Lately, I’ve been working on the floor, so this is my fault, but slobbery dogs, aaaaauuuugh. One of the doors in my studio opens onto the lav, and the door was open. I go in for around 10 seconds, and Jayne promptly stands over the painting and drools. Now he’s sleeping the sleep of the innocent (What? I didn’t do anything! Why are you yelling? Can I have a treat?)
Hi everyone.
I’m voyager and some of you may know me from the comments section. I’ve decided to take Caine up on her offer to provide a bit of content on Affinity and am starting a daily series called Jack’s Walk. Jack is my 10 year old chocolate lab and I thought it might be fun to chronicle the progress of the seasons while we go on our daily walk. I’ll post a photo or two with a comment and do my best to make it interesting.
You may be a bit curious about us, so here are a few tidbits.
We live in southwestern Ontario.
I’m a retired palliative care nurse/case manager who likes to wander and read. I playact with a local theatre troupe and would describe myself as a nerd. My screen name voyager is partly a reference to the Star Trek series of the same name. Yep, nerd.
Jack is not retired, just unemployed. His favorite things are food, swimming, food, belly rubs, food, sleeping. Did I mention food? His well-earned nickname is Mr. Heavy Bum and at 80 lbs he still likes to sit on laps.
I want to thank Caine for her trust and the new privileges. I’ll try not to break anything.
And now onto today’s walk.
Tulips! Today Jack and I found a few brave tulips poking their heads out. We also went to see the ducks and geese, but there was so much fowl poop we didn’t linger. Messy, messy birds.
Remember Space Force? Oh, AFSS: Amerikka First Space Strategy! Yeah. The Fucking Idiot thinks he’s on to something here.
The White House on Friday unveiled President Donald Trump’s “America First” space strategy, only 10 days after the commander in chief called for a Space Force to militarize low Earth orbit.
“The Trump administration’s National Space Strategy prioritizes American interests first and foremost, ensuring a strategy that will make America strong, competitive, and great,” the plan claims.
The plan officially includes Trump’s promised focus on militarization of space.
I haven’t yet gone and inspected the great plan. Haven’t had enough tea yet. There might not be enough tea for this one. Oh yes, screw science or trying to fix anything here on the planet, the most important thing ever is a dick waving contest in space. I’m imagining the Tiny Tyrant at his desk with a coke and greasy fries, playing with Lego’s Star Wars.
“Trump’s National Space Strategy recognizes that our competitors and adversaries have turned space into a warfighting (sic) domain. While the United States would prefer that the space domain remain free of conflict, we will prepare to meet and overcome any challenges that arise,” the space strategy reads. “Under the President’s new strategy, the United States will seek to deter, counter, and defeat threats in the space domain that are hostile to the national interests of the United States and our allies.”
“Warfighting”, because I guess war isn’t descriptive or clear enough. You want “space domain” to remain conflict free? Easy, stay out of it. Plenty to do planetside, y’know. What fucking threats? Has the empire shown up? Space invaders from Mars? We have plenty of war threats right here on good old Terra Firma. I’d like to see those avoided, but that’s no doubt a forlorn hope.
Space wars are one of the four pillars of the new America First space strategy.
Space Wars! First thing, you’re gonna have to rebrand, you would not believe the amount of things with the name Space Wars attached. Don’t want to get lost in the shuffle or anything.
“Strengthen deterrence and warfighting (sic) options: We will strengthen U.S. and allied options to deter potential adversaries from extending conflict into space and, if deterrence fails, to counter threats used by adversaries for hostile purposes,” the plan directs.
This would be bafflegab for “Donny really really wants to play with nukes!”, right? I have to wonder if making for real light sabers is part of the plan somewhere…
Via Raw Story.
These are my recollections of a life behind the iron curtains. I do not aim to give perfect and objective evaluation of anything, but to share my personal experiences and memories. It will explain why I just cannot get misty eyed over some ideas on the political left and why I loathe many ideas on the right.
Kids are kids everywhere, at least when they are not dying from malnutrition. In at least somewhat functioning society they like to play, run around and nag their parents with incessant questions about the mundane as well as the profound. “Mom, why is the grass green? Mom, why does rain fall down? Mom, what is a whore?”
Children in eastern bloc behind the iron curtains were not different. We liked to play and chat, and we did so whenever possible. But one thing that many children from that time shared, some more, some less was fear.
Fear of nuclear annihilation.
Later in life I learned that people in the West were afraid of those evil aggressive USSR commies who wanted to wipe them out and were held in check only by superior military power of magnificent NATO. Well, on our side of the border it was those trigger happy evil capitalists led by evil imperialist USA who were held in check by superior military power of magnificent Warsaw Pact. And in reality both sides committed war crimes and atrocities, there were no angels in the hot spots of the cold war.
Adults might have had their doubts and objections regarding the veracity of all this fear mongering, but for kids it was definitively all real. The regular “fallout drills” at school, regular alarm drills, signs how to react in case of nuclear attack hanging in every office. Once we were playing with my cousins in the garden and we heard a noise from the sky we did not know. What instantly gripped us was the fear that these are the nuclear missiles heading for Prague. Where I live this feeling was exacerbated by the very real presence of the iron curtains.
From every window of my house I see across the border to Germany. If I were to walk in a straight line in any direction from my property, I will end up in Germany within a day’s walk. Going mushroom hunting was allowed only in certain directions and certain areas of the forest were taboo. Big signs “Caution, State Border Ahead” everywhere. I still remember that one of the signs was riddled with bullet holes. The only time in my life I have seen a real thing riddled with bullets
And the curtains themselves…
Due to the signs and restrictions on movement, they were not usually seen in person and I never touched them. Mostly I knew they are there, somewhere in the forests. But the train track was driving very close o them, so whenever we were riding train to visit the inland, I could see them from the window.
Three meters high, double fence of razor wire. Roundup sprayed shooting corridors. And a macadam road for easy military access.
To a child, that was a terrifying sight. I loathe to see such structures being build again.
A special today, the original song by Tinariwen, and then again by a dedicated group of young men (explained below the second video, along with English translation.)
Tinariwen (+IO:I) – Sastanàqqàm.
“A thousand miles from their homeland in northern Mali, across a vast expanse of desert, the music of Tinariwen has found shelter in the hearts of six young musicians from M’hamid el Ghizlane. They were only boys when the desert rockers first visited their home, back in 2006, but they saw an immediate reflection of their own dreams and aspirations in the music they heard. In the years that followed they learned the Tinariwen songbook note for note, word for word, even though they couldn’t speak a word of Tamashek, the language of the Touareg.
When Tinariwen returned to M’hamid in 2016 to record a new album, those young disciples from M’hamid had achieved a remarkable mastery of the desert guitar repertoire. The torch had been passed from hand to hand and heart to heart across the great desert. The young musicians from M’hamid were invited to perform Abdallah’s ‘Sastaqanam’, standing in for their older brothers and playing with uncanny fidelity. But first the members of Tinariwen wrapped new turbans around the heads of their young acolytes, marking not only the passage from boyhood to manhood according to ancient desert custom, but also the transmission of their music across the generations, a transmission that is taking place in the hearts of youth from every corner of the great Sahara.”
SASTANÀQQÀM (I QUESTION YOU)
Ténéré, can you tell me of anything better
Than to have your friends and your mount,
And a brand new goatskin, watertight,
To find your way by the light
Of the four bright stars of heaven,
To know how to find water in
The unlikeliest of places,
And enlist the momentum of the wind
To help you move forward.
Tell me, Ténéré, how you and I
Can remain united, with no hate for each other.
Ténéré, I can now admit that
I have travelled far through this wide world.
Ténéré, I give you my oath
That as long as I’m alive,
I will always come back to you.
Tulips, Nightjar has them! Oh, so pretty.
© Nightjar, all rights reserved.
From Lofty: Another x-ray pic, this time of this year’s emergent Ox Tongue Lilies. Click for full size!
© Lofty, all rights reserved.
From Giliell, click for full size! Such a tiny dinosaur.
© Giliell, all rights reserved.
So. Testing, testing. Is this thing working properly?
Caine asked for some help with blog content and after a consideration I offered to do it. She has handed me the keys to her blog and I will do my best to not scratch it. Hopefully my blogging skills are better than my driving (you really would not like to lend me your car, and I would never accept it).
Most people reading this blog know me already from comments. So just very briefly who I am:
I am male, Czech, living in CZ. First third of my life I lived behind the iron curtains – literally. After it fell I graduated in teaching of biology and chemistry, and I also briefly studied psychology and arts. Currently I am working in Germany and in the course of my work I often find myself in situations like in YouTube sketch “The Expert“.
You are free to guess who I can relate the most with. I have already once said about one of my managers that he is an incompetent buffoon with whom I refuse to work. I expected to be fired after that, but instead the boot has hit his ass.
My hobbies are gardening, photography, woodworking and knifemaking. In the past I was also drawing and painting, but alas I do not have time for that anymore. But I hope to have again sometime and I will post some of my former works. I was not magnificent, but I have on occasion managed to do a decent job of it.
©Charly, all rights reserved.
Politically I am left of center in my country, but I would be considered to be a radical leftist in the USA.
I consider the most important skill to have to know when to shut up. It is also the most difficult skill to acquire and hone.
Oh my, the devoted, never say die Trumpholes are ever so upset, they have been betrayed! Even worse, they’ve been cucked by the Tiny Tyrant! Their tiny sky is falling.
Trump signed a $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill at the White House this afternoon, which sent right-wing media figures who have established themselves as unabashed Trump defenders into a fit.
Earlier this morning, Trump had tweeted that he was considering vetoing the bipartisan omnibus spending bill because it did not address DACA recipients and lacked full funding for his promised southern border wall. Hours later, however, Trump signed the spending bill into law in what he said was a “ridiculous situation” and claimed he would “never sign another bill like this again.”
Naturally, pro-Trump pundits were furious that Trump had compromised with establishment Republicans and Democrats on a spending bill that appeared to contradict his campaign promises.
Just a few choice responses here, RWW has a full page of the wailing disappointment…
“ I will never sign another bill like this again”
Yeah, because you’ll be impeached.
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) March 23, 2018
“I will never sign another bill like this again” Yeah, because you’ll be impeached. – Ann Coulter.
Disastrous decision @realDonaldTrump. The people advising u are idiots. Tough guy? Art of Deal? Worst negotiation EVER. U rolled over like a puppy to Marxists, frauds, traitors & corrupt greedy swamp. When I leave, u can turn out lights. #TRAGICMISTAKE
— Wayne Allyn Root (@RealWayneRoot) March 23, 2018
Disastrous decision @realDonaldTrump. The people advising u are idiots. Tough guy? Art of Deal? Worst negotiation EVER. U rolled over like a puppy to Marxists, frauds, traitors & corrupt greedy swamp. When I leave, u can turn out lights. #TRAGICMISTAKE – Wayne Allyn Root.
The title of this post was from yet another frothy tweet from Mr. Root, who couldn’t bother to get poor Willem Dafoe’s name right.
Well — @realDonaldTrump just signed his impeachment papers. The GOP will be slaughtered in the mid-terms. #ToddStarnesShow
— toddstarnes (@toddstarnes) March 23, 2018
Well — @realDonaldTrump just signed his impeachment papers. The GOP will be slaughtered in the mid-terms. – Todd Starnes.
I have to say, I’m more than a bit amused. You can see all the other responses to this horrible betrayal at RWW.
Chakwal Group and Meesha Shafi – Ishq Aap Bhe Awalla. Lyrics translation to English can be found here. Punjabi is a beautiful language, I recommend singing along.
From Voyager & Jack: It was bright and sunny today, but still only 1 degree and icy. There are hundreds of tulips in the garden behind Jack and not a single one is up. Click for full size!
© Voyager, all rights reserved.
From Nerd of Redhead: From Nerd of Redhead: colorful flowers in an urn for the Redhead’s grave display. The urn is cast aluminum with hummingbirds on it. The flowers represent those in the yard, those she liked (birds of paradise), or something that just looked good to me. A celebration of the color she brought to my life. So beautiful, click for full size.
© Nerd of Redhead, all rights reserved.