David Seaton's News Links
I've just come back from a weekend in my dacha in the Guadarrama mountains. My lifeboat.
Even in the hottest Spanish summer, there we sleep under a feather quilt. In the winter it gets down to minus 20 degrees... centigrade. What in India would be called a "hill station"
It is literally in the middle of a forest, I have a solar panel for electricity, no running water, a chemical toilet, a gas refrigerator, an herb garden, no TV, no telephone or Internet... even cellphone coverage is spotty. For me it is paradise. I don't know if I could live without it.
After following international politics for months on end, I am desperate to disconnect. And in that pure and chilly silence, total disconnection is possible.
I have to write a think piece for the August, beachcomber's edition of my newspaper and fortunately, in great part thanks to this blog and the helpful comments and tips I get from my readers, I have most of it written before I even start... If I didn't, I'm not sure I could pull it off... American politics, especially, have me as bored and as depressed as if I were working in a McDonald's.
I saw a line in a splendid article by Charles P. Pierce in Esquire, that gives the exact, fine flavor in my gall.
I've just come back from a weekend in my dacha in the Guadarrama mountains. My lifeboat.
Even in the hottest Spanish summer, there we sleep under a feather quilt. In the winter it gets down to minus 20 degrees... centigrade. What in India would be called a "hill station"
It is literally in the middle of a forest, I have a solar panel for electricity, no running water, a chemical toilet, a gas refrigerator, an herb garden, no TV, no telephone or Internet... even cellphone coverage is spotty. For me it is paradise. I don't know if I could live without it.
After following international politics for months on end, I am desperate to disconnect. And in that pure and chilly silence, total disconnection is possible.
I have to write a think piece for the August, beachcomber's edition of my newspaper and fortunately, in great part thanks to this blog and the helpful comments and tips I get from my readers, I have most of it written before I even start... If I didn't, I'm not sure I could pull it off... American politics, especially, have me as bored and as depressed as if I were working in a McDonald's.
I saw a line in a splendid article by Charles P. Pierce in Esquire, that gives the exact, fine flavor in my gall.
“I look forward as president to going before the world community and saying, ‘America is back. We’re ready to lead,’ “ Obama says on the radio, the static crackling and popping and the transmission fading, and it takes a moment for the cynic to wonder whether or not the world wants America to lead. Maybe the world wants America to sit down and shut up for a while.I'm not sure what the rest of the world wants, but I love to get away from its noise. DS
4 comments:
If I were you Dave, I would get a satellite connection to send the work in and never leave the rancho. I hope you have a very good reason for not being there all the time.
No, I'm a city boy.
I love the hum and the bustle.
Paradise is OK for short periods, to disconnect, but Internet in paradise?
No thanks.
You wrote,
'The Democrats have thrown a once in a generation opportunity away.'
How so, by not nominating Hillary? By not nominating Edwards? Is it better to have Oboma choose more centrist Supreme Court judges, perhaps slow the eco-rape (perhaps not) and, maybe, not bomb, bomb, bomb Iran? Or better in the long run to have 4 more Bush/McCain years so that the 50% of the American voters on the right side of the bell shaped IQ curve will finally get the message that things are very bad indeed here in teh 'Homeland'.
Both parties are wings of the property party and you can't win without corporate money and exposure, Edwards proved that; and he was just as rich, protected and connected as George Bush, Bill&Hillary, McCain and Barack Obama.
The policy differences between them are very small (Hillary sabre-rattling about destroying Iran, por ejemplo; BO cosying up to the Israel lobby).
For all of them, and for all the pundits on TV, The System Works. No real change is necessary They are all very rich and their priority is always to protect those riches at any cost to the rest of us.
Tod
Well Tod, since they are all bad, why not elect someone with some experience?
Post a Comment