Saturday, July 6, 2013

Signs

So here was this moth.  I first noticed it on a Sunday morning, when I was going out to get the newspaper.  My first thought was that somehow a rogue wind had blown a leaf into a spider's web and suspended it above the porch light.  I was intrigued because of the size of this thing, a bit smaller than my outstretched hand.  Then I noticed this "leaf" had feelers, or antennas, and what appeared to be wings.  While I stared at it, it changed from a leaf to a well camouflaged moth.  I took it as a sign.

In some Native American folklore, a moth is a sign, or symbol, that some important event or emotion is about to be offered and learned.  Any of you who have read Carlos Castaneda knows what I'm talking about. So, naturally I prepared myself.  I went into the house, had breakfast, and forgot all about it. 

The next morning as I went down to once again get the paper, the moth was still there.  In the same place.  Day two of the moth visitation.  Was it dead?  Stuck to the wall perhaps, or dying and refusing to let go of the wall?  I found this a bit unsettling, and contemplated brushing the creature off the wall with a broom and to be done with it, but Castaneda wouldn't like that, so I left it where it was.  On the third day I started talking to it.  I brought my coffee out on the porch that third morning, and after observing that it had actually moved a few feet to a space below the porch light, I sat down on the step opposite the moth. "So look," I says, "what's the deal here?"  The moth, rudely, said nothing.  I figured I'd try the direct approach.  "You've been sitting on this wall for three days and you're starting to give me the creeps."  And then the big question:  "Are you trying to give me a sign?"   The wife appeared on the other side of the screen door and asked me who I was talking to.  "The moth," I said.  To her credit she replied "oh, okay," and closed the door.  I returned to the creature and asked one more time, "What IS IT?" 

We're moving at the end of this month.  Packing up and leaving, going to a new house down the hill a ways, to just as nice as this place with a beautiful big back yard.  A much larger yard for the cat and dog and those of us who like to putter.  And lots of big trees.  By the way, the moth left the afternoon of the third day.  It's waiting for us down the hill.  But I digress ...
  • So we just lived through another American Fourth of July celebration, a reason to buy hundreds of dollars of explosive devices and set them off at all hours of the day or night, depending on which annoys your neighbors the most.  The 4th of July is a truly American holiday, sort of really loud Thanksgiving without the turkey.  Most right-wing Americans think the 4th of July is a time to celebrate white, Protestant, small town America, (think Sarah Palin).  But with all the problems this country is facing right now, what really is "E Pluribus Unum?"  Paul Krugman reports.
  • So it's a sign of times that the people of Egypt have elected a leader fair and square, and after a short couple of years decided to get rid of him.  What?  Is it just me, or does this NOT sound like democracy?
  • In a surprisingly intelligent move, the Supreme Court finally struck down the not-so-intelligent Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which leads to the demise of the ultra homophobic California Proposition 8.  Fox News and their Republican doom sayers promised death and hell fire to all of America.  To quote grinning Conservative Idiot Mike Hucklebee, "Jesus wept ..." although it's difficult to understand this statement as Jesus said absolutely nothing about marriage or homosexuals.  At any rate, while the Right Wing of America was contemplating slashing their collective wrists, the Left Wing of America was celebrating, big time.  It was like a big crack in the dome of depression had appeared and bright light suddenly shown through.  Mark Morford describes what it was like:  "Conservatives Don't Dance."
  • And then we have our dear sweet Paula Deen.  Apparently rubbing two sticks of butter together isn't going to get her out of this one.  Paula got herself in hot water a couple years ago when she revealed she had developed type-2 diabetes, but kept on pumping out incredibly unhealthy recipes for her Food Network fans.  Strike one.  Lately, during a deposition for a court trial, Paula admitted to using the "N-word," which despite being strike two, is a big yawner
    considering Ms. Deen's extremely accurate portrayal of a ignorant slow talking southern racist, y'all.  Strike three came when it was revealed that Paula was not only a racist, she's a anti-Semitic homophobe too.  My my, how shocking.  So, for now, we American Food Network watchers will have to get by without Paula Deen's syrupy exaggerated southern homilies, and get back to eating healthy.  (I don't know about you, but I'm really going to miss her "Donut Burgers;" a hamburger patty wedged between two halves of a glazed donut.  Mmmm, y'all.)
  • The United States Government has now built a fence, or a wall, between the US and Mexico that is over 650 miles long.  California, Arizona, and New Mexico are almost completely fenced off.  The Berlin Wall, in contrast, was only 87 miles long.  Apparently this isn't near enough for the Right-wing media (Faux News) who repeatedly distort the Obama Administrations efforts to keep those pesky Mexicans from coming over the border and stealing our strawberries.  Certifiable nutcase Michelle Malkin states that the government has failed "to secure the states against invasion," and "this current administration has done everything in its power to sabotage immigration law."  However, as usual, a quick check of the facts says something completely different.  This Is What Border Enforcement Actually Looks Like.