There are so many issues in play this morning that I am a bit dazed. The glorious weather continues, and it feels good to be alive and crashing around at the farm. I don’t know what to think about the Kings beating the Blackhawks to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals. Do you?

The most important are the outbreak of Perestroika, if not outright Glasnost at Refuge Farm, and the beauty of life in the country. I am going to steer away from the topic, though, and allow the diplomats continue to work the issues over wine and cheese. I can tell you that free trade and good will are already manifest- the products from the garden are already delicious- shallots and spinach with some grated cheese and balsamic vinaigrette.

The land is good, if you treat it properly.

There was a vigorous back and forth this morning among the Usual Suspects about the President’s new initiative on Carbon Dioxide limits and coal-fired electrical plants. I am not going to get into that one again, since (sigh) this has devolved to the point that facts don’t seem to matter much. Even if you agree that temperatures have increased a bit over the last century (I do), and that people have something to do with it (we have) and that CO2 has increased (though the temperatures don’t seem to be reacting to it much), there isn’t much common ground on whether or not there is a crisis worth immediately sacrificing a key component of the national power grid with only wishful thinking to replace it.

Something this big should have a plan- and that plan should include clean nuclear technology, though that seems taboo.

The fact remains that 111 of the last 114 computer model simulations have either moderately or disastrously overstated the actual measured trend in temperature suggests we need better observations and certainly better models to understand what is going on.

Then there is the political response to the release of the only American POW held in Afghanistan. Or Pakistan, as it turns out in the case of PFC Bergdahl. I resent the fact that his return is being treated as a political football.

I always felt that if I got bagged, someone would be coming to get me back. We pride ourselves on leaving no one behind.

If it is true that he wandered off on his own, leaving his weapon, helmet and flack jacket behind, so be it. He is back. He may not be a hero, but he was a soldier. The fact that others may have died trying to get him back means something, too. But it doesn’t mean we should not have tried.

But for the record, the five Taliban leaders we released from GTMO ought to go on a very special list and if they even think about rejoining the fight, we ought to put them down.

Copyright 2014 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
Twitter: @jayare303