Reading Material

I'm reading Paul Theroux's book Dark Star Safari - written a few years ago but still a very timely and current assessment of what is happening on the continent of Africa. With celebrities like Oprah, Madonna, and Pitt/Jolie plucking at American heartstrings for greater interest in and aid for Africa, this is a must-read.
I am also suggesting another look at Michael Yon's blog from Iraq - he has posted some new stuff over the past week and it is, as always, a fascinating "I was there" look at what is really happening there.
Also check out Fred Barnes' latest editorial from The Weekly Standard - about Vietnam and Iraq.
And check this out, as well.
Gosh, there is so much to read and so little time! And I haven't even started to cover Barack and Hillary....

Raptor shots from Florida

Here are some shots from our quick visit to Florida last week. For those of you who are interested, from top to bottom, the birds shown are: a female osprey on her nest in the front yard, a red shouldered hawk hiding in the branches of a nearby tree from a huge flock of marauding and hectoring ravens, a male kestrel surveying his hunting territory from a telephone wire, and a broad-winged hawk who must have had a nest near the house as well - we saw him/her several times each day. One of the main reasons I like to vist my parent's former home in Marco is the abundance of bird life on the property. Actually there is an abundance of wild life in general there that I find very interesting. On any given day, I can see storks, egrets, herons (little blue, tri-colored, and great blue), ibis, dozens of shorebirds, woodpeckers, warblers, martins, mockingbirds, giant iguanas, dolphins, chameleons, and the footprints of Florida panthers just standing next to the seawall in the back yard.
The weather turned cool about the time we arrived and was quite windy as well. That is the usual weather pattern for south Florida in January, but I always hope to beat the odds and get a stretch of nice, hot, sunny days- like a little blast of summer before I come home to frigid Wisconsin.
More bird shots coming - woohoo!

Who needed more evidence that Ted Kennedy is a stupid fool?

At some point, a reasonably intelligent person just runs out of things to say in response to the honorable senator from the great state of Massachussetts, but Don Surber has an idea...read it.

Recent Comments

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okay....probably by the time you read this, Google's ad about panic attacks will be gone - but puhleeeeeze.....panic attacks????where did that come from?

I'm back

After a significant holiday hiatus, I have returned to the blog. We had a lovely Christmas (ahem, I mean, happy holiday) - with all thermies here together for a far too brief period. I have said to many this past year that the more civilized our daughters become the less we get to see them - where is the fairness in that? Ladies - I'm just kidding - you know we adored you even before you were civilized - take it as a compliment!
I will be posting some pics soon, but wanted everyone to check out the link I have added in the sidebar to Michael Yon's blog from Iraq. A journalist who spent most of 2005 with the troops in Iraq, he is back to spend all of 2007 there with infantry troops, on the ground, reporting. His observations are always valuable, but particularly now when we are about to enter another "national discussion" about our mission there. Forget the generals and the politicians if what you care about is what happens to Iraqis and to American soldiers there, not to mention the fate of the world.