Comment

I saw a question, submitted via the internet to the public, about celebrities and their right to privacy. Do I believe they do or do not have such a right?

Well, why should they not? Actually, why should I be put upon by those who think every hangnail or beauty mark or blemish on the body of certain people is news I'm waiting to know? And I certainly do not need to know of their faults and misdeeds. That I will hear of them is a given, that I want the details of them is not a given.

I'm thinking of Tiger Woods just now, who has asked that people and the "news" media in particular respect his right to privacy. Okay by me.

Winter Poem, Another Look

Wintering

Carol Schiess

We’ve seen

the last hurried plunge of leaves--

pulled, swept off

by an impatient wind.

Leaves whose ambers,

rust reds, fuchsia pinks

have heightened

the sky's bold blue

and held sunlight in the trees.

Color dies

with the passing of the leaves

and nature pushes time

into colder, briefer days.

Trees look older now,

stripped, shamed,

something pitiful revealed

in the collective reaching skyward

of frail limbs.

In winter,

a fearful presence

inhabits the lowering clouds,

waits beneath a hardened earth.

We, in that season,

are left without comfort,

as if, like the trees,

we have forgotten

what we always know—

that spring will come.

Winter Poem

Wintering

Carol Schiess

We’ve seen

the last hurried plunge of leaves,

swept off by an impatient wind,

leaves whose ambers, rust reds,

fuchsia pinks have heightened

the sky's bold blue

and held sunlight in the trees.

Color dies

with the passing of the leaves

and nature pushes time

into colder, briefer days.

Trees look older now,

stripped, shamed,

something pitiful revealed

in the collective reaching skyward

of frail limbs.

In winter,

a fearful presence

inhabits the lowering clouds,

waits beneath a hardened earth.

We, in that season,

are left without comfort,

knowing, as we do, that

death can come

before spring.

Going Rogue, Sarah Palin

It started before the book was published. I mean, it started up again in earnest at the news she would publish her memoir. I even heard criticism of her for writing it so fast.

Well, now it's out. Time to ratchet up the trash talking.

She has been on Oprah (Oh thank heaven). Her words are on the air everywhere, her picture, and the numerous statements from those who are "firing back" to refute her claims. And everyone who can get air time has some "important" criticism of her to get out before the public.

Obviously, she has enemies. That's not news. And certainly she knew they and the press and the groups of TV "smart people" (Ha!) would rip her to pieces. As they are.

She has guts. And I've read her recent pieces in the Wall Street Journal, which indicate she has brains, too. But can she survive the constant sniping and joking at her expense? Can she withstand the scrutiny and the badmouthing?

Did I think she was an asset on the Republican ticket? No. Did I like her? Yes. Do I think she could ever be elected president? No. Do I think she should be president? No.

I do know she'll make money off the book. I do not know what else will come of it for her. Popularity? I don't know. Popular with the people she's already popular with. That's what I think.

I figure, though, she will never be as popular as Levi--the father of her daughter's child--is becoming, because all those important celebrity-focused media folks like him, like to show him, listen to him, follow his photo shoots. He's a pretty boy, and this recent media enamoration with him features not only his unclad body but sympathy for him (for some stupid reason). Today's story is about his response to Palin's book; his overwhelming feeling is "disgust" for Sarah Palin and the entire Palin family. That seems to count with those folks, but, then, we know they will say anything, and they like people who will also say anything.

So, I have no doubt of it, he will make lots of money off of his "heroic" failure to be a decent human being, off of his gaping lack of morality.

Makes you think of David Letterman, doesn't it.

As for Going Rogue, I might just go out and buy it.

Note: I went out to buy the book, came back without it. Make of that what you will. For me it was three things: 1. Money; the book is $28.99, quite a chunk of change. 2. I'm into light, non-political reading right now, trying to keep my head in the sand a little bit. 3. Money.

The Poor Guy

I detest the media's immediate jump-in to let us know that the murderer of thirteen soldiers at Fort Hood is the real victim in this whole thing. Because he's muslim he was sometimes called "camel jockey." This is the first story I heard about Maj Hasan. Next was he was about to be deployed to Afghanistan. Both good reasons, apparently, to go on a shooting rampage and kill "fellow" soldiers. (Those quotations marks are mine. You can probably figure out why I use them here.)

What kind of a world is ours coming to be? We cannot be outraged about this. We're not allowed to weep and decry this as evil. We're not to speak ill of muslims, even when they are terrorists, jihadists, murderers. Don't jump to any conclusions, said Obama. I'm guessing he meant the rest of us, not the news media, because they had already jumped to theirs.

So he and they have been willing to excuse this killer, to "understand his motivation," almost entirely disregarding the great harm and destruction he perpetrated, setting aside the sorrow and confusion of the families of the real victims.

I wonder what Obama will say to those gathered today at the place of that massacre. Will he have garnered some sense of the truth by then? Will he speak it?

Jury Duty, my civic duty done

As John Milton almost said, They also serve who only standby and wait for a call-back from the Idaho Jury Commission on a Wednesday morning after they have done their obligatory after 5 PM check-ins with said commission Friday, Monday, and Tuesday evenings.

All Is Well for Harry Now

Well, I guess he'll be re-elected. He didn't cave. There is a public option in the bill. Oh joy.