Two Feet In | Writing and the Institution

The year of the drought --  When the lawns died,  When the frogs didn't show, When the fires did come -- I walked along the drying stream,  Seeing the mud turn to clay. I walked through the fields, Seeing the dirt crack. Then the grass dried up and The dirt opened from cracks to crevices, Breaches in the ground  Where I fit my fingers. I thought of the frogs, the crawfish, Wondered how they would survive. Weeks turned to months with no rain. The creeks withered. Turtles disappeared, Dark ponds became dark holes. Cormorants looked in vain for fish  Where no fish were.  The crackling grass caught fire and News crews rushed, too late, only To find the volunteer fire department Had arrived and watered the brush Enough. Decimation. One in ten trees died that year. All were hit, but the pines stressed early. Their stress invited the beetles, The beetles consumed mercilessly. I lost two 60-foot pines that year, Paid teams of Hi...

From concern about little children to militarizing the Army within the boundaries of a sovereign nation.  After the War Between the States, the US Congress agreed to demilitarize the former Confederate states with the intention that the military would never be activated again. Exceptions have been made by the Federal Commander in Chief (the US President) if a governor fails to protect constitutional rights, as did Eisenhower when he sent National Guard troops to Little Rock to protect citizens from violence by other citizens. The essence of posse comitatus is to demilitarize the nation, to protect the citizens from an over-reaching sovereign, as explained in the original law of 1878: Sec.  15. From and after the passage of this act it shall not be lawful to employ any part of the Army of the United States, as a posse comitatus , or otherwise, for the purpose of executing the laws, except in such cases and under such circumstances as such employment of said force may ...

Cosmos Day -- A Day of Exploration In celebration of Cosmos Day, I decided to slow down and explore some near-wilderness area near me, starting from Pundt Park and hiking along the Spring Creek Greenway . I usually bike this route for a round trip of about 20 miles and try to keep my speed up, so I don't stop to look at the flora or take the horse trails or the hiking trails. Today, though, I decided to take it slow. The temperature was about 90 ° , about 70% humidity, and sunny. It should be noted that the Spring Creek eventually meets Cypress Creek and then flows into the San Jacinto River. Cypress Creek was once known as Cypress Bayou, but the good people of Spring and Klein and Champions didn't want to be known as living along a bayou, so they had the name officially change to a creek, which is less cajun or Louisianan or something. Some of the older towns and railway stops still refer to Cypress Bayou, but the creek name is stuck now and FM Road (Farm to Market ...

Not Transformers? Sure? Employees Must Wash Their Hands Before Returning to Work Kevin does a better job deconstructing the hollywood [sic; I'm tired of capitalizing an industry because at one time its cultural center was an LA suburb with a famous ugly sign on an otherwise nice south California hill; let it be known that the industry, such as the "auto industry" and the "meth industry" will now simply be known as hollywood, no capitalization] components of the film because he has the advantage [sic] of having seen the previous Transformers  films and I concur with his glowing condemnation of this fourth installment. He implies that something of the first three titles might have had some worth and that this fourth is especially disappointing. For the record, I went because my little brother  chose it for the afternoon. In other words, it wasn't really my fault. But I hated it. I hated everything in this movie except for the few nice shots of Texas pr...

Pepin the Short's Favorite Son Charlemagne (the emperor, not the rapper), born in the 8th century CE and emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (HRE) until his death in 814 CE was the first "universal" monarch since the collapse of the [unholy] Roman Empire centuries before.  In fact, all Europeans -- and their colonial descendants such as yours truly -- each and all descend from Chuck I (and also from Mohamed but let's not tell that to the flag-wavers). In other words, if you see a white person, he has the genes of Charlemagne in him. One could argue that Charlemagne, through his sexual choices and activities, has influenced every white body since, therefore every white person has been affected by Charlemagne. Or not. Because to so argue would be fallacious. Like a turtle on a turtle on a turtle on a turtle on a turtle, this becomes absurd in the extreme; the claim that A before B  = A causes B  has multiple problems with it. First, Our DNA Consider basic gen...