Honey Moon

This full moon, the one following the Summer Solstice, was the auspicious time to collect honey for mead.

And because June is traditional for marriages-- a prudent necessity given the way Beltane was celebrated--the period following was the time of the Honey Moon.

It's a warm and beautiful time. Enjoy.

The Turning of the Tide at Midsummer

Midsummer marks the time when the Air Tide turns and begins to ebb. The Air Tide began to flow at Beltane. The past season has been one of change; things have been in transition, and there has been an element of chance in everything, as some seedlings took root and others were stillborn.

With the turning of the Air Tide, the season of ripening begins. Now we know which of the seeds of time have taken root and will grow. It is a time for dedication, patience and awareness. The work of the coming season will be watering and weeding, watching and protecting that which has taken root.

Midsummer Hymn

(Sung to the tune of the Gaelic song "Samradh, Samradh")

Summer, Summer, milk of the heifers,
We have brought the Summer in
Golden Summer, Wind and Water,
We have brought the Summer in,

Hail to the God, who brings us His blessing,
Hail to the sun a-rising high
Hail to Him now in his hour of crowning,
Hail to the King who’s born to die.

Summer, Summer milk of the heifers
He has brought the summer in
Sowed the corn and wisely tended
He has brought the summer in.

Hail to the bridegroom, love of our Lady,
Hail to the plow that tilled the ground
Praise to him now for all he’s given
Bringer of life to wear the crown.

Summer, Summer milk of the heifers
He has brought the summer in
Sowed the corn and wisely tended
He has brought the summer in.

Summer, Summer, milk of the heifers,
We have brought the Summer in
Golden Summer, Wind and Water,
We have brought the Summer in.

Hard Stuff: War

Of course, BP is indispensible because they have not just any old government contracts, but big, fat defense contracts. Without them, we might not be able to conduct the war. Wars, rather. Most unfortunate.

It’s a tough issue now, of course. But Mrs. Drinkwalter could have told them there were probably no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The U.S. and other western powers had been selling arms to Saddam for years, and were in a position to know pretty much what he did or didn’t have.

Mrs. Drinkwalter could also have explained the folly of going to war in response to the terrible events of 9-11. The things that happened that day, however tragic and horrifying, did not constitute an act of war. They were crimes. The way to fight crime is with police work. Careful, well-organized police work that uses under-cover investigation, builds community support, waits, watches and connects dots, and moves in to make arrests as soon as there is enough evidence to stand up in court and hopefully before the suspects realize they are in trouble. Simply put, the kind of police work that might have stopped 9-11 before it happened.

Just after 9-11, the U.S. had an unprecedented opportunity to lead the world community in an international police effort to combat crimes of terror. But what did they do? (Note: it is customary to use the pronoun “we,” not “they,” to refer to the actions of one’s government, as indeed I did through the Vietnam war and various other misadventures, but under the Bush administration I made a decision to opt out of this rhetorical “we.”)

They gave everybody to understand that somehow we had been invaded by Iraq, easily done because of the weak grasp of world history and geography produced in America’s public schools, and sent in ground troops. Apparently with fantasies of being welcomed as liberators like GI’s marching through the streets of Naples at the end of the Second World War.

Obama has taken the position that the U.S. needs to be in Afghanistan, but not in Iraq. This is perhaps an expression of his centrist philosophy, a stupid, pointless war being the obvious middle point between two stupid, pointless wars and none. But stupid and pointless it is, nonetheless. For awhile, it looked as though Afghanistan was Russian for Vietnam. Unfortunately it also appears to be Vietnam for the U.S. all over again, as well.

And, of course, quite aside from questions of effective crime-control strategy and international law, the really dumb part of these wars is that they cost a whole lot of money that we never had, with obvious impact on the economy.

The problem for the Cocktail Party platform is constructing any kind of policy proposal out of "I could have told you that all along. What the **** are you going to do now?"

For starters, they can stop raking in more profits from government contracts..

The EPA, apparently, has the authority to impose a sanction known as "discretionary debarment," which bars an agency from receiving government contracts.

I'd say BP is a prime candidate for this sanction, starting right about now. These guys don't seem to be in nearly enough trouble yet. Do they need to be handled with kid gloves because they're the ones who own the equipment needed to clean up the mess? Or are they just another of these companies that is too big to fail?

ProPublica seems to be a good source on the topic.

Sarah Palin, of course, can be counted on for comic relief. It's environmentalists who are actually responsible for this spill--let her expain it.

OK, School's Out, Now to the Hard Stuff...

What do about the oil spill? Or more to the point, since apparently nothing can be done about the oil spill, what to do about BP?

The position of the Cocktail Party is that BP, as a company, is finished. This is not the first time they have been caught violating maintenance safety regulations in the interest of more profit, but it should definitely be the last. Now their bankroll has a lot of bills to pay—not just the clean-up operations, which will take years, or damages due to the families of the men killed on the oil rig, but damages, unemployment benefits, relocation, job training and job placement services for all those folks who can no longer make a living in fishing and tourist industries along the Gulf Coast. And when they get done with that, they can support conservation efforts to re-establish the marine and marshland species that are probably going to be driven extinct.

However, the people now in charge of BP should probably not be trusted to oversee these projects. Some responsible non-profit needs to take over the administration of the funds, while those guys do some jail time and then start over with entry-level jobs in retail.

Wheee!

Yesterday Mrs. D. graded the last term paper, and then she went online and put in all the grades, just a few days overdue. Then she checked her email and there was this one from a guy who just got a "D," sending her all his missing assigments, or some of them anyway, and explaining how they were late because his Internet connection was down, and she just laughed.

Then my brother came over and we went to the little-dog park. My brother ran around and chased girl dogs, since he is really into that kind of thing. I met my dog park friend and fellow-eunuch Bobo the poodle and we sat in the sun together. Then we all took a little walk and went back to my house and sat around and barked at stuff from the windows.

Today Mrs.D. and I are going for two walks, in the morning and again in the afternoon. I love summer.