7.2

This afternoon we got a significant wave from the 7.2 earthquake that hit Baja, it was the strongest shaking I have felt in 13 years in California. I was at the computer and became aware of the desk lamp shaking and some noise from the living room. The shaking kept getting stronger and as it went on for 20 seconds or so I got up to go outside to protect myself from anything that might fall. That's when it stopped.
I felt a little dizzy and sickly for a while but that soon went away.

You talk about a shot across the bow! An Easter Sunday earthquake that has your entire house shaking will get you down to basics very quickly.
What did we do? We ate take-out chicken and turned on the Yankees-Red Sox game.

. . . Now about the pope and the cover-up artists at the Vatican . . . aren't they having their own earthquake these days? The house the high clergy has built will keep on quaking until all the termites and wood-rot are
removed, and this cleaning must not take too long. No doubt many Catholics are feeling dizzy and sickly and are thinking about leaving, but the sooner they make profound and lasting change happen in that house the sooner the illness will go away.

After-shocks continued all afternoon; there was at least one death and many were hurt, but all agreed that it could have been worse. Were we saved?

Victory

Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Rahm Emanuel, and the rest of the Democratic leadership have done the thing they promised to do--pass a major health care reform bill. When the president signs it into law this measure will stand beside Social Security (1935) and Medicare (1965) as pillars in the more stable house the Democratic Party has long been building for the American people. They never lost focus; Ted Kennedy died in the middle of the fight, and, briefly, even Barack Obama's most dedicated supporters wondered if he could pull the the thing off.

March 21, 2010 is a new birth of power for the Obama presidency. He has traction now that will only become deeper and stronger in coming years; like JFK, he is a president who only needs to learn his lessons once.

Peter Graves

I'm sorry to see that Peter Graves has died. He was an actor I enjoyed for most of my life, beginning in 1950's TV when he did a Saturday morning show about a horse called Fury. As a kid sitting on the living room floor, I thought the show was excellent. Later I learned that he was from my own city--Minneapolis, and had graduated from Washburn High School, where some of my best friends, and two brothers, went. What's not to like about this guy? Just a couple of months ago Peter Graves guest-hosted an hour on the Sinatra station on satellite radio and played his favorite Frank songs. And, of course, his reverse-mortgage commercials are still running on cable.

To all Minneapolitans--and especially Washburn grads--who came to California and did well, a belated St. Patrick's Day toast! Minneapolis Go Bragh!

Dredge Report

During the Lewinsky scandal Bill Clinton called Drudge's mud puddle on the internet the "Dredge Report." Fresh reason for that appeared today. President Obama had a physical exam on Sunday--he is in fine health and was given the usual cautions by his doctor. Dredge chose to highlight the standard advice of moderate drinking by posting a picture of Obama holding a glass of beer with a caption along the lines of, "Doctor tells Obama to moderate his drinking." The Republican slime machine never misses a chance to score a low blow do they? Limbaugh, Beck, Drudge, Palin, the party's supply of Know-Nothings seems to be inexhaustible.

My advice to moderates who my be sick to death of Republican bile and Democratic befuddlement is to listen to music throughout this new month of March, it will heal your minds and souls. This should come to a head on the 17th, St. Patrick's Day. Listen to the Chieftains, the Clancy Brothers, and all the great old songs; have a wee bit of the gargle and propose a toast to moderation in all things.

On-side Kick

I would like to see President Obama do the political equivalent of what the New Orleans Saints did yesterday as they began the second half of the Super Bowl--surprise the hell out of everybody, break all convention, and do an on-side kick, score a touchdown, and then make a two-point conversion. That little package told the Colts that there was a new game in town. They were playing a team ready to do things that hadn't been practiced against; the Saints weren't just winning a game, they were showing a new way to play.

Barack Obama lets it be known that he watches the Super Bowl and he is smart enough to have instantly gotten this on Sunday night--great politicians see analogies everywhere. Look for his on-side kick any time now.

A Quick Thought

I have just finished watching Inglourious Basterds and at the moment can only say that this is Tarantino's world and the rest of us just live in it.
And see his movies. Capra, Coppola, Scorsese, Tarantino. I get the picture.

J. D. Salinger, RIP

The more I read about J.D. Salinger since his death the more I like him. According to yesterday's New York Times, he was a regular townsman in Cornish, New Hampshire who loved the monthly church suppers, was in local stores daily, had lunch at the local cafe, and drove his Toyota land cruiser to the neighboring town of Windsor, Vermont. (Speaking of his travel, the LA Times last week published a picture of a beaming Salinger talking to a young woman at a theater in South Florida in the early 1980's--some hermit!) From the NY Times story I gather that he was a good and friendly neighbor, not the kooky recluse demanding fans and journalists made him out to be.

Now he is gone at age 91, and it seems he has prevailed in his great joust with the gods of celebrity, photo ops, and television. Almost none of his writing contemporaries were so fortunate--most became, to some degree, public property--that part of your yard that really is owned by the city but that you are required to tend. Good for J. D. Salinger! He beat the whole corrupt flying circus and lived his long life in his own house at his own pace.