Getting even is a need for many people. Donald Trump has made getting even the central theme of his existence. The crawling thing inside him that passes for a soul only wants to punish and diminish his perceived enemies. He lives for this.
The Alumni Association says they changed their mind because it allows them to focus on its core mission of preparing cadets to lead, fight and win as officers.
I believe that is a lie and pitiful nonsense as well.
The award to Tom Hanks was well founded. It would be hard to find any American who has done more for the public of the Academy and the American military.
Why is this award being revoked?
Revenge.
Tom Hanks campaigned for Joe Biden. He was not one of Donald Trump’s friends.
He had to be punished.
This is despicable. It is the behavior of a tyrant. Every Middle Eastern despot, every fascist leader and every South American medal draped fool, all share the same need to make their enemies pay.
There is never enough praise, awards and attention to fill the empty hole of Trump’s tiny ego.
So, he settles for revenge.
The English has a phrase which I want to use on this occasion “he’s not fit to clean his boots.”
And so the fact of the matter is clear. Donald Trump is unworthy even to clean Tom Hanks’ boots.
The neighbors can be a problem and especially now as customs about lawns are in the middle of change. We are entering a new era where the classic manicured lawn is under attack and people are moving toward natural lawns that provide food for insects and animals. Of course, the traditional bad neighbor behaviors over trees and property lines have never gone away.
(I was struck by the fact that this engraving from the middle of the 19th Century very much appears to ba a modern natural lawn. Trees and wildflowers abound and the grass is largely uncut. Of course, power mowers are at least fifty years away. But it is a compelling vision of man living in considerable harmony with nature. jp)
The article below used the phrase “borderline theft.” No, taking your lawn furniture without permission is theft (or grand larceny if the value is high enough). I think they are calling it borderline so it doesn’t sound so awful but it is. You cannot go into people’s yards and take stuff.
I fully agreed with commentators who were outraged.
In an article from People Magazine entitled: Woman Is ‘Livid’ After Returning from Weekend Away to Find Her Garden Furniture in Her Neighbor’s Yard: ‘Borderline Theft’.
A woman is “livid” after her neighbor borrowed her lawn furniture without asking
The woman, who shared her story on a community forum, said the neighbor “just helped herself” without so much as a note
Commenters on the woman’s post unanimously agreed that she had every right to be bothered by the neighbor’s “shocking” behavior
In this article linked to below, we have a story of a homeowner apparently on a tree slaughtering binge both on his property and the neighbors in an area where trees have legal protection. I really get the impression that there is just something wrong with him. Attacking an ancient tree with a chainsaw at one in the morning is not the act of a disciplined mind.
You’ll need to read the article linked to below for the details. I found the article’s conclusion quoted below to be more useful for those with homes and lawns.
The Cool Down published an article entitled Homeowner stunned by new neighbor’s bizarre acts on front lawn: ‘Went out at like one in the morning with a … chainsaw’ written by Sara Traynor.
Standard, bare lawns, like the kind the OP’s neighbor preferred, are actually not so great for the environment. Having only one species of plant in your yard can hurt the area’s biodiversity. Plus, they usually require a lot more upkeep, since these grasses aren’t accustomed to the local environment.
The OP’s first neighbor had the right idea. Having a variety of plants in your yard is great for local wildlife. Replacing your traditional lawn with native plants or a natural lawn is cheaper in the long run and gives pollinators a much-needed food source.
“Sounds like a great neighborhood to live in!” one commenter said. “And nice to hear the tree company snitched on him.”
It is not a huge leap of logic that neighbors should not be dispatching tree choppers or any other landscape style worker onto your property without permission but in the story below they did. I have many stories along these lines where trees, hedges, flowers and natural lawns were annihilated by the next door neighbor or the Home Owners Association. An HOA sounds more and more like a place where the borderline mentally ill go to have powertrips and create havoc. There should be state and federal law limiting their operations.
The Cool Down published an article entitled – Homeowner stunned after waking up to find workers hacking away in backyard: ‘I repeatedly told them to get off of my property’ Katie Lowe
Environmentally conscious homeowners across the country are increasingly finding themselves at odds with homeowners associations over their right to grow gardens on their own property. Cases are constantly emerging where HOAs restrict or even attempt to remove native trees, vegetable gardens, and natural lawns — even on properties not technically under HOA governance.
One Georgia homeowner recently woke to find workers in their backyard, hired by a neighbor and allegedly supported by the HOA, attempting to cut down a healthy sweet gum tree. The tree, which straddled a property line, had never been the subject of a complaint. Yet, without notice or consent, the crew pruned it severely, leaving it damaged and potentially dangerous.
I was reading through my three articles above and realized that I had provided few remedies to these kinds of acts. So I located an article on what to do if someone kills or damages a tree. From my reading, this the most common dispute.
James Pilant
When a Neighbor Damages or Destroys Your Tree by Ilona Bray, J.D.
If your neighbor or someone else cuts down, removes, or hurts a tree on your property without your permission, that person is required to compensate you (the tree owner) for your loss. If necessary, you can sue to enforce your rights.
Here’s the lowdown on what you must prove to recover for a damaged or destroyed tree, and how much money you can recover.
Let me lead with a quote from the article listed above:
“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do,” said the senator.
Kind readers, perhaps I am misunderstanding the quote. My impression, perhaps foolish, is that he is saying that he can make up any story no matter how outlandish if it furthers his political narrative.
So, if a story of, oh say, a Bigfoot sighting, plays well in drawing attention to, say, interest rates,, no doubt an important issue — the Bigfoot story will be told with great passion. The fact that it is just a story is irrelevant if the story is effective.
Wow, generally speaking when we talk about the Big Lie, (not the 2020 election big lie, the one before that), the one in “Mein Kamp” that if you repeated a lie often enough many will believe it, this is a whole new take. If you have a “higher” purpose making up stories is okay.
That, of course, is nonsense. It is also a direct contradiction of morality and ethics.
Is it not written that lies are wrong? For instance: Proverbs 13, Verse 5: The righteous hate what is false, but the wicked make themselves a stench and bring shame on themselves.
When someone admits that they will make up stories to get media attention, we get what we have now, a series of cruelties and nonsense perpetrated on an American community, which apparently is okay with J.D. Vance. I suppose all that suffering, the bomb threats and the demonizing of Haitians is also useful in furthering the narrative. So, it’s a twofer, you get the benefits of a made up story and the havoc that the false story brought.
This may be considered a success by some in the political game but not by me. I can’t help but think that real stories of real people with a strong factual basis are superior and call attention to actual issues of importance to all Americans. I am sure to some this appears naïve. But no matter what people say and think I continue to believe that truth is better than lies. I also believe that knowingly using lies as a part of your narrative is a dramatic indication of a lack of a moral character.
There is still right and wrong even in divided America.
I was about 16 when I first watched Doctor Who. The idea that someday it would become a home for gay and crossdressing themes would have surprised me. But here we are.
There is nothing inherently wrong with a gay character if the writing and the science fiction is good. But this show is no longer about good writing or science fiction, the focus is clearly on convincing you the viewer that alternate sexuality is utterly, completely, without any question normal and very, very important.
I started Doctor Who with Tom Baker back in the mid-1970’s. In classic Doctor Who, the stories take place all across space and time and are adventures in which a space alien of enormous age and experience protects the earth and its inhabitants from various dangers. It has run for many years. During that period it has generated high viewership numbers some of them record breakers.
Not any more.
I’ m one of that most hated species of all in the world of “woke” entertainment, I’m a fan. Our insistence on good writing, sensible plots and perhaps even a willingness to watch white men act heroically makes us incredibly obsolete in a media world where all character for some reason need to be reimagined as different sexes and races while often behaving as psychopaths. And it’s all our fault when feminist themed superheroes and science fiction fail — every single time. It’s not bad writing, nonsensical characters and pitiful marketing choices, it is because people like me are racist, sexist and intolerant. At least, that’s what the producers, directors and actors say after each multimillion bomb. So, obviously it must be true.
It is time for me to give up. It is time for all of us fans to give up. The good writing and science fiction themes we valued as basic parts of the franchise are gone forever. The Disney Company is providing financing. They are dictating a multi-sexual cast propagating a political agenda in each and every episode. They have billions and billions of dollars and if no one watches it, they don’t care. They will simply claim that the BBC viewership numbers are just small part of the picture and it is doing fine on other venues —- all of which they control and keep totally, completely secret. They could run 90 minutes of static and claim success and who know, at some point in the future they just might.
This isn’t good business ethics. If you’ve been watching a show for forty some years plus and it is good science fiction while having some of the finest writers in television, you get used to that. It is poor ethics to provide a bad product that no longer resembles the basic themes that made it successful. Poor writing, blatant preaching and silly characters are bad for any series and they are bad, bad business ethics. Let’s be blunt – you don’t market watered down bleach as fine wine. People can tell.
Don’t despair. There is fan fiction and we have years of past wonderful episodes to watch. None of which has been in anyway touched by the Walt Disney Company! That world where people traveled with the Doctor on behalf of humanity in a continued adventure still exists in the past episodes and continuing radio shows and novels. There is still a lot of Doctor Who left.
The University of Southern California has canceled a brief remark (3-5 minutes) scheduled to be given at the graduation this year by the class Valedictorian, Asna Tabassum, on “public safety” grounds.
I may be getting old and cynical but the University’s concern over public safety strikes me as nonsensical. This is the United States of America. From time to time, people have differences of opinion. I promise you Americans are not going to melt like a chocolate bar in hot summer sun if Ms. Tabassum says something many people disagree with in her 3-5 minute remarks.
I also might point out that Ms. Tabassum stated that she had planned to talk about hope although I don’t think after this pitiful controversy that I or anybody else can expect her to continue with that topic.
In terms of business ethics, if USC is a private business, they have every right to cancel any part of the ceremony for any reason whatever. But they are a public university. If recollection serves, they are one of the land grant universities, one of President Lincoln’s ideas. Public institutions are supposed to respect the rights of Americans, particularly the right to political speech, the most protected form of speech under American Constitutional Law.
What the University should be saying loud and clear is that our new Valedictorian has the right to speak her opinion. We may not agree with that opinion but it is better to live in a nation where people have a right to express their thoughts than one where thought, opinion and speech are proscribed in case they offend the public or the government.
Now, I suppose some readers will accuse me of being Pro-Palestinian. To be honest, I don’t side much with anybody in this Middle Eastern mess. The Palestinians deserve the right to live, work and exercise voting rights. Their property must be protected. The Israeli’s have the right to exist and to be free from attack. Lots and lots of people have died and suffered sexual assaults. Hamas has done a bunch of killing and Israel with its indiscriminate use of firepower has done an even bigger bunch of killing. Do you see why I find both sides problematic?
But while elements of this dispute have traveled to the United States, we are neither Israel or Palestine. Most of us are neither Muslims or Jews. We can hear both sides strident as the voices may be and make up our own minds as Americans are supposed to do.
University officials chose Tabassum, a biomedical engineering major with a minor in resistance to genocide, as valedictorian from a pool of nearly 100 applicants with GPAs of 3.98 or above. The title comes with an invitation to deliver a 3-to-5-minute speech to an audience of about 65,000 at the campuswide commencement ceremony on May 10.
A Challenge for My Students (and other faculty should they so desire!)
My students are well aware by this time that I am a mystery buff. I love solving television mysteries and real life ones as well. The video below is from You Tube and it features a Miss Marple mystery. These are my favorite mysteries because you have all the clues you need to solve it by the time she arrives at the explanation. I haven’t solved all of the Miss Marple stories but certainly more than 2/3rds. This one beat me.
So, my challenge is, “Can you solve the mystery before our heroine explains the outcome?” You are, of course, on your honor not to cheat. So, don’t be going to one of those spoiler web sites or reading the novel before watching the program. You can do what I like to do in these cases which is to pause the film and think about the evidence at hand. Television watching appeals to the unconscious more than the conscious and if you just let it flow, the “little grey cells” (another Agatha Christie character) never get to operate at full power.
This exercise builds your power of reasoning and deduction known by the classic word, ratiocination.
If you solve it, make a comment and I will post the winners later.
James Pilant
P.S. I am going to give you a clue that I did not have. I did not figure out the murder because I could not conceive that the murderer(s) could be so evil. And I was revolted when I found out what had been done. jp
Agatha Christie’s Marple: S1E1 – The Body In The Library – YouTube
Let us raise a glass to ambition and glory!
James Pilant
There are a number of books that I want to write before I die. As someone that has pessimistic tendancies, I do not think I will accomplish them all. I hold a full time job and have to write my books in my spare time, either on my lunch hour, or time that I make available to write after work. There really is only one book that I know for sure that I will finish(unless I get hit by a car or something of that sort), and that is the one I am current … Read More
I found this an interesting review with many references to morality. Take this quote below –
Everyone agrees that The Pale King enshrines boredom. What has been glossed over, however, is how fiercely and unrepentantly American these pages are. Yes, the book expounds upon the marvels of boredom and the “heroic” nature of doing a quiet but necessary task without audience or recognition, but juxtaposed are endless descriptions of bureaucracies, American culture at its most dysfunctional, and even extended Platonian dialogues about the decline of American society, complete with terms that never fail to surface in today’s news: “liberal individualism,” “corporations,” “conservatives,” “founding fathers,” “consumer capitalism,” etc. “Americans are crazy,” one character remarks to another: “We infantilize ourselves. We don’t think of ourselves as citizens—parts of something larger to which we have profound responsibilities. We think of ourselves as citizens when it comes to our rights but not our responsibilities.” The selfishness described here again harkens back to Wallace’s speech, in which he revealed that our “natural, hardwired default setting” is to be “deeply and literally self-centered.”
If the reference is to our ethical and moral responsibility, I quite agree. However, the “hard wired” setting to be deeply and literally self centered, is ridiculous, we are just as hard wired to be cooperative and self sacrificing. That being deeply and literally self centered is an American doctrine used to justify cruel and immoral policies and actions. If humans are self centered monsters salivating after every last moment of pleasure and every conceivable possession, than we can justify every kind of lie and cruelty in the name of social control.
Nevertheless, I very much enjoyed the review and I would like you to read it.
James Pilant
My thanks to Patrick Nathan
In 2005, novelist David Foster Wallace was invited to give a commencement speech to the graduates of Kenyon College. Captivating, inquisitive, and in no way didactic, Wallace unveiled to them the oncoming drudgery of adult life and all its routines—certainly nothing an ambitious twenty-two year old wants to hear. But Wallace offered an alternative to mental and emotional atrophy. The liberal arts degree, he said, not only teaches us how to think … Read More
Some days, I do not want to write. I want to do anything but write. My mind says, “Please James, let’s watch a movie, go shopping, have a nap, anything that isn’t typing into that machine.”
I still drag myself to that online beast and write once again. You cannot not post. Your readers will leave, not all of them, but some. And I prize every reader I have. They are like gold coins to a miser. I remember all too well getting 35 hits for the entire month I began posting.
My readers are supportive and kind. Their comments enrich my thought and change how and what I write about.
I am greedy for more readers but I don’t want as much encouragement as the picture and caption indicate!
James Pilant
With the debut of HBO’s “A Game of Thrones” miniseries and a new article in The New Yorker, the strange story of George R. R. Martin and his fans has been on my mind. So, in this episode of Lost in the Stacks, we examine the weird, often dangerously codependent relationship between the Writer and the Readers. What does the writer owe to his or her readers, if anything? What can the readers honestly expect of their writer? What promises, implicit … Read More
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