Opus 2017-296: Headline: The Attack of the Peeled Banana

I am not sure I can finish reading the article.  I keep falling out of my chair laughing.  The link was on Drudge.  Something about a retreat being cancelled because of a banana peel in a tree.  What?  Environmentalists thinking they found a rare monkey?  Fear it was a new terrorist weapon?  Interior decorators feeling it was a bad color mix?  Retreat members with a banana allergy?  I repeat, “What?”

You can check it out at Campus Reform.  It was none of the above.  The problem was an attack of Snowflake Syndrom.  Even though a student confessed to the dastardly deed, he could not find a trash can, the retreat was cancelled because the “incident made some students uneasy”.

Again I say, “What?”

It seems that this somehow became a terrifying racist incident.  The article talks about “people of color” leaving in tears.

I don’t know if I have ever been to this site before but I have a feeling it is an outgrowth of The People’s Cube or The Onion.  I can’t tell.  I am hoping this is a tongue in cheek commentary written as Hurricane Harvey approaches.  I am fearing that this is real.

What would Genghis Khan think?

homo unius libri

Opus 2017-295: Nobel Apocalypse

For some reason I was not even tempted to click on the Drudge link that said,

“Apocalypse predictions from 50 nobel prize winners...”

It didn’t take long to bring to mind a few famous Nobel Peace Prize winners:  Barak Obama, Al Gore, Jimmy Carter and Yasser Arafat.  That would make an interesting string quartet but I am not sure that their opinions would be something I would spend my remaining time on earth consulting.

I am curious to see what they think an apocalypse is but not curious enough to click on the link.  I have read Daniel and the Book of Revelation.  I am familiar with the 60 million killed my Mao and the 20 million who died during WWII.  Somehow the opinions of a few people who got a medal does not matter.

I may be intolerant but that might also be part of the predictions of these Depositories of Wisdom.

homo unius libri

Opus 2017-294: Book Review: Lightening’s Daughter

I am exiting another book.  I have two factors that I find make books hard for me to read:  Fantasy and female authors.  These factors are not prejudice, they are observations based on experience.  Both factors have exceptions.  I have read and enjoyed some fantasy.  I have read and enjoyed some female authors.

I am afraid that Lightening’s Daughter lived up, or down, to both standards.  As fantasy it was a hard sell.  The heroine was a sexy young lady who had managed to become an awesome warrior and was able to disguise herself as a man and penetrate a nomadic, barbarian culture.  She was eventually discovered.  In a day before transgender was considered normal you either had someone so feminine that they could not swing a sword more than once or so masculine that they would never be discovered.  That doesn’t even make allowance for curves and lack of facial hair.

I was dealing with that until I came to these paragraphs.

    “He reined his horse to a snorting, prancing stop directly in front of Nara (a telepathic horse, immune to magic and bonded to our heroine) and Gabria (our heroine) and swept off his hood.  “Sorceress!” he cried, “I have been looking everywhere for you!”
    Gabria was so surprised she could only stare down at the man.  He was young and lean, with the dark skin and brown eyes common to Tutic tribesman.  His black hair was worn in an intricate knot behind his head.  His face was clean-shaven, revealing the strong, narrow lines of his jaw and cheekbones.  Gabria thought he was compellingly handsome, and he met her confused stare with a bold, masculine look of pleasure.” p. 76

At this point I could just hear all the female readers throwing a big sigh.  I wondered if Fabio had somehow been channeled into the script.  This is standard boilerplate for romance novels.  It is the kind of stuff that makes me want to puke.  I can’t ride a horse.  I am old and far from lean.  I am pale and bald, need a shave and have confused lines of jaw and cheekbone.  I cannot relate.  I certainly am not attracted.

So another book goes on the pile for the used bookstore.  At least I woke up somewhat earlier than I do other times.  I guess it is back to Aristotle and Churchill.

Herbert, Mary H.  Lightening’s Daughter.  Lake Geneva, WI:  TSR, Inc., 1991.

homo unius libri

Opus 2017-293: On the Street: Hide or Ignore?

I have been keeping track of Hurricane Harvey.  Since I am in the area being effected I have a little more concern than much of the country but I am far enough from the center to be safe.  We are now to the point where we get into the heart-warming stories of rescue and the sad stories of death and destruction.  Recently I was reading in Proverbs and came across this verse.

(Proverbs 27:12 KJV)  A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished.

One of the things that comes clear in times like this is that a lot of people are suffering more than they need to.  All many of them needed to do was pay attention.

There isn’t much you can do when you home is right in the path of a level 4 hurricane.  You can batten down the hatches but you can’t fold up your house and put it in the trunk while you drive to Kansas.  I accept that.  Just as I can’t do a lot when someone is driving toward me on the wrong side of the road.  You do the best you can.  But if the person trying to drive me off the road is doing so at 1:00 A.M. on New Years morning and I am in my car because I wanted to get some more ice cream from the local all-night market, I am the one who put the ante in the kitty.  The home owner, who has known that the hurricane is coming for days, could have made a trip to the local home improvement store and bought some plywood, nails and even a hammer.  Then if things develop you are ready to board up your windows.  It is a little late to do it when the first branch gets blown through your window.

One of the biggest defenses against tragedy is to think and plan ahead.  We bought some property in Texas a few years ago.  We are from California where it never rains but we know places in that desert where floods have raged and destroyed.  So when we bought we investigated.  There are maps available that will tell you where the flood plains are and where the 100 year floods can expect to hit.  We also checked for local drainage systems.  A constant question was, “What if it floods”.  A few years ago there was another flood in the San Antonio area.  Houses were wiped out and people rescued.  It was like Harvey on a smaller scale.  This type of event is common in Texas.  Guess where our home is?  On top of a hill. 

When you see someone being pulled out of the windows of a submerged car, ask yourself, “How did they get there?”  The car did not drive itself.  Usually the water doesn’t rise 5 feet in 10 seconds.  The places where it does are clearly labeled in Texas with warning signs and depth gauges.  The radio and internet have been getting boring with their warnings about flash flooding.  I have only lived here a few months and I know that of the three roads from my house to a hospital there is only one that is safe in times of rain.

So let’s pull the people off the roofs and out of their cars.  Let’s give them a warm blanket, cot and a hot meal.  While we are doing that let’s engage our brains and look to the decisions we have been making as individuals and as a country.

Blessings to you and pray as much for the rescuers as you do the ones being rescued.

homo unius libri

Opus 2017-292: Headlines: Collusion? I’ll Show You Collusion

I read a point somewhere about the collusion between the judges in Arizona regarding the conviction of Sheriff Arpaio but I could not find it later.  I came across it again in the Washington Times Monday morning.  The sheriff was doing his job but the liberals didn’t like it so they got a judge to issue an order for him to stop dealing with illegal aliens.  When he did not stop he was sited and put on trial in another example of a kangaroo court. 

I don’t know if he waived his right to a jury trial but the decision was made by a judge, not a jury.  One judge did it as a favor to another judge.  If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it is probably real live collusion, not the manufactured type about Russia.  Why do the liberals have their panties in a wad? 

“It short-circuits the case against Mr. Arpaio, who was convicted this year of criminal contempt of court. The judge who convicted him said he willfully ignored another judge’s 2011 order halting the sheriff’s traffic-stop program, which identified illegal immigrants who were then turned over to federal deportation authorities.”

Notice how the two judges gave a one-two punch.  They had each other’s backs.  Unfortunately for them the president was not in the mood for the game.

Contempt of court is becoming the norm.

homo unius libri

Opus 2017-291: Headlines: An Opinion You Care About

John Kasich weighs in on the Pardon Affair.  I am sure you were waiting to hear what he had to say.  It was on “Meet the Press” which I don’t bother watching since it is on NBC but he is quoted in the Washington Times.

I think the biggest belly laugh was produced by the last paragraph in which Mr. Kasich said,

“I wouldn’t have done it this way,” Mr. Kasich, a 2016 GOP primary opponent of Mr. Trump‘s, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “It absolutely should be out of bounds for somebody to use that as some sort of political wedge. It appears as though that’s what it was.”

We know he would not have done it this way, that is why he was not elected president and Donald Trump was.  I have a very small sampling to go on, which makes me as qualified as most polls, but I would say that the Average American voted for Donald Trump simply because they expected he would do it this way.

One more scoring single for President Trump.

homo unius libri

Opus 2017-290: Headlines: Oak Leaf Clusters

John McCain is already on my RINO list but he continues to add oak leaf clusters.  If my memory serves me right, that is how the military designates you have received a medal more than once.  This time McCain again joins the America haters on the left by bad mouthing the president on his pardon of Sheriff Arpaio, according to the Washington Times. 

To his credit he admits that the president does have the power to pardon but when your balance is negative $100,00 a few cents doesn’t change things much.  He claimed he was concerned that the justice system was not allowed to drag this on for years and bankrupt the citizen with legal fees.  Maybe he was planning on a fund raiser for the sheriff and is broken hearted because he won’t be able to make a speech.

Go John.

Although I am not sure he will run again, vote the suckers out.

homo unius libri