Astonishment

First, a pic of our "backyard":

then the regular musings, and finally a moment to reflect on an e-mail I received.

F1
Alonso-Schumacher apparently will take it to the end as to who will take the 2006 F1 championship. Turkey was a good race, with Alonso picking up two points more than Schumacher; he'll need those for the final 4 races. I'll be in ATL for the Italaian race with no access to the Speed Channel, and I REALLY hate to miss that - if Alonso can finsih ahead of both red cars, it will be SWEET !

Braves
Ignominious, humiliating, disgraceful ... you chose the term. The question now is: Next Year ?

BHS66
Only three days until I fly south ... once again, I am quite surprised with the intensity of my anticipation. Except for 5 or 6 of those 500-odd people, I haven't attempted to follow any others. Now, with the "news" postings on the web site, I find myself uncharacteristically wanting to see these people and discover how the past 40 years of their lives compares to mine. Is this a natural reaction ?

One item of interest within this topic: The website now has a blog, and there have only been three or four folks posting there ( myself being one). But, the other posters seem to share at least some of my feelings about the condition of the country, "Shrub's" presidency, and a question as to how my generation could have let this happen. I offered up the suggestion of reverting to the idea which the writers of the constitution had in mind at that time: Citizen representation -- that is, instead of professional politicians, true representation by the ordinary citizenry. I mean that everyone, no matter what role one plays in this society, gets "drafted" to represent their fellow citizens for a set period. No continuous office holding, no obscene campaign contributions from businesses, PACs, or individuals, just debate the issues and vote according to the majority of those you represent. There are people with much better minds than mine who could figure a way to accomplish this ... but we, the citizens of this nation have to be willing to admit that it is time to make corrections.

Then, let's tackle the executive and judicial branches. Our democracy was an experiment when first conceived; what do you do when the experiment fails? You try a different approach. I know ... I am probably incredibly naive about this, but we (THE PEOPLE) have got to stop the mindless continuation of a broken, corrupt system of government.

Apprehensive
I received an e-mail today from The Enlightened Hillbilly, letting me know there is now a link to this blog on that site. Talk about feelings of inadequacy ! That site and many, many others are soooo much more observant, conversant and well written about this society that I am thinking I should say "thanks, but have you fully thought this one out"? Maybe my brother's site The Questing Parson would be a better choice, even though it seems have more appeal to the clergy.