Dreaming of the Masters

And the rule breaking continues!  The Messthetics weren't around in the 70s, at least not as a band, but this new group are certainly themselves dreaming of the masters when they play, as their sound perfectly captures vintage early 70s jazz fusion of the Mahavishnu/Weather Report era, which is what we were listening to back in the first half of the 1970s.  This year's self-titled Messthetics debut record would have fit seamlessly into our fusion LP collection of the time.

The Messthetics are an instrumental trio consisting of drummer Brendan Canty and bassist Joe Lally, the rhythm section of the punk rock band Fugazi, and guitarist Anthony Pirog.  We weren't sure what to expect from that combination, but we sure weren't expecting this.  

Anyhow, we'll eventually get back to our usual dreaming someday.  But meanwhile, it's nice to know that someone else remembers too.

"So what are you playing now?" no one asks me, ever, but this is my blog so I'll answer whatever I want, even if I'm not asked.  As you've probably surmised from the trailer above, lately I've been playing Assassin's Creed: Origins.  The trailer song is by Leonard Cohen.

I like this game. A lot.  It's visually stunning and there have been several moments when I've just paused playing to say "Whoa" out loud due to the spectacular vistas and cityscapes depicted in the game.  When you arrive in a new town or city, it makes you want to set aside 20 minutes or so just to wander around in it and explore.  

It's set in First Century Egypt, the era of Cleopatra and Greek and Roman occupancy, and it seems to at least be making an effort at being historically accurate. I like it that the Egyptians are dark skinned, not tanned caucasians like the Hollywood version.  I like it that the protagonist's wife is Jewish.  The characters are a real melting pot, much like occupied First Century Egypt probably was. That and there are no magic potions or hocus-pocus in the game that requires suspensions of disbelief.  So far, at least, mummies are just dead people wrapped in cloth waiting on cremation.  

The game is published by UbiSoft, the same developers who produced the fascinating but ultimately frustrating Far Cry 4.  There are some similarities between the two games in the battle styles and the game controls, but it feels like the creators listened to the complaints about the Far Cry series and produced a game where the quests do not feel repetitive, where dying in game doesn't require you to replay the last 45 minutes of the game over again, and steering vehicles (in this case, boats and chariots) isn't as impossibly difficult as steering cars and trucks in Far Cry 4. 

This is my first Assassin's Creed game (the series has been out for years now and there's even a movie version already), so I don't have a precedent for comparison with Origins.  And even though I'm only about 20 hours in to the game (Level 13), I'm already rating this game among the very best, right up there with Witcher 3 and Fallout 4.  It's that good. 

On an unrelated note and for those keeping score at home, I saw a young red-tailed fox in the backyard again this morning.  First fox sighting in a couple weeks.

"We cannot allow all of these people to invade our country,” some First Nation people must have thought.  "When they come in, we must immediately send them back to where they came, before they infest this Great Land of ours.”

Moral:  If your ancestors weren't already here when Columbus first arrived, then either welcome everyone else with open arms or shut up about any "immigrant problem." 

Guess Who?

Remember that tailless squirrel I didn't want to worry about?  The one who somehow wound up stuffed into a drain spout by my mailbox?  

Well, when I went to get my mail last weekend, this is what was left of him.  

Memento mori, kemosabe.

Immigration Rant

Please, please, please don't read this if your mind is already made up on the current situation regarding illegal immigration in America and if you're only looking for arguments to support your prima facie opinions.

According to recent Gallop polling, 24% of Americans strongly support construction of a border wall, while 40% strongly support DACA, or the Dreamers Act.  I presume there's not a lot of overlap between those two groups.  Everyone has strong opinions on this matter, and facts and editorials on this matter aren't likely to change anyone's intuitions about the issues.   

I've been trying to listen to both sides of this issue carefully, and as I understand it, there are several arguments in support of the U.S. government's current "zero tolerance" policy on illegal immigration.  First and most simply, I'm told, there's a crisis at the border. We have enough problems of our own, from opioid addiction to homeless vets, without illegal immigrants coming here and compounding things. 

While it's an unfortunate situation, it's the immigrant parents who brought this on themselves by choosing to break the law and coming here illicitly instead of applying for asylum at legal Points of Entry or other locations designated by the Attorney General. They were the ones who made the decision to take chances and to put themselves and their children in harm's way.  They could have stayed home and fixed their own countries, or those from Central America could have sought asylum in Mexico instead of the U.S.  They broke the law of the land, and we don't let other kinds of lawbreakers stay with their children.  If they had simply remained in their home counties, they would have gotten to stay with their own children.  

Besides, the government does other things that separate children from their parents. President Obama did much the same thing as is happening now, and we all remember those horrifying pictures of little Elian Gonzalez being abducted at gunpoint pursuant to orders from Bill Clinton and Janet Reno.  The Democrats created the law that resulted in this whole mess in the first place, and the government has no choice but to enforce the rules on the book.  It's the moral and ethical thing to do, and even the Bible requires that the laws of the land be obeyed. The Democrats could stop all of this with a new, better law, but they won't.

Do I have it right?  I'm aware of my liberal bias and want to make sure I have it right.  I deliberately omitted some of the more intolerant and racist arguments that I've heard, but even the remaining arguments presented above begin to fall apart on closer examination.   

Yes, the immigrant parents broke the law, specifically 8 USC 1325(b) which declares illegal entry to be a misdemeanor offense. The statute has been around for some 100 years now, and like most federal criminal statutes, is barely ever charged against first-time offenders.  Instead, according to immigration attorney Sarah Fo, border crossing has almost always been treated as a civil violation, not a criminal one.  What's more, per international law, asylum seekers are not supposed to be criminally prosecuted, even if they cross an invisible line on a map without permission.

You probably committed at least three misdemeanors today before lunch.  According to attorney Mic White, the California Labor Code alone has provisions for more than 100 criminal penalties. Did one of your employees miss a rest break? That's a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail. Did you interrupt one of your employees while they were eating lunch? Misdemeanor, year in jail. Did you lose one of your employees old time cards from two years ago? Misdemeanor, year in jail. Did you forget to put the address of your company's headquarters on one of your employees pay stubs? Misdemeanor, one year in jail, and a fine of $1,000.   I could go on and on and on. Those are all laws, on the books (see e.g., Cal. Lab. Code §§ 553, 226.6, 215, 1175, 1199, etc.) Those are all misdemeanors, the same as illegal entry by border crossing.

Do you know how many people are arrested and charged with those workplace violations? No one. Ever. Literally no one is ever charged with any of those crimes, even though they are committed in every workplace, every day.  Why aren't the same people so upset about border crossings out protesting in the streets demanding to know why every Chick Fil A manager isn't being lead away in handcuffs?  There are criminal penalties for literally everything.  The country is filled with law upon law upon law that is unenforced every single day, but suddenly this particular misdemeanor is so important, that we've decided it's worth setting up child concentration camps?

Prosecutorial discretion has always been the gatekeeper of the laws, and we as a society have generally decided that forgetting to pay Francine her share of the tips for Table 7 is probably not worth dragging a man off to jail and tearing away his family.  

Never before in U.S. history has illegal border crossing been prosecuted en masse as a criminal offense and the administration doesn't have to do anything now.  The government has decided to make an example of poor immigrant children as a warning to people fleeing other violence: "Our country will treat you worse than the violence you are fleeing. We will take your children away -  you might never see them again." That is literally the stated purpose of this abhorrent policy.

The United States seemingly imprisons everyone as the one-size-fits-all solution to everything from drug addiction to homicide.  This is not a good thing.  We have the largest percentage of our population incarcerated in the world, and a disproportionate number of those are people of color and other minorities.  There are alternatives to mass detention of immigrants, and they were working just fine before this.  But private prisons spent a lot on Trump's campaign, and their stock did very well after the inauguration. Just like "zero tolerance" policies on drug use, the new "zero tolerance" policy of border crossings is providing a very lucrative ROI to the incarceration industry.

The argument has been made that President Obama did this too, even though he didn't. To be sure, Obama did some pretty bad things, even to migrant kids, including a surge in deportations.  He was called "The Deporter In Chief" in some Latino circles, and his unpopularity regarding the deportations may be one of the reasons that the Latino community did not give Hillary Clinton more support and that Trump ultimately won the election. But even Obama did not break up families, but instead deported them in record numbers.  Deporting families whose visas had expired, or who never had visas in the first place, is not the same thing as mass incarceration, and trying to conflate the two is a desperate attempt to try and justify immoral actions.  There are other ways of dealing with the immigration issue rather than following the worst examples of your predecessor and it's even more ludicrous when those worst examples are fictitious in the first place.  

The argument, repeated countless times by Trump, that the Democrats created the law and that the administration has no choice but to enforce it, has absolutely no basis in truth (like much of what Trump says).  What law is he talking about?  Is he talking about Flores v. Reno?  Because that's not a law, but a judicial order issued to keep families together.  Is he talking about the Trafficking Victims Protections Reauthorization Act (TVPRA), which requires DHS to screen Mexican children within 48 hours of apprehension to determine if the child is a victim of trafficking?  Because that was a George Bush law.  Or does he mean 8 USC 1325(b), the misdemeanor illegal entry statute that's been around for some 100 years but barely ever charged for first-time offenders?

Simply put, there simply isn't any "Democratic law" that needs to be fixed by the Democrats, and besides, not one Congressional Republican will agree to sign off on a simple fix which would keep these families together.  Instead, Trump is intent on blowing up the entire immigration system by ending nearly all family visas (along with other horrible stuff) and is literally holding children hostage to get what he wants.

Which brings us to that horrible Elian Gonzalez episode.  That was awful, but it was done in the name of keeping a family together (in case you forgot, federal agents were trying to reunite Elian with his natural father, not the anti-Castro Cuban immigrants who had custody).  It was a bad idea and terribly executed, and in no way justifies state-sponsored kidnapping and child concentration camps.  

"But the government does other things as well that separate people from their children," it's been argued.  Yes, and those things are bad, too, and no justification for other actions.

Neither are out-of-context biblical passages that allegedly require the U.S. Attorney General to obey the literal letter of the law.  In case you haven't noticed, we don't live in a theocracy, and Biblical law is as unconstitutional as Sharia law.  Besides, we can't help but notice that the oft-cited Romans 13:1 was also used by Nazi-sympathizing Germans and by Southern slave owners.  I'm told the rest of Romans 13 isn't very supportive for their arguments, but I couldn't be bothered to read it (tl;dr). 

After 150 years of military, economic, and political interference, the United States has a moral debt to Central America.  You may or  may not agree, but actions have consequences and many of those seeking asylum are now fleeing for their lives.  To those who say we already have enough problems of our own here at home ignore the fact that we're complicit in creating many of the problems abroad that created the current situation.  What's more, as a country we can aid refugee kids and take care of homeless vets at the same time.  We've capable or doing more than one thing at a time. What a country!

El Salvador and Honduras trade off each year as the world's murder capitals.  Being murdered separates parents from kids, so the argument that parents who stay in their home countries get to keep their children is dubious at best and heartless at worst. As for seeking asylum in Mexico, many do but the Mexican asylum system is overloaded right now.  What's more, the same gangs and cartels that are driving people out of El Salvador and Honduras also operate with impunity in Mexico, where it's easy for them to find anyone they want.  Mexico is not legally a "safe third country" for asylum purposes,

What would you do if you had to choose between watching your kids die and crossing an invisible line on a map?  Asylum claims at designated Points Of Entry are being intentionally limited to a point that people have no choice but to illegally cross the border.  This is an intentional tactic to manufacture a crisis and declare war on asylum seekers so that Trump and Congressional Republicans can justify pushing the worst possible legislation and call it "immigration reform."  Immigration attorney Sarah Fo points out that the hard-right populist government in Hungary did exactly the same thing for exactly the same reason.

Yes, illegal immigration is a problem and has been for decades now.  However, despite a recent, mild uptick, border crossings are actually at their lowest level in 40 years, a relative trickle compared to previous rates.  In fact, it's no longer Mexicans that are coming across, most of what we're seeing now is direct result of the sociopolitical crisis in Central America for which our country bears direct moral responsibility. The only "crisis" is one the one that Trump and Sessions have intentionally manufactured.  

As a contemplative stoic, I ask myself what about this situation is within my power to do something and what isn't.  Knowing that thousands of children are being permanently traumatized and legally orphaned with my tax dollars just so that Trump can get $130 billion for an unnecessary and patently ridiculous border wall makes me angry.  Yeah, I'm upset and yeah, I going to vote my conscience on this issue at the ballot.  I doubt this rant will change anyone's mind, but it is within my power to use this blog as a pulpit to speak the truth in the face of injustice.

Follow The White Rabbit

Dreaming of the Masters

Surprise!  More rule breaking!  Instead of posting something that we listened to back in the 1970s, tonight we're posting a modern artist's interpretation of what we used to listen to back in the 1970s. More specifically, we present guitarist Mary Halvorson's faithful cover of Paul Bley's classic Ida Lupino.

And as long as we're at it and speaking of classics, here's Ida Lupino herself.

We Care A Lot

Regarding the current heart-breaking news about children being separated from their parents at the U.S./Mexico border (an imaginary line on a rock hurtling through space), as a contemplative stoic I ask myself what in this situation is within my control to do something about and what isn't.  The first and obvious thing I can do about it is to vote those responsible for these inhumane actions out of office come November, as well as those who aided and abetted in these actions, and I fully intend to do just that, at least as far as the 2018 ballot will allow.

And then I got an email this morning from Zen Mountain Monastery of the Mountains and Rivers Order of Zen Buddhism identifying some additional things that can be done. 

I visited Zen Mountain Monastery, located in Mt. Tremper, NY, in 2003 and have been on their mailing list and their email distribution ever since that time.  In those 15 years, over the course of at least two wars, countless scandals, and seemingly endless famines, earthquakes and catastrophes, I can't recall once ever having received a politically oriented letter from them until today.  While they don't like to be partisan, this was apparently too much for them to ignore, and they sent the following - and may I add, totally appropriate - message out to their list:

Dear Sangha,

Over the past few weeks, thousands of children have forcibly been taken from their parents at the US-Mexico border by US Customs and Border Protection. These human rights violations are based on a “zero tolerance” policy that includes separating immigrant children from parents who enter the country illegally, even those seeking asylum. Earlier this week, President Trump signed an executive order that he claims will end family separations at the border.  According to the American Civil Liberties Union, “the reality is that it may not stop separating families, will not reunite the thousands of families already torn apart, and aims to lock up even more children and families.”

As Buddhists and human beings we want to make our voices heard and stop this inhumane treatment of children and their parents. 

Be encouraged to add your name to the list of practitioners signing the Soto Zen Buddhist Association petition to the Department of Homeland Security asking border agents to permit families to remain together after crossing into the United States.

change.org

In addition, if you’d like to make a donation towards this cause, consider supporting the work of an organization like RAICES. They’re currently raising funds to pay the $5000 - $10,000 immigration bond required of detained parents, as well as provide access to attorneys to reunite them with their children.

https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/bondfund

Today, In the House of Representatives, House Speaker Paul Ryan is working to pass a bill that would sanction mass immigrant detention and incarceration and give the President a greenlight on his brutal anti-immigrant agenda. If you haven’t already, you might want to write, email or phone your congressional representatives, asking them to prevent inhumane treatment of families.

Finally, consider attending one of the “Families Belong Together” events on June 30.  There are events in Washington D.C., New York City, Woodstock, Rhinebeck, and hundreds of cities across the nation.  Click here to find an event near you​:  

MoveOn.org

If you would like to join other MRO sangha at the marches, please write to dharmaaction@dharma.net and we will try to help people meet up.

Thank you for your practice and your support.

The Dharma Action Group at Zen Mountain Monastery

The common criticism of Zen Buddhists is based on a misconception that they don't take overt action to change the world, but instead merely retreat to an internal practice of meditation, which arguable makes the world a better place, but when the house is on fire, meditation doesn't really do anything to extinguish the flames.  The truth of the matter is a large number of the individual Buddhist practioners that I know are very active in various protest and advocacy groups, and while Buddhists may typically avoid getting involved at the organization, sangha, and order level, that doesn't mean that individual people who make up those groups don't.

For the record, the Atlanta "Families Belong Together" event will be held June 30 at 10:00 a.m. at the Atlanta Detention Center (254 Peachtree St., SW).  Meanwhile, if nothing else, vote.

Adventures in Feline Mobility

The past 24 hours have been all about cats.  Or rather, one cat in particular.

When I got home from work yesterday, I noticed that Izzy, one of my two cats, was limping and not putting any weight on one of his front paws.  It looked like the leg might be broken, but it wasn't swollen or disjointed and he didn't cry or react when I touched the limp leg and paw, or even when I gave it a little squeeze.  In fact, he didn't seem to be in any pain at all.  He just wouldn't put any weight on his left foreleg and instead hopped around the house on the three remaining legs.  Eating, he lied on his side with the bad leg curled up next to him, rather than stand over his bowl like he usually does, and then he spent most of last evening curled up in a kitchen cupboard, his "safe space," instead of pestering me all night as per his typical routine.

I called the local vet, but it was too late and no one answered.  Since he wasn't in any apparent pain, I figured I'd just watch him overnight and take him in if the symptoms persisted in the morning.

They did, so I called the local vet first thing this a.m. but they couldn't fit him into their schedule today and instead recommended a local pet hospital.  I packed Izzy up in his carrier cage, one thing cats really enjoy (sarcasm), and then took him for a ride in the car, another thing cats enjoy (more sarcasm).  It turns out that the pet hospital is open 24 hours, meaning that I could have brought him in last night had I realized.

The vets at the hospital took Izzy into a back room for his exam and after about 15 minutes or so came out and asked me which leg it was that I was concerned about.  It turns out he had started walking on all fours just fine as soon as we got to the pet hospital.  I even lifted up his two back legs and wheelbarrowed him across the examination table, but he walked using the bad leg as if there wasn't a problem in the world.  According to the diagnostic report, "At the time of presentation, the lameness appeared to have resolved."  

"I performed a complete orthopedic and neurological exam on Izzy.  Izzy had no evidence of neurological disease.  .  . At this time, I am most suspicious that the lameness you observed at home is likely due to a soft tissue injury (like a twisted joint or sprain) . . ."

"Sometimes animal patients may appear to improve when they come to the hospital due to adrenaline release.  It is possible that Izzy's lameness will return at home.   Please have Izzy rechecked by a veterinarian if his lameness persists or worsens."

The doc was prophetic.  As soon as we got home (well, after he got home and took a six-hour nap - he had been through quite a traumatic morning), Izzy started limping again.  But it appears that he sometimes forgets to limp, and I've caught him a couple of times walking on all fours today.  Little faker.  

I'm going to let this run its course for a couple of days.  If the lameness persists or gets worse, I'll schedule an appointment with a vet.  

Meanwhile, Izzy owes me $99 for the hospital exam.  But I did get to take a day off from work today because of all of this, so I guess we can call it even.

The overvaluation of money, status, and competition poisons our personal relations.  The flourishing life cannot be achieved until we moderate our desires and see how superficial and fleeting they are.

- Epictetus

Monday Night Meditation

Enlightenment is not the absence of delusion, it is recognizing and accepting one's delusion.

Nils Frahm, Revisited

As a follow-up to Friday's DOTM post, here's another video of Nils Frahm wherein he's playing the kind of music with which he's more usually associated.  Like with last week's Kraken Quartet, it's hard to categorize this music, which resides somewhere between minimalism and ambient, with nods to jazz, post-rock, and neo-classical.

Multipass!

 

Dreaming of the Masters

Rules were made to be broken.  This week's DOTM entry isn't of jazz music we used to listen to back in the 70s, but something very contemporary.  Since we've been featuring the piano as of late, a logical follow-up post to last week's Keith Jarrett post is a Nils Frahm piano solo from his 2015 Late Night Tales compilation.

Regular programming will resume shortly.  Or maybe not, who knows?  Tune in next week to find out!

Meanwhile, in some Third World nation, the impoverished natives are reduced to carrying their drinking water past abandoned infrastructure back to their homes.

Where is this? Haiti? (No.) Yemen? (No.) Some former Soviet bloc country? (No.)

This is Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A., at least according to Google street view.  I looked up The Bakery, site of last Sunday night's show, to see the parking situation and this image is what I found.  I'm not making fun of the person and I hope his face is sufficiently obscured to avoid any embarrassment, but frankly, I'm embarrassed for my country.  This is what we're reduced to?  Empty  infrastructure, no basic sanitary services, and a level of economic disparity where he's just trying to survive while I'm worried about parking my Lexus?   

And this while our government, even after giving out tax breaks to the wealthiest, keeps cutting back on the social safety net and has all but conceded on the "war on poverty."  While racism and intolerance are reaching new levels of acceptance.  While a combination of impending trade wars, lack of financial regulation, and rampant mindless consumerism are all but guaranteeing another recession.  Oh, and he better stand for the national anthem, because "patriotism."

This is not acceptable.

The Kraken Quartet at The Bakery, Atlanta, June 10, 2018

Spontaneity!  Several hours before this show started, we hadn't heard about the performance, we hadn't heard of the venue, and we hadn't heard of most of the bands.  So when asked, of course we went.

The nature of the performance will be apparent from our narrative here, so we'll instead describe the venue.  The Bakery, we were told by the staff there, opened in the second half of last year in a repurposed industrial building in a, let's say, challenged, part of the city.  Not the worst neighborhood in Atlanta (but you could walk to that from there), and not a blighted industrial wasteland (but ditto).  Imagine an area on the border of all that and you'll have an idea. 

Anyway, artists and musicians are always the urban pioneers, and some young people have transformed an old bakery in southwest Atlanta into a combination gallery and performance space, with art classes, yoga sessions, etc.   Parking is inside of a fenced yard with a single-car-wide entrance, and if one can brave the drive there (it's not really that bad - we drive through worse everyday for work), it's quite pleasant once inside.

They haven't had any big shows there yet, at least as far as we've heard, but local bands use the place for a chance to perform in front of some of their friends, and some enterprising person got Austin's Kraken Quartet to perform there Sunday night, and invited some of Atlanta's avant-garde to open for them.

The show opened with someone named Majid performing some spare improvisations with an oud (I think) and vocals.  Majid later switched to violin and sat in with what appeared to be an amalgam of two other bands, Flusnoix and Harandir The Grey, for some noise improvisation.     

Upcoming  Atlanta band Duet for Theremin and Lap Steel, who now go just by Dftals, were up next.  We say "upcoming" because they been around for several years now and have toured the country several times, and they recently played their ambient outer-space music at this year's Big Ears Festival and were very well received. Truth in advertising: Dftals are exactly what their name promises - two guys, one on theremin and the other on lap steel, playing music to space-out on, or astral project to, or whatever suits your fancy.  Terrific set on Sunday night.

We finally got to the headliners, The Kraken Quartet. I hate pigeon-holing music, but they defied any categorization.  Math rock?  Post-modern chamber?  Jazz? Prog?  All of the above?  They're all-instrumental (no vocals) and lead by their drummer, who guides them through so many different adventurous time signatures in the course of a single composition that it's quite impossible to keep up with them, at least beat wise.  Adding some Steve Reich-style marimba on top of that and some indie-style tom-drum accompaniment results in a quite accessible avant-garde sound, not so far out to drive you out of the room, not so mundane as to be mood music.

Here's a taste so you can make up your own mind.

They're on tour right now, and if you happen to live near Brooklyn, you can see them tomorrow night (6/14) at Wonders of Nature. 

Overall, a very enjoyable night of discovery - new bands, a new venue, and an unexpected experience. 

I was all set to do it.  If our feckless president, that short-fingered vulgarian, could go to Singapore without starting a nuclear war, I said I would congratulate him. Give credit where credit's due.  You know, it's only fair.

But then I saw some of Fox News' fawning praise for his visit and my words got stuck in my throat.  I realized that he's got all the congratulations he needs and then some.  Nothing needs to be said here, folks. 

Yes, he didn't start a nuclear war, but then he didn't really accomplish anything, other than possibly buy North Korea some more time.  The so-called master negotiator gave up real concessions, like no more military exercises in South Korea, for a gauzy mutual statement calling for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula but without any timeline or details on how that would happen.

But, yay!  I woke up this morning, which was an accomplishment in itself as it meant that the world hadn't ended overnight in total nuclear annihilation.  

PSA

Well, our feckless, short-fingered vulgarian of a leader managed to alienate most of America's closest allies last week, even going that extra mile and insulting the head of the host country, and now he's off to Singapore to work his diplomatic magic on the possibly half-mad dictator of an emerging nuclear power.  What could possibly go wrong?

Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if they don't wind up getting along just fine.  They're both autocrats more interested in retaining power than doing anything substantive for the people of their respective nations, and they'll probably understand each other perfectly and leave the meeting as besties with a play date set for the future with Vladimir.    

(Un)Sweet Mystery of Life

The other day, I had said that I wasn't going to worry myself or lose any sleep over the survival potential of a tailless squirrel in the city. And I didn't until the tailless squirrel changed my mind.

Which is a way of saying I found the rest of the squirrel.  Arriving home after work on the rainy early evening of last Friday, I noticed an unpleasant odor by my mailbox.  It was the smell of rotting meat, the smell of death.  Looking around, it didn't take long to find from where it was coming - the carcass of the rest of the tailless squirrel was stuffed in a small rain downspout by the mailbox.

It wasn't pleasant to look at, all soggy and gross, and it smelled just awful, but I noticed that the squirrel was also at least partially disemboweled. That piqued my curiosity, so I held my nose and looked a little closer and saw that there were actually two dead squirrels in the downspout.  

How could that happen?  Who or what could do that?  An animal, say a fox or a dog, might kill a squirrel and rip it open, but I doubt that either predator, dog or fox, would then stuff the carcass into a drainpipe.  Much less twice.  It's possible that a gravely injured squirrel might have run into the drainpipe for protection from a predator before it died of its injuries in there, but the chances of that happening twice the same day seem pretty remote.

Could a person have done it?  And if so, why?  If someone were sweeping the street, say, or just out walking their dog and were horrified or offended by the two dead squirrels and felt that they had to do something, they would most likely have just tossed them into woods across the street from me, not stuff them both into a drainpipe.  It just doesn't make sense.

Or was someone trying to say something to me?  It does have a sinister, Mafioso kind of connotation to it. But in all honesty, I don't believe that I have any enemies, certainly no one motivated enough to go all Godfather on me with dead animals.  Sure, not everyone loves me, not everyone's by BFF, but I truly believe I haven't done anything to make someone want to stuff two gross squirrels into a drainpipe.  And finally, even if I'm wrong, there's a lot stronger threats one could have made with the carcasses - leave them on my doorstep, say, or put them in my mailbox.  Not stick them into a pipe where they probably wouldn't even have been noticed if it were not for the smell.

It's a complete mystery, and one to which I'll probably never learn the answer.  Any theories?  Why are there dead squirrels in my drainpipe?     

You Have to Listen to the Song All the Way Through to Understand All of This Post

"It is dishonest, nay, a sin to stand for any anthem that attempts to drown out the roar of oppression."

You've got to stay on your tippy-toes to even notice it, but that's only one of many surprisingly insightful lyrics in the Parquet Courts song Total Football, which opens their fierce new LP Wide Awake.  Clever lyric video below.  

Dreaming of the Masters

A family of foxes have taken up residency somewhere on my property. Again.

They were here a few years ago when Eliot was still young.  He's nine now, so there's some idea of how long ago the foxes were last around.

However, the past few mornings, I've seen an adult fox in the backyard, before he or she disappeared into the lush Georgia foliage growing back there.  The cats are fascinated by its presence, sitting transfixed by the window and silently staring out - not meowing or crying like they do when they see another cat, but just staring in what I can only imagine is the feline version of awe. 

Things were a bit sadder this morning.  Walking out the front door toward my car, I startled a young fox kit.  It ran a few steps away, not far, and then stopped, unsure what to do next, and I could clearly see grievous bodily damage to its hindquarters.  It looks like something, probably a dog (there are coyotes in Atlanta, but I haven't heard their calls at night recently) must have bit it and bit it hard just above the rear legs.  There was matted blood on its fur, and I could only imagine the intense pain it must have been experiencing.  That, and the terror of being so vulnerable and then having a big simian (me) show up - it had no idea that I was probably the person least likely to do it any more harm.

I didn't know what to do for it.  I could try and catch it, but chasing would just make it run away and even if I did managed to catch it, it would probably bite me and I haven't had my rabies shot in a while.  I had nothing with which to try to trap it.  And then even it I did manage to trap it or catch it without getting bitten, what would I do then?  Take it to a vet?  Would a vet even treat it?  Take it to Animal Control or the dog pound?  Would they fix it up or just put it down?  Should I try to euthanize it myself and end its suffering?  Who was I to make that decision for that poor wounded animal?

I finally decided that the kindest thing I could do was just get in my car and drive away - that wouldn't heal its injuries but at least it would relieve the fox of the additional anxiety of having some random ape gawking at it in it's suffering and vulnerable state.  I could let it go off somewhere and die in peace, naturally, on its own, or possibly (dare I hope?) heal and prosper somewhere in the urban jungle of Atlanta.  So I got in my car and drove off.

I thought about the young fox while at work, but there was no sign of him when I got home, although (and this is probably unrelated) there was a dismembered squirrel's tail near my mailbox.  Not sure what that was about, but I'm not going to worry myself or lose any sleep over the survival potential of a tailless squirrel in the city when I have a fox to worry about.   

Geo Porn

Full disclosure:  unlike our Secretary of the Interior, I actually am a geologist and just don't play one of t.v.  So a beautifully photographed and produced video like this one is almost like porno for me - rocks make me hard!

I don't know but I've been told medical marijuana can be an effective treatment for gout.  Chinese medicine apparently used marijuana to treat a variety of conditions, including gout, malaria, joint pain and muscle spasms, as far back as 2900 B.C.  In the 5,000 years since then, many cultures and civilizations have used it for a variety of purposes.  For example, the U.S. Government uses it now to keep the black population partially incarcerated and under surveillance.

Wish that were a joke. . . . 

Anyway, marijuana has over 80 chemical compounds known as cannabinoids, which affect the central nervous system and potentially offer pain relief.  The two most prominent cannabinoids are THC and CDB.  THC is the primary psychoactive compound that gives cannabis its recreational use, and is believed to have some medicinal value as well.  CBD, or cannabidiol, is the primary medicinal compound that gives marijuana its beneficial application for many medical conditions, including epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, cancer and inflammation.

The medical marijuana industry has now generated strains of weed that are low on the THC, so no fun for the recreational stoners, but high in CBD and therefore of exceptional medicinal value.  For example, the Harlequin strain claims to be 25% THC and 46% CBD.  Although even 25% THC is enough to technically get one high, CBDs reportedly can nullify the THC effect, and Harlequin is known for not being good at getting one high, if that's what one was after. 

I came across a post on another blog by a gout sufferer who tried Harlequin to treat the pain in his inflamed foot.  He had tried several prescription medicines to no avail - they just made him nauseous - and he couldn't take ibuprofen because of a kidney condition, so he eventually tried a paste form of Harlequin that's applied directly to the skin.   He initially took a small dose to avoid feeling "high," and relieved that he didn't, took a larger dose, "about the size of a small drop of super glue," to deal with the gout pain and reported: 

"After an hour, a little goofy, but comfortable, foot hurt. Played with the kids. 

After two hours, no different in feeling high (whew), but my foot feels great, almost no pain. 

After three hours, feeling pretty focused, not too tired. Don't feel like I ate pills all day (upset stomach, constipation, all that crap), which is great. Foot is swollen a bit, but not much pain. I am actually pretty impressed with the painkilling level. Swelling has gone down; likely due to treatment for swelling that I did, not sure. Feel really good overall."

So it worked for him. It may or may not have the same effects for you.  Not saying you should necessarily try it, I'm just saying keep an open mind.