It was driven home to me last week that the level of political stupidity and childishness…on both sides of the aisle…is really out of hand. Now frankly as I’ve said before we’re right of center but not all that much and we believe that the constitution says what it says and if you want it to say something different there’s an approved way for getting that done. However…ignoring the law or issuing executive orders or rioting in the streets is just out of hand.

The particular situation that drove it home to me involved a close family member…who has decided that the SCOTUS and Congress are “quislings” because they’re going along with what the administration wants to do. There are several problems with that declaration though…first off quisling is not a commonly in use word so I can only conclude that it came from one of the liberal bubbles this family member is in. But the biggest problem is the word itself. Now…I just googled the Merriam-Webster dictionary definition of the word and here’s what it says:

A “quisling” refers to a traitor or collaborator, particularly someone who assists an occupying force in their own country. The term originates from Vidkun Quisling, a Norwegian politician who collaborated with the Nazis during World War II.

Now first off…neither the SCOTUS or the Congress are traitors or collaborators…this person needs to go google the definition of traitor…and in fact the logic that resulted in this statement devolves to “they did something I don’t agree with”…and frankly if this person thinks that qualifies as treason then I question the value of their college education. We believe that both the far right and far left are wrong in their approach to things…but as a former military family we’ll always defend their right to their opinion.

Second…back when Mr. Obama was in office he did a lot of things that the right didn’t like…so the idiocy about calling people traitors due to disagreeing with your position goes both ways. But…as he said when he was President…elections have consequences and like it or not the President won the election so he gets to be the President and he gets to attempt to implement his promises and agenda. That doesn’t mean it will all happen…and it doesn’t mean that just like under the Obama and Clinton administrations their executive orders won’t be the subject of lawsuits…but the absolute refusal to compromise so that both sides get part of what they want is what leads directly to the unpleasant political climate these days.

On just about every major issue…both sides have a demand and those demands are completely opposite to what the other side wants. Back in the day…politicians knew how to negotiate and make sure that everybody something but nobody got everything they wanted. The failure to do that led directly to the current government shutdown…and naturally both sides are straight up lying in the media blaming it on the other side and selectively describing some of the disagreements to make it seem like the other side is 100% at fault.

Bull puckey…they’re both wrong and they’re both responsible and they’re both lying about it. 

Sorry about the brief rant but it’s just getting crazier by the day it seems.

Nothing much new at home…Connie is in her 3rd week (of 3) of her breast cancer radiation. The surgeon indicated that the margins were clear and there were no invasive cells outside the closed milk duct and that she got it all but that radiation was probably the right follow up treatment. The radiation guy agreed but said it is more of the smart thing to do rather than a requirement. And the oncologist agreed with both of them and dismissed her from further treatment. She’ll continue to get a mammogram every 6 months for a couple of years before falling back to annually…and her insistence on doing one annually despite being past the age where it’s recommended led directly to the extremely early detection and treatment and the resulting excellent prognosis.

The weather is starting to cool off just a bit…making biking for Neil easier. 

We’ve completed our technology upgrades…Connie got a new M4 MacBook Air a month or two back and we upgraded to M4 iPad Pros as well. Then last week he got a new M4 Pro MacBook Pro to replace his almost 5 year old model…not that he really needed it but the IT guy is supposed to have the best computer ya know. They had upgraded their Apple Watches last year and iPhones the year before and neither of the new ones this fall really needed to replace those…but when they upgraded their watches they kept the old ones to wear at night for sleep tracking. Unfortunately…Neil’s died a couple weeks back with most of the screen taps not working anymore. Rebooting and all the standard troubleshooting didn’t do anything for it so he upgraded himself to the new Ultra 3 watch model…mostly because it’s got a larger display than last year’s model…and moved last year’s model to the overnight sleep tracking duties.

Connie’s started up rehearsals for her Fort Myers Mastersingers a couple weeks back and choir practice starts up again tomorrow…and they’re got 3 different concert series they’ve gotten tickets for this season.

So…on to images. 

Carvings at the Pangolin Lodge…ithey’re about 4 feet high to the shoulder.

Marabou stork…the heaviest of the stork/heron grouping.

Waterbuck just after dawn with backlight resulting in nice rim lights around its fur.

Goliath Heron…the tallest of the heron/stork grouping. Five feet tall, seven to eight foot wingspan and weighs up to 11 pounds.

Yellow billed stork…I wonder how it got that name.

Gray Headed Gull…and it isn’t gray headed so who knows where that came from.

Crocodile about 15 feet from the boat after it missed grabbing a fish.

African Darters…or anhinga as they’re known in the US These are females, that gender has the brownish neck/breast areas.

Launching from the stump.

Cape Buffalo eating in the water and then getting photobombed by a group of Egyptian Goose.

And then giving the boat a careful look-see.

Gray Heron…basically the same bird as a Great Blue Heron…this one is breeding since it has the little feather off the back of the head.

Hippo.

Neil especially liked the way this one perked up first one ear and then a half second later the other.

More buffalo checking the boat out…you can tell by the ears forward that they’re paying attention to you.

And finally for today…a launch sequence from the water of another female Darter. They submerge completely to hunt for prey and swim along with jut the head and neck out…resulting in the nickname of snakebird. At 30 inches long and 3-4 feet wingspan with weight of 4 pounds or so…it’s a bit of an adventure for them to take off from the water. Thank goodness for 20 frames per second…these 10 happened in about 2.5 seconds from start to finish. I’m posting the whole sequence of the takeoff since she took off in an advantageous direction for the morning light and the shutter speed was high enough to get a lot of water droplets and such. They push off with their feet for the first wing downbeat and then keep running across the water surface until they get speed and height to remain airborne.

Neil thinks he likes this one best due to the water coming off the primary flight feathers on the right wing in little drips and the splash from the second push off step.

And finally fully airborne.

Interesting things found on the net.

And in the “did I really need to know this” category…a recent study by the
University of Geneva in Switzerland into how DNA gets reused by nature with some slight modifications due to evolution rather than starting over to produce a new anatomical feature. Apparently scientists have wondered why and how fingers and toes developed…and they’ve been looking at the Hoxd (whatever they are, go ask an expert) sections of the genes that result in digits. So then after looking at this digits in land critters they went and analyzed the same areas in Zebrafish which amazingly enough don’t have digits. Then they looked at those Zebrafish genes and wondered what they do and it turns out that they are responsible for the formation of the cloaca in the fish…and for those of you not familiar with the term that’s the single orifice in the lower body that is used for both defecation and reproduction.

So there you have it…we have fingers and toes due to fish buttholes.

Ain’t it amazin’ what ya can learn here?

Cyas.