Watching a Bob Hope-James Cagney dance routine (yes, Hope could dance) I was reminded of this recent essay by historian Victor Davis Hanson:
“Our ancestors were builders and pioneers and mostly fearless. We are regulators, auditors, bureaucrats, adjudicators, censors, critics, plaintiffs, defendants, social media junkies and thin-skinned scolds. A distant generation created; we mostly delay, idle and gripe.”
Via PJMedia
Posted in Aging, Bureaucracy, History, The Culture
Tagged Cagney Hope dance, Victor Davis Hanson
Our new electric range is supposed to come today, and at least one painter to do the bathrooms in “cheerful yellow,” a Sherwin-Williams color. And the marble/porcelain sinks installed on Wednesday.
Now we’re trying to decide whether to paint the hallway light purple and the dining room light blue, or the other way around. But at least the appliances will be done with the stove.
Then it’s on to replace the water heater, which could be a bear as the building codes have changed since the old one was installed in the 1980s. Hard to believe it’s that ancient, but out-of-sight (ensconced in a closet) out-of-mind. And nowhere else to put it despite changed measurements with the building codes.
UPDATE: The range came and is installed, but the painters aren’t coming until Thursday. After the counter tops and sinks go in Wednesday.
In memoriam, September 11, 2001.
So runs my dream, but what am I? An infant crying in the night, An infant crying for the light, And with no language but a cry. –Lord Tennyson
Comments Off on Reprise: The Falling Man
Posted in History, Obituaries, The War
Tagged The Falling Man
Got a brief thunderstorm late yesterday afternoon with more expected today. First rain in several months. Wonderful watching it pour off a neighboring roof, proof of the old saying that gutters are useless in Texas.
Hope it doesn’t match another old Texas saying that droughts are broken by floods.
UPDATE: Twelve days later we’re still waiting for rain, with “extreme fire hazard” signs all about.
Comments Off on Finally rain
Posted in History, Mini-Rancho, Weather
I discovered something while cleaning out a cabinet this morning: A 2005 email from the late Ron Cima about our OCS reunion in San Antonio that year. He attended briefly enroute to somewhere else.
“I was very moved by my short time in San Antonio and very much appreciated having the time to talk with you and Tom [Ringwald, I think it was],” he wrote. “I regret I could not have stayed longer and spent more time with everyone else.”
He also mentioned a tip I gave him in line with his then MIA-hunting job at the Pentagon, on a mass burial of dead VC near my basecamp in 1969 on the southeast side of LZ Baldy, which was southwest of Da Nang. I had a faded old photo of the dead in a pile but not the exact location.
“Your information about a mass burial is something I could potentially share with the Vietnamese,” Ron added. “Although they may not know what to do with it, our relationship with them is reciprocal and we try to give them what we can when we can. If and when you can come up with a more specific location, I’ll look for an opportunity to pass them the information.”
I wrote a short story about the encounter and the mass grave, collected in my book “Leaving The Alamo, Texas Stories After Vietnam,” but never had anything specific to share with Ron so our correspondence ended.
Posted in History, Infantry OCS, Viet Nam
Tagged Infantry OCS, Leaving the Alamo, mass burial, Ron Cima
“Voters like the idea that the people who govern them are loyal to them. Nationalism is unpopular with elites because it involves such loyalty, and loyalty to one’s own people limits one’s options in ways that our governing class finds unacceptable. I don’t think supporting the governing class here is either principled or libertarian.” —law professor Glenn Reynolds, the Instapundit.
Comments Off on Nationalism
Posted in Blogosphere, History
Tagged Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit, nationalism
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