ARGH!...I've got to stop reading/viewing news!

In my previous post I questioned the snowballing practice of beneficial treatment for minorities.  I'm not a racist, homophobic, or whatever other anti-minority label is in vogue these days. I'm a humanist, reasonist, and common-sensenist who resents discrimination against the best-qualified candidate, who could maybe, possibly, perhaps, be straight white. It's news articles like the following two that make me want to head for the wood shed and start swinging an axe.

* Today from CNN - "NASA officials believe that Biden’s request will allow NASA to continue investments in the Artemis program, which aims to land the first woman and the first person of color on the moon in 2025, as well as provide more research into the climate crisis and promote diversity, equity and inclusion."

* Today from the NFL - "The NFL is putting together a committee to review its diversity hiring practices." "Among the NFL's initiatives to enhance opportunities for minority coaching candidates, teams will now be required to hire a minority coach as an offensive assistant, NFL Network's Judy Battista reported Monday."

I have so often been told by liberals that, "I should welcome change and celebrate diversity." Ask the native Americans, or Neanderthals, or Incas, or the WWII Jews or present day Ukrainians what they think of welcoming diversity and celebrating change.

But the really important headline grabber today is Will Smith slapping Chris Rock. Sure glad I didn't miss that! But it does raise a question for me. What manner of man takes a slap to his face without retaliating? I've written this before and I'll probably write it again...it is my belief that there are times when a fist to the face is a perfectly acceptable and appropriate form of behavior. Yeah...I know that Smith has apologized to the entire civilized world and parts of Georgia, but his first action immediately after the slap should have been the necessity to pick himself up off the floor and visit his dentist. In my view there are some words and actions that cannot be forgiven...that demand retaliation.

To calm myself down I'm going to my workbench to see if I can invent/build a device that will prevent Joe Biden from putting his foot in his mouth. It would have to be permanently in place because Biden doesn't seem to realize when his mouth and brain are not in the same building. And if it works on Biden, maybe I could modify it to fit others, like....awww, you know who I mean. 

The Transience of Beliefs and Values

President Biden's  Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson was asked a couple of questions yesterday that she declined to answer. There's no need for me to get into the detail, suffice it to say that she was asked to define 'woman', and also asked if school children should be taught that they are free to choose their own gender. Her empty verbal replies, body language and obvious uncomfortableness was all I needed to understand her position on the issues. Just as the questions asked by the questioners clearly stated their positions. I want to get back to the issues in a moment but first I'd like to throw in my two cents regarding regarding Jackson. 

I don't know if she's qualified to sit on the Supreme Court or not, though I have my concerns about her impartiality. What bothers me more is Biden's criteria for a nominee. If I'm not mistaken he announced that he would nominate a black woman. How many better qualified candidates did he eliminate by making that determination? Shouldn't the nominating process have been to start with a list of candidates (I confess that I don't know where that list would come from), examine their judgements using the Constitution, reason and common sense as the benchmarks, and then pick the best qualified individual, regardless of race and gender? Anyway, back to the issues raised at the Senate's Judiciary Committee. 

Should a man be allowed to declare himself to be a woman, and then enter a women's swimming contest? Years ago we knew the answer to that question. Our beliefs and values were firm, unquestionable, and one of them was that men were men and women were women. Our beliefs and values were absolute, that is to say, they were self-evident, independent of time, interpretation or judgement. But that seems not to be the case anymore. Now we're redefining our past beliefs and actions. We're stumbling all over ourselves apologizing for the perceived status of race relations and the white man's responsibility to set things right. We're apologizing and seeking forgiveness from the members of the LGBTQIA 'communities' and trying to accommodate their wishes and desires.

Personally I'm all for racial equality but also believe that inclusion needs to be earned. The gender issue is a little tougher for me to come to grasps with. I liken gender divergence to a manufacturing machine. A machine is designed to produce a product to within specified tolerance limits. Going back to my paper company days, a machine that makes cardboard boxes, called a flexo-folder-gluer was designed to produce what was/is(?) called the 'manufacture's gap' of 3/8" + or - 1/8". Equating that to mother nature, babies are born with differences but mostly within the usual tolerance limits. At times a flexo-folder-gluer would produce gaps outside of the allowed tolerances. That's just the nature of the process...any process. Mother nature is no different. Ancient literature shows us that nature has been producing lesbians, gays (I hate that they hijacked that word), bi-sexuals, etc. for eons...and probably since life first began. Intellectually I can understand and accept that fact. At the gut level it makes my stomach queasy. 

If there is one thing I've learned, it's that beliefs and values - those things that we held to be eternal, are transient. There are no absolutes; no truths. There are only temporary beliefs and values held for the moment by a significant portion of any given society. At some level that realization saddens me...it somehow seems to detract from the human experience. A saving grace is that on an individual level we can still cling to the values and beliefs that shaped our being despite what psychologists, sociologists, news media and elected officials tell us. There is that. 

The Return of Moses

It was a day in November during Wisconsin's deer hunting season, and I had been slowly following a deer path through a thick stand of mixed oak and pine trees when I came to another path that crossed the one I was following. It looked like a good place to stop and wait to see if a buck might come along, so I backed off about 50 yards into some cover where I was partially hidden but still had a good view of the paths. A large white oak tree offered a backrest so I sat down, placed my rifle across my lap and took out the sandwich I had packed for lunch.

The gods of the hunt did not smile on me that day but I didn't leave empty-handed. While sitting against that oak I had noticed a small sapling, about 3" at the base and roughly 12' tall that had an unusual twist near the bottom. It seemed to me that there must be something I could do - should do with that unique shape, but what? And then it came to me. I was looking at the makings of a medieval walking staff; one that Merlin himself would have been proud to lean on. Using the folding saw I carried in my pack it took only minutes to cut the sapling into the rough shape I wanted. 

Back at my work bench there really wasn't much that needed to be done to get it to the shape I'd envisioned. All I had to do was remove a few small branches, use a file to shorten some protrusions and to round the top. When that was done I used fine grit sandpaper to smooth the entire shaft, and then applied a coat of semi-gloss stain. To complete the project I leather-wrapped the location where it felt natural and comfortable to grip the staff, and finished it off with brass upholstery tacks, both to hold the leather in place and to add color. 

For the next few years the staff mostly stood against a wall in what I called my medieval room, which I had converted from a sun porch. My sister would occasionally visit and upon seeing the staff asked if I had named it. When told that I hadn't, she said that it wanted to be called Moses, and Moses is what it has been referred to ever since.

Once I took Moses with me to a renaissance faire in southern Wisconsin. I had gone to the faire often and knew that there was a competition held for unique, hand made walking staffs. When I arrived I was told that I could not enter Moses because it was largely in its natural condition, and that I hadn't done much in the way of creativity. I couldn't disagree; there were some beautifully hand-carved staffs with inlays of all sorts.

In 2008 when Maribel and I moved to Peru we had to dispose of most of our possessions, but I was determined that Moses was going to Peru with us. We had made a custom cardboard box for it and padded it securely. Upon arriving at the airport we were told that there was a limit to the number of bags/items we could check in and that we were one item over. There was no way we could consolidate any of the bags so the obvious candidate to stay behind was Moses. But Moses didn't stay behind, and the curious fact is that neither Maribel or me remembers how the situation was resolved. Maribel vaguely remembers some discussion about shipping Moses as 'cargo', but how that happened or if it happened is a mystery to this day. 

In July of 2017 we moved back to the states. Not wanting to go through another luggage situation at the airport I reluctantly agreed to leave Moses behind. When I returned to Chiclayo last month it had been five years since I had seen Moses, and I was determined that he was going to come back with me. To eliminate any potential airport problems I took drastic action...I cut Moses in half. The two halves fit nicely in my duffel bag style luggage and arrived in Georgia without a scratch. 

I had made the cut on an angle so that I could drill two 1/4" holes at the location of the cut and insert wood dowels into the holes, after putting wood glue in the holes and across the cut. It came together perfectly. 

This is the head of Moses. The photo doesn't really bring out the detail of the face.

This is the full length view. If you enlarge the photo and look closely you can see the cut at about the half-way point. Incidentally, the tree that Moses is leaning against is an estimated 240 year old water oak.

Two days ago Moses acquired a friend. Maribel and I were in an antique shop where we spotted this wooden ball fitted with overlays of tin and brass. It appears to be old and is definitely hand-made but as to when, where and who made it we have no clue and probably never will. It looked so Moses-like that we had to buy it. We haven't named it yet and until that happens we'll probably continue referring to it as "the ball." 

Mostly about Peru

It's been nearly three months since I last posted. There is nothing that prevented me from writing, other than a lack of inspiration. The political scene is still kids in a sandbox. The Republican Party is still in shambles, with many of the prominent leaders continuing to genuflect at Trump's knee. The 'personal freedom' and 'facts be damned' country crackers are still touting their conspiracy theories, apparently forgetting or more likely ignoring that theories are called theories because they're not factually substantiated. 

On the bright side, I'm starting to like what I'm hearing from Mike Pence. I've viewed him as a Trump puppet these last five years but it looks like he's establishing himself as his own man. I would like nothing more than to see him develop an election platform based on reason, truth, and looking at the needs of the country rather than partisan politics; a platform that the party could come together to support.

Georgia's 14th congressional district is up for grabs in May. The infamous Margorie Taylor Green presently holds that office. On Graysville Road for about a two-block stretch there are signs on both sides of the road reading: "Flood the poles! Vote Margorie Taylor Green! Save America!"  People...what the hell are you thinking? What reasoning are you using that could possibly agree with and support her words and actions? ARGH! Okay, enough.

I just returned from a month in Chiclayo, Peru. It was my first time back in five years. I thought that it would feel strange but it didn't at all. From the moment I got off the plane in Chiclayo it felt as if I had never left. Our house was waiting for us and it took no time at all to unpack and settle in. The primary reason we were there was to celebrate Maribel's father's 91st birthday. The entire family had assembled except for two of Maribel's brothers who were unable to get off from work in Lima. It felt really good to see these folks again, and Maribel's father is probably in better shape than I am.

One thing I wasn't prepared for is the effect that Covid has had on daily life in Peru. The Chiclayo airport has large plastic shields between each seat, and enforces social distancing. Wearing masks is mandatory everywhere outside of the home, including on the streets. If the mask is a KN95 only one is required. If not, two masks are mandatory. In the four weeks there I saw maybe three people without masks. The first two vaccine shots are mandatory, and the booster probably soon will be. To enter any business, government building, restaurant, bank, or one of Chiclayo's two enclosed malls you must present a vaccination card and the Peruvian National Identification Card (DNI) to enter. Security guards will not let you in without them. Some businesses even insist that an employee spray your hands with alcohol upon entering. The bottom line is that without that vaccination card you can't function...can't even buy groceries. 

Public transportation has been heavily impacted. Taxies, combies and busses have been required to restrict the number of passengers and to take protective measures. Taxies for example, are limited to three passengers; one in front and two in back whereas in the past it was common to jam in as many people as possible. As shown in the photo below, a plastic shield must separate the front from the back and masks must be worn.

Several bus companies have either temporarily scaled back or completely shut down their operations, being unable to afford the protective modification and loss of passengers. I would like to have seen the United States take the same hardline stance early on. I think that many lives would have been saved. On the downside, conspiracy theorists are world wide. Many Peruvians have not had the booster shot. I heard discussions, even among our own family members that they would not have gotten the vaccinations had they not been mandatory, and will not get the booster because they believe that, "...the governments are experimenting with us." I didn't bother to ask what evidence they had. 

Regarding the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, Peruvian President Pedro Castillo has not taken a stance, other than saying he would like to see peace. The people and news media feel much more strongly about it. La Republica is a major Peruvian newspaper, and the article shown below is indicative of public opinion and other media outlets. The words on Putin's forehead say, "The War has Your Name."

Before and upon arrival we'd been told that crime had gotten much worse in Chiclayo. Though we traveled throughout the city and several nearby towns we saw no criminal activity. During my nine years of living in Chiclayo I developed a sense of when I was being targeted as a possible theft victim, and saw no indication of that on this trip.

It was a good visit and I'm very happy that I went. Seeing the old sights, seeing friends and family again was well worth the effort. In fact, Maribel and I even enjoyed the travel part of it...didn't mind the airports with the long ticketing, customs, and immigration lines, or the flights themselves. It felt like an adventure. I will do it again. In the mean time, I took a ton of photos from which I will select a limited number and put them in presentation order to show to our friends, hopefully without boring them to death.