Copeland & Bela Fleck

It's been an exhausting day, maybe I'll write about it tomorrow, not now. I stumbled across this video and had to share. It is a live performance by Bela Fleck and the Flecktones of Aaron Copeland's Hoedown.

Oh, in case you don't know Fleck, he plays a mean Banjo. This video also includes a short jam between Bela and an Indian drummer... Just trust me. Enjoy.

This one made my day.

And so it goes.

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Suze Orman's Valentine Wish...

This is amazing and I am sure her hate mail has been rolling in. But I say, good on ya Suze! Here is the text accompanying the YouTube video:

Suze Orman explains why gay marriage ban hurts so many americans financially. These are Americans who work hard, pay their taxes, but don't have the rights of other Americans.

Busy holiday weekend here. Whoda thunk it?
More later.
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Catchphrase “War on Terror” Fading

I was wondering why I haven’t heard the phrase more than once or twice (usually by some rightwing nut spitting it out like the old worn-out talking point it is) since January 20^th. Now I know.

WASHINGTON – The "War on Terror" is losing the war of words. The catchphrase burned into the American lexicon hours after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, is fading away, slowly if not deliberately being replaced by a new administration bent on repairing the U.S. image among Muslim nations.

Since taking office less than two weeks ago, President Barack Obama has talked broadly of the "enduring struggle against terrorism and extremism." Another time it was an "ongoing struggle."

He has pledged to "go after" extremists and "win this fight." There even was an oblique reference to a "twilight struggle" as the U.S. relentlessly pursues those who threaten the country.

But only once since his Jan. 20 inauguration has Obama publicly strung those three words together into the explosive phrase that coalesced the country during its most terrifying time and eventually came to define the Bush administration.

Speaking at the State Department on Jan. 22, Obama told his diplomatic corps, "We are confronted by extraordinary, complex and interconnected global challenges: war on terror, sectarian division and the spread of deadly technology. We did not ask for the burden that history has asked us to bear, but Americans will bear it. We must bear it."

During the past seven years, the "War Against Terror" or "War on Terror" came to represent everything the U.S. military was doing in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the broader effort against extremists elsewhere or those seen as aiding militants aimed at destroying the West.

Ultimately and perhaps inadvertently, however, the phrase "became associated in the minds of many people outside the Unites States and particularly in places where the countries are largely Islamic and Arab, as being anti-Islam and anti-Arab," said Anthony Cordesman, a national security analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

Now, he said, there is a sense that the U.S. should be talking more about specific extremist groups — ones that are recognized as militants in the Arab world and that are viewed as threats not just to America or the West, but also within the countries they operate.

The thinking has evolved, he said, to focus on avoiding the kind of rhetoric "which could imply that this was a struggle against a religion or a culture."

Obama has made it clear in his first days in office that he is courting the Muslim community and making what is at least a symbolic shift away from the previous administration's often more combative tone.

He chose an Arab network for his first televised interview, declaring that "Americans are not your enemy." Before his first full week in office ended, he named former Sen. George J. Mitchell as his special envoy for the Middle East and sent him to the region for talks with leaders.

According to the White House, Obama is intent on repairing America's image in the eyes of the Islamic world and addressing issues such as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, unrest in Pakistan and India, Arab-Israeli peace talks and tensions with Iran.

Using language is one way to help effect that change, said Wayne Fields, professor of English and American culture studies at Washington University in St. Louis.

"One of the contrasts between the two administrations is the care with which Obama uses language. He thinks about the subtle implications," said Fields, an expert on presidential rhetoric. The Bush administration "didn't set out deliberately to do things that were offensive but they liked to do things that showed how strong they were, and to use language almost in an aggressive sense."

Obama, he said, understands that language and conversation must be worked at and that it's "not just a series of sound bites."

Not just a series of sound bites? That was clear at his first news conference and the talking heads whined that they found it difficult to “cut” the Presidents words into short phrases…um, as it ‘sound bites’. Well, get used to it. Eight years of the sound bite master (and his master) have made ‘reporters’ lazy. Bush/Cheney did their work for them. It’s refreshing to actually listen to someone with a command of the language.

The rest is HERE.

More later.

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Sharing on Caturday

More later.

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Oh! It's Friday the 13th! That Explains it...

Well the beautiful, warm weather of yesterday and Wednesday turned into a bummer last night. The relentless winds did indeed gust up to 65 mph shaking the place, rattling glassware, and wreaking havoc with the trees and small animals.

I went to bed thinking it would be over by morning. Well, wasn’t I surprised when I awoke before dawn with a very cold nose and head? Yes, indeed. There were no night-lights, no light from the clock radio; no light anywhere. The only light came from the moon. I looked out to find all other homes were in total darkness and the entire area bathed in moonlight. It was beautiful - and cold.

I grabbed another blanket and got back under the covers covering as much of my head and face as possible without smothering to death and was asleep in no time.

When I finally woke up after sunrise the power had not been restored. I called the electric company and (of course) got a recorded message telling me what I already knew, but offered no timeline for restoring power.

I set up a makeshift burner using a votive candle and made a hot cup of green tea, still bundled up and covered with a comforter. I thanked God that this didn’t happen when the temps were in the 20s. That said, 38’ is none too comfy to wake up to. The tea did the trick and the power was back on an hour later. I reset all the clocks.

After a shave and shower I made a to-do list and set out to make short shrift of it. The winds were still blowing between 15 and 25 mph, but the sun was bright and warming so before returning to the apartment I took another walk on the beach at north shores up to the cape.

The photo was taken today. The towers are WWII lookout towers used scan the ocean for German submarines. There are few of these left today. The cape is that land mass behind the towers, jutting out into the Atlantic. Click the image to make biggen.

When I got back to the apartment I noticed that all the clocks were blinking so I guess the power went off again. At least it was back on, though the place was cold. I have reset all the clocks – again.

Let’s hope that’s the last time I have to do that today.

I had planned to bake bread today, but with the unreliable power situation I think I'll wait until tomorrow.

And so it goes.

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Reunited: Sam the Koala and Mr. Tree

The rescuer and rescuee share a moment together. I swear this story is everywhere now, and rightly so. With hundreds of people dead or displaced, and possibly thousands of animals dead as well, we can all use a good story with a happy ending. Don't you think so, too?

More later.
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Rescued Koala Update.

The burns were quite severe, but the little girl pulled through the surgery and is said to make a full recovery. It looks like love has come into her life, too!

CANBERRA: A love story between two badly burned koalas rescued from Australia's deadliest bushfires has provided some heart-warming relief after days of devastation and the loss of over 180 lives.

The story of Sam and her new boyfriend Bob emerged after volunteer firefighter Dave Tree used a mobile phone to film the rescue of the bewildered female found cowering in a burned out forest at Mirboo North, 150 km (90 miles) southeast of Melbourne.

Photos and a video of Tree, 44, approaching Sam while talking gently to her, and feeding her water from a plastic bottle as she put her burned claw in his cold, wet hand quickly hit video sharing website YouTube (www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XSPx7S4jr4), making her an Internet sensation.

But it was after reaching a wildlife shelter that Sam met and befriended Bob, who was saved by wildlife workers on Friday, two days before Sam, in Boolarra, about 180 km from Melbourne.

The rest is HERE.

Image is from REUTERS/Southern Ash Wildlife Centre/Colleen Wood

More later.

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It Might as Well be Spring!

Temps hit the upper 70s yesterday and it looks like today may be a duplicate, though maybe not quite as warm. It feels more like April than February. I took a walk on the beach after finishing the chores in the afternoon and hope to do so again today.

Maybe not. We're scheduled for wind gusts of between 30 and 50 mph by afternoon and I don't think I could handle being sand-blasted this early in the year. We'll see. The sky is a deep blue but the sea grass is bent almost horizontal back in the marshes.

I've been singing (or humming) this song since yesterday's walk.

I keep wishing I were somewhere else,
Walking down a strange new street.
Hearing words that I have never heard
From a man I've yet to meet.
I'm as busy as a spider spinning daydreams,
I'm as giddy as a baby on a swing.
I haven't seen a crocus or a rosebud
Or a robin on the wing.
But I feel so gay,
In a melancholy way,
That it might as well be spring,
It might as well be spring.

A big sigh and thank you to Mr. Rodgers and Mr. Hammerstein. Song is from the 1945 film, State Fair.

More later.
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Marines Can't Dance?

Really?
Don't tell that to these really cool grunts in Iraq doing the cha-cha slide. I don't know what the cha-cha slide is, but they are sure gettin' down. The guy in center frame really works it and has some interesting moves, don't you think? Video is titled "Your Tax Dollars at Work" and I'd say it's money well spent.

I don't know about you, but I feel safer just watching this video. (sigh!)

And so it goes.
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Koala Rescued From Australia Fires

This is so touching and uplifting at the same time. A short video of the event is below this Yahoo News story:

SYDNEY – It was a chance encounter in the charred landscape of Australia's deadly wildfires: A koala sips water from a bottle offered by a firefighter. David Tree noticed the koala moving gingerly on scorched paws as his fire patrol passed. Clearly in pain, the animal stopped when it saw Tree.

"It was amazing, he turned around, sat on his bum and sort of looked at me with (a look) like, put me out of my misery," Tree told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "I yelled out for a bottle of water. I unscrewed the bottle, tipped it up on his lips and he just took it naturally.

"He kept reaching for the bottle, almost like a baby."

The team called animal welfare officers to pick up the koala Sunday, the day after deadly firestorms swept southern Victoria state.

"I love nature, and I've handled koalas before. They're not the friendliest things, but I wanted to help him," Tree said.

Often mistakenly called koala bears because they resemble a child's teddy bear, the marsupial is actually a rather grumpy creature with a loud growl and sharp claws. It rarely comes down from the trees and doesn't like walking.

Koalas are especially vulnerable to wildfires because they move slowly on the ground.

The wildfires cut through parks and forests and sent countless wombats and other native species fleeing. One resident reported seeing kangaroos bouncing down the road with flames at their backs.

The fires also razed farmland, killing or panicking sheep and cattle. Television footage showed cows running down the main street of a smoke-filled town.

A count of the animals killed has not been made.

Tree said he found the koala in a burned-out forest near Mirboo North, about 90 miles (150 kilometers) east of Melbourne, Victoria's capital.

Koalas normally drink almost no water because they get almost all their fluids from the leaves they eat.

Read the rest at the link above. Here's the short YouTube video.

The arsonists are being referred to as "mass murderers" and that's as it should be.

More later.

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Gulf Coast Recovery?

You know, whenever I hear comments that NOLA is back to normal (it's never been normal, God forbid) I have to look no further than our delightful friends at FEMA. Unfortunately, stories like this one are few and far between. 3.9 billion in hurricane aid still unspent:

WASHINGTON — A massive effort to fix public works destroyed more than three years ago by the Gulf Coast hurricanes remains largely stalled, leaving more than $3.9 billion in federal aid unspent and key repairs far from complete.

The scale of that job is enormous. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has promised $5.8 billion to repair everything from flooded libraries and schools to sewer systems and roads that were ruined when Hurricanes Katrina and Rita obliterated huge sections of coastal Louisiana and Mississippi in 2005.

Nearly 3½ years after those storms hit, new FEMA accounting reports show two-thirds of the money to pay for permanent rebuilding work still has not been spent, the latest bottleneck in a recovery long beset by criticism that it has been too slow and inefficient. And despite a handful of high-profile successes, officials who had vowed to speed up the pace of repairs concede it is still going far more slowly than it should.

"I think it can go better. That's almost obvious," says James Stark, who runs FEMA's recovery effort in the region. "Public safety, health and education are critical. That's not proceeding as quickly as I think many people in southeast Louisiana would want." Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has ordered the agency to take a "fresh look" at those roadblocks. Its first report is due Tuesday.

The delays have led to "dilapidated buildings, roads and sewer systems in our communities," says Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., who chairs a disaster recovery subcommittee. "As we approach the fourth anniversary of Katrina and Rita, we simply cannot permit billions off dollars to remain bottled up in bureaucratic red tape."

When I visited NOLA last summer few of my old friends wanted to talk about the Katrina/Rita debacle - most are Repubs, after all and didn't want to trash talk the party - (yes, I know) but others shared their stories and pictures and what the related left me speechless. One friend who lost her home on the MS coast (with 2 sons serving in Iraq) waited almost 2 years for a contaminated FEMA trailer. During the waiting period she spent 3 days a week in a tent on her property; the other 4 days with family in LA. Her new home still isn't completed.

Let's pray that President Obama gets on top of this and gets things straightened out.

And so it goes.
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Being Gay is a Gift From God

I've known this for a long time...but it appears to be a relatively new concept in most circles. Here's a very interesting video of a recent Oprah show. Spirituality 101 with Rev. Ed Bacon:

I am amazed that the two clergymen are in agreement on this issue. G*D, I can only imagine the wingnut heads exploding while watching this live...and that's as it should be.

And so it goes.

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