Posted By RichC on October 16, 2023
Nothing important, but I wanted to backup the MyDesultoryBlog database and then update to WordPress 6.3.2; it is the first update since the PHP change. Thankfully all is running smoothly and the update took. All is well with the blog.
Posted By RichC on October 15, 2023
Who doesn’t need a little peace in their lives after this past week of unrest in the Middle East?
Thankfully Brenda and I had a chance to escape reality, unwind a little bit, have a banana (photo right) … and walk along a sandy beach. We came across a Stand up Paddler #SUP enjoying a morning on a relatively quiet seashore and a school of fish erupting every so often as it inched ever closer to us walking on the beach. It was peaceful … and I didn’t want to leave (enjoy the peaceful 2 minute video).
Romans 12:18
“If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”
Posted By RichC on October 14, 2023
Like most … but depressingly not all Americans … I’ve been heavy hearted and angry this week after Hamas terrorist slaughtered innocent Israeli civilians (including 27 Americans) and took an estimated 150 hostages back to Gaza. I’m not sure how those who side with Hamas and their backers (Iran) can explain away such horrific murder, but from my perspective, there is NO possible way to justify such evil. The Nazis hid and denied their death camps and genocide … Hamas and their backers openly celebrate it. It is impossible to rationalize … yet we continue to try to understand the motivation behind Hamas, their supporters and apologists.
Last week Brenda and I too much time watching the reporting and social media coverage from Israel. We saw the heavy destructive Israeli airstrikes preparing way for the IDF ground forces to hopefully first rescue the hostages before rooting out Hamas in Gaza City and the Gaza Strip. Who knows how long it will take and how many more lives will be lost?
To refresh my memory, I studied a few maps of the modern State of Israel, the past wars when Arab countries attacked Israel (1968 and 1973) — above — and “tried” to understand the hatred and antisemitism that has never gone away. The struggle between Arabs, Israel and the West has existed my entire lifetime (as it has with previous generations) and no attempt at finding peace has ever been successful long term, especially with the more radical Muslims and militant groups.
Megyn Kelly on her podcast read a Boston Globe Jeff Jacoby opinion article that summarized this in about 2 minutes … it is worth a listen.
| Megyn Kelly reads Jeff Jacoby opinion article (YouTube) | 2 min snip |
Posted By RichC on October 13, 2023
We live in a world where personal privacy has all but disappeared when it comes to our lives. We are surveilled everywhere and by practically every device. Our connected gadgets collect and send data 
on our every movement … and increasingly “inner” goings-on (smart devices monitoring our health). New cars are pumping data to the cloud and old cars are watched from every angle by other cars, private cameras in building and homes and public street cameras at ever every intersection … not to mention the phones, computer and gadgets we all own. We are told that the surveillance is for safety and benefits society … but then we find out the stored data is also being sold (and stolen) and used for other purposes. This data was once archived and used to investigate crimes, traffic, etc … but increasingly artificial intelligence (AI) is “learning” from it with the goal of using it preemptively … for our safety (cough, cough). Where is this ALL headed?
For the tiny segment of our digital life that we do still semi-control … our personal devices and homes … it is well past time to try to take a few more privacy measures. We use way too many voluntary services that surveil our data in return for free services. Mapping, search databases, websites with information and smartphone apps are great and are often given free to users … BUT as we all know, they are not really doing it free … they are either marketing to us or selling our personal data … or both. We are the product that they are selling to others. Security of this data is suspect as just look at all the breaches to your personal information.
I’m close to making a couple small moves in my digital life primarily to prevent “some” of my personal information from getting into the hands of people or governments who might do more than just market to me. I’ve been using ProtonMail as a secondary email for a little while now and contemplating their paid version once I give up my usa.net and cppnet.com business addresses. The one that I control can easily be converted to Proton servers, the other currently email service does not offer the option … as for Google and Gmail, it is going to be a longer battle.
Posted By RichC on October 12, 2023
Mark your calendar for a couple of chances to see the Moon cast a shadow as it crosses the contiguous United States during the annular solar eclipse: October 14, 2023 and then a total solar eclipse in the spring on April 8, 2024 (images above from The Old Farmer’s Almanac).
These dark paths across the continent show where observers will need to be to see the “ring of fire” when the Moon blocks all but the outer edge of the Sun during the annular eclipse, and the ghostly-white outer atmosphere of the Sun (the corona) when the Moon completely blocks the Sun’s disk during the total eclipse.
Outside those paths, the map also shows where and how much the Sun will be partially eclipsed by the Moon. On both dates, all 48 contiguous states in the U.S. will experience at least a partial solar eclipse (as will Mexico and most of Canada).
Posted By RichC on October 10, 2023
Hatred runs deep in the middle-east as many in the Arab world have never accepted the State of Israel … which is probably an understatement. I haven’t posted on the “war” (as declared on Saturday by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) at this point since so much is unknown, but television news coverage is 24/7. I can’t imagine living in this powder keg region of the Holy Land, and now it is the worst it has ever been in my lifetime (and I was alive in 1967 and 1973). For the Jewish state, this attack and slaughter of civilians is a reminder of Adolf Hitler, the Nazis and The Holocaust.
On Saturday October 7, 2023, the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas located in the Gaza Strip in the south western corner of Israel, coordinated an attack using 1000s of rockets, drones and multiple wall incursions by armed killers into towns and military posts. Television and social media images saw them being cheered on by non-combatant Palestinians. This was an Iranian funded attack was weeks in the planning, according to the WSJ, and these Hamas terrorists murdered and butchered nearly 1000 Israeli citizens (over 100 discovered Monday, massacred in Kibbutz Be’eri near the Gaza border). They also took some of them as hostages back to Gaza. Most fear the number of dead will be higher and I assume that everyone knows that when the Israel military responds, that the lost of human live will be horrendously high. I’m not Jewish or an Israeli, but currently have little mercy as to the response. Exterminating Hamas is an appropriate human emotion at this point (also, 11 Americans were killed and some taken hostage we have been told).
For now we in America pray for a response from Israel that eliminates the terrorist threat and Hamas political rule in Gaza. There should never be a millitant threat from this area again (or from the Shia radical group Hezbollah, if they chose to strike from Lebanon – they are threatening). Even a measured response by Israel in such a heavily populated area in order to accomplishes the above objective is certainly going to see many more casualties. This is going to be a bloody war and will impact the the middle-east (and world peace) for a long time to come.
Posted By RichC on October 9, 2023
It is hard for me not to enjoy almost any James Taylor music no matter who sings or plays the songs, but the music is especially enjoyable when it is the Lexington Lab Band (includes my schoolmate from high school, Rob Pottorf).
For Music Monday this week, here’s the group’s YouTube video of “Copperline” that was release by James Taylor on his album New Moon Shine in 1991. Well done gang.
Posted By RichC on October 8, 2023
While doing a short devotional last week, few verses from chapter 4 of 2nd Timothy resinated with me. As with most Christians who spend time studying and reading the Bible, there are chapters and verses that often speak to us in the moment … or perhaps it just “wakes us up?”
For those of us in America who lived through the cultural revolution of the 1960s and 70s (thankfully as a child with sound parenting), we sense that a degrading rapid change is happening again. There is an attack on faith and it’s moral teachings … and for even those with traditional values and common sense outside of Christianity, it is apparent that there is an assault on America as we’ve known it. I know … it inevitably, but it is frightening to see such animosity toward our Christian faith, Biblical teachings and First Amendment right to practice and share our faith.
Posted By RichC on October 7, 2023
This past week I started a book titled “The Next Hundred Years’ War” — it grabbed my attention from the ‘Preface’ and captured my attention to the point I could not comfortably put it down.
Eran Nitzan, served as Israel’s economic attaché in Washington DC, and began his book with the back and forth conversation at a social meeting with different Chinese representatives. The polite back and forth highlights the difference between an “open” democracy and the “restrictive” Communist party’s hierarchy in a heavily controlled society; those representing China had little interests in social conversation, polite humor or sharing their personal opinions. Perhaps most interesting was the comment from a Chinese delegate that “you can’t feed a billion and a half people with democracy” (see excerpt below the break).
I can’t wait to see where the book takes readers has Mr. Nitzan addresses “the impact of the imminent war between China and the United States.”
