I've been working on a project with these three wise men... all thinkers, all scholars, all retired.  What a pleasure!  At the end of the day I went home, in much the same way I once did when I did something called "work." Oh, I forgot to say, perhaps because they aren't in this picture, there are some very wise women, also thinkers, also scholars, also retired, working on this project, a photographic exhibition built around the subject of social justice: Visualizing Social Justice.  The month-long exhibition begins this coming Saturday, September 28... First United Methodist Church.  Anybody who'd like to know more can get information at...
http://www.fumcsd.org/event/489363-2013-09-28-visualizing-social-justice-photography-exhibition-opening-and-reception/
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On my short bike ride today I rode up Linda Vista Road past the University of San Diego... and couldn't resist aiming my camera at this wonderful building.  For awhile the bike ride took my mind off

the charade happening on the floor of the United States Senate in Washington, D.C.

WORTH NOTING... I guess.

Determined to oppose anything President Obama proposes and especially to try to undo The Affordable Care Act which is scheduled to take full effect next month, first term Senator Ted Cruz, with the enthusiastic support of one-time vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin along with just about everybody else in the Tea Party caucus of Republicans, has launched an old-fashioned filibuster in the Senate.  Mrs. Palin, who can no longer claim to be one of the 99% (with a one-million dollar annual salary from Fox News and a published net worth of 12 million dollars) isn’t an elected official in federal government or in her home state of Alaska, says she supports Cruz’s effort because she is concerned about government encroachment into matters of health care for ordinary Americans. Senator Cruz said as he rose to begin his filibuster that he will be speaking against the new federal health-care law “until I am no longer able to stand.”  Presumably, he is expected to hold forth until Wednesday afternoon when the Senate is scheduled to hold a key procedural test vote that is expected to pass with bipartisan support.  Cruz also said as he began his filibuster that he was acting on behalf of Texans and Americans who are opposed to the new health-care law.  He said, “a great many Texans, a great many Americans feel they do not have a voice, and so I hope to play some very small role in providing the voice.”   Traditionalist Republicans are afraid Cruz and the Tea Party obstructionists are dismantling the Grand Old Party.  They may be right, and destroying the Republican Party would be a great shame and a great loss for our country.  American democracy works best when two political parties provide balance and reason and compromise to our political system.  

If indeed Cruz is the standard bearer for the Republican Party, we are in deep trouble.  Don’t worry.  He is not.  To put it as crudely as my Arkansas heritage might allow me to say it publicly, “Ted Cruz is pissing into the wind.”  He is only going to hurt his own party.  Of course, there are some uninformed, therefore ignorant, Americans; but they are definitely in the minority.  The Republican Party appropriately gains its strength from a core of intelligent, honorable, well-informed patriots who will not be persuaded to dismantle the Government of the United States.  This past summer first term senator Cruz, a Southern Baptist, speaking at Colorado Christian University’s fourth-annual Conservative Western Summit said that one of his goals is to do away with the IRS.  “We have to be focused on growth,” he said.  “That means remaking the tax code... abolishing the IRS.  He hasn’t indicated how he thinks roads, infrastructure, education, or the government that pays his generous salary and buys his family’s health care program should be financed. Perhaps he will get around to explaining that part of his plan for America as he grows weary on the Senate floor through tonight and perhaps even through tomorrow.