On the Turning Away

The dog blog has become much more straightforward. I have taken the course of least resistance, now that U discover I can put almost all the photos I have taken and it it not too long. Furthermore, the photos are a self indulgence.

This week compared to last week the volume of the decibel capcophony of the cicadas has fallen dramatically. The birds could be heard so much more easily.

It was a bird week. Dexter discovered the Dollar bird, which was sitting on a log. It was still there when we came back. I don’t know anything about handling birds, other than not to pick it up directly. I put it in my hat and brought it home. Then it was taken to the vets. Apparently,  they x-rayed it and was not able to fly because of critical damage to its wing muslces. So they gave it a last feed and drink, and put it down.

The name is of some interest – the species is probably known by a different name in SE Asia. Graeme Chapman observes that the name goes back to 18th Century  when the Spanish Dollar was legal tender in early NSW. The alternative name is the Broad-billed Roller.

If I am to permit Dexter and Hannah their tangential diversions – part of their immersion in their environments, with some human advantage – then I might be permitted such a digression. The American president was reported to question the reason to have nuclear weapons if they cannot be used. Several dead former leaders such as Saddam Hussien and Gaddafi might well if possible have a ready answer. Their countries might not now be destroyed with the destruction extending beyond their borders.

The more generic question is how did person assume the office of President of the US with a minority of the votes cast ?  If we ignore the fact that 58% of the potential electors cast a ballot or dissauded by a sense of fulility inherent in the simple plurality of selecting one or another candidate, or for other more devious causes. Joe Miller observes:
 

As Alexander Hamilton writes in “The Federalist Papers,” the Constitution is designed to ensure “that the office of President will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.” The point of the Electoral College is to preserve “the sense of the people,” while at the same time ensuring that a president is chosen “by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice.”

It seems that while the Electoral College does not now work, and is perhaps questionable as whether it ever worked for the common good. As has been suggested, had Henry Wallace become President in 1948, the world might now be very different. As we approach Invasion Day, we might pause to reflect on the framing, or the bubble of social, economic existence. There may well be a case that the pre-eminence of our social formation is such that our individual characteristics. Granted this migh not explain geniuses, or for that matter stable geniuses – or for that matter horses.

Dexter and Hannah go out and find what otherwise might be missed:

On the Turning Away was a song from Pink Floyd’s 1987 albun, “A Momentary Lapse of Reason”:

Postscript:

The Dollar bird was on the log when we first came upon it. It’s condition had nothing to do with the dogs – although under different circumstances that might have been a possibility.

There is more information on this bird.