THE LEGAL SYSTEM ON DISPLAY...
...the Casey Anthony Trial is now 40 days old...and counting...
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The defense is now making its case in the Casey Anthony Trial (I probably don't have to tell ya, but she stands accused of killing her little daughter, Caylee.) Up front, I'll admit I'm not watching this phase as closely as I watched the Prosecution's. But it's easy to see what the tactics of the Defense Team are: Throw anything at the wall and see what sticks. Defense attorney Jose Baez has been threatened with Contempt of Court for not having had his witnesses deposed according to the Deadline established by the Judge. Mr. Baez will most likely be subjected to the will of the court after the trial's over. He might even find himself disbarred. But that's off in the future, not now.

Meantime, Casey Anthony informed the court that she wanted to have the trial halted because she said she was "incompetent to stand trial". Oh yeah? She's in constant communication with her lawyers, "assisting in her own defense". So the judge had three mental-health professionals analyze her behavior, and the end result is, she is able to continue to stand trial. Meantime, various Expert witnesses from various forensic fields have been paraded to court for the Defense, all trying to negate the forays into the case which the Prosecution's witnesses tried to establish a week and a half ago, if not two weeks ago.

Not Exactly Mother
Of The Year

I've been reading all the reports and watching all the shows concerning this trial, but one thing that hasn't been brought up, is that the last time anything negative was heard in court regarding the Defendant happened a long ago. The Defense is managing to put a whole lot of time in-between the Prosecution's case and the eventual end of the trial. I heard a lot of shocking things from the Prosecution, but it's all rather numbed-down at this point in time. The fur is really gonna fly come the Final Arguments. Like a train wreck, this whole thing is hard to look away from.

Not Exactly Broadcaster
Of The Year

Nancy Grace (pictured at left) has built a TV Career by riding this case like a deranged cowgirl since Casey Anthony was first tossed in jail three years ago. I am all for reporting the facts and sharing opinions, but Nancy really takes the cake. She brings on a guest, spends ages asking a long, drawn-out question to the guest being interviewed, tailoring the question's answer to conform her own viewpoints. When Nancy asks for more information from her own correspondents, she runs them down on the air (The Zenith of Unprofessionalism); if the report doesn't totally satisfy her, she harangues them some more until she gets what she wants. Tonight, she went from accusatory (she's especially good at that) to almost crying, "why is no one thinking of this little girl?" Nancy, you're a Mom; I get that. Casey Anthony is in a whole lot of trouble; I get that too. But what you do is harsh, amateurish, and shouldn't hide behind the guise of being a news program.

I don't like the way Nancy presents her subjects. She operates from a bully pulpit. She harangues and belittles many of her guests, shouting, shouting, shouting, talking over her guests' answers, framing her questions to fit her opinions, after which she brings on some more staffers, all the while yelling, gesticulating and virtually screaming at them, too. Nancy Grace is Harsh. She used to be a prosecutor. That by itself is okay. But she's a Pit Bull in a Skirt. Unprofessional in almost every way by broadcast standards.

My take on all of this is that Casey Anthony is Guilty of Something. Will she get the Death Penalty? She might. I'd say she has a 40-60 chance. An exact cause of death hasn't been established, so the Prosecution has had to assemble countless exhibit items in a rather delicate framework, hoping that the Defense won't wreck the structure with all kinds of desperate stuff. In my last post regarding this trial, I said "things are gonna get nasty"...and I'll change that now, to "nastiER". The whole thing is quite a spectacle. The legal system on display. Finally, if you think you've had a bad day, you could always be Casey Anthony. She's not exactly having a lot of fun these days.

At the end of every show, Nancy Grace alters her tone drastically, assuming a low, hushed, whispery tone of voice and thanks her audience for watching, bidding adieu with "good-bye, friend". I don't trust people who can change on a dime like that. It's been accepted that Casey Anthony's family is dysfunctional; I'll bet Nancy Grace is a bit dysfunctional, too.

DIGITAL CAMERA TO THE RESCUE...
...just when I thought I didn't have anything to post...

This first photo was taken at sunset a few nights ago at Bastendorff Beach, 6 miles south of Coos Bay, Oregon. As the sun descended, I saw an "extra" illumination on the sun's left side (shown in this photo) as well as one on the Sun's right (not in the picture). In short, this photo depicts a sort of light image accompanying the Sun . Maybe some sort of atmospheric 'ring' which means something weather-wise...?

Taken at Bastendorff Beach, it's obvious someone went to an awful lot of work to construct this elaborate castle of sand; the architect just had to be a kid (or kids) with all of the energy us older people wish we still had. However, even the best sand castles will succumb when high tide returns. Jimi Hendrix once sang, "Castles made of sand...fall into the sea...eventually".


Here's a photo I took at Cape Arago State Park; even though I've been to the Cape quite a few times, I'd never ventured to this particular site, which was taken at one of the park's picnic areas, looking southward. This photo gives you an idea of how large some of the cliffs around here are. There's a trail from here that zigzags down to the ocean and when I get crazy enough, I'll descend it...with camera, of course...

This photo looks almost 100 feet straight down. What am I, Nuts!?!? I have Vertigo! And my balance isn't very good, either. This was as close as I dared get to the edge. Face Your Fears, they say. All I know is, my gut was tied in knots. I was leaning against a tree trunk so I could keep my balance. Why is it, that when you get close to the edge of something, you feel as if you were getting pulled in? Or down?

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It's been Nine, Nueve, 9 days since my last post. And I'm not going to let this blog die without a fight. Although, the great weather and ultra-long days do lessen the frequency of what I do here. But that's okay; both you and I can enjoy these photos when the winter winds come a-blowin'.

SHE (allegedly) DID A BAD, BAD THING...
...trials and tribulations happening in the Sunshine State...
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"THE WHOLE WORLD'S WATCHING!!!" yelled protesters at 1968's Democratic Convention in Chicago. That same phrase could sum up the Casey Anthony Trial which is underway in sunny Orlando, Florida, although Casey isn't seeing a whole lot of sun these days. Going to court can be a real bummer, huh? Casey Anthony allegedly put duct tape over her three-year-old daughter Caley's mouth and stuffed her in the car's trunk; Caley allegedly died there and Casey's alleged to have driven her friends around with her dead daughter in that trunk of her car for a few days before dumping the body in a wooded area near her house. The jawbone, which is normally separated from the skull when bodies are dumped, was (theoretically) held in place by Duct Tape near where the skull was found. If convicted, Casey could get the death penalty for killing her daughter. And mobs of people compete for seats at the trial early, every morning. It's crazy.

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If you enter "Casey Anthony Raw Video" into a search engine, you'll find sites where you can watch, uncut, unedited tapes of the trial. It's time-consuming stuff for sure, but it provides a fascinating portrayal of Florida's well-oiled Legal System in Action. Back in 2008, CSI had collected hundreds of items, and the Prosecution spent all last week, and will spend all this week, absolutely burying the Defense with Evidence. Casey's only recourse, short of being found innocent? She could always allege that she had an inadequate defense, since Chief Defense Attorney Jose Baez seems to trip all over himself and makes rookie mistakes in the courtroom, according to reports I've read. I'm really looking forward to the case the Defense will put on next week. I wanna see what those Sleazeball attorneys pull out of the muck. I'm afraid things are gonna get nasty. By the way, did you notice the way I used the word "allegedly" in this post? Could I be a lawyer too?

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THAT DOES NOT COMPUTE: I think I have what is known as the "blacksmith's touch". I dropped my computer a few weeks ago and it quit picking up the Wireless Internet signal. So I had to buy a gizmo which plugged into my computer's USB port that picks up the signal. Well, that gizmo broke this week when I bumped my computer into the side of my La-Z-Boy recliner. The "blacksmith's touch", I tell ya. So for a while, I had to use an Ethernet cable to get online. Last night, a popup with my connections popped up (as popups are prone to do), and voila, there was my Wireless Internet, which I clicked on, so now I'm Wireless Again! (cue up Andy Williams' version of "Born Free"...)

SWEET, SWEET IRONY: I don't follow politics a whole lot, but there's this congressman whose last name is Weiner. He's sent pictures of his crotch-bulge to a few young girls, and now he's elected to go and seek professional help, while Congress is doing its best to convert his temporary absence a more permanent one .As in "unelectable". Are you in doubt as in how to pronounce his name? Just sing this phrase: "Oh, I'd Love to be an OSCAR MEYER _________".

NO, I DIDN'T INHALE: Menthol or not, lots of smokers have a tough time quitting. No, I don't smoke. But I've worn dentures for the last 3 years, and if food or milk gets trapped in the upper plate it can really leave a bad taste, so I combat that with Tic-Tac Breath Mints (White), and I feel like I've become addicted to them. Something about the menthol. Although, I can quit any time I want. I Really can. But don't go to 7-11 to get your white Tic-Tacs; the 7-11 corporation makes their own white breath mints. And they're not as good. Although they, too, contain a lot of menthol. I found that menthol actually helped me get through a recent allergy attack. Ahhhhhh, Minty!

THIS YEAR'S SEATTLE MARINERS: Ichiro is shown hitting, among other things, a Tic-Tac (white) breath mint, among other things in one of this year's nifty Mariners promo spots. He's been having some trouble this year with baseballs, though. His batting average is down, he hasn't hit even One home run yet this season, but he's working on it, I guess. Meanwhile, this year's squad has played some lousy baseball, but have played very good baseball too. Their record reflects that; they're still hovering around the .500 mark so far this year. The Pitching, oveall, is quite solid. If we could get our hitters going, maybe we could get somewhere. But this year's team is so much better than last year's. They hang tough in close games and often find ways to win. I don't care about the M's going to the Series (tho it would be nice), but at least they're Respectable.

WHOSE REALITY?: There are so many Reality shows on these days that they're driving me nuts. Most of them feature people screaming at, and hitting, other people. I won't watch the "Repo" series, I won't watch "Hard Core Pawn", and when I see the "Bad Girls Club" coming up next, I run for the remote. I won't watch "Cops" because even though I respect 'em, I don't like 'em. And I'm tired of "Dog, The Bounty Hunter", although I still watch it sometimes. My favorites are "Ice-Road Truckers", "Pawn Stars" and "American Pickers", although the skinny guy with the big nose bugs me sometimes. Each of those shows are informative, and feature engaging characters and a good sense of humor. I must admit I used to watch Anna Nicole Smith's show, 'cos it was so stupid, and the reality show, "Family Plots" that featured a family who owns a Mortuary. Creepy, huh?

A THOUSAND WORDS?: To those of you who've read the above muckraking, here's a couple little pieces of Eye Candy (without Menthol) for ya's. The South Coast of Oregon: No heatwaves here...if you click , the pics and they'll get really huge...



A fishing boat enters Coos Bay Harbor.
I'd imagine the crew was really looking
forward to getting off the rough windy sea.

Sunset on the bay. The Ocean is
just beyond a narrow strip of land,
known as the North Spit.

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In my last post, about allergies, I found I'd repeated myself; I posted something similar a couple years ago, so I really did try to keep this post fresh, vivacious and calorie-free. I'm not quite ready to use old age as an excuse for not remembering what I'd posted before!

 Ah, yes, Springtime. When a young man's fancy turns to...AH-CHOO!!! AH-CHOO!!! AH-CHOO!!! AH-CHOO!!! Most people, when they see a grassy meadow or a clump of Shady Trees, think, "oh, how nice this is; I think I'll just lay on the grass, in the shade and take it easy". Me, I go running for cover. I face an opponent that I can't see. It's an airborne opponent, and I can't get away from it. When I used to live in North Idaho, Hayfever season, for me, ran from about Mid-April thru Mid-July. Down here on the Oregon Coast where the vegetation is much more lush, Hayfever Season is shorter (Mid-June thru Mid-July), but it's more intense with all of the plants blooming at once.

Pollen wreaks havoc with my system. It gets into the corners of my eyes, the eyes start watering, the nose starts running, my nasal cavities begin to burn, the body throws its mucous-producing capacity to High Overdrive, and before you know it, I'm a basket case. Several times during the last week, it's gotten so bad that I had to take a cloth, soak it in cold water, then cover my eyes and nose with it so I could breathe without any more pollen spores from getting in. That, after taking an anti-histamine which takes a couple of hours to take effect. By the time I remove the cold cloth from my face, I'm totally spent. I have no more bodily fluids to sneeze out, and the anti-histamine leaves me with a sort-of "stoned" feeling. Far out, man. The cold-cloth treatment cools me down; my Hayfever is just that--a fever--and the drugs kick in sooner or later.

I've tried every hayfever drug under the sun. It used to be easy to find what I needed, until all the Meth-cookers out there began buying up all the potent hayfever drugs to use in their cooking vats! So nowadays, in a lot of states, Sudafed and other such medications are kept behind a locked cabinet door. In Oregon, the only way I can get Sudafed is by prescription. So this is a situation where people who Need the Drug can't readily Get the Drug because of all the damn meth-heads out there! Luckily, I had a few days' worth of Sudafed from my last prescription (a year ago) and the pills appear to Still Be Potent. I've tried Claritin and all the other over-the-counter medications. Nothing Works. I need a good strong anti-histamine to dull my senses so I CAN'T sneeze. Either that or a detachable nose and sinus cavity!

When I'm in the middle of a hayfever attack, I know it's gonna last for at least another two hours. There used to be an old Dristan commercial that said something along the lines of, "Taking Dristan is like taking your Sinuses to Arizona!" Well, residents of Arizona, I'm sure you've got a good state, but I don't wanna go there 'cos I don't like Deserts! Sorry 'bout that. Sometimes the cool ocean breezes help during a hayfever attack, but there's beach grass on the Beach (a good place for Beach Grass, right?), and the last time I was at the Ocean during a hayfever attack, I still couldn't stop sneezing. Think of the effect on your body that sneezing 10 or 15 times in a minute can cause. I've literally thrown my neck out sneezing.

I'm not looking for any kind of grandiose degree of sympathy by posting this. I just want to make people out there realize that Hayfever is nothing to sneeze about! Hayfever can get serious; I've felt ill after my worst hayfever attacks. So what makes me sneeze? As near as I can tell, it's the pollen that escapes when Grass Grows Tall. My neighbors last year didn't mow their lawn until July, and I sneezed my head off! (Well, almost) So what was one of my biggest chores when I was a kid? You got it, Mowing The Lawn. I pay the neighbor kid to do that these days. Most of all, an acute Hayfever Attack makes me feel frantic, helpless and just really awful. People used to tell me that I would Outgrow my Hayfever. WRONG! My first hayfever attack was in 1964, when I was ten. Our family moved from a big house, near the lake, to the northern part of town, which at that time, contained a lot of large grassy fields. And I began sneezing my face off. That's what it felt like.

This is one case in which Manners are Not Needed. There are those who say "bless you" every time they hear someone Sneeze. Those are the people who will go hoarse if they're around me for five minutes of a hayfever attack. It truly is an Assault on the Senses.