poor judgement

It seems there is  a lot of poor judgement being shown by people these days. 

• Take the policeman in Washington who slugged a 17 year old girl, for instance. I watched the video several times and the girls who committed the crime of jay walking  were definitely wrong in being verbally abusive to the policeman. But hitting someone with your fist is not part of police training.  There are "come along" holds that cops are taught to use that enable him to get the upper hand with someone who may be larger than he is. It took a long time for this policeman to gain control of the girl. He may have forgotten his training. I can't help but wonder how this officer would be able to arrest a man his own size who was not willing to be arrested when he could not gain control of a teenage girl. Poor judgement? I think so. Not too long ago a policeman was video taped tasering a woman in her 70's. Sure, she was being uncooperative and mouthy, but using a taser?  Extremely poor judgement. I think both these cops should find a job more in keeping with their abilities and temperament.
• Then there is the situation with Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) . After a meeting at the White House where a deal was made with BP to create 20 billion dollar escrow account to cover oil damages and claims resulting from the Gulf oil leak, congressman Joe Barton apologised to Tony Hayward, CEO of BP, for the "shake down" he received by the president. A corporation being held accountable for it's actions is a shake down?  Poor judgement? You bet.  Texas voters will be exercising good judgement if they vote Barton out of office in the next election.  Note: Barton has received 1.5 million dollars in campaign contributions from the oil industry. Money does have a way of clouding your judgement, doesn't it?
• Tony Hayward, CEO of BP would like to have his life back. If he is able to sail his yacht on the weekends then this tragedy in the Gulf is just a minor inconvenience for him. Lives and livelihoods have been lost  but no concern was forthcoming from Mr. Hayward until he was overwhelmed by the public furor.
• U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman has overturned the Obama administration's six month moratorium on deep water oil drilling. It turns out the judge holds stock in oil drilling and pipeline companies, but he assures us there's no conflict of interest. I feel better knowing that.
• General McChrystal is relieved of his command after bad mouthing the commander in chief in a magazine article. As a career military man the general understands the consequences of insubordination and I'm sure that he would never brook such a lack of respect from any of his own subordinates.  So, I wonder if this is the mother of all bad judgements or if there was an ulterior motive.

quote of the day

In America many self-described deficit hawks are hypocrites, pure and simple: They're eager to slash benefits for those in need, but their concerns about red ink vanish when it comes to tax breaks for the wealthy.  Thus, Senator Ben Nelson, who sanctimoniously declared that we can't afford $77 billion in aid to the unemployed, was instrumental in passing the first Bush tax cut, which cost a cool $1.3 trillion.

--Paul Krugman

what i'm reading now

I've been reading some serious stuff lately and I thought it was time for a little escape reading. Nelson DeMille's The Lion was just what I was looking for. Mr. DeMille's  novel is the latest in the Detective John Corey series and is a sequel to The Lion's Game.  The Libyan terrorist that escaped justice in the first story comes back in The Lion to settle old scores.  Nelson DeMille has a talent for hooking you at the end of each chapter and drawing you to the next. I read his books faster than any other author. John Corey is an egotistic, insubordinate, sarcastic, well....butt hole.  There's no other way to put it. But, he keeps me laughing and keeps me turning the pages. If your a DeMille fan you won't be disappointed.

quote of the day

Every attempt to find plan and purpose and respectable rationality in this universe, whether on a supernatural or a merely  naturalistic basis, is bound to end in absurdity, and of the two the naturalistic explanations are the more absurd.  Perhaps the song of birds is "explainable" simply as a device for sexual attraction; perhaps the radiant wings of insects are no more than protective colouring; perhaps the beauty of the morning-glory is merely to entice the bee, appealing no doubt to his acute aesthetic appreciation of colour and form.  Perhaps.  But if the aim of so much splendour is merely to stimulate the sexual processes of purely instinctual organisms, the mountain has labored and brought forth a mouse.

--Alan Watts

another project

The grassy area between the gate and our front porch has always turned to a puddle when it rains so I started another do it yourself project.

I marked off a pathway.....

.....then dug out the grass, set the round pavers, buried the plastic borders.........

.....then filled between the pavers with river rock. Now maybe not so much mud tracked into the house.

quote of the day

The oil industry has tried to prevent some of the possible consequences of ocean drilling. But they are ineffective!

--Jacques Cousteau, 1973

what i'm reading now

Behold the Spirit: A Study in the Necessity of Mystical Religion  is one of the best books on theology I have ever read.  Alan Watts separates the  "earn your way to heaven" theology of the legalistic religions from the simple gospel of grace and redemption found in the Bible.  
The author has a gift of taking a complex subject and making it understandable to a lay person.  If you are a non religious person but are curious to know what Christianity is all about then read this book.  If you are religious, read this book for an in depth exposition of the theology you believe. You will learn something.

marley kate

                                                        Marley Kate, 10 years old.

soda pop

On the way home from digging crystals we drove up the old Hwy 66 between Oklahoma City and Tulsa and stopped at Pop's, a unique restaurant/soda pop store that intrigued us with over 500 varieties of pop. They have an old fashioned soda fountain where you can order any combination of smoothie, float, shake that you care to think up.  We ate lunch there and then bought some out of the ordinary sodas, such as Kitty Piddle pineapple orange, Sea Dog root beer, and Monster Mucus strawberry, blue raspberry.  They also have Coke and Dr. Pepper in the original recipe using cane sugar, and some of the brands I remember drinking as a child like Nehi, Nesbitt's, and Hires.

quote of the day

You only get one chance.  You have one journey through life;  you cannot repeat even one moment or retrace one footstep.  It seems that we are meant to inhabit and live everything that comes toward us.

--John, O'Donohue

great salt plains

Last weekend Dorothy and I accompanied our daughter, Kelly and her family to the Great Salt Plains near Enid, OK.  We went there to dig for selenite crystals. It was hot and windy, but it was fun to dig holes, let them fill with water and then sift through the salty mud in search of the chocolate brown gems.

quote of the day

I used to believe...that growing and growing up are analogous, that both are inevitable  and uncontrollable processes.  Now it seems to me that growing up is governed by the will, that one can choose to become an adult, but only at given moments.  These moments come along fairly infrequently -- during crises in relationships, for example, or when one has been given the chance to start afresh somewhere -- and one can ignore them or seize them.

--Nick Hornby

what i'm reading now

A Dead Hand is Paul Theroux's latest novel.  After reading The Mosquito Coast  I was eager to sample more of his fiction.  I was dissappointed.  It's  a good description of life in India, but as a mystery it was a little clumsy.