Sunday Odds and Ends

We had a wonderful afternoon yesterday, with a visit from our local granddaughters (oh, yes, and their parents, too) and our friend Nadja. The weather was beautiful, the new grass is coming in nicely in the front yard (along with the uninvited weeds and crabgrass) and my garden is growing up a storm, thanks to (or perhaps in spite of) granddaughter Leya's energetic high-pressure watering from a distance of about four microns. The sun shone, the birds sang in the trees, Nessa "enjoyed" the attention of the children, and we dined on Opa Bilbo's Famous Fajitas. Granddaughter Elise also demonstrated how children are able to dine by osmosis as nutrients leach into their bloodstreams from the food smeared on their faces.

Life is good.

And it appears it will continue to be so, as (not surprisingly) the world did not come to an end yesterday evening as predicted by Harold Camping of Family Radio International and his believers, many of whom sold or gave away their possessions in preparation for the "Rapture" that turned out to be a non-event. The fact that Mr Camping had previously predicted the end of the world for a date in 1994 did not appear to cause his followers any significant worry as they approached their opportunity to get the Christian equivalent of 72 virgins in an imagined paradise. Better luck next time.

If you are looking for a foretaste of what the 2012 presidential election will be like, you can read this article from today's Washington Post: Political Groups, Now Free of Limits, Spending Heavily Ahead of 2012. You can rest assured we will continue have the worst government money can buy, thanks to the partisan financial tsunami unleashed on the electoral process by the Supreme Court's amazing 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.

And finally, you may be interested - as I was - in this opinion piece by Michael S. Roth, President of Wesleyan University: Why Liberal Arts Matter. Mr Roth writes in part ...

"My parents were part of a wave of Americans after World War II whose confidence in the future and belief in education helped create the greatest university sector in the world. Students from all walks of life began to have the chance to acquire a well-rounded education, and it was on this basis that Americans created a vibrant culture, a dynamic economy and a political system that (after many struggles) strove to make equality before the law a fundamental feature of public life ... A well-rounded education gave graduates more tools with which to solve problems, broader perspectives through which to see opportunities and a deeper capacity to build a more humane society."

Something to think about as we watch misguided politicians wreck our children's future by slashing spending on education. Because without a good education that combines the sciences and the arts, and teaches people to think instead of shout mindless slogans, we get the Tea Party, Rapture fanatics, Holocaust deniers, and single-issue wingnuts of every persuasion.

And they are not the people I want leading the America my grandchildren will live in.

Have a good day. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo