My wife, Lita, and I leave Monday on a two week trip. We fly first to San Francisco and after spending the night take a late flight to Hong Kong. After a couple of days there, we fly to Bangkok, Thailand for a night. Then to Phuket to hopefully get some sun on the beach. All of this because I bid for the trip at a charity auction when, after a few drinks, it seemed like a great idea. Neither…
St Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke asserted in a recent article that priests and lay deacons who distribute communion "to the unworthy" are guilty of a "mortal sin." He specifically identifies the unworthy as politicians who support abortion rights. He says this also applies to any Catholic who publically supports abortion rights as well. The National Catholic Reporter says Bishop Burke is a "a veteran of clashes between Catholic Bishops and politicians" having tried for years to convince his fellow bishops…
I must start with the admission that math and I never got along in school However, as I experienced life I realized how unavoidable and important it is and my inadequate knowledge about fundamentals. This explains why I was interested in reading in a book about astrophysics a discussion of Pi as new knowledge for me. As every school child knows, but which had escaped me, it represents the 16th letter of the Greek alphabet. As you all know, It…
All of us know about the Nobel Peace Prize, but not all of us know why the prize exists. It’s a story I’ve always found fascinating. Alfred Nobel was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1833. His father, Immanuel Nobel, was an engineer who had invented modern plywood. He moved the family to St. Petersburg to make a new start with a company making torpedo’s after a bankruptcy in Sweden. Later, when the factory was left to Alfred’s brother, Alfred returned…
In May of 2004, the late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist created a panel to review how judicial misconduct complaints were being handled and added this comment: to "see if there are any real problems to have a committee look into." The committee was to report directly to the Chief Justice. The committee operates within the Judicial Conference of the United States which is the federal judiciary’s policy making body. It has been reviewing proposals to change the present secretive…
Alexander Walker has written a biography about Rex Harrison, Fatal Charm. Several passages are worth noting. One was a reference to Harrison’s ability to use a pause for dramatic effect. A fellow actor noted "a very difficult thing to pause effectively." In fact, when engaged in public talking, coversations or trial a pause is very hard because silence is intimidating. Timing is so crucial an ability to acquire as it requires self discipline and an awareness of the moment. Trial…
Poetry has the power to move us in a special way. There is so much wonderful poetry to choose from. Here are a few excerpts I like: Lewis Carroll’s The Walrus and The Carpenter has a wonderful stanza I repeat in my mind when it’s time to make a decision to take action: "The time has come, the Walrus said, to talk of many things: Of shoes – and ships – and sealing wax- Of cabbages – and kings –…
Alfred Tennyson poem Ulysses has lines which so accurately recount the viewpoint of a life observed from the perspective of old age. The poem talks about the fact that we are indebted to so many people for contributions made both directly and indirectly. It also describes one’s view looking back over life in it’s last stanza. I especially like the image of striving on in spite of the ravages of time: "Made weak by time and fate, but strong in…
Has our State’s highest court condoned political lies or did it merely up hold constitutional free speech? The Washington State Supreme court in a 5 to 4 decision has recently made the national news by it’s ruling that political lies told about an opponent in a political campaign are protected speech. Even though the lies were deliberate, malicious and false, the court held the lies were speech protected by the First Amendment. It overturned a law which gave the Public…
Elizabeth (Betty) Barnett was my wife, Lita’s, mother. She was born in 1910 and died December 20, 1985. She was a very remarkable woman in so many respects and a person for whom I had a great deal of love and admiration. She and her husband Hollis operated the Gateway Inn at the entrance to Mount Rainier for many years. This is a poem she wrote: "The snow floats gently on my roof tonight from mountain clouds of high; while…
