It is a stunningly beautiful day as I ride the train north, having slipped out of town early. To my left, the Hudson runs wide with sun glints coming off the silver grey surface of the water. It is sunny and warm, with a soft breeze blowing with low humidity. Saturday will probably be like this though there is rain in the forecast for Sunday with cooler temperatures.
My mood is better today; I feel less weighted by the world and its events. I feel more accepting that there is ONLY so much I can do individually and that as long as I feel I am doing that, I can breathe a little easier.
It is still a crazy world. In my home state of Minnesota, a Muslim couple was picking up their son at the home of one of his friends. While waiting for him in the car, they were approached by a woman with a rifle who forced them out of the car and marched them at gunpoint to the house where they told her their son was so that they could prove it to her.
The boy was there.
The woman is facing charges of assault, terroristic threats, terroristic threats-reckless endangerment and maybe some more.
This kind of occurrence just strikes me as so un-Minnesota like. You know, Minnesota nice, it’s baked into us.
She must have skipped that part of the cultural indoctrination.
Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert is being charged with lying to the FBI about cash withdrawals from banks that allegedly were going to “Individual A.” Apparently, Hastert was paying hush money to a man for inappropriate behavior years ago when he was a schoolteacher and a wrestling coach. Everyone who knows the Former Speaker is shocked as he always was a “stand-up” kind of guy.
He has made no statements but has resigned from his law firm and from the Board of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
In reading about this I was reminded that the Speaker of the House is second in succession for the Presidency. The thought of John Boehner being two heartbeats away from the Presidency is sobering, at least to me.
In the midst of probably the worst sports scandal in the last century, FIFA President Sepp Blatter was re-elected. While it seems unbelievable to me, he had a lot of support from Africa and South America, enough to propel him back for another term. The aftershocks of this affair will continue for a long time and there may be more arrests.
Cuba has been taken off the list of states that sponsor terrorism, paving the way for the normalization of relations. Visiting Cuba is on my bucket list, has been since I read Hemingway who had a home there.
Dressed in a burka, an IS devotee blew himself up at a mosque in Saudi Arabia, killing four, including himself.
In Pakistan, gunmen hijacked buses and ended in a battle with security forces. Nineteen civilians were killed.
North Korea, widely suspected of the hack attack against Sony Pictures, has something called Bureau 121, a cadre of 6000 hackers devoted to discovering ways to create digital trouble. Apparently, many of them operate out of China, some in the basement of well-reviewed restaurant.
Not a happy thought.
Out in California Michael Jackson’s fantasyland named “Neverland“ is for sale for $100,000,000. But now it’s called Sycamore Valley Ranch. It’s a stunning place for those who have a spare hundred mil.
The rain ravaged states of Texas and Oklahoma are going to be receiving drinking water from the breweries of Anheuser-Busch, which halted production of beer at one plant in Georgia and switched to canning drinking water, which is desperately needed. At least thirty-seven are dead in the two states.
Amazon is planning to create its own private label for a variety of foods. Called Elements, its first products were diapers and baby wipes. It is also opening data centers in Ohio that will employ about a thousand people. Amazon just keeps on growing…
Ross Ulbricht, creator of Silk Road, a dark Internet site for the sale of drugs, was sentenced to life in prison today.
The train is rolling into Hudson and I need to gather my things up and make my way over to my car for the short drive home before dinner at the Dot!
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
Tags: Amazon, Anheuser-Busch, Bureau 121, Cuba, Dennis Hastert, Elements, Fifa, John Boehner, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Michael Jackson, Minnesota, Minnesota Muslim Couple, Neverland, North Korea, Oklahoma, Red Dot, Ross Ulbricht, Saudi Arabia Mosque Bombing, Sepp Blatter, Silk Road, Sycamore Valley Ranch, Texas
This entry was posted on May 30, 2015 at 1:04 am and is filed under Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Social Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Letter from the Vineyard 
Letter From New York 05 29 15 Riding up the Hudson, ruminating on the world…
It is a stunningly beautiful day as I ride the train north, having slipped out of town early. To my left, the Hudson runs wide with sun glints coming off the silver grey surface of the water. It is sunny and warm, with a soft breeze blowing with low humidity. Saturday will probably be like this though there is rain in the forecast for Sunday with cooler temperatures.
My mood is better today; I feel less weighted by the world and its events. I feel more accepting that there is ONLY so much I can do individually and that as long as I feel I am doing that, I can breathe a little easier.
It is still a crazy world. In my home state of Minnesota, a Muslim couple was picking up their son at the home of one of his friends. While waiting for him in the car, they were approached by a woman with a rifle who forced them out of the car and marched them at gunpoint to the house where they told her their son was so that they could prove it to her.
The boy was there.
The woman is facing charges of assault, terroristic threats, terroristic threats-reckless endangerment and maybe some more.
This kind of occurrence just strikes me as so un-Minnesota like. You know, Minnesota nice, it’s baked into us.
She must have skipped that part of the cultural indoctrination.
Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert is being charged with lying to the FBI about cash withdrawals from banks that allegedly were going to “Individual A.” Apparently, Hastert was paying hush money to a man for inappropriate behavior years ago when he was a schoolteacher and a wrestling coach. Everyone who knows the Former Speaker is shocked as he always was a “stand-up” kind of guy.
He has made no statements but has resigned from his law firm and from the Board of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
In reading about this I was reminded that the Speaker of the House is second in succession for the Presidency. The thought of John Boehner being two heartbeats away from the Presidency is sobering, at least to me.
In the midst of probably the worst sports scandal in the last century, FIFA President Sepp Blatter was re-elected. While it seems unbelievable to me, he had a lot of support from Africa and South America, enough to propel him back for another term. The aftershocks of this affair will continue for a long time and there may be more arrests.
Cuba has been taken off the list of states that sponsor terrorism, paving the way for the normalization of relations. Visiting Cuba is on my bucket list, has been since I read Hemingway who had a home there.
Dressed in a burka, an IS devotee blew himself up at a mosque in Saudi Arabia, killing four, including himself.
In Pakistan, gunmen hijacked buses and ended in a battle with security forces. Nineteen civilians were killed.
North Korea, widely suspected of the hack attack against Sony Pictures, has something called Bureau 121, a cadre of 6000 hackers devoted to discovering ways to create digital trouble. Apparently, many of them operate out of China, some in the basement of well-reviewed restaurant.
Not a happy thought.
Out in California Michael Jackson’s fantasyland named “Neverland“ is for sale for $100,000,000. But now it’s called Sycamore Valley Ranch. It’s a stunning place for those who have a spare hundred mil.
The rain ravaged states of Texas and Oklahoma are going to be receiving drinking water from the breweries of Anheuser-Busch, which halted production of beer at one plant in Georgia and switched to canning drinking water, which is desperately needed. At least thirty-seven are dead in the two states.
Amazon is planning to create its own private label for a variety of foods. Called Elements, its first products were diapers and baby wipes. It is also opening data centers in Ohio that will employ about a thousand people. Amazon just keeps on growing…
Ross Ulbricht, creator of Silk Road, a dark Internet site for the sale of drugs, was sentenced to life in prison today.
The train is rolling into Hudson and I need to gather my things up and make my way over to my car for the short drive home before dinner at the Dot!
Share this:
Like this:
Related
Tags: Amazon, Anheuser-Busch, Bureau 121, Cuba, Dennis Hastert, Elements, Fifa, John Boehner, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Michael Jackson, Minnesota, Minnesota Muslim Couple, Neverland, North Korea, Oklahoma, Red Dot, Ross Ulbricht, Saudi Arabia Mosque Bombing, Sepp Blatter, Silk Road, Sycamore Valley Ranch, Texas
This entry was posted on May 30, 2015 at 1:04 am and is filed under Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Social Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.