Memorial Day Weekend

Sitting on the west patio at the mud shack. Memorial Day week-end. Mid-afternoon Sunday. It's over 90 but the Chinese elms screen the sun and there's this nice little breeze. If the humidity is 10% that's high. The brisket is smoking, just about done--plenty for everyone, come on over....There are pirate dogs lazing in the shade on the patios. The pecan orchard is all leafed out and Picacho Peak is framed in green. It's been so long since I've had 3 days here---lately it's been rush over on Friday night and leave Sunday afternoon. Five more months and I can retire, probably will finish the year. Then I can enjoy this place and all that the area has to offer without guilt and without thinking I ever have to leave it again.

Theater of the Absurd

Enough already!!!! Arizona SB1070 is the law in that state. It's pathetic, racist, and divisive. Just look at some of the reactions to it. Boston is part of the boycott---like, why??? The only thing they got from AZ that's significant is Dustin Pedroia (Arizona State) and that's debatable because he went to college there but grew up in Woodland CA. LA wants to boycott and AZ is threatening them with cutting off the power los angelenos get from AZ. And in Texas, people from the more conservative north want to boycott the capitol Austin for joining the AZ boycott.

This is ridiculous, perhaps even more ridiculous than the misbegotten law that spawned these absurdities. But it's also a wake-up call. Immigration reform at the federal level needs to become a priority. I realize our representatives are so overworked----how many of you get a week off for the 4th of July as well as the entire month of August???? That's a six week period when the denizens of DC could debate and solve the immigration problem---except they haven't got the guts. McCain (R-AZ) once supported reform back in the Bush days. And for all his failures, W was right, oops, should say, correct on this issue. Our economy has taken a big enough hit from the bankers. Imagine if we deported every illegal---who'd pick Obama's arugula, clean the houses of the wealthy, pluck them chickens for Perdue and Colonel Sanders???

And lest we forget---if you aren't a "Native American" (descended from one of those intrepid souls who crossed the Bering land bridge thousands of years ago), YOU ARE FROM IMMIGRANT STOCK. So please stop flooding my inbox with those forwards about Mexicans and "Ay-rabs" and all the other racist clap-trap that's out there. America was built by English people fleeing religious persecution, Irish and Italians seeking better opportunities, and all those other ethnicities seeking freedom and a chance for a better life. These are facts, I'm not just waving "the" flag here. Let's take away summer vacation in WAWA DC and get our representatives to put an end to this national disgrace before any more states follow the lead of the sun-addled.

News Items

Watching those little snippets that scroll across the bottom of the tv screen on news channels. Every so often a few beg for more information.

Item----study shows that women with younger partners are more prone to heart disease. Does this mean that ABC's CougarTown will soon join Law and Order on the cancellation list???

Item----Army proposing recall of 44,000 helmets for failing to meet specifications. How long have men been at war, using head gear, and we still can't make them right??

Item---BP hopes latest efforts might stop oil leak in Gulf of Mexico. Should we expand drilling offshore when the best we can get for containment of a spill that's dumping the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez tragedy every week into the water from those responsible is HOPE??????

Times like these make being a pirate dog preferable to being a human.......

Le Pauvre Barack

Have you noticed that whenever President Obama tries to do something to promote bi-partisanship it blows up in his face??

He changed the emphasis from the Iraq war to the war in Afghanistan, correcting the error of W in fighting Islamic extremism. The left howled about his continuance of hostilities in the Middle East; the right complained he wasn't trying to "win."

He attempted to let the representatives and senators we elected reform health care and got such a hash of it that he had to personally force the question. Result---partial reform of the health insurance industry and not a hell of a lot else.

Finally, he caved to the "drill, baby, drill" proponents and allowed off-shore drilling. Be thankful you are not a fish in the Gulf of Mexico or the Mississippi Delta!!! Total catastrophe, makes the Exxon Valdiz spill look like a kindergarten play.

Maybe someday soon, the idealist and post-racial president will understand his true power, pursue his agenda of change, and we will all be better off---------------

For What It's Worth

This post is about that Arizona law again. Here are a few links commenting on the new anti-brown people law. Yes, they are not from Fox News or some right wing website but they are well written and thought out so I'd recommend them to you:

Arizona Burning from The Nation An editorial appearing in today's edition

Desert Derangement Syndrome from the New York Times Another opinion

Civil Rights Lessons from China from The Atlantic's James Fallows who spent the last couple of years reporting from the PRC.

I like Arizona. I tease my wife that when I retire I will lose my teeth, grow my hair long. sport a scruffy beard, and get a job as one of the gunfighters who prowl the streets of Tombstone. I really want to ride a mule to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and camp on the less commercialized "North Rim." Sounds like a helluva good idea for our 30th wedding anniversary.

But the powers that be in the G C state have ended these dreams----no way will I bring my chihuahuas without papers to such a locale!!!

Stephen Stills had it right all those years ago:

"Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away
We better stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, now, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down."

For What It's Worth Buffalo Springfield

Even with 10% plus unemployment, I don't see a lot of "Americans" lining up for those agricultural jobs in the fields...............

Both Sides Now

"Bows and Flows of Angel Hair

And Ice Cream Castles in the Air

And Feathered Canyons Everywhere

I've looked at Clouds that Way"

---Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell

Dubya got trashed by his own party for trying to pass immigration reform--John McCain (R-AZ) was one of the prime movers for this reform. The present representatives of the people in WaWa, District of Corruption, refuse to move on immigration reform. John McCain, 2010 version, blames the Obama administration for Arizona's new " got your papers?" law targeting immigrants even thought profiling is still illegal(?!?!?!?). Lindsey Graham, R-SC and also a former proponent of immigration reform, now links any progress on this issue to the financial reform bill congress is also working on. Gotta wonder about these guys we elected who can't work on two critical issues at the same time. Gotta wonder how many sides of the same issue any one senator can be---------"Both Sides Now" may not be enough.............

It's criminal that this law passed and equally criminal that rather than solving the problem of immigration at the federal level, which is where it should be addressed, this issue and the immoral law it has engendered has become a political football and a game of finger-pointing is the best our high-priced senators and representatives, both Democrats and Republicans, can do!!!

Music

My daughter recently had a facebook post( "Escape Club's "I'll be there" stops me in my tracks whatever I may be doing and I could cry in a second. What is your favorite, meaningful song like that?") about a song that was very meaningful to her. Our friend fabpeng is doing a music series on his blog. So, not to be left out, here's a few songs with some special meaning for us-----from some raunch by the Stones to the wonderful images of John Prine and our favorite version of the national anthem from Woodstock Sunday AM----------even the Bob Marley song that helped inspire the name of this blog..............

Hope you enjoy them as much as we do.............