Christmas Eve at Waialea Beach

'Twas a lovely day for the beach. Water was warm enough for a little swim, and the young ladies enjoyed soaking up a little sun.

Christmas Dinner?

The neighborhood turkeys just keep coming back. They're looking better and better! Don't think I've ever seen a turkey fan its tail until these came along. Real show-offs!

Le Plus Ca Change ...

William Sumner, commenting on do-gooders, wrote in 1883: "They see wealth and poverty side by side. They note great inequality of social position and social chances. They eagerly set about the attempt to account for what they see, and to devise schemes for remedying what they do not like. In their eagerness to recommend the less fortunate classes to pity and consideration, they forget all about the rights of other classes, they gloss over the faults of the classes in question, and they exaggerate their misfortunes and their virtues. They invent new theories of property, distorting rights and perpetuating injustice, as anyone is sure to do who sets about the readjustment of social relations with the interests of one group distinctly before his mind, and the interests of all other groups thrown into the background. When I have read certain of these discussions, I have thought that it must be quite disreputable to be respectable, quite dishonest to own property, quite unjust to go one's own way and earn one's own living, and that the only really admirable person was the good-for-nothing."

The reformers, he said, were constantly hatching plans to employ the power of government on behalf of their favored victims. "Their schemes, therefore, may always be reduced to this type -- that A and B decide what C shall do for D." A and B were the reformers; they derived power and self-satisfaction from this arrangement. D, the object of their concern, received material benefits. C, whom Sumner called the "Forgotten Man," unwillingly supported the others. "We should get a new maxim of judicious living," Sumner said sarcastically: "Poverty is the best policy. If you get wealth, you will have to support other people; if you do not get wealth, it will be the duty of other people to support you."

From Brands' "American Colossus"

Thanksgiving at Kalopa

We were invited to join several families from the ward for Thanksgiving at Kalopa State Park. Here's the group; we were the honorary tutu and papa. We took the loop trail through the woods. Always lovely.
I see ferns and remember how my grandmother struggled to make them grow!

TSA Controversy

Warning: This collection of news items relating to TSA and airport screening may raise your blood pressure. Of course, if you think it is all necessary and reasonable, I'm happy for you. I still wake in the middle of the night and work on my piece on our Capitol experience with security. If I wait long enough, maybe the public will beat me to it.

Virginia Trip

Court and Anna both had great posts on our adventures in Virginia and Pennsylvania. I didn't take as many pictures, but here are a few so I don't forget all the fun we had. Loved the evening on the mall. The monuments were beautiful! Can't remember whether we'd seen the WW II memorial before. Very nice.
Dr. Hastings and family
Good ol' Abe

Jefferson
In Philadelphia, we saw the Courthouse ...
and across the hall the Assembly Hall where they signed the Declaration of Independence.
Next door was the Pennsylvania State House.
Then on to Intercourse and Amish country. Enjoyed the farm tour.
Ended the day at Gettysburg. The drive around the battlefield was beautiful with many monuments and stories.

My last day (before going to Baltimore for ACTEC meetings) we spent back in DC. Given my bad mood (see Court's blog), I didn't take a lot of pictures of the capitol. Only the capitol dome and the Apotheosis of Washington. Last stop was Ford's Theater. Booth entered the President's box through the door on the right, then jumped to the stage, tripping on the way over the railing, after shooting Lincoln.

D.C. and Virginia are so beautiful with so much history and so many places to go and things to do. We loved the visit and hope to return before too long.

We've Gone Green!

P. A. Harris Electric installed our new solar electric system this week. We were generating about 2800 watts at noon yesterday when the system was turned on. The two systems (one facing southeast, the other southwest) should provide about 104% of our electrical needs. With state and federal tax credits picking up 65% of the cost (and the highest-priced electricity in the nation), the system should pay for itself in about five years. So I bit. Al Gore would be proud!