And another thing: alligators and crocodiles. They look the same to me. Mrs. Ditchman claims she can tell the difference right off the bat. "It's in the snout," she says. It may well be. Fine. I pride myself in that I can see the subtle difference between "Sonora Beige" and "Desert Sand" on the aluminum a half hour before sundown. Beat that!

I'm sure the knowledge will save lives one day. So it's Friday, and that means sudden, full dedication to all the things I didn't get finished in the first five days of the week. I would like very much to come to the end of the list of tasks before me, but no. It would be swell to get that back fence finished, but no. It would be nice to sit and read, but no. It would be good to take the boat out for a change, but... no. There seems to be a lot of stuff stacked about the house. Not sure how it came to that.

For your weekend reading pleasure, I offer you the monthly essay from Hillsdale College. If you have even the least bit of interest in the United Nations, I urge you to take a look. I found it fascinating and revealing. It's by John Bolton, who was a Bush appointee, so if you have BDS you might not make it through the first few paragraphs. I suggest you try to give it a shot anyway. I've heard Bolton in a lot of interviews and have always thought him to be a clearheaded, intelligent, straightforward, no BS sort of guy -which is why he never really fit in at the UN. Anyway, he points out how the UN is nicely democratic, except for the fact that the majority of the countries in it are not. Makes for sort of a bum world vote in the end, doesn't it?

The death toll in Myanmar may rise to 100,000 in the next few days. Oh, you haven't heard? Fascinating that this story isn't getting covered. The Myanmar government refused our offer of swift help, and the UN tried to send biscuits, but the junta seized them, so all UN help has been suspended until further notice. There's talk in the Pentagon of violating the country's airspace and dropping food and supplies in anyway, which would amount to an act of war.

So what would you do? It's another one of those sea lion stories, folks, only this is one big sea lion. Seems sometimes you have to break the rules to do the right thing. Oh, we could sit around and debate it -just soundproof the doors because there's people dying outside. I know some people who wouldn't break the speed limit on the way to the hospital if their passengers were bleeding to death. (A side note about the sea lion story: did you see how the rescuer mentioned that "my wife let me go"? I agree. My wife's permission trump's federal authority every day of the week. "Break the law? Sure! Oh wait, let me check with my wife and see if it's okay...")

There's the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. May God grant us the wisdom to negotiate the difference.




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