Buffalo Gal

 I spend quite a bit of time reading news and views from a multitude of sources…thanks to the internet availability of news publications from all over the United States and the world as well.  Some of my favorites from around the world are "Der Speigel" (Germany) the "Jerusalem Post" and a variety of news sites from Great Britain, who follow American issues almost as closely as they follow British ones.  I think I have become much more widely read and informed since the advent of internet news sources and having been a "news junkies" for much of my adult life, reading the news and views from so many sources is most satisfying….as well as causing me a certain degree of consternation at times.  It IS good for my news junkie-ness, though.  I get that fully satisfied feeling every time I rise from my lenthy reading times.

There has been a question on my mind for a long time, especially since I regularly correspond with a cousin of mine who has very differing social and political views than I do.  I have asked him the question that needs to be answered and so far I have not had a good answer from that source.  The question I have asked him….a college campus Liberal all his adult life…is this:  "Why are you so condescending toward my views?"

Recent reading on my many news sites has given me a somewhat clearer look into the question I have been asking for so long.  Both views appeared in the venerable "Washington Post" and also appeared fairly close in time….last week to be exact…. but on different days.  My question has also been, in a more general sense,  "Why are Liberals so condescending toward Conservatives?"

Charles Krauthammer, in his weekly column, answered my question in his own way. Krauthammer answered  by dealing with the fallout of the recent elections of Republicans in three eastern states…one (Massachussetts) a bastion of hard-rock liberalness and the others, New Jersey and Virginia , a definite turnaround from the elections of the most recent kind.(2008)  In spite of the stunning upsets in all three states by Conservative candidates for  2 governors and  1 senator,   I have heard various Liberals, including the President,attribute the Democratic defeats in those states to Americans being so angry over the 8 years of the Bush presidency.  According to my own "personal source", it is another matter which both writers in the Washinton Post dealt with.

I must use a direct quote from one of the W.P. sources at this point in order to make my own point because I totally agree with the writer (Krauthammer) and he articulates it so much better than I can.                                

" A year later {after Obama’s inaugural address and his following speeches and legislative proposals} ..after stunning setbacks in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachussetts, Obama gave a stay-the-course- State of the Union address (a) pledging not to walk away from healthcare reform, (b) seeking to turn college education increasingly into a federal entitlement, and (c) asking again for cap and trade legislation.  Plus, of course, another stimulus package, this time renamed a ‘jobs bill’.  This being a democracy, don’t the Democrats see that clinging to this agenda will march them over a cliff?  Don’t they understand Massachussetts?   Well, they understand it through a prism of two cherished axioms:   (1) The American people are stupid, and (2) Republicans are bad.  Result?    The dim , led by the malicious, vote incorrectly.

"Liberal expressions of disdain for the intelligence and emotional maturity of the electorate have been, post-Massachussetts, remarkably unguarded.  New York Times columnist Charles Blow chided Obama for not understanding the necessity of speaking ‘in the plain words of plain folks’, because the people are suspicious of complexity.  Counseled Blow:  ‘The next time he gives a speech, someone should tap him on the ankle and say, ‘Mr. President, we’re down here.’      A "Time" magazine blogger was even more blunt about the ankle-dwelling mob, explaining that we are ‘a nation of dodos’ that is ‘too dumb to thrive.’ "

I began to understand the comments I have endured from my Liberal family member who has put down  most comments I have shared with him regarding current political agendas and disasters.  After the Massachussetts election  I sent him, via mail, a quote from the third president of the U.S., Thomas Jefferson,  which said "When ever things go so far wrong as to attract their notice, the people, if well informed, can be relied upon to set them to right." (Thomas Jefferson to Richard Price in 1789)   My liberal cousin replied, (condescendingly) by part of the quote:  "the people, if well informed" .  To me it was a dismissal that the people of Massachussetts were certainly NOT well- informed.  After all, Liberals know best and Liberals should be listened to—–listening to Conservative views where ever you find them, are certain signs that "we the people" are ignorant peasants and should be led by those who know what is right for us.

Krauthammer also made a point of the dramatic difference between what the current crop of Liberal Democrats in congress have said about Conservative opposition to Obama’s agenda: that being that Conservatives are "obstructionists" and have no offered no alternatives.  That part about offering no alternatives  is a blatant lie, of course but beyond that fact, when Democrats were in constant opposition to the agenda of George W. Bush, ie social security reform, and every action in Iraq….it was NOT obstructionism back then—–no… it was Noble Dissent, which they called "the highest form of patriotism" (quote Barack Obama as a senator who was one of the "dissenters’….certainly not an obstructionist.

"No more," said Krauthammer, in  his Feb 5 essay published in that day’s edition of the Washington Post,   "today, dissent from the governing orthodoxy is nihilistic malice."

But in the three states who overturned Liberal candidates and liberal agendad, it seems that the ankle-dwellers who cannot understand liberal complexities, are pushing back and will continue to push back, no matter what  interpretation of their actions comes from the Condescending Liberals in Washington and other parts of our nation. 

I believe Thomas Jefferson’s observation made in 1789 about the electorate is far wiser than anything we have heard as excuses for conservative election victories of the most recent past.

And I have my question answered.   More, perhaps,later, about another writer, Gerard Alexander’s observations about Liberal Consdescension toward Conservatives.

I received a rather unusual letter this week along with 3 pictures of a new kitty….3 months old….very cute tiger gray and black with lots of white….from the little kitty who has the name of Emma.  Here is  her story as she told it to me via her letter.

"Let me introduce myself.  I am Emma.  My name used to be Wilhelmina von Streuselberg.  I’d say Emma is a big improvement and homey sounding.     I am small, although the guy in the white coat (more about him later) said I am tall.  My new mom says I am VERY fast, well duh!

I had to survive a very scary ride from the shelter where I was.  It was awful.  I was tossed around in a dark box and I hated all the noises.  I didn’t know what was going on. I figured I was going to my  new home and so far I was not impressed.  I let my new mom and dad know too.  My throat was sore by the time we stopped.  I NEVER want to that again, I can tell you.               I was pretty scared by the time we went into what is my new home.  I just wanted to hide and be able to think all this through.  I couldn’t eat and felt all jittery inside.  My new mom and dad seemed OK.  They let me roam around and didn’t bother me too much, though Mom checked on me a lot.  After awhile I got bored being under the bed and laid down on a chair.  Then after awhile, I didn’t jump off the chair when they came to check on me.  I know  I made lots of points by using the litter pan right away.  It’s a nice big one so I have plenty of room to do my business.

There was one day I did not care about.  It concerned the guy in the white coat. It also meant being in the car again, but the terror didn’t last as long this time.  On the way home I didn’t even bother making a scene.  That was getting boring.  Anyway I was sneezing a lot and Mom took me to be checked over.  I weigh 3.9 pounds and am healthy…also tall, you know.  Then you wouldn’t believe what that man did.  Oh, I can’t even put the words down, it’s so private.  Talk about rude!  He must be some kind of a pervert.  I wriggled a really lot. He told my Mom I had a little fever, whatever that is.   The sneezing is better now. I took a really long nap and feel better now.  I  also let my Mom know which food I like best by pretending to bury the icky stuff.  Things should be just fine soon.

Oh, you won’t believe this!  I got my very own e-mail from Miss Kitty {Buffalogal’s Kitty} and it had advice about how to handle my male and female slaves.  She (Miss Kitty) said:  ‘ My advice is to make her, and him your Slaves as soon as possible.  It’s easier done when you are cute little kitty.  I did this when I was still a very small kitty….I climbed right up my male slave’s pant leg out in the barn and he was smitten with me from then on.’   She also had good news for me.  She wrote ‘I hope you have a great life.  I have heard that those two people you live with are VERY GOOD to kitties so you should have a cakewalk for the next 20 years or so.’     Isn’t that nice?  What a relief too.

It’s been very busy in the time I have been here.  I wonder if that’s what it is like all the time?  Last night a bunch of ladies were here. Boy, they were noisy, but a lot of fun.  I was the center of attention that’s for sure.  I was as cute as I can be and gave each lady time with me.  I made sure I didn’t ignore anyone.  Well, there was one lady I could tell didn’t like me as much as the rest of them.  I didn’t need her lap anyway.  I played and played and slept on laps.   They want me to come to the next meeting.  I wish I knew what kind of group it is, what its purpose is and what its motivations are?

I sense an empty lap, gotta go.  Bye."

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Little Emma is my cousin’s new kitty. She is so welcome after they had to bring their last old cat to the Vet for being "put down" as an act of mercy for a very old and tired pet.  Now they have a lively new kitty and Emma’s pictures show her to be a scene stealer….and a heart stealer…. by the pictures of her sleeping on her new Dad’s lap.

I read an excerpt from a speech given by the man who led Poland’s struggle to break the hold of communism on his country….Lech Walesa.  Walesa spoke in Chicago last week on behalf of a fellow Polish man…actually a Polish American, of which Chicago has many.  Mike Royko, the well known writer of essays and commentarys for more than one Chicago paper, is one of the Polish-Americans who would, no doubt, have cheered Lech Wasesa’s efforts on behalf of Poland.

Walesa spoke on behalf of a gubernatorial candidate, Adam Andrzejewski.  Part of his speech mused on the role the United States has played over so many years in world affairs. What follows is the translation from Polish, of part of the speech. (I can imagine how much the people who support the Polish American governor candidate would have loved to hear the Polish language spoken).

"The United States is only one superpower.  Today they lead the world.  Nobody has doubts about it.  Militarily.  They also lead economically but they are getting weak.  But they don’t lead morally or politically anymore.  The world has no leadership.  The United States was always the the last resort and hope for all other nations. There was the hope whenever something was wrong, one could count on the United States.  Today we lost that hope."(Lech Walesa speaking in Chicago last week).

I have tried to think back to the shining moments Walesa was thinking about when he talked about the United States being the last resort and hope for other nations when things went wrong.  I am sure the support of Walesa’s freedom movement by the United States was on Walesa’s mind.   The United  States coming into two World Wars surely would be examples also.     Would Europe have been able to free themselves from the dictatorships that tried to take over Europe in both 1914 and 1939?  The United States paid the price in blood and treasure, losing millions of their young men in defending the European continent in both of those world conflicts.  Would any of the Europeans who remember what the US forces did to secure their liberty dispute Walesa’s claim?

I thought of the Berlin Airlift of 1948 when the Americans with the help of their ally, Great Britain, broke the blockade of Berlin which had been the work of the Russian communist bully-boys who tried to take over Berlin almost immediately after the second world war ended.  By courageously flying supplies into Berlin for almost a year, the blockade was broken and the Russians had to concede.  Berliners who lived through that time of horror will never forget what the United States and Britain did by being the "last resort and hope" at that period of history.

I also thought of President Ronald Reagan, speaking in West Germany at the site of the huge wall that divided East Germany from West Germany…."Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." It eventually happened after Reagans’s final term when his successor, George HW Bush became the United States president.  Not only did the Wall come down, but the entire old Soviet system collapsed after years of the U.S. speaking out against the tyranny and encouraging the nations under that tyranny to break free.   Once again the U.S. took the role of the "last resort and hope."

President Clinton’s insistence that the United States lead the UN peacekeeping forces in the war torn regions of the former Yugoslavian nation would certainly qualify to those persecuted people as a "last resort and hope" for their enjoying peace once again.

In 1992 the United States and its allies went to war to turn back the takeover of Kuwait by the forces of Sadam Hussein’s Iraqi army.  Again the U.S. stood up to be counted and acted along with its allies as the "last resort and hope" against an illegal invasion of another small but free nation.

I know there are other events and occasions when this nation stepped in to help another nation, giving them hope for their future.  Walesa’s sad comment, "Today we lost that hope" is an eerie precendent to what might happen if things continue on the course of economic disaster in the United States coupled with the perceived increasing weakness of a once -powerful nation to which other countries could look for help.

Being stalked—–I think of Jack the Ripper when I say that phrase; but I AM being stalked hourly, minutely, and secondly for the past 7 days.  The Stalker is a male (of course); he has brandy colored brown hair which is very soft and almost appealing in spite of being on a Stalker.  He weights at least 30 pounds and he is stealthy—almost like he is walking on padded pays.   Whoa…….he IS stalking on padded paws.  His name is Jobie and he knows me well—too well.  He is my granddogger, along with "Otto" and "Lucy-Kay" but Jobie is at my house being "dog-sitted" by us for the rest of the week and on into next week as well.  He has Insecurity Syndrome Extremis coupled with Severe Separation Anxiety.  He needs to be treated by a very astute Dog Therapist and the sooner the better.   

I feel like I have a dog attached to my (a) leg  (b) ankles   (c) thighs(when I am seated) or (d) knees  (e) feet.      He cannot let me out of his sight. 

NEWS FLASH:  He has just had a Hysterical Barks Attack.  The UPS man brought a box to our door and there is new meaning to high, yapping, yelping guard dog tactics…he sounds like a score of dogs but the UPS man must have had this happen before because he did not look at all panicked when I opened the door  a small slit to assure him he was not going to be torn limb from limb.  I managed to get the box through the door slit also.

Back to being stalked by this long haired, brandy- colored 7 year old Dachsund.  He fits the definition of a "nervous little dog".  I have a cartoon on my refrigerator that shows a Dachsund standing on its hind legs on a chair by a kitchen counter.  The dog is preparing to brew a pot of Espresso.  The caption says "how nervous little dogs start their days."  I would swear that Jobie has drunk a few cups of Espresso every morning but I keep him trapped in the bedroom with me so he cannot get out unless I am accompanying him (I have to stalk him too because our Princess Kitty is not at all happy that he is staying so long.)  She can handle a weekend or a couple of days at Christmas or New Years—but  nearly two weeks? She does not like it one bit and stays in her "condo" in the basement most of the hours of every day.  I take the Canine Hysterian upstairs to a bedroom with me early in the evening where I spend the rest of my night reading, reading, and more reading while HE lies beside me staring at me with his "toy-boy" brown eyes…barely daring to let them close til I turn off the lights and turn in, with  him finally relaxing and falling asleep after a day of being highly nervous, insecure and anxious about not being with his "mom" (my daughter in law) whom he adores and worships and follows at their home.  She, and the rest of my youngest son’s family are getting a reprieve from their nervous dog by taking a trip to much warmer climes for about 7 days a-sea on the Caribbean.

I may need a vacation after this stint of dog sitting.  I do want to go to Nebraska when the Sandhill Cranes gather for their spring migrations north.  That would do nicely.

SIGNS THAT SPRING IS REALLY GOING TO COME:   We drove to Fargo -Moorhead today to get a picture framed and do a few other necessary errands.  On the way home I saw, in a row of very old willow trees in a shelter belt, the first coloring-up of the swaying and flexible willow branches which are showing the first signs of getting more yellow-green.  Then I looked in the other direction and saw clumps of wild dogwood "redding" up much more than they have been in the deep of December and January.   I sought out the row of "cultivated" willow shrubs to the north of the highway and Voila!   They, too, are beginning to show their blaze orange limbs …..Flame Willows is what they are called and they are beginning to show positive signs of flaming again in anticipation of warmer weather.  Note to Self:  plant some Flame Willow shrubs this spring!!!

WE MAY BE POISONING OURSELVES:   With more and more reports daily about the errors (many of them deliberate) by the global warming scientists (a loose term for some of them) and the dropping to the bottom of the list of things that most concern Americans…global warming is at the absolute bottom of that list…..I think about the report I read not too long ago in which the gas, Carbon Dioxide, was declared a dangerous— even poisonous gas in our atmosphere.  Do you realize that we, as humans, are breathing out poison with every exhalation we make????   Humans and other creatures with lungs must dump millions of tons of CO2 every day into our atmosphere which is being poisoned, according to our valiant EPA which issued the carbon dioxide danger warnings.     Somebody should tell this news to all the green plants on Earth which need CO2 to live and produce the oxygen that WE need so desperately. 

Seems like a much simpler solution to those who suffer from Global Warming Anxiety would be to encourage, and do something to ban the destruction of jungles and other large plots of trees on the earth’s suface.  They could also put their considerable energy into planting millions more trees, shrubs and grasses all over the world.  It would not involve as much anxiety and maybe not so much money as the current panicky responses from these GWs that stalk Al Gore like Jobie stalks me.

 Just a little play on words—-I cannot help myself sometimes.

  But seriously…..it had been awhile since I checked out the "Miss Rumphius Poetry" site.   Today’s offering was a challenge to write a "metaphor poem" as in "something is like."………… One poem that had been posted by Kathy Leeuwenberg was interesting.  Another poet had modified the Leeuwenberg poem to exclude all the  "is like" lines so that the adapted poem read like this.  I really liked it so I will share it.

A BOOK IS……..

A book is an open flower…..  scented pages, fragrant hours.

a crafy fox….surprising in its clever plots.

a windowsill……..where breezy thoughts are never still.

an hourglass…..whose pages flow as hours pass.

a lock and key……that opens doors and sets minds free.

an ancient clock….that speaks the time but never talks.

an open letter…..when read again the friendship’s better.

a trusted friend…..that keeps its secrets to the end.

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I especially liked the line about "the open letter… when read again the friendship’s better". I have just re-read two books that were absolutely stunning for me:  I listened to the book on tape for "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" and am almost done re-reading "The Forgotten Garden" which is our chosen book for our February adult book discussion at the local library.  I am enjoying the reading program titled "Hot Reads For Cold Nights." With a cup of cocoa (made from the REAL Hershey’s bitter dry cocoa…there is NO other cocoa, in my opinion)— it does not get much better than that—–a cuppa and a good book for a cold night.  ( I am turning into either an Aussie or a Brit due to reading the above mentioned books….they constantly  refer to a "cuppa" when talking about either tea or coffee!!!)  The authors of the two books:  one Australian (Sarah Morton) and two Brits ( an aunt and a niece whose names I cannot dredge up at the moment)

Anyone care to try composing a metaphor poem????   It sounds easy for someone who has the Poetic Muse whispering in his/her ear.

Groundhog Day….the supposed glorious precursor to Sweet Springtime…never occurs but what I do not think of several things from past Groundhog Days…plus thoughts about a favorite American artist.  ( incidentally, Punxatawny Phil, the Pennsylvania "groundhog" saw his shadow when he was held up for crowds in Punxatawny this morning…..6 more weeks of winter…UGH.)

On Groundhog Day in 1963, my husband and his graduate school friend Jon L…. traveled to Lewiston, Idaho from Pullman Washington…for what purpose I cannot remember.  Guys’ Day Out I think, after putting in a lot of tough hours as grad students every week.  I think that was the day they came back with a very old Cider Press with a wooden tub for the apples.  The following fall they made the best fresh apple cider I can ever remember tasting; they found an abandoned apple orchard near Steptoe Butte in Whitman County where we lived and made a lot of sweet cider.  But on Feb. 2, 1963 they got another surprise while walking on the Main Drag in Lewiston, which I remember as the longest main street I have ever seen….it must have been following the course of the Snake River which ran through Lewiston.  They spotted a table with a cardboard box on it and a sign that said  "SEE THE GROUNDHOG"  The box had airholes punched in it so the two of them were sure there was a live animal inside.  When they peeked in cautiously they saw a one- pound package of pork sausage!  The ground hog—–get it????       I thought this was so amusing that I did the same trick one Feb. 2 when I was an elementary school librarian.  I made the same sort of box with the same sign and cautioned the students "do not wake the groundhog—-it will be very angry if you do."    They tiptoed up to my box and peeked in with great caution, to see …..a one- pound package of Jimmy Dean pork sausage.  A lot of them didn’t "get it"….I had to explain many times, but for the kids who did get it—-they thought it was hilarious and ran around telling others to go see the "groundhog" in the library.

On a serious note on Feb 2, I always think of the painting titled "Groundhog Day"  by Andrew Wyeth, an American artist who spent his entire life either in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania (a most rural area) or near Cushing, Maine, another very rural setting.  He was content to spend his 91- year long life in one of these two locations.  Near Chadds Ford, he became acquainted  with and also  a very close friend of Karl Kuerner, a German immigrant farmer, who became like a surrogate father to Wyeth after his own father was killed in a tragic car-train collision at Chadds Ford in 1945 when Andrew was still a relatively young man.    Many people dislike Wyeth’s paintings which are not at all colorful, done in the medieval medium of egg wash and water color in order to achieve the "look" Wyeth wanted.   His famous painting "Groundhog Day" employs a Wyeth technique of looking through a window to the outside.   Many art critics and historians note a definite gloomy preoccupation with death in Wyeth’s paintings and that may have been triggered by the death of his father, Newell Wyeth, also a famous artist/illustrator.

In "Groundhog Day" the viewer is looking through a window from a dining room where the table is set very neatly with a clean white cloth on which is a white cup and a white plate and silverware.  The walls of the room are cheerfully papered with flowered wallpaper….with flowers that never cease to bloom.  Outside the window we see a bleak winter landscape of dried, dead brown grass, a fallen tree is lying on the grass with jagged edges showing on the tree;  barbed wire is coiled nearby as is a piece of chain.  This exterior scene has definite connotations of Wyeth’s many deathlike paintings.  The whole inside room seems to mock the the scene outside the window sill.  Andrew Wyeth’s paintings often feature windows… with the windows acting as barriers between the inner order and the chaos pictured ouside the window.  Even though the window separates the two scenes, it also keeps them connected, just as life and order cannot exist without death and chaos.

I used to check out a framed print of "Groundhog Day" from the library system I reside in.  I hated having to return it after the 6- week checkout period was over.  I wonder if the library system still has that framed print???

I have read several books about Andrew Wyeth and his art works.  I think the most famous of his works is "Christina’s World" which is a painting of another of his close personal friends, this one from Cushing, Maine, where the Wyeth families summered for years and years.   Christina Olson suffred from a degenerative muscle disease that crippled her, but she would never use a wheelchair to get around her home farm property.  She preferred to crawl to  where she wanted to go on the farm.  "Christina’s World" depicts her in a field, her body is twisted and her frail legs show beneath the hem of a pale pink dress.  It is surmised that she had crawled to visit the gravesites of her parents who were buried on the property.    Her face is turned away from the artist as she gazes back at the farmhouse where she has spent her whole life and where she will die when she is in her nineties.  Many art critics have noted a spirit of quiet determination and an unconquerablity, in the face of terrible obstacles.   Wyeth was so close to Christina and her brother, Alvaro, that he visited them daily when he was in Maine and even had an upstairs room in their house where he had a studio for painting.  One of his paintings is done looking out the window of his studio onto the roof of one of the homes gables.  I think its title is simply "At Olsons".

This blog topic may not interest many readers but for those it does, I would recommend finding books about Andrew Wyeth and his works and reading them like I have.   Some google topics that would help you are  "Andrew Wyeth Prints"     "Andrew Wyeth Biography"    "The Helga Pictures" and just googling his name, "Andrew Wyeth".  The two biggest library systems in our area…LARL and Fargo Public would also have books about Wyeth and his works….check out the online library catalogs by putting his name in a subject search.

BIBLIOGRAPHY FROM L.A.R. L. AND FARGO PUBLIC LIBRARIES:

@ Fgo down town library:    1.   ANDREW WYETH : A SECRET LIFE/      2. ANDREW WYETH: THE HELGA PICTURES/         3. THE BRANDYWINE HERITAGE:  HOWARD PYLE, NC WYETH, ANDREW WYETH, JAMES WYETH

@  L.A.R.L.       1. ANDREW WYETH: A SECRET LIFE       2.CHRISTINA’S WORLD: PAINTING AND PRE-STUDIES        3.  ANDREW WYETH: THE HELGA PICTURES    4.  WYETH PEOPLE: A PORTRAIT OF ANDREW WYETH AS SEEN BY HIS FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS