Dancing Prospector

An old prospector shuffled into the town of El Indio, Texas, leading an tired old mule. The old man headed straight for the only saloon in town to clear his parched throat. He walked up to the saloon and tied his old mule to the hitch rail. As he stood there, brushing some of the dust from his face and clothes, a young gunslinger stepped out of the saloon with a gun in one hand and a bottle of whiskey in the other.

The young gunslinger looked at the old man and laughed, saying, "Hey old man, have you ever danced?" The old man looked up at the gunslinger andsaid, "No, I never did dance . . . never really wanted to."

A crowd had gathered as the gunslinger grinned and said, "Well, you old fool, you're gonna' dance now!" and started shooting at the old man's feet. The prospector, not wanting to get a toe blown off, started hopping around like a flea on a hot skillet. Everybody was laughing, fit to be tied.

When his last bullet had been fired, the young gunslinger, still laughing, holstered his gun and turned around to go back into the saloon. The old man turned to his pack mule, pulled out a double-barreled shotgun, and cocked both hammers. The loud clicks carried clearly through the desert air.

The crowd stopped laughing immediately. The young gunslinger heard the sounds too, and he turned around very slowly. The silence was almost deafening. The crowd watched as the young gunman stared at the old timer and the large gaping holes of those twin barrels.

The barrels of the shotgun never wavered in the old man's hands, as he quietly said, "Son, have you ever kissed a mule's ass?"

The gunslinger swallowed hard and said, "No sir. . . . But . . . I've always
wanted to."

There are two lessons for us all here:

Don't waste ammunition.

Don't mess with old people.

Don't blame me. Blame Paul (A.) I wonder if Paul thinks I'm old.

Thanks, Paul. I needed a joke.

No Just War

At ConsortiumNews.com, Daniel McGuire, Professor of Moral Theological Ethics at Marquette University, critiques Obama's Nobel Prize speech for its his references to "just war theory" to defend his decision to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan. I should rather say, the professor rips the speech apart for the invocation of the "just war theory".

I'm not sure that I agree with McGuire that Obama could have made "a classic speech on the politics of peace-making, a speech that in the glare of Nobel could have attained instant biblical standing," but he could have left out references to "just war theory", because sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan in no way fits into the theory.

Considering all of Obama's actions with respect to the wars he inherited, the Nobel Peace Prize is more of an embarrassment than anything else. Perhaps he was given the prize in the hope that he would not start any new wars or perhaps for not being Bush.

Read at the site how Obama's speech fails all the tests for making his case for escalation on the "just war theory".

A just cause

Declaration by competent authority

Right intention

The principle of discrimination, or non-combatant immunity

Last resort

The principle of proportionality

McGuire says:

It is “a pity beyond all telling” that the “just war theory” he invoked condemns the warring policies he anomalously defended as he accepted the Nobel Prize for Peace.

Indeed.

Thanks to Ann for the link.

Walkin' In New Orleans

 

Truly, I promise to post on the houses that we visited on the Holiday Home Tour in the Garden District in New Orleans. During our walk, Grandpère and I found much that attracted our attention, besides the houses. The picture above shows one of the many remaining brick sidewalks in the Garden District, the sidewalks which gave my knees grief. The stretch shown is in good condition, but not all the sidewalks are as even and smooth.

 

The photo shows an old drain which was commonly used with the brick sidewalks. As far as we could tell, the drain appeared to be made of clay.

 

We don't know what the object in the picture is. One was situated in all four corners of the street. Originally the poles stood upright, as one of them still did, but others had sunk quite a bit, and, as you see, this one lists to the side. Were they some kind of hitching post?

UPDATE: My brother-in-law writes of the object in the photo:

June...they are called traffic bollards. These were installed in the 19th
century to keep horses/buggies in line. See examples at Wiki.

 

I saved the best for last - the lovely blue and white tiles with the names of the streets. When I was growing up the tiles marked the streets in all older parts of the city, but as work was done on sidewalks and sewers, the tiles were removed and not replaced. I'm told that the city is restoring the tiles, but the work is not moving as quickly as New Orleanians would like.

Question Of The Day

Is it lying to speak untruths to a disembodied voice at technical assistance?

Our Charter internet cable service is down. I spent 20 minutes on the phone with a disembodied voice that asked me to take several actions to try for a fix to solve the problem. I had already done all the things she asked me to do, so I lied to the voice. Have I sinned?

Charter's customer service by phone is terrible. Once you get a real live person on the line, they are usually kind and helpful, but by then, I'm pretty annoyed, and I'm afraid that the real live person sometimes bears the brunt of my annoyance with the voice and the whole damned company. The lines in the tiny office here are long, with people spilling out the door at times.

Story Of The Day - Beautiful People

I have a friend who reads people's
auras. He sees all sorts of colors like
green & red & purple. He says anyone
can do it. All it takes is forgetting
everything you think you know & just
looking. I've tried it & even though I
haven't seen any colors yet, everyone I
meet looks so beautiful when I stop
knowing everything, that it's pretty hard
to go back to the old way.


From StoryPeople.

Update On Kay Rohde

from Kay Rohde on Facebook --- "Celebrate each step! Today I stood up straight, from a sitting position, using my legs to push, no hands pulling up! Children's choir of Casper came and sang carols at dinner - beautiful music. Learning that those foundation pieces are soooo important."

Thanks to all who have prayed and continued prayers for recovery -- Ann

Where's Waldo?

 

An Insider View From The Diocese Of Upper SC

Two candidate "walkabouts" in November gave Waldo the edge.

Waldo was not particularly well-known in the Diocese until two meet-the-candidates "walkabouts" sponsored by the search committee in November. Delegates attending those sessions - mocked as "beauty contests" - said his low-key, approachable manner and traditional Episcopal theology easily made him a favorite.

A former professional musician, the Bishop-elect was ordained a priest in 1989. He and his wife, Mary, have three sons in their twenties.

Delegates contacted by SC Episcopalians said they were clear they wanted to continue the course set by Henderson, but not until the walkabouts did they decide Waldo was the best choice to do that.

In Louisiana, I'd say the same for the walkabouts. The opportunity to meet the candidates gave Morris Thompson the edge.

Read the full account at South Carolina Episcopalians.

Ann Fontaine mentioned "Where's Waldo?" to me in referring to the new bishop-elect, but we concluded that the words may be misconstrued as irreverent, but, in this context, I think the question fits well.

Thanks to Lapin for the link.

A Wasted Day

I've spent a major part of my day trying to find a way to view YouTube videos, including the video of LIEberman on my own blog. I tried several fixes that did not work and messed up my computer, with the result that I had to do a system restore to get the rest of the functions on my computer working right again.

I can see the videos in Internet Explorer, but not in Firefox. I posted the video this morning, and it was fine, but later in the day, I could see only a blank square where the video should be. Any ideas from you computer experts out there?

I can see the videos on my laptop, which runs on Vista, in both browsers. My desktop runs on Windows XP.

Eeeek! A Mouse!

I bought a Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 3000 for my laptop. Shoulda done it long ago. The mouse is much easier to work with than the little pad.

Wireless from my house runs slowly. Unless, I'm in a hotspot, it creeps along. We use At&T, which does not have its fastest service in our area. I'm told that it's on the way, but I can't find out when. I'm wondering if we should look into another company for service.

Welcome To The Hall OF Shame, Joe

Joe Lieberman just three months ago.

Joe Lieberman now.

From Ezra Klein at the Washington Post:

The Huffington Post and Roll Call are both reporting that Joe Lieberman notified Harry Reid that he will filibuster health-care reform if the final bill includes an expansion of Medicare. Previously, Lieberman had been cool to the idea, saying he wanted to make sure it wouldn't increase the deficit or harm Medicare's solvency (and previously to that, he supported it as part of the Gore/Lieberman health-care plan). That comforted some observers, as the CBO is expected to say it will do neither. Someone must have given Lieberman a heads-up on that, as he's decided to make his move in advance of the CBO score, the better to ensure the facts of the policy couldn't impede his opposition to it.

To put this in context, Lieberman was invited to participate in the process that led to the Medicare buy-in. His opposition would have killed it before liberals invested in the idea. Instead, he skipped the meetings and is forcing liberals to give up yet another compromise. Each time he does that, he increases the chances of the bill's failure that much more. And if there's a policy rationale here, it's not apparent to me, or to others who've interviewed him. At this point, Lieberman seems primarily motivated by torturing liberals. That is to say, he seems willing to cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in order to settle an old electoral score.

Joe, what you do is despicable. If the Democrats don't strip you of your committee leadership positions, then they are even more craven than I believed. You are of absolutely no use to the Democratic Party - none, zero.