Saturday, June 03, 2006
PAYING THE FIDDLER Far too many of our wars have engendered circumstances which can, especially when viewed from afar, may seemed to have been action's far afield from the levels of standards by which we lived at the time. We are beset, even now, by insistent allegations that military actions undertaken by a detachment of American marines were improper and even criminal. Extensive investigation of the incident are now in progress and we should known soon concerning the alleged attack which may have taken place during a military operation to take possession of one, enemy-occupied dwelling. The allegation is that American forces physically removed unarmed Iraqi civilians from that house and shot them. We all remember a previous incident in this same area, in which it was show that American forces, or a very small segment of them - men and women - did, indeed, engaged in bestial conduct using Iraqi prisoners under their custodial care as victims of their improper conduct. And for those of us with a few more years totaled up, who among us can forget the sense of absolute shock and shame which came upon upon may of - may I point out - not all of us - when we first heard details of the Mai Lei Affair which forced many of us to think about actual elements of military life most would rather not talk about at all. I have purposely avoided any mention of sentencing meted in any such cases because that is one part of all of this which has been... is now... and will continue to be questioned and discussed for many years. Too much? Or, not enough? No one can say how this latest scandal will turn out. When the investigation phase dried up and media segment given to exploiting details find the are selling fewer papers as they start repeating assorted sordid details all over again. Each case has an legitimacy about it. Organizations do have flaws built-in and branches of our armed forces are not immune from such demeaning conditions. I have often felt that any person who has ever been in a war time combat zone have thought, and - to a degree been concerned about civilians been killed or wounded. They are, regardless of when or where an extended portion of the family of loved ones we have left behind in our homeland. Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 6-3-06 [406wds]
Friday, June 02, 2006
THE OTHER MRS. R. We read a great deal about Eleanor, but what about Edith. Roosevelt, that is. The second wife of our 26th President, Edith Kimble, was a also a sturdy, strong-minded lady who birthed seven children over the years. We know now how much she did to solidify the District of Columbia and the White House as the Social Center of our nation. She also undertook raise Teddy's daughter Alice, as well. Her life was vibrant, telling presence to many individuals. Teddy and Edith were small children together. She was a close playmate of Teddy's youngest sister. It appears it was assumed she was to become Teddy's wife but he met and married Alice Hathaway. He was left a widower, with one daughter after just five years. By 1890 Teddy overcome strong feelings had concerning remarriage and he and Edith were wed in London, England. Later, as Vice-President, her husband was suddenly thrust into in being our 26th President when President William McKinley was assassinated. Later when pressures of the job became evident, Edith Roosevelt, apparently on her own, visited Thomas Jefferson's section of Virginia where, near the small town of Keene, Va. , Albemarle County, she made a real estate purchase . She talked with two local bachelors named the Wilmer Brothers and paid them a total of $280.00 which made her the owner of small house and fifteen acres of forest land with which they were willing to part. This small, log house is sturdy even today. It sports a sort of dormer window in the slanted roof along the slanted roof of an, otherwise, typical log cabin house between two, fine brick chimneys. A front porch stretched a shadowy coolness across the front of it all. Three. flat-boarded, steps lead down to forest floor level. It acquired the name "Pine Knot" in pre-Roosevelt days - that "Teddy and Edith R." The site became the Presidential Retreat in 1905-06. It must have been pretty much of a hush-hush thing because records indicate that only one person outside the family ever stayed there - John Burroughs, the celebrated naturalist. Maybe John Muir, as well, but just one mention suggests a confusion of naturalists. The Roosevelt's later purchased an additional seventy-five acres of woodland. Anyone who "roughed it" with the Teddy and Edith Roosevelt understands and fully appreciates the Presidential idea of what is meant when the term "roughing it" is used. "Pine Knot" has no heating system other than the fireplaces. There is no insulation. There is no indoor plumbing. There is no water at hand. Electricity? I don't see any wires on photos; no fuse boxes clutter the outside. walls. Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 6-2-06 [c469wds]
Thursday, June 01, 2006
TAKEOVER! Our village is a unwilling victim of mega-industrial takeover. The adamant refusal of the governing body the Augusta County (Va.) Board of Supervisors to inform citizens as top the exact, and general nature of the proposed industry. They have, it is reported, just recently completed a $440,000 survey or study of the proposed plant using tax money to do so and is now being urged by a concerned populace that we be told the proposed location and general nature of the potential new member of the area's industry. One of the major factors against any such proposal has been the secrecy with which the Board has handled the project. They have concealed their at of spending what is an enormous amount ($440,000) for just a study of that exploratory nature. Such a pattern of secret activities has caused the formation and spread of many rumors some false, some half-true and some wild fantasy. The rumors denies the original stated a need for 600 acres. It now stands as "about 1600-2000 acres. All of the land listed between the Shenandoah Valley Airport and Interstate 81. Thus far,no one has been told just how much of that area will be put "under roof":under roof and how much will be merely "surfaced". People who seek a comparative site find that the Wal-Mart Distribution Center at Mount Crawford covers a mere 150 acres. Others are comparing the Target location at Stuarts Draft and the Best Buys facility at Verona. I am eager to see how the latest revelations will affect the newcomer's stated need for two million gallons of water per day, and what about the problems of sewage and of run off safeguards made essential by such massive changes in terrain. The Mega Industry of Weyers Cave,Va, bubble is about to burst! I say that because I was surprised, when I checked the Internet last night to see that both Google and YAHOO "News" both have extended news coverage of this rural happening in Virginia .The spark which will caused the whole thing to blow up - that moment when FOX News or some of the more aggressive talk radio personalities - Russ Limbaugh and Neal Boortz - both broadcast locally - get word of the threats of eminent domain acquisition takeovers! Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 6-1-06 [c401wds]
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
SPUN QUESTION Unless you have been ignoring the seemingly senseless mass of incoming e-mail for a month or so, you have most likely received letters asking you, point-blank, if "you believe in the war in Iraq?" That's a loaded question inviting negative replies. When I come across appeals to ignorance such limited-askings such as these campaigning letters, I find I, quite naturally, re-act in pretty much the same manner as did my maternal grandfather when anyone ask him for whom he had voted. The basic intent of his reply was: "None of your damned business!" Granddaddy had worked during as a lumberjack in Michigan. He was not a stranger, by any means, to some of the rougher types of dealing with disturbances. He, the son of immigrant parents, had some rather firm ideas about the personal nature surrounding his political beliefs and, especially, the manner which he might best cast his valued ballot. I feel certain sense of allegience to my nation, respect for our chosen leaders of whatever party - properly pledged as befits the office held.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
MEMORIAL DAYIt has been Memorial Day most of this week for me! I keep wondering how it can be that in this great nation of ours we cannot bring ourselves to recognize and observe a set date for anything. We change our holidays as frequently as we do our socks or underwear. “Memorial Day” has always been the last day of the month of May, I think. No more. It is among those dates of consequence which have been writ-switched by Congressional date-setters to take place on the Monday nearest to the original date. In a quasi-technical sense, it rally doesn’t make that much difference anyway, because our calendar system has been pretty well botched-up for decades in end. The chief changers in many such cases seems to be government employees in the District of Columbia who are intent on making it mandatory that all holidays occur on Monday making the Long Week End observance they have long favored, a nationwide custom. Each time the holiday shifts about irreparable damage is done to the meaning of the holiday when it was set up as a symbol urge us to revere and respect that date in memory of an outstanding individual or event. When the holiday is fragmented so is the honor being paid to the reason for it’s being. When my favorite auto race came on the air from Indy, I knew was from Indy came TV t, I knew it had to be Memorial Day, but it wasn’t . I found out it was not. It was tomorrow. The “Memorial Day” races I saw being run in Indianapolis, Indiana, Monte Carlo and Charlotte, North Carolina were running just the same,which could not be, so I left them all and did other things. It somehow, does not seem right that a faction in D.C. should determine how the rest of us observe our holidays. Existing Human Resources experts allow, even seem to encourage the Long Weekend perk, something which the general nationwide run of commerce, business, and industry does not accept. It can be seen happening out of D.C. I live on the arterial routes of southbound motor traffic U.S.#11, I-81 and, not too far to the east, I-95. When a Monday holiday is in the offing, you can easily see increased numbers of D.C. and northern Virginia cars heading southward. By night fall it becomes a steady flow. It is all but absent until, Monday afternoon, the current is reversed and traffic gradually becomes heavier - toward the north. I am always reminded,too, that I see only one fourth of the action. Trips of a like nature are moving into and out of Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and points beyond. I have no way of checking traffic at Dulles, Reagan National, and small, private airports, but I'll bet the pattern of "ups" and "Downs" works out pretty much the same way. Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 5-30-06 [c501wds]
Monday, May 29, 2006
FILL 'ER UP! Do you remember when you used to say those commanding words to a young man who, in those bygone days, was known as a filling station attendant? He would snap out a friendly "Yes sir!" and start a hose mechanism which measured gasoline into the fuel tank of your car. He would, if asked to do so, wipe your car's windshield with a half-clean cloth he kept dangling from the rear pocket his coveralls. As service station equipment modernized the hose itself metered the gasoline and cut off the flow of fuel. That was a point at which we should have noticed a distinct change in the occupational category. The attendant, when smart-hoses started taking over, was an endangered species we did not list at the time. It was not uncommon for college boys to work their way through school by pulling shifts either nights or over week ends and holidays "pumpin' gas" at a big filling stations downtown or at one of the exchange points along the Intestate, super highways, freeways or Toll roads.It was a regular job classification term used just as "soda jerk" was for many of their buddies who worked at places where refreshments or old-fashioned drug store "fountains" were maintained. The job called "pumpin' gas" was given a final, fatal kick into oblivion wit the coming of the cards. The Credit card put the payment off for a time at a premium and the other card paid for the purchase right now, pronto... even as the expensive fluid is being transferred from safe storage to your car's thirsty fuel tank. Listen! You can hear it's gurgle! It's so quiet. There are are no people around. There is no near to hear you say: "Fill 'er up!" Gassing up the family car is now one of the loneliest of all locales! Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 5-29-06 [c327wds]
Sunday, May 28, 2006
CANE CARRIERS Comedy star W .C. Fields , was beyond all question, the most exceptional talent of all time in the varied uses of a cane. He strolled forth with staid dignity on the finer avenues with stylish folk in his company. He also used the cane - or "walking sick" as it was sometimes called in his day, as a valued aid to make his type of comedy seem authentic. His walk could appear to be a smart swagger if he wished it to be so, or it could be a bumbling mis-adventurer if he chose to be seen in that light. He used it as if it were an additional arm, leg or lever which he could manipulate to change the world about himself to his liking or the setting for his type of comedy. My career with a cane started when a young doctor asked me to simply walk down the corridor just outside his office. I did. He put a blindfold eye mask on me and asked me to repeat the walk. I did not. I guessed about which direction to go but after three steps or so I was still. He then suggested that I look up at the ceiling and try the same walk. No go. Back a his desk he talked about neural receptors and showed me how I was visually checking out every step I took. My receptors needed more information and I could provide such information. To help improve that situation I had a choice to make . I waited a moment, thinking all manner of fearful consequences, I suppose, and he popped the question "Which would you prefer - a "cane" or a "walker". I went with "cane" because "walkers" seemed to me to be for older people. I had a fine cane at home - a hand-made one - and it became part of me that very day. I have never regretted that moment in any way. Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 5-28-06 [c336wds]
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