AN UNBLIEVABLE GOLF RULE FOR BUNKERS

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE:  This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime  – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

……….This is the second blog recently dealing with golf rules, a hot-button issue for me……….

I have written about this before, but it still surprises me, even rankles me, that the United States Golf Association (USGA) and the Royal and Ancient (R & A) produced a new set of golf rules in 2019 that includes absolutely stupid words on bunkers.

If you read the rule – Rule #12 – I suspect you’d be surprised, too.

The worst inclusion:  You are now allowed “to strike the sand in frustration and anger.”

For the life of me, I cannot understand why the two excellent golf associations – they govern the game of golf around the world – would allow such a phrase to be included in a set of rules.

My friends at the Oregon Golf Association (OGA) told me that, if a player in an OGA tournament was seen “striking the sand in frustration and anger,” that player would receive either a two-stroke bad-conduct penalty or be disqualified.

All of this came to mind for me when I read an article in my on-line edition of the Global Golf Post (GGP).

According to the GGP, the following is not allowed in a bunker – and all prohibitions sound familiar for those of us who try to avoid the sand, but sometimes reach it:

• Grounding your club immediately in front of or behind the ball

• Making a practice swing that touches sand

• Touching the sand in making a back swing

• Taking any other action purposely to test the condition of the sand

Also, according to the GGP, the following is now allowed in the sand:

• Putting clubs down in a bunker

• Touching the sand accidentally [whatever that means]

• Raking the bunker to take care of the course

• “Striking the sand in anger and frustration”

Seems to me that these allowances amount to testing the sand before a shot, just as what is prohibited.

And, one other major change has been included by the USGA and the R &A.  It is that, if you are in the sand and don’t want to hit your next shot from there, you are now allowed to remove your ball from the bunker and drop it back outside the bunker on a line between where the ball was and where the hole is. 

To do this, you would take a two-stroke penalty, which could strike some amateur golfers as welcome relief from a bunker.  But, even I, a regular amateur, would not opt to take such relief.

The fact that I am focusing on this will strike some as strange. 

It illustrates two motives:  (1) I love golf and love focusing on the arcane rules of the sport, which exist in substantial detail if only because the game is played outdoors on large tracts of land, not inside a stadium or pavilion; and (b) and I don’t have much else to do in retirement.

So, if you are in bunkers as you play golf, take advantage of the new rules and, as pro golfer Sergio Garcia did a year ago or so in a tournament in Saudi Arabia, feel free to “strike the sand in anger and frustration.”

Just hope a rules official isn’t watching.

HERE’S ANOTHER VIEW RE: NEW U.S. HOUSE SPEAKER MIKE JOHNSON

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

In an earlier blog, I gave the new U.S. House Speaker a pass on his past and complimented him on early comments about working with Democrats in the U.S. House as he took over a job no one appeared to want enough to get it.

Perhaps I commented too early.

Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent wrote this:

“Representative Mike Johnson, the newly-elected House Speaker, has repeatedly flirted with what’s known as the ‘great replacement theory,’ the idea that Democrats are scheming to supplant American voters with immigrants.  The Louisiana Republican’s views show how fringe conspiracy theories have gone mainstream in the Republican Party at the highest levels of power.

“’This is the plan of our friends on this side — to turn all the illegals into voters,’ Johnson said at a congressional hearing in May 2022, gesturing at Democrats.  ‘That’s why the border’s open.’”

Sargent continues:

“The ‘open borders’ trope is a lie, and while a few municipalities allow voting for non-citizens in local elections, in no sense do national Democrats have any such ‘plan’ for ‘all the illegals.

“As far as I can determine, no House Speaker in recent memory has been quite as reckless and incendiary with this kind of language.”

Give Sargent his due.  He gets paid to write stuff.

Then, today, Ruth Marcus, also from the Post, added to the context:

“This (Mike Johnson) is not an upgrade (from the more publicly known and controversial Jim Jordan).  It is Jordan in a more palatable package — evidently smoother, seemingly smarter and, therefore, potentially more effective.

“Johnson, now serving his fourth term in Congress, was the moving force behind a Supreme Court brief that helped lay the shoddy intellectual groundwork for January 6, 2021.  In December 2020, he rallied fellow Republican lawmakers to support Texas’s brazen bid to overturn the election results.  

“In a lawsuit that fizzled almost as soon as it was filed, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sought to have the Supreme Court intervene in the election by blocking the certification of electoral college votes in four swing states — Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin — where voting rules had been changed in the course of the election and voters, not coincidentally, had favored Joe Biden.

“The justices swiftly rejected the case, tartly noting that, ‘Texas has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another state conducts its elections.”

So much for what Johnson advocated.

Overall, there is little question but that Johnson, if he is to succeed as speaker, will have to live down what he has said and done in the past. 

Here’s another example cited by the Wall Street Journal:  “He came to Congress with a long legal record battling gay rights, abortion, and limits on religious expression in the public sphere.”

How will that play today?

To be sure, Johnson has said and done a lot of goofy stuff – even reckless stuff, not just goofy.

But, based on what I wrote earlier, I am willing to give Johnson a little wiggle room to live up to his new job. 

In politics, I tend to favor giving a new person in an office time to try to succeed before going after that person or declaring him or her to be a complete loss.

If Johnson can succeed from somewhere in the middle, perhaps tilting right, good – and good for the country.

If he cannot, he will be his own victim.

And, we will become his victims, too, if we really pine for good government.

Footnote/  As former vice president Mike Pence ended his campaign for president this time around, here is how the Wall Street Journal reported the development:

“He has concluded this moment was not his time and appeared to make an implicit appeal against Trump, urging GOP voters to choose a Republican standard-bearer who — in the words of Abraham Lincoln — would ‘appeal to the better angels of our nature, and not only lead us to victory, but lead our nation with civility back to the time-honored principles that have always made America strong and prosperous and free.’”

My view of Pence is that he kowtowed too often to Trump, though some contend that doing just that was his assignment as vice president.  But, I also felt that beneath that Trump-inspired exterior, was a better man – one I didn’t always agree with, but a better man.  His quote is one example.

A TRIP TO REMEMBER: OVERSEAS ON OUR 50TH ANNIVERSARY/OCTOBER 2023

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

Home.

Home sweet home!

My wife, Nancy, and I arrived home safely yesterday in Salem, Oregon, after a long trip from Venice, Italy.  That was our last stop on a cruise ship tour.

I have been lucky once again to go on an overseas trip with my tour guide, my wife.  She designs our trips on-line, then leads me on all of them.

My good fortune.

Without her, I’d be lost somewhere in Europe, never to be heard from again.

This time, on a trip to Greece, Croatia, Albania, and Montenegro, she performed as she usually does – top-drawer.

Also as usual, I kept a random list of impressions.  Nothing fancy.  Just impressions.

They will help me remember another great voyage with my wife, this one to commemorate our 50^th wedding anniversary.

So, in no order of priority:

Country names:  It’s hard to keep up with this because in recent years, some countries have split off from others.  There also have been wars that set new boundaries for countries, not to mention new names.  For one thing, where is Yugoslavia?  Nowhere.

While we had a lot of good tour guides on our trip, there was not much talk about the political situation in the countries we visited.  It did not appear to me that guides were prohibited from such discussions; it was just that their comments, perhaps understandably, veered toward current day tourism issues, with a bit of history thrown in as we saw churches, cobblestone streets, and rock-built fortifications to protect cities in earlier confrontations.

Crowds:  Despite the fact that we were nearing what we understoodd to be the end of the tourist season in some areas overseas, we did encounter huge crowds in several places – the airport in Amsterdam at the start of our trip, in Santorini where we spent a beautiful four days (and got away from the crowds by resting in our own hillside villa overlooking the blue water), and in Dubrovnik, Croatia where it was hard to walk with so many people around.

Didn’t hamper our trip.  Just a fact of life.

Our Ship:  We were on a Viking ship, the Viking Neptune.  So were 928 other travelers, plus the 500-person crew.

When we in a port with other ships, I was glad we were on Neptune.  Several others carried more than 3,000 passengers each, which, I guess, was one reason why crowds were so large in several cities.

As we got off our ship in various ports, it looked huge to me.  But, on two occasions, when we were berthed next to bigger ones, I could see why our ship is called “a small ship.”

Where I’d Like To Live:  If there was a place such as this, it would be Kotor, Montenegro.  What a great place!

It is an ancient town of merchants and sailors, located on one of the most beautiful bays in the world.  The old town of Kotor is the best-preserved medieval urban settlement included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites.

Our tour guide in the city said only 20,000 inhabitants live in Kotor and, thus, many of the residents know each other.

On the evening of our day there, we took a small boat ride over the bay to a church where we heard a wonderful classical guitar concert by two musicians.  Based on their performance in a former Franciscan monastery, with my wife and me in the front row, they could easily have been among the best classical guitarists in the world.

Also, as is the case elsewhere, cats run wild in the streets in Kotor – not wild, but just there.  There is an important difference in Kotor compared to other cities.  Cats are valued in Kotor, having been brought in many years to control Bubonic plague which was spread by rats.  The cats saved the city and are now fed by residents and the city government provides warm winter housing.

Coffee:  Greeks, Croatians, Albanians, and those who live in Montenegro – what do you call the latter? – seem to like their coffee at all hours of the day.  No matter the effect of caffeine.  Not for me.

Jobs I don’t want:  On our trip, for some reason, I kept a list of such jobs:

• A dishwasher on a major ocean-going cruise ship, which means you work continuously as folks eat nearly all the time.
• Or a room cleaner on such ships, a task which must be repeated every day, several times a day.
• A cleaner on an airplane, which has just landed and is due to take off again as soon as the work is done.
• A bus driver on narrow roads in many countries in Europe.  (If I was driving such a bus, I’d have accident after accident.)
• A tour guide who, as almost all of them do, holds up a sign for us to follow on what might be his or her second or third tour of the day in the same place – his or her hometown.

I add that I have the utmost respect for those who take these jobs to help us, the tourists.  They persevere against complacency and sameness.  And, they deserve our thanks, which is why I tried to say thanks to one or more of these workers at least once a day, if not more.

Smoking:  Compared to trips to Europe in past years, you see less smoking today.  Still, Europeans smoke in some in places where Americans would not be allowed to smoke.

Dry-dock:  I found myself wondering the other day how often cruise ships are sent to dry-dock to make sure they continue to be fit to sail. 

For newer ships, like the Viking Neptune (about one year old), the answer is once every three-to-five years.  For older ships, every two years.

Aren’t you glad you know the answer to this pressing question.

Venice:  There was so much water rolling into Venice that our ship had to divert into an area just short of Venice so as not to make waves in the city.  We had to sail fast to make the stop just outside Venice before Venice closed up.

One interesting fact about Venice:  The city is slowly falling into the sea, inch-by-inch.  Which, I guess, is one reason why Venice does not like cruise ships and the tourists they bring.  Oh well, I’ve seen the city before and, from now on, will be content to look at pictures, including of the famous St. Mark’s Square, just above the water line.

Now, for a conclusion.

Why do I like cruising, even though I don’t consider myself “a dedicated cruiser?”  A couple reasons. 

First, you get to see a lot of interesting places in the world while someone takes care of all your needs.  And, second, you keep your belongings in your room without having to pack and unpack every day.

At least one more cruise, thanks to my wife and tour guide, is in my future.  This time, next year, from Montreal out to the East Coast and back along the St. Lawrence Seaway.

IN POLITICS, TALKING AND ACTING ARE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

As we have just come through weeks of discord and dissension in the U.S. House, I am willing to give the new speaker, Mike Johnson, a chance to succeed.

Long odds against him, but….

Washington Post columnist Mark Thiessen gives him a chance, too.  He wrote under this headline:  “Speaker Johnson is off to a great start. Let’s hope he makes it last.”

But the fact is that, in politics, talking is one thing.  Acting is another.

It takes both to succeed.

That’s a conclusion I came to based on more than 40 years working in and around state government in Oregon, the last 25 as a private sector lobbyist.

Getting anything done required acting on compromise, not shouting on the street corner, at least figuratively.

More from Thiessen:

“For millions of Americans, listening to Representative Mike Johnson for the first time Wednesday, the new House Speaker made a really good first impression.  After Johnson accepted the speaker’s gavel, his first message was directed, not to his fellow House Republicans, or to conservative voters, but to his Democrat opposition.

“’I know we see things from very different points of view,’ he said, directly addressing House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.  ‘But I know that in your heart, you love and care about this country, and you want to do what’s right.  And so, we’re going to find common ground.’”

“He went on to say:  ‘We’re going to fight vigorously over our core principles because they’re at odds a lot of times, but we have to sacrifice, sometimes, our preferences because that’s what’s necessary in a legislative body.’”

This, Thiessen added, was a decidedly un-Trumpian start.  And, from a person, Johnson, who has been in Trump’s camp.

“Johnson,” Thiessen wrote, “exuded the kind of grace and magnanimity that many despaired had been irretrievably lost in American politics.  It was what the country desperately wanted.  And it was exactly what House Republicans — whose reputation has been shredded after three weeks of embarrassing dysfunction — desperately needed.”

That’s talking.

Now comes the harder part – acting.

Thiessen:

“Now the question is:  Will he be able — or allowed — to deliver?  Or, will Johnson’s pledge of bi-partisanship be, like President Biden’s inaugural address, just another broken promise to unite the country?

“Will Johnson be a leader who understands that he controls one-half of one branch of government — and that the way to advance core principles is to elect more people who share them?  Or will he pushed into launching pointless kamikaze missions that fail to advance conservative principles?”

One question is whether the best kamikaze himself, Representative Matt Gaetz, will be able to curb his tendency to commit suicide and try to take others with him.  To use a hackneyed phrase, “only time will tell.”

Back to talking.

The new speaker defined great things about which there could be at least some consensus — individual freedom, limited government (though, here, no one yet knows what “limited” means), the rule of law, peace through strength, fiscal responsibility, free markets, and human dignity – that have marked and should mark America.

“Those,” he said, “are the foundations that made us the extraordinary nation that we are.  And you and I today are the stewards of those principles.”

I, for one, am willing to give Johnson a chance to do more than talk – to act.

“I think all the American people, at one time, had great pride in this institution,” he said, referring to Congress.  “But right now, that’s in jeopardy.  And we have a challenge before us right now to rebuild and restore that trust.”

So, Mr. Johnson, please get started.

COLUMNIST DANA MILBANK GETS RIGHT TO THE POINT: “IN THE SEWER”

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

Trust me.

You can’t make this stuff up.

House Republicans, as they elected a fifth-string speaker, Mike Johnson, went down into the sewer to make comments about their action.

So writes Dana Milbank in the Washington Post.

If you took a moment to think about Republican disarray in the U.S. House – perish that thought – you might get into the sewer, or, perhaps, the locker room, as well.

Writes Milbank:

“It happened on Day 22 of House Republicans’ slapstick quest to find a new speaker, as they were bickering their way toward nominating Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota, their fourth-string choice for the position, who would be shot down just a few hours after he was chosen.

“’Let’s get our poop in a group, people.  We’ve got to figure this out,” Representative Bill Huizenga admonished his GOP colleagues in a closed-door caucus meeting on Tuesday.  (The remarks, naturally, were immediately leaked to reporters.)  ‘I don’t want us to go out there and, in front of the entire world, puke on our shoes again.  That’s what we’ve been doing.’

“Grouping poop?  Puking on shoes?  The Chaos Caucus had finally found its new digs:  In the sewer.

“Huizenga’s was an unpleasant (if reasonably accurate) gastrointestinal diagnosis for what ails House Republicans.  But it was arguably preferable to the urological diagnosis being offered by some of his colleagues.

“The evening before, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene asked the panel of nine men then running for speaker whether they would impeach or otherwise harass various Biden Administration officials.  ‘I want to know which one of you have the balls to hold them accountable,’ she said.

“This was the second time in a week that a woman in the GOP caucus had raised doubts about her colleagues’ testicles.  Representative Nancy Mace, irritated that Representative Greg Murphy blocked her on social media, posted:  ‘This is exactly what’s wrong with this place — too many men here with no balls.’”

So, there you have it.

Republicans in the sewer or elsewhere in the depths, which, I suggest, is where they belong.

Now, we’ll be rewarded with more calamity as the new speaker tries to organize persons who don’t want to be organized.

Johnson faces multiple challenges as he holds only a tenuous grip on his job:  (1) finding a way to keep the federal government open – or not; (2) deciding what to do about proposals for more aid to Ukraine and Israel; and 3) placating Donald Trump who, unfortunately, continues to hold sway over many Republicans.

Finally, this additional comparison.  You could believe that it wouldn’t take long for sports images to emerge as House Republicans went to’ing and fro’ing over the last few weeks.

Consider this.

“Representative Dan Crenshaw from the Houston area, blamed the Republicans’ latest disarray on the outcome of the American League Championship Series.  ‘I told people there would be problems if the Rangers won, and that’s exactly what’s happened,’ he said.

“Or, this from another representative who saw an NFL analogy for his party’s dysfunction.  As the Republican representative from Green Bay, ‘it pains me to ask this question, but I’m not sure who sucks at team sports more right now — the Packers or the House Republican caucus.

“’That’s easy:  The Packers have only lost three in a row.’”

If there weren’t so much at stake, all this would be a combination of sad and funny.  But, given the stakes, sad wins.

WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD I WRITE ABOUT U.S. NAVY SEAL DOGS?

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

Well, the answer to the question posed in this blog headline is easy.

As I traveled overseas for our vacation, the first stop being Amsterdam, I was able to watch movies or TV series on a screen on the back of the seat in front of me on the Delta Airlines flight.

And one of the series I watched was Seal Team and, in both episodes, there was a dog joining the members of the team on a mission.

Yes, a dog!

Even when one, tethered to his trainer, jumped out of an airplane.

So, I become interested in the subject – dogs on major military missions.

As always, Mr. Google provided useful information.

“Just as the Navy SEALS and other elite special forces are the sharp point of the American military machine, so too are their dogs at the top of a canine military hierarchy.

“In all, the U.S. military currently has about 2,800 active-duty dogs deployed around the world.

“Navy SEAL dogs, or SEAL dogs for short, have been used extensively in various missions carried out by the U.S. Navy SEAL teams.  These dogs are highly trained to perform a wide range of tasks, including search and rescue, tracking, explosives detection, and more.

“A man’s best friend is also a Navy SEAL’s best friend.  SEAL teams have often utilized animals from Dolphins to K9’s.  Most canines used by the elite special forces branch are Belgian Malinois.  A slightly smaller, lighter, and faster cousin of the German Shepard.  Both dogs have high intelligence.”

Compared to German Shepherds, a Belgian Malinois is much easier to take on missions because of its size, allowing Navy SEALs to carry the dog everywhere.

SEAL Dogs will also skydive on a mission.  Their handler will strap the SEAL dog to their chest and jump.  Or, get this – sometimes dogs jump solo.

Incredible!

To see a dog jump out of an airplane as occurred on one TV episode, is a sight to behold.  I would not make such a jump!

The dogs carry out a wide range of specialized duties for the military teams to which they are attached.

• With a sense of smell 40 times greater than a human’s, the dogs are trained to detect and identify both explosive material and hostile or hiding humans.
• SEAL Dogs can be equipped with video cameras and other recording devices.  Their small size and skill sets combined with senses allow them to reach areas SEALs can’t on missions.
• Like human SEALS, the training the dogs go through is intensive and arduous; only 1 per cent of candidates graduate.  They must learn how to ignore their instincts and follow the orders of their handlers.  There must be a complete sense of trust between the two.
• Dogs have to able to swim a distance that takes them to where they can no longer see the shore.
• They have to be comfortable around gunfire

• They have to show they are mentally capable of their job (yes; just like the human SEALS, the dogs must have a high level of mental toughness and psychological stability)
• They have to navigate through combat environments
• And back to an earlier point – they have to be comfortable jumping out of an airplane, either on their own, or strapped to the chest of a handler

Please, Googld provided a summary of some missions for SEAL dogs:

• Operation Neptune Spear:  In 2011, a SEAL team used a dog named Cairo to help take down Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.  Cairo was trained to detect explosives and was used to sweep the compound where bin Laden was hiding.
• Operation Iraqi Freedom:  SEAL dogs were deployed to Iraq to assist with bomb detection and other missions.
• Operation Enduring Freedom:  SEAL dogs were also used in Afghanistan to detect improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and to track down insurgents.
• Operation Red Wings:  In 2005, a SEAL team used a dog named Remco during a mission in Afghanistan.  [Remco was killed in action, but his bravery and sacrifice were honored with a posthumous award.]

I am a dog lover, having one of my own, Callaway, a miniature poodle, thus not a candidate for SEAL dog school.  Neither was his uncle, Hogan, our first dog.

But, the dog lover part of me has found a new-found respect for SEAL dogs.

HOW DO THEY FLOAT?

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

The question in this blog headline crossed my mind as I sat on our cruise ship and, in the harbor in Corfu, Greece, saw two more cruise ships that, by size, dwarfed our own, the Viking Neptune.

The question illustrates a reality for me:  I like words better than numbers, so, when it comes to numbers, I tend to be at sea.  And, in military service, I was in the Army, not the Navy, so never was on a huge Navy ship (except one time when a friend of mine when I was in college, invited me on a short ride on a major U.S. military ice-breaker).

Consider these statistics for our Viking ship:

• Capacity:  930 passengers
• Decks:  14
• Gross tonnage:  47,800
• Length:  745 feet
• Beam: 94.5 feet

Consider the gross tonnage number for just a moment – 47,800.  I ask again, how does that float?

The two other larger cruise ships here in Corfu – a Norwegian brand ship and one from Celebrity Cruises. — are about three times as large as our Viking ship.

So, more tonnage – in the range of 120,000-125,000.

Plus, both carry 3,200 passengers.  Our?  Only 930.

Again, I ask – remember I am a “words guy,” not “numbers guy” – how do they float?

But, I add, I am just glad they do because I am on board for a few more days and I’d rather float than sink.

I AM NOW ON A BOAT – NO, SORRY, A “SHIP”

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

If I used the word “boat” to describe where I am, I would probably be thrown overboard.

What I am on is a “ship” – a Viking cruise ship traveling the Mediterranean, Aegean, and Ionic Seas.

Yes, a “ship.”

Here are a few statistics about our boat – er, “ship:”

• Guests:  930

• Crew:  About 700

• Length:  745 feet

• Beam:  94.5 feet

• Class:  “Small ship”

• Restaurants:  Seven

• Flag:  Norwegian

• Registration:  Malta

I would not call myself a “fully dedicated cruiser,” at least compared to some folks who have been on hundreds of voyages. 

My wife and I have been on several on the Mediterranean, as well as several on European Rivers.

It’s a great way to see new parts of the world, especially as you get situated in your cabin and leave your stuff there for the daily adventures when your ship is in port.

Better than packing up every day and, say, getting on a bus or driving a car.

So, here we go on with stops in Greece and Croatia, and ending in Venice.  From there, we fly home to Oregon direct from Amsterdam.

And, oh yeah, I thought of another job I don’t want – washing dishes on a cruise ship.  It would seem to be never-ending.  So, I guess what I’ll do instead is eat more and make more dishes to wash.

AMERICA’S POLITICAL CHAOS:  WHO STARTED IT?  AND WHY IT MATTERS NOW   This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.   The question in the headline has bothered me for some time, if only because of my career dealing with government, both here in Salem, Oregon and in Washington, D.C.   When I worked in and around government, middle ground was possible.   Today, no longer.   The goal of many so-called political “leaders” is to sow discord and to win at all costs, without regard to pressing national and international problems, including the humanitarian tragedies in the Middle East and Ukraine.   So, I ask the question in the headline.   Tom Nichols, a staff writer for The Atlantic Magazine answered the other day in these words:   “Most of America’s current environment can be traced back to one moment:  The election of Donald Trump.  The bedlam continues and, to understand the stakes in 2024, imagine how different the world would look if he’d lost.”   That’s not a surprise to me, given the foment that drives Trump every day, most of which is of his own making.   Nichols adds that, while it’s not always not useful to look backward, reflecting on history can be a virtue.    In Nichols’ rear-view mirror:

“As I continue to watch the GOP flail about, I have been thinking about an alternate history of a United States where Donald Trump lost the 2016 election.

“I am convinced that the chaos now overtaking much of the American political system was not inevitable:  The source of our ongoing political disorder is because of a razor-thin victory in an election in 2016 decided by a relatively tiny number of voters.”

Nichols dates the intent to produce discord and chaos back to Newt Gingrich who, when he became U.S. House speaker, “proved that political nastiness was an effective campaign strategy.”

Further, unrelated to Nichols, Washington Post columnist George Will adds this salient fact about current events:

“After Trump was charged with 91 felony counts in four separate cases for allegedly mishandling classified information, obstructing justice, conspiring to overturn the 2020 election, and falsifying business records in connection to hush money paid to an adult-film star, the Republican Party seems more wedded to him than ever before.  Trump also faces an ongoing civil trial in New York over alleged business fraud by him and his company.

“Instead of voters turning on him because they are appalled by his behavior, fearful he would not be electable or exhausted by his perpetual drama, the indictments have boomeranged to his favor among Republicans.”

More from Nichols in The Atlantic:

“At the least, a Trump loss would have let other Republicans avoid sinking in the populist swamp.  Elise Stefanik might be a relentless political opportunist, but without Trump, she and other GOP leaders could have pronounced Trumpian extremism a failure and stayed in something like a center-right lane.

“On the Earth Where Trump Lost, Fox-addicted voters might still have sent irresponsible performance artists such as Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz to Congress, but the institutional Republicans would have had every incentive to marginalize them.

“Had Trump lost, someone might even have bothered to read (and act on) the so-called Republican National Committee ‘autopsy’ of 2013, which argued that the future of the party relies on better appeals to immigrants, women, minorities, and young people.

“With Trump’s win, that kind of talk went out the window.  Instead, the Trump GOP chained itself to the votes of older white Americans — a declining population.  Republicans thus had to squeeze more votes out of a shrinking base, and the only way to do that was to build on Trump’s bond with his personality cult and defend him at all costs.

“Perhaps most important, a Trump loss would have prevented (or at least delayed) the normalization of violence and authoritarianism in American politics.  This is not to say that the Republicans would today be a healthy party, but Trump’s victory confirmed the surrender of the national GOP to a sociopathic autocrat.”

So, look back at Trump – or look at him now – and worry about the future of our country.

Footnote:  This blog makes even more sense as we see dislocation in the U.S. House of Representatives.  Republicans don’t know how to organize anything, including their own operation.

I MAY GET MY ASS IN GEAR TODAY – OR NOT

This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

This blog headline refers to the fact that, here in Santorini, Greece, I am toying with going on a donkey ride today.

DONKEYS:  Those animals – call them assess – take riders up and down the steep steps in Santorini high above the Mediterranean Sea.

Poor things.

But, I have been told they love it.

Even if I don’t manage to find time “to get my ass in gear today,” our next to the last in Santorini, I couldn’t resist using the headline.

Plus, my friends back home in Salem, Oregon will like the fact that I wanted “to get my ass in gear.”  They have wanted that for some time.

Well, what may prompt to avoid the donkey – ass – is this quote from a brochure in our room:

“You can pay to ride up on a donkey, but the stench and the bumpy ride make this far less romantic than it sounds.”

Pass.

VISITING A WINERY:   An actual highlight worth commenting on today – the day of our 50^th wedding anniversary —  was a trip to a winery, The Sigalas Santorini.

We had tasting of eight – yes, eight – wines from the region, along with cheese and bread.

The brochure on Sigalas says this:

“The vineyards of Santorini form one of the oldest viticultural regions of the world still active today, being part of the global historic wine legacy with more than 3,000 years of consecutive wine-making tradition.  Santorini’s volcanic soil is naturally immune to phylloxera, forming on entirely self-rooted vineyard of grape types older than time.  Assyrtiko, Aidani, Mavrotragano, and the rest of the 24 varietals recorded as indigenous to Santorini literally originate in prehistoric times.”

With all that, we enjoyed the wine, even as we sat only feet from vineyard that already had been picked, and were of the type that grow without water, given limitations on water on Santorini, though it is surrounded by oceans.

JOBS I DON’T WANT:  I have come across at least three jobs I don’t want during this trip.

• Cleaning Airplanes:  As we waited for a flight from Athens to Santorini, we were delayed by folks cleaning our airplane.  Who would want that job anyway?

• More Donkeys:  It’s one thing, I guess, to ride a donkey.  It’s another to pick up after them – and you know what I mean by picking up after them!

• Lugging Suitcases:  Here in Santorini, various folks make their living suitcases up and down numerous steep steps.  If that were me, I would do more falling than walking.

Enough for Day 2.