On the Rocks

speaking of moral declines and being on the rocks to ruin, interesting op ed this summer by rev. dr. russell, an episcopal rector in houston TX CNN Opinion: GOP leaders backing Trump are in a moral abyss There’s a tragic scene in Thomas Hardy’s classic work “Far from the Madding Crowd,” and we see something very much like it being played out, right before our eyes, by the leadership of the Republican Party. In the novel, sheep farmer Gabriel Oak has faced one financial setback after another. For reasons that are never explained, one night one of Oak’s sheepdogs starts chasing the flock, which numbers hundreds of animals. As sheep do, the animals allow themselves to be blindly guided by the canine, which drives them off a cliff to their deaths. The dog meanwhile remains safely at the top of the precipice, impervious to the fact that it has destroyed everything his master has worked so hard to achieve. I can’t help but see parallels among key leaders of the GOP, who seem — either by design or default — intent on steering their adherents to certain ruin, without regard for the moral implications of their actions. (Before I go too much further, I should say that I am keenly aware that Democrats have their own moral troubles, but I am not a Democrat. I will leave their criticism to someone in their own house). For most of my life I have identified myself as a Republican and, with few exceptions, have voted the same. But I now find that the GOP leadership of today is unrecognizable when compared to the party I supported enthusiastically during the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. I was Bush’s minister for the last 11.5 years of his life, and had occasion to witness the rectitude with which he approached governing and that guided his views on politics. But men like him are in short supply. A GOP that once welcomed character, decency and morality is sinking quickly into an abyss. These days, the party values polls and raw power more than principle and… Read more »

good now and then to just watch something cute, inexplicable and strange

Mouse secretly filmed tidying man’s shed every night | Animals | The Guardian

A mouse has been filmed secretly tidying up a man’s shed almost every night for two months.
Wildlife photographer Rodney Holbrook noticed that objects he left out of place were being mysteriously put back where they belonged overnight.
Holbrook, from Builth Wells in Powys, Wales, set up a night vision camera on his workbench to find out what was happening, and captured footage reminiscent of the 2007 animated movie Ratatouille, where a rodent secretly cooks at a restaurant.
Holbrook, 75, told the BBC: “It has been going on for months. I call him Welsh Tidy Mouse. At first, I noticed that some food that I was putting out for the birds was ending up in some old shoes I was storing in the shed, so I set up a camera.”
Night vision footage showed the seemingly conscientious rodent gathering clothes pegs, corks, nuts and bolts, and placing them in a tray on Holbrook’s workbench.
Holbrook even experimented with leaving out different objects to see if the mouse could lift them, but the creature was undeterred and was even seen carrying cable ties to the pot.
“I couldn’t believe it when I saw that the mouse was tidying up,” Holbrook said.
“He moved all sorts of things into the box, bits of plastic, nuts and bolts. I don’t bother to tidy up now, as I know he will see to it. I leave things out of the box and they put it back in its place by the morning. Ninety-nine times out of 100 the mouse will tidy up throughout the night.”