7.29.2026 – clumsiness of world

clumsiness of world
behavior compared to
powers of planning

The New York Times article, In Ohio, Toxic Wastewater Is Bubbling Up Out of the Ground by Quinn Glabicki, climate reporter for The New York Times, is a good, if scary read.

Mr. Glabicki writes:

The fracking boom has transformed the United States into the world’s largest producer of natural gas. But fracking also produces huge volumes of salty wastewater laden with heavy metals, radioactive materials and cancer-causing benzene, as well as hazardous chemical additives from the fracking process.

Ohio became a destination for wastewater because decades ago, long before fracking, it received permission from the federal government to regulate its own injection wells, which were then just a small part of the oil and gas industry. As a result, today it’s easier to drill injection wells in Ohio than in states like Pennsylvania where there’s federal oversight.

The industry says injection wells are tightly regulated, and that thousands of feet of rock and shale safely contain the wastewater. Injection wells, “when properly sited, constructed, operated, and regulated, do not pose a significant threat to drinking water,” said Rob Brundrett, president of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association.

At a Republican Party executive meeting last August, Ohio State Senator Brian Chavez, who stepped down as DeepRock’s chief executive after taking elected office in 2023, downplayed the threat posed by injection wells, describing the brine as “ancient seawater,” according to an ethics complaint filed against him with the state’s legislative ethics committee. Mr. Chavez, who chairs the senate energy committee, also compared the radioactivity levels of the waste to that of a banana, according to the complaint, which was filed by residents of Washington County over his relationship with DeepRock.

A spokesman for Ohio Senate Republicans called the ethics complaint meritless.

In a statement, Laura Goins, an attorney for DeepRock, said, “We respect the concerns that have been raised by members of the community and believe those concerns deserve to be addressed through a science-based regulatory process.” She said “DeepRock remains committed to protecting public health, drinking water resources, and the environment.”

Got to love the language and words here.

… when properly sited, constructed, operated, and regulated, do not pose a significant threat to drinking water,

… remains committed to protecting public health, drinking water resources, and the environment.

Yeah ………… sure.

Remember any one of us who grew up in the United States between 1923 and 1975 will show the effects of leaded gas in our bones.

Centuries from now, if the world still exists, archeologists will be able to date skeletons by measuring the lead in our bones.

So all this Fracking that leads to large amounts of natural gas and some oil has an unseen price tag.

Who would have guessed that pumping wastewater from fracking underground could have unforeseen negative impace.

Of course had they been predicted, they would no longer have been unforeseen.

And isn’t the word, unforeseen, a great word?

According to the word history website, etymonline: “not foreknown,” late 14c., from un- (1) “not” + past participle of foresee. Similar formation in Middle Dutch onvoresien, Dutch onvoorzien, Middle High German unvorsen. A verb unforesee “fail to anticipate” is attested in 17c.“

I like that dutch version.

Onvoresien.

Fail to anticipate.

Unforeseen points to it wasn’t our fault, who knew?

While, Fail to anticipate …

Seems like someone should have known better.

I am reading the book Random Harvest by James Hilton (Boston: Little, Brown And Company, 1941).

Neither here nor there but if you are casting about for something to read this summer I recommend downloading the epub version from FadedPage (click here) for free.

Mr. Hilton also wrote Lost Horizons of Shangri-La fame and Good bye Mr. Chips.

Random Harvest starts with the epigram:

“According to a British Official Report, bombs fell at Random.” — GERMAN OFFICIAL REPORT

Anyway, reading along I came to this passage that is the source for today’s haiku.

Mr. Hilton writes about the hero of Random Harvest that:

He was increasingly interested in the background of knowledge and theory behind the lives of men, and the astounding clumsiness of world behavior compared with the powers of the planning mind. To use Werneth’s favorite word, he found the paradox teasing.

There is a lot packed into those two lines, especially:

the astounding clumsiness of world behavior compared with the powers of the planning mind.

To use Werneth’s favorite word, he found the paradox teasing.

That Mr. Clausewitz writes that no plan lasts 5 minutes after the battle starts.

Still, when you read about all the planing, meetings, proposals, public hearings and investigations when anything from a sidewalk crossing to a super highway to a bridge to some corporate marketing plan, the clumsiness of world behavior compared with the powers of the planning mind is truly astounding.

The paradox is assuredly teasing.

It seems even God himself looking down on the world today might murmur … something went wrong here.

7.2.2026 – decency standards

decency standards
mark the maturing progress
of society

In a 1958 Supreme Court case, Trop v. Dulles, the Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to revoke citizenship as a punishment for a crime. The ruling’s reference to “evolving standards of decency” is frequently cited in Eighth Amendment jurisprudence. This according to Wikipedia.

The Opinion of the Court was authored by Chief Justice Earl Warren, who discussed the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution which prohibits the federal government from imposing excessive bail, excessive fines, or cruel and unusual punishments. Ratified in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights, these protections apply equally to state and local governments through the Fourteenth Amendment.

Chief Justice Warren commented on Capitol Punishment, writing:

Whatever the arguments may be against capital punishment, both on moral grounds and in terms of accomplishing the purposes of punishment — and they are forceful — the death penalty has been employed throughout our history, and, in a day when it is still widely accepted, it cannot be said to violate the constitutional concept of cruelty.

But it is equally plain that the existence of the death penalty is not a license to the Government to devise any punishment short of death within the limit of its imagination.

Then the Chief wrote this:

The Court recognized in that case that the words of the Amendment are not precise, and that their scope is not static.

The Amendment must draw its meaning from the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society.

Say that last little bit out loud, I dare you.

Evolving standards of decency mark the progress of a maturing society.

Evolving standards of decency?

Mark the progress of a maturing society?

What does that say of American Society today?

Declining standards of decency mark the regression from maturity for any society.

If this current administration has any standard its a standard of how low can you go.

Maturing?

Let see, we got ourselves a 4 year leading the nation who wonders out loud about awarding himself the Congressional Medal of Honor and a congress ready to authorize such an award.

Decency?

I don’t have the time of the stomach to list the decline in our society’s standards.

But that statement, Evolving standards of decency mark the progress of a maturing society sure hit close to home for the day in history that saw the Declaration of Independence voted on.

Print shows men gathered in the Assembly Room in the Pennsylvania State House (now called Independence Hall), Philadelphia. Completed figures include John Adams, Roger Sherman, James Wilson and Thomas Jefferson, handing a document to John Hancock, president of the Congress. Seated in the front from left to right are Samuel Adams, Robert Morris, Benjamin Franklin (in a Windsor chair), Charles Carroll and Stephen Hopkins (wearing a dark hat). (Source: American Antiquarian Society catalog, 2008)

6.3.2026 – how did this painting

how did this painting
end up on the art market?
Elliott sold it …

Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque by Winston Churchill

I was intrigued to read this morning, the article, Was Churchill a Serious Artist? This Exhibition Says, ‘Yes.’, slugged, ‘In the first major British retrospective for over 60 years, a London museum seeks to recast the wartime leader as a painter with emotional depth.’ by Leo Sands in the New York Times for several reasons.

The first thing that struck me was that an article that discussed whether Mr. Churchill was serious painter did not include the famous exchange between Mr. Churchill and his body guard, Sergeant Edmund Murray, who also painted.

Mr. Churchill reviewed Sergeant Murray’s work and according to Sergeant Murray, “He looked at the first. ‘Very good.’ He looked at the second. ‘Very, very good.’ He looked at the third. ‘Excellent. You know, they are much better ‘than mine’ — then he sort of giggled with his eyes squeezed up and shining impishly ‘but yours are judged on their merit …'” (from Churchill’s Bodyguard by Edmund Murrary,(W.H. Allen: London, 1987).

How Mr. Sands could ignore this is beyond me but then I am not writing for the New York Times.

The second item that intrigued me was the the auction of the above piece, Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque, sold at auction for a record $11.5 million dollars.

The painting is famous as it reported to be only painting painted by Churchill during World War 2.

Mr. Churchill painted it after a the summit meetings with Franklin Roosevelt in Casablanca and he convinced FDR, that he had to come with Churchill to Marrakesh to see the sun set over the Atlas Mountains from a specific tower in a specific villa.

FDR went along and even allowed himself to be hand carried by two Secret Service agents to the top of the tower where he sat in a wicker chair while he and Churchill watched the sunset.

After FDR left, Churchill called for his paints and painted this painting that he later presented to FDR.

And that is where I got intrigued.

The NYT article stated, that when the painting was sold in 2021, the seller was Angelina Jolie, who had received the painting as a gift from Brad Pitt.

Huh, wah?

How did Brad Pitt find the Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque by Winston Churchill?

Luckily there is Wikipedia and it says: The painting was inherited by Roosevelt’s son Elliot who sold it to George W. Woodward of Nebraska in 1950. It was purchased by Norman G. Hickman of New York in 1964. Hickman was a financier, collector and film producer, who had worked on The Finest Hours, a documentary on Churchill’s life. During Hickman’s ownership, the painting was exhibited at the National Churchill Museum at Fulton, Missouri. It remained in his family’s ownership until it was placed with M.S. Rau Antiques of New Orleans in 2011. It was then bought by the actress Angelina Jolie.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh

Elliot sold it.

FDR and Eleanor had 5 children.

The accounted for 19 marriages.

And were often in need of funds.

So was Eleanor, as FDR had spent most of his inheritance on Warm Springs as a polio center.

A friend of the family suggested to Eleanor that maybe she could sell off FDR’s famous stamp collection.

She had hoped for a single buyer but it turned out that so many folks wanted something of FDR’s that piece was stamped THE FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT COLLECTION and sold bit by bit and rescued Eleanor.

I know this because I have something from the collection that my wife got me for a birthday years ago.

I am reminded of another FDR and his boys story.

FDR had a copy made of the famous George Washington Desk that is used by the Mayor of New York that is supposed to have been the desk George Washington used as President when the Capitol was in New York.

This was the desk that is in FDR’s office in the FDR Library at Hyde Park.

During the Clinton Administration someone had the great idea that Bill should deliver a speech from the Roosevelt Library and so it was set up.

When the time came, Bill walked into the office and sat at the desk with a mug of coffee and he caught one of the museum curators glaring at him.

He looked at her and looked at his coffee and looked at desk.

He mimed to her that he understood and had it under control, sat at the desk and set the coffee on a rug on the floor.

According to legend the curator fainted.

See the desk WAS a copy of FDR’s copy of Washington’s desk as his son, James, wanted his Dad’s desk and made the swap.

It was the rug that was original and originally the rug was a handmade Persian rug that had been gifted to FDR by the King of Saudi Arabia and reportedly worth 100s of thousands of dollars.

Anyway, how did Brad Pitt get Churchill’s painting?

Well, Elliot sold it.

6.2.2026 – afforded the most

afforded the most
spacious ample life that has
ever been witnessed

Adapted from the passage in the essay, “Roosevelt from Afar” in the book, Great Contemporaries by Winston Churchill, (Thornton Butterworth Ltd.: London, 1937) where Mr. Churchill writes.

It is a very open question, which any household may argue to the small hours, whether it is better to have equality at the price of poverty, or well-being at the price of inequality.

Life will be pretty rough, anyhow.

Whether we are ruled by tyrannical bureaucrats or self-seeking capitalists, the ordinary man who has to earn his living, and tries to make provision for old age and for his dear ones when his powers are exhausted, will have a hard pilgrimage through this dusty world.

The United States was built upon property, liberty and enterprise, and certainly it has afforded the most spacious and ample life to the scores of millions that has ever yet been witnessed.

This was in 1937.

Pretty much the world was still the grip of a global depression with Nazi Germany picking up speed.

And Mr. Churchill wrote of the United States of America that it:

was built upon property,

liberty

and enterprise,

and certainly it has afforded the most spacious and ample life to the scores of millions that has ever yet been witnessed.

Mr. Churchill writes, Life will be pretty rough, anyhow.

Mr. Churchill writes, the ordinary man who has to earn his living, and tries to make provision for old age and for his dear ones when his powers are exhausted, will have a hard pilgrimage through this dusty world.

And still Mr. Churchill writes, built upon property, liberty and enterprise, and certainly it has afforded the most spacious and ample life to the scores of millions that has ever yet been witnessed.

How did we do this?

Mr. Jefferson said, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

All are created equal.

Accepting that and somehow, it afforded the most spacious and ample life to the scores of millions that has ever yet been witnessed.

Making America Great … again?

Always thought it kinda was.

from *The Golden Rule* by Norman Rockwell

4.15.2026 – no more for him life’s

no more for him life’s
stormy conflicts charging like
clouds across the sky

HUSH’D be the camps to-day;
And, soldiers, let us drape our war-worn weapons;
And each, with musing soul retire, to celebrate,
Our dear commander’s death.

No more for him life’s stormy conflicts;
Nor victory, nor defeat—No more time’s dark events,
Charging like ceaseless clouds across the sky.

But sing, poet, in our name;
Sing of the love we bore him—because you, dweller in
camps, know it truly.

Sing, to the lower’d coffin there;
Sing, with the shovel’d clods that fill the grave—a
verse,
For the heavy hearts of soldiers.

Hush’d Be the Camps To-Day by Walt Whitman as published in The Patriotic Poems of Walt Whitman (Garden City: Doubleday, 1918),

Wikipedia says: “Hush’d Be the Camps To-Day” is a poem by Walt Whitman dedicated to Abraham Lincoln. The poem was written on April 19, 1865, shortly after Lincoln’s assassination.

Whitman greatly admired Lincoln and went on to write additional poetry about him: “O Captain! My Captain!”, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”, and “This Dust Was Once the Man.”

“Hush’d” is not particularly well known, and is generally considered to have been hastily written.

Some critics highlight the poem as Whitman’s first attempt to respond to Lincoln’s death and emphasize that it would have drawn comparatively little attention if Whitman had not written his other poems on Lincoln.

Although they never met, Whitman saw Abraham Lincoln several times between 1861 and 1865, sometimes in close quarters.

The first time was when Lincoln stopped in New York City in 1861 on his way to Washington. Whitman noticed the President-elect’s “striking appearance” and “unpretentious dignity”, and trusted Lincoln’s “supernatural tact” and “idiomatic Western genius”.

He admired the President, writing in October 1863, “I love the President personally.”

Whitman considered himself and Lincoln to be “afloat in the same stream” and “rooted in the same ground”.

Whitman and Lincoln shared similar views on slavery and the Union, and similarities have been noted in their literary styles and inspirations.

Whitman later declared that “Lincoln gets almost nearer me than anybody else.”

As for the New York Times article, I am always re-amazed at the amount of correct detail the reporting had when you consider this was 1865 and the paper went to press within 24 hours of the assassaitnation.

Maybe more than his Birthday being a holiday, April 15th should be a national Day of Mourning when you look at how much this Country gained when he was born and how much this Country lost when he was killed.

Then of course, my relationship to the history has changed so much in the last decade as I review all the actions and the struggles of the past, I find it difficult to reconcile that all that history led to where we are today.

What a mockery on so many levels.

What Mr. Lincoln said on the field at Gettysburg has just as much application TODAY as it did in 1863.

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us —

that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion —

that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain —

that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom —

and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.