Fellowship results

The Nevada Arts Council met today to select the winners for this year's fellowship grants. I didn't even make it past the first cut. Oh well. My poems are rather...mmmm....odd, not tidy little narratives that are so popular these days. Four other poets from the Ash Canyon were there as well so it was fun in spite of the fact that I got the lowest score in the bunch. I did draw about 150 birds though. You may be seeing some of them here from time to time. They are friends of mine from Birdland...of course.
Ps. Happy Birthday Mark! :-)

The American Taliban

Ever wonder what the evangelicals are really up to? They are the Christian equivalent of the Muslim fundamentalists, complete with their own Jihad. Don't believe it? Read what these leaders of the Christian right have to say.

LA in spring

Here's a few more photos from our recent trip to Los Angeles. The baby bird and mother were a block off of La Cienega Blvd, a horribly busy street in LA. The rest of the photos come from either the Getty Museum, Venice beach, Santa Monica beach or near LAX.

Los Angeles...worlds within worlds

I should be tired. I am tired but I can't sleep so here's a few pics from my trip to Los Angeles. We got back this afternoon. Yes, the signature is from a photograph of van Gogh's original Irises. We saw it at the Getty. Fabulous museum. It's free. Go there. I'll post more pics later. Hope you like them.

Lift off; Minerva, Hank and other old friends

Lift off, with the goods.

We're going to Los Angeles for a few days. I should be trying to sleep. We're leaving early. I always seem to do this, stay up late before a trip and have a lot of trouble getting up in the morning. Whywhy? Oh well. No deep thoughts after 9 pm. I left Delicata and Nugget slices of avocado, orange and banana plus the usual dry food and Minerva has a new block of suet. I think she may be a raven rather than a crow. She travels alone which is typical of ravens not crows. Mr. Lee mentioned it the other day and I was only too happy to agree. I like the idea. Ravens are cool and then I get to say, "she travels alone, not in a ......... murrrrrrrrrrrrderrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" (of crows). The legend of crows murdering one another isn't even true, as the FAQ points out, but it makes a good story therefore persists. And I am always up for a bit of drama. Minerva, on the other hand, is more into stuffing her beak, although she did fight off a couple of intruder crows the other day.


A few personal deities and friends of mine.


Hank is not in this happy group shot. He's taken to sitting on the top of my monitor, smoking cigars and talking tough. Ducks are like that, especially black ducks.

Feast

Delicata loves sweet oranges.

Heaven on earth
I gave the cockroaches a slice of a sweet, juicy orange the other day. It was a treat after I cleaned their terrarium. Nugget couldn't have cared less. She shot straight back into the dark safe hut. Delicata, on the other hand, loves sweet oranges. If it's not sweet, forget it. She stayed out and feasted, in spite of the fact that it was her first day out in a long time. The two of them have been laying low in the hot hut and we've hardly seen them all winter. I guess this is a sure sign it's spring. Well, and the fact that Delicata really loves oranges.

I liked the photo even though it was blurry so I slapped a couple of filters on it. The glow in the orange reflects the way Delicata feels about oranges, as does the way she is straddling it. All in all, it "captures the mood"... ecstasy. Ever think a cockroach could feel such happiness?

Bush forced to consider reality

Review May Shift Terror Policies

The shift is meant to recognize the transformation of al Qaeda over the past three years into a far more amorphous, diffuse and difficult-to-target organization than the group that struck the United States in 2001. But critics say the policy review comes only after months of delay and lost opportunities while the administration left key counter-terrorism jobs unfilled and argued internally over how best to confront the rapid spread of the pro al Qaeda global Islamic Jihad.

I'm still not expecting any kind of sane leadership from the White House because I don't believe any of them are capable of living in reality. They are high on hubris. They really fucked up after 911 by squandering the world's good will towards us. Did they learn? No. They continue to fuck up. The result? Now to many, terrorists are folk heroes. We all know it, even if we can't/won't admit it. I don't know about you, but that really pisses me off.

We can also thank this swelling anti-Americanism on the Christian fundamentalist, right-wing extremists and their Armageddon wet-dream. Like all fundamentalists, they believe they are "above the law"; forgiveness without accountability. They believe they can steal, lie, even murder for god with no consequences because they are forgiven. It's a lie. For every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. That's a law. It doesn't merely apply to physical nature. It's true politically. It's true spiritually. Bush and Co. don't believe it so they are icons for these one-note, flag-waving, xenophobes with their hysteria, sense of entitlement, and addiction to one-dimensional solutions. Their uncritical, unwavering support of the Republicans is essential to the spread American imperialism.

As a result, our foreign policy is in shambles but karma (cause and effect), unlike "justice", truly is blind. Why wouldn't foreigners fear and/or hate us for swaggering around, waving the world's largest cache of weapons of mass destruction? We thrill at the evil empire in the movies. They see us rolling through their villages. It's so ironic. Bush, himself a military deserter during the Vietnam war, is the world's biggest bully. We can't bomb countries into the stone age and expect people to bless us for it.

To go over the short list again, Bush continues committing us and our children to more and more debt. He whipped up support for his invasion of Iraq by lying to us and continues to lie to us. He is responsible for the ongoing, needless deaths and maiming of thousands of innocent, young American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of innocent people in other countries. Ever wonder why we don't hear much about US military deaths in the news? After all, we are at war. The Bush mandated black-out on causality reports. shsssss......he prefers us to sleeeeeeeeep.....His administration is cloaked in secrecy and is doing everything possible to spy on US citizens...with no check or balance on its power. The guys in the backrooms, who stay in power as presidents come and go, like it like that. Currently, they are doing everything they can to pad the Supreme court with extremist toadies who will support their nefarious agenda's. They will continue running this game until we collectively, emphatically say NO!