The Weather Will Arrive, Tomorrow

I am still loving this quote from Obama about how we don't know where we're going, but we are making good time, but comparing it to Churchill is a low blow.  Let's have it one more time:

What has defined us as a nation since our founding is the capacity to shape our destiny—our determination to fight for the America we want for our children. Even if we’re unsure exactly what that looks like. Even if we don’t yet know precisely how we’re going to get there. We know we’ll get there.

I need to ask one of the kids to run Obama's speechifying through that software that sets it to music.  I am already hearing "The weather will arrive, tomorrow.  Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, there'll be sun, or rain, or something...".

Oh, well.  Happy Father's day, all.

Comments

[hit and run]

Happy Father's Day,TM.

[Clarice]

Happy Father's Day, TM and Hit.

[Oh where oh where has my little dog gone?]

Omigod, he's taking us to Oakland.
=============

[Progressive Geography.]

Oh, please, you gotta go back to the Afghanistan thread and see bunker try to convince us that Afghanistan is not in Asia. It is exemplary and revelatory.
==================

[Heading for Asia.]

And the fleet moves through the Suez.
==================

[sbw]

Happy Father's Day, TM, Hit, and Clarice's other half.

[peter]

I made some cedar planked arctic char on the grill last night. We had a spontaneous get together with some neighbors who are being relocated to England for two years. We brought the fish and the cedar plank over to their house, onl to learn their grill had no propane, so I drove back home (three blocks) started my charcoal barbie, cooked the fish, then drove back. Absolutely delicious, with a mayonaisse/mustard/horseradish sauce. My point? None. Happy Father's Day to all the Fathers in JOM land, Tom, Daddy, everyone.

[centralcal]

Happy Father's Day to all JOM dads and Mr. JOM himself.

[a son]

My Dad was such a terrific guy, with a very unusual background. He was born in Africa, and came to this country when he was a teenager. He always spoke with a slight accent, which I mocked mercilessly when I was a teenager, but he was always a good sport. He had patience for everybody, and suffered fools gladly, despite having an extremely high intelligence. I miss my Dad terribly, but he sends me signs almost daily that he is watching over me. Dad, Happy Father's Day.

[I bend my behaviour to his watch, too.]

Precious ode to Pater Oea.
=============

[PaulV]

My brother was going to a party in HS. His friend Emily told him that they were lost. He said that they were making such good time,

[Danube of Thought]

Minus 16 at Raz today.

[Sue]

Happy father's day to our dear leader and all of his happy campers.

[Captain Hate]

I am my father's son; he set me up to succeed in life by setting an example. He wasn't perfect but neither is anybody else, especially me; but he'd expect me to strive. It's been almost 30 years since he's gone but he still serves as a constant inspiration.

[Captain Hate]

bunker try to convince us that Afghanistan is not in Asia. It is exemplary and revelatory.

I don't think even Orwell anticipated something as stupid as the deconstruction of geography. He had no idea how far literacy standards could drop.

[Geschribben, and rippen to shreddens.]

You wanna see something amusing go read Helderman in the WaPo about Cuccinelli's search for fraud in Michael Piltdown Mann's Univ. of Va. work. The comments go on for awhile severely trashing Cuccinelli as only alarmists seem to have the invective for, when along come BruceFairfax and starts quoting text.
================

[BobS]

CH: I have experienced similarly. I lost my dad in 1997, but have found that he's with me now more than he ever was.

[Captain Hate]

Janine Turner (I only remember her from Northern Exposure although maybe she's been in other things) was FNS "powerplayer of the week" (which usually I find terminally boring) about her website to stimulate improving the knowledge of our nation's history. She mentioned that her conservatism has cost her considerably as far as roles doled out by the entertainment moguls.

[Janet]

LUN in the WaPo/Cuccinelli/BruceFairfax link.

[Danube of Thought]

We know we’ll get there.

That would seem to be quite certain. Or, as Curt Gowdy once said about a ballplayer, "his future's ahead of him."

[BobS]

DOT: My love of baseball prompts me to ask that you not bring such a great game down to Obama's level.

[Captain Hate]

Curt Gowdy seemed to come up with more than his share of howlers but he had an announcing voice I enjoyed more than any other.

[Danube of Thought]

In his post-playing, broadcasting career Ralph Kiner once said, "well, I see it's Father's Day today. So happy birthday, all you fathers out there."

Sorry, BobS.

[MarkO]

When you discover that you have been waiting for yourself all these years, anything is possible.

And, when you really are not that bright but you can put a few phrases together in what passes for a paragraph, you can also begin to see that his past is behind him now.

Gowdy's comment was a staple of laughter between my dad and me, including many left over from the days of "Game of the Week" with Dizzy Dean, where player "slud" into second. DoT, thanks for the Fathers Day present.

[hit and run]

Sorry,BobS,but here's another Obama baseball item.

Obama took in the White Sox - Nationals game on Friday.

He chose not to stand and shake his arms about when the wave passed through the crowd.

Some are using it to mock him ... he's an elitist! he's too good to be seen cavorting with the common man! etc.

Not me. I say it shows a rarely seen sense of good judgment on his part.

In fact,I think it is best decision he's made since becoming president. By a considerable margin.

[Danube of Thought]

I will accept the following item as a very special Father's Day gift:

Despite a PR and marketing blitz that had Oliver Stone on a whirlwind tour of Latin America, his latest documentary "South of the Border" has sunk like a rock at the Venezuelan box office.

Local observers in Venezuela have reported empty cinemas, indicating a stunning indifference to Stone's pic, a documentary about South American leaders that devotes a hefty amount of screen time to the country's President Hugo Chavez. In the 12 days after its June 4 debut, it grossed only $18,601 on 20 screens, according to Global Rentrak. Showings on mobile screens in rural areas (where Chavez has more popular support) have attracted crowds, but these screenings are free.

[BobS]

While on Kinerisms, my own personal favorite:

"If Casey Stengal were alive today, he'd be spinning in his grave."

[BobS]

More on baseball....how appropriate it is that Obama is a lefty. I fully expect his to drop down and go submarine before his term is over.

[matt]

A happy Father's Day to all. As the Yog said, "I want to thank all the people who made this day necessary".

To Dear Leader, I would also quote the Yog "In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is"

[peter]

Give Kiner a break. Broadcasting for over forty years, the vast majority of which were the very definition of futility gave him a fondness for a certain extra dry Rheingold beer.

[Jack is Back!]

Reminds me of an old Air Force story:

A SR-71 is flying at Mach 3 and its navigation goes out. The pilot and his observer try everything but fail. Finally, he gets on the "horn" and says, "mayday, mayday, we are lost but making record speed". Now if that doesn't sum up The Won and his speech I don't know what does any better.

And regarding baseball and Obama, I had a full blooded die in the wool, cricket crazy Englishman mention to me the YouTube vid of The Won throwing out the first pitch for the Nat's Opening day. He said without any prompting, "he throws like a girl":) I told him that was an unnecessary insult to girls.

[centralcal]

The latest edition of Clarice's Pieces has posted at American Thinker.

[Pofarmer]

FWIW, there are some interesting comments on the Gulf Oil spill here http://www.redpowermagazine.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=58371 from a guy who's been there and done that.

[Porchlight]

Happy Father's Day, JOM! I am always amazed at how often I think of things my dad has said or advised over the years. I am fortunate to still have him around for information and counsel. He has the widest range of interests and knowledge of anyone I've ever known, and is the reason I'm a conservative today. Thanks, Dad.

I'm also fortunate to be married to a wonderful dad. Time to start making those pancakes....

[Clarice]

Peter, that sounds yummy.

Let's hear it for the men==especially dads-- who deserve far more respect than they get in American culture today.

[narciso]

Happy father's day, all, "Otto" that's my name for our Kossish friend, who seems lost
on the "Malabar Front", much like the "Black
Knight" he doesn't quite gauge 'it's not a fleshwound'

[Ignatz]

Happy Father's day to everyone.
Still miss my dad after 15 years.

I loved Curt Gowdy, especially on the American Sportsman. Grew up on that show and have been intermittently trying (unsuccessfully) to get the commies at Disney/ABC/ESPN to reissue the shows on DVD.

[Danube of Thought]

The father of a guy in my beer club [sic] had gone to high school with Gowdy in Wyoming. Once when the Senators were still in D.C. the guy's dad took him to a game when the Red Sox were visiting and introduced him to Gowdy, who was then the Sox radio announcer. Gowdy took the kid down on the field and introduced him to Ted Williams, who signed a baseball for him and then posed for a picture, which he later signed. My friend brought the ball and the picture to our regular Wednesday meeting a couple of weeks ago.

[matt]

El Lider praised two father families today...how very correct of him....I guess he meant Barack Sr., Frank, and that Soetero fellow.

Or maybe he meant Heather's two daddys....
Perhaps he can go golfing with Joe for Father's Day.

[JM Hanes]

Walking down a street in New York as a family years ago, we happened to pass a group of young children playing some sort of game on the sidewalk. My father's face changed completely, he spoke to them as we passed, his voice filled with delight. It was always so. When I was a child myself, he had the infuriating habit of seeking me out when I was having a perfectly decent cry and....making me laugh, despite myself. He could find anything. "Let's see, if I were a missing shoe, where would I be?"

He always knew where he was too. We could arrive in any city, and he could already find the short cut for getting from A to B. Ditto for math. He tried to help me with intractable homework problems a couple of times, but he would teach me faster ways to get the answers, which is not what Algebra teachers are looking for.

He was often an absentee father by the time I was a teenager. His business required a lot of travel, and we never knew whether he'd be home or not, till we set the table for dinner. When he was, the dinner table became an entertaining intellectual combat zone, but by the time Father's Weekend at college rolled around, it was like looking forward, with a certain trepidation, to a blind date. I had no idea what we would find to talk about, and there were so many hours to fill, with no one else in the family around to take up the slack.

My oldest sister could always talk business with him so easily. She was a French major who ended up as a New York headhunter in the banking business. He and my younger brother could reminisce about time spent at the workbench, and the tools my brother regularly borrowed without permission for his own erstwhile projects. or the little playhouse they hoisted, fully made, up into the backyard trees. My brother is an architect now. My revolutionary, cause carrying, rule breaking, middle sister went on to practice family law, and now conducts research with women at high risk for AIDS. For many years, I thought she was his favorite. I was never sure why that didn't seem to bother me, till I realized I had always known that each of us had a special place in his heart.

The four of us charted very different paths for ourselves (and cover the political spectrum!), which seems a tribute in itself. He was proud of us. We could take chances, I now see in many ways, because we were secured by his unspoken, rock solid loyalty and support. He was that way in everything he did. He rarely made personal remarks, good or bad -- unless we hurt our mother's feelings. When I was going through my divorce, he was ferocious on my behalf.

Also unspoken was his commitment to the men, both living and dead, he fought with in World War II. He served in the 1st Armored Division, whose devastating sacrifices in North Africa may be the least noted in public remembrances today. He kept tanks rolling in pulverizing sands, with parts put together from any bit of detritus to hand, for which his unit gained no small renown at the time. After seeing "Saving Private Ryan," I realized I had never even thought to thank him for the years he spent in our country's defense, and wrote him a letter of gratitude. After he died, one of my sisters found it among the mementos he cherished from the past. I have his purple heart.

It's no surprise that his basement turf in every house we lived in was also filled with unidentifiable flotsam culled from defunct machinery which might be useful, and often was, when something else needed fixing. He saw an advertisement for a plastic loop used to pull a ponytail back on itself, and bent a piece of hanger wire into shape for me to use. Why should I spend money on something he could cook up at home?

My mother had mostly been interested in keeping the unsightly mess from intruding elsewhere, so his "palace" remained intact for several years after his death, until she moved. I was drawn down the stairs on every visit. He was still there, and when I puttered around, reorganizing as I went, I invariably learned something else about him that I hadn't known or found a treasure lying in or under a cardboard box of mundane salvage. I found an entire set of WWII military maps he used from training exercises in Ireland through Africa, some with tracings of battle maneuvers. I had a sixth sense for finding things he ferreted away, when no one else in the family knew where to start looking. If I were the coins he collected, where would I be?

At his funeral, his younger cousin recalled summers spent together on the Massachusetts coast. I saw my father as a boy for the first time, a constant companion and a generous mentor, even then. The wooden sloop, sitting on my bureau, has more than casual meaning now. A decade later, I am still getting to know my father.

Thank you, Daddy.

[Clarice]

What a beautiful tribute, JMH! I feel as if I knew him.

[PD]

Or, as Curt Gowdy once said about a ballplayer, "his future's ahead of him."

And as baseball announcers everywhere say of pitchers: "...and the pitch count continues to rise."

As though it was ever going to go down.

[Clarice]

My father died about 5 years ago. I wrote this about him then.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2005/08/eulogy_to_my_father.html>father's day

[PaulL]

Beautiful writing, JM.

[Ignatz]

JMH,
Our dads sound very similar right down to spending the early forties in North Africa (my dad was Army Air Corps on B-17s).
And my dad built from scratch a working wooden sloop my mom still has in the basement amongst all his other paraphenalia for fabricating and repairing.
I honestly never knew guys made a living as repairmen when I was a kid; I just figured every dad knew how to fix or build everything under the sun.

[Clarice]

My dad fixed and repaired everything, too..and saved every bit of detritus that he thought might come in handy for his work.

[rseintheFLpanhandle]

JMH-

That really was lovely.

Thanks for sharing.

Happy Father's Day everyone.

It's been interesting this morning to see and hear the arriving families look at the beautiful clear, with a little seaweed,water and white beaches. They exclaim it looks so nice and they are so glad they came on.

The media coverage really has been a travesty even on Fox.

[hit and run]

Clarice,that piece about your dad has been one of my favorites for lo these many years.

JMH,yours now joins it.

This is the first year since my kids were born that I've not been with them on Father's Day. It's not that big a deal -- the specific day itself is important in certain respects,but it is,afterall just a randomly chosen day.

But as hit and run jr and princess hit and run each has called me today,it is quite moving. I've realized that I never talk to them on the phone.

Doing so today,they're getting quite grown up. OK,that's an exaggeration -- they're still just 8 and 7. But they sound so much older on the phone. They are capable of carrying on quite the conversation,shifting seamlessly through various topics,explaining in vivid detail their exploits over the past few days,and most movingly,expressing their love for me in the most heart-grabbing way.

Being a dad is just so awesome.

I pray that many years from now,they are able to look back and recall the lives we're leading together with the same fondness I'm reading about from JMH,Clarice and others.

I know how blessed I have been to have been raised and loved by my dad -- and I am also blessed that he is still around for my kids to know and learn from as well.

A solid rock,my dad.

[JM Hanes]

I'm so glad, Clarice. I feel ever more grateful as time goes by. I loved reading about your remarkable family too! The pain of having to kiss your loved ones good-bye forever seems almost unimaginable, once you've got children (and grandchildren, I should be so lucky) of your own. To know that your father's last thoughts of family would be a blessing is a true gift itself, isn't it?

It's interesting to think that so many of us have landed here with such different histories -- or amazingly similar fathers, Ignatz.

I've been reading about the Africa campaign (and watching the occasional military programs), which my father, like so many, almost never talked about. Did yours? It was really brutal; the 1st Armored was so decimated that they had to be temporarily retired in order to be reconstituted in/for Italy. I had planned to spend a month or so retracing the route on my father's maps (with stops at the extraordinary archaeological sites along the way, of course!), but after a brief window of regional calm, cruising the coast seems like the only relatively safe option these days, so it will have to wait for better times, if they come.

I've got a storage unit of salvage (aka junk) myself! I'm not as handy on the fixit front, although I've been known to improvise. Most of it will go into oversize "artistic" constructions if I can actually get a studio off the ground. Whether a similar legacy is implicated or not, I always enjoy hearing you talk about big machinery. You wouldn't want to hand me any keys, but I have gravitated towards taking photos of major equipment and the guys who run it. I linked to a slideshow I put up the other day, recording the demolition of a derelict house where the aforementioned studio is supposed to go. I'm including it again here because, oddly enough, I thought of you logging when I got it together.

I meant to join in the chorus of congrats on your daughter's success in an earlier thread! Nothing beats a proud father. That's a real gift too, I think.

[Clarice]

Thank you hit and jmh..I speak to my grand daughter every day and see her about once a month for several days at a time. The thought of parting with her is really unbearable. She makes the travails of old age seem tolerable though..I can see in her so many characteristics--physical and characterological-of those I have loved before her.

[Heh, I even know Ron in Irvine's last name.]

Thanks Janet for the link to the Cuccinelli thing. Those comments are like a dash of icewater in the face of a frothing madman.
===================

[Old Lurker]

Wonderful, JMH. I read it twice and appreciated every word.

[Janet]

The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves!
Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary.
All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
We are the ones we've been waiting for.
—The Elders Oraibi
Arizona Hopi Nation

We are the ones we've been waiting for.
-Obama Feb. 2008

When you discover that you have been waiting for yourself all these years, anything is possible.
-MarkO JOM poster with more sense than Hopi Elders and the President of the United States

[Janet]

A cartoon of the Dem. debating skills & leftist ideas.

Even if we’re unsure exactly what that looks like. Even if we don’t yet know precisely how we’re going to get there. We know we’ll get there. Chimmy chong ding dong.

[Extraneus]

Being a dad can be somewhat taxing, though, and I mean that literally. Just today, a $150 baseball glove, $30 jock, $50 lunch on the river, $50 round of golf, followed by ice cream. Sure, I know college is just a few years down the road, but do I get a break now?

"Can we have a catch after you put the turkey lasagna in the oven?"

It seems worth it, though. After all, he grew almost 5 inches last year, so it's the last Father's Day he'll be shorter than me. :-)

[hit and run]

Love it,Extraneus. I'm at least 5-7 years before hit and run jr catches me in height.

He'll never beat me one-on-one in baskeball.

Not without blood being spilled anyway. If he wants it that bad,he can earn it.

And when he earns it,we'll share a beer together to celebrate.

[Extraneus]

Well he did beat me in golf today, I'm sorry/happy to say. (And if any blood were involved, it would have been mine.)

[hit and run]

Ext :-)

I first beat my dad in golf when I was 16. But that's because my dad was soooo into providing for us as a family --- such that we could go on annual 4 week long driving vacations across the western US --- that he didn't play more than two or three times a year.

He shoulda played more. He deserved to play more. I wish he woulda played more. But I got the leg up in life because he didn't. And that's exactly why he did what he did.

What a saint,my dad.

[daddy]

Love the Father's Day write up JMH,

and also enjoyed the WaPo Mann Investigation story via Kim and Janet. Was great to see Bruce Fairfax come along and squelch that ad hom ignorance fest.

[Extraneus]

My dad was a tough man. Tough as in beating people up. He was a Brooklyn boy, fought in the Golden Gloves, and a Merchant Marine at age 16 before joining the Army right after WWII, tattoos and all.

I remember a time when I was probably twelve, playing in a development just being built, and a watchman caught me inside one of the houses. He grabbed me by the shirt, but I got away and ran home, panting and heart beating like a drum. My father asked me what was the matter, and I (stupidly) told the tale.

"Get in the car."

We drove over there and the watchman was lucky my father didn't beat the hell out of him. So was I, because I was the one in the wrong.

There were other altercations, but that was the only one that was my fault.

I loved my dad. He was a conservative (and a George Wallace voter!), when I could think of nothing better than to argue with him, no matter what his position was. It helped me develop debating skills, clear thinking (I think!), and see the weaknesses in others' arguments.

I became a conservative at the age when it seemed that your father had made really major and recent strides in intelligence. I guess at around 16 years of age. (I'm one of the people who'd have said "It's amazing how much my father has learned in just one short year!")

Don't want to end with a downer, but I had to make the decision to take him off the respirator.

I miss my dad.

[Clarice]

Ext..A great story with a sad ending, but it's clear he taught you how to love your own child.

Hit's dad, too.

[hit and run]

Of those commenting here,I feel especially blessed,because I will see my dad in a few weeks. My kids and their cousins will get to romp with their Papa in the open fields in Idaho.

I feel especially blessed because he underwent quintuple bypass surgery in 2006. I'd never before -- and never since -- seen vulnerabilty in him.

He's made a "full" recovery from that.

His life now is still challenging -- he is experiencing serious back pain every day that has proven to this point untreatable. And he simply won't ever comment on it unless you press him unrelentlessly.

We all celebrate the time we have together now.

When I called mrs hit and run earlier today to make sure that my kids called their Papa for father's day -- and got the response that they did so on their own without me needing to remind them ... well ... Best father's day gift evah!!!

[Ann]

Thanks for sharing such lovely, heart felt stories, guys, even though you made me shed a tear or two. Hope everyone had a great Father's Day. We surely have some of the best here at JOM and the best in the world, IMO.

[Jim Rhoads a/k/a vjnjagvet]

Reading the moving tributes JMH and Clarice wrote, and the other tributes to dads on this thread moved me to tears.

I lost my dad 50 years ago in September. He was 48 when he died of his only heart attack. He had been otherwise in good health, so far as we knew. Probably the most brilliant man I have ever known, he also had a terrific sense of humor and rock-solid integrity. He was also a wonderful husband and dad.

I miss him often. But even today I have such vivid dreams about stuff we seem to be still doing together that when I wake up, I could have sworn he was in the room with me. Somehow, his spirit still lives in me and now in my children and grandchildren. There is no better gift a child can get than a good dad.

[Captain Hate]

There is no better gift a child can get than a good dad.

Amen to that Jim; if I had reason to think I was a poor father to my children, I would consider myself a failure at the most important thing in life. Isn't it great to have a father with a good sense of humor? I'm convinced it leads to an optimistic attitude in life.

[Clarice]

With PUK I learned you can love someone you never met. With Hit I learned you can fall in love with an entire family even if you only know one member of it.

[hit and run]

Awwww,the feeling's mutual. I am at an advantage having met both you and Mr. Clarice. But even though I've never met her: the Wolverine is my favorite!