Does that star-spangled banner yet wave?

On 13 September 1814, the issue was in doubt due to the British naval bombardment of Fort McHenry.
 
That event inspired certain lyrics, which say in part:

Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

On 11 September 2012, the issue was not in doubt at the American consulate in Cairo -- the star-spangled banner was down and burned.  And at the consulate in Benghazi, the flag was down and we had four dead, abandoned by the Obama administration. 

Today where the flag still waves, does it do so over the land of the free?  Less and less free, I am afraid. 

But by glory -- yes, by Old Glory on every staff and mast -- she still waves. My hope is that ours will indeed prove to be a home of the brave -- home to a people who act bravely enough that there may truly be a land of the free. 

In which we examine the principle that the grass is always greener on the other side

The short answer is, it really IS greener on the other side of the fence.

The cows wouldn't be straining their necks against the barbed wire if there was plentiful long green grass on their own side of the fence. 

"Ah, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, me lad."  I always imagine it being said by a strict Scottish Presbyterian uncle.  His meaning is clear:  "Be content with your lot in life, and change not your course." 

Which is hogwash.  Or, cattle droppings, lest we mix metaphors to excess. 

The reason the grass on the other side of the fence looks better to the cows is that they never looked over there, until the grass on their own side ran low.  It's a cognitive dissonance thing.  You don't look for something better until your current something good seems to have become something less. 

Personal example.  I run on fire trails.  The vehicles that move over these dirt roads make the familiar double ruts through grassy loam, hard cracked adobe, or broken sandstone.  A runner (or cyclist or equestrian) chooses his rut and travels in it.  Until the rut you're in starts to afford some tricky footing, you don't even think about the rut you're in.  But when you realize you're in a rough rut, you look over at the other side of the road ...  Mirabile dictu!  The grass really is greener   trail really is smoother on the other side of the fence road!

It seems that way, not because it merely appears  (falsely), but because it really is -- because it was not examined until you needed to examine it. 

I leave the finding of a moral to this story as an exercise for the reader.  Or just ask the Duchess. 

Stress -- can be helpful?!

I know.  I seem to be putting up a lot of these lately.  After ignoring this method of sharing the ongoing pocketa-pocketa-pocketa of my life for some weeks, I decided it would be better to just share some content that I find interesting/helpful/makes me cry. 

Humor is where you find it

I happen to have severe binocular vision dysfunction.  My two eyes swim around a lot independently before they gather enough information for my brain to process what's out there. 

One of the consequences is that sometimes I read words wrong out of the corner of my eye. 

Like the line about the IRS misuse of power that said something about a midlevel  official (yes, the article omitted the hyphen), but which I first thought said something about a medieval  official. 

Ah!

Nobody is expecting the Spanish Inquisition!

Changin' my mind - you're doin' it wrong

That's when I realize how they got all that money.  They pinched every penny every step of the way till they could see it bleed.

Eleanor Longden and the Voices in her head

"Sometimes it snows as late as May, but Summer always comes," Eleanor's 'good' doctor tells her family.

Eleanor later advocates, "An important concept in psychiatry shouldn't be, 'What's wrong with you?,' but rather, 'What's happened to you?' "

Later:  "Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed; you cannot humiliate the person who feels pride; you cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore."
 
[UPDATE: the html embed got dropped; should be fixed now. 3 September 2013]

An evening Amtrak arrival

(Taken with my phone 25 August 2013 and converted to MP4 with VLC.)