Musings 59--Bits and pieces

There are bunches of things I'd like to write about today, but time only allows me to comment briefly on each. I do have a real job that requires my time and effort.

National Bits and Pieces:

Peter Jennings is dead and a classy part of media journalism goes with him. I can remember watching him as a teen-ager when he was the 26-year old anchor for the nightly ABC news. He later quit and went overseas for several years until returning in the early 1980's to the anchor desk. In April, he was told that the had lung cancer. He vowed to return, but, alas, he did not. Of all the news anchors, I felt that Jennings was the brightest and most unbiased. He had dignity in life and death. He will be missed.

Judith Miller is sitting in a jail cell supposedly because she will not turn over a source to the special prosecutor in the Plame Case. There seems to be more and more mounting evidence that Miller is not the martyr that she seems to be. Upon farther evaluation of her writings, I have found that she was a cheerleader for the Bush Administration during the run up to the Iraq War. She was the embedded correspondent with the units looking for weapons of mass destruction, and upon at least one occasion, inferred that such weapons had been found. She also was one of the reporters who wrote that the WMD's could have been shipped to Syria before the war began. Thus, I don't know if she is a biased reporter or just suffered from getting information from bad sources. It seems that she and the U. S. Department of defense used many of the same sources. Hmmmmmm.

There is a woman down in Texas who is sitting outside Mr. President's home in Crawford, TX waiting for a chance to ask him a question. Cindy Sheehan, CA, was told by Mr. President that her son "died for a greater good." The question is, "What is the greater good?" I'd kind of like to hear the answer for that myself. I doubt Mr. President can tear himself away from his vacation to meet with her.

My heart goes out to the Marine Corps Reserve unit in northern Ohio, which had 19 members killed in action last week in Iraq. Losing one is bad enough, but when it comes in bunches, it is staggering to communities.

Personal Bit:

The old horse died a few days back. He had been in poor health and the stuff he loved the most--the sun--eventually helped in his demise. We've had days and days of 90-100 degree heat, and the old guy just finally laid down and died. He will be missed. I remember when he was born 29 years ago. We have no more horses now at Murdock Farms. His name was M. T. Nighthawk, and he was a good one.