Today is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year and the first day of summer.

If I had planned properly, I’d be celebrating with 25,000 “druids, revellers, hippies, ‘New Age’ travellers” that this Daily Telegraph article predicts will be at Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain in southwest England.

When the sun rises over the Heel Stone to the sound of Pagans beating drums, some chant, some cheer, others meditate and the odd character has been known to frolic naked in delight.

Clear skies are predicted between four and five o’clock Wednesday morning.

“We’re hoping for a great sunrise,” said a spokesman for English Heritage, which manages the site, one of Britain’s most popular tourist attractions.

“Last year’s was spectacular. There’s always a good atmosphere here.”

Six people were arrested at the 2005 summer solstice, mostly for drink-related offences.

A Wiltshire Police spokesman said: “We’re expecting between 20,000 and 25,000 people. A lot will probably arrive in the early hours of the morning after having watched England play Sweden.”

Of course, if you can’t make Stonehenge, there are other henges you could visit:

• Carhenge, the whimsical recreation of Stonehenge, fashioned from American-made automobiles at Alliance, Nebraska

• Maryhill’s Stonehenge, built by Sam Hill as a tribute to the soldiers of Klickitat County who lost their lives, Maryhill’s Stonehenge is the first monument in the USA to honor the dead of World War I. The structure is a full-scale replica of the original English Stonehenge.

• Stonehenge II, erected by Al Shepperd and his friend and neighbor, Doug Hill from limestone slabs Hill had left over from building his patio.

Are you getting “Stonehenge Fever?” Then check out this MSNBC article, America unhenged: 7 great Stonehenge replicas.

 

Tags: blog | weblog | humor | life | pagans | summer

I’ve blogged before about my dislike of bullfighting and of the “sport” of hunting grass-eaters. Well the Festival of San Fermin, which takes place in Pamplona, Spain, is less than three weeks away, so Pamplona’s barbarous Running of the Bulls is back in the news.

Early in the morning of July 7, six “wild” bulls and herds of tame ones will be released to run the half-mile from the Santo Domingo corrals to the Bull Ring, where they will fight and die in the arena later that same day. The only compensation for the stampeding bulls is that they have a chance to inflict a little payback on the knuckleheaded monkeyboys who will attempt to race the route just ahead of them. ¡Victoria a los toros!

On the lighter side of needless animal cruelty, here’s a bit o’ wit from the last people on Earth you’d expect to have a sense of humor: PETA. On the 5th of July, two days before the Festival of San Fermin, they’re sponsoring the fifth annual Running of the Nudes in Pamplona. PETA promises that “this festive, cheeky event, [is] full of babes, not bulls.” To back it up, they have a page of “hot-to-trot hotties you could be partying with in Pamplona this year!”

Maybe, but I’ve seen the video from last year’s run and the nudes I saw merely confirmed Heinlein’s observation that “some people should wear clothes.”

 

Tags: blog | weblog | humor | life | pamplona | peta

 

 

 

Paul McCartney turns 64 today, happy birthday Paul!

You say it’s your birthday
It’s my birthday too–yeah
They say it’s your birthday
We’re gonna have a good time
I’m glad it’s your birthday
Happy birthday to you.

Wow, 64 years old, that doesn’t seem as ancient, now that I’m crowding fifty, as it did when the White Album was released.

Know which song Paul probably hates more than any other he’s written?

When I get older, losing my hair, many years from now,
Will you still be sending me a Valentine, birthday greetings, bottle of wine?
If I’d been out ’till quarter to three, would you lock the door?
Will you still need me, will you still feed me,
When I’m sixty-four?

Hmm——mmm—mmmh.
You’ll be older, too. Aaah, and if you say the word, I could stay with you.

I could be handy, mending a fuse, when your lights have gone.
You can knit a sweater by the fireside, sunday mornings, go for a ride.
Doing the garden, digging the weeds, who could ask for more?
Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m sixty-four?

When Paul penned that tune, the Beatles were “bigger than God” and every girl dreamed of being the one for whom Paul would mend a fuse in their sunset years.

Forty some-odd years later, with the separation and impending divorce from Heather Mills, his second wife of four years, Paul might well add this coda to When I’m Sixty-Four:

I thought it was time, that true love was here, when I tied the knot
Many times they said “Paul get a pre-nup signed,” but I didn’t do it, I was out of my mind.
Now we’re apart except for when we’re in court, working out the score
I’ll either remarry or find a new honey, ‘cause I’m alone at sixty-four!

 

Tags: blog | weblog | beatles | life | paul mccartney | music

According to this Washington Post article, CBS is beating Dan Rather like a rented mule.

CBS executives have decided there is no future role at the network for Dan Rather, making it certain that the man who sat in the anchor chair for 24 years will depart by this fall.

These executives recognize Rather’s contributions over four decades and are not trying to boot him because of the controversy surrounding his botched story on President Bush and the National Guard, say network sources who declined to be named while discussing a sensitive personnel matter. But the executives concluded there was no room for Rather at “60 Minutes,” particularly with incoming anchor Katie Couric planning to report a half-dozen stories a year and the hiring of CNN’s Anderson Cooper as a part-time contributor.

This is absurd. If you look at who contributes to 60 Minutes, the main difference between Couric and Rather would seem to be Dan’s age and experience. But that can’t be the reason Rather’s being dumped because most contributors to 60 Minutes (Morley Safer, Ed Bradley, Lesley Stahl, Andy Rooney, and Mike Wallace) are 65 or older and none of them have been forced out to make room for perky Katie and Anderson. So it’s not age and experience, hmmm.

Could it be that they haven’t screwed up in a big way and left CBS open to unanswerable criticisms of liberal bias? That’s my guess as to why Dan is being so publicly humiliated after 44 years of service:

In place of the swagger that had served him so well throughout his 44-year career at CBS News was an obvious sadness that his tenure at the network was ticking down to an inglorious end. Mr. Rather complained that since stepping down as anchor of the ” CBS Evening News” last year, in the aftermath of a reporting scandal, he had been ill used as a correspondent on “60 Minutes” and had been given virtually nothing at all to do for the previous six weeks.

If you have forgotten the particulars behind Rathergate, drop by LittleGreenFootballs and check out Charles Johnson’s proof that the memo broadcast by 60 Minutes 2 was a forgery.

So that’s what’s really behind Dan Rather’s downfall at CBS, here’s what we’ve learned from his fall from grace:

• Those who report for the major mainstream media news organizations have a liberal bias. I’m sure that Dan’s peers think his error wasn’t in manipulating the news, it was getting caught in the act.

• The content of news from CBS and the rest of the MSM is biased in favor of liberals. Rathergate made it harder for them to keep up the charade of impartiality.

• Most important, no matter how glaring the evidence may be that the MSM is biased, they will never ever admit it because their only remaining claim to legitimacy (bogus though it is) is the gravitas that comes from being “balanced.” If Rather had actually admitted to liberal bias that admission would done far more harm to CBS news.

So when Dan Rather and Mary Mapes were caught in the act trying to swing the 2004 election in John Kerry’s favor by broadcasting a story based on phony documents, they had to claim that the documents were valid, no matter how conclusive the evidence was that they were forgeries. Ordinarily they might have gotten away with the lies, but the blogosphere kept the story alive in spite of the MSM’s attempts to ignore it. (It helped that the evidence was so compelling that nobody with two synapses to rub together could believe they were authentic.)

There’s a saying about infidelity “when caught red-handed, deny, deny, deny.” When the trap you’re in is such that you can’t even tell the truth, denial is the only option left. Mary Mapes’s explanation as to why the 60 Minutes letters weren’t forgeries is a perfect example:

They claimed that CBS used forged documents and they repeated that lie so often that it stuck. The mainstream media picked it up, repeating bloggers’ criticisms without making any serious effort to investigate the story. But then that would have required real legwork, something that very few were willing to do on this subject.

As for document analysis, it is a mind-numbing and arcane discipline, an imperfect undertaking reserved for courtroom use, not for headlines or Internet political battles. Document analysis is certainly not meant to be done at 11 o’clock at night by someone with no training or experience sitting in front of a glowing computer nursing a grudge and spoiling for a fight. But that’s precisely how the right’s attack against Dan Rather and CBS News was launched.

That first anonymous analyst (who turned out to be a Republican activist lawyer) raised questions about the memo using only a single shot of a faxed document digitally transmitted to his computer screen. Those kinds of transmissions radically change the way a document looks. His analysis was worthless.

Neither Mapes or Rather are stupid (just bitterly partisan) and they know they look foolish by maintaining that the docs were legit. But the alternative is to confirm people’s suspicions by admitting they tried using suspect documents to harm President Bush’s chances for reelection, which would have been a calamity for CBS (Americans won’t tolerate a news organization trying to subvert an election). Not to mention what Congress might have done to CBS the next time broadcast licenses were up for renewal (election meddling does not qualify as broadcasting in the public interest).

So there you have it, Dan can’t tell the truth because he’d never work for an MSM news organization again, and being dissed by CBS has got to tarnish his reputation, so another job in the mainstream media is even more unlikely. He might land something with a liberal cable channel like MSNBC, but he’s used to having millions of viewers and everybody with cable watches Fox News, so what’s left?

Well, he could always try blogging. Working with the pajama-clad minions of the blogosphere could be a refreshing change, but after years in the MSM, I doubt he’d enjoy the relentless fact-checking scrutiny. You never know, he might fit right in!

 

Tags: blog | weblog | politics | journalists | rathergate | liberal bias | liberals | scandals | miserable failure

Drudge’s breaking news is the headline “DEMS ANNOUNCE PLAN TO WIN BACK CONGRESS.”

It’s a few years late – better late than never, right? – but the Democrats are finally ready to state what they think are the most important issues facing us and what they intend to do about them if they gain control of Congress in November.

I clicked the link and after waiting a while for the crush on the Dem’s servers to ease, read the plan.

And I’m stunned. Here is what comprises their plan for “A NEW DIRECTION FOR AMERICA":

• Make Health Care More Affordable: Fix the prescription drug program by putting people ahead of drug companies and HMO’s…
• Lower Gas Prices and Achieve Energy Independence: Crack down on price gouging…
• Help Working Families: Raise the minimum wage…
• Cut College Costs: Make college tuition deductible from taxes….
• Ensure Dignified Retirement: Prevent the privatization of Social Security…
• Require Fiscal Responsibility: Restore the budget discipline of the 1990s…

Very good plan…for a pre-9/11 election! What the heck is wrong with the Dem leadership that they ignored the Global War on Terror?

They do know there’s a war on because today 149 Democrats voted against a resolution “Declaring that the United States will prevail in the Global War on Terror, the struggle to protect freedom from the terrorist adversary.”

The resolution passed anyway of course, because Republicans don’t have to appease a crazy anti-war fringe, so they can assert that the U.S. will win the GWoT without fearing a backlash from their base.

On the same day as that shameful vote, the Dem leadership releases “A New Direction for America” that doesn’t even mention the GWoT or conflict in Iraq. Forget “stuck on stupid” the Democrats are “intent on immolation!”

I predicted months ago, back when things looked black for the GOP, that the Republicans wouldn’t lose control of Congress this election cycle, but what with the continuing displays of incompetence by Pelosi and Reid when it comes to national security issues, it doesn’t look like such a risky bet now.

You know, sometimes never is better than late!

 

Tags: blog | weblog | politics | democrats | republicans | the left | liberals | conservatives | gop

 

 

Three weeks after Memorial Day, here are my impressions and some photos of what turned out to be a rare combination of gorgeous weather, uncrowded monuments, and surprise appearances by President Bush in his motorcade and by 600 servicemen and women freshly returned from Iraq and Afghanistan.

I arrived at the Federal Center SW Metro Station at 10am intending to quickly tour the U.S. Botanic Garden, Library of Congress, and Supreme Court building, and then sprint five blocks to see the Memorial Day Parade which was starting at noon. While heading to the Botanic Garden, I was passed by a convoy carrying troops to the parade, which reinforced my desire to hurry so I could watch it from the beginning and see the jet flyover.

Did I mention that it was hot? Ninety degrees but with a deceptively cooling breeze that made you forget you were frying inside. In my rush to get to started in the morning, I’d forgotten to bring bottled water and a hat. Actually, I remembered both as I was driving away but – because I’m half hispanic and tan quickly and partly because I grew up in the scorching Los Angeles summers – decided they wouldn’t be needed. A mistake I paid for later.

As I approached the Botanic Garden’s Conservatory, I could see the ceiling fans turning lazily and the term “greenhouse effect” came to mind. I had no desire to swelter in a muggy super-sized terrarium so I gave it a miss. Definitely better to visit it in the Fall. I did get some pics of the Bartholdi Park grounds across the street from the Conservatory, however. The Bartholdi Fountain (designed by the same chap who sculpted the Statue of Liberty) was one of the first monuments in the city of Washington to be brightly illuminated at night.

The next stop was the Library of Congress, which was closed. So I took pics of the gilded (23 1/2 carat gold leaf) Torch of Learning and the Neptune Fountain on the west front of the library as I moved on to the Supreme Court building.

The court building was closed too, but that turned out to be a lucky break. The ornate bronze doors at the west entrance which depict historic scenes in the development of the law are recessed into the walls when the court is open, which makes it difficult to get photos.

Sixteen marble columns support the portico and on the architrave above is incised, “Equal Justice Under Law. I’m a sucker for marble columns (my favorite building is the Parthenon) so I took lots of pics.

On my way out, I noticed a few protesters setting up at the foot of the steps. They were pro-life (anti-abortion?) activists who had taped their mouths shut with red strips of tape upon which the word “LIFE” was written. (While they stood mutely facing the main entrance waiting for the media to notice them, at least one was listening to an iPod.)

As I was snapping pictures of them, one lad obligingly raised his arms, assuming a dramatic pose of renunciation. Totally staged shot, he must have thought I worked for the mainstream media.

Walking away, I saw the protest organizer (his mouth wasn’t taped shut) being interviewed by a local TV reporter, so I guess the taped-mouth-to-get-attention ploy worked as planned. Personally, I wish all protesters used the same strategy…it would make for a much quieter world.

A lot more time had passed than expected and drums were rumbling in the distance as I got to the Capitol. I had maybe 15 minutes to get to the parade or I’d miss the flyover.

Command decision: I would pass on the parade and head to the Washington Monument after seeing the Capitol Building. On my way, I’d swing by the parade route and see what I could. It was disappointing because I’d miss seeing the troops welcomed home.

The Capitol was under construction as were most of the attractions I’d hoped to visit (The Mall, Capitol, Lincoln Memorial, grounds around The White House, and the Supreme Court building all had construction barriers erected).

Took a bunch of photos and was heading toward The Mall when I noticed soldiers and sailors forming up a block away. I sauntered over and sure enough, it was the troops from Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom staging for their part in the parade!

I hung around taking photos of them as they waited for their cue to join the parade. Since the press wasn’t there to publicize the event, I took more than a hundred pics thinking that someone who couldn’t get to the parade might view the images on flickr and see a loved one in the ranks.

After the parade, I hustled down The Mall (stopping to buy bottles of Gatorade and water) to the Washington Monument, The White House and Lincoln Memorial.

If you look closely at the pics of The White House, you’ll notice a bunch of SUVs lined up in front. I figured President Bush was going traveling but didn’t have time to wait for him to leave. Minutes later as I was waiting to cross the street to the Lincoln Memorial, the president’s motorcade came barreling down the street so fast I just managed to snap a couple shots.

Thence to the Vietnam War, Korean War, and World War II Veterans Memorials.

The Vietnam Memorial was thronged with people reading the names inscribed on the black panels, leaving mementos, and having pencil rubbings made.

At the Korean War Memorial, two buglers played “Taps.” The first trumpeter rendered it flawlessly, the second player was so overcome with emotion that he barely finished the bugle call. It was a beautifully solemn ceremony.

I also visited the World War I memorial, which – tucked in behind trees as it is and being much smaller than the ornate WWII memorial – must be the loneliest monument on The Mall.

It was getting late in the day so I headed back up The Mall to the Smithsonian Metro Station. On the way, I started feeling lightheaded and had to sit down for a while. I’m pretty sure it was incipient sunstroke from not drinking enough and walking around bareheaded all day.

It was a perfect way to spend Memorial Day, but I regret not getting to Arlington Cemetery. Next year for sure.

 

Tags: blog | weblog | memorial day | patriotism | armed_forces