Colors of a Dream at Tulum Ruins Beach on Mexico’s Riviera Maya

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Have you ever dreamed in Technicolor and woken up thinking that those colors simply don’t exist in real life? Those rich, saturated, almost kaleidoscopic colors are what I experienced when I visited the beach at the Mayan ruins in Tulum, Mexico.

Turquoise water and pure white sand, set against a jagged rock cliffside

But wait. I’m getting ahead of myself. To get to the beach I had to pass through the ruins which are quite spectacular for their oceanfront location. During the height of the Maya empire this was an important port city and the major structures face the ocean from a high mound: a watchtower and astronomical observatory are stunning examples of the ancient architecture, as is a house built over a cenote. Once you’ve had your fill of wandering through the ruins, a wooden staircase leads down the cliff to the beach, an exquisite cove of pure white, sugar-fine sand bordered on both ends by ochre and red rock outcroppings. Gentle waves sweep into the sheltered cove, beckoning bathers into a sea so dazzlingly turquoise and aquamarine that it hurts the eyes.

Stairway leads down the cliff from the ancient ruins of Tulum to a stunning beach

Those who don’t care to swim can soak up the rays or clamber around the giant boulders and pinnacles on either end of the beach to discover more secluded pockets where crystal seas lap through holes in the rock. The beach has a year-round lifeguard, but it is only open until 5 p.m. each day, when the archeological park closes. Price of admission is 51 pesos (about $4.50 USD) and includes complete access to the ruins and the beach.

Photo Credit: Barbara Weibel
Article by Barbara Weibel of Hole In The Donut Travels

Lost Language Department – Up The Stairs

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Gonaives Haiti
Gonaives Haiti, Photo by Michael Johnson

It’s been sort of a rough week for my head. It seems as though I’m not only losing my English but simultaneously sucking at Spanish. I guess the English started slipping over time and with such immersion, it’s only a matter of time before the grammar starts to go. According to my dad, my blogs are getting sloppier and sloppier. I now speak no language well.

It’s been sort of a rough week for my head. It seems as though I’m not only losing my English but simultaneously sucking at Spanish.

Canada flag
Canada flag, Photo by Sam Daams

Last week when I spent the afternoon at an estancia with my job, assisting Canadian tourists, I could see how my English was exaggerated and forced. It seemed like I was subconsciously speaking with a slight Spanish accent. But why? I guess because the majority of the time that I hear English (not counting TV), it comes from a second language speaker. So over time, I’ve forgotten what English should actually sound like and naturally correct myself when a mistake is made. Basically, I spend all day in a Spanish speaking environment and either come home and continue in Spanish or don’t speak to anyone else.

This is disconcerting to me because obviously I don’t want to lose my linguistic skills in my own tongue that I spent years developing, but at the same time don’t want to sacrifice my Spanish skills and give it all up. But for now, despite my best efforts, I sound like an idiot in Spanish, which brings us to the second point of tonight’s topic. I guess since Monday I’ve noticed that my Spanish has taken a nose dive this week. I’m not that surprised by it because once every few months my brain just has a meltdown and I can’t talk for about a week. It’s part of the learning process.

The funny thing is I was describing this process to a co-worker on Monday and realized that I couldn’t roll my r’s quickly and the pronunciation was just terrible for my standards.

The funny thing is I was describing this process to a co-worker on Monday and realized that I couldn’t roll my r’s quickly and the pronunciation was just terrible for my standards.

Rolling Rs

This is how I realized I’ve hit the dry spell. It’s like my mouth has gotten lazy. I’m also having trouble understanding Spanish. This morning when trying to say ‘pero’ (but) I said ‘Perú.’ Maybe reading a book in Spanish is a reason—just overloading my head and causing a reboot. Hopefully by the end of the week or early next week I’ll be back to where I was. Or I need to rest and regroup.

bike ride
bike ride, Photo by Peacocks

This struggle just reiterates to me that it’s extremely difficult to become truly fluent in another language. I mean 100% to the point that people have no idea you are from a different country. I’ve met these people before, and when they spoke English I couldn’t tell they were from another country with a different language. It takes years and influence as a child, as well as dedication on their part. I don’t know if I will reach that stage in the limited time I’ve had to study and live with Spanish.

I’ve discussed with friends in the past the difficulties we have with developing a second language. We have agreed that sometimes to be excellent in another language you need to sacrifice some of your natural skills. Otherwise, you get too confused. There are times when I purposely make mistakes as a joke, but other times when a mistake in English comes out, I take a step back in shock. “Wow, that just happened.”

For the time being, I need to ride out this stretch of lousy Spanish and keep improving. As for the English, it’s just a matter of time until that bounces back, but before I move home to the States I wonder how much worse it could get. I can’t imagine the embarrassment of showing up for grad school on the first day and saying, ‘Hi, I’m Jon, I have 25 years.’

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Swedish Democrat Party strikes back against Radical Islam

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From Eric Dondero:

The Swedish Democrats have been gaining in recent polls. They could play a vital role if the election is tight, as is expected, between the Center Right and Center Left.

From the AP (Stockholm):

Jimmie Akesson is running for Parliament, preaching sharp cuts in immigration and calling Islam the greatest threat to Swedish society.

polls are predicting gains for Akesson's far-right Sweden Democrats that could give them a king-maker role in national elections this year if neither mainstream bloc wins an outright majority.

Opinion polls show the Sweden Democrats could get 4 to 6 percent of votes in the September election, enough to win 15-20 seats in the 349-member Riksdag and potentially throw Swedish politics into disarray.

Rightist, but Pro-Israel, and Pro-Tolerance

Akesson (photo below) and his Party are routinely described as "Far Right." Ironically though, they are both Pro-Israel in foreign policy and on social matters for maintaining Sweden's tradition of free speech rights and sexual tolerance.

For example, the Democrats are the biggest defenders of Lars Vilks, the Swedish cartoonist who has been continually harassed, beaten and even had his house set on fire, over depictions of Muhammed.

Akesson also points to attacks against artist Lars Vilks, who drew the prophet Muhammad with a dog's body. Last month furious protesters chanting "God is Great" in Arabic disrupted Vilks' guest lecture at Uppsala University and vandals tossed firebombs at his home.

Sweden has also been known to be a sexually permissive society. However, with the onslaught of Muslim immigrants, moral repression is beginning to be seen. Continuing:

What worries many Swedes is the clustering of immigrants in neighborhoods with nicknames such as "Little Baghdad." Few native Swedes ever set foot in these districts, viewing them as dangerous slums infested with criminal gangs and Islamic fundamentalists.

In the Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby, aka "Little Mogadishu," a 20-year-old Somali woman in a black head scarf says: "Not even a non-Muslim dares to walk around with a short skirt in Rinkeby." She doesn't give her name for fear of neighbors' reaction.

Akkeson is staunchly anti-racist and has expelled members who show the slightest hint of bigotry:

Swedishness is not in your skin color or in any part of the body. It's in your values and how you behave," Akesson said.

In fact two leaders of the Democrats are the brothers Kent and Ted Ekeroth, (Ted is far right in the photo). The Ekeroths are Jewish. They are expected to hold seats in Parliament if the Democrats crack the 3% support threshold needed to be considered a major party.

Mildly libertarian on economics

While generally free enterprise on economic stances, the Democrats are more pragmatic than libertarian. They support tax cuts, but also maintaining Sweden's extensive welfare state.

From The Local, Sweden's English News, June 1:

Sweden's small far-right Sweden Democrat (SD) party presented a shadow budget on Monday pledging lower taxes and higher benefits, to be financed by cutting international aid and refugee quotas.

The party said their first shadow budget would "re-establish Swedish welfare and at the same time lower taxes."

The budget "mainly involves reallocating the funds of the expensive immigration policy and ineffective development aid to necessary welfare and safety commitments, and raising direct assistance to real refugees in the world," it said.

The party proposed cutting the number of refugees allowed into Sweden, along with immigration by relatives of foreigners, by 90 percent.

It also called for slashing Sweden's direct development aid...

Blogger Technical Difficulties….

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by the Left Coast Rebel

Libertarian Republican readers:

Tim here, Eric's left coast compatriot with a note on today's Libertarian Republican content. It seems that the blogger platform is experiencing a glitch that is affecting certain areas of the country. Eric cannot access Libertarian Republican so I am taking the helm for today.

Rest assured that content here will keep flowing in the manner that you have come to expect.

Be sure to visit Left Coast Rebel.

Miss Oklahoma a Libertarian?

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Expresses support for States' Rights

Asked by Pageant judge Oscar Nunez for her position on Arizona's new law against illegal immigration, Miss Oklahoma Morgan Elizabeth Woolard answered forthrightly:

"I'm a huge believer in States' Rights. I think that's what's so great about America. So, I think it's perfectly fine for Arizona to create that law. And I'm against illegal immigration, but I'm also against racial profiling..."

Woolard finished first runner-up in the Miss USA pageant held May 16.

See Video.

UK’s rising Sharia influence inspiration for Oklahoma Law

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The judicial committee in the Oklahoma House just approved a ballot measure for the November election, which would ban Sharia Law from being instituting in any manner in the state court system.

From the Edmonton Sun, June 4:

State Question 755, which likely will be on the ballot in November, would make in-state courts rely on federal and state laws when deciding cases and forbid courts from using international law or Sharia law when making rulings.

The proposal, which has an Edmond connection, would amend Article 7, Section 1 of the Oklahoma Constitution, and stems from House Joint Resolution 1056, dubbed the “Save Our State” amendment, passed during the just-finished legislative session.

The legislation was sponsored by State Rep. Rex Duncan of Sand Springs.

Duncan commented on the inspiration for the ballot measure:

Duncan, an attorney who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, said the amendment is needed because judges in other states and on the federal bench have increasingly cited international law in their decisions. He said he feels that action is inappropriate in a sovereign state.

Duncan said Sharia law is entrenched in the United Kingdom.

“It is a cancer upon the survivability of the UK,” Duncan said. “SQ 755 will constitute a pre-emptive strike against Sharia law coming to Oklahoma.”

The co-sponsor on the Senate side is Rep. Anthony Sykes of Moore. Continuing:

State Sen. Anthony Sykes, R-Moore, a co-author of HJR 1056, said American courts are being more frequently challenged that international law should trump U.S. law.

“Sharia law coming to the U.S. is a scary concept,” Sykes said. “Hopefully the passage of this constitutional amendment will prevent it in Oklahoma.”

Sen. Sykes (photo) has been on the forefront of legislation to establish Oklahoma's 10 Amendment rights for State Sovereignty.

A Penny for your Thoughts…

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Sometimes things just have a way of working out.
Last week THIS STORY came out about a judge in the Hagerstown Town Court (who just happens to be my bride of 34 years and a twice elected Libertarian, Susan Bell), and a man who wanted to pay his seat belt ticket fine with [...]

The Politics of Hypocrisy

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Executive Director Chris Spangle recently appeared on a special edition of “Abdul in the Morning” with Abdul-Hakim Shabazz. It was titled the “Politics of Hypocrisy” and ran on WXNT over Memorial Day weekend. It examines the Mark Souder affair and morality and ethics in politics. The panelists were Curt Smith of the Indiana Family Institute [...]

Thoughts On Stars

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Stars.

We know a lot about stars, don’t we?  After all, we live 93 million miles away from a very nice one.  When our lovely star leaves the sky for the night, we see thousands more of them.  If we look at the NASA.gov site, or HubbleSite, we can look at billions of them.  We know how they are born, how they age, how they die.  We can go to websites like STEREO or SOHO and see what our star looks like right now.  Not too long ago, I did a post on sunspots, which you can read here if you’re curious.  And, by the way, as I’m writing this post, this is what our sun looks like right now (from SOHO).  I mean, RIGHT NOW:

..

…
Yes, it’s 1:06 am as I write this.  But that’s just our star.  Do all those billions of other stars act the same way as ours?  Do beings on other worlds see spots?  Flares?  Prominences?

To borrow someone’s (adjective deleted) phrase:  You betcha.

NASA conception of a red dwarf - looks familiar, doesn't it?

We only have to look at our star to visualize what’s happening on other stars.  After all; they’re basically the same things.  Using some very powerful telescopes, we’ve been able to see spots on Betelgeuse, flares on UV Ceti, and magnetic fluctuations on Proxima Centauri.

…
To be honest, some of those distant suns do things we should be very thankful ours hasn’t.  Not if we don’t want to be fried to a crisp where we stand.  Since our star rises every morning, shines, then sets every evening, we get to thinking we live next to a pretty tame little ball of fire.

Don’t you believe it.

NASA Wolf Rayet ejecting clumps of gas at about 100,000 mph

NCBI ROFL: Humor and death: a qualitative study of The New Yorker cartoons (1986-2006). | Discoblog

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tweet“American’s experiences with dying and death have changed throughout the course of our history. As an agrarian society death, was seen first-hand on, often, a daily basis. Industrialization brought with it removal of the dying process to the hospital and burial became the responsibility of the undertaker. This separation of dying and death from society resulted in not only a physical barrier but a psychological one as well. Technology in health care once again raised issues of the dying process by asking people to make decisions about their health care in the realm of resuscitation, respirators, and the use of artificial food and fluids. One way that Americans have been known handle the difficult times in their lives is through humor. When it becomes difficult to cope, tears and laughter are both cathartic. This study analyzes cartoons from The New Yorker in an effort to categorize contemporary notions of death as well as establish the correlation between societal events related to dying and death and the overall percent of death-related cartoons in this media.“

Bonus table and text:

table2

“Themes:

“Things you can’t avoid” (n = 14) depicted multiple iterations on the saying that “the two things you can’t avoid are death and taxes.” For example, one cartoon showed the Grim Reaper and an IRS tax man crouched at the starting line of a race. Another depicted the devil meeting with a politician with the caption, “Congressman, our people would look upon it favorably if you were to oppose any additional sin taxes” (from 1994; Mankoff, 2006, p. 23). The grouping also involved aspects relating tempest fugit (Latin for “time flies”).

“Wills” (n = 14) peaked in 1991, the year after the passage of the Patient Self-Determination Act of 1990 (which is an ammendment of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 [OBRA 90] combined depictions of Advance Health Directives, such as living wills, and also involved aspects of greed relating to insurance claims.

“Bad News” (n = 17) depicted informing loved ones of a recently deceased individual or letting people know that they were terminally ill; for example, an egg (carrying a purse) walks into a busy emergency room. The doctor says, “You might want to sit down, Mrs. Dumpty” (from 1993; Mankoff, 2006, p. 278).

“Things That Will Kill You” (n = 20) depicted activities that could affect life expectancy, including diets, alcohol and tobacco, and exercise. The grouping also included hobbies and examples of human traits (e.g., A cat lies on the autopsy table. Cause of death? Curiosity).

“Assisted Suicide” (n = 23) peaked between 1997 and 1998 and included all cartoons relating to Jack Kevorkian and the debate about self-determination and the right to die. One shows a Boy Scout helping an old woman across the street with the caption “I also do suicides” (from 1998; Mankoff, 2006, p. 310). Another shows an elderly couple buying gas with the caption, “Yes, Oregon’s lovely, but we’re just here for the suicide” (from 1998; Mankoff, 2006,p. 163). Lastly, a doctor is fielding phone calls in his office; the caption is, “Before we try assisted suicide, Mrs. Rose, let’s give the aspirin a chance” (from 1997; Mankoff, 2006. p. 647).

“Personification of Death” (n = 38) included a subtheme of “Bargaining with Death.” The main theme included representations of death with human attributes, such as the Grim Reaper. Examples are the Grim Reaper sitting in a bar talking to another man; the caption reads, “Sometimes I give myself the creeps” (from 2005; Mankoff, 2006. p. 28). The subtheme involved people negotiating for more time to live. Many of the cartoons in this theme show the Grim Reaper standing at someone’s door as he or she tries to negotiate his or her way out of dying. For example, one such caption read, “Couldn’t I do a couple of hundred hours of community service instead?” (from 1990; Mankoff, 2006. p. 46). This can be seen as the legacy of death (Elgee, 2003), that we are all its slaves.

“Punishment” (n = 55) included the subtheme of “Aggression.” Cartoons placed under the main category contained aspects related to suffering, such as people in Hell agonizing over pain. Many themes related to Hell included lawyers and writers. One cartoon shows people entering Hell with a sign by the entrance that reads, “Authors must be with their agents!” (from 1991; Mankoff, 2006. p. 736). The subtheme included depictions of murder, suicide, and domestic violence resulting in death. One shows movers moving a piano, a man dead on the floor, and a woman saying “I liked it better on top of my husband” (from 1995; Mankoff, 2006. p. 347).

“Finality” (n = 58) peaked during the period 1994–2000 and encompassed cartoons related to the final moments of life, including last words, actions, and confessions. Many of these cartoons show deathbed scenes where the family is gathered (typically with clergy present) and final thoughts are shared. For example, captions associated with this picture include, “Promise me, son, that you’ll never have anything to do with publishing” (from 1996; Mankoff, 2006, p. 368) and “And don’t go auctioning off my stuff” (from 1996; Mankoff, 2006, p. 157).

“Meaning of Life and Death” (n = 60) included a subtheme of the “Triviality of Life or Death.” Cartoons placed under the main theme contained depictions of philosophical statements, the circle of life, and an acceptance of death. One cartoon shows a man working on his computer and talking to his wife. He says, “If we take a late retirement and an early death, we’ll just squeak by” (from 2003; Mankoff, 2006, p. 459). Cartoons placed under the subtheme made light of deadly situations and included inconsistent statements and actions. For example, two doctors stand at a dying man’s bedside as one doctor says to the man, “So, could we have all your stuff after you die?” with the caption “Doctors without Boundaries” (from 2003; Mankoff, 2006, p. 321). Another shows a man in hospital admissions and the clerk says “Fill out this tag and attach it to your big toe” (from 2001; Mankoff, 2006, p. 544).

“Memorialization” (n = 128) included a subtheme of “Funerals.” The main theme involved cartoons depicting tombstones, the scattering of ashes, and obituaries, whereas the subtheme included graveyard humor and funeral gatherings; for example, two tattooed and pierced men with Mohawks are looking into a casket and visible at the head of the casket is a spiky Mohawk and the caption reads, “You’ve got to admit, he looks good” (from 1994; Mankoff, 2006, p. 364).

“Afterlife” (n = 206) included three subthemes: “Judgment,” “Postdeath,” and “Taking It with You.” The main theme involved cartoons relating to Heaven—such as one showing two people in heaven wearing black robes, wings, and sunglasses talking to an angel in white; the caption: “We’re from Manhattan” (from 2001; Mankoff, 2006, p. 396). The subtheme of “Judgment” contained depictions of entry into heaven or initiation into hell. All of these cartoons depicted either St. Peter at the gates of heaven or the devil at the gates of hell. One shows a man at the gates of hell standing at a podium with the devil and the devil is saying, “And, if you don’t have an attorney, we have millions of them” (from 2003; Mankoff, 2006, p. 11). Another shows a man being greeted at the gates of heaven with St. Peter saying, “I’d like to congratulate you on dying with dignity” (from 1997; Mankoff, 2006, p. 446). The subtheme of “Postdeath” included representations of human life carried into the afterlife. For example, a group of angels are talking and one says, “Does anyone else’s robe say ‘Hyatt’?” (from 2005; Mankoff, 2006, p. 636). Cartoons representing the theme “Taking It with You” involved earthly pleasures and objects in relation to life after death. One cartoon shows a man on his deathbed with the caption, “True, I can’t take it with me, but I can take the access codes to it” (from 1998; Mankoff, 2006, p. 418).”

newyorker_death

Image: The New Yorker

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Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: Times New Roman may be funnier than Arial, but why does Comic Sans make me want to kill myself?

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