Wheels within Wheels

That´s Santa Cruz, Galapagos, Ecuador, by the way. I´m mostly through with a trip to the Galapagos, with a bit longer in Ecuador when I´m done. Internet has been available everywhere so far, but connectivity hasn´t. We get back to Quito the day after tomorrow, and back home a few days later. The weather has been great, the trip has been pretty damn good so far, and I´ll be looking for work when I get back.

Maybe I´ll post a photo of my guinea pig dinner when I get where I can upload photos. Don´t tell anyone squeamish, but you can see the ears. More when I get back.

According to Typealyzer, this blog is a Meyers-Briggs INTP.

I wonder if that changes over time. I’d presume so.

Britpicker.

Via The Smallest Minority.

Woke up this morning to the first snow of the season, here in town, anyway. There’s already been snow in the mountains and north of here. Just a light dusting, but it’s still snow.

It improved my mood … last night, I was trying to install a new range hood. I replaced the stove when I moved in, and pulled the extant range hood because it had been damaged by a grease fire the previous occupant had suffered. Sanded the burnt paint off the cabinets, had the paint matched, repainted the sanded areas, and then last night tried to install the new range hood.

Had to go back to Lowe’s to get pieces that weren’t included in the box (wiring, lamps, etc.), and got everything ready. Then, trying to put it in place, I found out that the mounting holes weren’t in the same place as the prior range hood - I can’t mount it without modifying the cabinets or using bolts, rather than the mounting screws. Where the screws are supposed to be is a void space, because the holes are too far inward to allow the screws to go into the wood at the bottom of the cabinet sides.

Ah, well. One more thing to deal with later.

Formerly known as Armistice Day, currently known in the US as Veteran’s Day, and known elsewhere as Remembrance Day, it’s a day to remember and honor all those who have served. If you see a veteran, thank him or her. It’s the right thing to do.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

(Posted slightly early because I don’t have reliable internet access at the moment.)

… and all of the other Marines. I was “George” at the Marine Corps Birthday Ball in Dunoon, Scotland - 1976, if memory serves. Not surprisingly, I was “George” in my submarine’s wardroom, as well.

For over 221 years our Corps has done two things for this great Nation. We make Marines, and we win battles. [Gen. Charles C. Krulak, USMC (CMC); 5 May 1997]

I knew (very slightly) Gen. Krulak when he was a Captain. He was one of the Company Officers at the Naval Academy when I attended. Not my Company Officer, but we had, let us say, occasional … dealings. Mostly when he was OOD and I had the watch. I’m pretty certain he wouldn’t remember me.

It’s good to know that you don’t have to be a white male to be elected president in this country. I just don’t believe that Barack Obama should have been the proof-of-concept. It appears a majority of the country disagreed with me, though, and additionally felt that the Democrats needed larger majorities in both the House and the Senate than they already have.

I guess we’ll now get the chance to see how much more bipartisan things become in January.

“History doesn’t repeat itself - at best, it sometimes rhymes.”

I’m not certain what Mark Twain was thinking of when he wrote those words, but I’ve found something that reminds me of that quote. It’s the editorial by John Campbell in the November 1964 issue of Analog.

The editorial is titled, “The Extremist,” and there are a number of places where it seems almost as though Mr. Campbell was writing about the current political situation. The overall point is how little a two-party system does for you if you don’t have a two-philosophy system.

And we don’t, anymore, not really. Most Republicans in office today have positions to the left of many of the Democrats who were in office when I was younger. The default philosophy these days has become “statist” rather than “individualist.” There are still differences between the parties - social issues in many cases, but Democrats don’t trust capitalism much (they tend to sabotage it and then claim the failure as inherent in the system, rather than caused by their actions), and there’s more acrimony and polarization on these issues than what I remember growing up, but, by and large, both parties are proponents of growing and centralizing the influence of government.

The mass media is an accomplice in this because they are left-leaning almost to the point of exclusivity, making them effectively a one-philosophy environment when compared to the American public at large.

Anyway, prefatory remarks dispensed with, the editorial is after the fold. I found that it resonates with the situation in this election, and many other things I’ve read and seen in the past several years, besides. I made mention of some political behavior and the monoculture of the media a couple paragraphs back. Keep that in mind while you read what Mr. Campbell wrote over forty years ago.

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Caught in action.

Figured it was appropriate for Halloween.