A strange thing

 

….this judicial system of ours.  The Boston Marathon Bomber.  He got tracked down, chased, cornered, shot in a police shootout where his brother died, arrested and put in jail.  Basically, he was caught red-handed.  He did it.  Everyone knows he did it.  He blew up all those people, killing 3 and injuring 260.  He did it!

 

Now he goes to trial.  What do we all do at trial?  We pledge to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.  The defendant has to make a plea of Guilty or Not Guilty.  What does he plead?  Not Guilty.  Not Guilty on all 30 counts.  The entire process is begun with a lie, that everyone knows is a lie; but if the bomber wants to mount any sort of defense, he has to lie and plead Not Guilty.

 

I could offer more options; more truthful options than Guilty or Not Guilty; more credible options:

 

Like “Guilty, but insane.”

Or “Guilty, but I had to do it because…”

How about “I did it, but I’m sorry.”

“I did it, but I didn’t mean for it to happen.”

Or maybe “You can’t prove it.”

 

But we only have two options, Guilty or Not Guilty.  If we plead Guilty it’s over.  Our only defense starts with Not Guilty.  We ask for the truth, but in our quest for the truth, we all agree to start with a lie.

 

In the right light

 

Green kingfishers really are green.

 

They’re small, but they are mighty fishers.  I stood by and kept score.

 

Green Kingfisher 1.

 

 

 

Minnow 0.

 

RE: We don't think Judy has the flu

Oops.  I just said aestheticize instead of anesthetize.  Thank you spell check.

 

From: Steve Taylor [mailto:spt@thetaylorcompany.net]
Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2015 9:17 PM
To: Bill Taylor (Bill Taylor); David Taylor (David Taylor); Tom Taylor (Tom Taylor)
Subject: We don't think Judy has the flu

 

 

…but she at least has a cold.  It doesn’t look good for her knee surgery on Thursday.  Bummer.  They won’t want to aestheticize her if she’s congested.  She was worse today than yesterday.  Maybe she’ll make a miracle recovery tomorrow…

 

I had to bird by myself today.

 

American Pipit.

 

Couch’s Kingbird.

 

 

We don't think Judy has the flu

 

…but she at least has a cold.  It doesn’t look good for her knee surgery on Thursday.  Bummer.  They won’t want to aestheticize her if she’s congested.  She was worse today than yesterday.  Maybe she’ll make a miracle recovery tomorrow…

 

I had to bird by myself today.

 

American Pipit.

 

Couch’s Kingbird.

 

 

Warmer and dryer today

 

We’ve seen this bird before.

 

He’s off in that oak tree.

 

Eastern Bluebird!

 

Just kidding.  It’s the Eastern Screech-owl.

 

 

Cold and rainy again today

 

But cold is a relative term.

 

A few days ago it was a little cold for here for this time of year, but at one point we were 70 degrees warmer than our kids in Colorado.  Fifteen below leaves a lot of room for other places to be warmer.

 

Cattle Egret.

 

It should be warmer and drier tomorrow.

 

A new year

 

A new year-list for birds.  Cold and rainy today, we didn’t get out of the car much.  Made a nice loop-drive around the county and counted 52 species though.  First bird of the year was a house sparrow.  Shortly after though, we got a white-tailed kite.  That’s always a rush.  Lots of raptors here in the winter.  Went the entire year last year without seeing a ferruginous hawk, but found one on the first day of this year.  Got a green kingfisher and got the cattle egrets we were looking for.  An excellent start to the birding year.

 

We didn’t get any photos of the rarest birds we saw so I’ll send the best photos we got of the ring-necked duck.

 

 

 

 

2014 eBird results by number of species observed:

 

World                    Top 1,500.

North America      Top 650.

U.S.                       Top 250.

Texas                    Top 50.

Hidalgo County       11^th.

 

A little better than we did in 2013.

 

We’re going to travel to the Pacific Northwest for the family reunion this year.  I think we’ll focus on the life-list and see if we can add some birds from outside our normal range.