She lit on the hibiscus, posed for just a second and fluttered off. Not before I got this photo, though. Click to enlarge.
American Bolshevik
After the 2006 State of the Union address given by President Bush, we commented about the Democratic Rebuttal and the emergence of the new Democratic leadership in Congress.
Again, in April of 2007, we posted about the Un-American Gothic with Reid and Pelosi as Grant Wood’s immortal characterization of middle America. We included the photoshop of Wood’s famous art in both posts.
I recently found this contribution from Michael Ramirez:
You saw it here first.
Über apologies, again, to Grant Wood.
The Devil and the Bee
The big Devil’s Tongue barrel cactus in the back yard is again in bloom. The appearance of the beautiful flowers attracts honey bees who brave their way through the spikes and spines to gather nectar. Click on the image to enlarge.
Chicago Politics
Abraham Miller describes how Obama’s Syndicate strives to deliver socialized medicine to all (and I mean ALL) persons in the U.S. Graphic and article courtesy Patriot Post.
“Chicago politics is not about ideology. It is about, ‘Who Gets What, When, and How,’ to quote the inimitable Harold D. Laswell, one of the outstanding political theorists of the last century. The sine qua non of Chicago politics is power, getting it and keeping it. Everything else is incidental. Even corruption is a byproduct of power and is functional only if it enables you to stay in power. In Chicago politics, you don’t make waves, you don’t back losers, and you ‘don’t talk to nobody nobody sent.’ Chicago politics is always about hierarchy and centralization. … If you want to understand Obama’s health care policy, you need to start where Obama starts. You need to start with Chicago.
You need to look at constituent interests. Obama won in 2008 because, among other things, he mobilized the electoral periphery. He mobilized young voters and minority voters, people who traditionally had a lower probability of showing up on Election Day. Chicago politics is about mobilizing the vote. ‘Vote early and often’ is the city’s sardonic refrain. Obama needs his newly socialized base. He needs them to keep coming to the polls. In the vein of Chicago politics, he needs to deliver benefits to them. Unrewarded, the electoral periphery will revert back to apathy. Health care is a reward to this base of people who are on the economic as well as political periphery.
Obama understands that his objective is to provide his base with the spoils of power — in this case insurance. … If all that Obama wanted were to insure those who fall between the cracks, he could put them into the same wonderful program that Congress created for itself by subsidizing their premiums. This would neither require a thousand pages of legislation nor a new series of bureaucracies. But building a new power base resulting from the mobilization of the political and economic periphery requires redefining the nation’s health problems as the nation’s health catastrophe. Health reform is Chicago politics on a national level.”
— University of Cincinnati emeritus professor of political science Abraham Miller
Flight 93 — Courage Remembered
We got our e-newsletter from the National Parks Service today. One interesting write-up tells about the events scheduled for Shanksville, site of the Flight 93 crash:
“Upon This Sacred Ground, Courage Remembered,” is the theme for the eighth anniversary of the crash of Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001. A new national park is being created at this sacred ground, commemorating the heroism of the 40 passengers and crew members.
A number of activities will take place in observance of September 11. A special ceremony will be held in Shanksville during the morning and is open to the public. General Colin Powell will deliver keynote remarks, and country music performer Trace Adkins will sing the national anthem. The names of the passengers and crew members will be read at 10:03 a.m. — the exact time of the crash — by family members, first responders and local residents.
A small group of Flight 93 family members are embarking on Ride With the 40, a cross-country motorcycle journey to “complete Flight 93.” The riders will leave from Newark Liberty International Airport on September 3 and stop in towns and cities along the way before arriving in San Francisco on September 11. A traveling temporary memorial, similar to one displayed in Shanksville, will accompany the riders during their 3,000-mile trek.
In addition, an up-to-date listing of these and other activities to commemorate Flight 93 and September 11, as well as information about supporting the Flight 93 National Memorial Campaign, can be found at honorflight93.org.
Range Report
Sunday’s target practice went well. We took our 9mm pistols (my Glock 26 and Damsel’s S&W 908s) and Damsel’s S&W 686 .357 magnum revolver. We also took a couple of our shotguns, the 12 and 20 gauge Remington 870s.
We have been having warm weather this week and Sunday was no exception. The target shooting was fun and all, but the indoor range was a bit too warm. We toughed it out, though, and shot 50 rounds of .38 special, 100 rounds of 9mm and 50 rounds of shot shells.
In the video here, I’m following up on Damsel’s handy work by finishing shooting the target in half and then shooting off the left side (stage right) of the dangling silhouette target. After that series of shots, we exited the range to enjoy the cooler temperatures in the gun shop.
Solar Prominence in Stereo
The STEREO project, a constellation of two identical solar probes, one ahead of the Earth (STEREO A) and one behind the Earth (STEREO B), simultaneously imaged a solar prominence from their divergent perspectives. This video was featured on NASA’s SOHO Pick of the Week.
The video below shows the mass ejection in synchronized timing from ahead and behind the Earth.
In the left panel (behind), you can see the event emerging from near the top of the solar disk, while on the right panel (ahead) it is occurring above the solar horizon. In these times when there are few sunspots, the old solar machine is still cranking out the good old nuclear fusion.