THE BEAGLE SAILS AGAIN?

Here is an artist's conception of what the Beagle looked like off the Galapagos Islands. (I absolutely love the tall ships.)

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Like the pictures painted, not from memory, but from other's conceptions of what once was. And the influence(s) of their lives and those lives who had gone before them.

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Which is why I do not accept any "pictures" of the great religious leaders (or any others) whose conceptualization came after they had died and were long gone from being seen.

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And why I have trouble accepting "pictures" of various animals and homo erectus (or whatever) as looking like "so" and "so". There isn't any way we can ever really know (until we get time travel -- another pet peeve of mine) and we can say "Oh, her hair was black, his was red". "Their skin color was light brown, the others was more pink and those others were green." So please don't tell me the dinosaur was brownish with a red coxcomb over its nose. My theory doesn't accept your version.

HAPPY AMERICA DAY

Happy Birthday, U.S.A. Clicking the header doesn't bring you funny nor attractive news. Instead, it's an article letting us know that we have some serious business to see to. There's just one more thing you might not have heard about. It's at this link: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/06/11/fema.giveaway/index.html?eref=rss_topstories#cnnSTCText I need to sing or at least listen to "Over The Rainbow".

A QUICKIE FOR SOME

Before I forget, there's a link under the header.

Happy Canada Day!

THE BEAGLE STILL SAILS

Albuquerque at dusk, from the west. That river in the foreground is the Rio Grande. The mountains are called the Watermelon Mountains by we (us?) natives. They do gather a faint coloring and shape reminiscent of watermelons at different times of the day.
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Be sure to click on the header. I got a kick out of it.
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A new facet has been added to Salome's story. Remember, she's 22 years old. Yesterday morning she appeared at our door looking horrendous. Once more. The thought went through my mind that her brother, Hakim, had gotten physical again. But that was not the case. Nope. She had given blood in a blood drive and it was the first time in her life she had done so.
The crook of one of her arms was heavily bandaged and she didn't want to show me. But I also saw bandages on the backs of each of her hands and one on her other arm. So I coaxed her to take them off and when she did, I saw what I could only consider some amateurish attempt at sticking her with various needles. Apparently the damage done to the crook of her arm was a misguided attempt (the first time) to find a vein. She told us that the girl looking for the vein couldn't find one and finally called someone else to help. That nurse had no trouble locating a good vein -- in her other arm.
But that had not caused this downturn in her health. Apparently she had felt dizzy and almost fainted. So a doctor was summoned (he should be ashamed of himself if the story we were told is true) and he said he detected a heart murmur and she needed to see a specialist. Now, instead of having one the nurses there call the heart specialist and make the appointment for her, they gave her a piece of paper with instructions on what to ask for and the phone number of a doctor.
So, we read the paper (I kept my big mouth shut about the cavalier attitude of this so-called healer) and told her how to handle the call. She was told this particular doctor was not working that day and they couldn't help her until late in July when she could call for an appointment. Never mind that the first doctor had told her to tell them it needed to be done in less than a week. That was ignored. So she called the first doc's office and told them her problem and asked for help. They gave her the name and number of another medico.
They didn't offer to call for her. She has an appointment with him Monday.
Now, it seems to me that if one of my doctors told me I had to see a heart specialist immediately, he would also have had his staff make the appointment for me.
So this lack of accommodation sounds like discrimination to me. And not because Salome is a female.
Wild Thing and I  got her car back here and her daddy showed up later that day ands took her to his home where it is assumed she will be babied and cared for by her family.
Oh, yeah, she and her father have made up (which cooled off the brothers). I guess Daddy is the final say so in Arabic families practicing Islam. It is easy to see that he really does love his daughter and wants the best for her. But he is also bound by the thousands of years of the practice of their religion. The man must have a lot of pent up confusion in his life, considering the conflicts of Iraqism and Americanism (I like making up my own words) that are built into the two countries.
We are concerned that an extremely bright, 22 year old kid, has a heart murmur. I'm sure her Mom and Dad are also.
This post is an interim post to let you know what is going on. The discussion on Darwinism will continue next post (God willing and the Creek Don't Rise).

THE BEAGLE MAY BE SINKING

I meant to get this picture of a Canadian hammer up before Father's Day, but somehow I think it is still appropriate. . Don't forget to click the header. Something really different this time. . There have been many things going at the old homestead. Some of them you wouldn't want to hear about, others I want to tell you about. . Old nosy here has been been reading and trying to add two and two. It ain't as easy as you might think. Shucks, I might have gotten 6 and 7/8ths for an answer. That's a hat size? Drat. Not too many men wear hats anymore. (Nor do the ladies, bless 'em.) . First, a story about some neighbors who came to America from Iraq. Legally. Green cards and all. I haven't asked, but I believe they were refugees from Sadam's rule. The names I use are fictional. Not even close to their real names. The young lady, call her Salome, knocked on our door one evening asking for help. (I'll call this brother Hakim. See Oklahoma! for source.) I'm not used to dealing with young women wearing a scarf over their heads in our hot climate. So I needed some assistance. . Now, Wild Thing has a heart bigger than anything you have ever seen. She invited Salome in, immediately found out what the young lady was suffering from and got out various generic OTC meds, heating pad, ice pack container, blankets and various and sundry other things designed to repair the evils that afflict human's bodies. And instructions on how to use all of them. In fact, she began the treatments in our home and took the the young lady back to her apartment and did some more of her magic. Wild Thing is a Caregiver. Of majestic and thorough proportions. When she got back home, she had forgotten other things that Salome might need so went back with them. WT raised four children and somehow managed to repair and mend and fix them good enough so that they are all successful even in this crappy economy. Anyway, the next evening, there was this faint knock on the door and there was Salome with a plate of Mid East food for both of us. She told us that she was feeling much better and had made dinner for her brother and herself and had enough to share with us. WT had also located a couple of other things to help Salome weather the illness. Oh, the food? We're not sure what it was (chicken, some veggies we weren't familiar with and yellowish rice all mixed together). We didn't tell her that Wild Thing's idea of spicy food is Kentucky Fried Chicken Original. I had to sacrifice myself and eat it all (over three days) by myself alone. (The food was different, a little interesting and much too hot for my Darling.) . Over the next few days, Salome improved and regained her usual strength and well being. And she began visiting us regularly. Wild Thing had made another conquest. (People love her immediately. The same people who are afraid of me. And I'm the pussy cat.) . We listened to her tell us about how a man in Iraq had been phoning and texting her for a while and she thought she should marry him. And how her father didn't trust the man. And did not want her to marry him. Her dad thought the guy just wanted a free ride to America. They had some arguments and apparently it is not a good idea to argue with a male when one is a female in the Islamic religion. (That aside, I silently agreed with her father.) . Salome, a nubile, 22 year old, had convinced herself she was in love with this guy. Even though he claimed that sending photographs of himself was too expensive. Ding, ding, ding went the alarm bells in my head. The pics he sent on the cell phone were of such low quality they were useless in seeing what he looked like. . Meanwhile, Salome had had to subdue a prisoner brought into the hospital where she was working when the two guards failed to handcuff him to the bed and then they both left the room. The prisoner grabbed up a knife he had secreted and held her from behind with the knife near her throat. The half witted guards didn't see this. Salome, reacting, could reach behind herself and ever so firmly, grabbed and squeezed "real hard" the man's testicles. The guards heard his screams, and came back into the room in time to pick him up and put him in restraints. . Yep, she was a heroine. One of the guards (the one who worked for the prison, the other was an in house security person) took a shine to her and over a couple of weeks of effort he managed to convince her to go out to lunch with him. So this was something she was not used to. She had not dated during high school, nor after. Arabian Islam, it seems, does not permit dating. We got the story as it was happening. . In the midst of this, her Daddy ordered her not to talk to the guy in Iraq. She was full of hormones. Stuff happens. Now, to us it's an old story, to the Iraqis it is not. She kept on calling and receiving calls from the Iraqi. Apparently the brother she lived with (Hakim) had had a talk with his other brothers and his Dad and they were of a mind that she needed to be straightened out. So he beat her for defying Dad's orders. Dad stuck a knife into the wall of one of her tires. One of the other brothers said she was no longer his sister. . She was hurt both physically and mentally. She had been thinking American. Her family had been thinking Islamic. Wild Thing nursed both her mental and physical pains. I wanted to call the cops, but got to thinking that she might not be able to afford living on her own. Yes, I suggested that Salome call it in, but she did not want to. . So, what's this got to do with Darwin and his theory? That'll be the next installment. (If Lin can serialize, why not me?)

SOME INCONVENIENT TRUTHS

Would you vote for this man? For:

1. 1. Sheriff
2. 2. Medical Examiner
3. 3. Mayor
4. 4. Governor
5. 5. State Auditor
6. 6. President
7. 7. Vice President
8. 8. President of Mexico
9. 9. President of a Banana Republic
10. Or
11. 10. None of the above.

Someone needs to get hold of Barack Obama and warn him. I can guarantee a lot of lost votes should he decide to give this governator any kind of federal job.

Mr. Obama needs to exercise a lot of thought about the man who hides behind this beard. He is definitely secreting something and it only bodes good for him, not for those around him. He is selfish, concentrates on "what's in it for me" kind of thinking and can do no good either for the Democrats nor the United States.

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The racism card has already been played once by the campaign. Playing it again, this time with those of Mexican descent could lead to a disaster. Understanding the pitfalls inherent in going into that arena should be prime to Obama's campaign. One can hope his advisers warn him properly of the nasty potential.

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What brought this on? Well, our daily mistake, er, TV news channel, informs us that what was going to be an open meeting town hall style that would be held tomorrow with veterans and their families, will now be by invitation only. Barrack's elitism seems to be showing, the governator's cowardice is evident and the people are the losers.

Barrack's wife, Michelle, will hold two fundraisers for her hubby. Both of them will be closed to the public.

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I'm not interested in giving up our country to those who only want to put gains in their pockets from its richness and promise.

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There's something from a publication called "Pajama News" (or some such name) that I found to be a reasoned article (for the most part), under the header. Click it if you're interested.