Trust the Prez...

Even with only a week passed since his inauguration, the President has impressed me on many levels. Here are two:

1. Granting his very first interview to an Arab network. I heard a great analysis of this from an expert on intelligence who was on one of the MSNBC shows. He noted that we must remember that terrorists are political actors, playing on the world stage. He went on to observe that Obama's strategy is not to kill the terrorists but rather to steal their audience. By reaching out to the vast Muslim world and paying it respect, the President against shows just how smart and together he is.

2. Handling the Republicans. Many left-leaning pundits, and some of my friends, are already complaining about the President being too nice to the congressional Repulicans. They really want him to punish them instead, or to just snub them. I fully understand their anger and frustration, but again, the President knows exactly what he is doing. I could go into this in great detail, but instead I will refer you to a genius, (and often hilarious) post by Bob Cesca on HuffPo.
You really should read the whole thing, but in case you don't have the time or inclination, here are some choice excerpts.

Cesca starts by taking us back to the aftermath of the Repubican convention and noting that all of us were afraid that we would blow the election yet again. He notes that in the midst of that a few had faith, and they posted a graphic on a website:

The web graphic is actually a photograph of Barack Obama from his Invesco Field acceptance speech. In it, he's looking directly into the camera with an expression of fierce determination on his face -- his teeth gnashed in an Eastwood snarl, his left hand gesturing as though he's kung fu fighting his way through an oversized cinderblock made of SlapChop-minced Republican skulls.

The large, white text superimposed at the top reads: "Everyone chill the fuck out." The text at the bottom exclaims: "I got this!"

Later in the Cesca post:

Their [Republicans on the Hill] political audacity, while never surprising, always seems to confound expectations and defy logic. Having relegated themselves to the status of a regional, minor party due to their unserious, fear-mongering wedge politics and well-documented record of disastrous policy-making, they remain so hubristic as to crap their cages and demand a seat at the Big Boy Table, as if they're the majority party in Congress -- as if they somehow earned an equal voice in this thing by way of their awesome record on the economy.

They haven't. It's only due to the magnanimity of the president that they haven't been completely steamrolled on this recovery bill. Magnanimity which, by the way, isn't nearly as plentiful or renewable as the Republicans might think. Especially when the Republicans are doing what they're doing right now.

So, I say to you all, "Trust the Prez. He's got this."

Thinking of Ralph

I was out on my walk with my dog today, this time with my MP3 player wailing away on shuffle. Along the way, the song "Wooden Ships" from the very first Crosby, Stills, and Nash album came up. I had not heard it for a while, but as I always do when I hear it, I thought of my of my long gone friend, Ralph Dickey. I knew him for a brief year or so when I was going to law school in Berkeley, some time around 1968 and 1969. Ralph was a beautiful soul who was a super musician -- piano was his axe and he played classical or jazz with equal beauty and aplomb. Anyway, when CS&N released their first album, it was Ralph who turned us all on to it. He had gotten an early copy and was simply enamored of it, bubbling with such genuine praise that we all went out and bought it immediately. You have to remember that at that time NOTHING like it had ever been done before. It was truly a unique album, with every song on it being like a new lover. Ralph always touted "Wooden Ships" as the best of the best.

So today, as I listened I thought of Ralph who, for reasons I still don't understand, took his life at a very young age. In his honor, take a listen, and pretend that you are back in 1969, hearing it for the very first time.

Political Cartoon Mecca!

I really love political cartoons - can't get enough of them. So how come it took me all this time to find this terrific site. I'm like a hog in slop.

~ Tom

Another cool web site...

Have you ever watched a TV show or movie and heard a great tune and wondered what it was and who was performing it? Well, here is a great site where you can search on the name of the movie or TV program and it will give you the answer, along with a link to i-tunes. Nice idea, especially for TV shows. With movies, you can hang around and watch all the credits roll and usually find out what the song/artist was, but with TV shows, they rarely tell you. Or, if you are watching a movie on TV they often don't roll all of the credits at the end.

Enjoy.

Tom

"We Are One" concert

I recorded the "We Are One" concert, which took place Sunday at the Lincoln Memorial and Eileen and I watched the whole thing that evening. There was a lot of snuffling going on by us because it was so moving. I've read many comments from others who had the same reaction, all of them expressing it in their own way, but coming to the same conclusion -- "something wonderful is afoot." For instance check out my pal Michael's take.

I loved the whole thing, every minute of it. It's hard to pick a favorite, but the duet of "It's Been a Long Time Comin" by Bettye LaVette and John Bon Jovi, just about killed me. They were so real when they were looking into each other's eyes and singing their hearts out, age and race differences just melting away. Wow.

A few days ago I was watching Keith Olbermann's show and he had Richard Lewis on. Keith just let Richard go in one of his stream-of-consciousness rants, and in the midst of that rant Richard had a vision so true it really struck me: When Bush and his minions took over the country eight years ago, it was like when the evil dude in Lord of the Rings came into power and there was a terrible darkness that descended over the land. Only when Frodo destroyed the Ring in the purging fires did the pall lift and joy returned to the land, (or words to that effect).

Yep, I'm right -- something wonderful is afoot.

~ Tom

Today's Guffaw

Here is a cartoon that was in the SF Chronicle's OP/ED section today. I didn't just chuckle, I laughed out loud, and then kept on laughing.

The cartoon absolutely says it all.

Enjoy and pass it on to friends.

~ Tom

A daily walk on SF Bay!

I'm so lucky to live where I do these days. It's about 500 feet from my door to the San Francisco Bay and the path that I walk every day with my dog, often all the way down to the ferry terminal. Yesterday was crystal clear, and I had my camera with me.

The path. San Francisco skyline in left quadrant.

Zooming in. Now you can see the Bay Bridge

Ciao,

~ Tom

A brilliant little article

During my life, I have never enjoyed failures, but as I approach age 65 in March, I realize how important and unavoidable (remember we fail in the "now" and thus revisionist analysis is bogus) those failures were. I have learned much from them and improved my life by trying to avoid repeating them.

Anyway, here is a wonderful little article on the same theme, positing the position that it is important that Obama experience and endure failures.

Check it out.

~ Tom

Winter Pictures

At last! Here are some pictures!

Squaw Valley: At the middle horizon is the "Accelerator" one of the steepest runs at Squaw. The pros hit almost 90 mph in about 200 yards on this baby. Eileen and I skied it when it was groomed, and it sure raised my pucker factor!

Yep. That's me, at the top of the Exhibition chair.

Riding up the funitel (gondola) to the upper mountain.

A shot at the top of the Resort run. One of the awesome views of all time! Note Lake Tahoe floating above the first set of mountains.

Snowshoeing with my dog Spenser on the hill behind our place at Tahoe Donner.

Spenser, the Border Terrier. His grandfather (Sgt. Pepper) won best of breed at Westminster!

A majority report for Minority Report

We're still up here at the Tahoe/Donner house. Our cable has been down since we got here last Monday and they still have not fixed it. Hence we have had no live TV and have been watching a lot of DVD's. We happened to have "Minority Report" up here so we watched it a couple of days ago. I had forgotten what a terrific movie it is! It keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire time, with kick-ass action scenes, wonderful special effects, a sophisticated and intelligent script based on a Philip K. story, and surprisingly superb acting for a sci/fi action movie. And, it was directed by Stephen Spielberg himself. The jet-pack chase scene is worth the whole movie! If you've never seen it, or forgotten about it, here is a link to check it out. Tom says, get the DVD and dig it, either again or for the first time.

Aside from our cable still being down, the card reader in my laptop is not working, so I have been unable to post the skiing shots I took. And today, I just took my dog for a snowshoe jaunt in the woods behing our place and got some good pictures, which I also cannot post. When I get home tomorrow, I'll download them from my camera and post them. Stand by.

~ tom