“Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable and to give an appearance of solidarity to pure wind.” —George Orwell

Some of you may recognize this quote from a previous column. I think it ought to be engraved on stone near every courthouse or capital as a reminder to politicians as to how they can be perceived at times.

It was good to see the two Korean heads of state coming together to talk, something Bill Clinton is receiving credit for following his diplomacy when he flew to North Korea and met privately with the ailing North Korean leader that led do the release of the two Chinese Americans who had been charged with spying.

A South Korean spokesman for the president quoted him as saying “there is nothing that cannot be solved if South and North Korea sort out their problems through communication and sincerity.”

Obama is finally enjoying a vacation following his recent intervention with the professor booked for breaking into his own home. The professor and the authority figure were invited to the White House following the incident. There they met privately with a brew on the White House grounds out of earshot from the media.

Politics are everywhere these days, in schools, churches, city governments, state governments and federal offices. Sometimes they are making sound decisions. “Anger is all the rage, for better or worse” according to a headline in Sunday’s Pioneer Press that offers a rear photo of U.S. Rep Jared Polis, speaking at a demonstration Saturday in Thorton, Colorado. The headline reads, “For better or worse, it’s an American political tradition.”

The Sunday Pioneer Press also gave mention to Obama, who rips “phony” health care claims.

As far as health care is concerned, Darrell Gates, my Colorado friend, maintains there are parts of it open to attack by people from every part of the political spectrum. His inclination is that the issue should be attacked in pieces. He would like to find a way to deliver sanctioned care for all the populations who have none and no longer have the cost of that issue affect the price that the remaining 60 percent have added to our cost. He feels the more complicated an issue is the easier it is for opponent’s to lie about it.

He concludes: “If I were King I would break down these issues, find the one that looked solvable, destroy it in a bipartisan manner, and move on.”

Another aspect of Gates is that he remembers everything that ever occurred in his life. I balance this by having forgotten most of what has occurred in my life. Gates also use to do “bike” runs beginning below Ensenada, and riding though the night to the end of the Baja Peninsula, a 24-hour ride. My trips down to Baja only got as far as Ensenada, and I thought that was an accomplishment.

On the way down we stopped at the Rosarita Beach Hotel for a cervasa. At one time, my friend Dugger tells me, that was where the stars from Hollywood came. Rosarita was a 90-cent bus ride from Tijuana. We traveled in Dugger’s VW.

And now I read that the U.S. military leaders say they don’t have enough soldiers to fend off the rebels and secure the country in Afghanistan. Adm. Mike Mullen tells us “Afghanistan is very vulnerable and I don’t think that threat’s going to go away” after seven years.

I think we helped make it possible for the Russia’s defeat when they attempted to accomplish their own way there. I think we had a hand in their not succeeding, at least in a movie we watched.

Austin life is improving though. The stoplight on Eighth Street Northwest is working again. I watched the two men work on it. I had never seen so many wires. They seemed to know what they were doing.

Word is out that the clean up will begin on Main Street any day now.

As for the Mill Pond, there is a narrow stream of water running through the Mill Pond that isn’t hosting green gunk. On a walkabout the other day, there were 24 ducks and a turtle sunning on a long log east of the second bridge.