Johnny Jenkins - I Walk on Gilded Splinters

Scary Creatures

I've lived in the country for thirty four years but have to admit getting a little spooked the other night. Strange sounds and creatures clawing on the house. Owls are frequent guests and we had two the other night, couldn't determine exactly where because of the pitch blackness, but they were somewhere on the eave, scratching around quite aggressively. Owls don't bother me although it is a bit disconcerting when they slaughter their prey above our bedroom window. But there was something else out there, never could make out exactly what it was.

When you live on the river for a long time, you get used to the night noises, they become very familiar. That does not mean that occasionally you do not see very unusual things. A friend saw a big buck last week,  never see them anymore. Lev and Beth saw a mountain lion on the river few weeks back.

Leslie and I both saw a very rare sight in a fox at different times last weekend. I saw a scraggly old bighorn ram at the bottom of my driveway way back in 1983. Never know what you'll see. Once had three thousand or so Canadian geese camping out in the river across from my spread, back in '93. Loud bunch, they must not have liked the accommodations, never came back.

Anyway it wasn't the owls or the red tailed raptors the other night, it was something else, a honking, plaintiff bird call that resembled a goose in a lot of pain. It sounded most like the guttural call of the blue heron that lives below us, but he is usually a quiet sort and keeps to himself. Maybe I was mistaking pain for some other ecstatic heron emotion and he had found himself a girl but it went on for over an hour, near midnight, and neither one of us could figure it out and it sounded painful. Wonder what the hell it was?

I took pictures of the owl above, one lucky full moon night some time back.

Feels like fall around here, all of a sudden. Rainy, windy and cold today. Chris's restaurant should finally open tomorrow, county been screwing him around for ages. Fallbrook Pharmacy is no more. CVS is definitely not the same, no more small town pharmacy, girls look a little miserable.

The late Chris Whitley

The continuing journal of General E.D. Townsend

July 31, 1852

The newspapers have been lately full of accounts of Indian hostilities, and one would think the whole frontier wood soon be in a state of war. Indeed there is reason to apprehend serious difficulty on the San Joaquin, and in the Southern District. The following extract from a daily newspaper will illustrate the remarks on page 52, and is a fair sample of the origins of Indian troubles in general.

July18. "The Indians on Kings River had in a drinking frolic menaced a Mr. Campbell and a Mr. Pool, who had but recently established a ferry on the river, and gave them a limited time in which to leave. Being alarmed, they came over to our neighborhood and raised the hue and cry that the indians were going to exterminate the whites in that quarter, went to Fine Gold Gulch and told the same story, and induced some twenty four persons to leave for the scene of the disturbances. The twenty four above mentioned soon repaired to the place of disturbance, summoned all the redskins to meet them and explain. Pasqual, their great Chief, with many of his warriors were absent at Savage's aiding the Major in securing his crop at the time of disturbances. The Indians did not know what explanation they required; they hesitated what to do, but by impulse were moved to arm themselves, at which Mr. Campbell, one of the aggrieved, fired and shot the first Indian. By this time a general melee commenced and every one used his arms the best he knew how, when the Indians began to fall pretty freely and fell back. Report says about twenty were killed and fifteen wounded of the Indians - one only slightly wounded of the invading party.This outrage upon the savages, living on their own reservations, has caused a general bad feeling amongst the Indians of the Valley, and they demand satisfaction. A meeting will be held on the 25th instant at King's River, preparatory to a great mass meeting, on the 15th August, when all the sachems of the south shall be present.

"The Indians reason after this fashion: We live on our own reservation: the commissioner ordered us here; we came away from our hunting and gathering acorns for our bread - they  killed us in the mountains and threatened to kill us here, and even killed our men and women, "What shall we do?" said the broken hearted Chief Pascal,"to whom shall we go?"When in the mountains we were hunted like wild beasts; here we are shot down like cattle." The big tears stood on and trickled down the old Chief's face, as he spoke, and the bands of mourners who were with him, looked heart broken and sorrowful. We expect trouble, unless such outbreaks by white persons, who certainly have not the best of motives in general, are suppressed peremptorily. 

General Hitchcock was visiting to-day at the house of the Rev. Dr. Boring of this city, where he met a man well dressed and no doubt considered a gentleman. In the course of the conversation, which turned on Indian affairs, this man said that he had taken as much of the Indian reservation as he wanted for his share, and should hold it until obliged to give it up. He abused the Commissioners for giving the best lands to the Indians and wished the latter were out of the way. He then deliberately speculated on the best way of ridding the country of them and intimated that he intended to introduce the small pox among them, saying that it was manifestly the will of Heaven that they should disappear before the white men and therefore no harm to help them off...

Hooray, Hooray, These Women is Killing Me

Dumpling Inn

My friend Noreen asked me not to write about the Dumpling Inn. It is already near impossible to get a seat there. Sorry Noreen. We finally got in today. Arrived ten minutes early and they were kind enough to let us sit down and read the paper until they officially opened.

Asian food aficionados around these parts consistently call the Dumpling Inn one of the two or three best in the city, most say that it is the best.

We parked in the big lot at Jasmine and walked over. Forget about parking in the postage sized lot with the narrow spaces in the u shaped strip mall where the Dumpling Inn makes its home. The center is inhabited by a Happy Buddha Massage, Jasmine Express, reflexology, herb store, a Korean market, a chinese trinket shop and more of the like and always packed.

We drank our wonderful jasmine tea and considered the menu. Our first thought, when in Rome, we better order their famous dumplings. We were given various filling options and a choice of boiled, steamed and pan fried. Here is a screen shot of the dumpling menu.

Because we were early and they had time to prepare them properly, we ordered pork, steamed, of course, and it turned out to be the smart move.

I ordered the garlic baked sea bass filet. Leslie thought that she would try the lamb chow mein. My sea bass was lightly breaded, on a bed of rice and bok choy and simply flaky, perfect and marvelous, especially with a little hit of their chili.

Leslie's lamb was merely the best tasting lamb dish we have ever had in a chinese restaurant. Perfectly cooked and flavorful. Even the noodles were exceptional.

The soup dumplings came to the table piping hot and covered with ginger. Freaking incredible! Couldn't even wait for them to cool down... After the meal we walked over to Jasmine Express to get a few sesame balls to bring back to work.

I loved our meal, can't wait to go back for more discoveries. I would give you the address and phone number but I think Noreen and her husband will kill me. If you care bad enough you will look it up and find it. It took me five tries to actually get a seat here. Suffer like we did.

Random Bites

Kudos to Governor Jerry Brown for vetoing a bill that would allow non citizens to serve on juries in California. Never heard of such a crazy thing. Now if we could just mandate that they get a little driver's training before they get drivers licenses. I know first hand, crosswalks are an unknown to many of the immigrants in my town as are other of our normal driving practices.

*
Interesting how all of the 2016 Republican presidential candidates are publicly mum on the shut down issue. Afraid to tell us what they really think. Cowards. The GOP governors and state legislators are only too happy to throw their comrades under the bus.

*
The stupid Obama administration and its pitiful State Department is cutting hundreds of millions of aid to Egypt, against the advice of many, including the Israelis.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki says the U.S. will withhold delivery of certain large-scale military systems as well as cash assistance to the Egyptian government until "credible progress" is made toward an inclusive government set up through free and fair elections.

Interesting, we can look beyond the myriad of abuses by the Muslim Brotherhood Government of Morsi, which included beating and jailing journalists and non violent protesters, instituting islamic sharia law, a push to free convicted terrorist leader Abdul Rachmann, annulled the constitutional amendments of Egypt's Supreme Court, terrorizing Coptics and Christians and other "manifold abuses."

The present government seems to be doing a pretty fair job, definitely trying to clean up the rat's nest that is the Sinai. Our State Department has always been dominated by Islamists and in this case, it appears to come from the top down.

*
Smart of Obama to invite the House Democrats over for a chat. Since the House Repubs are apparently in favor of suspending the long standing American tradition of majority rule, perhaps they should pay attention to their comrades across the aisle, who beat them in the popular vote in the last election by over a million votes.

*
Nice to know that even in the shutdown, the House Republicans still retain their free gym memberships.

*
Eric Cantor penned an op-ed in the Washington Post, Divided government requires bipartisan negotiation, wherein he accuses the Prez of mocking Congress. Hey, Eric, you guys are arguably just half of congress, albeit the Junior League division. There is a Senate too, you know? The Senate voted on your bill, why don't you vote on theirs?

You and your bff buddy Boehner have already welched three times on deals, your august body is wracked by internal division, how would a sane and rational person go about negotiating with you?

don't make bonzo cwy...© Robert Sommers 2013

Intestinal flora

Assuming that there is some agreement or capitulation in the future and that we can put this stupid and unnecessary budget crisis shutdown to bed, I hope that you will forgive me for starting to think about the lessons we might have learned. Perhaps some people will think twice about their call for getting rid of government.

Salmonella

I had a good friend and client, a loyal Republican, in the shop the other day and I made the mistake of mentioning the shutdown.

"I love it," he says. "Get rid of government. We don't need it."

"Get rid of the CDC and the EPA and the FDA?" I asked him incredulously. "What about e coli and the sanctity of your food supply? Or do we simply not buy Farmer Jones hamburgers anymore if somebody gets sick and dies? Let the market take care of things."

"Nobody is going to die," he tells me. "And screw the EPA."

"So you will be okay with oil drilling in our national parks?"

"Drop an oil derrick right next to Old Faithful for all I care."

*
We will leave the question of allowing people and business to ravage our planet for another day and deal with the other thing. Lo and behold, we had our first salmonella outbreak post shutdown this week, which sent over 40 people to the hospital. The outbreak has been traced to some bad Foster Farms chicken at three California facilities, two in Fresno and one in Livingston. The outbreak has sickened 278 people in 18 states, according to federal officials. Suspect packages of chicken would have USDA marks P6137, P6137A and P7632. The CDC has recalled a bunch of furloughed employees to deal with the crisis. Amazingly, Foster Farms refuses to recall the chicken. Because it is a whole and not ground product, they don't have to.

Perhaps this is how we will get government in the future. Hire them part time when a crisis hits. Of course, if Michelle Bachmann is right and Obama's talking to the Iranians is a sign of imminent end times and the saviors return, the issue will be moot.

That mean old government is really bad, that is until you need it.

So afraid

Xeric

This afternoon, the accent mark and I had an interesting excursion over to Serra Gardens, the excellent succulent nursery on Santa Margarita in Fallbrook. I had no idea that the accent knew so much about these things but she was spouting botanical names like a dictionary and I was quite impressed.

Don Newcomer is the owner of Serra Gardens and you couldn't meet a nicer fellow. He has field collected a lot of the seed stock for his garden. If you haven't ever been by and you like succulents, cactus or euphorbia I think that you will enjoy walking around the place. We bought a beautiful Dasylirion longissimum ( the wonderful pincushion of a mexican grass plant from Chihuahua) for a friend there a few weeks ago.

Usually something wonderful blooming around the place. I like some of the more twisted and bizarre plant forms, some of them quite fractal.

Serra Gardens

897 Quail Hill Rd.
Fallbrook, CA 92028

OPEN WEEKDAYS 9-4 SATURDAY 8-NOON  760 990 4762  APPOINTMENT RECOMMENDED

Golden California Antique Show

Peter Ellenshaw (1913-2007)

The Blue Heron Gallery will be exhibiting at the Golden California Show in Glendale this Saturday and Sunday, October 12th and 13th, 2013. This show is now in its eighth year and is held at the venerable Glendale Civic Auditorium. I am sort of excited to do the show, I haven't done it since the first or second year.

The show hours are 10 to 6, Saturday and 10 until 4 on Sunday. More specific details about the show can be found here.

I have an interesting assortment of paintings, silver and pottery including a small Fritz Scholder collage, a Carl Dahlgren painting of Half Dome in a pristine Newcomb Macklin frame, two nice Paul Grimm paintings, one very large, a Maynard Dixon pencil illustration, a Maria and Popovi feather plate, a Franz Bischoff oil of Cambria, Gorham Strasbourg sterling service for 16, just far too many things to list.

Hope to see you there! And for my Santa Barbara friends, CALM is the following weekend. See you at the Earl Warren Fairgrounds.

Michael Stutz Reception

Fallbrook sculptor Michael Stutz has been very busy of late, at a time when many artists are not.

Congratulations to Michael and all of the people in his shop who create these fantastic artworks, we wish them continued success.

Michael is getting ready to soon deliver his newest installation to Texas Tech University.

He is having a goodbye party for his Four Faces on Sunday which you are all invited to.

Echo And The Bunnymen

Off the cliff

One of the most nauseating aspect of government and politicians is the unbridled hypocrisy and sanctimony. The Republicans have shut the government down because we finally have to do something about spending. No increases to the debt limit. Time to draw the line America, because we are god's party and we are watching out for you.

I found a budget office graph that charts debt limit increases. Please check out Table 7.3.The debt limit has been raised by every President since World War II with the exception of Harry Truman. There have been 106 increases to the debt ceiling since 1940. Reagan raised the limit 18 times, George W. 7 times. Conversely, Obama has raised it three times, the last time being February of 2010. Pretty light handed compared to his profligate predecessors. From the Office of the Treasure website:

The debt limit is the total amount of money that the United States government is authorized to borrow to meet its existing legal obligations, including Social Security and Medicare benefits, military salaries, interest on the national debt, tax refunds, and other payments. The debt limit does not authorize new spending commitments. It simply allows the government to finance existing legal obligations that Congresses and presidents of both parties have made in the past...  Since 1960, Congress has acted 78 separate times to permanently raise, temporarily extend, or revise the definition of the debt limit – 49 times under Republican presidents and 29 times under Democratic presidents.

But talk is cheap, so don't look at what we actually do when we are in office, pay attention to the steady stream of crap that is coming out of our mouths instead. Always easier to clean things up when the other guy is in office.

It should be noted that the Democrats have played hard ball on the debt too, Obama himself voting not to raise the ceiling in 2006, something he now says that he regrets. But they never actively campaigned for a shutdown or a default, something several Republicans like Tom Coburn now seem to welcome and relish, engaging in sophistry about prioritizing our debt and only making certain interest payments after the default. The banks and market are not buying this pov, it will have a huge impact, both globally and domestically.

The Stranglers

Self assembling, fast and nimble robots

And meet Boston Dynamics new DARPA funded Wildcat.



And an LS3 getting field tested in 29 Palms.

© Robert Sommers 2013

Anatomy of a shutdown - For an interesting read, try the New York Times A Federal budget crisis months in the planning. Koch brothers have their dirty hands all over it.

Space Junk

Spacesick

Jake Garn

Do you know what a Garn is? I confess, until a few days ago, I hadn't a clue. One of my oldest friends is New York's Douglas Garn, but not sure his surname stands for anything.

Let's take a little look at the subject, shall we? Garn might have its etymological roots in the olde english gearn, yarn fibers twisted for weaving. A word with Danish or scandinavian ancestry.

In Proto germanic it can be translated as guts or intestine.

In cockney slang it denotes mockery or disbelief.

It is also translated, in various brogues, as net or twine. Thread or yarn in Norway.

*
I was listening to the radio the other day and heard that garn is also a NASA term, named after the late Utah Senator Jake Garn, that measures how an astronaut is feeling. Or should I say, how bad he is feeling. The Garn scale measures something called Space Adaptation Syndrome. You may remember, Old Jake took a ride in space in 1985.

Jake Garn was sick, was pretty sick. I don't know whether we should tell stories like that. But anyway, Jake Garn, he has made a mark in the Astronaut Corps because he represents the maximum level of space sickness that anyone can ever attain, and so the mark of being totally sick and totally incompetent is one Garn. Most guys will get maybe to a tenth Garn, if that high. And within the Astronaut Corps, he forever will be remembered by that.
—Robert E. Stevenson

I was a serial puker in childhood. Copters and certain car seats maybe still can make me hurl. I think I would be a very high achiever on the Garn Scale. For more on the subject of space sickness, check out this link. 

The simplest explanation for space sickness mirrors that of car sickness. It’s a sensory conflict in which the semicircular canals and otolith organs of the inner ear, which make up the vestibular system, tell you one thing—for example, that you’re moving—while your eyes, fixed on a book in the car or an instrument panel in the shuttle, tell you that you’re standing still.
A fundamental difference is that in a moving car, or even in the high performance T-38 supersonic jet that astronauts use to train, you’re still subject to Earth’s one-G pull. In orbit, you’re in continuous freefall, which just can’t be duplicated on Earth. People who can tolerate motion sickness on Earth sometimes suffer the most from space sickness. And the common pale face that precedes a bout of retching on Earth doesn’t happen in space because of the fluid shift upward.
There are few good predictors of who will suffer space sickness. But statistics show that between 70 percent and 90 percent feel it in some form on the shuttle, and about one in ten suffer severe symptoms including retching. Senator Jake Garn became the poster child of the puking shuttle flier on STS-51D in April, 1985, and astronauts now jokingly use the “Garn Scale” to rate their own severity.
Oman claims that vision plays a complex role in space sickness. “What seems to be happening in weightlessness is that when you put your feet toward the ceiling, something fundamentally changes. Your brain says, ‘Wait, that’s supposed to be the floor down there.’” Like the famous Necker Cube perception riddle, the orbiting brain goes through a series of visual illusions during its first days in orbit.
For some professional astronauts, the answer lies in taking antihistamines like promethizine (Phenergan), and scopalamine. But opinions are mixed about their risks. They cause drowsiness that some astronauts would rather avoid, even if it means gritting one’s teeth through a few days of space sickness. Many astronauts try to keep their heads as still as possible for the first 48 hours of a spaceflight, and definitely avoid the mirthful tumbling seen in countless film clips from orbit. Many shuttle commanders encourage their crews to remain upright with respect to each other and to any wall displays for the first few days of a flight.
Space tourism promoters may some day give similar advice to passengers bound for orbiting hotels. And if the bag has to be used, make it a good seal.

I loved scopalamine!

Gordon Lightfoot

A geared up, full throttle version. With the incomparable Red Shea on lead backup guitar.

Pithy

Bob Schieffer to Texas Senator Jon Cornyn:

 “We won’t fund the government unless we can also get you to agree not to fund Obamacare. Which is almost like, I’m gonna throw a brick through your window unless you give me $20.”

Bob Schieffer has been at this reporting business for a long, long time. Not a liberal stooge, a straight shooter who has been around the block a time or two. And figures the whole thing out pretty succinctly.

Tompall & the Glaser Brothers

Nino

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had an interesting interview in New York Magazine this weekend. He discusses various topics including originalism, flogging and the devil. Learned a new word from him, ukase. He comes off brilliantly at times and smug and insular at other times. What I found most interesting was his choice of reading material, now largely limiting himself to the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Times.

What’s your media diet? Where do you get your news? Well, we get newspapers in the morning.
“We” meaning the justices? No! Maureen and I.
Oh, you and your wife … I usually skim them. We just get The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Times. We used to get the Washington Post, but it just … went too far for me. I couldn’t handle it anymore.
What tipped you over the edge? It was the treatment of almost any conservative issue. It was slanted and often nasty. And, you know, why should I get upset every morning? I don’t think I’m the only one. I think they lost subscriptions partly because they became so shrilly, shrilly liberal.
So no New York Times, either? No New York Times, no Post.And do you look at anything online? I get most of my news, probably, driving back and forth to work, on the radio.
Not NPR?
Sometimes NPR. But not usually.
Talk guys? Talk guys, usually.

I myself read the Wall Street Journal every chance I get. I borrow Ron's at coffee or read the few non subscriber articles at the online version of the WSJ. Great writers, some of the most cogent conservative minds. I often find myself agreeing with them. But the Washington Times? The Washington Times is a newspaper that Chief Moonie Sun Myung Moon put close to a billion dollars in to spread the word of god. You can read its sordid history here.  If there was ever a biased, worthless rag it is the Washington Times.

Our Justice is getting his information from a very narrow bandwidth. This intellectual integrity that he claims to champion would be much improved if he had more divergent sources to get his information. Although some consider me a liberal, I read Weekly Standard, Townhall and National Review every day and link to them and several other conservative media sources on my blog. Try to keep it honest. It is scary when we are so comfortably ensconced in a sympathetic echo chamber.

And then there's this priceless passage where Antonin appears to get offended:

Isn’t it terribly frightening to believe in the Devil? You’re looking at me as though I’m weird. My God! Are you so out of touch with most of America, most of which believes in the Devil? I mean, Jesus Christ believed in the Devil! It’s in the Gospels! You travel in circles that are so, so removed from mainstream America that you are appalled that anybody would believe in the Devil! Most of mankind has believed in the Devil, for all of history. Many more intelligent people than you or me have believed in the Devil.
I hope you weren’t sensing contempt from me. It wasn’t your belief that surprised me so much as how boldly you expressed it. I was offended by that. I really was.

... earlier you expressed your preference for conservative media, which itself can be isolating in its own way.
Oh, c’mon, c’mon, c’mon! [Laughs.] Social intercourse is quite different from those intellectual outlets I respect and those that I don’t respect. I read newspapers that I think are good newspapers, or if they’re not good, at least they don’t make me angry, okay? That has nothing to do with social intercourse. That has to do with “selection of intellectual fodder,” if you will.
When was the last party you went to that had a nice healthy dose of both liberals and conservatives?
Geez, I can’t even remember. It’s been a long time. 

Reggie

This is my late friend Reggie Sawyer in a rare somber moment. A native of Georgia, Reggie owned the Hanging Tree Gallery in Old Town Albuquerque and died in February earlier this year. We were buds for a long time. Reggie and his twin brother Randy were both old Air Force men, honorably served his country. I heard it hit Reggie pretty hard when Randy died. One of the great characters in life's script, friend to all.

Hardly Strictly

One of the problems of not living in the Bay Area is not getting to go to the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. Melissa loved Bonnie Raitt, Big Dave had a good time with Amy, I don't remember what they saw. Melissa told me that Boz Scaggs came out and played with Los Lobos on the Grateful Dead song West L.A. Fadeaway and what do you know, you can find it on this webcast site if you put Los Lobos in the search box, click on the clip and skip to around the thirty minute mark. The website for the festival is pretty cool. You can view and download some great tunes. Chris Isaacs is live right now as I type.

Some Skunk Funk

Fox peddles fake story: Obama backing a Muslim culture Museum out of his own pocket

Voodoo Chile - Fallbrook

Fallbrook's next door neighbor, Camp Pendleton is on fire again, really close by. Scene over the roof across the street, the sun turned a fiery red... Let's hope they put it out soon, without any losses. When they are bombing they often time have to let the fires burn so as not to trigger unexploded ordinance, don't know what started this one. Somebody said a helicopter went down.

Some huge DC-10 size tankers flew over. Never seen one in town before. Came kind of close to a smaller plane. I never got the right shot tonight but almost.

I'm Gonna Be Free

From Larry Coryell's seminal Out of sight and sound album, 1967.

Holding together

Politicians are such lying scoundrels. This today from House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA); "We never wanted a shutdown. That's why we've fully funded the government."

It seemed so easy at first. "Do it our way or we shut down the mean old government, no one will miss it anyway.""But wait," the people exclaimed. That means the Capitol Police won't be paid, and the national monuments and national parks will be shut down, hundreds of thousands of people will be without jobs, and a defunded Women, Infants and Children program, and ditto the CDC and the NIH, and no more FDA to check for E Coli in our food and well, suddenly the Republicans started passing little partial funding bills to help get the country past the truly icky stuff that no one had really thought too much about.

And then the tune became, let us fund everything but Obamacare, aren't we being reasonable? Why do those mean old Democrats have to be so unreasonable? Why do they have to make our little shutdown so miserable for Americans?

Kathleen Parker, a conservative columnist who is very good and who I occasionally agree with, has a pretty good column today, A Monumental Mistake. After she castigates Obama, I think unfairly, for the Veteran's Monument fiasco, she closes with this:

Nearly any but the die-hardest tea party member regrets the shuttering of the U.S. government. It was unnecessary, counterproductive and punishes all the wrong people — including federal employees, who do yeoman’s work for which they receive little credit.
Tying the defunding of Obamacare to the shutdown was folly, which sensible House Republicans knew even as they ignored their better judgment. Even so, the White House and Democrats seem determined to prove their own toughness by punishing the least deserving.
As we approach the next battle, over the debt ceiling, would that all of Washington remember the rule of the savvy negotiator: Always leave your opponent an exit.

For some reason this made me think of something I once read in the ancient Chinese book of wisdom, the I ching, which has an interesting hexagram that I would like to share with you.

The eighth hexagram is titled pi, translated in english as holding together, or union. Water above the earth. The fifth changing line has a message that might dovetail with the rule of the savvy negotiator. Give your quarry an opportunity to exit.

Nine in the fifth place means:
Manifestation of holding together.
In the hunt the king uses beaters on three sides only
And forgoes game that runs off in front.
The citizens need no warning.
Good fortune.

In the royal hunts of ancient China it was customary to drive up the game 
from three sides, but on the fourth the animals had a chance to run off. If 
they failed to do this they had to pass through a gate behind which the king 
stood ready to shoot. Only animals that entered here were shot; those that 
ran off in front were permitted to escape. This custom accorded with a kingly 
attitude; the royal hunter did not wish to turn the chase into a slaughter, but 
held that the kill should consist only of those animals which had so to speak 
voluntarily exposed themselves. 
There is depicted here a ruler, or influential man, to whom people are 
attracted. Those who come to him he accepts, those who do not come are 
allowed to go their own way. He invited none, flatters none—all come of 
their own free will. In this way there develops a voluntary dependence 
among those who hold him. They do not have to be constantly on their 
guard but may express their opinions openly. Police measures are not 
necessary, and they cleave to their ruler of their own volition. The same 
principle of freedom is valid for life in general. We should not woo favor 
from people. If a man cultivates within himself the purity and the strength 
that are necessary for one who is the center of a fellowship, those who are 
meant for him come of their own accord.

The image commentary for pi might also provide good advice for a leader or ruler of men.

The Image

On the earth is water:

The image of Holding Together.

Thus the kings of antiquity

Bestowed the different states as fiefs

And cultivated friendly relations

With the feudal lords.

Spectrum

Retreat

Rescue © Robert Sommers 2013

The winter storm Atlas shrugged it's way through the Rocky Mountains yesterday and pretty much laid our vacation plans to waste, along with a confluence of other factors. Earliest and most powerful winter storm in two decades, the prospect of driving through six hours of hail and blizzard in Utah and Wyoming, and our travel mates sudden sickness and travails, all dashing the best laid plans of mice and men.

If Yellowstone and the Tetons had been open it would have been one thing but every sign, not to mention a few very close friends, was signaling danger Will Robinson and after a fretful night of consideration we tabled the whole idea in the early morn.

We will go when the constellations line up better, after consulting the necessary oracles, of course. This one had trouble written all over it.

Freddie Hubbard Group - Red Clay 1979

ten four

L.C. Greenwood

I have been pretty farblunget this week about all of this shutdown, slimdown economic crap. This episode has been terrible for the country and I believe will prove also terrible for Republicans in the long run. It will be hard for the decent Republicans to be believed after this, the memory will be of the anti government anarchist wing. Can't wait for the next election. Nice work on the GOP brand, fellas.

Gee, I wasn't going to talk about it and look what I did. Let me change the subject. Remember those freedom fighters in Syria? The Al Qaeda branch is now at war with the other rebel group. Gee, I wonder how this one will all turn out.

New York Times - Long before the shutdown the Repubs were hurting the national parks.

Claire McCaskill asks a fair question.

NSA can't decrypt TOR anonymity program.

World's most dramatic coastlines - HuffPo - check out Los Gigantes in the Canary Islands.

Really enjoying the new microbrewery. So far my favorite is the vanilla stout, quite creamy. Tried to induce a few mormon lads to tip a flagon with me but they would have none of it yesterday.

Have to salute the late L.C. Greenwood. More fearsome than the foursome, powerful than the purple people eaters, less Icky than the Chicago Bears, Pittsburgh's Steel Curtain defense is the one that all others should be judged by.

About that Adobe Creative Cloud...

My vacation is imploding all around me. Speculative at best at this point and it commences tomorrow.

Beth sent this over:

America was not shut down properly. Would you like to start America in safe mode, with free healthcare and without the guns? (Recommended)

Ask not what your country can do for you. Seriously, don't even ask because it's shut down right now.

The last time Americans cared about anything being shut down was when they shut down the Twinkie factory.

If the government does shut down, nonessential White House employees will be sent home without pay. So more bad news for Joe Biden.

Since 1976, there have been 17 government shutdowns. The longest was during the four years that Jimmy Carter was president.

I am glad the government is shut down.  For the first time in years it's safe to talk on the phone and send emails without anybody listening in.

Animal ghosts - amazing pics

Bethany forwards this MoveOn petition - no pay for congress until things get fixed around here.

Jonathan sends this over - amazing pics, Wang Dong cave, China

I sort of dig the music this past week. Fusion is almost a dirty word these days but these musicians are truly virtuoso players.

Allan Holdsworth

Double X

"It's very hard to negotiate with the Republicans when they can't negotiate with themselves."
Nancy Pelosi

I was listening to CNN on the way home from work and a Senator, I believe maybe Casey, was explaining something I had not heard about before. That John Boehner agreed in August to pass a clean CR if the Dems dropped the spending levels by $70 billion dollars. They did as requested, agreed to a $988 billion dollar budget and he then reneged, apparently bowing to pressure from tea baggers in his party and blowing off the deal. You can read a little bit about the whole double cross here and some earlier background here.

No wonder Harry Reid sounds like he wants to knock somebody out. Double dealing liars suck.

Reid said Boehner could not deliver on a deal the two agreed to after the August recess to fund the government because conservatives in his party have pressured him to combine the delay or defunding of ObamaCare with government funding.
Reid was echoing similar comments he made earlier in the day. He said leaders had already compromised on a deal to keep sequester-level funding of $988 billion a year as the baseline for the continuing resolution.
But he said Boehner reneged after Tea Party-affiliated Republicans demanded that ObamaCare also be part of a deal.
“I was going to call them crazies, but I shouldn’t do that,” Reid said.
Democrats have preferred a continuing resolution about $70 billion higher than the current spending bill being debated.
“That is why we agreed to that lower number,” Reid said. “That is one of the largest compromises since I’ve been in Congress. That is a big deal, $70 billion just like that.  And he couldn’t deliver.”

*

Washington (CNN) – In an interview with CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid accused House Speaker John Boehner of being more worried about his job than the country amid a government shutdown.

The Nevada Democrat also talked for the first time Thursday about Boehner reneging on an agreement between the two over a “clean” spending bill, and admitted he directed his chief of staff to  leak embarrassing e-mails that they say indicate Boehner changed his position on Obamacare subsidies for Congress.

Reid also followed up on his controversial comments from Wednesday, when he took issue with the idea that the Senate should vote to fund clinical trials for cancer patients at the National Institutes of Health during the shutdown.

In the interview, Reid criticized Boehner for bowing to a conservative faction of his caucus that insists on attaching anti-Obamacare provisions to a temporary spending bill needed to fund the government.

“His job is not as important as our country,” Reid said.

While a more moderate group of the GOP caucus is trying to generate support for a “clean” continuing resolution, Boehner has not agreed to bring their plan up for a vote.

“I say to my friend John Boehner–and I do like him, I’ve said that lots of times–John, if you want to really have history books account who you really are, do this,” he said, urging Boehner to take up the clean bill.

“He has to have some courage,” he added.

Clearly agitated at the memory, Reid said the two met in early September and reached a compromise about the end-of-the month deadline to pass a spending bill. Reid said Boehner agreed to pass a $988 billion spending package, $70 billion less than what the senate leader wanted.

“That was really hard,” Reid said, referring his decision to drop $70 billion. “My caucus really didn't like that. We took a real hit.”

Asked if Boehner at the time promised to deliver a clean continuing resolution, Reid said: “That's why we did it.  That's why we agreed to that lower number.  So that's one of the largest compromises since I've been in Congress.”

Republicans passed a series of bills on Wednesday with majority support that would fund national parks, the National Institutes of Health and District of Columbia operations while the government remains shut down.

But Reid has refused to take them up, saying the government should be funded all at once. The White House also issued a veto threat.

Reid, who's been known to use explosive terms to describe the tea party, defended his choice of words, especially when he calls them “anarchists.”

“Why in the world wouldn't I use the term anarchy? That's what they are, they're anarchists,” he said. “They don't believe in government at any level.  That's why we have members of Congress over there today and yesterday saying finally, we're able to close the government.”

He conceded that calling them “the weird caucus,” as he’s previously done, was “probably a little over the hill,” but said he won’t give up on referring to them as anarchists.

“There's no better description I can make,” he said. “They're not blowing up buildings and they're not killing people. But they're throwing much - monkey wrenches in the wheels of government.”

Reid also commented on why his staff leaked a series of e-mails between his office and Boehner’s, which, according to Reid’s office, show Boehner worked privately to preserve health insurance subsidies for lawmakers and congressional employees before publicly moving to strip them as part of the standoff over government funding.

“He was behind this all the way,” Reid said. “I did a lot of the heavy lifting, but he was part of the deal. He was there. And then to have him come and try to say, ‘this is bad, Congress is getting something others aren't getting,’ it's not true. … I thought, how could you do that?”

Democrats argue the federal support is no different than what large companies give their employees.

“I told my staff, ‘You tell his staff, if they do this, I’m going to have to go public, because this is something that is just absolutely wrong,’” he said.

Cosmic Messenger

Congressman Randy Neugebauer

Randy Neugebauer, a typical congressman from Texas, decides to pick on a poor park ranger at the Veteran's Memorial. This is a Representative who recently voted to cut off funding and supported the government shutdown. Chutzpah.

DeGoffism

Bob Degoff sent this one over:

FAIRY TALE FOR MEN

Once upon a time, a Prince asked a beautiful Princess, "Will you marry me?" The Princess said, "No!!!" And the Prince lived happily ever after and rode motorcycles and dated skinny long-legged full-breasted women and hunted and fished and raced cars and went to naked bars and dated ladies half his age and drank whiskey, beer and Captain Morgan and never heard bitching and never paid child support or alimony and dated cheerleaders and kept his house and guns and ate spam and potato chips and beans and blew enormous farts and never got cheated on while he was at work and all his friends and family thought he was friggin’ cool as hell and he had tons of money in the bank and left the toilet seat up.

The end

Son of Orange County

 Frank Zappa / guitar, percussion, vocals
 Napoleon Murphy Brock / tenor sax, flute, vocals
 George Duke/ keyboards, zil, tambourine, vocals
 Tom Fowler /bass
 Chester Thompson /drums
 Ruth Underwood /percussion

Dukes of hazard

"We're not going to be disrespected. We have to get something out of this. And I don't know what that even is." Congressman Marlin Stutzman (R - IN)

I read a comment on a website this morning that I thought was pretty good. The present shutdown/hostage situation that the country is embroiled in is like the schoolyard bully who threatens to punch your teeth in unless you give him your lunch money. Only now the bully is blaming the poor victim because he refused to negotiate.

The House Republicans have now successfully shut down many arms of the government, and they are, as Michelle Bachmann says, happier than they have been in ages. Pig in shit. It is Obama's fault, because he will not fall for their gamesmanship and adopt piecemeal fixes that will fund everything but the President's signature achievement, the Affordable Care Act. So now we get to hear this insipid banter about Veteran's being denied entrance to some stupid monument. All Obama's fault, for not caving in to the demands of the minority, a minority that doesn't give a rat's ass for the opinions of the 200 democratic members of their own house, not to mention the rest of us.

I am so sick about hearing how they are merely responding to the demands of the American people who don't want Obamacare, when polls show that a full 72% of the populace is against defunding it. These Republicans are amazingly tone deaf.

I heard a talking head yesterday opine that they had really switched places with the sixties version of southern democrats and I think that is possibly true. The wheelhouse for the movement is the south. Their hatred for the government is like the barefoot guy at the whiskey still screaming about the dad gum"revenooers." Even though they themselves are the fattest pigs at the trough.

And I still have to wonder if there is a deep seated problem that many whites have taking orders from a black man at the helm of our nation's ship? Of course even the KKK has been put out by the current shutdown.

I listened to Mississippi Congressman Nunnelee on the radio this morning and he sounded like a dumb goober with marbles in his mouth. Trying to have an intelligent conversation with this ilk is like trying to talk quantum physics with Boss Hogg. One of life's great conundrums is that stupid people have no cognitive ability to gauge the breadth of the effects of their cranium's failure to fire.

I guess if there is a redeeming highlight to the shutdown it is that General Alexander and Intelligence Director Clapper over at the NSA are worried sick that their civilian analyst workforce that is now out of a paycheck is temporarily off the job. Clapper said that the shutdown "is a dreamland for foreign intelligence to recruit, especially as our employees, already subject to furloughs driven by sequestration, will have even greater financial challenges.

Well how about that, these stalwart citizens that we needn't worry about pouring over our daily data communication might even decide to go out and work for the highest  bidder, maybe in Moscow or Beijing? And we are supposed to trust these guys, the guys that you are suddenly worried about?

This whole episode is making me sick. I can easily visualize it extending through a national default. The last similar debacle cost our country 18 billion dollars and took years to get out of. We are embroiled in a quasi oedipal struggle where the adolescent is trying to grab power and kill daddy, with no thought as to the real world ramifications of their temper tantrum. And the Republicans seem to count on people being either too stupid or too lazy to pay attention to what is actually happening. Not a bad strategy, come to think of it.

All this Speaker has to do, this white shoed, orange skinned, pastel tied, gin soaked, used car salesman Boehner who has to be the weakest Speaker we have ever had, is allow the Senate bill to come to a vote in his house. Straight up and down, let the members of his body decide and stop with all of this horse shit. But he can't do that, because after all, we are in the middle of a civil war, or an uncivil war, and like the last southern general of note, Robert E. Lee. he must go down with the ship. As will, unfortunately, the rest of us.

The President, of course, is not without blame. Democrats and Republicans alike have complained about his aloof and imperial manner. Bill Clinton might have managed to find middle ground in this sordid situation. But it is a different time, the political landscape has even become more polarized, and there is little incentive to reach to the middle in the new America.

The Republicans have given this President less support, from day one, than any President in history, at least by my reckoning. And he is a basically accommodating man, too accommodating for me in fact. Can he be blamed for not bargaining with a group that has done nothing less than try to cut off his balls for the last six years?

I found a website today called How to Negotiate, Negotiation skills for any Situation and gleaned this tidbit. If you are reading this, Barack, you just might want to take note:

How to negotiate with a bully.

Elephants, gorillas and lions all posture as though they think they are all powerful. All it takes is one retort from your trusty elephant gun to shake their confidence!

Bullies are not just kids on the playground or lurking after school. Unchecked they grow up developing the interpersonal traits of the habitual bully. As grown-ups, bullying is often a characteristic of those not in power but close to it. Often powerful managers will have excellent hatchet men as assistants. These alter ego manifestations wield school yard bullying tactics in the name of their patron. Often the assistant is so afraid of failure that they exceed their authority. Such behavior, while effective much of the time, can be a buffered situation that hinders effective negotiations. If you are being 'handled' by such an assistant, find a way to deal directly with the principal.

If you possess the power to dictate terms in a negotiation, do so in a way that does not appear to be bullying, autocratic or dictatorial. You want to structure an agreement that both parties want to keep. It is always good to have everyone leave the table with some self-esteem intact. In business, people change positions and companies a lot. You never know if the person you abused last week will be sitting across the table from you when the power equation is reversed. Build relationships as you meet and deal with people. The relationships you develop along the way will pay dividends in the future.