A society where law enforcement personnel shoot ordinary people on the street

It was a tragic event that a lady was shot by one of the ICE personnel in Minnesota. For news or report mentioning on that, there are always certain number of people pressing the smile or laughter button to those posts in Facebook. Not so many but 10 or 20% of the total. In addition to this tragedy, that sarcasm also surprises me a lot.

I wonder what they are thinking of that tragedy. A government officer murdered a civilian on a street. Are they drunken? They are so called MAGA people, aren't they? At least, they seem not to feel any pain or distress at the situation. They don't know they could be the next target for shooting.

The excuse ICE had made was "self defence" It was also terrible. It could never be ratified at all. In such a situation, how could an ICE shoot a civilian without any arm? A "law enforcement" member shooting ordinary people could never be excused. If anyone excuses that way, he/she should be a psychopath.

Now soverignty of a nation or independence of a people could be easily jeopardized with military power in the world. Hobb's world seems to appear in the world. It should be denied by any means for the next generation. 

I didn't expect to live on such a world. The generations of my parents and older have lived through the terrible world wars in the last century. We and younger generation should fight against the dictatorship based on populism and greedy capitalism. Or the mankind civilization may be perished with another world war. Those dictatorship leaders in the world, for our happiness, are in danger themselves and won't live too long. When the turmoil is settled down, we should empower and authorize such as the United Nations and progress disarmament in the world. A lot of people are dying with paucity of medical services in the world. We should spend the expenditure more for such purpose. Right of collective self defence and generalized deterrence are the only way for the next generation to survive in this world. Action of sarcasm should be denied.

Motet "Versa est in lectum" by Alonso Lobo

Last spring, I have had a great reunion with a good old friend of mine, a few years younger and one of the orchestra company in the med school days. I might have mentioned that before. 

He used to play violin at the orchestra and a usual member of small ensemble with me in it. I have first met him at a summer camp of the orchestra in Shinshu when he was a freshman. I heard a few good violinists had joined it. He was one of them. At the very first moment of seeing each other, he was playing a prelude of Well Tempered Klavier of Bach at a lobby. When I watched him playing it, he told me he had mastered it by himself possibly when I asked about that to him. He added it was not so difficult even for me and asked me if i would try it. That was the unforgettable first ever meeting with him. 

Knowing we had the same kind of taste for chamber music, we have played such as Clarinet Quintet by Brahms, the 1st piano trio by Mendelssohn or the 3rd piano quiartet by Brahms and so forth, even though mostly some movements of those music. It was just performance by amateur players but still very precious experience for me. Around my graduation, we have promised to play Faure's piano trio and he has prepared the score with beautiful cover. But our busy days as doctor have kept us apart for years and have not given us a chance to play it yet.

He has been an excellent neurologist and spent days as a faculty staff at a med school. About 20 years ago, when I planned an ensemble camp in Shinshu with friends, he spent time with us for a day or two. 

He stood at a railway station near the camp at night, where we promised to see each other there all after over twenty years. I wondered if I could recognize him all after that interval. In the darkness, he stood at the exit of the countryside station and looked all the same as the time of the university orchestra days. A tall and a bit shy looking guy with curly hair. We have enjoyed playing the 1st movement of the 1st piano trio by Mendelssohn at the camp. It sure brought me back to the university days.

The next reunion was in the last spring as told above. Another two decades have passed. No music rendition this time. Just a few glasses of beer and hot spa at a local hotel. At that time, he told me he had been impressed at a couple of Renaissance acapella religious music. One of them, he is mostly impressed, is Motet "Versa est in lectum" by Alonso Lobo, a spanish composer in late Renaissance. He has even sent me a CD of this music a few days ago.

 

He had to retire early due to a health issue, not directly fatal but long lasting. He has been working as a part time doctor at a hospital near to his home in Tokyo. The motet's lyrics is a well known scripture in the Book of Job, so far as I investigated. It is Job30:31. He seemed to have told his wife to play it at his funeral. 

The motet sounds quiet and beautiful. Soothing the listeners' mind. Somewhat nostalgic bringing our mind to an old place where we have grown up, even though the basic mood is still pathetic. I wonder how he has been listening to this piece.

Sen. Sanders' discourse and prediciton of the war in Venezuela

Sen. Bernie Sanders says it all as follows.

If I am allowed to add a few more words to his discourse, the US government is in a critical situation as for its astronomical amount of debt, 38 trillion USD, adding 2 trillion every year to it. That may be why Trump administration should behave thhis way.  And I always wonder if they have nothing to do domestically for the war against drug. If the domestic problem that a lot of people go on abusing or depending on drug remains the same, they won't be able to solve the drug issue.

Trump's new imperialistic attitude toward neighbor countries may be highly detrimental to the confidence and credibility of the US in the international society. If the Trump administration goes it on, the world would fall in a chaos of Hobbs Libertarianism and eventually in another world war.

 

If this invasion to Venezuela by Trump should turn out any successful for some time, there will be a hectic anti American struggle by the Venezuelans over there. American people could not avoid it. Haven't they learned that in the Middle East and Asia in the last century? And I am afraid the US government would behave harsh to American people as well. Drastic inflation would be inevitable with the supremacy of USD fallen in the market.

Exercise will save us

There are dogwood trees along the street west of our property. They please us with beautiful light pink flowers in spring. A lot of fallen leaves are on the sidewalks in fall. Those leaves are drifted at a corner of lawn of our property along the sidewalk. 

These photos were taken in Apr 2020. There is a meter wide lawn before the azaleas along the sidewalk.

Dogwood trees are not the topic of this post. I have brought the heavily piled leaves of the dodwood trees to a portion of farm on a uniycle carrier this afternoon. It could never be a heavy work even for me. But after off the farm work for weeks, it was a real heavy duty for me at present. Bad lumbago! I was wondering if I should stop that but, I don't know why, I got it through. 

Leaving them on a lot 1x10m, where I am going to plant potates this spring, I sprayed rice bran and soil lightly there. The leaves would become good compost by the time I plant potatoes. 

While sitting on a small chair and spraying them to the ridge, I have fallen into a shallow hole, 20 or 30cm in depth, and, alas, could not stand up from that supine position! Looking around there and confirming no one looking at me, I stayed there for a moment and stood up slowly somehow, with my jeans and upper wear fully muddy. Only for a minute or two but I felt it so long. I realized, at my age, no exercise could deprive me of such ability of motion quite easily. Senility is surely looming to me! Even in winter, I should carry on exercise, I learned. My wife, an enthusiastic sport gym attendee, told me, repeatedly standing up from the position sitting on a chair could be an exercise to stand up. I may follow her advice. Forgot taking photos of the ridge and the hole I fell in.

The topic is not ending yet. After that farm work, I am feeling less pain in the back now. And even feeling a bit lifted up now. That may be why I am writing such a lengthy post at present! Now I would go on exercising!

Ham radio camaraderie friends, I am finally reaching the main topic of this post now. Throw away mic and key, go out of the radio shack and start exercising.

A recent paper in ProNAS says, even in a finding with rodents, aerobic exercise could enhance repartioning of glucose between tumor tissue and skeletal/cardiac muscle tissue.

Of course, the latter increased while the former decreased. The exercised mice with tumor lived longer. This might fit to human. 

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2508707122

In another paper, moderate degree exercise, 5000 to 7000 steps a day, is good to prevent progression Parkinson's disease in human study.

Moreover, the effectiveness of exercise is emphasized by a specialist as "Exercise may be the single most potent medical intervention ever known".

https://nuttycellist-unknown.blogspot.com/2025/01/exercise-may-be-single-most-potent.html

It may sound too much exaggeration to lead to the belief in exercise from my falling in a hole experience. But it might be of importance for ham friends staying up at ham shack withoug much exercise. This is the conclusion of this post. Thanks for reading it through.   

 

A luddite being agonized with internet settings

I have another blog in Japanese, which I have kept for 19 years. When I started it, I had some time free in my duty at the private practice and wanted to publish what I thought about my profession and hobby. Ever since, I have kept it almost everyday. At first, re medical service and legal issues against so called "malpractise" which were mostly incorrect from the standpoint of medical profession. At that time, I have started playing cello again after a long hiatus since med school orchestra days. Playing in orchestras or smaller ensembles was another topic. Later on, I was more concerned about politics. The movements to prewar nationalism in our country has forced me to do with political issues there. Economy was the infrastructure, I understood those days. Quite few memories within my family were there as well.

Yesterday, with a deranged Google Chrome, everything should be initialized. A hard work for a luddite in IT. The last issue was that blog. It was impossible for me to access the admin page. This morning, I could make it with another version of Google Chrome. Last night, I was sweating imagining that I could had lost every posts in that blog. The content was not so precious at all but was still indispensible for me. Having read the content back, I found a lot of things I almost had forgotten completely. Especially on old ham friends. Now I decided to put the past log into an HDD even  though I know it is not a perfect media to memorize the vast log in the past.   

When I had difficulty to access the admin page, I thought the end of life could be comparable to it. I should get both ready for now. 

Another challenge is to make use of my very first smartphone. I am using it as a hand held phone only at present. The display is too small for me. I still need to get used to it for some particular purposes. Development of IT is not so handy for an old luddite like me, I am afraid.

This blog in English could be the only private media left for me in the future. I would make it as affluent as possible. For that purpose, your feed back as comments is always welcomed.

"Mozart at the Gateway to His Fortune: Serving the Emperor, 1788 - 1791"

I have run across with this video clip of Mozart's Requiem in Youtube. Wiener Philharmoniker conducted by Karl Bohm. Recorded in 1979. I have got a CD of this requiem with the same orchestra and conductor recorded in 1971. I don't remember when I got it. Maybe around 1980. Bohm was a famous conductor those days. He conducted with least action. Profound and solid sound still he draws from the orchestra. 

It is often believed that Mozart has composed this requiem in the weakened condition in his last year of life. An excellent music researcher, Christoph Wolff, says in his work titled "Mozart at the Gateway to His Fortune: Serving the Emperor, 1788 - 1791" that Mozart has reached a new viewpoint for new style as Mozart's wife depicted, that is, the solemn pathos style. After passing of Emperor Joseph II, who had not been motivated for religious music at the Imperial Chapel, under the era of next Leopold II, Mozart was willing to take the position of music chief at St. Stefan Cathedral. Mozart was at the gateway to the success of new genre. Fortune has forced him to leave this requiem and even 140 fragments unfinished.

Thinking of this story, I could not help being overwhelmed with this music. 

 

"Peace. Peace on Earth"

 The Trump administration has made attacks to Caracus Venezuela and, reportedly, has captured the President Madulo and his wife to be taken away out of the country.  Trump's claim is to eradicate the drug trafficking in and from Venezuela to the US. Its legitimacy is highly questionable from the standpoint of the Charter of the United Nations. No one could overthrow any regime in a sovereign nation with military power whatever the regime might be. It is the same invasion which Putin has made in Ukraine.

It is highly suspected the Trump administration aims at the oil concession in Venezuela which has been nationalized by Maduro. If the Trump administration intends to let Machado, a neoliberalism politician against Maduro, take over the power, it reminds us of  Pinocheto in Chile in "70s". Trump has ordered air bombing against ISIS in Nigeria recently. Both Venezuela and NIgeria are countries of massive oil production. 

Being asked about the New Year's resolution, Trump used to answer "Peace. Peace on Earth". It sounds too vain and meaningless. The US would lose credit in the intenational society if the people would approve this "operation" by the Trump administration.

PS; Trump said they would "administer" Venezuela until the next regime starts. It would cause a big mess in the country and cost the US so much.                                                                            This "operation", not war as he claimed, has been against the Charter of the UN told above but also against the US constitution since it is clearly a war to the other sovereign nation.    It would be an example of exoneration for the other authoritarian leaders to invade their neighbor countries for their interests.