Saturday, January 15, 2011

Seraphim Incessabili Voce

Shorter Charles Krauthammer: "Mountains. Molehills. They're the same thing!"

Fossil fuels; they're what's for dinner. A good portion of the calories you consume are there because of petroleum-derived agricultural fertilizers. Then there's transportation, because much of the food you eat comes from places very far away, unless you happen to be living on a kiwi-fruit farm. As the world's oil reserves decline, food production will decline with it, until the Leviathan of hunger rears its head and human populations drop precipitously.

There's a gun show in Tucson this weekend.

Cynaegeirus was one of the 192 Greeks who lost their lives at the battle of Marathon. He was attacking one of the Persian ships when it is said his hand was cut off. He was the brother of the famous tragedian Aeschylus.



Julia Fischer isn't just a sensational violinist. She is also a formidable pianist and on occasion she has played both a concerto for violin and another for piano during the same concert.



PorkPie!

What's a Reince Priebus? One may similarly inquire, as did Rowan and Martin, "What's an orange gopher?" (The answer is "about a quarter each.")



Janacek. He drinks out of the bowl by dipping his paw in then licking the water off it. If I do not awaken at an appropriate time he gently paws my face in the very early morning. My spouse found him hiding under a car during a hot summer long ago, when he was still a kitten.

Arizona state senator Lori Klein, Republican, carries a Ruger in her purse while serving in the Capitol even though signs on the doors indicate that it is a weapons-free zone.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Shrimpie, I'm sorry not to have stopped by sooner.

I'm so sorry for what Tucson has gone through. I'm sorry for what your colleagues have gone through. I always appreciate those in the healing arts, keenly so today as Gabby goes into rehabilitation.

I saw your comment on the arbitrary nature of God... supposedly helping those who survived, and those who died, not so much. In the face of the religiobabble that we hear so much, it's easy to become cynical, or if not cynical, simply numb. I tell all who will listen that God is found in the belief that there are eternal things such as truth and justice, and that anyone who does believe in something larger and more permanent than our human endeavors believes in God.

Why do these terrible things happen? Because some among us do not see beauty, experience love, believe in truth or otherwise get beyond themselves and their small lives. Jared Loughner was obsessed with grammar as a means of controlling the world. It may have been whacky, but it's not fundamentally different than believing in money or power to control the world. As to why some people live and some die, it's a mystery, impenetrable.

This is my long way of saying that you're in my thoughts and prayers, with thanks for what you do.

--Charles