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No shortage of geese

I witnessed something today over the course of several hours that I don’t think I’d seen before. It involved lots of wildlife.

One of my part-time jobs allows me to circle a parking lot at the Toyota dealership where I work. I spend about half my day outdoors offering help to customers who might need it.

Well, beginning shortly after noon today, I heard the sound of Canada geese overhead. I looked up and saw this large flight of geese moving westward over the ranchland just west of the dealership. It contained a couple hundred geese.

Then came another formation of geese. Right behind the first one, this second flight also moved off to the west.

Then a third flight came. And a fourth. And on and on it went, for most of the afternoon.

Geese, thousands of them, heading west.

I have a rough idea where some of them originated. I am guessing they took off from McDonald Lake, a playa that sits at the corner of 45th Avenue and Coulter Street in Amarillo — not far from our home. But surely the lake couldn’t have been starting point for all the birds I saw today.

My goodness, there had to have been 10,000 birds migrating for most of the afternoon. What the heck, I have no clue how many birds I saw today. Ten grand sounds about right.

I have no clue where they were going, or why they all took flight when they did.

I’ve drawn one quite obvious conclusion based on what I saw today. The world has no shortage of Canada geese.

I’ll be back at work tomorrow and will be looking for signs of more these creatures. Here’s hoping they take flight. They make quite a sight on a cold, cloudy day.

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Loudmouth O’Reilly makes news

One of the many things I dislike about contemporary broadcast “journalism” is when the so-called journalist becomes the newsmaker.

Such was the case prior to the Super Bowl on Sunday when Fox News loudmouth Bill O’Reilly interviewed Barack Obama — and tried to steal the thunder from the president of the United States.

As he has done before when the men have met, O’Reilly interrupted the president repeatedly. He cut him off. He wouldn’t allow him to answer questions, many of which were excellent and pointed.

I don’t mind one bit journalists digging hard for answers to questions that linger out here in Viewer Land. I do mind, though, when journalists seek — by virtue of their outsized personality and ego — to become part of the story.

That ain’t their job.

Their job is to ask questions, to collect answers and to allow consumers of the news and analysis to decide for ourselves what we believe to be correct or incorrect. This consumer, me, cares not one bit what the interviewer thinks about anything. Just ask the questions and get the heck out of the way.

Once again, O’Reilly demonstrated that news and entertainment have melded into some new form that — in my view — is hard to watch.

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Rudy blasts Democrats for ‘piling on’ Christie, really?

Rudy Giuliani needs to get out more.

The former mayor of New York City and one-time Republican candidate for president of the United States has blasted Democrats for piling on Republican New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie over the bridge lane-closing controversy that is threatening to blow up into a bona fide scandal.

Giuliani slams Dem ‘pile-on’ against Christie

Really, Mr. Mayor?

Is it a surprise that members of the “other” party would go after a leading politician who’s been caught up in a controversy? Gosh. That’s never happened before.

Oh wait. Yes it has. It has happened when Republican politicians began pouncing all over Democrats, starting with Bill Clinton and the Whitewater investigation, which turned into something resulting in the impeachment of a Democratic president. It is happening now with Republicans continuing to roil the waters over the Benghazi, Libya consulate attack in September 2012. It’s also happening with GOP lawmakers making hay over the IRS controversy and the agency’s vetting of conservative political action groups’ efforts to obtain tax-exempt status.

So now Democrats are going after a Republican governor.

Big deal, Mr. Mayor.

From my perch out here in the middle of the country, that’s how politics is played.

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Hope for thrilling game goes ‘poof’ on first snap

Well, I watched most of the Super Bowl, managed to skip the halftime show because I don’t particularly like Bruno Mars or the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

I had hoped for a thriller, thinking in advance the Seattle Seahawks’ defense would win the day over the high-powered Denver Broncos’ offense. I guess I was half right.

Seattle’s defense was all that it was billed as being: tough, relentless, opportunistic, aggressive … what am I missing here?

I didn’t expect the Seahawks’ offense to be so strong.

Maybe the omen was delivered on the game’s first play from scrimmage, when the Denver center snapped the ball over Peyton Manning’s head, resulting in a safety for Seattle, and setting a record for the quickest score in Super Bowl history.

So, you might be wondering: What does a shellacking like this do to Peyton Manning’s place as one of the greatest pro quarterbacks in history? Not a single thing, as the announcers Joe Buck and Troy Aikman (no slouch himself as a QB) pointed out.

Manning will go down as a Top Five quarterback when his career is over.

Agreed. Dan Marino’s failure to win a Super Bowl didn’t diminish his standing as an all-timer. Besides, Manning’s already won one of those Lombardi trophies, back when he played for the Indy Colts.

The Super Bowl has produced a number of thrillers over the years. This one didn’t make the grade.

Too bad. Hey, maybe next year?

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WT students design a miraculous hand

This has to be one of the more amazing stories I’ve read in some time.

Four West Texas A&M University students have designed a prosthetic hand that will help young patients with limb disorders.

http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/texas/article/College-students-design-pioneering-prosthetic-hand-5198270.php

They used fishing line, a bungee chord and a three-dimension printer to design the prosthesis. Alex Parra, an engineering school graduate who worked on the project called it a “humbling experience.”

No kidding, Alex.

“It helped us realize we are blessed by having everything that we have,” he said.

Let projects like this one, and others that young people are doing every single day, serve as proof that our world will be doing just fine when the next generation takes over.

The WT students worked with a 10-year-old girl, Aly Hunt, who has congenital defect in her left hand. The original design was developed in South Africa. They worked with a prosthetist at Scottish Rite Hospital, who helped them complete the project.

Aly is able to do many physical activities with the prosthesis, such as playing golf, tennis and the violin.

The prosthetic hand also allows for some dexterity, enabling it pick up items with movable fingers.

Every generation since the beginning of time has feared the future of the world when they’re no longer on the scene. It’s amazing, then, that we’re still around to keep lamenting the future.

Well, I am fearing the future a lot less after learning of this amazing accomplishment. Well done, WT students.

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Drug overdose brings down another shining star

My worst fears have come to pass … allegedly.

Word came out this morning that the Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman had been found dead in his apartment. I hate admitting this, but my very first thought — once my head cleared after seeing the news — was that he overdosed on something.

I returned this afternoon from running some errands with my wife and just learned that police and EMTs found him with a needle sticking out of his arm.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/02/showbiz/philip-seymour-hoffman-obit/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

My initial mourning over the loss of this amazing talent has now given way to disgust.

What a waste!

It’s hard for me to process news like this at times. Hoffman joins a long list of celebrated public figures — mainly athletes and entertainers (although one could argue they are the same thing) — who’ve taken one hit too many.

I won’t even begin to list the names of those who have wasted themselves into oblivion. We all know who they are.

Hoffman’s death at the age of 46 just underscores the perversion that popular culture too often seems to breed.

All these individuals who have so much going for them cannot handle the fame that they chose to seek.

Yes, I mourn for the people who loved this man. That’s where it ends.

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Pipeline won’t affect climate … so let’s build it

My environmentalist sensibilities have been taxed by this debate over whether to build the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the middle of the United States.

My inclination is to oppose such a thing because, the theory goes, it would emit too many carbon-based pollutants and harm the planet’s climate.

Then comes this government report that says the pipeline’s effect on the climate is negligible.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/02/02/obama_running_out_of_reasons_to_reject_keystone_xl_121434.html

Oh, what to do?

I believe President Obama should rethink his opposition to it and allow its construction.

The report comes from the U.S. State Department, which heretofore had been on the right wing’s hit list of nasty federal agencies. Now State has declared the Keystone project poses no serious environmental threat, which pleases proponents of the pipeline. They contend the project will create jobs and will strengthen U.S. energy policy.

The pipeline would carry oil pulled from western Canada tar sands to Nebraska, where it would then be sent through existing pipelines to the Gulf Coast, where it would be refined. Much of it would be exported abroad. Some of it would be used here at home.

Its job creation potential is huge, which of course is what the president wants. It also brings those vast tar sands reserves into play, relieving North America of the need to import oil from faraway nations, such as those in the volatile and explosive Middle East.

Is it a win-win deal? Not just yet. But it’s getting closer to becoming one, based on the State Department’s assessment of minimal environmental impact.

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Immovable object vs. irresistable force

First, allow me to state the obvious: Football and baseball are vastly different sports, requiring dramatically different skills from those who participate in them.

Now let me declare one similarity: It is that teams with great offensive weaponry can be defeated by teams with great defensive skill.

One baseball axiom holds true, which is that “Good pitching usually beats good hitting any day.” I’ve seen it over many years watching baseball games. The 1963 World Series is my favorite example, when the powerhouse New York Yankees were shut down by the Los Angeles Dodgers; the Yanks had Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris swinging big bats, while the Dodgers had Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale throwing heat from the mound. LA won in four straight.

Now, about today’s Big Game, the Super Bowl. The Denver Broncos possess the NFL’s top offense. The Seattle Seahawks own the league’s best defense. One is irresistible, the other is immovable.

I am now venturing into something about which I know nothing, but the laws of physics seem to suggest — to me at least — that the immovable object is harder to move than it is to shut down the irresistible force.

It pains to me say this, given that I’m a long-time American Football Conference fan — going back to the days of the old American Football League, of which Denver was a founding franchise — but I’m thinking the Seahawks have the edge here.

My friends might say, “Oh, sure, but you’re from the Pacific Northwest. You’re going to root from the team from that part of the country.” Hold on. I grew up in Portland and there existed then — and perhaps it remains — a huge civic rivalry between the cities. Portlanders think little of Seattleites. We see the Queen City as snobby and full of itself. Seattle residents look down their noses at Portland, even though the Rose City has become every bit as cosmopolitan and trendy as Seattle.

But I’m thinking now, just a few hours before kickoff, that the immovable object is going to dig itself in and hold the irresistible force to perhaps just a couple of touchdowns.

Final score? Please, don’t hold me to this. Let’s try 20-17, Seattle.

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Church and state do need separation

1 Comment

Occasionally discussions about blog posts do get out of hand, or they twist off into unintended directions.

Such was the case involving a recent item I posted on this blog involving the teaching of creationism in Texas public schools. Here’s the link:

http://highplainsblogger.wordpress.com/2014/01/31/creationism-has-no-place-in-classroom/

But in the comments responding to the blog as it appeared on Facebook, a couple of the respondents decided to declare that the Constitution doesn’t state categorically that there must be a “separation of church and state.”

I’d like to clear the air a bit on this matter.

I agree that the Constitution doesn’t use the words “church and state separation.” But as with a lot of principles contained in that wonderful document, the interpretations of what it actually says are quite clear.

The First Amendment says, among other things, that Congress shall make no laws that establish a state religion. I’ve read it, oh, about a bazillion times in my life. I know what the Founders meant when they wrote that. They intended to keep church business out of state business. They didn’t want our government to be dictated by religious principles.

They created a secular nation.

There well might have been plenty of debate among the Founders about whether to allow a state religion. It doesn’t matter, in my view, what they debated. What matters now, more than two centuries later, is what they approved when they sent the Constitution out for ratification by the 13 states that comprised the United States of America.

Thus, church and state separation is implied in the Constitution’s First Amendment, just as the “right of privacy” is implied in the Fourth Amendment.

What’s more, Texas happens to be one of 50 states that now comprise the U.S. of A., even though it once seceded with tragic consequences. My point about the candidates for Texas lieutenant governor wanting to teach creationism in our public schools still stands.

Teach science in schools and religion in church — and keep church and state separate.

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Christie ‘scandal’ getting pretty darn curious

My friends on the right are outraged at the “mainstream media’s” addiction to the Chris Christie “Bridgegate” scandal.

They’d better get used to it, because it doesn’t appear as though it’s going to wither away any time soon.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01/chris-chris-new-jersey-george-washington-bridge-scandal-david-wildstein-102977.html?hp=t1

A letter has surfaced now that suggests Christie knew at the time that one of his key aides ordered the closing of lanes on the George Washington Bridge, the busiest span in the world — and that it might have been in retaliation for the refusal by Fort Lee, N.J.’s Democratic mayor to endorse the Republican governor’s re-election effort.

The letter’s assertion contradicts Christie’s statement that he didn’t know anything until he read about it in the press.

This is what happens when a high-profile politician who portrays himself in a certain manner is accused of doing things that run counter to that public image. Christie, who many people believe wants to run for president in 2016, has cast himself as a hands-on, no-nonsense chief executive. If that’s the case, then how could he not know that his chief of staff, Bridget Kelly, would order the lanes closed, resulting in a horrendous traffic bottleneck.

Now we learn about alleged misuse of federal relief funds dedicated to help New Jersey residents recover from Superstorm Sandy.

No one has accused Christie of ordering lane shutdown himself. Frankly, I don’t think he would be so stupid.

However, this controversy is beginning to take on a life of its own the way other controversies have grown into full-blown scandals.

Two examples stand out: The Watergate burglary in 1972 turned from a criminal investigation into a constitutional crisis involving presidential abuse of power; Whitewater turned from a probe into Bill and Hillary Clinton’s real estate ventures into a scandal that involved a presidential dalliance with a White House intern and his lying under oath to a federal grand jury about whether he did those nasty things with the young woman.

It’s looking as though, regarding Gov. Christie’s involvement in this bridge lane-closing, that history may be about to repeat itself.

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