The triumph of persuasion over force In a 1992 essay titled Persuasion vs. Force, Mark Skousen quotes from an older essay by A. Whitehead, "From Force to Persuasion"

"Now the intercourse between individuals and between social groups takes one of these two forms: force or persuasion. Commerce is the great example of intercourse by way of persuasion. War, slavery, and governmental compulsion exemplify the reign of force."

And draws from that his 'new political creed':

The triumph of persuasion over force is the sign of a civilized society.  ¶ 1:07 PM 1 Comments Links to this post

  Disgusting Dictator Musharraf gets wrist slap, then hearty handshake, from Condi.

It never fails to amaze me how the US government - including the spineless Clinton administration, has continued to suck up to this pathetic posturing general/'statesman'. I am mystified by the lack of outrage against this pig throughout the world. I guess I am still very very naive even at 39 (and a half!).

Part of it is probably those nukes - which do tend to earn you some respect in the statist world (as Kim in Korea has figured out). Part is simply that his fellow dictators here in the US find him useful - for now. If he doesn't get assassinated by the hometeam soon, I suspect that a decade or so down the line he will be the US government's Saddam-du-Jour, useful for stirring the masses into acceptance of yet another expansion of the US empire.

On the day this pig is finally successfully assassinated as he so richly deserves to be, I will surely celebrate. It just plain irks me to see evil thriving in the world. On a brighter note, maybe the assassination team will get lucky and take out both Condi and Mush-face together.  ¶ 3:15 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  slow news day Russia’s Putin Kisses Little Boy Walking Through Kremlin

Despite the current political pressures about Iran and the G8 summit scheduled to hold in Russia in two weeks, Putin still found it necessary to exchange a words with the little boy before lifting his shirt to kiss him on the stomach... .

OK. That's ... weird.  ¶ 11:44 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Stop me if you've heard this one before Late one night in Washington, D.C. a mugger wearing a ski mask jumped into the path of a well-dressed man and stuck a gun in his ribs.

"Give me your money!" he demanded.

Indignant, the affluent man replied, "You can't do this. I'm a United
States Congressman!"

"In that case," replied the robber, "give me my money!"

Lifted from the intro to a paper titled
Radical Libertarianism: Applying Libertarian Principles
to Dealing with the Unjust Government, Part I

So far I haven't gotten much deeper into the paper than the intro :-/ So much reading, so little time!  ¶ 11:20 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  The hens have returned They weren't in sight when I got home, but I did spy them once over on the other side of the garden, which doesn't bode well for the tomatoes in the future (Of course, Kate the beagle-thing keeps going into the tomatoes and sniffing to see if they are ripe yet, so it's probably time for a fence).

I may lock them in the pen tomorrow. I can't blame them for wanting to enjoy the first rain-free day in about a week, but I do want them sticking closer to their home. I also don't want them to get into the habit of laying eggs all over the yard when they do start (if they haven't already).  ¶ 7:15 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Framboises! and chicory Last weekend I attended a wedding in West Virginia. The ceremony was held on the banks of the New River and afterwards many of the wedding guests went rafting with the happy couple.

I felt more in the mood for a walk, so went off on my own. To my absolute delight, as I was driving down the river-road, I spotted black raspberries. I had a lovely little ramble and saw some pretty and interesting things, but the high point was definitely the berries. Here in NC, blackberries grow like crazy, but I haven't seen raspberries growing wild like I was used to in Maryland.
Oh, they were heaven to taste!

I also got a decent shot of a flower I've been meaning to photgraph, something I called a cormflower while growing up but which I suspected was chicory instead. Indeed, it is chicory, which is very cool as I really enjoyed drinking a coffee-chicory blend the few times I've had it.

So, reading about chicory just now (great site, by the way), I realise it's a relative of the dandelion, which I probably would have guessed if I'd looked at the leaves instead of always focusing on the flowers. But now I can see the resemblence between the petals (or 'ray flowers') of the chicory and of the dandelion relative I photographed earlier.

I think NC must be a bit too south for chicory as I don't recall seeing it down here very often. I should experiment with the roots to make a good hot drink. I suspect that if we do become completely self-sufficient, Bill isn't going to build me an entire greenhouse to grow coffee in :)

But speaking of coffee, I do want to look into a NC native plant, the Yaupon Holly. I love hollies anyway, and I was very excited to learn that there's a caffeine-producing variety native to North Carolina.

Just be glad I'm not posting the pictures - or footage! - of the sewage treatment plant I passed. It had a raceway for aeration, and I thought a friend would like pictures of a raceway system, so I got some nice ones :)
    ¶ 6:49 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  UNC belches hot air over CO2 emissions UNC News release -- UNC, Town of Chapel Hill become first town-gown pair to pledge carbon reduction plan

Earlier today, a UNC-Chapel Hill professor representing the United States at an international environmental conference in England filed the university's pledge that made the commitment official on the website of the Carbon Reduction, or CRed, program.

Consider the irony of an institution making a pledge to reduce CO2 emissions by sending someone across the ocean on an airliner.

These professor-types love to talk the talk, but they squeal like heck if you suggest they might use the photocopier less often or cut back on their travel budgets.

And does anyone else find the phrase "town-gown pair" especially irksome?  ¶ 6:36 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Stealth protest? I know from experience that talking to reporters as a candidate can be tricky (I still turn red thinking about how a reporter played up my 'ambivalence' about being at the State Fair), but by the time you make it to state chair of your party with a long history of activism behind you, you ought to have gotten beyond something as silly as saying that you and other candidates are trying to make a protest statement but that you don't want to 'out' your fellow Libertarians because they might be subjected to a 'witch hunt'. Hello? The very purpose of (most) protesting is to provoke a 'witch hunt', not to remain anonymous!

But that's just what John Babiarz, Chair of the New Hampshire LP, seemed to be saying in this interview.

Babiarz said he and other Libertarians are running as Republicans and Democrats this year to protest what they consider biased ballot laws.

OK, that's understandable. Here in North Carolina, the ballot access restrictions are even worse than in NH, and I certainly think that running openly as a Dem or Rep might (might) be a valid strategy to shine a spotlight on the ridiculous disparity in ballot access between 'major party' and 'minor party' or 'independent' candidates. Especially interesting is the hint of a coordinated program to get a whole slate of Libertarians running in the 'big parties'.

John Babiarz, chairman of the state Libertarian Party, is running as a Democrat for a seat in the House of Representatives. His wife, Rosalie Babiarz, has filed as a Republican candidate for the District 5 state Senate seat.

It's be cute: you could have a press conference where Libertarians took turns flipping coins to see which party they would claim for the purpose of running for office. He makes a bold statement to the effect that he and others are deliberately flouting party lines to make a point:

Whatever he's running as, Babiarz says he remains a Libertarian at heart, and his candidacy is a calculated effort to help his own kind by forcing a rewrite of the state's election laws. He's hoping the major parties will feel threatened enough to demand a change themselves. He claims up to two dozen other Libertarians are joining him by running as Democrats or Republicans in this year's elections.

"We're actually pushing the parties to change. They need to deal with it, or lose their brand identity. If they don't change, we'll go into the parties and hijack them," he explained.

But then Babiarz fluffs it by supporting the assertions of the Democratic Party Chair that he was trying to 'fool' voters:

But Babiarz declined to name them, saying he wanted to avoid a "witch hunt" aimed at blowing the Libertarians' cover.

Here's the thing: if you're going to use a strategy that boasts its bold in-your-faceness, you can't hedge by talking about 'blowing your cover'. The essence of the strategy he outlined is that there is no cover.

Sigh.  ¶ 11:53 AM 1 Comments Links to this post

  Gigantic nuclear furnace A break in the rain at last!

It was still gloomy this morning, but it must be clearing up at least partially because Bill's energy server shows we are producing solar wattage. Yeah! I love our gigantic nuclear furnace. The middle table ("Outback MX-60 solar charge controller data") is the relevant one, the fields I use to guage how the day is going are "charger watts" (current power intake on the panels) and "daily solar kilowatt hours collected" (power collected through panels during current day so far). The server page is constantly improving as Bill tweaks it. The latest tweak is to use Ajax to update the page every two seconds - by updating only the relevant data and not the entire page. Bill describes the tweaks better here. The energy server page totally rocks, though. I keep getting reminded that most people don't really know how many watts they consume on a daily basis or what the wattage of most of their appliances is, and it seems strange to me, and then again I guess it's strange that it seems strange :)  ¶ 10:31 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Missing chickens Grrrr.
I neglected to close the hens into their house last night. I know there's some risk, but they really do perch very high (in the windowsill, usually) so occasionally I give in to my laziness. I usually suffer for it, though, because I sleep lightly when I know they have an open door, listening for the sound of squawking hens under attack. I have heard their panic calls before and rushed out to find them upset but nothing visibly the matter - something must have disturbed them, though.

But this morning, we didn't hear squawking, we heard crowing! I've seen one of the hens (the one I sometimes call 'Alpha', which is as close as I've gotten to naming them) doing this before, and there really is no other word for it than crowing. But it's not the raucous crowing of a rooster, just a soft unmistakable crow. I suspect it mostly happens in flocks without roosters, like mine, where the alpha hen takes on some secondary male characteristics (which I hope does not include non-egg-laying). Anyway, it sounded happy and peaceful enough, so I didn't worry about it. I took the dogs out walking a bit later and didn't see the birds but didn't worry too much. before I left for work, though, I thought I should check on them. And they were nowhere to be found - I couldn't see or hear anything of them! I checked behind the henhouse - the area of best cover (chicken-wise) runs into the neighbor's yard and they have gone over there before - but nothing :-( I'm almost certain they will return later this morning or, at worst, this evening, but it's disconcerting to have them just go missing like that.

Bill has decided that he doesn't care for the Sumatras because they are big and combless and mean (the reasons I like them, interestingly:) but he still likes the Phoenix because she's small and pretty and peaceful. He gave approval (urging, actually) for me to liberate them from the pen during the day, and now he is having second thoughts, imagining they are on a lizard-and-snake slaughtering rampage. The problem is, now they have a strong taste for freedom, so I'm not sure that keeping them penned is going to be easy, even if I agree it's desirable - which I really don't. I might want to keep them penned until they start laying eggs, and each morning until they've laid, but they really love eating grass and bugs and such and it seems a shame to deprive them. I love seeing them around, too.  ¶ 10:05 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  My boat at least is having fun I had this cute little kayak that I got several years ago to poke around on local lakes. Unfortunately, I got it just as I was getting involved in dog rescue work, and never really spent a lot of time playing at that point in my life. So I either loaned it or gave it (I am still not clear on which) to my sister, who appears to be getting lot of fun from it. This is a picture she nsapped with a camera phone as her friend went through some rocks.

I'm glad it's getting some use. Bill and I will have to get the canoe out sometime this summer and do some paddling.  ¶ 9:47 AM 1 Comments Links to this post

  Beagle dials 911; saves diabetic owner A Bite and Bark That Saved a Life

Oooh, my sentimental streak is showing. But the story is pretty interesting; it's not just that the dog got bored while waiting for his prone person to get up and take him out (my first guess when I heard about the story), he actually was trained to do this. They train dogs to warn the owner of low or high blood sugar, and then if he fails to react in time and goes comatose, to bite down on the cellphone and bark at the 911 operators. Coolio.  ¶ 3:10 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Wilmington visit I begin this with a cautionary quote for my friend Roey, who from our last conversation seems to believe that if enough of the 'little guys' get together and act, they can wrest power from the 'big guys':

Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it. - Milton Friedman

A couple of weekends ago we went down to Wilmington to see the ocean again and visit the workshop of the Full Belly Project. We got a late start (you can see in the first two pictures that Kate and Pete are impatient to get going - I am at that time chasing Ed around the yard to get him away from the apple trees and into the car.



Once we finally got loaded, we ran down to Wilmington, found the shop, and talked with Roey Rosenblith (it was late enough that everyone else had gone home) about the Nut Sheller and a new project, a corn cracker. These projects are meant to be sturdy, inexpensive, and able to be produced and maintained with appropriate technology. Here's a picture of Roey with the sheller:



A video of Bill and Roey demonstrating the sheller with its winnowing fan attached:



And a picture of the corn cracker:



A video of the corn cracker in operation.

I also learned about and got to see neem nuts, which are beautiful. And we played around with a simple hand mill with steel burrs used for milling small grains and corn, or even spices.

After the visit, we took the dogs on a tour of Beaches Where Dogs Are Not Allowed, moving on with brief stops to read the NO DOGS signs, until we finally arrived at the refuge of Fort Fisher, which was welcoming to dogs and surf fishermen alike, and where we had a nice moonlit walk on the beach. Then we had a a drive-up dinner (the dogs really like that, as I am sure you can imagine) and a loooong drive home as we are rather out of shape for road-tripping.  ¶ 9:37 PM 2 Comments Links to this post

  A visit from Arachne A few days ago I was drinking a cola and this cutie visited my drinking straw. It later built a web on my laundry basket, which (alas) I had to remove because I do occasionally do a little housework.    ¶ 9:18 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  The Sumatras I love these birds. They grow more beautiful each day. Bill thinks they look like vultures, but I love their sleek combless heads and glossy beetle-green and purplish black feathering. I love their mix of boldness and timidity, and there's simply very few things quite as amusing as a seeing a hen swallow a blade of grass.

They had just better get going on the egg-laying business soon. It should be any day now, I figure. I've started letting them out of the pens so they can forage more freely. That's jsut been the last two days, and so far they don't stray far from the security of the pen (they're just coming out of the gate in these pictures). I haven't seen any sign of starter eggs yet, but I need to get a real nestbox going. I have pile of straw in a protected area, but they should have something more formal.    ¶ 9:04 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Saturday morning walk Saturday morning Bill and I (and a friend) went to a machine tool auction, so I got up extra-early to walk 2/3s of the dogs. We left Ed and Bill behind because it was before 7am and I thought Ed seemed more like he wanted to sleep in than to get going that early, and Bill wanted to sleep in, too :)

As I type this, Pete has joined me on the couch to see if Bill left any crumbs from dinner and to unplug the power cord for the laptop. Dogs!    ¶ 8:42 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Yates Mill gets whacked by Alberto newsobserver.com | Bad luck befalls Yates Mill again

Bummer. I saw guys working there this morning but didn't realise the mill had gotten so hurt by the rains. We got about five inches in 18 hours. Yates Mill is about a half-mile from our house (although it's not the mill I work at).  ¶ 1:08 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Hens in drier times I took some footage of the hens yesterday before the Alberto Rains started. Here's a still first - it's fuzzy, but it shows how nicely their feathers are coming in and how prettily they drape. The two Sumatras have way outgrown the Phoenix (who isn't in this picture but is in the vid below) - but the Phoenix still insists on squeezing between them at night. They are shaping up to be a very nice trio, although the two Sumatras still fuss at one another sometimes and Bill does say they look like vultures. I think I will have to get some hens with more combs for him (and for me). No eggs - that I've seen - yet.



Then the footage

  ¶ 5:09 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Alberto visits
Picture on the left was taken yesterday while Pete and I were resting from mowing the lawn. Then trpoical storm Alberto blew through; it rained all last night and pretty much all day today - sometimes heavily. The picture on the right (different angle but same area of the yard) was taken around noon today. The henhouse (and much of their yard) was flooded with several inches of water - the hens were perched miserably on a box when I went out to check on them - there is a raised spot with their feed and water, so they should be OK until it dries down, but the cleanup is going to be a nightmare. Not sure how the garden will do; the tomatoes look pretty beaten but I am hoping they will perk up. The lower garden is flodded pretty badly, though.

For those who care to hear three minutes of me standing in the rain jabbering about the flooded lawn, here's the goods (or just click in the viewer below). If I seem obsessed with my feet being filthy it's because I took this footage right after wading through the henhouse muck.

  ¶ 4:36 PM 2 Comments Links to this post

  Windowsill   ¶ 8:27 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Surprise! I was photographing some mushrooms in my yard, and wanted to get a picture of the underside in case I ever bother to try to ID it (or, more likely, ask someone else for help in IDing it). But I didn't want to pull it up, so I just plopped the camera under it, aimed as well as I could by guess, and hope for the best. Turns out someone was hanging out under there :)  ¶ 7:13 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Grits I worked at the mill today, and the emphasis was on grits. We made white and yellow grits. I may upload a short film of the grits-sifter later, as my obsession with the camera continues to grow :)

Funny, though. I came home starved and ate rice. I was too tired to boil water and prepare some of the grits, and I had rice ready to eat. I wonder if I can find a good recipe using grits and lentils...    ¶ 7:07 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  State of our house power
My husband has set up a home energy server to show our power production and consumption. We run completely off-grid, mostly on solar with a veggie-oil powered diesel backup. Hit 'refresh' when looking at the page to see changes the 'charger watts' parameter - which shows the output of the solar panels. Our best total collection day so far has been around 6.5 kilowatt-hours, but that's with only half the panels deployed (the rest are awaiting construction of their frames). When we moved in we were delighted to have the most tree-y yard in the neighborhood, but now we have serious Sun Envy :)  ¶ 12:01 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  More rabble-rousing I was downtown harrassing the legislature this week. This picture if funny if you understand what's going on. Andy is about 15 inches taller than me, I am on tiptoes and he's got his knees bent (which explains the pained expression on his face). I'm trying to rpetend we're the same height but can only get within 4-5 inches.

  ¶ 1:32 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  NCSU's Free Expression Tunnel Bill and I sometimes walk on NCSU's main campus with the dogs on summer nights. We went there one evening this week and visited the Free Expression Tunnel.

They've modified one of the entries to be much wider; the first picture is from that area, but doesn't show the whole thing. I do love this picture, though, with Bill looking at the wall.

The pictures aren't the best, for which I blame Bill trying to hurry me up, but I love the one where it looks like Ed is examining the wall (he's nearly blind).

Most of this stuff isn't my sort of artwork, but the sheer 'manyness' (crowdedness?) of it is impressive, and picking out individual pieces is an interesting excercise. And, even if it isn't a style I like, much of it has an amazing virtuosity. I'd like to go back and take more shots, and maybe even carry out a project that has been niggling me - photographing the Gum Wall.


   ¶ 5:13 AM 1 Comments Links to this post

  Whoops Someone had a bad day at work ...

I saw this truck at the light industrial park where I sometimes make deliveries for my husband.  ¶ 5:07 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Domestic scenes The first harvest from our blackberry bushes. I still prefer raspberries (and I'm hoping we get a few this year), but these totally outshine the wild blackberries around here. And they grow like weeds, which, I guess, they are.


I'm still trying to master the art of third-world cookery with the Butterfly stove (much like a Primus). I'm trying out cooking outside on the porch, not that it's gotten very warm even yet, but it's pleasant.


I made this squash dish with dried tomatoes in olive oil, onions, garlic, some black pepper and a peach-pineapple-tomato salsa (bottled, I didn't make it) for seasoning. Served over rice. Not too bad.



And then a picture of the pete-the-colliething, along with part of one of the beags (Ed). He's trying to talk me into something with that intense stare of his.

  ¶ 4:10 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Piedmont Biofuels Workday Bill and I went out to Piedmont Biofuels last Sunday for a workday. It was time to harvest the Brassica (rapeseed and mustard), and as always a bunch of other stuff was going on (such as plastering the straw bale building) and ideas and fun were flying. Normally I wind up getting into some argument over economics or politics, but this time was very mellow. Here's me with Bill (thanks to John Bonitz for the pic)

and the product of our labor. We got there just as the last microplot was beign harvested, helped with that, then took part in the threshing, screening, and weighing of the seeds.



Here's some very crude vids (from my Cannon) of the threshing activity:



Check out all the Piedmont Workday Pictures

Don't know if we didn't work hard enough or if working in a cool cooperative venture involving agriculture, fuel, and mud energized us, but when we got home Bill repared the mower, mowed, and did a bunch of gardening chores while I puttered in the house and did some weeding/cultivating in the garden. We probably got more done that evenign at home than we would have on many more low-key Sundays.  ¶ 2:09 AM 1 Comments Links to this post

  'Libertarian' is not a synonym for 'a bit less statist' Libertarian Democrats? | Samizdata.net

This is a piece written contra the assumption of the title of "Libertarian Democrat" by Kos.

In the comment section, Perry de Havilland says:

'Libertarian' is not a synonym for 'a bit less statist' than the alternative, it is a term applied to people who are strongly opposed to the idea that state is the axis around which society must be forced to revolve.

The comments are well worth a read.  ¶ 4:13 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  Ultimate weapon (classic SF) 'And Then There Were None' by Eric Frank Russell

A friend and mentor quoted the passage below several years ago, and just this week I happened to stumble across the entire story. It's a great read.

"Well, just for a start, we've got the mightiest weapon ever thought up by the mind of man. We're Gands, see? So we don't need ships and guns and suchlike playthings. We've got something better. It's effective. There's no defense against it."

"I'd like to see it," Gleed challenged. Data on a new and exceptionally powerful weapon should be a good deal more valuable than the mayor's address. Grayder might be sufficiently overcome by the importancethereof to increase the take to five thousand credits. With a touch of sarcasm, he added, "But, of course, I can't expect you to give away secrets."

"There's nothing secret about it," said Jeff, very surprisingly. "You can have it for free any time you want. Any Gand would give it to you for the asking. Like to know why?"

"You bet."

"Because it works one way only. We can use it against you -- but you can't use it against us."

"There's no such thing. There's no weapon inventable which the other guy can't employ once he gets his hands on it and knows how to operate it."

"You sure?"

"Positive," said Gleed, with no hesitation whatever. "I've been in the space-service troops for twenty years and you can't fiddle a round that long without learning all about weapons from string bows to H-bombs. You're trying to kid me -- and it won't work. A one-way weapon is
impossible."

"Don't argue with him," Harrison suggested to Baines. "He'll never be convinced until he's shown."

"I can see that." Jeff Baines' face creased in a slow grin. "I told you that you could have our wonder weapon for the asking. Why don't you ask?"

"All right, I'm asking." Gleed put it without much enthusiasm. A weapon that would be presented on request, without even the necessity of first planting a minor ob, couldn't be so might after all. His imaginary five thousand credits shrank to five thence to none. "Hand it over and let me try it."

Swiveling heavily on his stool, Jeff reached to the wall, removed a small, shiny plaque from its hook, and passed it across the counter.

"You may keep it," he informed. "And much good may it do you."

Gleed examined it, turning it over and over between his fingers. It was nothing more than an oblong strip of substance resembling ivory. One side was polished and bare. The other bore three letters deeply engraved in bold style:

F-I.W.

Glancing up, his features puzzled, he said, "Call this a weapon?"

"Certainly."

"Then I don't get it." He passed the plaque to Harrison. "Do you?"

"No," Harrison had a good look at it and spoke to Baines. "What does the F-I.W. mean?"

"Initial-slang," informed Baines. "Made correct by common usage. It has become a worldwide motto. You'll see it all over the place, if you haven't noticed it already."

"I have spotted it here and there but attached no importance to it and thought nothing of it. I remember now I've seen it inscribed in several places, including Seth's and the fire depot."

"It was on the sides of that bus we couldn't empty," added Gleed. "Didn't mean anything to me."

"It means plenty," said Jeff. "*Freedom* -- *I* *Won't!*"

"That kills me," Gleed told him. "I'm stone dead already. I've dropped in my tracks." He watched Harrison thoughtfully pocketing the plaque. "A bit of abracadabra. What a weapon!"

"Ignorance is bliss," remarked Baines, strangely certain of himself. "Especially when you don't know that what you're playing with is the safety catch of something that goes bang."

"All right," challenged Gleed, taking him up on that. "Tell us how it works."

"I won't." The grin reappeared. Baines seemed highly satisfied about something.

"That's a fat lot of help." Gleed felt let down, especially over those momentarily hoped-for credits. "You boast about a one-way weapon, toss across a slip of stuff with three letters on it and then go dumb. Any guy can talk out the back of his neck. How about backing up your talk?"

"I won't," said Baines, his grin becoming broader than ever. He favored the onlooking Harrison with a fat, significant wink.

It made something spark vividly inside Harrison's mind. His jaw dropped and he took the plaque from his pocket, staring at it as if seeing it for the first time.

"Give it back to me," requested Baines, watching him.

Replacing it in his pocket, Harrison said very firmly, "I won't."

Baines chuckled. "Some folk catch on quicker than others."

Resenting that remark, Gleed held his hand out to Harrison. "Let's have another look at that thing."

"I won't," said Harrison, meeting him eye for eye.

"Hey, that's not the way--" Gleed's protesting voice died out. He stood there a moment, his optics slightly glassy while his brain performed several loops. Then, in hushed tones, he said, "Good grief!"

"Precisely," approved Baines. "Grief, and plenty of it. You were a bit slow on the uptake."

Overcome by the flood of insubordinate ideas now pouring upon him, Gleed said hoarsely to Harrison, "Come on, let's get out of here. I gotta think. I gotta think someplace quiet."  ¶ 12:32 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  snake rescue drama Bill and I were driving through the busy area between Raleigh and Garner this afternoon, in search of a late lunch and large straw hats (for harvesting canola and gardening). Right past the 70/401 split a large rat snake was just slithering off the median and into traffic. The car ahead of us swerved to avoid the snake, and the driver obviously considered stopping but then probably decided it was safer to drive on. Bill was driving (fortunately) and swerved also, then stopped our car and jumped out.

The snake was (naturally) quite agitated at this point and was striking out at the car.
Bill quickly grabbed his tail and lifted him (he normally would never manhandle a snake this way, but the snake's chnaces were zippo without help - he was headed across four lanes of heavy traffic), then opened the back door of the car. I realised there were really no options, but I wasn't too fond of the idea of an angry, four-foot long snake in the backseat.

The snake quickly dug in in the back seat as Bill hoped back in and started driving. Whole rescue: about 15 seconds (and some jerk had the audacity to HONK!).

So here we were with an angry, scared snake in the back. When Bill picked him up, the snake 'skunked' him, so Bill's hands reeked. I figured we'd drop him off someplace pretty quickly, but Bill wanted just the -right- spot - it had to have some water nearby, trees, and very limited road access (i.e. a deadend at the end of a longish gravel road). So off we went on a tour of lovely Johnston County :) We went down one road after another, finding none just suitable. Meanwhile, the combination of snake-musk smell, country-road driving, cramps, hunger, and a serious caffeine withdrawl headdache combined to make me almost unbearably carsick. None of this was helped by the fact that, while I like snakes in my mind, my body is really creeped out by them, and I kept imagining the snake slithering under my seat or over the back of my seat, or around the side of my seat... well, I think you can get the picture. I rode with my feet on the dashboard, looking back every five seconds. (Later, Bill looked back and saw the snake pressed against the back door on his side and once I could see it there and not moving I was calmer).

After about 35 mins of driving around, we finally realised that we'd take much longer finding a place by random chance than by just going to a great place we knew, about 1.4 mile from our house. So we went there and let him out. I snapped a couple of shots with my phone, but I wish I'd had my other camera - it was really quite a lovely snake, with yellowish coloring on his belly. Amazingly, he seemed completely unharmed by the experience - we were afriad he had already been hit. If we had just passed by, he would certainly have been toast. Very dramatic rescue! I wish I'd had a better role than just whining for much of the time, but I did contribute by flicking on the hazard lights when we stopped and now by documenting the experience, so maybe I've redeemed myself somewhat :)    ¶ 9:02 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

  My fourth piece on LRC GWB: Darling of the Left?

Hello to all of you visiting here from LRC. For my usual three daily visitors, check out the LRC site and read some of the great articles.  ¶ 1:14 PM 2 Comments Links to this post

  Bricks and steps I took this great picture of Allison in front of the NCSU library yesterday while we were doing some ballot access petitioning.    ¶ 12:30 PM 0 Comments Links to this post