A Rant and Music For My Mother

For the most part I am avoiding politics for now. It's too depressing and my mind is too mushy to sort it out. But I am going to include a portion of Tom Friedman's op-ed piece in the morning NYT.

I don't know what will do this country in first; our addiction to oil, climate change, Afghanistan or the absolutely stupid members in Congress who fail repeatedly to do anything about the dangers. Here is what Tom had to say:

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Long after BP’s oil is gone, we’ll still be fighting for survival against a much more serious enemy — our sinking, crumbling delta. Our coast is like a cancer patient who has come down with pneumonia. That’s serious, but curable. After the fever breaks, he’ll still have cancer.”

That’s where the Senate has failed miserably. There are three things it should be doing for the gulf and our other vital ecosystems. First, taking out some minimal insurance against climate change by reducing our carbon emissions; this region is particularly vulnerable to sea level rise and the more intense storms that climate change will bring. Second, set us on a path to diminish our addiction to oil so we don’t have to drill in ever-deeper waters. And, finally, provide the federal funding to restore America’s critical ecosystems. The Senate abandoned the first two but is still working on the third.

The Senate’s failure to act is a result of many factors, but one is that the climate-energy policy debate got disconnected from average people. We need less talk about “climate” and more about how conservation saves money, renewable energy creates jobs, restoring the gulf’s marshes sustains fishermen and preserving the rain forest helps poor people. Said Glenn Prickett, vice president at the Nature Conservancy: “We have to take climate change out of the atmosphere, bring it down to earth and show how it matters in people’s everyday lives.”

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If that makes your blood boil I am going to post some soothing music. You are free to listen (or not.)

My mother did not play an instrument,but she loved music. You'll Never Walk Alone and I Believe were two of her favorites. This is for you, Mom. I wish you were here to listen.

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings You'll Never Walk Alone.


Kiri Te Kanawa sings I Believe



Morton Gould plays Malaguena



Sasha Cohen ice Skating to Malaguena Mom would have loved this, too. I was unable to decide which Malaguena to embed. Morton Gould has the better orchestration, but you get ice skating with this version. Pick Your Poison.