Monthly Archives: June 2015

Just Words

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I have a little man-crush on Antonin Scalia.

Justice Antonin ScaliaAfter all, how many Supreme Court Justices could call a decision “jiggery-pokery”? Mr. Scalia did in his dissension to the King v. Burwell decision, otherwise known as the Care Package for the Unaffordable Care Act. Here he was absolutely right on the Law and right that lay readers and lawyers alike “would think the answer would be obvious — so obvious there would hardly be a need for the Supreme Court to hear a case about it.”

Next up, Obergefell v. Hodges, otherwise known as the Same Sex Marriage Decision. Here Mr. Scalia is wrong on the Law but dead-bang on in his description of the Court and the fallacious route they took to arrive at the right decision:

“Take, for example, this Court, which consists of only nine men and women, all of them successful lawyers who studied at Harvard or Yale Law School. Four of the nine are natives of New York City. Eight of them grew up in east- and west-coast States. Only one hails from the vast expanse in-between. Not a single Southwesterner or even, to tell the truth, a genuine Westerner (California does not count).”

“The opinion is couched in a style that is as pretentious as its content is egotistic… one would think Freedom of Intimacy is abridged rather than expanded by marriage. Ask the nearest hippie.”

Bwah!

 

Flag on the Play

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Flags of Conquered CountriesI’m a Yankee. My mother was born to a quiet Quaker lady whose father was an abolitionist. Still, I have no dog in this fight except one: Freedom of speech and expression in the United States is protected as our first and most fundamental Right. I also have one or two observations:

• The U.S. bested Great Britain in more than one war. The Union Jack still flies.
• The U.S. bested the Cherokee in the Chickamauga war. The Cherokee Nation banner still flies.
• The U.S. bested Eyalet of Tripolitania and the Sultanate of Morocco in the First Barbary War. The Royal Standard of Morocco still flies. The flag of Ottoman Tripolitania flew until 1911 when the seeds of Libya were sewn.
• The U.S. bested Spain in more than one war. The flag of Spain still flies (adopted in its current version in 1978).
• The U.S. bested Regency of Algiers in war. The flag of Algieria still flies.
• The U.S. and the Republic of Texas bested the Comanche Nation in war. The flag of the Comanche still flies.
• The U.S. bested Greek pirates in the Aegean Sea Operations. The flag of Greece still flies.
• The U.S. bested Fiji, Samoa, and Tabiteuea in an “Exploring Expedition.” The flags of the Republic of Fiji, the Independent State of Samoa, and the land of no chiefs still fly.
• The U.S. bested Mexico in the Mexican-American War. The Mexican still flies.
• The British Empire, France, and the U.S. finally bested the Qing Dynasty in war. The flag of the Qing Dynasty flew until 1912.
• The U.S. bested the Confederate States in war. The Confederate Battle Standard still flies. Oh. Wait.
• The U.S. allies bested China again in the Boxer Rebellion. The flag of the Qing Dynasty flew until 1912.
• The U.S. bested Germany and Mexico in the Mexico-United States border war. The flag of the German Empire flew until 1918.
• The U.S. bested Germany and Nicaraguan Liberals in war. The Republic of Nicaragua’s flag still flies.
• The U.S. bested Germany in more than one war. The flag of Germany still flies (adopted in its current version in 1949).
• The U.S. bested Japan in war. The Rising Sun still flies.
• The U.S. and Jamaica bested Grenada in war. The national flag of Grenada still flies.
• The U.S. deposed Manuel Noriega and bested Panama in war. The Panamanian flag still flies.
• The U.S. and allies deposed Muammar Gaddafi and bested Tripoli in war. The Libyan flag still flies.
• The U.S. bested Iraq in war. The Iraqis have had many flags; at least one may still be flying.
• Vietnam bested the U.S. in war. The American flag still flies (adopted in its current version in 1960).

 

Adventure

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Floridian Ilse Telesmanich sprained her ankle hiking in South Africa. She was 90.

A retired builder, Englishman Tom Lackey, took up wing-walking at 89. His family thinks he’s mad.

Adventures come in many forms.


Superboat in Marathon

In 1982, Boppa looked around and said, “I’m 92 years old. Let’s move to Florida.” It was the first wanderlust he had given in to for 67 years. My grandmother, though, came from a family of semi-wanderers.

Her great-x-5-grandfather, Richard Barnard, wandered from England to the Colonies in 1642 to follow William Penn into what became southeastern Pennsylvania. His grandson (my first cousin six times removed) Isaac was an American lawyer who served as a United States Senator and in the Fourteenth Regiment Infantry of the United States Army Militia as a Major General in the War of 1812. Odd role for a Quaker. Another early cousin, Cyrus Barnard obtained a patent for a mowing-machine as early as 1820. He was also the first to import merino sheep into Chester County. Another odd combination. A subsequent Richard Barnard (my first cousin five times removed) was perhaps the first Chester Countian to go to California in search of wealth.

My neighbor sold his air conditioning business in Maryland and moved to the Keys to buy a boatyard. My own parents couldn’t stay put despite the fact that their lives were based in Chester County for five decades and in the Keys for a couple more. They wandered in road trips and in the boat and one hurricane season moved to Gallup, New Mexico. They are now circumnavigating the globe on a rose petal but that’s another story.

My path has been a little different because I got a variant “adventure” gene. I flew to Europe to ski the Alps and then later to work and annoy German waitresses. I conned a 50′ twin-screw diesel boat in the Chesapeake and built a 30-foot boat in the barn. I’ve rappelled down the Palisades.

Now much of my travel across New England, Florida, and the American Southwest is to get the light right on a bat tower, lie in the grass for a view of brown cows against vibrant foliage, view an ancient cactus bloom against biosphere glass, or capture the vanishing end of a seven mile bridge over clear green water.

I have visited 40 US states, but I tend to settle in. Although I’m a ninth-generation Pennsylvania native and I’ve resided in only four states, I found a home in the Keys.

There are adventures here.

Once upon a time, long after the pirates stopped sailing square-riggers, the Keys had powerboat races in the waters off Key West, Marathon, and Islamorada. Somehow, we lost the Marathon and Islamorada events but the Super Boat Grand Prix will return to Marathon on Fourth of July weekend. There should be 20-25 boats, the big iron, there. These boats can hit 150 mph going under the 7-Mile Bridge and past Inch Beach. And they’ll be back at the marina behind Faro Blanco.

I drove race cars for several years but I’ve never considered driving race boats. See, when I tried that I discovered that I don’t think in the third dimension at speed. Race cars go up and down but they stay (mostly) attached to the ground. Race boats go up and down and the driver needs to remember to land the darned things.

There may be a different approach.

On the news last night, SWMBO and I watched a piece on seniors (that means people waaaaaaay older than we are) taking up kiteboarding. Now-74-year-old retired science teacher Louis Self writes that “Riding and jumping with a wake board, being propelled only by the wind gives an unimaginable rush.”

Hmmm.


Surfing to Infinity

She told me that I can’t do it. A boy does love a challenge if I can just figure out how to land the darned thing.

I’m not going to try to master a headstand, though. I’m not nuts, after all.

 

Observation

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It is hard to believe that the Vermont DMV website (dmvexpress.vermont.gov) can be so exceptionally good while the Vermont Health Connect website (healthconnect.vermont.gov) can be so extraordinarily bad.