BUSH—A PIMPLE ON CHURCHILL'S ASS

The following excerpt is from Salon | by Sidney Blumenthal | March 8, 2007 at 11:32 AM:

[SNIP]
President Bush held one of his private book club sessions that Karl Rove organizes for him at the White House. Rove picks the book, invites the author and a few neoconservative intellectual luminaries, and conducts the discussions. For this Bush book club meeting, the guest was Andrew Roberts, an English conservative historian and columnist and the author of "The Churchillians" and, most recently, "A History of the English-Speaking People Since 1900."

The subject of Winston Churchill inspired Bush's self-reflection. The president confided to Roberts that he believes he has an advantage over Churchill, a reliable source with access to the conversation told me. He has faith in God, Bush explained, but Churchill, an agnostic, did not. Because he believes in God, it is easier for him to make decisions and stick to them than it was for Churchill. Bush said he doesn't worry, or feel alone, or care if he is unpopular. He has God.
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The only advantage that Bush seems to have over Churchill is in Bush’s endless arrogance, lack of concern for the suffering of the troops over whom he holds sway like a petty god, and no humbling and humanizing awareness of what an ugly pompous ignoramus he truly is, whereas Churchill was a truly humble man with all the normal doubts that any idiot knows he ought to have—specially if that human were a Christian, but, then, Bush isn’t a Christian—he’s an Old Testament fundamentalist tyrant. No, he's not even that. To compare him to an Old Testament tyrant is like comparing an ant turd to the defunct planet of Pluto. Imagine—this man admits that he doesn't care at all what his emplyees, us, think of his performance. Bush maintains, by definition, a tyrant's attitude toward his subjects.

YESTERDAY WAS A FINE DAY

Yesterday morning I went out early in the morning and drove down to the Columbia River waterfront of my new hometown of Vancouver. It was a fine morning, and for a few minutes, at least, I forgot all the sadness I’m still dealing with since leaving all my friends in Spokane. This will be a good place to go to for a short trip to peace. Now, if I can only find an espresso joint on the water where I can do algebra problems after class. Here’s a few pictures of the walk.

That's the I5 bridge in the background.

This is looking up from a very small beach area back to the main walking path.

This is looking East, toward the rising sun along the wide, concrete walking path.
Ahead would be a lot of very expensive condominiums. To the right is the Columbia River.

SPRING IN THE WET ZONE

Okay—now I'm getting a little back to normal. At least, this entry is on a Friday, a usual day for one of my blog entries. Today, at least, I also feel some serenity, the first serenity since arriving here. I just haven't felt normal at all. Cross fingers for continued normalcy. See? It's pretty here—in a wet sort of way. The photos are from Frenchman's Bend or Point, or something. Can't find it on my Vancouver map, but it was in the area of the Lake Vancouver park complex.

AIN’T IT THE BEE’S KNEES?
AS THEY’D SAY DURING THE ROARING TWENTIES

Seems honey bees are disappearing at an alarming rate in 24 of the contiguous United States. Maybe they just can’t crawl back to their combs after an all night long session with their honeys. I sometimes seriously doubt if the species we call homo sapiens will itself survive at the rate we’re destroying the planet and other species.

[SNIP]
A Cornell University study has estimated that honeybees annually pollinate more than $14 billion worth of seeds and crops in the United States, mostly fruits, vegetables and nuts. “Every third bite we consume in our diet is dependent on a honeybee to pollinate that food,” said Zac Browning, vice president of the American Beekeeping Federation.

The bee losses are ranging from 30 to 60 percent on the West Coast, with some beekeepers on the East Coast and in Texas reporting losses of more than 70 percent; beekeepers consider a loss of up to 20 percent in the offseason to be normal.
[PASTE]