Loggerhead Key Lighthouse at Dry Tortugas National Park

 

Photo originally uploaded on flickr by red_moon_rise.

Dry Tortugas is a cluster of 7 islands located about 70 miles west of Key West, Florida. The area is known for its bird and marine life, its legends of pirates and sunken gold, and its military past. Abundant sea turtles or “tortugas” provided Ponce de Leon and his crew with fresh meat, however there was no fresh water on the islands, hence they are called the Dry Tortugas. The reefs and shoals around the islands have been a serious hazard to navigation and the site of hundreds of shipwrecks.

For more info go to the link for the National Park Service: http://www.nps.gov/drto

 

Vermont Artist Sabra Field

Sabra Field was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and grew up in the metropolitan New York Area. She earned a Bachelor of Arts with Honors in the Arts from Middlebury College, which awarded her its Alumni Achievement Award in 1984 and an Honorary Doctor of Arts in 1991. She also holds a Master of Arts in Teaching from Wesleyan University where she studied printmaking with Russell T. Limbach. She taught high school art for seven years in both public and private schools. Sabra has lived in Vermont since 1969. Spencer Field, whom she married in 1974, is her partner and business manager. Printer Sonja Olson assists with the production.

Volunteers Needed in New Orleans Now

Volunteers are needed to gut houses in New Orleans. There are still hundreds if not thousands of homes to be gutted. The City of New Orleans has started posting notices threatening demolition.

Common Ground is putting out a call for volunteers to come back and help complete the gutting of homes and help owners get back on their feet. Their goal is to have an average of 200 people per day – roughly 20 – 25 gutting teams who will be housed at St. Mary of the Angels School (or volunteers can make their own housing arrangements if they prefer.)

Some of the volunteer roles needing to be filled are:

Site coordinators (including grounds and security)

Work crew leaders

Kitchen staff

Medics

Transportation coordinator

Volunteer coordinators

Database or IT person

Anti-Oppression Trainers (racism, sexism etc)

Work six days a week, many hours a day.

Volunteers can register online at: www.commongroundrelief.org

Contact information: Common Ground, 1415 Franklin Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70117 Phone Number: (504) 942-0270

Email: commongroundrelief@gmail.com

The Moody Blues: Lyrics by Ray Thomas

Moody Blues Link:  http://www.moodyblues.co.uk

From the To Our Children’s Children’s Children Album
“Floating”

Floating free as a bird
Sixty foot leaps it’s so absurd
From up here you should see the view
Such a lot of space for me and you

Oh you’d like it
Gliding around get your feet off the ground
Oh you’d like it
Do as you please with so much ease

Now I know how it feels
To have wings on my heels
To take a stroll among the stars
Get a close look at planet Mars

Madeleine Kunin

Madeleine May Kunin (born September 28, 1933) is a Swiss–American diplomat and politician. She was the Governor of Vermont from 1985 until 1991, as a member of the Democratic Party. She also served as United States Ambassador to Switzerland from 1996 to 1999.

She was born in Zurich to a Jewish family, and moved to the United States with her mother and brother because of the threat of the Holocaust in 1940. Kunin received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts, a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and a master’s degree from the University of Vermont. Prior to seeking elective office, she worked as a journalist for the Burlington Free Press, as a tour guide at the World’s Fair, and as a part time college professor. She was also involved in community activities, particularly in the area of women’s rights, children, and literature.

Constitution Day

The Constitution, originally uploaded by bensonian.

 

Bush’s Personality

Source: New York Times Editorial 9/17/06 

“Watching the president on Friday in the Rose Garden as he threatened to quit interrogating terrorists if Congress did not approve his detainee bill, we were struck by how often he acts as though there were not two sides to a debate. We have lost count of the number of times he has said Americans have to choose between protecting the nation precisely the way he wants, and not protecting it at all.

On Friday, President Bush posed a choice between ignoring the law on wiretaps, and simply not keeping tabs on terrorists. Then he said the United States could rewrite the Geneva Conventions, or just stop questioning terrorists. To some degree, he is following a script for the elections: terrify Americans into voting Republican. But behind that seems to be a deeply seated conviction that under his leadership, America is right and does not need the discipline of rules. He does not seem to understand that the rules are what makes this nation as good as it can be.”

ST. IGNATIUS LOYOLA

ST. IGNATIUS LOYOLA, originally uploaded by iconoclast-not.

Founder of the Jesuits, St Ignatius was born in the family castle in Spain, the youngest of 13 children. When he was old enough he was a page and then a soldier fighting against the French. His military career ended in 1521. He read the lives of the saints and decided to dedicate himself to becoming a soldier of the Catholic faith.

Rebuilding Iraq: Heckuva Job if You Can Get It

Source:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14868608/ (MSNBC website)

Adapted from “Imperial Life in the Emerald City,” by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, copyright Knopf 2006

After the fall of Saddam Hussein’s government in April 2003, the opportunity to participate in the U.S.-led effort to reconstruct Iraq attracted all manner of Americans — restless professionals, Arabic-speaking academics, development specialists and war-zone adventurers. But before they could go to Baghdad, they had to get past Jim O’Beirne’s office in the Pentagon.

To pass muster with O’Beirne, a political appointee who screens prospective political appointees for Defense Department posts, applicants didn’t need to be experts in the Middle East or in post-conflict reconstruction. What seemed most important was loyalty to the Bush administration.

Vermont State Capitol Building Montpelier

img_0183, originally uploaded by sleepyneko.