Abigail Adams on #TheNew10

Abigail Adams
Image: http://www.firstladies.org/

We can call the new bills “Abbies”.

My nominee for the new $10 is Abigail Adams, wife of President John Adams, mother of President John Quincy Adams, and the woman who kept it all together back on the farm when John was off being a founding father.

She was an advocate of the property rights of women and strongly opposed to slavery.

Through her letters with John, she exerted a great deal of influence on the formation of our country.

It’s an OUTRAGE!

hidingfaceI’ve been examining my reaction to emails and social media posts and I think I have a diagnosis: “Outrage Fatigue”. I am flat out tired of everything being an outrage, a precursor to the apocalypse, and the end of life as we know it.

Folks, don’t sweat the small stuff. We will get by.

And if you think your thing is bad, remember this: Winter is coming.

We will get by. We will survive.

Deal: Drumming with the Dead

Photo: Jack-Gardner on http://billkreutzmann.com/
Photo: Jack-Gardner / billkreutzmann.com

I just read Bill Kreutzmann’s book, “Deal“. It was like sitting with a really stoned dude for several hours while he tells you stories that are sort of in order but sometimes not and of course you’re stoned too so you don’t worry too much about it making a lot of sense, but you can see and feel that he has some pretty strong feelings. And he has a lot of love/hate going on, and he really, really misses Jerry.

It’s good you’re back into the music, and I completely understand, Billy, why you didn’t want to have anything to do with Furthur, even though it brought a lot of happiness to the ‘heads.

Listen to a bit of Billy and The Kids. He’s doing alright now.

Mutual Assured Destruction

nukeMutual Assured Destruction is a nuclear war strategy to ensure that everyone dies.   In the immortal words of  WOPR, “The only winning move is not to play.”  We still engage in that strategy, maintaining thousands of nuclear weapons.

We’re playing again in a different space.  MAD is the new strategy for cyberwar.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/24/pentagon_cyberwarfare_strategy/

House of Cards, Season 3: Meh.

Spoiler alert, maybe.

Frank_Underwood_-_House_of_Cards
Francis Underwood
Francis_Urquhart
Francis Urquhart

Before I watched the US version of House of Cards on Netflix, I watched the British version*. The arcs of the first two seasons  were similar, similar enough that I feared how the American season 3 would end.

Underwood’s first season was a slam-bang ride, a politicial thriller with wit and Shakespearean undertones (as well as Richard III asides).  The second season lost some of the first season’s power, but kept me binging on into Season 3.  I wanted to love it; I was not impressed by the arc of season 3 and its finale.  The British version made a definite statement about the absolutes of ambition, loyalty and love: What would Elizabeth do for Francis? The American version swung into a predictable domestic drama: What does Claire want?.

Season 4?  I’m not so sure I’m watching.

* The British version appeared as three separate series, House of Cards, To Play The King, and The Final Cut.

No Jam Today

Alice_and_white_queenSome things just never seem to come around.  Sorry, but not today.

Alice couldn’t help laughing, as she said, ‘I don’t want you to hire ME—and I don’t care for jam.’

‘It’s very good jam,’ said the Queen.

‘Well, I don’t want any TO-DAY, at any rate.’

‘You couldn’t have it if you DID want it,’ the Queen said. ‘The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday—but never jam to-day.’

‘It MUST come sometimes to “jam to-day,”‘ Alice objected.

‘No, it can’t,’ said the Queen. ‘It’s jam every OTHER day: to-day isn’t any OTHER day, you know.’