Fragrant flowers (w/pic)

This is a photograph of some of the flowers on one of the sweet-smelling bushes in my Mother's yard. I don't know the name of the bush, but it has a wonderful fragrance. You can click on the picture to view a larger version.

I've got my eye on you (w/pic)

Using the "macro" mode on my antiquated Hewlett-Packard PhotoSmart 215 digital camera.

Needless suffering

An Associated Press item appearing on SFGate.com details how Islamic preachers convinced parents not to have their children vaccinated against polio, because, they said, it was part of a U. S. plot against Muslims.

I do not believe that there was any U. S. plot against Muslims, and the allegation by the Islamic preachers, which resulted in many children not being vaccinated, has led to a resurgence of polio in nations where it had been eradicated.

Nearly two years after radical Islamic preachers told parents to refuse to have their children vaccinated against polio for fear it was part of a U.S. plot against Muslims, the repercussions are still being felt: A Nigerian strain of the virus that causes the crippling disease has cropped up as far away as Indonesia.

The wall (w/pic)

This is the bulletin board and a wall, which I use as if it were a bulletin board, in my office. There is one, framed photograph on the wall. It is of my Father. He was a really great guy, and I surely do miss him.

Payback?

Mexico detained two U.S. border patrol agents during a routine border check that uncovered a box filled with illegal ammunition in their car, the Mexican federal attorney general's office said Tuesday.

This looks to me as if the Mexican government is harassing our border patrol agents. Could it be that they are retaliating for the recent Minuteman Project's success in stemming the tide of Mexican citizens illegally entering the U. S.?

A family birthday

Well, today was my Mother's eighty-fourth birthday. Last night, after she went to bed, I put eighty-five dollars and a "Happy Birthday!" note at her place at the dining room table (where we eat all of our meals), so that she would see them first thing this morning. I used to give her gift certificates to a near-by department store, but it went out of business; besides, she would save the gift certificates, sometimes for months, before using them, so I switched over to cash. I always give her one dollar more that her age, thereby giving her "one to grow on."

Before I left for work, I put the "special" plate at her place. It is a blue plate with the legend, "Today is your day. Celebrate!" painted in white around the rim. She told me that she ate her lunch on it.

After work I took her to her favorite place to eat out, a local cafeteria. As we were going through the serving line, she happened to mention to a couple of the servers that today was her birthday. One of the servers reached into her shirt pocket, whipped out two one dollar bills, and gave them to my Mother. Not to be outdone, the other server reached into her shirt pocket, whipped out a five dollar bill, and gave it to my Mother. Those workers probably don't earn a very high wage, and, yet, they gave freely of their money. It touched my so much that I asked for their names and birthdays, so that I could return the favors. The first server's name is Tameka. Her birthday is on June the fourteenth. The second server's name is Pamela, and her birthday is July the twenty-fifth.

After I finished my meal, I went up to the cashier to get some change for a twenty dollar bill, so that I could leave the waitress, who carried my Mother's tray to our table, a tip. While I was getting my change, the cafeteria manager told the cashier that he was taking care of our bill! Wow!

Prisoners and the Internet

Should individuals in prison have access to the Internet? I don't think so; however, FOX News has posted an Associated Press article, entitled Inmates Turn to Intermediaries for Web Access, on the foxnews.com web site.

A visit to the cemetery

Usually, I take my Mother to do her errands, such as grocery shopping, every Saturday morning. This week, it was different. I took her to the grocery store Friday afternoon, after I got off work.

Saturday afternoon, I took her to her church to have her photograph made for inclusion in the members' directory. She will, also, get a free eight inch by ten inch color photograph, "suitable for framing." After we left the church, we went to the Family Dollar store and bought some artificial flowers to take to the cemetery.

Sunday afternoon, after we had eaten lunch and my Mother had watched the church service on television, I prepared the flowers, dividing the four bunches that we had bought into two sprays. I then wrapped old newspapers around the stems of each spray and tied them, tightly, with twine.

We rode out to the cemetery, and, after setting up a folding chair for my Mother, I put a spray into the vase on my Father's marker and a spray into the vase on my sister's marker. My Father died four years ago. Had he lived, he would have been ninety-four years old, yesterday. My sister died nineteen years ago, when she was forty-three.

"Old media" vs. "new media"

Hannibal has written a succinct summary of the topic.

If you follow US politics and opinion journalism even peripherally, then you know that the one thing that the entire political spectrum--right, center, and left--can agree on is that the American news media is in trouble. Of course, pundits from different ends of the spectrum disagree on their diagnoses of the problem and on their prescriptions for a cure. If you listen to the left, the success of Fox News, talk radio, and Sinclair Broadcasting has not only polluted the waters of political discourse, but it has also motivated less openly partisan news outlets like CNN and Time to move to the right in search of an audience. The right, for its part, never misses an opportunity to decry the bias of the so-called "MSM," an acronym that used to mean one thing in HIV/AIDS public health circles but has now come to mean "mainstream media."

Professor Bainbridge vs. The Minuteman Project

I am tired of "reporters" in the partisan media, which used to be the "mainstream media," and pointy head academics, most, if not all, of whom have no, or very little, knowledge about the subject, trashing the Minuteman Project. So is Michelle Malkin. Her latest post on the subject is, "Stop Smearing the Minutemen."