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To those who gave their all so that we might enjoy such natural wonders

A North American native, the lushly exotic-looking Cecropia Silkmoth lays its eggs on "various trees and shrubs including box elder, sugar maple, wild cherries and plums, apples, alder and birch, dogwoods and willows," where the caterpillars gorge through five instar phases before spinning a cocoon and metamorphosizing into the astonishing creature (above) we held in our hand for one brief, shining moment this morning at Goomp's Down East. Given the local plant community, the spreading apple or the amelancher in the front forty looks to be the likely nursery for this miracle of nature.

As we were letting Goomp's Purrky out onto the little porch here at Camelot-by-the-Sea early morning, a small bit of something animalcule caught the pussycat's eye. Uh, oh, another bird or chipmunk gone the way of all flesh, we sighed. But no. Purrk wasn't interested in whatever it was and headed off on his rounds. We took a closer look, and a wonderment: A Cecropia Moth (Hyalophora cecropia). Last time we'd seen one we were still wet behind the ears ourselves. This one, fresh from the cocoon, was flexing its wings preparatory to taking the plunge.

 

As a little girl, we'd captured an outrageously gorgeous plump caterpillar in the family garden and set it up in a homemade terrarium to complete its eating orgy, pupate and finally emerge months later into a likeness of the stunning specimen above. This morning we coaxed the totally awesome creature onto our left hand and took a few photographs one-handed with our right before the transcendent moment when it suddenly took flight and soared off into the early-morning light in search of love.

 

Adult Cecropias "do not feed." No dinner dates for them, but not to worry: "The females emit pheromones at night, which the male can detect with its large, plumose antennae. Males can fly for miles in order to reach a female. The moths mate, and the female spends the remainder of her life laying eggs, while the male may mate several more times." Looks like our little guy was hot to trot.

More pictures below from our Memorial Day salute to the brave and good and true fellow Americans who give their all so we might enjoy such natural wonders. The cookout was a triumph, our dearly departed mother's garden was in glorious bloom, and Susie's rhubarb pie was a show stopper. Purrky provided the entertainment by delivering a chipmunk before the assembled guests. Quickly mobilizing, we grabbed him up, shaking the chipster out of the jaws so it had time to scurry away. As we always say, our beloved puddies have their imperatives, and we have ours.

Update: Laura Lee links with a moving tribute:

None of these men will be with us tomorrow as we celebrate the many freedoms we enjoy on Memorial Day.

McCain nails Obama: "The American people have figured it out"

Photoshopped version (above) of this morning's Drudge Report screaming headline (below). AP photo

"'Oh my,' McCain laughs, his voice dripping with jest," in a refreshingly candid NRO interview that suggests Sarah Palin is now in the driver's seat and her former running mate in the passenger seat of the jerry-built vehicle that started the two on a bumpy ride across the political landscape back in August of 2008, when Palin sprung onto the national scene full blown from McCain's forehead. She's been disintermediating the powers that be via the internet ever since, speaking directly to us and to the Leader of the Free World through Facebook, WSJ and WaPo op eds, talk radio and Fox News. Here's McCain, referencing the growing Sestak scandal headlined by Drudge:

"Can’t we just trust their words? I mean, what’s the matter with you? If Robert Gibbs says nothing untoward took place, then that, of course, satisfies any concerns I might have." More seriously: "All I can say is this: Imagine if this was the Bush administration. The media wolf pack would be in full cry. But this is something we’ve grown used to. We have a compliant media. The good thing is that the American people have figured it out. They’re not being guided by the views of the mainstream media. If they were, the president’s polls wouldn’t be where they are."

Meanwhile, having followed the legacy-media script, Rahm, Barack and Bubba find themselves front and center on Drudge this morning, first day of a three-day weekend when the White House no doubt hoped the nation would head out for the patio and not worry our pretty little heads about the big lie they dumped on us yesterday. Instead, it's all over talk radio, cable and the internet. Pajamas Media's take was particularly witty and astute [h/t Dan Collins at POWIP]:

Of course in the case of Sestak and his putative job offer, we have no idea what actually happened. But we do know the sleaze factor is high —  and not just because of the presence of Bill Clinton whose SQ (Sleaze Quotient) may be even higher than his IQ. Clinton is merely a product of "The Culture of Narcissism," Obama et al are the product of something worse – "The Culture of Chicago."

But the real issue now is not the “Deep Dish Sleazemeisters” from Chicago. They are who they are. Rod Blagojevich, Rahm Emanuel and Barack Obama are all cut from the same cloth.

The real issue is our media – the Fourth Estate that we all are supposed to depend on to vet these people.

Not to worry. As John McCain has figured out — thanks, perhaps, to the lady at the wheel — we may have a compliant media, but "the American people have figured it out."

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

"Because we sailed too close to the shore," revisited

"For the beauty of the earth, For the Glory of the skies…" Grapefruit and lilacs for breakfast Down East early morning.

For our AmerAussie Twitter friend Spot the Dog and all our readers, a republication of our May 25, 2008 Memorial Day post:

"I'm savoring the revealing contrast between Drake's seafaring 'reach for the stars' vision and Michelle Obama's landlocked 'audacity of whining' (Powerline's expression)," we wrote in the comments of Bird Dog's totally awesome "Annual re-post: Sir Francis Drake's Prayer (1577) at Maggie's Farm.

Sir Francis:

Disturb us Lord, when
We are too pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore…

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wilder seas
Where storms will show Your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.

What we said two Mem Days back still applies, big time: "Sunrise this morning over Eastern Point across the river from Goomp's, headquarters for the family's Memorial Day salute to the awesomely brave and good and true fellow Americans who give their all so we might enjoy such natural wonders. We think you know who you are, our beloved fellow bloggers and readers who serve and love those who serve. We cannot thank you enough. God bless."

Michelle Obama:

You start working hard and sacrificing, and you think you’re getting closer to the bar, you’re working and you’re struggling, you get right to that bar, you’re reaching out for the bar, and then what happens?

They raise the bar. Raise the bar. Shift it to the side. Keep it just out of reach.

"Let us not wallow in the valley of despair," Martin Luther King famously said:

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American Dream.

Is Michelle Obama "too pleased with herself," venturing on Francis Drake's "wilder seas" even as she urges her listeners to instead "dream too little" and sail "too close to the shore"? The soft bigotry of low expectations?

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

As Arizona goes, so goes the nation? Ask Massachusetts.

Don't tread Fed on me. Arizona Black Rattlesnake (above) is a fitting symbol for Arizona's widely unread immigration law: "When threatened, rattlesnakes will often rattle their tails, producing a loud, dry rattling sound meant to warn the threat away."

Scott Brown may be disappointing a lot of his supporters by going RINO in recent U.S. Senate votes, but the Brown Effect is in full swing stateside in Taxachusetts. We just got wind of this from Barney Frank challenger Sean Bielat on Twitter:          

Mass, Senate passes crackdown on illegal immigrants.

With one lawmaker citing President Lincoln's respect for the rule of law, the Massachusetts Senate passed a far-reaching crackdown this afternoon on illegal immigrants and those who would hire them, going further, senators said, than any immigration bill proposed over the past five years …

Democrats had resisted such a sweeping proposal, but spent last evening negotiating today’s measure, shortly after a new polled showed 84 percent of the liberal-leaning state’s voters supported tough immigration rules barring state services to illegal immigrants.

"The measure comes weeks after immigration measures failed in the House, and amid heightened debate over illegal immigration fueled by the state's election season and Arizona's passage in April of the toughest immigration law in the nation," reports the Globe [A fine job of reporting, we must say. Not a whiff of Bush bashing.]:

Thursday's Senate amendment would also authorize the state attorney general's office to broker an agreement with federal authorities to help enforce immigration law. That would be a stark departure for Attorney General Martha Coakley, who has increased outreach to immigrants, encouraging them to file employment complaints, regardless of their legal status. Scores of immigrants whose bosses allegedly failed to pay their wages have turned to her for help in recent years.

The Brown Effect segues into the Arizona Governor Jan Brewer Effect?

Related: "MSNBC's 'A Divided Nation' Ignores Conservatives, Champions Immigration Overhaul."

Update: Michele Malkin's "Buzzworthy" link and Memeorandum discussion.

Update II: Instalanche! This story has legs.

Update III: Maggie's links!

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

Jan Brewer: Massachusetts Repubs' secret weapon?

"Border problems that seem like a world away emerged in Chelsea and Revere over the last few years, and state law enforcement and the FBI are just now unraveling a drug operation here that allegedly had direct connections to Colombian drug kingpins who have set up shop along the U.S. Border," reported our local rag, the Chelsea Record, the other day.

The influx of illegal immigrants has "emerged as a flashpoint in the Massachusetts governor’s race" according to the Boston Globe. Oh, sweet Scott Brown for whom we fought the good fight, you may not be voting as we would have you vote on every bill, but the reverberations of your "term limits by other means" special election are sweet music to our ears:

Staking out increasingly tough stances on illegal immigration, Republican gubernatorial candidate Charles D. Baker and independent rival Timothy P. Cahill said yesterday that they want to give police the authority to arrest people.

As the two candidates battle for conservative voters, Baker said he would reinstate a controversial agreement with the federal government that Governor Mitt Romney signed in 2006 that deputized 30 specially trained State Police troopers to detain illegal immigrants …

The program never took effect in Massachusetts because Patrick rescinded it before the troopers could be trained …

Immigration is currently the province of the federal government, though many critics say Washington has failed to stem the influx of illegal immigrants, and the issue has emerged as a flashpoint in the Massachusetts governor’s race.

Carefully sidestepping association with Arizona's popular but politically incorrectly misrepresented immigration law, "Cahill said residents are fed up with illegal immigration":

“We’re not looking to profile people or prejudge,’’ said Cahill, the state treasurer. “But, if they can’t prove they are citizens, then that should be part of the police work of detaining and eventually deporting people.’’

"Using illegal aliens mostly to handle the drugs, investigators said Pereanez — who had a U.S. passport — kept himself away from the product. Wiretaps led investigators to other alleged dealers," noted the Record.

Despite "a widespread consensus among police chiefs, particularly in the state's urban areas, that they do not want to be in the business of enforcing [federal] immigration law," People's-Seat-energized taxachusetts Republican candidates are reading the tea leaves:

“As a tool for dealing with some really bad actors in some of our cities, they said it was an effective tool, and they were sorry not to have it as a way to protect their communities,’’ Baker said …

He would reenroll Massachusetts in the federal program used by a handful of states, including Rhode Island, that allows state troopers to arrest people determined during the course of an investigation to be illegal immigrants.

Sounds good to us here in crime-ridden Chelsea-by-the-Sea (see captions above), one of four Massachusetts "sanctuary cities" where drug dealing fed by South-of-the-Border connections is huge:

Despite a 1996 federal law [the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act that requires local governments to cooperate with Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement(ICE)], many large urban cities (and some small) have adopted so-called "sanctuary policies." Generally, sanctuary policies instruct city employees not to notify the federal government of the presence of illegal aliens living in their communities. The policies also end the distinction between legal and illegal immigration — so illegal aliens often benefit from city services too.

Interesting. You'd almost think that someone like ourselves, who generally favors local over federal solutions, would be on the side of the sanctuary-city folks. Only problem is it rewards — and therefore encourages — bad behavior.

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

I always knew someday you'd come along

Birds love  …

 

And bees love …

And whispering trees love …

And that's what we both should do.

We'll make a twosome that just can't go wrong … darling …

Crossposted at Cloven not Crested.

"They run the unions for the benefit of the party"

"No lasting gain has ever come from compulsion," American labor union leader and AF of L founder Samuel Gompers is quoted in an inscription on his Robert I. Aitken Bronze Memorial in DC (detail from the Memorial, young man reading, above). "There is no way whereby our labor movement may be assured sustained progress in determining its policies and its plans other than sincere democratic deliberation until a unanimous decision is reached." Oh, the irony of unintended consequences, but it was ever thus. Power corrupts. Gompers's words may prove prophetic on the road to November, though, as "term limits by other means" begin to disgorge the statist monster that has been forced down our gagging throats through thuggish one-party rule.

"unions intend to spend 100 million to support democrats in the upcoming elections," writes tommy mc donnell in the comments to our previous post, summing up in one concise, Cummingsian paragraph (all lower case) the way of the world:

and not one union rank and file
member will have a word to say about it.
do you think the bailout money is a
payback for this support?

the unions should use that 100 million
to shore up their pensions instead of
using it for political purposes.

speaking as a retired public union member
living on one of those pensions
everyone is upset about, the problem
with unions is the leaders of the unions
are all democratic party politicians.

they run the unions for the benefit of the party
not like in the past when union leaders tried
to use the democratic party for the
benefit of the union.

Pure poetry.

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

Et tu, Thad McCotter?

"The most alive is the wildest. Not yet subdued to man, its presence refreshes him." Thoreau's words resonate with irony in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Above, a "dragonfly tries to clean itself as it is stuck to marsh grass covered in oil" on the gulf coast of Louisiana. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

"ET TU, Thad McCotter?" we twittered our favorite Congressman (R-MI 11th) this morning, seeking to understand the thinking behind his embrace of HR 3936, a bill sponsored by Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) and Patrick Tiberi (R-Ohio) that is getting a lot of bad press:

Americans for Limited Government (ALG) has sent a letter to 9 House Republicans urging that they withdraw their support from legislation providing a taxpayer bailout of labor-union-run pension funds …

“We are asking that each Representative remove his or her cosponsorship of this blatant handout to unions, which are now asking the American people to bail them out of their own mismanagement of pensions,” Wilson said, adding that “Compensating poor investment strategies, like those pursued by the multi-employer pension plans, only incentives further underfunding of these plans” …

Citing the hundreds of millions of dollars spent by labor bosses to support Obama, the Democratic majority, and the 9 House Republicans (see attachments below), Wilson decried unions’ “audacity to try to cash in on their political investment by foisting these unfunded liabilities accumulated under their watch onto the backs of taxpayers, who are struggling to fund their own retirements.”

Rep McCotter sent along this video of himself holding forth in the House of Representatives in defense of HR 3936:

What it does is good government. It allows employers the space they need to make sure they meet the pension obligations that they have for their workers. It is not a government bailout. Taxpayer funds are not involved, unless, of course, these institutions, these unions and their pension plans fail.

It is a wonderful idea by my colleague Pat Tiberi (Another of the 9 Repubs to whom the ALG letter was sent), it is endorsed by many, many business groups, and I would hope that over the course of the coming hours the truth will out. Again, you can't always believe what you see on TV.

It was the "unless, of course" part that gave us pause. The House bill is apparently similar to one introduced last week by Senator Casey, described by the National Right to Work Committee as a "taxpayer-funded union pension bailout":

Legislation introduced last week could shift costs of union pension plans to taxpayers in an attempt to stave off organized labor’s pension funding crisis. Senator Bob Casey, Pennsylvania Democrat, introduced the so-called Create Jobs & Save Benefits Act of 2010 to address the funding problems faced by union-administered multi-employer pension plans by shifting the burden to the taxpayers. Casey said his bill would cost the taxpayers $8 to $10 billion.

According to a FoxBusiness report and bloggers who are following the story, the tab could run much higher:

If passed, the bill could put another $165 billion in liabilities on the shoulders of American taxpayers …

As FOX Business Network’s Gerri Willis reported Monday, these pensions are in bad shape; as of 2006, well before the market dropped and recession began, only 6% of these funds were doing well.

Although right now taxpayers could possibly be on the hook for $165 billion, the liability could essentially be unlimited because these pensions have to be paid out until the workers die. It’s hard to say at the moment what the chances are that the bill will pass. A hearing is scheduled Thursday, which will give the public a sense of where political leaders sit on the topic, said Willis.

Professor Reynolds was not amused:

WHILE AMERICANS’ 401(K) PLANS SHRINK, Congress wants to bail out unions’ overgenerous and underfunded pension plans.

Our man Dan Riehl had the scoop on deep background way back in early March. His "Big Labor, Obama And Dems Have Big Plan$ For You" is a must-read to get up to speed. It includes interviews with Brett McMahon of the Associated Building Contractors and Katie Packer of the Workforce Fairness Institute. A lot to digest. If you're reading this, Dan, please feel free to join the conversation.

Related: USA Today's "Private pay shrinks to historic lows as gov't payouts rise" and John Fund's "Tea Parties vs. Unions in November."

Update: Michelle Malkin "Buzzworthy" link.

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

Sarah Palin: You go for the jugular, girl!

While some Twitter fashion victims dissed Sarah's turquoise necklace on Fox News Sunday this morning, Rachel Friberg got it right away: "Ahhhh I HEART Sarah Palin's necklace." As we twittered back, "Sarah's necklace was probably a signal of support for Gov Brewer. Turquoise jewelry is an AZ signature." Meanwhile Sarah pokes fun at our betters who know what's best for us whether or not they've read the bill: "Even I can read it." And, in case you missed it, it's not that easy being illiterate.

The sadder but wiser girl for me? Sarah's looking a lot sadder and wiser these days (above with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday this morning, her look calls to mind House's tormented lover Dr. Cuddy). The Music Man got it right:

No bright-eyed, blushing, breathless baby-doll baby Not for me. That kinda child ties knots no sailor ever knew. I prefer to take a chance on a more adult romance. No dewy young miss Who keeps resisting all the time she keeps insisting! No wide-eyed, wholesome innocent female.

Hardened and ready for battle, our Sarah's come a long way, baby, from the first blush of her bursting full blown from the head of John McCain way back when to today's thrust and parry with the Leader of the Free World. This in a tweet this afternoon:

Mr. Gibbs, Obama is the top recipient of British Petroleum PAC & individual money over the past 20 years. Dispute these facts.

Melissa Clouthier gets it just right:

Once again Sarah Palin is calling out the President. Like a voice in the wilderness.

And our reply:

A momma grizzly is a voice in the wilderness.

You go for the jugular, girl!

Update: Instalanche! Thank you, dear blogfriend Ed Driscoll:

Tweet of the day: “Mr. Gibbs, Obama is the top recipient of British Petroleum PAC & individual money over the past 20 years. Dispute these facts."

Update II: Sweet Crude: "Palin accuses Obama of being in bed with big oil."

Update III: A Michelle Malkin "Buzzworthy" link.

Update IV: Look, Ma, Memeorandum pickup!

Update V: The good, the bad and the ugly: Stimulating discussion in the comments at RWV.

Crossposted at Riehl World View, Cloven Not Crested and Liberty Pundits.

The better angels of our nature trump the tribal "us vs them"

"Sister Sarah R Brother Barack," we captioned this image in our blogpost "Barack Obama is Sister Sharon Falconer" last year: "Screenshot above of Jean Simmons as Sarah Falconer saving a soul in 'Elmer Gantry,' the timeless 1960 film, in Wikipedia's take 'about a con man and a female evangelist selling religion to small town America.' But isn't that exactly what Barack Obama & Company have been up to these last two years?"

"We're all sinners, the preacher tells us. We get what that means, don't we? Why then don't we understand the idea that we're all racists?" asks Ann Althouse provocatively for the defense. How to account for the offense taken by limited-government, free-market tea-party types like ourselves to the current fashion among polemicists on the left side of the aisle of branding us racists? Bombastic race-baiters like the reverends Jackson, Sharpton and Wright may have been thrown under the bus, but a more nuanced narrative was set in motion by the man who would be POTUS at least as far back as December of 2006, when candidate Obama in effect called us a racist for disagreeing with his statist politics. First a few words from the professor, and then our own decipherings. Here's Althouse:

Why does that bother people so? I've been listening to Critical Race Theory for the last 25 years, so saying that everyone is afflicted by racism seems more tedious and trite to me than truly offensive. Is it useful — is it helpful — to approach problems this way, that's what I would ask. But I've been living in a hothouse — among the lawprofs. Out there in the larger social and political world, people feel quite offended and genuinely threatened at the suggestion that their ideas and beliefs have any relationship to racism.

Offended, yes. Threatened? Puleeze, as Althouse in fact acknowledges:

It is possible to think of racism as a much more pervasive phenomenon that we should all contemplate in an honest and self-critical way.

But using the term to assault your political opponents is different. You're not being self-critical. You're still saying there's something terrible about those other people. There could be a serious and valuable inquiry into widespread and largely unconscious racism in American society, but the cheap use of the term "racist" for political gain pushes that inquiry out of reach.

Thank you, Prof. Althouse. The primal tribal imperative of "us vs them" — key to promulgation of the genes of those whose offspring would survive the great winnowing process of evolution — is as old as nature and its offshoot, human nature. Transcending that impulse to find our common humanity is the work of Lincoln's "better angels of our nature," best exemplified in the metaphor of the Shining City Upon a Hill.

Crossposted at Liberty Pundits and Riehl World View.