New Shutters in the Sunroom

I eschew personal stuff on this blog, preferring to concentrate on political and cultural observations, but I wanted to share some photos of the plantation shutters I had installed between the house and my sunroom (my favorite spot in the house, particularly during the depressing fall/winter months).

They open entirely, as you can see, to give me an enormous opening yet close to darken the inside when needed.

The roof of the sunroom is entirely glass and is about 550 sf.  That's my lovely wife in the bottom picture.

Showing the Romney/Ryan colors…

I picked up a sign, some bumper stickers and a button yesterday while making a donation to the cause.

You need to do whatever you can do, people!

About that "High Road"……

These days the “high road” is a treacherous one, increasingly difficult to negotiate. Oncoming traffic is generally reckless and contemptuous of previously agreed-upon rules of the road.

Be careful out there.

Romney/Ryan 2012

I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’m not particularly in love with Romney (I don't do the "cult of personality" thing), but I do think he’s a highly competent individual and as close to morally impeccable as you can be after 65 years on this Earth. Op research has been digging for years and all they could come up with is some story about his dog, in a carrier being strapped atop his car….I wish my list of misdeed were that short.

He has all of the tools to begin to repair our damaged economy and the experience to use those tools effectively. His professional life is one of success at pretty much everything he’s tried and, in his spare time, he seems to genuinely enjoy “serving his fellow man”. As I said on a different thread, disagreements on policy details are part of the process, but I can’t think of a more decent human being ever seeking the office.

Alas, history has a funny way of changing the landscape, as happened on 9/11/01. We’re one domestic terror attack from putting the economy back on simmer and foreign policy on the front burner. Few presidents come into office with experience in foreign policy, so on that, one just has to listen to what they say and determine where their core loyalties lie and how they will pursue those loyalties. Romney’s an adamant friend of Israel, check. He recognizes the policy implications, of China’s deplorable business behavior, check. He sees Russia as a geopolitical problem yet unresolved, check. He sees Iran, particularly a nuclear Iran as a dire threat to our security, check. I can’t project how Romney would handle any given crisis, no one can, but I’ve seen how Obama has handled the crises on his watch and (aside from the prolific drone strikes), I have not been pleased. He’s projected diplomatic weakness, looked like an appeaser to our enemies and lukewarm to our friends.

Again, I speak only for myself, but that’s why I’m foursquare behind Romney/Ryan.

A quick thought about Biden vs. Ryan

I’m sure that Biden’s schtick plays real well over a few beers in a union hall, but that’s a dying breed — literally and figuratively. The generational chasm in ideology was never more striking than it was last night.  Increasingly, the Republican ticket (despite Romney being substantially older than Obama) is looking like a shiny new iPhone 5 while the Democrat ticket resembles an 80s brick phone.