feel the bern

Nellie McKay

Mufspeek

Desecrated jewish graves on the Mount of Olives - photographer unknown

The people of Israel have lived 3,700 years without a memorandum of understanding with America and will continue to live without it another 3,700 years. Menachem Begin

There was another bombing in Jerusalem today, this one wounded twenty one people. Israeli authorities called it a terrorist attack. I am sure many liberals here in America will rejoice and prefer to view the bloodshed as a brilliant act of resistance against the hated occupier.

Like Hillary pal Sydney Blumenthal's son Max did two weeks ago regarding a Palestinian attack killed five Israeli soldiers.

In undercover recordings published Sunday by The (U.K.) Telegraph, Blumenthal, an activist and writer, is heard praising an “incredible” 2014 massacre carried out by “commandos” with Hamas’s al-Qassam Brigades against Israeli soldiers stationed at a kibbutz and army base called Nahal Oz.
“With GoPro cameras attached to their helmets, [they] burst into the Israeli base and kill every soldier they encounter in hand-to-hand combat,” Blumenthal said during a March 5 event held at the London School of Economics.
“The message it sent to young Palestinians in the West Bank, in Jerusalem and abroad, was incredible,” he continued. “You see your people in commando uniforms, bursting into a military base and showing up the occupier.”During his March 5 speech, Blumenthal defended Palestinian violence against Israel.“There’s often prison revolts which take place everywhere, because people are normal. People are normal in the Gaza Strip, and so they take up arms,” he said. He also gloated that the attack “[popped] Israel’s security bubble.”

Sounds suspiciously like one of Obama's old press secretaries.

"The Obama administration insisted Monday that a Palestinian killed by an IDF while attempting to throw a Molotov cocktail at Israeli civilians is not a terrorist.
The Palestinian, a teenager with U.S. citizenship, was shot Friday and buried wearing a green Hamas headband. The Obama administration said in a statement on Friday that it “expresses its deepest condolences to the family.”
At a State Department briefing today, Associated Press reporter Matt Lee asked spokesperson Jen Psaki whether it is appropriate to offer “deepest condolences” to the family of someone killed while attempting to carry out an attack on civilians.
“There are reports … that [the Palestinian teenager] was throwing Molotov cocktails at cars on a highway, and I’m wondering, if that is the case, would you still have been so speedy in putting out a statement and offering your condolences to the family?” asked Lee. “The argument that is being made by some in Israel is that this kid was essentially a terrorist, and you don’t agree with that, I assume,” Lee continued.
“Correct, we don’t,” Psaki said. Lee then asked whether the fact that the teenager was buried wearing a Hamas headband was “of concern at all.” Psaki replied, “I just don’t have any more on this particular case.”"

I don't know how many times I have to say that I find a lot of the Netanyahu Administration's behavior wrong and distasteful. I don't like being thrust into the role of an Israeli apologist. But do I get letters...

In any case what I find even more distasteful is the behavior of some on the left that condemn Israeli with ridiculous Monday morning quarterbacking and twenty twenty hindsight. Like Senator Pat Leahy for instance. Leahy wants to cut off funding for Israel because they have the temerity to kill assailants who are trying to murder them instead of trying to immobilize them.

He cites four cases, the first being one Fadi Alloun, who tried to kill a 15-year old Israeli boy in Jerusalem with a knife, than ran through the streets attempting to stab and slash multiple people. The assailant refused to drop his weapon and was killed by security forces. He had recently written “Either martyrdom or victory”on a Facebook page, and his acts were obviously premeditated.

Next we have Ahmed Manasra who on October 12, 2015, accompanied by his cousin, set out armed with knives to kill Jews in Jerusalem. They first attacked a young man who fortunately escaped with severe lacerations. They then pounced on 13-year old boy on a bicycle, stabbing him in the neck before being chased off. The rampage was stopped when a civilian rammed into the duo with his car. They were taken to an Israeli Hospital where their lives were saved.

Two others who were cited as being the recipients of extrajudicial punishment were Hadeel Hashmaloun and Mutaz Awiza. Hadeel was a woman who was said to have brandished a knife at a checkpoint and attempted to stab a soldier.

We know the Israelis are a horrible people but even so, if you come at most soldiers or cops here in America with a knife or a gun, I think that you can expect to be killed. Creating a different standard for Israelis seems a bit ridiculous. Live by the sword, expect to die by the sword or in any case, very quickly.

The Obama administration is certainly on board.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration accused Israel of using excessive force against Palestinians during a wave of deadly violence, in an annual report that pointed to a global decline in human rights.
The annual report by the State Department into human rights abuses around the world accused Israeli forces of “excessive use of force” in the Palestinian territories, and “arbitrary arrest and associated torture and abuse, often with impunity,” by the IDF, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.
According to numbers cited in the report, 149 Palestinians were killed in 2015 by Israeli security forces, but only 77 were in the course of attacking Israelis.
“There were numerous reports of the ISF (Israel security forces) killing Palestinians during riots, demonstrations, at checkpoints, and during routine operations; in some cases they did not pose a threat to life,” the report read.
The numbers clash with Israeli accounts that some two-thirds of Palestinians killed during a wave of violence beginning in October were in the midst of attempting or carrying out attacks and the rest died in clashes with security forces.

Only 77 of the poor people were attacking Israelis? Jeez. I honestly hate talking about Israel. I get crap from friends and family members, many who are quite hostile to the country. But I hate it when J Street types, people who have never lived in the country, as I have, nor even visited it, presuppose to know better than Israelis on the proper way of dealing with an enemy that wishes to do them in. Let me say once again, Netanyahu has been a duplicitous asshole regarding settlement policy. But do I understand the dynamic that feeds his underlying calculus, I actually think I do. Perhaps we can discuss it another time.

Bernie does a great dance on the subject. Israel has a right to defend itself but not too much, if you know what he means...Shrug off those missiles from Gaza until there are a few more casualties.

I have many friends who are Syrian and Iraqi Christians and have known many jews that originally came from Middle Eastern arab countries. The stories of repression that they tell of living under the thumb of Islam are both startling and terrifying. And they are without a doubt the most open eyed and realistic regarding the nature of the middle eastern conflict and the people most resolute in taking a harder line. Because they know. Liberal Americans, jewish or not, they don't know.

But by all means, all you enlightened liberals, continue to blather. Because you obviously know best.

*

Wailing Wall - Shepp

On another front, UNSECO says that the jews have no cultural or historical link to the Temple Mount, site of the first and second temple. Good old United Nations. Want to talk fair and balanced?

The UNESCO executive board on Thursday adopted a resolution on "Occupied Palestine" presented by several Arab countries.
It referred to Israel as the "occupying power" several times, and only referred to the Temple Mount as Al-Aqsa Mosque, likewise calling the Western Wall by the name Al-Buraq Wall, a term created in the 1920s by Arabs in an ahistorical attempt to claim the site.
The resolution criticized Israel for "excavations and works" in eastern Jerusalem, and urged it to stop "aggressions and illegal measures against the freedom of worship and Muslims' access" to the Temple Mount.
The resolution also outrageously accused Israel of "planting fake Jewish graves in Muslim cemeteries."

Which is kind of interesting because the mount is the holiest site in Judaism and jews can document their connection to the landscape there for over 3500 years, contrasting to Islam, which was born in the seventh century.

Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill. Our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors have made Jerusalem and your people an object of scorn to all those around us. Daniel 9:16

Can we stop with this notion that people that are pro Israel think that Israel is somehow above criticism and reproach canard?  Because it is simply not true and I have never heard even the most ardent zionist hawk make that argument. Israelis are more prone to self criticism than anybody else I have ever witnessed. Two jews, five opinions.

What they will say is that perhaps you can save a little ire for the neighbors, perhaps recognize that it is the only functioning democracy in the Middle East, although it obviously doesn't match everybody's lofty standards.

In fact it is a place where Arab members of the Knesset have even advocated for its destruction and applauded violence the intifada. Can you imagine the chances of someone surviving in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia too long after making a similar argument in one of those countries?

Tenacious

April nocturne

I am real busy. Finishing up the first leg in a short string of shows, lots of obligations mounting. Bills adding up, brakes are failing, deck needs painting. I guess things are pretty normal right now. Won't be a lot of time to write but as a few of my friends have privately noted, I have been pretty loquacious lately and maybe it ain't such a bad idea for my gums to stop flapping for a while.

Two of our closest friends, R & D, have split the scene for greener pastures and we are going to certainly miss them.

I dreamt about both my mother and father last night. Unusual for me, has been many years since I have had such a dream, if ever. They split up around 1961 or 1962 and they have both departed this mortal coil, my father a year ago last week. A strange dream.

Google was selling ad space to our lives. Everywhere you walked there were channels left and right, side columns really, which Google would fill with extraneous pictures and information in order to fill in the blanks in our thought processes. Some of the stuff was germane but certain things were inapplicable, like a Siri or Google search when they mishear your command and give you some hilarious approximation that is totally off the mark.

I am not sure how my Dad fit in to the whole scenario but we were fighting some dragon together, some project against all odds which we often did in the construction business when we worked together. My father was so brilliant, so tough, so formidable. It was nice to visit with him last night, to touch him once again in my slumber.

We ended up at a casino which is fitting since we played a lot of blackjack together, he a master mathematician with an innate ability to figure probability.

*
My mother's dream was even more powerful. She was naked and in the process of childbirth. In a great deal of pain, I fetched a cold washcloth and cooled her head, administered comfort as well as I could. I guess someone with a  psychological bent could input all sorts of questions from the dream, was I witnessing my own birth?

My mother, who also died a year ago, not long after my father, and I had a serious emotional disconnect, for all sorts of reasons that I need not go into. I experienced a deep connection with her in the dream that was mostly lacking when she was alive, an appreciation for her physical and emotional pain and a compassion that I regret not necessarily always feeling or expressing in life. Cathartic dream.

It is impossible to see your parents or even yourself, exactly as others do. My father had one close friend, Norman Lawrence, the loss after his passing was so great that he never made another. My mother had a million friends, affected everyone in her orbit, but it was a somewhat different experience for those of us who had peeked behind the curtain. Many found her irrationality delicious, it was a bit tougher for those of us on the inside.

They were both brilliant people and I miss them both and have to thank them, our parents are totally responsible for our being on this earth and both of mine worked hard and sacrificed for me and for the rest of the family. We are all imperfect and we all do the best that we can.

I cried for months after my father died, have yet to shed a tear for mom for some reason. Watching the intense emotional spiral of her breakdown was so devastating to me in high school, it forced me into a role that I was plainly incapable of dealing with, I saw things no kid should ever see. But I can't forget that she saved my life on at least two occasions and loved me deeply, as did my father. Who can ask for anything more?

Betcha By Golly Wow

Calendar Antique Show

Del Mar starts tomorrow and runs through the weekend. I may be interviewed in my booth on the local channel around 8:30 tomorrow morning, just for a minute or two, will be my third time on the show. Who knows? If you do make it to the antique show please come by and say hello. I have a limited number of comps...

Albatross

Prop job

We have had such an interesting spring weather wise, nice intermittent rains, great sunsets. Occasional rain coming from seemingly blue skies. I got home around seven last night and called out a greeting to my wife. No answer. Odd?

I walked upstairs and turns out she was out on the deck, basking in a beautiful rainbow over our valley. And doubly cool for a double rainbow was this. If you look at the top of our old wind machine, which used to keep the frost off the avocado grove, you will see a red tailed hawk perched on the propeller.

I happened to have the Sigma 150-600mm C telephoto lens in the car and ran down to get it. I stood in the rain and shot for a half hour or more. Mr. or Mrs. Red Tailed Hawk never did move. Excuse the lack of sharpness and clarity. It was getting dark and the buteo was pretty far away.

Highstepping

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn

Secret Agent Fireball XL5

Sonic Youth

Richard Alden Griffin (1944 -1991)

Rick Griffin - © Herb Greene

Hard to believe it has been almost twenty five years since Rick passed. Taken from the world far too soon. One of the most difficult yet rewarding relationships that I ever had. I have been so very fortunate and blessed with my friends and incredible teachers. Rick was up at the top of the list.

Vaya con dios, Rick. You were unique and brilliant. One of a kind.

Be Stoked

Eggs In A Briar Patch

Jokerman

We drove back through Del Dios. I had seen something out of the corner of my eye on the way in. A new (to me) little rock shrine built just below the road level, slightly west of the Lake Hodges Dam.

We walked down to the monument but didn't linger long. A homeless man was undertaking some personal hygiene in the middle of the circular edifice and we felt like he probably needed his space. The joker painted on the dam wall added to the general foreboding feeling and to the dark storm clouds that we could see on the horizon.

I am going to walk this river trail. I saw an unusual raptor, possibly a black shouldered kite and need to check back.

On a high promontory over La Jolla

Leslie needed to go to the Del Mar Fair to meet a vendor yesterday. I don't recall the exact name of the show but it might have been a healthy living, new agey sort of thing, in any case probably not my cup of tea. She needed two hours and then we had brunch and bloody marys scheduled with friends.

I decided to cut out and drive to the Torrey Pines reserve for a short hike and hopefully an assignation with a Peregrine falcon or two. Leslie was up in Marin County recently and saw two of the sleek raptors and I feel a bit cheated personally.

I made my way through the line at the gate house and after paying the rather steep fee, maneuvered the car though the phalanx of bicycles and hikers scaling the steep hill.

I talked to a docent or two about where I might find the birds and I guess it is an iffy proposition. The nest is below the cliff line and not visible from on high. So either they fly or they don't and they didn't.

I made the best of it. Southern California is very beautiful right now. Yuccas and agaves are spiking throughout the backcountry and elsewhere. Lots of wildflowers, the recent rains keeping everything at an optimal happiness level. The kind, as we used to say.

And while I didn't see falcons I did see some other interesting flying objects.

Really not a bad place to spend a Sunday morning.

Cactus and ocean always make such a delightful combination.

The day really didn't suck. I am going to go back next time and I think that I will get my bird.

Shawn, Ricardo, BigDave, Wicki, Ted, all of you folks that fled the southland for greener pastures, well you left something nice behind too.

McDump

Has anybody taken a gander at the old McDonald's restaurant location at 1050 S. Mission Rd. in Fallbrook lately? Not exactly your kind of happy place...

A veritable garbage dump of weeds and trash. I am just under six foot tall and there was a weed clearly over my head.

The asphalt is buckling in the parking lot and debris and old metal parts litter the grounds.

Tiles are missing from the steps. Frankly the place is as nasty as a pink McNugget before it hits the fryer.

A happy smiling figure on a sign still beckons from inside the lonely decrepit building. Golden Arches of hell...

McDonald's has of course moved to fancy new digs not a quarter mile away, leaving us with a nasty eyesore that has evidently faded from corporate memory. If only the citizens of Fallbrook were so lucky!

My understanding is that McDonald's inserted a clause or language in the sales or lease instructions that the site could not be used in the future by a restaurant, presumably in an attempt to forestall a potential competitor.

In the real world  what it means is that very few businesses are capable of or will undertake the capital expense necessary to repurpose such a structure that is actually only good for one thing, a fast food restaurant.

So we are stuck with the mansard modern ghetto slum look for perpetuity. Nice corporate responsibility McDonald's, both for the draconic legal language and for your obvious contempt for our community. Excuse us for feeling crapped on.

Thanks, Anthony Villaseñor from Sierra U.S. Commercial Real Estate. Thanks for watching our back. Feel free to drop them a note. Or send one to old Ronald McDonald himself. I did, will keep you posted.

Postscript: So far a little talk, no action. Will see if code enforcement does anything. Jon Harwood posted this picture of the living accommodations at the back of the site on the Fallbrook Shutters web page. Very nice.

From Wild Bill: 

All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning. Albert Camus

Don't send me no distant salutations

Robert by Ken

Superstar

onepointtwo land

Shannon

I got my negatives back, the pictures taken with the new (well 1971 anyway) Nikon F film camera with the 55mm 1.2 lens.

This lens is very sharp and very finicky. My win rate was very low. The focus plane is so very narrow. But it will be fun to explore. There is obviously something truly wonderful about film that can't be approximated digitally.

Jordan

Here is a shot of the lovely barista Jordan in Robert's Alley. As you can see, I sort of botched the shot, for the second time, sorry Jordan! She has a great smile.

The focus is right in front of her. You breathe wrong and you lose it with this lens. Will try again.

My buddy Brett, one of my oldest friends and best models, is always good for a pic or three  four five.

Dude should have been in pictures.

The Kennedys - Pretty Girl Why

Glenn

Subway literature

If we make it through December

Johnette