Tales of Two-Year-Olds

This morning we were rehearsing a Debussy trio for piano, violin and cello.
The violinist was unhappy with a few of his pitches in one passage and he
quietly said "shit", after each offending note. Our coach, a new music pianist, then reminisced about his 26 y.o. daughter's first forays into the piano. She would bang on the instrument and say, "Shit!" intermittently. "That's how she thought you played the piano".

This in turn reminded the violinist of his 2 y.o. grandson picking up his son's
cellphone and excitedly shouting, "Jim! Jim! Can you hear me?"

Correction: Challenge to the Certification of Ohio in 2004

I can't find which post this was, but Stephanie Tubbs-Jones of Ohio challenged the certification of Ohio first, I believe, before Barbara Boxer. Where is my memory?

Travel to Wellesley

This campus is the perfect idyll. I wish I had thought of going to college here, the way Hillary did. This is where my grandmother would have liked me to have gone.

First of all, the birding in St. John was excellent. We saw a family of finches and a blue-green hummingbird no further than our front porch. A nest hung down right between the two french doors, perfectly placed so we wouldn't bump it openign and shutting them. We had 24x binoculars, highly recommended.

I haven't been an active listener to music in the last several years, but but Sven bought me a miniPod with a sound dock to provide it speakers. When I need to rest, the music relaxes me. It was handy on the train too(with earphones).

Some songs I know so well that I just hear a few bars and go on. Others that I think bear listening:

"Carry Me" by CSNY, "Beware of Darkness" George Harrison, "Amazing" Aerosmith,
"My Country 'Tis of Thee" CSNY(hard to find, and "Get Down Tonight" by KC and the
Sunshine Band. And of course Bach will put you in a spiritual mind.

Wish me luck in my first rehearsal today, and remembering who I am!

Why They Hate Us, again

Yesterday's(Friday--7/22/07) New York Times had a good Op-Ed, "Why They Hate Us...",
exploring the roots of terrorism and whether it really is all about Israel originally or are
there a lot of other factors in the mix. Not sure I agree totally, but it's definitely food
for thought.

Dean Reconsidered

For history buffs, here's some proof that ABC "got" the Dean scream:

LINK

Couldn't resist!

LINK

We'll be away Monday through Friday!

This is a view from the Intercontinental on Tahiti. I found this pic on the web but we'll be somewhere different.
Everybody have a nice week!

Letter to Henninger@wsj.com("Our Politics Fiddles")Let's Not Say All or Nothing

I agree that it would have been wrong directly after 9-11 to have said
that we could no longer be involved with Israel and Palestine. It's an
unfortunate, historic situation we have a direct role in and we rightly
can't get out of it. But because that much is true, we should never-the-
less not get overtaken with the myopic view that every U.S. anti-terrorist
policy is overwhelmingly correct and should only be slugged at harder.

Dean on Hard Ball, June 30th--still rings true today

We have some defense issues in that part of the world. They are Iran. They were Afghanistan and still are. And they're in North Korea. The president has left the two most serious problems, after Afghanistan, for either his successor or who knows what? And the spectacle of a president who says he's tough on defense letting Iran and North Korea become nuclear powers on his watch is just unbelievable.

The idea that Republicans are going to defend the country and Democrats won't is exactly the wrong idea. This president has really not done a terribly good job defending America, with the exception of the war in Afghanistan, which I think we all supported. He squandered our military strength, put it in the wrong place and is allowing enemies of the United States to become nuclear powers. That is not a prescription for a strong defense of America.

...

The other people that are creating the mayhem in the streets of Baghdad are people who are fighting for their country. They are local people who disagree with the occupation.

Look, I make no excuse for terrorism. People who blow up women and children ought to have the full wrath of the United States down upon them. What I have a problem with is the bad judgment of this president and his administration in deciding how you can best fight terrorism.

You send troops over there. They don't have adequate body armor. They're still taking up collections to make sure they do have body armor. When the secretary of defense goes over there, he gets his Humvee flown in, and the guys over there don't have adequate protection on the bottom of their Humvees.

This is not the way to run a war, and it's not the way to treat our soldiers.

...

I think the president made a terrible, terrible mistake in getting us into Iraq. And now we really have a big problem on our hands. We have a security problem that we didn't have before.

Now the president's trying to make this into a war on terrorism. It is a war on terrorism in the sense that there's certainly international terrorists in Iraq. The point is, there weren't any to speak of before we got there. The president made a big error in judgment, and he's now trying to combine what's going on in Iraq with the war on terrorism.

There's a war on terrorism going on in this world, and we are a part of it, and I agree that we need to fight them over there before they get here. The problem is, the place that we need to fight those people are in Afghanistan, hiding over the border in Pakistan. The Iranians, who sponsor state terrorism, these are our enemies. And these are folks that are not being paid the kind of attention to that need to be paid attention to while 138,000 brave American men and women are pinned down in Iraq because of a gross error in judgment by this administration.

A Terrible, Sad Day-- Dean's statement

Gov. Dean issued the following statement on the bombings today in London.

"I join all Americans today in offering my condolences to the victims of today's vicious terrorist attacks in London. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their friends and their families. We remain steadfast in our commitment to defeating those who threaten our freedom and values. At a time when world leaders were working together to help make our world a better place, these terrorists were plotting to disrupt that effort by killing and injuring innocent people. We will continue to stand with our allies around the world to defeat terrorism and protect our liberty and freedom."