumenical. Loving. Spread those Christian arms wide in your embrace of other faiths and cultures. Or maybe not so much. 

Loony Tune Williams is well-known for opening his big mouth and letting bile spew forth. In February Williams referred to “our half white, racist president” in an email to colleagues. 

“To be ignorant of one’s ignorance is the malady of ignorance.” ~ A. Bronson Alcott

"My dorkfish is this big."

Meanwhile, another politician who talks the talk but doesn’t quite walk the walk, Republican Representative Mark Souder of Indiana is resigning. Awww. 

According to Souder, “I sinned against God, my wife and my family by having a mutual relationship with a part-time member of my staff.” Then he added the punch line: “In the poisonous environment of Washington, D.C., any personal failing is seized upon and twisted for political gain. I am resigning rather than put my family through a painful drawn out process.”  

That’s right. The “poisonous environment of Washington, D.C.” made you have an affair with the same woman who interviewed you about abstinence. 

According to an article in the Washington Post, the self-described conservative Christian  “focused on three areas since entering Congress: in his words, ‘how to keep the economy strong; how do we improve our education system; and how do we change the cultural and moral direction of this country.'” 

Souder, a staunch opponent of gay rights and AIDS prevention through condom distribution, is also a big proponent of family values. He has been quoted as saying, “I believe that Congress must fight to uphold the traditional values that undergird the strength of our nation . . . The family plays a fundamental role in our society . . . I am committed to fighting the assault on American values.” 

Let me see if I understand this correctly because I have been accused of not really understanding conservative speak. . . Souder is pro family, pro values, pro abstinence. Does that mean that going to state parks with your staffer for trysts is part of those values that you have fought so hard to impose on the American people? I mean, I’m a bit confused. I thought that there was this whole proscription against sex outside of marriage, you know? Adultery? Did I miss something, or did Souder just find the same loophole that so many of his ilk seem to find (e.g., see Family Research Council co-founder George Reker and his rent boy below). 

“I do not believe in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.” ~ Thomas Carlyle

George Rekers Pushing Luggage Cart for his Luggage Handler aka Lucien

Oh, Dr. George (as he refers to himself), you have been a bad, bad boy. You say you just needed someone to help with your luggage? Then why were you pushing the luggage cart at Miami Airport? Why did your contract with rentboy Lucien specify personal massages? Why were you naked during those massages? 

Dr. George. Thou doth protest too much. All of that work with The National Association of Research & Therapy of Homosexuality? Hmm? That co-founding of the anti-gay lobbying group The Family Research Council? Oh? They don’t remember you? Well how about that dodgy group, the American College of Pediatricians? You know, the ones who make up their data and call it scientific proof?

My, my, my. You were so busy trying to “cure” all of those poor people of their homosexuality that you forgot to work your voodoo on you know who . . . Perhaps it was because you were perusing the pages of rentboy.com—the only place on the web (prior to this scandal breaking) where interested parties could find lad Lucien’s very personal profile.

To get a better perspective on the whole Reker rent boy debacle, I’ll just include this story from CNN, which covers the key issues pretty thoroughly. 

Vodpod videos no longer available. 
more about “Male escort and Baptist minister “, posted with vodpod

It has been a busy news week. More later. Peace.

Father Mukada (the wonderful B. D. Wong) on “OZ” singing “Leather”

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“Under all speech that is good for anything there lies a silence that is better. Silence is deep as Eternity; speech is shallow as Time.” ~ Thomas Carlyle

Key West Sunset by Janson Jones

“A person has three choices in life. You can swim against the tide and get exhausted, or you can tread water and let the tide sweep you away, or you can swim with the tide, and let it take you where it wants you to go.” ~ Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider, Northern Exposure

Wow. The sun is shining. The birds are singing. My head is ringing. It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood . . . 

I sat down to post yesterday and realized that I didn’t have anything to say. I hate it when that happens. I will be so glad when this latest bout of whatever finally passes. It’s hard to label it as I don’t really know what it is. Not the blues. More a total lack of energy and constant head pressure. I have been good for absolutely nothing, and it grows weary. 

My cohort Janson Jones in Alaska has been posting some beautiful pictures of Florida on his blog Floridana v3.0, so I thought that I’d share a few with you. Lovely Florida Keys skies. Wish I was there. Actually, I really do wish that I was there as I’ve never been to the Florida Keys but have loved looking at pictures of that area for years. Warm weather, beautiful skies, umbrella drinks—I could do with a little of that right now. 

 

Neonic Blue by Janson Jones

“The journey between what you once were and who you are now becoming is where the dance of life really takes place.” ~ Barbara De Angelis 

Let’s see. On the home front, Corey has applied for a few port security positions. His Coast Guard training makes him qualified to do that, so maybe he can pick up a job in port security until the tugboat industry gets back on its feet. Who knows when that will be. He hasn’t given up on Vane Brothers, but delivery of their new boat seems to be open-ended at this point. Unfortunately, bills are not open-ended. Hence, the temporary change in focus. 

Haven’t seen much of Alexis lately. I don’t really know what’s up with her. She could be in another one of her moods, or she could just be terribly busy with her life. I try not to read too much into it, having grown accustomed to my daughter’s mood swings. 

I do wish that things would even out for Brett, though. He is on new medication, and seems to be a bit better, but high school has become such an albatross for him that at this point, we are just counting down until graduation. It’s weird, really, how high school can be such a defining experience for some people and not others.  For Brett, it is nothing but something to be endured. For Eamonn, everyday was a party. My sons are so different in so many ways. I try to remind Brett that high school is really very small in the big scheme of things, just a blip on the radar, so to speak. But I know that it’s hard for him to see it that way until he has some distance. 

I’m still not sure if he is going to be ready to tackle college in the fall, but I’m thinking that maybe a bit of time off from academics might be what he needs to figure out what he wants to do with his life. No one ever tells you about this part of parenthood: having to stand by helpless while one of your children is suffering and being able to do little to nothing to make it better. Such a horrible feeling but nothing compared to what he is feeling. 

I just wish that it were somehow possible to absorb other’s pain, to take away the hurts and replace them with a sense of calm. If wishes were fishes . . . 

Dawn, Long Key State Park, Janson Jones

“I sleep and I unsleep. On the other side of me, beyond where I lie down, the silence of the house touches infinity. I hear time falling, drop by drop, and no falling drop is heard falling.” ~ Fernando Pessoa, A Factless Autobiography

I’m back to having violent dreams again. A couple of nights ago, my dream involved knives, lots of sharp knives, and trying to escape from someone in a tunnel that was filling with water. Before that I had a dream with guns again. Maybe it’s too much NCIS. I only know that I wake up exhausted from fighting bad guys. I suppose I should be thankful that I’m sleeping, given the alternative, but is it too much to ask for sleep with restful, pleasant dreams? Probably. 

The songbirds are beginning their pre-dawn canticles, so spring cannot be too far. Each morning around 4 a.m., if the house is silent, I can hear them. It’s such a lovely sound, yet I wish that I were actually sleeping rather than listening to them sing. 

I will be glad for spring, though. Using space heaters makes the house very, very dry, which I’m sure does not help the sinuses. And the space heaters, along with the electric water heater and all of the other electrical appliances are killing the power bill. At the moment, it’s more than a car payment, and if you’ve made a car payment in the last few years, you know how high that can be. 

Someday we’ll be able to install the whole-house gas-on-demand hot water heater that we have; it’s currently sitting in the box it came in, in the storage shed in the back yard. I hate the electric water heater. It’s not power efficient, and it’s small, which means no long showers unless your preference is for cold showers. But it was an electric water heater or no hot water at all until we make friends with Virginia Natural Gas again. 

Power companies are such ripoffs. In our area, Virginia Power and Virginia Natural Gas are monopolies. We have no alternative sources for electricity or natural gas. Bah. 

That’s just about all for now. I’ll leave you with this quote by Alexander Woollcott, which seems quite fitting since I’ve done a whole lot of wishing in this post: “Many of us spend half our time wishing for things we could have if we didn’t spend half our time wishing.” 

More later. Peace. 

Music by Australian trio Sick Puppies, “That Time of Year” (heard on an NCIS episode) 

 

  

  

That Time of Year 

Another Year
Has Come and Gone again
Look around
And think where have you been
Trace the Lines
On your face tonight
And don’t forget
That this will pass in time

It’s cold out this morning
You should be getting into bed
Can’t believe its that time
Of year again

  

Curled up tight
A darker shade of white
Thinking Back could be here for a while 

Its cold out this morning
And it’s getting harder to pretend
Can’t believe it’s that time of year again 

Can you believe the life you led?
Did you achieve the goals you set?
Did you lose your mind?
Well and then 

Is there a reason you own them
It is a season that won’t end
Can’t believe it That time of year again 

Another year
Has come and gone again
Look around
and wonder what happened