A good man...

A good man...   The world lost a good man today, one of the best I've known.  He thought of himself as a horticulturist, a botanist, and a nurseryman – a “plant man” through and through, like his father before him.  To me, though, he was something else altogether: he was my dad, Tom Jobes Dilatush.

He died this morning in the hospital at Charlottesville, Virginia.  My brave mom was at his side, though he was beyond knowing that.  While we couldn't know exactly when it would come, this day was not unexpected.  My dad had been frail physically for several years, suffered from leukemia that robbed him of his vigor, and in the past year he'd been losing the war with dementia.

That fact makes his death not one whit easier to accept, or to bear.

I could fill a book with the reasons why my dad was important to me, but I won't try to enumerate them here.  They're all the usual reasons, plus some that I think really are particular to him.  He was a wonderful father, and I am proud to be his son.

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you may remember past posts and photographs (like the one of him at right, at Mt. Lassen National Park in 2007) from the many trips we had the great good fortune to be able to take together.  I've always cherished those experiences and memories.  They are, of course, even more precious now.

There have been many occasions, thankfully, for me to show and tell my dad that I loved him.  He was always good for a hug, and the years wore on, I grabbed every one of them that I could.  I'll miss them, and so many more things about him.  I love you, dad.  Always will.  And starting a little while ago, I'm missing you so very much...

Interactive Middle-Earth map...

Interactive Middle-Earth map...  Google does the awesome...

Back flip over a 72 foot wide canyon...

Back flip over a 72 foot wide canyon...  Absolutely insane!

ObamaCare debacle update...

ObamaCare debacle update...  It's calming down, dang it...

The left supplants expertise with ideology.  Taranto lays into the progressives for their arrogance in assuming they have the expertise.  Me, I wish there was more ideology in Washington – and a lot less personal power grabs and outright corruption.  I can dream, can't I?

You gotta love the political cartoonists...

The next shoe to drop is more complicated.  An interesting read, and hopeful – in the sense that it seals the political doom of ObamaCare...

Another liberal mugged by ObamaCare.  College student this time – exactly that demographic That One needs for ObamaCare to work economically...

Obama's poll panic.  The schadenfreude runs deep in this one...

Former Democratic Representative says: it's time to consider shutting ObamaCare down.  Wow.  The rats are running off the Party ship...

That One's propaganda machine.  No real surprise here, but it's an instructive lesson on how its done...


White House delusion state: CRITICAL.  That's the reaction over at Ace of Spades HQ to this statement by an administration official:

“This is a situation where the politics flows pretty clearly from the policy,” the senior official said, adding that the solution isn’t ultimately that complicated.

“We’re focused on the implementation, because when that gets straightened out – and it will – the politics will straighten out too,” the official said.

Arrested for nothing...

Arrested for nothing...  Unbelievable...

Oh, good grief!

Oh, good grief!  Bureaucrats have the same instincts no matter where they're located.  In Germany the bureaucrats have been selling – very expensively – copies of their law codes.  Now when someone is trying to publish them for free on the web, we get the typical bureaucratic reaction: jail him!

On Harry Reid exercising the “nuclear option”...

On Harry Reid exercising the “nuclear option”...  I have a hard time getting excited about this one.  It's just a rules change, and it applies equally no matter which party happens to be in the majority.  In the short term, while Democrats hold the majority, I expect things will happen that I don't like.  In the longer term, there will be another day when Republicans are in the majority – and I expect things will happen that I don't like.  So I don't see it making much difference either way.

But the folks at The Wall Street Journal, and at Ace of Spaces HQ seem to view this event more positively...

Let the neutrino astronomy begin!

Let the neutrino astronomy begin!  The image at right is of “Bert” – the second-highest energy neutrino ever observed.  It was made from data collected at the IceCube neutrino observatory at the South Pole.

When I first read about neutrinos, not all that many years ago, it seemed like we'd never be able to even detect one.  Now we have neutrino telescopes.  Awesome!

A beautiful photo?

A beautiful photo?  Nope, it's a painting – a photorealist painting.  Lots more at the link...