Reports of Hillary's Demise Were Greatly Exaggerated...

So, I had Hillary bleeding to death from a thousand cuts from the private server, and it looks like I couldn't have been more wrong.  Yesterday Ms. Clinton endured 11 hours of testimony in front of a Congressional committee that was rehashing Benghazi.  As my good friend, J. Kingston Pierce has noted, the Republicans were hoping for a "gotcha" moment, and what they got was eleven hours of smart, composed, chief-executive.

So, when I called that Hillary was done, and that Carly Florina was the woman to watch -- might of made my move too soon.

Send In the Troops

Help.  I am trapped in the bottom of the music building at the University of Minnesota.  My loving wife is practicing with her band, which plays a concert here later tonight.  A security guard kicked me out of the concert hall and directed me to a corner of another building where there is a "student lounge".  I have been here grading papers for an hour and a group of three music students just rolled in.

No problem, I have head phones.

Then they break out their metronomes and compare favorite rhythms...

Help...Only two more hours to go.

It gets weirder.  It is 6:00 p.m. and the "student lounge" is filling up with more people.  This wouldn't be a problem, but I am older than anyone in here by more than 35 years.  I am tempted to be judgmental and ask if these people don't have better things to do on a Saturday night - but who am I to talk...

When the lizards start to walk in, I am outta here.

There are Those Moments...

This afternoon I was at school, grading papers with the Car Talk in the background.  The news that

followed Klick and Klack mentioned the the County Clerk, Kim Davis has submitted a motion to stay the recent Federal Court decision.  This is exactly the time where I always find myself physically reaching for the phone to call Dad and discuss these political oddities.  I miss that.  I need to find someone to hash these things out.

Had Dad picked up I would have expressed my disbelief that Kim Davis feels she has the right to act according to her religious beliefs.  What if my religious beliefs were that only men should vote?  Where do you draw the line when you start to discriminate between groups of people?  Where does that line end?

Visiting Erik

This past weekend Karyl and I visited Erik.  We had a great time eating out, visiting the Field Museum and helping Erik get his apartment a little more organized.  A great time...

Dinner on Friday night

Chicago as seen from the steps of the Field Museum

The top of the John Hancock Building glows
clouds...

The view to the west from our hotel room.

Finally, a wonderful mural in the Wicker Park neighborhood.

On our way to an excellent dinner at the Trencherman...

Monday, July 27

1. Driveway picture

2. Ted Cruz is being reprimanded by fellow senators for his behavior on the Senate floor.  Cruz accused Mitch McConnell of being a liar.  I certainly applaud senators for fighting to maintain civil behavior in our political institutions, and I don't mind seeing Ted Cruz getting dusted up a bit.  I also don't mind that Mitch McConnell is getting called out for being doofus.  I haven't liked the man since he came out in 2008 and said he would to everything possible to make sure newly elected President Obama would be a one term president.

3. Donald Trump is in Iowa and talking shots at Scott Walker.  I couldn't have written a better script.  Swing away my friend.

Book Review: Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick

While I was in Seattle, I stopped by the Phinney Books and bought a copy of Marcus Sedgwick's
Midwinterblood.  

Midwinderblood won the 2014 Michael Printz Award for Young Fiction.  Based on that recommendation I bought this book.  I have had lots of good luck reading other winners of the Printz Award.

The book has seven stories with the same names cropping up in each story.  There are some connections from one story to the next and some stories are more interesting than the others.  As you move from one tale to the next you travel back in time so that you are getting the backstory, or you are learning information that will be explained later.

A reoccurring theme is a flower known as the dragon flower.  Apparently different parts of this plant have different medicinal/narcotic properties that turn up to varying degrees within each story.  I haven't a clue what the flowers might symbolize.

Generally I liked the idea of seven stories that were linked, but the first story was the weakest, or most unusual, and while I was interested in the others, I am not sure I would give this a thumbs up.

On the Tex the Cat scale, I give this two paws up.

Who Are These Republicans?

Poll: Trump surges to big lead in GOP presidential race

By Dan Balz, Peyton M. Craighill

Businessman Donald Trump surged into the lead for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, with almost twice the support of his closest rival, just as he ignited a new controversy after making disparaging remarks about Sen. John McCain’s Vietnam War service, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. So apparently it is okay to make bigoted statements about Hispanics and to insult veterans who were prisoners of war.  I am trying to think of what demographic would support these type of policies. Who are these people that think these ideas make for a good president? Perhaps they are stuck in time and think in the early 1960's....The John Wayne Party..."We are white men and we don't take shit from anybody..." I don't see that as a viable world view...