Quote of the Day

Take all your dukes and marquises and earls and viscounts, pack them into one chamber, call it the House of Lords to satisfy their pride and then strip it of all political power. It's a solution so perfectly elegant and preposterous that only the British could have managed it.
- Charles Krauthammer

Quote of the Day

Everyone takes the limits of his own vision for the limits of the world.
- Arthur Schopenhauer

Quote of the Day

Nor is the people’s judgement always true
The most may err as grossly as the few
- John Dryden

Quote of the Day

Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge where there is no river.
Nikita Khrushchev

Quote of the Day

My prayer to God is a very short one: "O Lord, make mine enemies ridiculous." God has granted it.
- Voltaire

Quote of the Day

I'm not the type to get ulcers. I give them.
- Ed Koch

Quote of the Day

The purpose of a tax cut is to leave more money where it belongs: in the hands of the working men and working women who earned it in the first place.
- Bob Dole

Quote of the Day

Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it.
- Samuel Johnson

Quote of the Day

If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be "meetings".
- Dave Barry

Quote of the Day

The book you don't read can't help.
- Jim Rohn

Quote of the Day

Life consists not in holding good cards but in playing those you hold well.
- Henry Wheeler Shaw

Quote of the Day

When the tyranny of the state is combined with the hypocrisy of the church, you have a modern example of the twin vultures that have devoured man, and his rights, throughout the ages.
- Joseph Lewis

Quote of the Day

There is a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot.
Steven Wright

Quote of the Day

There are many who dare not kill themselves for fear of what the neighbors will say.
- Cyril Connolly

Quote of the Day

When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.
- George Bernhard Shaw

Quote of the Day

Middle age is the time of life that a man first notices his wife.
- Richard Willard Armour

Quote of the Day

The public is a fool.
- Alexander Pope

Quote of the Day

He that will not sail till all dangers are over must never put to sea.
- Thomas Fuller

Quote of the Day

We’re more popular than Jesus Christ now. I don’t know which will go first; rock and roll or Christianity.
- John Lennon

Quote of the Day

The family seems to have two predominant functions: to provide warmth and love in time of need and to drive each other insane.
- Donald G. Smith

Quote of the Day

The man with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds.
- Mark Twain

Quote of the Day

If we had no faults, we should not take so much pleasure in noticing them in others.
- De La Rochefoucauld

Quote of the Day

To be great is to be misunderstood.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Quote of the Day

People who have given us their complete confidence believe that they have a right to ours. The inference is false, a gift confers no rights.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

Quote of the Day

Political correctness is tyranny with manners.
- Charlton Heston

Quote of the Day

Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause.
- George Washington

Quote of the Day

Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
- P. J. O'Rourke

Quote of the Day

If you would stand well with a great mind, leave him with a favorable impression of yourself; if with a little mind, leave him with a favorable impression of himself.
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Quote of the Day

The right to be let alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom.
- William Orville Douglas

Quote of the Day

Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.
- Henry David Thoreau

Quote of the Day

Open markets offer the only realistic hope of pulling billions of people in developing countries out of abject poverty, while sustaining prosperity in the industrialized world.
- Kofi Annan

Quote of the Day

A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.
- G. Gordon Liddy

Quote of the Day

In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that’s a really good argument; my position is mistaken," and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn’t happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
- Carl Sagan

Quote of the Day

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
- P.J. O'Rourke

Quote of the Day

Christ died for our sins. Dare we make his martyrdom meaningless by not committing them?
- Jules Feiffer

Quote of the Day

An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens.
- Thomas Jefferson

Quote of the Day

Treaties are like roses and young girls. They last while they last.
- Charles de Gaulle

Quote of the Day

It is an all-too-human frailty to suppose that a favorable wind will blow forever.
- Rick Bode

Quote of the Day

Capital punishment turns the state into a murderer. But imprisonment turns the state into a gay dungeon-master.
- Emo Philips

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Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise.
- James Madison

Quote of the Day

Never try to outstubborn a cat.
- Robert A. Heinlein

Quote of the Day

Homosexuality is God’s way of insuring that the truly gifted aren’t burdened with children.
- Sam Austin

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Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died.
- Erma Bombeck

Quote of the Day

I can sympathize with everything, except suffering.
- Oscar Wilde

Quote of the Day

My loathings are simple: stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music.
- Vladimir Nabokov

Quote of the Day

The path of least resistance makes all rivers, and some men, crooked.
- Napoleon Hill

Quote of the Day

Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd and bloody religion that has ever infected the world.
- Voltaire

Quote of the Day

In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king... and the one-eyed man with the high heels and the feather boa is queen.
- Dr. Squid

Quote of the Day

A reputation for good judgment, for fair dealing, for truth, and for rectitude, is itself a fortune.
- Henry Ward Beecher

Quote of the Day

Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.
- Ayn Rand

Quote of the Day

He who dares not offend cannot be honest.
- Thomas Paine

Quote of the Day

Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn't drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, "It is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver."
- Jack Handy

Quote of the Day

There is no good in arguing with the inevitable. The only argument available with an east wind is to put on your overcoat.
- James Russel Lowell

Quote of the Day

Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and tortuous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we call it the word of a demon than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind; and, for my part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel.
- Thomas Paine

Quote of the Day

Go, and never darken my towels again.
- Groucho Marx

Quote of the Day

Nothing is work unless you'd rather be doing something else.
- George Halas

Quote of the Day

‘DON’T THINK OF IT AS DYING’, said Death. ‘JUST THINK OF IT AS LEAVING EARLY TO AVOID THE RUSH.’
- Terry Pratchett

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My time has not yet come either; some are born posthumously.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

Quote of the Day

Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass.
- Maya Angelou

Quote of the Day

The first recipe for happiness is: Avoid too lengthy meditation on the past.
- Andre Maurois

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It requires only two things to win credit for a miracle: a charlatan and a number of silly women.
- Marquis de Sade

Quote of the Day

Miss Wormwood: What state do you live in?
Calvin: Denial.
Miss Wormwood: I don’t suppose I can argue with that...
- Bill Watterson, American cartoonist "Calvin and Hobbes"

Quote of the Day

I have had enough experience in all my years, and have read enough of the past, to know that advice to grandchildren is usually wasted.
- Harry S. Truman

Quote of the Day

Satire is focused bitterness.
- Leo C. Rosten

Quote of the Day

The world moves, and ideas that were once good are not always good.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Quote of the Day

The best way to keep children home is to make the home atmosphere pleasant - and let the air out of the tires.
- Dorothy Parker

Quote of the Day

Our bombs are smarter than the average high school student. At least they can find Kuwait.
- A. Whitney Brown

Quote of the Day

It is a curious thing that God learned Greek when he wished to turn author - and that he did not learn it better.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

Quote of the Day

I’m tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin-deep. That’s deep enough. What do you want - an adorable pancreas?
- Jean Kerr

A highly unsatisfactory return to the Archaeological Museum

Thursday I spent a full seven Euros on a ticket to the splendid National Archaeological Museum, where I'd spent some informative and entertaining hours in December. I'd come back with a specific goal: To take pictures of the naked satyr that I now knew was in the museum's possession. In December I'd had no idea, and possibly strolled right by it, but this time I was alert.

I searched and searched like a man lost but refusing to ask for directions. Finally, after passing the same nekkid bronze statue for the third or fourth time, I broke down and asked at the information desk. The first attendant did not understand the word "satyr", which I'm pretty sure COMES from Greek, but the second one understood what I was talking about and cheerfully informed me that this particular section of the museum was closed.

Upon further inquiry she had no idea WHY it was closed off, nor WHEN it would open again. She then explained that the information department were not... uhmm... informed about these things, they just happened. I got the feeling even the very existence of the museum was something upon which her administrative branch was not ready to make any pronouncements, in the absence of instructions from some higher authority.

Some pics, most of them slightly blurry, since the museum did not allow flash photography.

Some old figurines. Like, really, really old.


Possibly some vessels containing sumfin'.


This looks like a genetic experiment gone horribly wrong. Possibly it involved a raccoon, a tiger and some household objects.


The Emperor Augustus. He can haz cheeseburger.


This young fella's had all the cheeseburgers he can stand.


No hands, no cheeseburgers. Nice nipple, though.

Mycenae

Wednesday, I again braved the sheer lunacy that is Athens traffic to go south, to the Peloponnese peninsula; to ancient Mycenae to be more precise. Once there, I could not muster the strength to climb all the way to the top, so my photographic loot is less than complete. Still, the surroundings are beautiful, as is most of Greece.

The citadel. Once, this city held 30,000 people.


Looks a lot like California, right?


There be purdy mountains.


Lots of 'em in fact.


The sea.


The Cyclopean wall from around 1,350 BC. So called because legend had it, the builders of the city had employed cyclopes to make it.


The famous Lion Gate. Built around 1,250 BC if I'm not mistaken. The two lions on top have long since lost their heads.


Just inside the gate is the granary.


The road not taken.


Women had a much more active position in old Mycenae than in later day classic Athens, where they were largely confined to their homes. Also, the art itself is clearly influenced by the Minoan culture, with whom they traded.


There be gold in dem dar hills. The first civilization at Mycenae collapsed sometime in the 12th century BC; the reason why is not known; possibly an invasion by the "Sea Peoples".


Solid handcraft.

Quote of the Day

The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.
- William H. Borah

Quote of the Day

Always be nice to those younger than you, because they are the ones who will be writing about you.
- Cyril Connolly

Delphi

Tuesday morning, I went down to the AVIS office to pick up a rental car and do some sightseeing. This was complicated by the fact that I had slept for about 2 hours that night. Still, I bit my teeth and resisted the urge to nap during the afternoon and had a good night before going to Mycenae on Wednesday.

I had ordered a GPS gadget and managed to not get lost more than a couple of times. Traffic out of and in to Athens was insane and it took me the better part of an hour to get out of town Tuesday morning. The speed limits on the motorways are a pleasant 100-130 km/h (appx. 65-80 mph), and most of the vehicles will happily cruise along at speeds upward of 30 km/h (20mph) faster than that. On the other hand, once you get off the motorways, the rural routes can be slow and will take you through villages with very narrow streets, sometimes even with two-way traffic and big tourist buses doing their best not to drag whole buildings to the ground in their wake.

My destination for Tuesday was Delphi, where there was an oracle in ancient times, and where they would hold games every four years. The oracle was an elderly woman chosen from local peasant stock who would go into a trance; her ravings were then "interpreted" into ambiguous statements (in verse) by the priests. There has been speculation that the trance was due to toxic fumes coming out of the ground, but nothing has been proven for certain.

Thousands of "prophecies" of varying historical accuracy are known from Delphi; perhaps the most famous is the answer supposed to have been given to emperor Julian the Apostate when he tried to reawaken the cult as part of his (sadly unsuccessful) attempt to crush Christianity - here in a translation by English poet A. C. Swinburne:
Tell the king, on earth has fallen the glorious dwelling,
And the watersprings that spake are quenched and dead.
Not a cell is left the God, no roof, no cover;
In his hand the prophet laurel flowers no more.

The site is located on a hillside with majestic views over the Pleistos valley.


Just lovely.


The mountain above is known as Mount Parnassus, and is heavy with mythological significance.


The Sibyl rock, where another medium (not related to the cult of Apollo) is said to have given her prophecies.


The stadium.


The temple of Apollon, which was the center for the whole building complex. The Delphi area was said to have been decreed "the navel of the earth" by Zeus himself.


The views towards the west and the port city of Kirrha. Not so shabby.


That's the Mediterranean sea down there.


Nice.


The area just above the Castalian spring.


There is a museum just west of the ancient site. It has separate ticket sales from the archaeological digs, but you get a discount iffin you buy access to both.


Lots of loot has been found and put behind glass.


This is the most famous item found; the Charioteer of Delphi was buried by an earthquake around 373 BC if I remember correctly, and thus preserved till modern times. Most bronze items of any size in ancient Greece were blatantly stolen by the Romans and brought to Italy for the perusal and enjoyment of the filthy rich.


Kitteh! Naturally, the area is teeming with homeless cats. This little angel was so trusting, she remained still while I manuvered my fat ass onto the chair to the right.


At first, I thought these were spider nests, and shuddered. But the bartender at the sports bar in Athens said they were made by butterflies.

Quote of the Day

Vae victis.
[Woe to the vanquished.]
- Livy

Quote of the Day

Tell the king, on earth has fallen the glorious dwelling,
and the watersprings that spake are quenched and dead.
Not a cell is left the God, no roof, no cover;
in his hand the prophet laurel flowers no more.
- Algernon Charles Swinburne "The Last Oracle"

Quote of the Day

The fools in this world make about as much trouble as the wicked do.
- Henry Wheeler Shaw

Quote of the Day

Heaven, n.: A place where the wicked cease from troubling you with talk of their personal affairs, and the good listen with attention while you expound your own.
- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil’s Dictionary"

Quote of the Day

Before borrowing money from a friend it's best to decide which you need most.
- Joe Moore

Quote of the Day

The only way a woman can ever reform a man is by boring him so completely that he loses all possible interest in life.
- Oscar Wilde

Quote of the Day

Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more.
- Mark Twain

Quote of the Day

I love good, creditable acquaintance; I love to be the worst of the company.
- Jonathan Swift

Quote of the Day

Don’t sweat the petty things, and don’t pet the sweaty things.
- George Carlin

Quote of the Day

Instead of loving your enemies, treat your friends a little better.
- Edgar Watson Howe

Quote of the Day

Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other sects?
- James Madison

Quote of the Day

Love is merely a madness.
- Shakespeare

Quote of the Day

The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has not been caught.
- Henry L. Mencken

Quote of the Day

No man has ever ruled other men for their own good.
- George D. Herron

Quote of the Day

Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.
- Redd Foxx

Quote of the Day

The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.
- W. R. Wallace

Quote of the Day

The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else.
- Fredric Bastiat

Quote of the Day

During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution.
- James Madison

Quote of the Day

When a girl marries, she exchanges the attentions of many men for the inattention of one.
- Helen Rowland

Quote of the Day

In the carriages of the past you can't go anywhere.
- Maxim Gorky

Quote of the Day

Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right.
- Isaac Asimov

Quote of the Day

All living souls welcome whatsoever they are ready to cope with; all else they ignore, or pronounce to be monstrous and wrong, or deny to be possible.
- George Santayana

Quote of the Day

A minute's success pays the failure of years.
- Robert Browning

Itinerary for the US

So, I'm off to the US again this summer. I had initially thought about driving up the west coast and spend some time crisscrossing Oregon and Washington, but decided instead to go east for a few days.

I'm flying out to LA in the wee hours of Monday, June 22. Tuesday I'm off to pick up some friends in Apple Valley, then it's several days of sightseeing in Death Valley, Mt Whitney, Yosemite etc, before spending Friday evening and Saturday with other friends in San Diego.

Sunday 28th I set off to Phoenix, then on to Albuquerque for two days and Santa Fe for two days. I'm probably going to drive up into the mountains east of Albuquerque to get some pics and see some purdy nature. Up in Santa Fe I'm definitely driving north to see the Bandelier National Monument, which is an ancient Pueblo site. Santa Fe is in all likelyhood as far east as I'm going to get on this trip.

Then it's west again to Farmington, through some purdy national and state forest areas. I may take a quick detour to Taos, but I haven't made up my mind yet. On my second day in Farmington, imma drive up to see Durango, Colorado and then the Pueblo archaeological sites at Mesa Verde and Canyon of the Ancients. For those who've kept track, that's the 4th of July.

On the 5th, I'll drive through some very purdy mountain scenery in Utah, probably just about the opposite route of where I drove in late 2011. I'm staying the night in St George, then it's onwards to Carson City, Nevada for two days.

After Carson I'm heading north to Yreka. A little uncertain which route I'll take from there, but I'm heading over the hills and through some nice forest areas to Eureka, then back again farther south to Red Bluff. Then it's on to Sacramento for two days of sightseeing.

That week I will begin by driving to San Francisco, where I've been offered lodgings for a couple of days, then it's on to my friends in Fresno. Friday, I'll hand in my car there, then we'll all drive down to lodgings just outside Sequoia National Park. Here, I'll meet up with my San Diego crew and we're going to continue up Sequoia, Kings Canyon NP, Yosemite NP, Lake Tahoe and all the way to Crater Lake in Oregon.

Then it's on to beautiful Twin Falls, Idaho and then the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. Yes, it takes a Norwegian lardass to drag my 'merican friends off to see the good stuff in their own country. After Yellowstone we're doing the Beartooth Highway, then all the way up to Glacier NP. Then it's down again to Utah, including a quick trip to see Zion and Bryce National Parks, cuz when we were there in December 2013, my friends were very eager to see it again in summer.

Anyways, the journey ends in Los Angeles, whence I fly out on August 3, landing in Oslo on Tuesday, August 4. Sounds like a good trip, yeah?

Quote of the Day

When we lose the right to be different, we lose the privilege to be free.

-Charles Evans Hughes

Quote of the Day

Church: A place in which gentlemen who have never been to Heaven brag about it to people who will never get there.
- H.L. Mencken