JE SUIS CHARLIE

The world must unite in efforts to weed out and silence Islamic terrorists who shower violence upon the peace-loving people of this world and bring shame upon the religion and god they claim to follow. There is no place in Islam for terrorism. Allah does not condone violence. I mourn for the good people of France following today's terrorist attack and for the friends and families who lost loved-ones in this senseless act of violence. I stand with Charlie. Je suis Charlie!

A FEW RANDOM THOUGHTS ON MY BIRD BRAINED FRIENDS

I enjoy watching the menagerie of birds that flock to my backyard bird feeders every winter, and this winter is no exception. I’m not sure exactly why, but I take great pleasure from watching nature’s avian version of a soap opera on a daily basis. At one point yesterday afternoon, there were five pairs of goldfinches feeding on the niger seed socks I set out at the same time. We’re lucky if we see any goldfinches around here from April to November, but once the weather turns cold they must return to this area in large numbers. The juncos are back en mass too. There’s always five or six of them on the ground snatching up leftovers. My wife recently discovered that a tufted titmouse - a tiny brown bird with a distinctive long beak and wings that trail off and resemble a mouse’s tail – had made its home in my small green birdhouse that warblers normally occupy. It’s been carrying twigs into the birdhouse all weekend. I hope that doesn’t mean we’re in for squabbling neighbors. I prefer a quiet neighborhood. Several cardinals dine at Chez Etienne’s (Steve’s home in French) on a regular basis along with the usual assortment of house sparrows and overly bossy wrens. Apparently, there’s a wren in every neighborhood! The birds I like watching most are the woodpeckers. A small downy woodpecker and a huge red-crested woodpecker are frequent visitors. They go for the suet. There’s also a pair of chicken hawks that like to hang out on the top of one of my backyard trees. Neither hawk goes to the feeders, but they do keep the squirrels at bay.

TWO MOBS - TWO VIEWS

On the evening of December 16, 1773, a mob of American colonists boarded three ships moored in Boston Harbor. The ships were laden with chests of tea belonging to Britain’s East India Trading Company, a privately held business. Angered by policies imposed on the colonies by the British Crown, that famous colonial mob dumped 342 tea-filled chests overboard into the icy waters below. For their destruction of private property, the colonial mob gained the admiration of fellow colonists, favorable treatment and praise during the past two hundred and thirty-nine years of American History and a boisterous political party bearing its name.

Contrast the Boston mob of yesteryear with the recent mobs in Ferguson, Missouri and elsewhere around the nation, often causing damage to private property in the name of protesting racial injustice, and I have to wonder whether two hundred and thirty-nine years from now, folks will look back at the mob violence of 2014 with equal admiration. Somehow, I doubt it, but the question should be asked. Why not? Isn’t destroying private property in the name of correcting civil injustice etched in our bones? Don’t we secretly relish sticking it to “the man?” Isn’t civil disobedience laudable, even if a number of people have their property destroyed in the process? If that’s not the case, then why is it that, in this nation of supposed equality, white mobs that cause damage to personal property are treated with admiration, but black mobs using similar methods are treated with disdain? Those are rhetorical questions, but I think we all know the answers.