All you need is love (2/7/2026)

What a world we live in. A goon squat patrols the streets, murdering unarmed US citizens; what a dystopian world we live in. It looks like that they want to prevent folks from protesting and showing their empathy. In this country where weapons are ubiquitous, it is open season on folks like you when you show empathy for your fellow human beings. Let’s not talk about what they try to do to you if you are against what the current administration is doing and you carry a weapon. It is dangerous what is going on; it really tastes like what Hitler did in Europe. Anything to distract from the Epstein case; we don’t want to know what our current Hitler wannabe (tRump) did with underaged girls. It is very distressing to me.

Initially, I wanted to write a post that detailed the retreat that I attended last week in the mountains on the border of Idaho and Montana. We discussed the settlement of the western part of this country that the USA obtained as part of the Louisiana purchase. I left Missoula for home on a high, much like the retreat last year. We were with eighteen folks and had the best time, intellectually and just in friendship. I knew at least eight of the attendants either from last time or meetings we have on Zoom. It was so familiar and there was an atmosphere of pure love and respect for each other. I liked the discourse and the deep thinking we all did. We all respected each other even when there were disagreements. It almost felt like a meeting at the forum at our Unitarian Universalist Church. This is how our country could and should function.

While Jefferson was highly educated, well cultured, a great writer, scientist, and a wonderful tinkerer and inventor, he absolutely had some non-admirable qualities. Were these a reflection of the times he lived in? For example, in the Declaration on Independence wrote in it that “All men are created equal,” he was a slave holder and considered the Native Americans savages. I do not think tRump believes that all men (human beings) are equal; in his eyes you have the humans (rich, multi-millionaire) and the savages (middle class and poor). He called Somalis savages. I believe he considers many non-citizens barbarians. The emperor has no clothes, that’s for sure.

How the hell do we solve this problem? I have learned one thing over the years: whether you live in the USA, Singapore, Hong Kong, Brazil (the four top countries where my readers come from) or anywhere else in the world, Your Vote Matters! Secondly, I stand on the side of love. As the title says, love is all you need! What the current regime is doing is broadcasting hate. The only way we can conquer hate is with love. Yes, love includes demonstrating for what you believe: our love for our fellow human beings. All of course, by the right have cost the lives of Heather Heyer (Charlottesville), Renee Good or Alex Pretti, and of course all those people who died in the custody of those goons. It needs to stop, this is insanity. All we need is love!

Photo of the day.  It has been crazy weather here in Virginia.  Global warming is showing its cards.
These crazy love birds met each other 50 year ago this past January.  Yes, we have had fights, arguments and alike, but are still able to solve our differences.  Having gone through so much together in our past, nobody would be able to understand our psyche anyway. 

Murder she wrote (10/31/2024)

The other day, my wife had a phone call from a good friend telling her that someone they knew was killed in a murder/suicide. No indication was given who did who, but it was a married couple and after the fact it came out that she frequently berated him. The guy brought calendars to her office and seemed to talk incessantly with the staff. You could not shut him up. I can just imagine that dynamic at home.

Regardless who might be the victim or the perpetrator, it brought some distant memories back to me. A little more than five years ago now, were we informed of a mass shooting in Virginia Beach. The killer turned out to be an old colleague of mine. We had somehow stayed in touch when we both left our employer in 2004. Moreover, during my stormwater training career, he attended my classes and so did the folks that he killed. At the time it affected me a lot.

The call to my wife and the awakened memories made me more contemplative for a while and I started wondering how many folks actually know a murderer or someone who was murdered. Now my wife and I both know such a person, or one (or more) of each. I absolutely do not live in a hole in the ground, and as I described here, I have had my run-in with death or killings before, but that was when we lived in Uganda more than 40 years ago. However, that does not make any killing or murder less bad; neither makes it me more callous.

In thinking about these things, I had an additional thought that disturbed me: how many white folks know a murderer or someone who was murdered vs. African American folks. I have not done any research on this subject; however, I want to bet that black folks probably on average have disproportionally more killers and deaths by murder in their lives. I am absolutely not saying that African Americans are inherently more violent. No! There are some very clear reasons for this. Let’s call it out the way it is.

Our society is a tale of two economies; it is still racist at its core and that shows up everywhere in society. Words like economic justice, environmental justice and even, and this is my word, educational justice or disparity, aptly describe some of the causes for what is going on here. African American folks get concentrated in certain areas, they have less job opportunities and if they get them, they are lower paying because of the sub-par education they have gotten. Areas with large concentration of African Americans have fewer trees, and research has shown that the average temperatures in these areas are a few degrees warmer, which causes more heat emergencies in summer. It also seems that heavy industry or polluting industry is located or is planned for areas with larger minority populations. I once read somewhere that it is much easier to commit some crime if your outlook for the future is dismal. What is there to hope or plan for? It seems that minorities are for more often put in situations with little hope. When on top of all that you stick a lot of people in one place, violence will increase as well.

I heard that a lot of black mothers worry about their kids when they go out. Whether it is gang related or the white police showing their lingering racial bias or manliness. Although this is somewhat changing with all the recent school shootings. This results in more homeschooling for white kids and that changes the makeup of the schools and the lowers the education level. A vicious circle.

So, what am I trying to say here is my short post? Killing, murder or even suicide is deplorable. This is regardless of race, mental conditions, income, you name it. Violence is still being encouraged in certain political circles, and so is racism. It is not surprising that these circles intersect or even that both exist in same circle, racism and the encouragement for violent acts. We saw that on January 6 almost 4 years ago, during demonstrations in Charlottesville, call to mobilize the Army to take care of the “enemy from within,” and I can go on. Folks, we need to do something about this. We need to vote, reject violence and foster racial equity.

On first look, this picture has nothing to do with this post; however, I am seeing at least 4 different tree species here, which are equally affected by the change of seasons.  This shows that nature treats all the same, unlike what we do as human beings. 

A Bud Light please (5/8/2023)

A Bud Light please! I never imagined that I would be saying those words. However, I may actually do that, the next time I order a beer in a restaurant. I even bought a case the other day. It actually looks like water, and it tastes like bad water. The reason why I bought a case of it? Let me explain.

My wife is an inspector for the health department and as part of her job she needs to inspect marinas in the area. As you know I am (or used to be) a sailor, and no she is not allowed to inspect the marina our boat is at. That would be a conflict of interest. We are both retiring on the same day, so she has been tasked to finish all her marinas and swimming pools before we both close the employment door behind us and start the proverbial next chapter of our lives (that is what people call it euphemistically; I call it “getting really old and decrepit”).

Back to the story. Here I get a phone call from an (my) upset wife. She had just finished inspecting one marina in the same creek our boat is in. She mentioned that the marina looked like crap, not well maintained, dirty, you know it. The owner complained that he has not been making a lot (enough) money, and on top of that, no one wants to buy the Bud Light that he stocked up on for his marina store clientele. It seems that he has sunk quite a large investment in this particular beer and this appears to be drinking up his profit.

Now back up. What exactly happened? A few months ago, Bud Light hired an adverting person, or an influencer, or maybe there was an influencer (whatever) whose face appeared on a can of Bud Light. Whether this was real, for fun, meant as advertisement, or photo shopped, who cares. However, this influencer, Dylan Mulvaney, is transgender. This resulted in an uproar in the conservative groups and MAGA folks. They decided to boycott Bud Lights. Hence the slumping sales at the marina which caters to the more conservative levels of society in our county. If you don’t take care of the marina and don’t do maintenance, you cannot expect millionaire boats, classy people and therefore would expect Bud Light drinkers.

Somehow, ever since tRump, the Republican party and conservative movement seem to attract two polar opposites: the super-rich and the people they take advantage off, the lower middleclass and the poor. This is still a conundrum to me, because it is the rich who get richer over the back of these guys. The working class has not caught on that they are being taken advantage off, and I think they never will. They don’t understand that tax cuts for the wealthy don’t work, these folks can buy everything their hearts desire already, while they get shafted. It is the lower middle class and the poor who need higher wages, health insurance and alike. However, the rich have them in their spell and are able to bamboozle them in thinking more conservatively from a financial and social standpoint.

The marina owner in question was telling my wife that his misfortunes were all the fault of this transgender influencer who according to him was the scum of the earth. My wife told him to tone it down, and the guy blew his top telling her that all trans folks were immoral and should die. At this point she moved away from the situation since we state employees should not get in a fight with our clients. Moreover, nowadays you can no longer predict what conservative racists will do when they get angry. They seem to be itching to pull out their AR-15 and start a massacre.

So now you know why I have started a new habit of ordering a Bud Light in restaurants. I do this in support of and solidarity with the trans community, the restaurant owners, and use it as a social statement in public.

Celebrating Cinco de Mayo at home having a Bud Light!

Symbols, symbols everywhere (8/9/2019) (somewhat r-rated)

In the natural world there are only a few species that fight each other to death or what we could call intraspecific killing (that is the same species killing each other usually for food or territory).  Different species kill each other regularly for food or other reasons (that is called interspecific killing). However, within the same species we have crimes of passion as we see in spiders, where in some of the species the female will devour the male, but at least when that happens, the male has accomplished something: the male is either still actively breeding or he has just spread his DNA in the form of sperm and eventually offspring when he (the daddy) is being eaten by his wife. As a friend of mine called it, an existentialist's dream, going out in flames, sometimes mid-ejaculation. 

The Australian Red Back Spider, is known for eating it's mate.  The males have two copulating organs and once the second one is inserted into the female he is in a convenient position for the female to start chewing on him and devouring him while he is ejaculating.

This reminds me of the story another friend of mine told about the time he served in the coroner's office of a major city. A city council member had died of a heart attack while having sex with his mistress. What a way to go! His mistress was testifying in court and crying, telling the judge: "Here I thought he was coming … <sob> … but … <sob> … actually, your honor … <sob> … he was going … <sob>." The city council guy went out in flames! But, can you imagine being the dead man's wife in the front row of that courtroom?

Wow, the symbolism behind these stories! It was probably not the existentialist’s dream, definitely not for the mistress or wife. For him, I don’t know, kicking the bucket this way; maybe it was?

These deaths are very different than those that resulted from the mass killings that we are seeing lately. This past weekend we had two intraspecific mass killings: one in El Paso, a city I used to frequent and love, and the other in Dayton, another city I visited quite often. Both killings were pure evil, no existential dreaming here, unless you are thinking about a nightmare. As of this writing, the El Paso massacre is the result of the racist hate speech being spread by the current occupant of the oval office and the refusal of his party to call him out on it.

We currently live in a time where symbolism is being used and abused by some folks like others use underwear, or at least I do. I change mine at least daily, and some throw symbols around like there is no end to it. What I am referring to are a lot of our politicians. I am so tired of all this political posturing in our country. We have gone through almost three years, where we have a president who is trying to undo everything that the previous president did. That is also all about symbols isn’t it? Just trying to make sure there is nothing of a legacy left; destroying everything, a scorched earth program. It is not going to work, people are smarter than that, so be it.

The first two years of the regime there was nothing the opposition party could do, and now there still is a Senate that can stonewall things. Now, this past nine months, the House can try to pass things, which they do, but it does not even hit the press or get published because the Senate (or let’s use our own symbols: Moscow Mitch) just ignores it. So it has gotten down to the only thing the House seem to be able to get noticed by is by doing its oversight and investigations; somewhat symbolic, as well.

However, for Republicans it seems to be all about symbolism:

• They are against abortion and protect the unborn child (the one you can't easily see and touch), but once the child is born, they don't want anything to do with it, to hell with the kid, ignore it, no health care, education or other protection for the child. Hey, we even endorse separating them from their parents and locking them up in cages.
• On morality, they were incensed when Clinton got his oral job from an intern, but now it is 18 or more and counting with their leader, we can even talk publicly about grabbing them by the genitals or rape them in a dressing room and they don't care.
• They were allowed to criticize the president and the country under Obama, but when the opposition does it, they call them non-patriotic, haul racial slurs at them and we need to “send them back” to their country.
• They call themselves “the Party of Lincoln;” however, they dogwistle to their white male voters and white supremacists at every turn and do not object or even say anything when the current occupant of the oval office makes either racist statements or obviously support racists or racist causes. Please, don’t even think that this isn’t the cause of, or catalyst for the El Paso shooting.
• They allow their leader to call countries “shit holes” and now we are in to calling our local cities rat infested and places no one wants to live. This is again used as a racial slur and to attack minority congressmen.
• They are pro-constitution when it comes to the second amendment, but freedom of expression or the press; the first amendment? It seems they have serious doubts about that. If you don’t agree with you, then you are the fake media. And, let’s forget the voting rights act.
• The deficit was purely self interest anyway and future generations were also just symbolism. Remember, they used to worry about the deficit but that has also gone out the window with the current occupant of the White-house.
• Finally, they seem to worry about their children and grandchildren but then don't pay any attention to climate change, a.k.a. global warming.

I will stop here, but as you can see they are so darn good at using symbolism when it is or was working in their advantage, and as long as the do not have to do anything for the regular folks. They are just looking out for their own self interest, the rich, their interest group. It just blows me away.

Our politics and politicians are for sale to the highest bidders.
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

Where will this end, I have no idea. One thing is for sure, we need to fight more, for a livable country and then a livable world. I am an old, angry, white guy, but for a good cause. I am a liberal, I am against the racism that is rearing its ugly head. I am not a socialist or a communist, but I do believe in a fair distribution of wealth. I have written about a lot of these issues in my blogs: for the environment and against a lot of what is going on in this country. I will continue to do so.

So be it.

Here we go again, but now too close for comfort (6/3/2019)

Well, it happened again, another mass shooting. I have written about a few of them in the past, <here> and <here>. However, this time, it hit much closer to home. 

The killing did not only occur in the city of Virginia Beach, a town approximately 30 to 40 miles from where I live.  I used to work in that city and interact with the folks in the department in which it happened. If that is not bad enough, after working there I moved to the state and six (6) of the persons that were killed were taught by me, or at least attended workshops that I presented. When I saw their faces in photographs in the newspaper, I recognized them instantly. Then came their names and stories. 

Do you want to know what drove me completely crazy? The killer and I were colleagues at the same company 17 to 15 years ago. He contacted me in 2013 to provide two workshops for his city department, which I gladly did. In other words, it really hit much closer to home than some of the other killings in the past. I remember so well, it rained cats and dogs on one of those days that I did one of those workshops. 

Here I feel selfish for being distraught about what happened in Virginia Beach. I should not be demanding the attention. Those poor 12 victims, the wounded and their families should be getting it! I simply cannot help it, but it is different when it hits so close to home. I am numb, angry, depressed, sad and more. I mourn the event, but I am sure I’ll get over it. It has been a crazy May 2019. This month, two friends died way before their time and another 56-year-old friend was diagnosed with stage 4 inoperable colon cancer that had spread throughout her body. That was before May 31, 2019 a date that will be etched in history. 

I think that we can be angry when things like this happen in Las Vegas, Florida, California, Vermont or elsewhere. We can yell, scream for gun control in many of those cases as I have done in my blogs. However, it seems to me that this is not a case where we automatically need to yell “gun control.” While we do not have a complete reason for the current killing, I have my speculations, which I’ll keep private (absolutely none of them justify the killing and are probably all wrong).

The only thing I will try to tell every one of you who read this short blog post: 

1. Nothing, absolutely nothing is worth killing anyone over and getting yourself killed over,
2. If you have psychological issues, GET HELP! Again, it is not worth being killed over or going to jail for, and 
3. Getting killed or suicide is not even a solution; you are hurting the people you leave behind (my father and a close friend killed themselves, so I speak from experience) 

In the end, lets just be tolerant of and nice to each other.  Live and let live folks, that should be our mantra.

Forgiveness anyone? (11/10/2018)

Having to drive for four hours in the afternoon you eventually hit that spot when the news on NPR starts repeating itself. I forgot to download a podcast, so there was nothing better to do than to hit the browse button on the car radio. Not being interested in sport, and music putting you to sleep, I end up listening to talk radio stations as I mention before in this blog. At time I hit an AM Religious Station that are so plentiful of in the western part of our state. I often linger at these stations and as a Unitarian Universalist, but somehow raised in a religious community by non-religious parents, I love to listen to what dogma they are spouting this time. This is mostly for entertainment purposes and partially for education. However, this time, the discussion got my interest. The part about God lost my interest; but thank God that came at the end. 

The talk was about forgiveness. There were no Bible parables or whatever, but just a fairly good and frank discussion. I am not sure if I remember all of it, but it came down to the concept that we need to be able to forgive for society to function at its best. Even better, on a personal level, that forgiveness is good for your own mental and even physical health.

Clinical research seems to support that forgiveness is good for your mental and physical health. It seems that forgiveness is good for your coronary (hearth or vascular) health, the immune system and overall stress. Amazing isn’t it?

This discussion on forgiveness hit home on so many levels. After the past weeks where we have been through a mid-term election; all the racially charged crap about caravans that were ready to invade us, but all the sudden evaporated after the elections; a bomber being arrested; a number of murderous shooters: one of two African Americans in Louisville, regretfully somewhat ignored, the killing at the synagogue in Pittsburgh, and most recently at a western bar in California. We desperately need a lot of empathy and maybe even some forgiveness. Empathy for the victims and their family. Forgiveness of some of those anti-Semites and gun tooters who saw the national reaction after what happened and saw light. Forgiveness for those who gave lip service to the demagogue leader of our country who told us after what happened in Charlottesville that neo-Nazi anit-Semites were nice people too, or maybe that some of the people who opposed the Nazis were evil. Forgiveness for others who have hate in their hearts and now understand that this is going to threaten humanity as we know it.

The radio program hit me on a personal level, as well. The inability to forgive seems to be a genetic affliction that plagues my family; both on my mother’s and my father’s side. It goes back for generations and it is not only in my direct family and siblings, but it also plagues the brothers of my father and my mother and their direct family. It is absolutely amazing. On a personal level, I have tried to make my siblings aware of this fact and proposed to them to bury the ax; I made my overtures, but to no avail (an interesting side note, none of the siblings talk with each other). I have told them we are repeating the mistakes of our parents (but then, history repeats itself); that we have a chance to break with family “tradition.” I have been laughed at, ridiculed, belittled, gotten angry responses, and been blamed. It was affecting my physical and mental health, and my marriage. So, I have decided that they don’t exist any longer; I no longer have siblings in my mind. It does not mean that I have not forgiven them in my heart, but as I’ll explain later forgiving does not mean forgetting or reconciling. I am not saying that the relation can never be “born again,” but it for right now it would need to come from them; I am done from my side.

So yes, as you can see, the talk got me thinking. What exactly is forgiveness? Doing some research, I found that it is very easy to confuse forgiveness with terms or words like: condoning, excusing, forgetting, pardoning, and reconciling. Forgiving is when you let go of the negative emotion, feelings or attitude, including vengefulness, combined with your ability to wish your offender well, regardless the offense or the emotions it brings up in you. The person that was offended might be justifiably offended but he or she has evolved and grown past it. So, forgiving does not mean reconciling and being friends again, it just means no longer being bothered by what ever happened and going on in life. As the saying in my mother language says: “you are trying not make your heart a killing zone (or a murder pit).”

Being close to a Buddhist, I looked in to what they said about forgiveness or the lack of it. In Buddhism the lack of forgiveness causes havoc in one’s mental well-being. Feelings of ill-will seem to have lasting effect on one’s karma. It seems that resentment and hatred or the lack of forgiveness forces us to be reborn around this issue of pain and we will never be able to move on in generations (lives) to come. Doesn’t that sound familiar, history repeating itself? At least in both branches of my family it does.

Try to forgive in your life and see the end of the trail of hate, resentment and vengefulness.  It is bad for your health and general well-being!  

It is just interesting to see how a religious program on an AM radio station got me thinking and my relationship with my siblings; the relationship of my parents with their siblings; my uncles with each other and with my parent; and my cousins with their siblings (from different branches of the family and different uncles). I have forgiven them all, but again, reconciliation is a different thing. However, at least I am trying my best to maintain a relationship with my cousins, nephews and nieces, regardless of what my brother and sister think or say about me; and that is heartfelt. Hopefully we can do that as a society as well, stay civil and talk, regardless what and who we are as a society, what our political or social believes are, and how desperately our political leaders are trying to divide us.

It better end soon my friends (2/20/2018)

Can't stand it no more

The people dying

Crying for help for so many years

But nobody hears

Better end soon my friend

It better end soon my friend

This is the first part of a song by Chicago (Transit Authority ... as they called themselves initially) self titled first album.  The song is titled "It better end soon my friends."  This is what came to mind after the latest high school shooting in southern Florida.  No shit, it better end soon, all those mass shootings!  

The song was a protest song against the Vietnam War and the police and national guard  actions against protest demonstrations, but boy does the text of this first verse hit home.  I really liked this tune when I grew up.  Not only because I was a pacifist and anti war, but just the composition.  It was one of those long tunes they did not play on the radio.  Being a Dutchman, I initially did not listen to the words, accept maybe the first verse.  Whatever, it is still appropriate to today's situation (except with the war reference may need to be replaced by the word guns or mass murders or school shootings).

Can't take it no more

The people hating

Hurting their brothers

They don't understand

They can't understand

Better end soon my friend

It better end soon

That verse could easily talk about those nuts hunting down their fellow man in mass shooting and about the unwillingness of people on both sides of the gun control dispute to talk with each other.  Folk, we need to do something about guns, especially about these assault weapons like the AR-15.  They are not used for hunting; they are only to kill your fellow human beings, to rip off pieces of human flesh.  The argument that we need to arm teachers does not hold; can you imagine a shoot-out between a teacher holding a 9 mm handgun and a killer with an assault weapon with panicking students in between?  Especially a teacher who is not trained?  This is SWAT team work, guys.  

We need to stand up, fight the NRA and get some sane gun control passed.  The tune ends like this:

No more dying!

No more killing

No more dying

No more fighting

We don't want to die

No, we don't want to die

Please let's change it all

Please let's make it all

Good for the present

And better for the future

Let's just love one another

Let's show peace for each other

We can make it happen

Let's just make it happen

We can change this world

Please let's change this world

Please let's make it happen for our children

For our women

Change the world

Please make it happen

Come on

Come on

Please

Come on

It's up to me

It's up to you

So let's do it now

Yeah

Do it now

Yes, maybe there are war reference in the tune that do not fit into the gun argument here, but I understand that some of the gun enthusiasts see this as a war against them, which it isn't.  Suffice it to say, this is still a great tune almost 50 years old and still relevant.  There is a lot in there that still applies to today.  Folks let's do something about it and save our children.  It better end soon my friends!

p.s. I'll get back and take you into the woods behind our home soon, I promise, as long as there is no other disaster or issue that I feel the need to write about.

On Islamophobia (11/3/2017)

So here I was planning to write my next blog post about spiders and the fear of spiders; however, you all will need to wait.  I feel the need to write about the need for another fear, Islamophobia.

I was teaching one of my workshops in Northern Virginia, this week.  It was two days after this 29-year-old nut from Uzbekistan drove a Home Depot truck over a bike path in New York City, killing eight and wounding more than a dozen.  My workshop is for inspectors that go on construction sites to make sure that the contractors follow the federal and state environmental laws and regulations; and local codes and ordinances.  I teach my students a module on situational awareness, as part of the class.  This ranges from a tripping hazards to aggressive people.

Northern Virginia is very diverse.  During breaks in my workshop I had a fun talk with a lady from Iran who works from one of the counties in the region, and with two guys from Nepal who had heard that I had lived and worked in Nepal and wanted to know more about me and my stay there.  My classes up there are always a fun multicultural mish-mash of people as opposed to other regions in Virginia where it is ethnically pretty boring.

My class had ended and I was approached by a middle-aged (50-ish) Arabic looking gentleman who wanted to ask me a question.  He spoke very softly and I had to ask him three times to repeat himself.  The first two times I understood that it had something to do about his arm.  Finally, the fourth time it came out: “are weapons allowed on a building site.”  So it was not about his arm but about the other definition of arms or weapons.

My “friend” had a building site that he was inspecting where the contractor was openly carrying a gun (yes we in Virginia have an open and a concealed carrying law).  The contractor would of course need to accompany the inspector on his round showing his gun and also inspect the most remote corners of the project.  You get my drift, the inspector felt very intimidated.  Being a Muslim, looking and sounding obviously Arabic, even in when dressed in western clothing, just having had the killing in New York, and having a Fox News and other conservative media whipping up the masses against Muslims and immigration (and people who carry can be assumed to be conservative), he was scared.  My heart broke!

Regular readers of my blog may know I worked in international development.  I took this picture during a wedding in a village in Yemen to which we were invited when I worked there in the mid 1980s.  Just before the ceremony the men went out to the border of the village to do a shooting competition/target practice.  It is all friendly, but everyone there was armed to the teeth (even during a friendly wedding).  To tell you the truth no one from the Arab world should be afraid of weapons, that makes this case I write about so remarkable.

When we arrived at the weeding we were welcomed by this sight.  We had an absolutely great time that day.  We were made welcome and there was no discrimination.

I had a long talk with him, gave him some solutions, and hopefully set him at ease, but obviously it kept bugging and eating at me.  I am just amazed that some of us still have to live in fear because of our ethnicity.  I realize that this is why we have the black lives matter movement and we still need to worry about civil rights.  There are still fringe groups in society that think they are better than others and they are the reason why we had gatherings like in Charlottesville that even the guy in our Whitehouse does not dare to condemn.  I see that today’s people in power are trying to erode our civil rights and try to silence us with terms like “fake news.”  Don’t let them do it, a lot of the news is real, my inspector friend made me realize that again this week.

Just a miscellaneous picture of a Yemeni village (town) somewhare in the desert.  My heart breaks again thinking about the civil war they have gone through in the past years.

Not again ... Oh Las Vegas (10/2/2017)

Well, it happened again.  Another mass shooting.  What the fuck!
It is a horrible thing that happened, a thing that should never have happened.  I am absolutely devastated.

At least the gunman was not Muslim, nor some other minority; it seems to be a lone wolf.  Maybe an angry white guy (64 year old), who knows?  Not that this make it any better, nor that this is a thing to celebrate.  Actually, for me being a white guy of 64, it makes me feel horrible.  I know I am writing this way too early to come to real conclusions but I need to get this off my mind.

While I am glued to the TV trying to find out more about the crap that went on in Las Vegas, these two guys have not worry in the world.  They were fed and walked.  Daddy is home with a migraine and the news does not help.

It is amazing to watch TV and watch what went on and how everyone analyze it.  I just hear the automatic gun fire and wonder how people get these guns.  Honestly, you do not need them to hunt but you can use it to mow down people like I mow my lawn, but then he did it from a high-rise motel room.  

Readers of my blogs know that while I am not a hunter, I am pro hunting.  I am a naturalist/ecologist who believes like my hero Aldo Leopold that because of the extirpation of the natural predators we need to hunt deer, but we do not need automatic rifles to hunt for deer.  We use those to kill people as we saw last night!

Tappahannock (9/25/2014)

Today I traveled to Tappahannock to teach a class on stormwater.  I had a good time, but being the only teacher, I am exhausted.  In essence I had a good response form my students.  Interestingly, I was teaching in a church that was taken over by the county and it was interesting "preaching" stormwater.

Went out to lunch with some colleagues at Lowery's; and after not eating there for a long time, I found them average, but kind of expensive.  But it was good.  After class I drove around town and took this picture.  Tappahannock is known for its seafood, being on the water.  I think it is also famous for being the home of Chris Brown, the rap singer.  I kind of feel ashamed mentioning him as one thing this town is known for, since he is also known for spousal abuse, a thing all too common lately, as reported about in the NFL.  I just can't fathom that, and find it despicable.  A review of various websites doesn't tell me much about that town, Captain John Smith appeared to have landed in the area but was driven off by the native indians, for the rest not much.  I know Tappahannock a a place with very cheap gas, and it did not disappoint me again.  Gas was cheapest there on this short trip.

Anyway I was debating intersection with or without school bus, so here is the one with.  It gives a better contrast on a rainy, gloomy day.

Stress free in Northern Virginia (5/27/2014)

This week I am in northern Virginia or what they call NOVA.  The trip up north was interesting as always.  The roads were crowded, and of course there was an accident on I-95.  So here I was sitting in a backup thinking about the radio show I heard this morning.  In an interview with Dr. Amit Sood about living without stress he spoke about being in a traffic jam and thinking of people you are thankful of, for being in your life.  I really think that would help a lot; why even bother yourself with people who are potentially toxic to you?  At work you already have to deal with people you cannot choose, so in your private life, concentrate on those people who contribute to your well being; be thankful for them and concentrate on what it is about them that makes you happy.  Quit obsessing about those people that bother you.  Life is too short! 

Well, in the traffic jam I was able to take this (horrible) picture by sticking my phone out of the window and shoot this image of the traffic jam, so symbolic of all the crap and toxicity that can jam up a person's mind.  To me this was particularly important, after a weekend of murders, such as the guy in Santa Barbara, California who had his mind poisoned by his inability to attract women.  As a father of a daughter and a husband I am very disturbed about the increased violence against women, but also of any other hate crime.