Grapes from Thorns

Christmas in the Desert

2011-12-31T08:22:00.000-08:00

Some photos of Christmas in Palm Springs 2011. At top, we have the newest edition to the family, Jayk, yes, "Jake," the 2-year-old daughter of Lisa, Pam's daughter. My sisters, Pam Buralli and Lynn Fontana, look on as Jayk conquers the rock. Yes, that is a leash on her, really needed for her own safety as we walked around the Living Desert, a desert life zoo and botanical garden.

Then we have my sister with AJ, Lisa, and Jayk.

Next, we have me with all of my nieces and nephews. AJ and Lisa, me, Katie and Joe. Lisa's husband, Travis, took this photo.

At bottom, my sister Lynn with the stroller, Jayk, and Pam.

Victory

2011-12-31T08:20:00.000-08:00

Another good piece from Inside Higher Ed.

Solidarity in Ohio
November 8, 2011 - 10:02pm
By
Kaustuv Basu

Cary Nelson, president of the American Association of University Professors, had likened the threat to faculty unions in Ohio from Senate Bill 5 to the Sword of Damocles. By late Tuesday night that sword seemed to be back in its sheath, as voters repealed the bill -- with more than 60 percent voting against it.

It was a resounding victory for organized labor, including public college and university faculty unions, whose very existence was threatened by the bill.

Nelson said the impact of a win would be tremendous. “A win in Ohio could carry some weight; it is a message to the right that an anti-union bill is not a slam dunk. They can put a lot of time and energy into this and still lose,” Nelson said.

The battle over SB 5 in Ohio was an unusual one, as faculty found themselves in the trenches with firefighters and policemen, fighting to repeal a bill passed earlier this year that severely restricted collective bargaining by public employees. While most of the public debate about the bill was not about faculty unions, key portions of the legislation were drafted to be sure that academic unions would be largely eliminated from the state's colleges and universities.

Ohio Governor John Kasich described the bill as a cost-cutting move; faculty unions saw it as a call to war. And battle they did, with AAUP Ohio raising nearly $700,000, the most money the organization has ever raised for a cause anywhere in the country.

Nelson said faculty unions everywhere would be buoyed by a victory. “Higher ed has to be independent from political forces,” Nelson said. If SB 5 remained in effect, unions like AAUP Ohio would be in a desperate situation because 10 percent of the organization’s revenues come from the state, Nelson said.

John McNay, the AAUP chapter president at the University of Cincinnati, who was headed to a tavern to celebrate late Tuesday, said the outcome was a victory for the working people of Ohio. “SB 5 was designed to eliminate the AAUP and would have undermined the standards of academic freedom and shared governance that our union has fought for over the decades at more than a dozen Ohio institutions,” McNay said via e-mail. “The result would have been universities with all the academic integrity of a Burger King. Now we’ve shown that we can defend ourselves.”

He said the fight over the bill had created a historic link between faculty members and the “more traditional union movement.”

Many union experts feel that the proposal to limit collective bargaining had the opposite effect: unions in Ohio now feel energized and much stronger. “It was an unprecedented attack and it led to an unprecedented galvanizing and building of a coalition,” said Gary Rhoades, a University of Arizona professor and the former general secretary of the AAUP.

He said some Republicans tend to overestimate the anti-union sentiment in the country and that is what had happened in this case. “It takes a whole lot to repeal a law but when you go against the working class and the middle class, this is what happens,” Rhoades said.

He called on college presidents in Ohio to try and reestablish trust with their employees. “They should come to the table and bargain in good faith,” he said. “University presidents should not be behaving like Wall Street executives.”

But Rhoades, like many others representing unions, said the victory was a temporary reprieve. “It is very likely they will try something else,” he said. “But nothing else has brought us together like this before.”

Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/11/08/ohio-rejects-bill-kill-public-unions#ixzz1i87S4QzD
Inside Higher Ed

SB 5 in the news

2011-12-31T08:16:00.000-08:00

A piece that appeared in Inside Higher Ed, an online newspaper on higher education issues.

Battle for Survival
October 27, 2011 - 3:00am
By
Kaustuv Basu

When faculty members at Ohio public universities mention their governor’s quest to end their collective bargaining rights, they talk as if they were in a war.

These days, many professors at the state’s public universities find themselves in an unusual spot: in the trenches, with other public employees such as firefighters and police officers, campaigning to repeal a law (Senate Bill 5) that would, if it survives, severely limit their ability to bargain for wages and benefits.

The survival of Senate Bill 5 would diminish faculty unions -- some say it would even put their survival in doubt, by preventing most members from being in a union. The law was adopted earlier this year but is being challenged in a referendum next month.

States vary on their recognition of faculty unions in public higher education, but Ohio has long been among the most solidly union states when it comes to tenure-track faculty members -- and the state is the heart of the union activity of the American Association of University Professors.

Although recent polls have found a majority of the state’s voters favor repeal of the law, both sides are well-financed, making the outcome far from clear.

The Ohio conference of the AAUP has about 4,300 members – about 10 percent of the national membership – and those members now find themselves in the thick of things. "Our members have been phone-banking, knocking on doors, hosting forums, and doing a myriad of other activities to bring awareness to how SB 5 will negatively impact faculty and other public employees,” said Sara Kilpatrick, executive director of AAUP Ohio.

Kilpatrick said it was “safe to assume that all of the public university presidents support SB 5.”

When contacted, the presidents of two Ohio public universities did not openly say which side they were on.

Lloyd A. Jacobs, president of the University of Toledo, said he wants an excellent health care system and a reasonable retirement package for his employees, while Mary Ellen Mazey, the president of Bowling Green State University, said she was committed to shared governance. Neither of them commented specifically on the collective bargaining issue at stake in November, but Mazey said the issue was now up to Ohio voters.

Earlier this year, The Toledo Blade reported on how some officials at Bowling Green State University were involved in the drafting of SB 5.

Bruce Johnson, the president of Ohio’s Inter-University Council, which represents presidents from public universities, said the council reached a consensus earlier this year in supporting the bill. “Ultimately, it would improve university efficiency by controlling costs,” Johnson said.

A lobbying group called Building a Better Ohio, backed by a number of trade groups, has also actively campaigned in support of the bill. The group’s spokeswoman, Connie Wehrkamp, said SB 5 would bring runaway costs under control. She said faculty strikes, like the recent one at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, are unfair to students.

“The students are being used as a bargaining chip. The kids who are paying tuition are stuck while public employees go on strike,” Wehrkamp said.

Costs were rising in all levels of government, she said, and at the same time there are government employees who are not paying much for health care or their pensions.

“They are given raises with no regard to how they are performing,” she said. “We owe it to our taxpayers and owe it to our students to give them the best education possible.”

This kind of talk has certainly energized the faculty members, who are now hustling to reach out to voters.

AAUP Ohio has raised more than $650,000 to fight SB 5, more money than it has ever raised in Ohio for any campaign.

“The campaign has really placed the Ohio Conference AAUP on the labor map. Previously, AAUP had not been very involved in the larger labor movement, partially because we are a part-membership organization (we have non-union members.),” Kilpatrick said. "But the AAUP in Ohio really stepped up to combat this bad legislation, and even our non-union members have been active and supportive."

John McNay, professor of history at the University of Cincinnati, called the bill a drastic, extremist act. “It is a new thing to be so politically involved but we have been forced into it,” he said. “Ohioans recognize the great injustice of this law.”

McNay, who is the AAUP chapter president at his university, said he had taken part in phone banking events and walked door-to-door, talking to voters. “People try very hard to be civil but sometimes it has been tense,” he said.

David Jackson, AAUP president at Bowling Green, said he did not anticipate too many people supporting SB5. “The college presidents, they are not saying anything, continuing a trend in backroom-type behavior,” he said.

One unintended consequence of this battle could be that faculty unions could become stronger in Ohio. That’s how Richard Boris, director of the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions at Hunter College of the City University of New York, sees it.

“This is driven by the same tsunami that happened in Wisconsin,” Boris said, referring to efforts to curtail collective bargaining in that state.

Mobilizing faculty members can be slow, he said, but the battle in Ohio represents a crucial moment. “Efforts are on to end the autonomy of public universities and tie them to the political process in the state,” Boris said.

And even if the current measure fails, the challenges to collective bargaining will continue, he said.

“Politicians are politicians. What they don’t like is to lose twice,” Boris said. "They might find other mechanisms to do the same thing."

Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/10/27/ohio-faculty-unions-fights-measure-end-collective-bargaining#ixzz1i86lN3j8
Inside Higher Ed

Ohio's Faculty Unions: Front and Center

2011-11-03T18:23:00.000-07:00

November 2, 2011
Ohio's Faculty Unions: Front and Center

To the Editor:

"Faculty Unions in Ohio and Wisconsin Hunker Down" claims that the faculty unions in Ohio and in Wisconsin have been marginalized in this political process (The Chronicle, October 9). We can speak only to what has been occurring in Ohio. Contrary to the article's assertions, the American Association of University Professors chapters in Ohio, like the Ohio Education Association and the Ohio Federation of Teachers chapters, have contributed a great deal to the efforts of We Are Ohio, both in terms of our collective financial contributions and in terms of the contributions made by many individual members—as well as in terms of the number of signatures gathered on referendum petitions, the number of new voters registered, and the linkages made with other unions through our participation in canvassing, phone banks, and fund raisers.

In fact, the AAUP chapters in Ohio have sustained active contributions from the outset of the campaign in the spring 2011 semester right on up to the present time. Faced with the complete elimination of our collective-bargaining rights, we have become a more significant, not a less significant, factor at the state level. Your article ignores that the fact that faculty-union leaders such as Rudy Fichtenbaum, of Wright State University's AAUP chapter, have been front and center in providing Senate and House testimony against Senate Bill 5; that faculty leaders have spoken at many major rallies across the state; and that faculty opinions on this issue have been expressed on the editorial pages of every major—and many local—newspapers in the state.

Ohio's higher-education faculty are not simply guarding their own interests, either. We are proud of the coalition we have developed with every union represented in We Are Ohio, and expect the fruits of our friendships to continue on into the future. At a recent fund raiser, a firefighter—not entirely ironically—thanked Gov. John R. Kasich for provoking such a profound sense of shared purpose. The firefighter was speaking for a great many pro-labor people in the state, including the majority of its university faculty. Ohio is indeed a "swing state." It is not Oklahoma or Utah. Right now a lot of pro-labor people feel very energized, and a lot of the people who have supported the radical effort to gut collective-bargaining rights are feeling much less certain about the ramifications of that effort than they may have felt six months ago.

But since dollars and cents usually speak most loudly to both allies and opponents, it needs to be noted that AAUP's Ohio chapters have contributed close to $750,000 to We Are Ohio, a considerable amount in any statewide political context, but especially given that we have only about 4,500 members statewide

Your article looks only at short-term ramifications of the anti-union legislation in Ohio, between its passage and the referendum on its repeal, and ignores the galvanizing effect that the referendum has had on all unions, both public-employee and private-sector. It does not ask what will happen if Issue 2 / Senate Bill 5 is repealed in November, or how that will change the perception of organized labor's momentum. This article is typical of "mainstream media" in that it responds to what is going on at the moment, ignoring that conditions are very fluid (perhaps volatile) and suggesting that the implications are long-term. Ohio's voters are aware of the political swindle currently under way—the anti-union legislation being only one of many patently one-sided schemes designed to favor the far right's corporate sponsors.

To shift focus somewhat back to the specific interest of our faculty unions, one must ask why an article in The Chronicle passes over, without comment, the fact that Issue 2 / Senate Bill 5 imposes NLRB v. Yeshiva University language on Ohio's public-university faculty when the faculties at nine of the 12 public universities in the state all voted democratically to unionize precisely because of shared-governance issues. We now know that representatives of the Bowling Green administration asked that the language be inserted into the original Senate Bill 5, in response to that faculty's recent election to unionize by that university's faculty.

Even worse, the article relies on and reinforces the well-worn stereotype of all unions as collections of thugs who hold the public over a barrel in order to fill their own pockets (the mixed metaphor is intentional as it reflects the incoherence of the stereotyping). Anticipating the objection that The Chronicle is simply trying to present "all sides" of the issues, we would be very happy to see an in-depth Chronicle exposé on how the expenditures on salaries and benefits at Ohio's public universities have shifted dramatically away from faculty—in particular tenure-line faculty—and toward administrators and administrative support staff. At our universities, the personnel costs have remained flat, at about 80 percent of an institution's expenses, while the percentage allocated to tenure-line faculty has steadily declined, and their salaries and benefits constitute only about 15 percent of the total institutional expenses. Nonetheless, every time there is a budget issue, you'd think that increases in tenure-line faculty compensation were the cause of it, and that reductions in our compensation offered the only solution to it.

We welcome spot-on reporting and are ready to take our share of criticisms. All we ask is that reporters get their facts straight before going to press.

Martin Kich
President, AAUP
Wright State University
Board Member
Ohio Conference of AAUP
Dayton, Ohio

Dave Witt
AAUP
University of Akron
Past President
Ohio Conference of AAUP
Akron, Ohio

Cincinnati Chamber gets pay off

2011-10-19T16:53:00.000-07:00

The Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce has chosen to voice strong support for Senate Bill 5, the union-busting legislation passed in the spring with overwhelming Republican support in both the House and the Senate. It will now go to a vote of the people in November.

This comes as no real surprise since the Chamber’s attack on union workers is in sync with Gov. Kasich’s position and a long-term policy of support for lower wages. The Chamber was also on the wrong side of the minimum wage referendum in 2006. But this week we also learned the Cincinnati USA Partnership, an economic development organization directed by the Cincinnati Chamber has been awarded $2 million by Gov. Kasich through his controversial new JobsOhio agency.

This tax giveaway to the Cincinnati chamber does not pass the “smell test” and certainly has the appearance of a political payoff. Finding creative ways of channeling Ohioans hard-earned tax dollars into the pockets of corporate interests is not economic development but seems a primary objective of the Kasich administration. What the Cincinnati region needs is a promise from the chamber that it won’t use this windfall of taxpayer money to campaign for SB 5 or to free up other funds to do so

And to what other purposes might this new-found wealth be directed? The Ohio Chamber of Commerce, in conjunction with the Cincinnnati group and other metropolitan chambers of commerce, produced in the fall of 2010 a report called, “Redesigning Ohio: Transforming Government into a 21st Century Institution.”

“Redesigning Ohio” is mainly filled with radical proposals that arguably do not serve the middle class and seems to have as its primary purpose to reduce tax contributions for the state’s corporate heavyweights. This is no surprise since nearly all of the substance of the Chamber’s proposal has one source: The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)’s “State Budget Reform Toolkit.”

ALEC is a right-wing organization, founded and funded by wealthy corporations and individuals, most notoriously, the Koch brothers, who have a long history of attacking unions, encouraging voter suppression, and undermining environmental laws. ALEC is primarily a front through which America’s largest corporations can deliver legislation, like SB 5, to sympathetic legislators, like Ohio senators Shannon Jones and Tom Niehaus.

Much of the language and argument contained in both plans are strikingly similar but the most glaring common thread is the work of public policy writer David Osborne of Public Strategies Group. Osborne has been pushing something he calls “Budgeting for Outcomes” or BFO. The argument embracing BFO in both the ALEC report and the Ohio Chamber proposal is surrounded by much verbiage that makes it sound both new and harmless. It is neither.

In reality, BFO suggests to policymakers that they can be justified in slashing government expenditures to some undetermined lower level based on ideologically-driven choices because of the many positive benefits that will ensue. Cutting funding, for example, will make state government services more “creative” and will actually “improve” public services. There is no mention of layoffs, of important work not accomplished, or of the heavy tax burden passed onto local communities. It is all gently covered in a smoke-screen of happy talk about “improvements.”

Not all Ohio chamber members have simply accepted this radical political approach by the state and local chambers of commerce. When the Youngstown Chamber announced its support for Senate Bill 5, Tom Byers, general manager of A.B. Crane & Steel Service Inc., withdrew his membership as did others. “I just wish they would’ve stayed neutral on [SB 5],” Byers told the local newspaper. “I don’t see how it helps to support it so strongly.”

Small business owners who are members of the Cincinnati Chamber should ask themselves this question: There are 360,000 public union members in Ohio. Is it really in your interest to attack the police who protect your streets, the firemen who protect your homes, the teachers who teach your children, and the many ordinary people who are your customers? Is this the kind of community you want? Are these people really your enemies?

If not, then you should demand that the Cincinnati chamber withdraw its support¸ financial and otherwise, for this radical bill and that the organization no longer be led down the destructive road paved by ALEC.

Scenes of Lüneburg

2010-10-11T07:32:00.000-07:00

A Trabbie

2010-10-11T07:17:00.001-07:00

Here are some photos of a Trabant that was parked at the university one day. On my first trip to Germany about 10-12 years ago, I stayed with my friend Kelly Robison who had a job teaching at a university in Wittenberg and he had a Trabant. East Germany's main car during the cold war, they had a two-stroke engine. Kelly had to mix the gas and oil himself for the thing to run. It had almost no suspension and driving along the brick roads in what was the former East was very rough. The body was made out pressed fiber rather than metal. Today, these things are pretty rare and are collectors items. It is easier to see them in museums now than on the street. For more on the Trabant:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trabant

Bremen

2010-10-11T06:46:00.001-07:00

Bremen is one of my favorite German cities and it is another old Hanseatic town. Soeren and I met up with Iris, the former director of the Luneburg program who now lives in Bremen. At top, we have an adult refreshment at a pub near the river Weser. Next, is the Hauptbahnhof and then a walk along the Schnnor, which is a medieval street of shops, and at bottom in Bremen's rathaus on the Marktplatz, first built in the 1400s. The next to the bottom photo is also on the Marktplatz and the main building is the Becks pub with patrons outside savoring the brew. Becks is brewed in Bremen.

German hospitality

2010-08-19T04:23:00.000-07:00

I had a wonderful time visiting Uta's parent's home in Dortmund. At top are Uta's two sons, Levi (the older) and Jonah. At bottom, we have dinner on the patio. At left is Uta's father and at right is Uta's husband, Wilhelm.

German Mining Museum

2010-08-17T06:41:00.000-07:00

Several photos of the German Mining Museum in Dortmund. You can actually go down in a coal mine although we arrived too late to do so. You can see that the building surrounds a headframe, a familiar sight to my Butte friends although this one is a little different that those in Butte. Uta Roepke, one of my friends and colleagues at Luneburg, invited me to spend the weekend with her family in Dortmund and this is one of the interesting things we did. The views from the top of the headframe were beautiful.

Touring Lübeck

2010-08-06T01:01:00.000-07:00

I thought I would add a few more photos of Lubeck, a beautiful city. It has many narrow streets surrounded by tall buildings. This situation allowed it to be burned and destroyed pretty thoroughly during WW II bombing attacks. Today, however, the city has been rebuilt sometimes using facades of old buildings, sometime rebuilding to look like the original, and a few buildings escaped destruction. One of the interesting aspects of the city is that there are often inner courtyard areas beyond the buildings facing the streets. At top, we walk through one of those areas. Next is a scene of another one and then the interior of a medieval church, most of which was designed as a hospital. Then another one of those inner courtyard areas and at bottom, a street scene.

World Cup excitement II

2010-08-05T06:39:00.000-07:00

World Cup excitement

2010-08-05T06:18:00.001-07:00

Germany was doing well in the World Cup when I arrived and I believe this was the game where they defeated Argentina. Streets were packed with viewers watching on big screens and Soeren and I were in the bier garten of the News pub. At top, the fans celebrate a goal. Next, Soeren and I enduring in the heat and happiness. Next two are the crowds of anxious spectators.

Back to Deutschland

2010-08-05T06:01:00.000-07:00

I returned to Luneburg for my third time this summer to teach the history of the cold war in the USAC program. Our first trip with the students was to the old hanseatic city of Lubeck and the nearby beach at Travemunde. At top is the scene at Travemunde and next is me in my very un-beach attire (it was very hot). Then there are the students before the old medieval gate of the city and at bottom is an interesting medieval plaque that marks the importance of the link between Luneburg and Lubeck. Lubeck was the capital city of the Hanseatic League but Luneburg was the sources of the white gold of the middle ages, salt. This plaque is on a row of old salt warehouses where Luneburg salt was stored until it was shipped out to points along the Baltic and throughout Europe.

Day trip to Butte

2010-06-08T07:40:00.001-07:00

Good story about Butte:
http://www.sunset.com/travel/rockies/butte-montana-attractions-00418000067968/

English wedding

2010-05-18T04:28:00.001-07:00

These photos loaded the opposite way I thought they would. So, let's start at the bottom with the most important shot, Kate, my cousin, and Jamie Trust getting married at the Catholic church the Eddleston family has attended for years. Next up is a photo of the The Elvetham Hotel in Hampshire where the wedding reception was held, a beautiful estate that dates back to the middle ages although the building is from the 1840s. Next up is me and the beautiful bride, Kate. Then, John Drastal and my sister, Pam Buralli, who came from Montana. At top is me and two other beautiful cousins, Caroline on the left and Michelle on the right.

McNay Memorial

2010-04-21T17:30:00.001-07:00

On a sunny day during December, we took a drive to a park near Desert Hospital where my sister works. Mike and Lynn paid for a memorial bench on honor of my dad who died in 2005. The bench is pictured below in its desert context. We sat and a had a beer. It is a nice and quiet place. The little plaque with dad's name and dates also says, "Go Grizzlies," referring to the University of Montana. My dad was a big supporter of the university. At top, Mike and AJ walking ahead through the park.

Smiles all around

2010-04-21T17:22:00.000-07:00

Here is a rare occurrence. Me with my two nephews, Joe at left, and AJ at right. And of course my beautiful niece Kate. An embarrassment of riches.

Christmas at the Fontanas, 2009

2010-04-21T17:13:00.000-07:00

Some photos of Christmas 2009 at the Fontanaland. At top is Kate opening presents. Then my nephew AJ Buralli, then my sister, Lynn, and niece Katie. At bottom, a good time was had by all with brother-in-law, Mike at right hoisting a fine looking glass of vino.

Desert at Palm Springs

2010-04-21T17:09:00.000-07:00

Window with a View

2009-07-12T13:41:00.000-07:00

My room's view of Africa. The sun rising over Nelson Mandela Bay (historically Algoa Bay) each and every day. Beautiful.

Port Elizabeth, South Africa

2009-07-09T23:21:00.000-07:00

Once I return to the Nati I will begin to post large numbers of photos but here is a little taste.

Port Elizabeth is a nice large city in a region called the Eastern Cape. It is on the Indian Ocean. This photo is of the beach just a couple miles west of downtown. Students are doing well. Today, we are going to a lion park. Should be fun. We've already petted cheetahs so this may be something similar to that.

Chicago III

2009-06-03T18:32:00.000-07:00

Millennium Park in downtown Chicago is an fun to visit. At top and bottom you have faces of Chicagoans filling these large screens looking like they are talking until they begin to spout water. Then there is the Egg, with skyline in background, photo with Soeren on my right, and then Soeren and our friend who works at Loyola University.

Chicago II

2009-06-03T18:24:00.000-07:00

Chicaqo I

2009-06-03T18:10:00.000-07:00

Whenever you visit Chicago and walk among the towering buildings, you can't help but remember Sandburg's poem, The City of Big Shoulders.

Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders:
They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.
And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again.
And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger.
And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them:
Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the little soft cities;
Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness,
Bareheaded,
Shoveling,
Wrecking,
Planning,
Building, breaking, rebuilding,
Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth,
Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs,
Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle,
Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse, and under his ribs the heart of the people, Laughing!
Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.

Friends

2009-05-17T06:37:00.000-07:00

At a party recently, ladies sporting their stick-on body decorations; next, getting familiar; and finally a great dinner with friends.

Universal Studios

2009-05-17T06:24:00.001-07:00

I'm a bit late in posting these photos but while I was visiting my sister and her family in Palm Springs, we went into LA to tour Universal Studios. Entertaining and kinda crazy in that Southern California way. At top was an Irish pub on a set that fortunately sold real beer, next is a crowd scene (lots of people), next is a Simpson's ride featuring Krusty the Clown, next is the scene of the famous Bates Motel from the movies (where a body is being stuffed in the trunk of a car), and at bottom my brother-in-law visits with some comely young ladies.

Poplar Bluff

2009-03-28T08:20:00.000-07:00

Last year, Mary McNay, Phil and Anthony Deuster, and me took a drive to Poplar Bluff from Matthews, Missouri. We stopped for a refreshment.

Palm Springs

2009-01-01T20:57:00.000-08:00

Had a great visit in Palm Springs for the Christmas break. At top is a photo my having lunch with my sister, Lynn, and nephew Joe to her right. From left are my niece Katie and two visitors from Italy, Angelo, and Francesco. Francesco is a exchange student living with the Fontanas this year and Angelo is a friend of his who came for Christmas. Next is a beautiful flowering bush I saw on my walks around the neighborhood, bougainvillea, I believe. At bottom is beautiful Mt. San Jacinto with snow on the top.

Whisky River

2008-12-15T14:02:00.001-08:00

Another foray into the Kentucky whisky trail led to my dipping my own jug of Maker's Mark at the distillery near Bardstown. It was very difficult to hang onto that slippery bottle in the gloves they make you wear - hence the intense concentration.

The Montana Standard weighs in for Obama

2008-11-09T18:00:00.000-08:00

My home state of Montana nearly joined the rest of the progressive West in the Obama tidal wave this year. It was heartening to see that my former newspaper, The Montana Standard in Butte, weighed in with a fine endorsement of Obama. Way to go Standard Staffers, and especially my friend Roberta Stauffer, the chief author of the piece:

Obama is best choice for president

By Roberta Stauffer - 11/02/2008
Montana is a toss-up in this year's presidential election race, which makes it more important than ever to get to the polls on Tuesday, if you haven't already voted by absentee ballot.The stakes are high, with challenges looming at all levels of government, but no race is more important than the battle for the presidency. And it's been a bonafide battle, unfortunately, one that's grown more mean-spirited with each passing week.The candidate who has remained the most level-headed and diplomatic through the storms of accusations hurled is the man we at The Standard believe is best suited to lead the United States through the tough years ahead.

Time after time, Sen. Barack Obama has demonstrated his intelligence, his grasp of the issues and his sincere desire to make a break with past failed policies and move this country in a new direction.Domestically, that means pushing policies aimed at strengthening the middle class, which is the unquestioned locomotive of America's economy. For the last eight years, statistics show the rich are richer and the middle class is shrinking. From tax policy to health care, education to energy plans, Obama aims to empower Americans to help ourselves and restore some semblance of balance between corporate interests and average citizens.On the international front, Obama intends to redeem America in the eyes of a world still reeling over the fact that the United States invaded a sovereign nation six years ago based on highly questionable motives. Among other things, he has pledged to support our troops by bringing them home from Iraq as quickly as possible and to redouble efforts to track down Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network, which remains alive and well in the mountains of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Never before has America seen a candidate like Obama, who actually spent some of his formative childhood years overseas and is himself the product of a mother from Kansas and a father from Kenya, raised mainly by maternal grandparents in Hawaii. He is an Everyman in many respects, and he got to where he is today largely because of his work ethic, his intellect and his charisma. Our country needs that combination of qualities in our president now more than ever.And we in southwest Montana have been fortunate this past year to have actually hosted Obama on two separate occasions. We heard him outline his plans and hopes in real time; many of us shook his hand, conversed with him, even sang "Happy Birthday" to his daughter on the Fourth of July.Of course visits to Butte are not reason to vote for Obama, but the fact that he felt an instant kinship with this Democratic stronghold, that he decided to visit a second time and bring along his family, created a unique tie to this candidate, the likes of which we haven't seen in a long while, if ever.Sen. John McCain's campaign seems to have assumed it had Montana all wrapped up, which may prove to be a fatal mistake.

The Republican candidate's absence has been particularly conspicuous in contrast to the intense presence of Obama and his team. Montanans are independent-minded free thinkers who don't like to be taken for granted.Most all Americans agree that McCain is a great American, but that in itself is not sufficient qualification for the presidency. McCain is not George Bush, as Obama suggests, but McCain has failed to demonstrate where he is significantly different. Also, his age is a concern, given the demanding nature of the job. And he showed poor judgment in choosing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate. She simply is not qualified to be the vice president of the United States, let alone the president, should the need arise.Obama, on the other hand, demonstrated sound judgment in choosing Sen. Joe Biden as his running mate.

The two men's backgrounds and strengths complement one another well, and Biden, himself a former candidate for the presidency, does have the background and experience to assume the lead role if duty were to call. It's that kind of thoughtful, well- considered decision-making ability that we sorely need in our next president, who will be called upon to undo the damage wrought by Bush, the self-proclaimed "Decider." Obama's well-organized campaign itself has been a tour de force, engaging and exciting voters, especially young people, like never before. In Montana alone, the Obama campaign has set up 19 offices and enlisted the help of more than 14,000 volunteers. Change is in the air, and although hard times lie ahead no matter who our next president will be, Obama has proven he has the energy and the skills to lead us.

As the Washington Post said in its endorsement, "Obama has the potential to become a great president. Given the enormous problems he would confront from his first day in office, and the damage wrought over the past eight years, we would settle for very good." So would we.

Monsters

2008-11-05T18:01:00.000-08:00

Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize winning economist, wrote this today in his New York Times blog:

"What I mean by that is that for the past 14 years America’s political life has been largely dominated by, well, monsters. Monsters like Tom DeLay, who suggested that the shootings at Columbine happened because schools teach students the theory of evolution. Monsters like Karl Rove, who declared that liberals wanted to offer "therapy and understanding" to terrorists. Monsters like Dick Cheney, who saw 9/11 as an opportunity to start torturing people.
And in our national discourse, we pretended that these monsters were reasonable, respectable people. To point out that the monsters were, in fact, monsters, was "shrill."

Krugman is exactly right.

Obama rally at U. of Cincinnati stadium

2008-11-03T09:39:00.000-08:00

On Sunday night, Obama came to the University of Cincinnati's Nippert football stadium. Nearly 30,000 folks turned out for him. Included me and my friends Mary Sue and Debby. It was great fun. Obama gave a great speech and had the crowd roaring its support. Ohio's Democratic Governor Ted Strickland gave a good warmup speech as did several Democratic candidates for office. Returning here to Cincinnati on the next to last night of the campaign shows how important Ohio is. Here's hoping it is enough.

"The Boss" stumps for Obama

2008-11-03T09:38:00.000-08:00

Bruce Springsteen throwing his support behind Barack:

I've spent 35 years writing about America and its people--what does it mean to be an American, what's our duties and our responsibilities, what are our reasonable expectations when we live in a free society. I really never saw myself as partisan but more as an advocate for a set of ideas: economic and social justice, America as a positive influence around the world, truth, transparency, and integrity in government, the right of every American to have a job, a living wage, to be educated in a decent school, and to a life filled with the dignity of work, promise and the sanctity of home. These are the things that make a life. These are the things that build and define a society. I think that these are the things we think of on the deepest level when we think about our freedoms. But today those freedoms have been damaged and curtailed by 8 years of a thoughtless, reckless, and morally adrift administration. But we're at the crossroads today.
I've spent most of my life as a musician measuring the distance in my music between the American Dream and the American reality. I look around today and for many Americans who are losing their jobs or their homes or seeing their retirement funds disappear or their health care, or have been abandoned in their inner cities, the distance between that dream and that reality has grown greater and more painful than ever.
I believe that Senator Obama has taken the measure of that distance in his own life and in his own work. And I believe that he understands in his heart the cost of that distance in blood and in suffering in the lives of everyday Americans. And I believe as President he'll work to bring that promise back to life and into the lives of so many of our fellow Americans who have justifiably lost faith in its meaning.
Now, in my job I travel around the world and I occasionally play to big stadiums or crowds like this, just like Senator Obama does. And I continue to find out that wherever I go, America remains a repository for people's hopes, their desires; it remains a house of dreams. And a thousand George Bushes and a thousand Dick Cheneys will never be able to tear that house down. That's something that only we can do, and we're not going to let that happen.
This administration will be leaving office--that's the good news. The bad news is they're going to be dumping in our laps the national tragedies of Katrina, Iraq, and our financial crisis. Our house of dreams has been abused, it's been looted, and it's been left in a terrible state of disrepair. It needs defending against those who would sell it down the river for power, for influence, or a quick buck. It needs strong arms, strong hearts, strong minds. We need someone with Senator Obama's understanding, his temperateness, his deliberativeness, his maturity, his pragmatism, his toughness, and his faith.
But most of all it needs us. It needs you and it needs me, and he's gonna need us. 'Cause all that a nation has that keeps it from coming apart is the social contract between us, between its citizens. And whatever grace God has decided to impart to us, it resides in us, it resides in our connection with one another. In honoring the life and the hopes and the dreams of the man or the woman up the street or across town--that's where we make our small claim upon heaven.
Now in recent years, that social contract's been shredded. Look around today and you can see it shredding before our eyes. But tonight and today we are at the crossroads. We are at the crossroads, and it's been a long long long time coming.
I'm honored to be here on the same stage as Senator Obama. From the beginning, there's been something in Senator Obama that's called upon our better angels, and I suspect it's because he's had a life where he's had to so often call upon his better angels. And we're going to need all the angels we can get on the hard road ahead. So Senator Obama, help us rebuild our house, big enough for the dreams from all our citizens. 'Cause how well we accomplish this task will tell us just what it does mean to be an American in the new century, what the stakes are, and what it means to live in a free society.
So I don't know about you, but I know I want my country back, I want my dream back, I want my America back. Now is the time to stand with Barack Obama, and Joe Biden, roll up our sleeves, and come on up for the rising.

The terrible twins

2008-10-10T05:54:00.000-07:00

A great review of McCain, Bush, and the movie "W."

October 10, 2008
McCain and W.By Robert Scheer
I am not a conventionally religious man, or even a very superstitious one, but I do wish George Bush would stop asking God to bless America. Every time he does, we seem to be visited with another plague, suggesting divine wrath over our president's evil ways. How else to explain the persistent calamity that has marked this administration: a pointless but very costly war over nonexistent Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, the devastating New Orleans flood, the betrayal of the nation by the money-changers--from Enron to Goldman Sachs--that Bush welcomed into the temple of the White House?
What's next? Pestilence, frogs, locusts or incurable boils? Dare we risk four more years of catastrophic misrule by a "W." alter ego? For those indifferent to the serious implications of that question, I recommend Oliver Stone's new bio-flick, which brilliantly captures the "banality of evil" that has controlled our political life these past eight years. This phrase from Hannah Arendt's characterization of the mundane cruelty that so marked the daily experience of European fascism has a frightening applicability to the Republican leadership that has done so much damage to this nation's reputation for democratic integrity.
Cynicism rules even as ritualistic prayer breaks, as depicted in the film W., abound. The pretense of piety earns the president and his accomplices a get-out-of-jail-free card; at no point in the film do any in the top ranks of this administration--captured so accurately and depressingly--accept one iota of accountability for how much damage they have wrought. Unrepentant, the same Republican apparatchiks are employing the familiar Rovian tactic of divide and conquer in seeking to continue their hold on power. Once again, they seek to focus attention on hot-button social issues and patriotic litmus tests to draw attention from the fact that family values are being destroyed by the loss of job and home.
Perhaps John McCain is not a perfect replica of George W. Bush, but the parallels go beyond the senator's enthusiastic support for the toxic mix of Bush's imperial foreign policy and his arrogant indifference to the travails of our domestic existence. Neither man seems to have any sense of how we actually live or what we need from government. How else to explain their common antipathy to Social Security and Medicare, which, after public education, represent the nation's most successful programs? Can you imagine the panic today if McCain and Bush had succeeded in tying Social Security to investments in the stock market? They view government as nothing more than a proud sponsor of the military-industrial complex, while ignoring the threat to homeland security from corporate pirates.
Don't say we weren't warned. Bush came into office believing fervently that what was good for Enron and its CEO, Kenneth "Kenny Boy" Lay, Bush's top financial sponsor, was good for the country. So, too, McCain, who chose Phil Gramm as co-chair of his presidential campaign, ignoring the huge loophole in Gramm's Commodity Futures Trading Act, which allowed Enron, where his wife, Wendy Gramm, was on the board of directors, to so shamelessly game the energy market.
Trumpeting the benefits of the legislation he tacked onto an omnibus spending bill the day before the 2000 Christmas recess, then-Senator Gramm stated: "It protects financial institutions from over-regulation. It provides legal certainty for the $60 billion market in swaps." Those swaps created the toxic investments that US taxpayers are now stuck with as the nation struggles to save those unregulated financial institutions from bankruptcy.
McCain, who should have learned the cost of radical deregulation from his own involvement in the savings and loan scandal as one of the infamous "Keating Five," totally bought Gramm's line. McCain was the chair of Gramm's 1996 presidential bid and up until major Wall Street firms collapsed continued to echo the insistence of the former-Texas-senator-turned-banker that there was no real crisis in the financial markets.
McCain evidences the underlying motivator attributed to Bush in Stone's movie: the distorted priorities of a son of privilege doing battle with the legacy of more gifted and responsible family ancestors. Both grew up as spoiled screw-ups repeatedly bailed out of trouble by their highly accomplished fathers, in McCain's case an admiral. Both assume, as a matter of legacy, that they have a right to rule. What they ignored in their legacy was a Christian's obligation to make the economic system that handsomely rewarded their kin at least minimally responsive to the needs of ordinary folk.

Obama

2008-10-04T17:36:00.000-07:00

These photos are a bit dated but when Barack Obama accepted the Democratic Party nomination for president, I joined a couple thousand of my closest friends on Fountain Square in downtown Cincinnati to celebrate the event. Had a good time. Things are going well in the election so far. I spent a couple of hours at one of Obama's offices here making phone calls to voters. One woman I spoke with was 79. When I asked if she had decided who she was going to vote for, she said firmly "Barack Obama." I told her that was great news and was she going to try to take advantage of the early voting option. She told me she lived in a rest home and that there would be buses to take them to the polls on election day and that she wasn't going to miss her chance to vote for Obama.

I voted on Wednesday at the Butler County board of elections. Unlike Cincinnati, Butler County is pretty much Republican territory. But the polls were busy despite the efforts of the Republicans to block through legal efforts the early voting option. Fortunately, in Jennifer Brunner we have a secretary of state who actually wants people to vote.

Young scholars

2008-09-12T09:08:00.000-07:00

At top, is my WWII class in Lueneburg, Germany. A good bunch of young scholars. In the middle is program director Soeren Koeppen and former program director Iris Heine. I teashed them to keep their eyes open. At bottom is a larger group of students on a visit to Bremen. Check out the windmill in the background.

Neuengamme V

2008-09-09T06:46:00.000-07:00

The top two photos are of a large building designed as bomb shelters for the SS guards. The building is made out of concrete but in an effort to fool any allied bombers, windows were painted on the sides and you can still see the faded images of the painted windows. In the second photo, the students walk past the building. The third and four photos are of the foundation of the crematorium. While this was not a death camp, thousands of prisoners died here and something had to be done with their bodies. Hence, the crematorium. The wording on the plaque says, this was the "place of the crematorium in former concentration camp Neuengamme." The photo at the bottom is of a rail car like the ones that might have transported prisoners to Neuengamme. Click to enlarge.

Neuengamme IV

2008-09-09T06:39:00.000-07:00

At top is a canal that prisoners dug to connect the camp to the Elbe River that flows through Hamburg. In the middle was the camp commandant's house. At the bottom is a trench where clay was dug out of the ground and the little rail cars it was loaded into for transport to the brick factory.

Neuengamme III

2008-09-09T06:29:00.000-07:00

The primary work done at Neuengamme was making bricks. At the top, you can see a photo of the camp during the war. At left is a prisoner in the striped uniforms standing in front of the big building where the bricks were made. Clay was dug out of the soil nearby and loaded in little rail cars which were brought up these ramps and into the building. Next, is a photo of the building today. The next photo is of an administration building. Some of the prisoners with office skills were put to work here. At bottom are some portable housing that was built at the camp. The bricks are concrete and meant to create housing that would be bomb proof. Many of these houses were shipped to Hamburg which was bombed so severely during the war.

Neuengamme II

2008-09-09T06:22:00.001-07:00

In the memorial building at Neuengamme, there are lists of those who perished at the concentration camp. While there are over 20,000 names listed, estimates are that the death toll was actually closer to 28,000. At the base of some of the lists, flowers had been placed, apparently by family members. The death rate increased significantly during the winter months and toward the end of the war.

Neuengamme I

2008-09-09T06:01:00.001-07:00

During my WWII course in Germany, my students and I traveled to Neuengamme near Hamburg. It was a concentration camp, a work camp, not a death camp. It was the center of a network of such camps in the Hamburg area, part of the system the Nazis used to squelch dissent and eliminate their opposition.

Neuengamme had a total off 106,000 inmates over its years operation. The largest number of them (over 34,000) came from the Soviet Union. There were many POWs.

At top is a sculpture of a prisoner dying of hunger. In the memorial building are books that were kept listing the names of prisoners who died. You can view them by lifting the cloths that protect them from light. If you click on the photo, you should be able to read the names and causes of death.

Why Obama must win

2008-08-30T09:28:00.000-07:00

This piece by Weisberg outlines much of what is at stake in this election.

________________
What Will The Neighbors Think?
Obama's defeat would say that when handed a perfect opportunity to put the worst part of our history behind us, we chose not to.

Jacob Weisberg
NEWSWEEK
Updated: 5:29 PM ET Aug 23, 2008

What with the Bush legacy of reckless war and economic mismanagement, 2008 is a year that favors the generic Democratic candidate over the generic Republican one. Yet Barack Obama, with every natural and structural advantage, is running only neck and neck with John McCain, a subpar nominee with a list of liabilities longer than a Joe Biden monologue. Obama has built a crack political operation, raised record sums and inspired millions with his eloquence and vision. McCain has struggled with a fractious campaign team, deficits in clarity and discipline, and remains a stranger to charisma. Yet at the moment, the two appear to be tied. What gives?

If it makes you feel better, you can rationalize Obama's missing 10-point lead on the basis of Clintonite sulkiness, his slowness in responding to attacks or the concern that he may be too handsome, brilliant and cool to be elected. But let's be honest: the reason Obama isn't ahead right now is that he trails badly among one group, older white voters. He lags with them for a simple reason: the color of his skin.

Much evidence points to racial prejudice as a factor that could be large enough to cost Obama the election. That warning is written all over last month's CBS/New York Times poll, which is worth studying if you want to understand white America's curious sense of racial grievance. In the poll, 26 percent of whites say they have been victims of discrimination. Twenty-seven percent say too much has been made of the problems facing black people. Twenty-four percent say that the country isn't ready to elect a black president. Five percent acknowledge that they, personally, would not vote for a black candidate.
Five percent surely understates the extent of the problem. In the Pennsylvania primary, one in six white voters told exit pollsters that race was a factor in his or her decision. Seventy-five percent of those people voted for Clinton. You can do the math: 12 percent of the white Pennsylvania primary electorate acknowledged that they didn't vote for Barack Obama in part because he is African-American. And that's what Democrats in a Northeastern(ish) state admit openly.

Such prejudice usually comes coded in distortions about Obama and his background. To the willfully ignorant, he's a secret Muslim married to a black-power radical. Or—thanks, Geraldine Ferraro—he got where he is only because of the special treatment accorded those lucky enough to be born with African blood. Some Jews assume Obama is insufficiently supportive of Israel, the way they assume other black politicians to be. To some white voters (14 percent in the CBS/New York Times poll), Obama is someone who as president would favor blacks over whites. Or he's an "elitist," who cannot understand ordinary (read: white) people because he isn't one of them. We're just not comfortable with, you know, a Hawaiian.

Then there's the overt stuff. In May, Pat Buchanan, who frets about the European-Americans losing control of their country, ranted on MSNBC in defense of white West Virginians voting on the basis of racial solidarity. The No. 1 best seller in America, "Obama Nation," by Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D., leeringly notes that Obama's white mother always preferred her "mate" be "a man of color." John McCain has yet to get around to denouncing this vile book.
Many have discoursed on what an Obama victory could mean for America. We would finally be able to see our legacy of slavery, segregation and racism in the rearview mirror. Our kids would grow up thinking of prejudice as a nonfactor in their lives. The rest of the world would embrace a less fearful and more open post-post-9/11 America. But does it not follow that an Obama defeat would signify the opposite? If Obama loses, our children will grow up thinking of equal opportunity as a myth. His defeat would say that when handed a perfect opportunity to put the worst part of our history behind us, we chose not to. In this event, the world's judgment will be severe and inescapable: the United States had its day, but in the end couldn't put its own self-interest ahead of its crazy irrationality over race.

Choosing McCain, in particular, would herald the construction of a bridge to the 20th century—and not necessarily the last part of it, either. McCain represents a cold-war style of nationalism that doesn't get the shift from geopolitics to geoeconomics, the centrality of soft power in a multipolar world or the transformative nature of digital technology. This is a matter of attitude as much as age. A lot of 71-year-olds are still learning and evolving. But in 2008, being flummoxed by that newfangled doodad, the personal computer, seems like a deal breaker. At this hinge moment in human history, McCain's approach to our gravest problems is hawkish denial. I like and respect the man, but the maverick has become an ostrich: he wants to deal with the global energy crisis by drilling, our debt crisis by cutting taxes, and he responds to threats from Georgia to Iran with Bush-like belligerence and pique.

You may or may not agree with Obama's policy prescriptions, but they are, by and large, serious attempts to deal with the biggest issues we face: a failing health-care system, oil dependency, income stagnation and climate change. To the rest of the world, a rejection of the promise he represents wouldn't just be an odd choice by the United States. It would be taken for what it would be: sign and symptom of a nation's historical decline.

Kerry rips McCain

2008-08-28T15:40:00.000-07:00

This was an awesome speech by Sen. John Kerry.

Remarks delivered to the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday by Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.):

Thank you so much. Four years ago, you gave me the honor of fighting our fight. I was proud to stand with you then, and I am proud to stand with you now, to help elect Barack Obama as president of the United States. In 2004, we came so close to victory. We are even closer now, and let me tell you, this time we're going to win. Today, the call for change is more powerful than ever, and with more seats in Congress, with more people with more passion engaged in our politics, and with a President Obama, we stand on the brink of the greatest opportunity of our generation to move this country forward. The stakes could not be higher, because we do know what a McCain administration would look like: just like the past, just like George Bush.

And this country can't afford a third Bush term. Just think: John McCain voted with George Bush 90 percent of the time. Ninety percent of George Bush is just more than we can take. Never in modern history has an administration squandered American power so recklessly. Never has strategy been so replaced by ideology. Never has extremism so crowded out common sense and fundamental American values. Never has short-term partisan politics so depleted the strength of America's bipartisan foreign policy. George Bush, with John McCain at his side, promised to spread freedom but delivered the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time. They misread the threat and misled the country. Instead of freedom, it's Hamas, Hezbollah, the Taliban and dictators everywhere that are on the march. North Korea has more bombs, and Iran is defiantly chasing one. Our mission is to restore America's influence and position in the world. We must use all the weapons in our arsenal — above all, our values. President Obama and Vice President Biden will shut down Guantanamo, respect the Constitution, and make clear once and for all, the United States of America does not torture, not now, not ever. We must listen and lead by example because even a nation as powerful as the United States needs some friends in this world. We need a leader who understands all our security challenges, not just bombs and guns, but global warming, global terror and global AIDS.

And Barack Obama understands there is no way for America to be secure until we create clean energy here at home, not with a little more oil in five, 10 or 20 years, but with an energy revolution starting right now. I have known and been friends with John McCain for almost 22 years. But every day now I learn something new about candidate McCain. To those who still believe in the myth of a maverick instead of the reality of a politician, I say, let's compare Senator McCain to candidate McCain. Candidate McCain now supports the wartime tax cuts that Senator McCain once denounced as immoral. Candidate McCain criticizes Senator McCain's own climate change bill. Candidate McCain says he would now vote against the immigration bill that Sen. McCain wrote. Are you kidding? Talk about being for it before you're against it. Let me tell you, before he ever debates Barack Obama, John McCain should finish the debate with himself. And what's more, Senator McCain, who once railed against the smears of Karl Rove when he was the target, has morphed into candidate McCain who is using the same "Rove" tactics and the same "Rove" staff to repeat the same old politics of fear and smear. Well, not this year, not this time. The Rove-McCain tactics are old and outworn, and America will reject them in 2008. So remember, when we choose a commander-in-chief this November, we are electing judgment and character, not years in the Senate or years on this earth.

Time and again, Barack Obama has seen farther, thought harder, and listened better. And time and again, Barack Obama has been proven right.
When John McCain stood on the deck of an aircraft carrier just three months after 9/11 and proclaimed, "Next up, Baghdad!" Barack Obama saw, even then, "an occupation of "undetermined length, undetermined cost, undetermined consequences" that would "only fan the flames of the Middle East." Well, guess what? Mission accomplished. So who can we trust to keep America safe? When Barack Obama promised to honor the best traditions of both parties and talk to our enemies, John McCain scoffed. George Bush called it "the soft comfort of appeasement." But today, Bush's diplomats are doing exactly what Obama said: talking with Iran. So who can we trust to keep America safe? When democracy rolled out of Russia, and the tanks rolled into Georgia, we saw John McCain respond immediately with the outdated thinking of the Cold War. Barack Obama responded like a statesman of the 21st century. So who can we trust to keep America safe? When we called for a timetable to make Iraqis stand up for Iraq and bring our heroes home, John McCain called it "cut and run." But today, even President Bush has seen the light. He and Prime Minister Maliki agree on — guess what? — a timetable. So who can we trust to keep America safe? The McCain-Bush Republicans have been wrong again and again and again. And they know they will lose on the issues. So, the candidate who once promised a "contest of ideas" now has nothing left but personal attacks. How insulting to suggest that those who question the mission, question the troops. How pathetic to suggest that those who question a failed policy doubt America itself. How desperate to tell the son of a single mother who chose community service over money and privilege that he doesn't put America first.

No one can question Barack Obama's patriotism. Like all of us, he was taught what it means to be an American by his family: his grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line in World War II, his grandfather who marched in Patton's army, and his great uncle who enlisted in the army right out of high school at the height of the war. And on a spring day in 1945, he helped liberate one of the concentration camps at Buchenwald. Ladies and gentlemen, Barack Obama's uncle is here with us tonight. Please join me in saluting this American hero, Charlie Payne. Charlie, your nephew, Barack Obama, will end this politics of distortion and division. He will be a president who seeks not to perfect the lies of swift-boating, but to end them once and for all. This election is a chance for America to tell the merchants of fear and division: you don't decide who loves this country; you don't decide who is a patriot; you don't decide whose service counts and whose doesn't. Four years ago I said, and I say it again tonight, that the flag doesn't belong to any ideology. It doesn't belong to any political party. It is an enduring symbol of our nation, and it belongs to all the American people.

After all, patriotism is not love of power or some cheap trick to win votes; patriotism is love of country. Years ago when we protested a war, people would weigh in against us saying, "My country, right or wrong." Our answer? Absolutely, my country, right or wrong. When right, keep it right. When wrong, make it right. Sometimes loving your country demands you must tell the truth to power. This is one of those times, and Barack Obama is telling those truths. In closing, let me say, I will always remember how we stood together in 2004, not just in a campaign but for a cause. Now again we stand together in the ranks, ready to fight. The choice is clear; our cause is just; and now is our time to make Barack Obama the next president of the United States. Thank you.

German imperialism?

2008-08-13T06:20:00.000-07:00

Not far from the Bismarck museum and on the grounds of a nice little restaurant, was this memorial. The writing on its front has been worn away so that I could not read it. However, it appears to be a monument dedicated to the German empire in Africa. At right is a native African who seems sad and disconsolate. At left is a native African, looking confident and satisfied, who is helping the soldier at center. The message seems to be that some Africans who cooperated with the creation of German empire in Africa and those who didn't were doomed to defeat and unhappiness. Many Germans do believe that they treated the native peoples better than other Europeans while they were building their African empire. This idea is not really borne out by the facts.

Celle

2008-08-07T04:37:00.000-07:00

Celle is a beautiful town near Luneburg. It's buildings are quite different from the Hanseatic cities like Luneburg. It is full of half-timbered houses and buildings. There is a palace there for the family of the House of Hannover who called this place home for many years. George III of American revolunary fame was a member of this royal family and a photo of him can be found in the palace.

Becoming a "local"

2008-08-06T01:20:00.001-07:00

You can tell you are becoming a local resident when your name actually appears on the door of your apartment building. At bottom, you can see I've become a fixture of Lueneburg.

At top, Soeren, Eugene, and I have "ein bier" at a Hamburg night spot after visiting the city's immigration museum.

The Iron Chancellor

2008-08-06T01:08:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, one of my colleagues here, Uta Roepcke, suggested I might be interested in seeing the Otto von Bismarck museum near her home outside of Hamburg. Bismarck led the creation of the modern state of Germany in the 1870s through a series of wars and negotiations. Naturally, I was interested.

At top is his mausoleum. Next is his coffin on the left (with flowers) and his wife's on the right. The lighting was very bad. In a beautiful tavern/restaurant/bier garten in a nearby place, the walls are lined with the trophies of deer that Bismarck himself shot. Etched into the central piece is the date at which the animal was taken. At bottom, Uta and pose in front of the museum.

The museum is an interesting collection of memorabilia but what is perhaps more valuable is an historical institute established in connection to the museum to study the life and time of the Iron Chancellor, as he was called. The city of Bismarck, North Dakota, has provided a series of gifts and proclamations to the museum which are on display. I'm sure I am unusual among visitors to the museum in that I've actually been to Bismarck, ND.

Kalkberg

2008-08-04T01:43:00.000-07:00

Just outside of Luneburg is a place called the Kalkberg. Very early in Luneburg's history, the town was ruled by a duke who had a palace on the Kalkburg. About 1,000 years ago, the people revolted and attacked the the palace and the duke and his family and forces fled to take up residence in nearby Celle. At top is the view from the Kalkberg with the steeples of St. Nicolai at the left, St. Michaelis in the foreground center, and St. Johannis on the right. Next, is a monument to the people who attacked the palace. Then there is a medieval cannon. At bottom, is another view of some walkers enjoying the view from the Kalkberg.

St. Johannis III

2008-08-03T08:34:00.001-07:00

At top is a stained glass window for a first world war soldier, next is a plaque dedicated to Christ who brings peace and for the victims of war and aggression.Next is a list of the dead from the parish in the First World War. At bottom is the altar from St. Lamberti's, Luneburg's fourth medieval church that fell victim to subsidence because of the salt mines in the city. It was pulled down in the late 19th century.

St. Johannis II

2008-08-03T07:33:00.000-07:00

St. Johannis contains some beautiful stained glass work. Most of it appears to date from the nineteenth century although some of it comes from between the First and Second world wars. Because Luneburg was not bombed during WWII, the stained glass survived. The church was erected between 1300 and 1370, although it has undergone some changes, particularly some exterior reconstruction in the 18th century.

St. Johannis I

2008-08-03T06:31:00.000-07:00

Beautiful St. Johannis church in Lueneburg. The medieval structure has undergone some changes over time. The massive organ, one of the finest in northern Germany, was once played by J.S. Bach, who lived in the town when a child. A UC alumnus from CCM was responsible for much of recent restoration of the organ.

Hannover

2008-07-30T03:10:00.000-07:00

A great view of the Hauptbahnhof (train station) in Hannover. The statue is of Ernst August, former king of Hannover.

Hildesheim III

2008-07-29T09:06:00.000-07:00

More scenes from St. Mary's cathedral. At top is a statue of Bishop Bernward; next is a memorial to an early missionary to this region of Germany, Heiliger Ansgar, who worked in the area in the 820s and became bishop of Hamburg; and a general view of the interior of the church. The candelabra hanging from the ceiling is from the 11th century.

Hildesheim II

2008-07-29T08:55:00.000-07:00

St. Mary's Church in Hildesheim dates from the 9th century. It was destroyed in 1945 and rebuilt after the war. At top is the approach to the entrance, then a shot of the side of the cathedral. Then are are the famous medieval Bishop Bernward's doors (1015), apparently made of a single casting. At bottom is the sarcophagus of St. Godehard. The cathedral is on the UNESCO world heritage site.

Hildesheim I

2008-07-28T01:48:00.000-07:00

I took a trip to nearby Hildesheim, an old city with an interesting history. It has two beautiful churches on the UNESCO list of world heritage sites. Above, is the town square that has been beautifully restored after being flattened by bombing in World War II. At bottom, a warning to neo-Nazis in the area, I guess, but I wonder how many of those geniuses are likely to be able to read English??

Travemunde

2008-07-28T01:42:00.000-07:00

During our recent trip to Lubeck we went to Travemunde, a resort area on the Baltic Sea. At top are the students enjoying the beach. We later went down to the water and some of them took a dip in the icy cold water. Next, you can see the Germans have these little huts that you can rent on the beach. They look kind of funny but have a practical side - a place to sit and get some shade.

"No. 44 has spoken"

2008-07-25T01:03:00.001-07:00

Enormous excitement here in Germany about Obama. A friend of a collegue who I went to dinner with the other night was sporting an Obama button! Some of my students skipped class yesterday to go to hear Obama speak in Berlin. Over 200,000 were in the massive crowd.

Below is an opinion piece from Der Spiegel. I sure hope they are right.

OPINION
No. 44 Has Spoken
By Gerhard Spörl
Anyone who saw Barack Obama at Berlin's Siegessäule on Thursday could recognize that this man will become the 44th president of the United States. He is more than ambitious -- he wants to lay claim to become the president of the world.
It was a ton to absorb -- and what a stupendous ride through world history: the story of his own family, the Berlin Airlift, terrorists, poorly secured nuclear material, the polar caps, World War II, America's errors, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, freedom. It's amazing one could even pack such a potpourri of issues into sentences and then succeed in squeezing them all into the space of a speech that lasted less than 30 minutes.
So what still sticks? That Barack Obama is a passionate politician who is fixated on and takes very seriously his desire for a bit of uptopia and a better world. That he is an impressive speaker who knows how to casually draw his audience into his image of the world -- one who doesn't have any need to resort to the kind of cheap effects that tend to prompt the uproarious applause of an audience. That he is a typical American -- an idealist in the true spirit of the American success story who is now very casually making his claim to become something akin to the president of the world.
He also could have said: We are a world power, the only one that exists on this planet at the moment, and I am going to act as if that were the case. But you're also allowed to participate in the attempt to try to save the world -- at least a bit of it. In that sense I am different from George W. Bush -- very different. Indeed, Barack Obama has his own sound -- it's more utopian, he speaks of the general human desire for better conditions for all of humanity; and he speaks of the longing for strong and dynamic presidents and chancellors who are capable of acting on a global scale. With this drive and this radiance, he managed to drive Hillary Clinton out of the campaign. It is also the way he is going to outpace John McCain on November 4. It is the way he took the hearts of Americans by storm and it is the way he is now taking Europe by storm.
Anyone who saw him make the short way from the Victory Column in Berlin on Thursday to the podium saw a man with the serious gait of a basketball player, a man who seemed young, decisive and focused. For those who witnessed his appearance in Berlin, it is hard to imagine that John McCain still has any chance. McCain is 25 years his senior, a man who because of the torture he endured in Vietnam is in constant pain -- unable to comb his hair or lift his arm in celebration.
Europe is witnessing the 44th president of the United States during this trip. Anyone who listens to him quickly realizes that he is not only ambitious but will also make demands. In the inner circles of Angela Merkel's Chancellery, he is reportedly seen as a pleasant person, one who arouses curiosity.
However, he is also certain to demand the help of the Germans, Brits and French in Afghanistan and Iraq. He's not going to allow NATO to shirk its duty -- and that is where the perils of the engaging "we" and the catchy "Yes, we can" lie. Otherwise all these hard-nosed Europeans will hope and pray that the future President Obama isn’t really all that serious about the saving the world of tomorrow, the polar caps, Darfur and the poppy harvest over in Afghanistan.
George W. Bush is yesterday, the Texas version of the arrogant world power. Obama is all about today: the "everybody really just wants to be brothers and save the world" utopia. As for us, we who sometimes admire and sometimes curse this somewhat anemic, pragmatic democracy, we will have to quickly get used to Barack Obama, the new leader of a lofty democracy that loves those big nice words -- words that warm our hearts and alarm our minds.
Let's allow ourselves to be warmed today, by this man at the Victory Column. Then we'll take a further look.
Gerhard Spörl is the chief editor of DER SPIEGEL's foreign desk.

Bombing of Lübeck, 1942

2008-07-23T02:34:00.000-07:00

Lübeck was the first large German city to be attacked by the RAF using its area bombing tactics. Early in the war, the British recognized that it was very difficult to actually strike a single target like a factory, especially if they flew high enough to get out of reach of the flak. Soon, RAF Commander Arthur "Bomber" Harris adopted a nighttime approach. The smallest target they could strike from high altitude at night had to be the size of a city. In 1942, Lübeck was thus attacked at night from high altitude and was viewed by the RAF as the first successful attack on a city in World War II.

At top, in these photos, you can see fires raging around St. Mary's church. Next, damage around the cathedral. The third photo shows some of the damage - the churches de-roofed and destroyed and in the one photo the bells of St. Mary's that fell from their tower during the attack. Today, they have been left in place as a memory of the attack - broken, melted, and battered, a mute testimony to the night Lübeck was attacked. On the wall, next to the bells are two large nails presented in the form of a cross from the destroyed cathedral at Conventry, England. It is an attempt by British and German civilians to recognized their shared suffering under the bombs. Only about 300 civilians were killed in the raid but about 15,000 lost their homes in fires resulting from the incendiary bombs.

Harris wrote after the attack: "[Lübeck] went up in flames" because "it was a city of moderate size of some importance as a port, and with some submarine building yards of moderate size not far from it. It was not a vital target, but it seemed to me better to destroy an industrial town of moderate importance than to fail to destroy a large industrial city".

Lubeck

2008-07-22T00:57:00.000-07:00

When I last visited Lubeck, the city gate was in scaffolding. Now it was on display. It is part of the medieval fortifications of the city and is photographed at top. It contains a museum on the history of the city. Lubeck is the home of three Nobel prize winners - Willy Brandt won the peace prize while writers Thomas Mann and Gunther Grass won for literature. Lubeck was founded by Henry the Lion, an early ruler in the 800s. Naturally, in the cathedral there is a golden lion. In our walking tour of the city, we discovered there are all these little pathways thhrough what appear to be impenetrable blocks of buildings that lead to quaint little yards like this one. We had to walk through a World War II bunker to get here although it did not look like a bunker where people took cover during bombing attacks At bottom, is a medieval altar at the cathedral.

City of Hamburg

2008-07-18T05:53:00.000-07:00

Always nice to visit Hamburg. I had lunch at a great Indian restaurant with a former student near the university. Then I wandered about and took some photos. At top is the rathaus. There are a lot of waterways around Hamburg. Next is the Opera Haus, a beautiful building. At bottom, is a bar near the train station - Frau Moeller's. I spent quite a bit of time here waiting for trains. Interesting place.

Back in Deutschland

2008-07-18T05:41:00.000-07:00

I'm back in Deutschland and enjoying the visit. The weather has not cooperated in these first couple of weeks. Lots of rain and pretty cold. Of course, I try to remember what things are probably like back in Cincinnati, hot and humid. I have to wear a jacket here (I had to buy it here, too, since I had neglected to bring one).

At top is the beautiful old rathaus in Lüneburg. Next is the house I am living in. My windows are in the second floor just to the left of center. There other day there was a city carnival in the old part of the city and it was thronging with children and parents. There is a photo of the crowd on Am Sande and the bottom photo has a surprising American look as people try to knock down bottles to win prizes.

Temple University

2008-07-11T03:02:00.000-07:00

I had not been to the Temple University campus for several years (like maybe 10!) so I was looking forward to seeing all the changes I've heard about. It is a much more user friendly campus than it was when I first stepped out of the subway there in 1993. Like the University of Cincinnati it is an urban campus but much more so. And like UC it has gone through a tremendous amount of contruction in just a few years.

At top is Conwell hall, the building where my graduation was held in summer 1997. Next is the renovated Baptist Temple. The college was originally founded as a Baptist college in the 19th century to serve the needs of immigrants and working class people in Philly. It was absorbed by the state in the early 1960s. Next is the bell tower square in front of the library. The tall building on the left in the background is Gladfelter Hall, home of the History Department. Next is the student union, a new building; and next is a dormitory sitting on the sight off the old graduate dorms, which were much smaller and dumpier looking than this sleek new version. The campus looked good during my visit and was made very busy by a very large orientation for new students.

Streets of Philadelphia

2008-07-11T02:51:00.000-07:00

This is a bit out of order but before I flew to London, I had an eight hour layover in Philadelphia. I lived in Philly for several years while I was in graduate school so being there is always like visiting an old friend. Unfortunately, contrary to my plans, none of my old friends were in town so I was on my own. I visited some of my old haunts and took the subway to Temple U., my alma mater, to see the changes there.

At top, the Union League building. The Union League was created by a group of prominent Philadelphians to support the union during the civil war. Today, it is a prominent social organization in the city. Next, is a beautiful old bank building that I've always liked. Then there is a view of city hall from Broad Street with William Penn on top. At bottom is looking across Rittenhouse Square, a beautiful little park in the city.

Quiz Night, England Style

2008-07-11T02:43:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to go along with Tom and Caroline to meet two of their friend, Anna and Andy, at a nearby pub, to take part in an English tradition, Quiz Night. I was absolutely no help as all the questions were about British cultural things. But we managed not to come in last and also pocketed about 20 pounds by answering the last question correctly. Had a great time.

Fine dining at Buckland Court

2008-07-11T02:34:00.000-07:00

When Tom and Monica returned from their cruise, we had a nice dinner at Tom and Caroline's home. At top is top as chef; then Tom, Monica, and Clare; then two photos of us in various stages of the excellent meal and drinks.

Hampton Court

2008-07-11T02:23:00.001-07:00

During my recent visit to England enroute to Germany, I was able to visit my cousins. I stayed at the very nice home of Tom and Caroline Buckland, the newly-dubbed Buckland Court. Caroline had a day off work while I was there and we visited Hampton Court, the home of Henry VIII. I had not been there since 1990 so it was great to see the palace again.

At top is a view of an interior courtyard; then Caroline flanked by one of the many impressive staircases; an amazing clock; and two photos of the large and impressive gardens surrounding the palace.

Old times

2008-07-11T02:14:00.000-07:00

It was just like old times when my former college roommate visited in Cincinnati recently. Visited the air museum, Newport on the Levee, and downtown Cincinnati.

Some photos. Doug and I doing what we do best; Doug and some bomber art; Bock's Car, the plane that bombed Nagasaki.

Nation building needed

2008-06-29T15:41:00.000-07:00

June 29, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
Anxious in America
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Just a few months ago, the consensus view was that Barack Obama would need to choose a hard-core national-security type as his vice presidential running mate to compensate for his lack of foreign policy experience and that John McCain would need a running mate who was young and sprightly to compensate for his age. Come August, though, I predict both men will be looking for a financial wizard as their running mates to help them steer America out of what could become a serious economic tailspin.
I do not believe nation-building in Iraq is going to be the issue come November — whether things get better there or worse. If they get better, we’ll ignore Iraq more; if they get worse, the next president will be under pressure to get out quicker. I think nation-building in America is going to be the issue.
It’s the state of America now that is the most gripping source of anxiety for Americans, not Al Qaeda or Iraq. Anyone who thinks they are going to win this election playing the Iraq or the terrorism card — one way or another — is, in my view, seriously deluded. Things have changed.
Up to now, the economic crisis we’ve been in has been largely a credit crisis in the capital markets, while consumer spending has kept reasonably steady, as have manufacturing and exports. But with banks still reluctant to lend even to healthy businesses, fuel and food prices soaring and home prices declining, this is starting to affect consumers, shrinking their wallets and crimping spending. Unemployment is already creeping up and manufacturing creeping down.
The straws in the wind are hard to ignore: If you visit any car dealership in America today you will see row after row of unsold S.U.V.’s. And if you own a gas guzzler already, good luck. On Thursday, The Palm Beach Post ran an article on your S.U.V. options: “Continue to spend upward of $100 for a fill-up. Sell or trade in the vehicle for a fraction of the original cost. Or hold out and park the truck in the driveway for occasional use in hopes the market will turn around.” Just be glad you don’t own a bus. Montgomery County, Md., where I live, just announced that more children were going to have to walk to school next year to save money on bus fuel.
On top of it all, our bank crisis is not over. Two weeks ago, Goldman Sachs analysts said that U.S. banks may need another $65 billion to cover more write-downs of bad mortgage-related instruments and potential new losses if consumer loans start to buckle. Since President Bush came to office, our national savings have gone from 6 percent of gross domestic product to 1 percent, and consumer debt has climbed from $8 trillion to $14 trillion.
My fellow Americans: We are a country in debt and in decline — not terminal, not irreversible, but in decline. Our political system seems incapable of producing long-range answers to big problems or big opportunities. We are the ones who need a better-functioning democracy — more than the Iraqis and Afghans. We are the ones in need of nation-building. It is our political system that is not working.
I continue to be appalled at the gap between what is clearly going to be the next great global industry — renewable energy and clean power — and the inability of Congress and the administration to put in place the bold policies we need to ensure that America leads that industry.
“America and its political leaders, after two decades of failing to come together to solve big problems, seem to have lost faith in their ability to do so,” Wall Street Journal columnist Gerald Seib noted last week. “A political system that expects failure doesn’t try very hard to produce anything else.”
We used to try harder and do better. After Sputnik, we came together as a nation and responded with a technology, infrastructure and education surge, notes Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International. After the 1973 oil crisis, we came together and made dramatic improvements in energy efficiency. After Social Security became imperiled in the early 1980s, we came together and fixed it for that moment. “But today,” added Hormats, “the political system seems incapable of producing a critical mass to support any kind of serious long-term reform.”
If the old saying — that “as General Motors goes, so goes America” — is true, then folks, we’re in a lot of trouble. General Motors’s stock-market value now stands at just $6.47 billion, compared with Toyota’s $162.6 billion. On top of it, G.M. shares sank to a 34-year low last week.
That’s us. We’re at a 34-year low. And digging out of this hole is what the next election has to be about and is going to be about — even if it is interrupted by a terrorist attack or an outbreak of war or peace in Iraq. We need nation-building at home, and we cannot wait another year to get started. Vote for the candidate who you think will do that best. Nothing else matters.

Whiskey River II

2008-06-24T17:25:00.000-07:00

Our next stop was the Woodford Reserve distillery. They had a large new gift shop and visitors center but the heart of the facility was a set of buildings constructed in the early 19th century that have earned a place on the National Register of Historic Places. The story goes back to when the Scots-Irish raised their rebellion against taxes on whiskey in Pennsylvania in the 1790s. Led by George Washington, federal forces quickly routed the farmers and Woodford Reserves claims (apparently with some authority) that they fled down the Ohio River and set up shop in Kentucky. That, they say, helps explains some of the characteristics of their distillery. For example, the old stone buildings do look as though they were hauled out of the Edinburg area of Scotland. And they argue that the copper kettles (naturally imported from Scotland) used in the process at Woodford help give their whiskey the distinctive taste.

At top, the three large copper kettles. Next is a close up of one of the kettles. Click on it to read the sign. Next is the ramp that is used to roll the filled barrles from the distillery to the warehouse. Next is a view of one of the distinctive stone buildings. At bottom, is a view inside the huge warehouse where roughly $35 million worth of whiskey is aging.

Whiskey river trip I

2008-06-16T05:15:00.000-07:00

Some university colleagues and I embarked recently on a long planned trip to some bourbon distilleries across the river in Kentucky. We thought Willie Nelson's Whiskey River wouldd be a good theme song for us. We went in two cars with each having a designated sober driver just in case, although in the end we never had enough of the beverage to make us illegal.

Bourbon whiskey production has a long history in the Bluegrass State and each of the distilleries has a particular story to tell. They also each have a particular twist about their whiskey that they believe makes their potion special. Our first stop was at Four Roses distillery. One of the unique things about this was distillery was that the original buildings, constructed in 1910, were done in Spanish Mission style, common in California but unusual in Kentucky. For many decades, Four Roses was owned by a large Japanese company and sold its product exclusively in Japan. But in the early 2000s, they introduced theiir bourbon gradually across the United States. Four Roses's special production aspect is that none of their warehouses where the beverage is held while it is aging in thousands of barrels are over two stories, or about six barrels, high. Because temperature varies in tall warehouses, bourbon at the top where the temperatures are higher, matures faster. Low warehouses, Four Roses says, makes for a more uniform product.

At top, we begin the tour. A stack of whiskey barrels on display. We walk into the little laboratory where the whiskey is tested for quality. Then we walk through one of the newer parts of the distillery and at bottom is one of the huge vats bubbling away.

Party on the bridge

2008-06-16T05:03:00.000-07:00

Some friends have decided to have an occasional party on the Purple People Bridge across the Ohio. The PPB is an od railroad bridge that has been been turned into a pedestrian bridge, said to be the only walking bridge connecting two states. At top is a photo of some of the group. We were celebrating the birthday of Carlos Diaz, the guy with the shades. In the middle is a riverboat with passengers cruisting upstream. At bottom is a barge full of Cincinnati Reds baseball fans. They party on the Kentucky side of the river where it is easier to park and then get a free ride across the river sponsored by some of the watering holes on the south bank.

Oklahoma or bust!

2008-06-14T12:02:00.001-07:00

I had a great time visiting my nephew in Tulsa, Okla., recently. AJ introduced me to some good Irish pubs and restaurants in Tulsa. We visited a western art museum that was very impressive and featured a lot of paintings by Montana's own Charley Russell. And we enjoyed a visit to the local aquarium, too. One of the interesting things about the visit was to see the declining signs of the Oral Roberts University era in Tulsa. The huge hospital complex, the tallest building in the area, is not longer the church-related hospital and is looking for tenants. The praying hands is a feature near the ORU campus.

Going home

2008-04-27T15:35:00.000-07:00

I've thought of a way to end this section of my blog, the trip to Africa. I guess this will have to do. I have more photos but I think I have overall recorded the trip adequately. It was wonderful, filled with great people and places. Heather and Nuno were absolutely fabulous hosts and really made it all possible.

At top, I'm about to board the South African Airlines plane from Maputo to Johannesburg. Then, while I was in a bar-restaurant at the Jo-burg airport I saw this sign about currency that could only be posted at a very international location. At bottom, is a photo I took of the scene in Cincinnati at the airport. Snow on the ground. Back to reality :) At bottom, is my cat Riley who was happy to have me home and promptly camped out on my suitcase.

More streets of Maputo

2008-04-27T15:24:00.000-07:00

At top is a scene I snapped of these three women who had been out shopping and were on their way home. There has to be a great deal of skill involved in carrying burdens like this. Then there is Bazzy and me at the big market in the center of the city. And finally is Heather haggling with some of the many, many street merchants.

Playing with guns

2008-04-22T06:45:00.001-07:00

Old Fort

2008-04-22T06:27:00.000-07:00

This old Portuguese fortress is the oldest building in Maputo. Showing the sharing of African and Portuguese history, the body of one of the first African leaders is housed here in a finely crafted coffin. Meanwhile, in the courtyard is an equistrian statue of one of the Portuguese military officers who led the conquest of what is today Mozambique. The fort was actually originally built in 1720 by the Dutch East India Company but soon after was abandoned and the Portuguese began to exert control in the area.

At top, Heather poses at the entrance. The coffin of the African leader. Then, the statue of the Portuguese conqueror. Finally, a view along the wall.

Diverse Maputo

2008-04-16T19:11:00.000-07:00

Maputo is a place that serves a diversity of interests. At top, these mini-buses are Maputo's bus system. They are everywhere and often look quite battered. Shortly before I arrived, the price to ride the bus was increased. The result were riots. On the way into town, I saw a few burned out vehicles that were remnants of those disturbances. Next is an old bull fighting ring. Then a Hindu temple and finally a big Islamic mosque.

Moonrise, streets, faces

2008-04-11T13:48:00.000-07:00

Lots of memories will stick with me from my trip to Africa. At top, a moonrise over the Indian Ocean. Next, the historically-named streets of Maputo that now ring with a touch of irony. And the faces of many people, here Bazzy and the babysitter, Bettina, who was a charming person and devoted to Bazzy.

Streets of History

2008-04-11T13:36:00.000-07:00

One can see both the remnants of Mozambique's revolutionary and cold war era in the street signs in Maputo. I especially enjoyed seeing the corner of Ho Chi Minh and Karl Marx. It might be better if Maputo's streets were named after people important in their local history. Of course, that might open interpretation of Mozambique's history and, as Americans know, that can dredge up a lot of skeletons. Perhaps it is best to let sleeping dogs sleep.

Gunfight in Maputo

2008-04-06T19:31:00.000-07:00

The day I arrived in Maputo, there was a gunfight downtown at a local bank. Apparently the well-armed police had heard that some men were going to rob the bank. So, the local gendarmes waited for them and when the would-be robbers arrived and stepped out of their car, the cops gunned them down.

The next day, this was the front page of the local paper. These guys don't mess around. Shoot first and ask questions later. Hope they got the right guys.

Touring Maputo

2008-04-03T18:12:00.000-07:00

One day in Maputo, Heather and I and one of her great neighbors went out to do a little shopping. Me in the company of two lovely ladies. Our first stop was a the French Cultural Center which is right across from the city's interesting Catholic cathedral at top. The Franco-Mozambique center has a place where you can shop for Parisian fashions and a cafe and museum with some great local art on display. Nice place and even an armed guard who smiled and said "Bonjour!" Next we have Heather andd I at Mozambique's Museum of Geology. Lots of great rocks. The guy managing the place and I tried to talk to each other in English pretty unsuccessfully. But then, after learning I was a professor at UC, he said he had attended college in Germany. Then we began to talk, just a little, in German! It is a interesting world. We both enjoyed the oddness of it. At bottom, Heather and her friend are in front of the Iron Building, a house built at the turn of the century entirely out of iron. It will probably last forever but is apparently way to too hot to live in in the summer. Turns out a lot of Mozambiquans spent time in communist countries during the cold war and that is likely how our museum guide got his education in Deutschland.

Friends of Heather

2008-03-31T15:51:00.001-07:00

One of the great things about visiting friends in a distant part of the world is that you get to meet their friends. At top is Heather's friend Muhammade Unus, who administers an export business in Mozambique and was kind enough to pick us up in Nels Spruit, South Africa, where he was on business, and drive us back to Maputo. He was also very helpful in shepherding us through customs at the border. During a couple of late night gatherings at areas night clubs, he introduced me to a number of other Mozambiquans. The next photo is with another of Heather's friends whose English-born parents actually helped fight against the Portugueuse during the war of independence. At bottom, Heather, Bazzy, and I indulge in some pizza and beer.

Beaches of Mozambique

2008-03-31T15:40:00.000-07:00

The coast alongside and just outside of Maputo was quite beautiful. At top, Bazzy and I stand alongside the Indian Ocean while a couple of local kids play in the surf. Next, there are local fishing boats in the afternoon. In the morning, they were often out to see getting their daily catch and I have some photos of that which I will try to post later. The next two photos are of long stretches of beach north of the downtown. The first is outside a nice hotel and the next is further out of town and again some locals are taking advantage of the beach.

Museum of Natural History

2008-03-30T08:08:00.000-07:00

Another very fine public building in Maputo is the Museum of Natural History. There are very good exhibits of animals that have historically existed in Mozambique and a lot of interesting history about actions and policies by black Africans and Europeans. At top is the beautiful facade of the building. Inside the front door, are tusks of elephants who were killed in a huge hunt of the animals that cleared thousands of them. At bottom are two photos of life-size dioramas of dramatic action using the real stuffed animals as examples. A great museum.

Government past and present

2008-03-28T19:49:00.000-07:00

I think this is an interesting mix of photos. At top, you have the colonial and current central government office building. The bureaucracy seems to have exploded and now fills many buildings across the city. Next, is a memorial to Portuguese soldiers from Mozambique who died in WWI and WWII, an interesting sign of respect of the colonial heritage. At bottom is the ruined house of the man who was in charge of suppressing resistance during the war of independence.

All aboard for Maputo!

2008-03-28T19:40:00.000-07:00

This is the colonial era train station in Maputo. It was built by the Portuguese to present Maputo's visitors with a feeling of being not so far from Europe. It is still grand but much quieter these days. It is one of group of public buildings that are very nicely maintained and stand out among the general hustle and clutter of the modern city. The movie "Blood Diamonds" was filed in Maputo and nearby locations in Moazabique while the story is really set in Sierra Leone on the west African coast. This train station figured prominently in the movie.

Standing in the footsteps of presidents

2008-03-18T14:29:00.000-07:00

While visiting a gift shop and artist workshop in Swaziland, I stopped to use the local facilities. Imagine my surprise at finding another famous American had stood here, too!!

Swaziland

2008-03-16T07:36:00.000-07:00

One weekend when I was in Mozambique, we took a drive across the border into Swaziland. It is a beautiful country and they use English there so it was easier for me. At the top is Bazzy playing near a restaurant where we ate. That is a cornfield just beyond him. The statue and sign was at a craftshop where a well-known local artist designs and sells some of his work. I bought some items in one of the gift shops. Then there is Heather and Bazzy riding a concrete rhino. At bottom is an example of some of traditional houses of the Swazi people.

Dinner at the embassy

2008-03-16T07:30:00.000-07:00

On one of my first nights in Maputo, Heather and Nuno invited over some of their friends at the embassy for dinner. It was a very nice time with some great people. The squid stew was awesome!

Maputo, Mozambique

2008-03-11T07:39:00.000-07:00

Much of South Africa seemed familiar and looked something like the US or Europe, espcially Cape Town. But in Maputo, I think, you are closer to the real Africa.

My first difficulty was that suddenly all the conversation and signs were in Portuguese. The streets are very crowded and traffic rules seem pretty arbitrary. We joked that stop lights were just "a suggestion" and that is not far from true.

Another kind of alien factor is the widespread use of armed guards. Some were police but most were private security. With the automatic rifles at the ready, these guys were pretty serious looking.

I met a lot of interesting and nice people in Maputo thanks to Heather and Nuno. These ranged from other people at the Port. embassy to street people who Heather and Nuno had gotten to know. Heather has a nice habit of bringing peanut butter sandwiches to the people selling things on the streets. They always seemed happy to see her. I'll write more about the people on the streets of Maputo later.

From Heather and Nuno's apartment in the embassy, there was a beautiful view of the Indian Ocean that I never tired of seeing. The top two photos are of that view. Next is a view out of my bedroom windown looking across the city. Finally, this photo of Heather and our guide in Kruger was too good not to share.

My hosts

2008-03-09T13:58:00.000-07:00

A friend of Heather's who had business to take care of in Nels Spruit picked us up at the hotel. Going through the border entering Mozambique was a challenge. In fact, it always took longer at these border crossings than it seems to have been necessary. By comparison, the US has a smoothly running bureaucracy.

My lodging for the next week or so was to be in the Portuguese embassy in Maputo, a high-rise building in the center of this busy city. Sebastian, Heather and Nuno's little boy, was a high-light of the visit. He goes by Bazzy for short, or Baz for shorter, and is a bundle of energy. Very talkative and a real character, he can rattle along in either English or Portuguese.

Above, is Bazzy wearing on his head a stuffed lion his mother brought from Kruger. When she gave it to him, he started telling her what real good presents are like! Next is Nuno and Bazzy and finally Heather and Bazzy.

Kruger National Park III

2008-03-06T17:22:00.001-08:00

These might seem like minor photos but they help tell the story of Kruger.

At top, is one of the giraffes I saw. Huge and impressive. "Tall horses," as I saw on a bottle of great South African wine. Next, if you click on the photo, you can see four lions. All together we believed we saw about a dozen lions. Next, we ran across a group of monkeys. This one, clinging to the side of the rock, has a baby clinging to it, which you can see if you click on it. Finally, a tree sporting some buzzards, a very natural component to the park.

Kruger National Park II

2008-03-06T04:41:00.000-08:00

Heather had sought out a very experienced guide who she had had before to take us through the park. He was a very interesting person and very knowledgeable about the park. We loaded up in the Land Rover a little bleary-eyed and entered the park just as the sun was coming up. We stopped on the bridge crossing the Crocodile River to watch some crocs frolicing in the dark waters.

Our instructions were not to make noise or yell at any animals we saw and to stay in the vehicle. For a while, we didn't see much besides the impalas and some rare birds. But then, we encountered the giraffes, calmly munching on the leaves of trees. And then one sauntered across the road ahead of us. Clearly, the giraffe had the right-of-way.

Then we began to see animals more regularly. In all, I saw four of the "Big Five" African game animals. I did not see a leopard (which are mostly nocturnal animals) but I did see water buffalo, an elephant, a pride of lions, and a white rhino. I failed to get good photos of the elephant and water buffalo. The elephant was moving pretty fast through some trees and by the time I got my camera on him he had disappeared. There must of been five water buffalo in heavy brush. I could see them clearly. And they were butting heads, making a large crack as their skulls collided. Just playing, the guide said.

It was actually pretty cold and we huddled under blankets in the Land Rover and watched Africa roll by. At one point, we stopped and the guide recounted how an old hunter had been stalked and killed by lions nearby in the nineteenth century.

At top, the guide describing the park and its wildlife. Next, A white rhino carefully ignored us. Next, a pride of lions. There are about 10 lions all together laying about, no doubt thinking of impalas. Next, a giraffe crosses the road while another muches on some trees.

Kruger National Park I

2008-03-05T19:01:00.000-08:00

We spent one more night at a guest house and then after another day of driving we reached Kruger National Park. The area just before we got into the area was beautiful and rugged.

We traded in the car at Nels Spruit, a city near the park and the border with Mozambique. A woman picked us up in a van and took us to a resort next to the park called Pestana Lodge. It was near the Malelane gate of Kruger.

Kruger is a huge park, covering 19,485 kilometers. The northern border is Zimbabwe and the park connects with Mozambique's Limpopo National Park and also with a preserve in Zimbabwe, creating one huge preserve.

It was a beautiful place on grounds that were tree-covered and the rooms were small duplexes spread around the property. All were just a short walk from the lodge, which was a great wooden building that had a huge deck. You could look off the deck and across the aptly-named Crocodile River into Kruger. While Heather was having a massage, I sat on the deck with a cold Windhoek and watched the river flow by. Across the river in the park, a group of wildebeasts sauntered about. What I thought at first was a log was pointed out to me by someone more experienced as a crocodile - confirmation came when it moved. We had an excellent buffet dinner that night but made an early evening of it. We were to be ready at 5:15 (ouch) the next morning to set off on a safari.

At top is the Crocodile River. Next are a series of photos of the most numerous animal we saw on the safari - the impala. If you look carefully, you can see that the black markings on their rear ends look like an "M" - the joke is that that means M for McDonald's because they are the McDonald's for the lions. The impala are nevertheless beautiful creatures.

Lesotho

2008-03-03T16:34:00.000-08:00

After spending some time in Clarens, we drove into Lesotho. At the border, we had to stand in lines to get our passports checked. Eventually, we got through. I found the slowness and bit of confusion to be common at the African borders I passed through.We drove into Butha Buthe (or booty-booty as we dubbed it). It was very busy, the main street being lined with a market and many people shopping. Just based on appearances, it seems that Lesotho is not particularly wealthy but it is blessed with a wealth of natural beauty. Nevertheless, the relative poverty that seemed clear soon found an expression in our being stopped by the police - twice.Heather, perhaps I should call her "Heather the Bold," had been through this drill before elsewhere in Africa but it was a first for me. In the first incident, a roadblock had been set up. As we moved up to the police officer, he leaned into the window and said, pretty aggressively, that we had broken the law and there was a fine for that. He said we needed to stop at the stop sign behind us and only come forward to him when he motioned us to do so. That was our offense. I was about to reach for my wallet when Heather started in on him. Basically, she told him that was completely unfair, we had done nothing wrong, and that she had only been in the country 15 minutes and she was just going to turn around and leave. I was already wondering what the jail looked like in Booty-booty. But the officer's attitude improved somewhat and he waved us on. It was clear, he wanted us to pay him but Heather was having nothing of it.

Later, looking for some dinosaur footprints, we were whizzing along (Did I say Heather had a lead foot?), we rounded a bend and there were police again but this time apparently set up with a speed camera. They waved us over. A kinder and gentler officer, informed us we had been speeding. He hollered over at the people apparently running the camera and asked how fast we were going - 79 kilometers in a 50 kilometer zone. Heather just kept him talking as he waved some other people over. Eventually, he let us go, saying we were just tourists. Heather's evaluation: "I was doing a lot more than 79. They had no idea how fast I was going."

We climbed a rugged mountain pass and saw some traditional villages of the Basutho people. We stopped in a gift shop and bought some souvenirs. About mid-afternoon, after we made another futile detour looking for cave paintings, we set off for what was to be one of the longest legs of our roadtrip in Africa. From this point forward, we were heading toward Mozambique.

At top, are some of the traditional homes that we saw. Next, pardon the guard rail, is a scene of how the countryside looked. Notice the terraced hillsides so that they can grow food there. Next is a person walking past a little village. Then a little homestead with a clothes line. Finally, another bit of beautiful scenery.

On the road to Lesotho

2008-02-29T10:00:00.000-08:00

The next day, we got an early start and headed out for a new African country. Lesotho is an African country entirely surrouded by South Africa. Both Heather and I wanted to add this country to our list of African countries. Our initial goal was to drive from Spion Kop to a town called Clarens, just north of Lesotho. Enroute, we drove through some beautiful country. The highlight was probably Golden Gate Highlands National Park.

Just as I was getting ready to move our luggage to the car, two of the employees at Spion Kop Lodge appeared to help. Much to my surprise, they hoisted our suitcases to their heads and walked to the car very easily chatting to each other. Later, of course, I would see much more of these balancing acts. The next two pictures are of the rugged terrain in Golden Gate Highland National Park. Lastly is a view of the mountains from the guest house where we stayed in the beautiful little town of Clarens. At the breakfast that morning, I had a nice talk with a young couple who had spent the weeked at Clarens and were heading back that morning to their jobs in Jo-burg.

Spion Kop III

2008-02-29T09:39:00.000-08:00

At top, Raymond and I stand on Spion Kop. Next, I'm standing next to the main monument. If you click on it and read the writing you can see that the monument was placed, in part, by the second battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, my grandfather's unit. The next two photos are of markers remembering officers killed at Spion Kop.

Spion Kop II

2008-02-28T14:41:00.001-08:00

On Jan. 20, 1900, as British forces began to move to engage Boers who held the high ground at Spion Kop, the first action began along the Tugela River where Venter's Spruit (stream) joins it. Commanded by Gen. Sir Charles Warren, the British army, including the Lancashire Fusliers, began to advance toward Boer trenches. Kind of a foothill of Spion Kop, this hill is known as Tabanyama. Boer and Brit clashed on this remote spot in Africa. By the time the British withdrew twenty-eight officers and men had been killed and 280 had been wounded. Most likely, Tom McNay was among these wounded soldiers.

Eventually, on Jan. 24, a larger force of British soldiers attacked Spion Kop itself. Without going into great detail, here is what Byron Farwell had to say in his history of the battle:

"Cramped on the top of Spion Kop, excited and fearful but without rancour, Britons and Boers slaughtered each other... Each man had an arduous role to play. The Transvaal farmers and their sons, the Lancashire ploughboys and the sweeps of city slums - all were to face on this hot summer's day an ordeal beyond any of their imaginings, for the concentrated hell that Spion Kop became was beyond any man's experience... Neither Boer nor Briton had considered Spion Kop of great importance, yet now it had become the whole battle; indeed, on this day it became the entire war."

At top on the right is our guide Raymond making a point about the battle. The man standing close to the camera was a veteran of the British military. Heather is in the middle in the pink. The man behind her had an interesting personal history in South Africa going back a great number of generations. Next, is a view from Spion Kop of where Venter's' Spruit flows into the Tugela. My grandfather was likely wounded as the Fusiliers attempted to take the ridge on the right.

After the battle, the British soldiers were buried in the trenches where they fell and these old trenches outlined by the white rocks remain their graves today. Many of the officers who were killed are commemorated with crosses.

Spion Kop I

2008-02-27T08:27:00.000-08:00

As Heather and I drove into the province of Kwazulu-Natal, it seemed strangly familiar. From my reading of South African War, I knew many of the place names, places that must have been familiar to my grandfather. After getting a little lost, we quickly found the correct road and suddenly found ourselves at the gate of Spion Kop Lodge, where we were to spend the night and have dinner.

The lodge itself is important because it was the headquarters of Gen. Sir Redvers Buller. Located in a beautiful setting, the stone walls of the interior are lined with a collection of photos of people connected to the Boer War. It also has a fine little establishment known as the Churchill Pub.

Besides my grandfather being at the Spion Kop battlefield, there were three other important people who found themselves in this remote African location in January 1900. Winston Churchill was at Spion Kop reporting for a British newspaper. And Mahatma Ghandi was a British stretcher bearer (perhaps he helped carry my grandfather from the battlefield).

From the deck of Spion Kop Lodge, the mountain, Spion Kop looms. It is a rather unassuming hill for the important battle that took place there. It's imporance stems from the fact that Boer guns placed at the summit would overlook the route to Ladysmith. One of the British Army's goals was to relieve the siege of that city and thus British commanders believed that it needed to be in British hands.

Our guide, Raymond, was a skilled storyteller and historian. The night before our tour, we sat in the Chuchill Pub and I showed him my grandfather's military records. He was excited and poured over the documents getting every detail. He had never actually seen the record of a British soldier in the Boer War. I've promised to send him a copy of the record so that he can use it in the future. So often over the years I've mentioned to people that my grandfather was in the South African War and have seen a puzzled look on people's faces. Not in South Africa and not in the Churchill Pub. I was a bit of a minor celebrity since I had a personal connection to these great events.

Raymond assured me that he would be able to show me the area where my grandfather was wounded. At top is a sign on the road to the Spion Kop Lodge. Next is Heather and I havin dinner at the lodge. Next is a view of Spion Kop from the deck at the lodge. Next a picture of Raymond, looking toward Spion Kop, explaining the disposition of forces from Buller's location during the battle. At bottom is a photo of the Tugula River as it winds it way near the foot of Spion Kop.