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Showing posts from June, 2010

Great Sixths

Note: This is part six of a continuing review of the greatest symphonies in western classical music. When it comes to Great Sixth symphonies I must depart from my usual course of noting five worthy symphonic compositions and crowning one as the best of all. The quality of the Sixths blogged about here is such that the field of competition is considerably tighter and smaller. There are only three Great Sixths worthy of consideration. Placing any others in the companionship with these great works of art would be a slight to those selected. The Sixths of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and Mahler far surpass any other consideration for this numerical category. Moreover, any one of these Great Sixths could be considered the best of all. It is literally a three-way tie in my mind. So, let’s take them in chronological order with Beethoven being the oldest, composed in 1808 . This was one of Beethoven’s few “program” symphonies, following a specific theme and was subtitled “Recollection of Country L

The Economist: Glimpses of McChrystal's War

I subscribe to and read just two periodicals with regularity. They are both among the oldest magazines published in the world. One is the left-leaning The Atlantic which began publication in Boston in 1857. The other is more centrist, The Economist , published out of London since 1843. The Economist is a weekly, always chocked full of so much excellent news writing that I never read an entire issue. There's just not enough time before the next one arrives. I was particularly interested in the latest issue of The Economist over the weekend. It features an excellent cover story on the overall situation in Afghanistan. The focus of the article is not the dismissal of General McChrystal, though that certainly is a strong thread running throughout. It attempts, rather, to summarize the situation in Afghanistan from both a geo-political and strategic military perspective. I read the article rather discriminately, however, trying to see if it revealed exactly what McChrystal was up to

Right and Wrong in Afghanistan

The war is in its ninth year now . The recent dismissal of General McChrystal still bothers me. So, I have been reflecting a lot about our involvement in that country over the past couple of days. Specifically, on where I see our mistakes and opportunities, things we have done right and wrong. Right. Going in. There is no question President Bush acted appropriately by sending US troops in response to the Taliban’s open distain for the US by proclaiming themselves a safe-haven for al-Qaeda following Osama bin Ladin’s orchestrated attacks on September 11, 2001 . Wrong. Invading Iraq. Equally, there is no question that Bush’s “Captain Ahab” to Saddam Hussein as “Moby Dick” hurt us in Afghanistan. First of all, the invasion of Iraq was unwarranted , it was based completely on fabrication , bordering on dereliction of duty as commander-in-chief. It was a personal vendetta of Bush against Hussein, an abuse of power. Secondly, it obviously took every priority over Afghanistan , which too

Runaway Hyperbole

I understand why Obama had to let McChrystal go. It was politically impossible to keep him. But, come on. The president said that the contents of the infamous Rolling Stone article: "undermines the civilian control of the military that is at the core of our democratic system." All the pundits agree . Universal acclaim . It was the right move . Had it not been for an Iceland volcano this might not have happened . Thank god Michael Hastings got grounded with McChrystal long enough to uncover this massive threat to civilian control of the military. My god, think what might have happened if McChrystal and his staff had continued to pursue the war. But, wait a minute. At what point was the Obama administration's military policy actually threatened by the article? Does Obama really think the lofty aim of "civilian control" was jeopardized by McChrystal's staffers making routine jokes about the administration? ( Read the article . These guys joked that way about

Within a Quiet Cove

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Jennifer snapped this pic of me headed out of our little cove into Lake Seed. Last week we took vacation. Jennifer found this great cabin in the north Georgia foothills along Lake Seed . Lake Seed is a small, snakecular waterway along what used to be the Tallulah River fed by Lake Burton , the more popular getaway. But Lake Seed was perfect, a great vacation spot. The first two nights Jennifer’s parents joined us. Fred got to fish with the girls and joined me in the evenings for gin and tonics with my Bombay Sapphire . But they left early Thursday, a couple of hours before my parents arrived, spent the day and had lunch at the boat house before sweeping my daughter and her cousin (who had joined us on the trip up) back to the swimming pool, golf cart rides (and, most importantly, cellular coverage) of their house while Jennifer and I got the last night and following day alone up there. It was very nice. This was Charlie’s first vacation trip with us. Parks had gone in the past. Nala

A bourbon won that wasn't a bourbon

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Argh . Set us up another round barkeep, by argh . Jennifer and I hosted the Cumberland Island Armadillos here at Freebird yesterday for BBQ and assorted sides. As usual there were a variety of tasty hors d'œuvres proceeding an eclectic meal with the superb pulled pork and smoked chicken BBQ being complemented by a large array of salads made of pasta, veggies and cranberries, asparagus and other greens, shredded fresh beets and carrots (surprisingly tasty), assorted fruit, and - much later - topped with apple pie. The festivities started about mid-afternoon on a blistering hot and humid day that kept most of us indoors in the a/c and under the ceiling fans watching the USA tie England in World Cup play until closer to sunset. Afterwards we listened to tunes on the stereo system with Clint ultimately coming through with some great new age stuff that he channeled through his Pandora account, but that was much later in the evening. As with most ' Dillo gatherings, there were p

Epilogue: War & Peace

Last month I finished rereading Leo Tolstoy’s great novel War & Peace . I started it as bedtime reading (although the novel is well over 1400 pages long, the chapters are all very short), which eventually evolved into more intensive reading secessions as my schedule permitted. It was great to reacquaint myself with this classic work of literature. I read it the first time back in the 1980’s before I went to India. It was part of my spiritual quest. I was reading everything remotely truth-seeking at the time. My initial reading was with just that intent, to find all the heady things the novel had to say of a spiritual or philosophic nature. As I have all my life, I underlined the most interesting parts. The paperback I just finished is one and the same , with all the markings that I had made back in my 20’s. This trip through the now yellowing pages, however, was more for the entertainment value of the work. The story is incredible, the multitude of characters are vividly presented