The beautiful secret: Robinson Jeffers

From an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times:

[Robinson] Jeffers celebrated the "transhuman magnificence" of nature, the beautiful things both vast and near that can provide even a 21st century reader with solace, even if we are often a muddled, ugly species and even if all things, as they do, fade away. 

Don't often hear poets extolled on the editorial pages of a major newspaper. At the heart of the essay is a quote from a poem written late in Jeffers' life, after he had suffered many grevious losses:

Jeffers

Cokinos writes:

Jeffers goes on, considering what is gone (his beloved wife) and what remains (trees that herons nest in, the material universe as a kind of divinity). He still "can feel the beautiful secret/In places and stars and stones…/I wish that all human creatures might feel it./That would make joy in the world, and make men perhaps a little nobler — as a handful of wildflowers."


 

 

 

The beautiful secret…  

 

Will Romney live up to his own father’s standards?

Though attacked for asking a personal, sexual question of Newt Gingrich at the beginning of the South Carolina debate, CNN anchor John King came back later in the debate with an even tougher question for Newt's rival Mitt Romney. He laid it out beautifully, and listened as Romney flailed to answer. 

As Romney failed to live up to his father's example, the crowd actually turned against him.  

 

Romney had to know the question was coming, but could not have expected that King would so artfully juxtapose Mitt's furtive secrecy against his father George Romney's open disclosure. As Andrew Sullivan said — brilliant. 

Willard got terrible reviews for his evasive answer from across the political spectrum, and now the Washington Post picks up the gauntlet and in an editorial repeats the reporter's question. 

THURSDAY NIGHT’S Republican presidential debate produced more equivocation from former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney about when he would release his tax returns and how many he would release. He was asked by moderator John King if he would follow the standard set by his own father, George, the former Michigan governor who was the first presidential candidate to release his tax returns. He put out 12 years’ worth in November 1967, as he prepared to run for the White House in 1968 — a point also being made in a Democratic National Committee video. All Mr. Romney could muster was an awkward “Maybe.” Wait until April, he said.

More disclosure, sooner, would be better, as is already obvious even to such supporters of Mr. Romney as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R).

Give King credit for asking a great question (and doing Newt and us all a great favor). And wonder what is in those tax returns that the Mitt-bot is so reluctant to reveal. 

Epic win for greens on Keystone XL: Dave Roberts

The Grist editor writes: 

For a year now, courageous activists, Midwestern farmers, unions, and indigenous groups have rallied in an unprecedented display of public opposition to the destructive Keystone XL pipeline proposal. That grassroots movement pushed us to the brink of victory — and today, it seems, the GOP has pushed us over the line. Thanks to their belligerent insistence that the pipeline decision be made within 60 days, it appears likely the State Dept. is going to be forced to reject it.

We environmentalists would hereby extend our most heartfelt thanks to the GOP. Their tantrums are doing our work for us!

Republicans reportedly believe that forcing Obama to reject the pipeline will give them an election-year issue to demagogue. All we can say to that is: Bring it on. If they campaign as poorly as they legislate, Obama has nothing to worry about.

And he's just getting started:

Greens thought they had won a massive, historic victory by delaying the pipeline decision. Now it looks like the thing will be blocked once and for all. Unless I’m missing something, that is an epic win in the green column.

But there's a catch: Dave Roberts posted this almost a month ago, on Dec. 20. Long before the decision came down. 

KeystoneXL-map

Can greens stand it to win one, for crying out loud? 

Romney 11/22/05: For and against climate pact on same day

The Internet is an astonishing thing: this evening the the entirety of the book of research into Mitt Romney's record, as compiled by the staff for his bitter GOP rival John McCain's staff in 2008, hit the intertubes.

The 200-page document included this gem of a flip-flop on climate change, as reported in the Boston Globe:

Romney Changed Positions On Regional Agreement Within Span Of One Day.

“At a clean-energyconference in Boston on Nov. 7, Romney sounded exuberant about the Northeast state [climate change] agreement, saying in his speech that it was ‘a great thing for the Commonwealth.’ ‘We can effectively create incentives to help stimulate asector of the economy and at the same time not kill jobs,’ he said.

Later that day, however, Romney outlined to reporters several fears he had about the proposed agreement.”

(Beth Daley and Scott Helman, “Romney Doubts Seen Delaying Emissions Pact,”

[The Boston Globe —  11/22/05]

Romney reminds of Charlie Brown, who used to say — Why can't I change just a little bit? I'll be wishy one day and washy the next! (31 Dec 65)

A persistent La Niña leads to a long stretch of dryness

This year national weather and climate forecasters said they saw a La Niña condition developing in the Pacific, and promised dryness, as they did last year. This year, for virtually all of California, and much of the nation as well, they've been right.

Here's the drought forecast, in a graphic from NOAA [National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration]:

Droughtoutlook
More drought to come, looks like…and it's already killed an estimated half-billion trees in Texas.

Yes, that's 500 million trees, as reported last week in the Houston Chronicle. 

Here's a startling image from Jeff Masters' astounding Wunderblog, showing exactly how dry it's been in the country and virtually the entirety of California this past week.. 

Jan_precip_departure

The forecast concludes:

The latest GFS model forecast predicts that this unusually dry pattern will persist for at least the next ten days, with the possibility of it breaking down during the last week of January.

At least Texas got some rain,  thanks to "a highly abnormal jet stream pattern that is keeping the northern polar branch of the jet stream far to the north in Canada."

Hmmmm… 

Multi, Extremely, and Totally Drug-Resistant TB: TDR-TB

Sometimes change is easier to hear in language than it is to contextualize in reality.

My meager understanding of tuberculosis cannot be expected to grade the seriousness of the news that several new strains of the disease have been found in populations in India and Iran.

This sounds alarming, but after all, medical researchers have tricks up there sleeve as well. This may represent less a threat to you and me than simply the fact that this disease, once slated for eradication, seems to have slipped our medical net.

Yet even the experts at Chest magazine used precisely that word — alarming — to describe this development. . 

What am I talking about?

Totally Drug-Resistant TB (TDR-TB)

From The Times of India:

MUMBAI: Tuberculosis, which kills around 1,000 people a day in India, has acquired a deadlier edge. A new entity-ominously called Totally Drug-Resistant TB (TDR-TB )-has been isolated in the fluid samples of 12 TB patients in the past three months alone at Hinduja Hospital at Mahim . The hospital's laboratory has been certified by the World Health Organization (WHO) to test TB patients for drug resistance.

While Iran first reported TDRTB cases three years ago, India seems to be only the second country to report this deadly form of the disease. TDR-TB is the result of the latest mutation of the bacilli after Multi-Drug-Resistant TB (MDR-TB ) and Extremely Drug-Resistant TB (XDR-TB ) were diagnozed earlier.

This frank twist in our language occured because milder new variants on this old disease had already taken their places in the lexicon, complete with acronyms; such as the strain resistant to multiple drug therapies, (MDR-TB) and the strain extremely resistant (XDR-TB).

This new strain, TDR-TB, even Cipro can't kill. 

According to a WHO study from Iran:

The isolation of TDR strains from MDR-TB patients from different regional countries is alarming and underlines the possible dissemination of such strains in Asian countries. 

30% of those known known to have contracted this new form of TB in the study conducted in Tehran are immigrants from Afghanistan. 

Tb

Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria

The pen is mightier than the Mitt Romney

As the inevitability of dreary Mitt Romney's candidacy for President for the GOP becomes inescapable, one has to wonder — will today's character artists be able to make fun of him?

Will he be a target-rich opportunity, as exemplified by the likes of Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, or will he just be bland, like Dick Cheney? 

The truth is, he seems to be coming into focus slowly. The great Mike Lukovich highlights the blurriness around his eyes — who is this man? 

Romneybylukovich

Most of the attempts available from not well known artists do not impress, but there are surprises, such as this one from Adam Zyglis. 

Clonesofmittbyzyglis
Toles, as usual, tends to dominate, but today's sketch is particuarly rich. 

Launchedbytoles

But to my eyes, the most evolved — and dangerous — characterization comes from Ted Rall. 

The mitt-bot
The Mitt-Bot.