I was just listening to Charlotte Church sing Weber's “Requiem” on Sirius via my computer. A couple of my favorites – Weber's “Requiem” and Charlotte Church' s youthful voice. I particularly like the fine voices – like Pavarotti's (One of my birthday presents is to see him when he comes to Washington. Another is to see Asleep at the Wheel in their Bob Wills opera at the Kennedy Center) – on Sirius (another present) and VivalaVoce and XM (which comes with our satellite TV). Then there is Lily Pons, Maria Callas, so many. And so much music is moving. La Boheme's first act and then the final crashing chords. Butterfly's duet and ending. George Jones “He Stopped Loving Her Today”. Johnny Cash's “Hurt”. Carousel and Show Boat.

Why is it that music is so important to most of us? We spend so much money on it. So much time. So much emotion. Does it go back to our mother's voice? To hearing music in our homes growing up? Does music sooth the savage breast? Is it our inheritance from our insect and bird forefathers? Our wolf and elk forefathers? Is it pure and unadulterated sexual attraction for us as it is for them? Who knows the answer to those questions?

In a dirty, West Texas street, stand two men, ten yards apart. On one end is Dirty Di.., let's call him Filthy Richard. Facing him is The Virginian. Filthy Richard wears a black hat, tobacco stained beard, manure covered boots, dirty long johns. Shifty-eyed and stooped. The Virginian has a white hat, clear eyes that look right through you. Trimmed moustache, erect and proud.

There are a lot of things that The Virginian stands for. He will not lie nor cheat nor steal nor tolerate those that do. He respects and protects women and children. Someone to ride the river with. The drunk who cleans out the spitoons at the saloon has his protection, as does the cripple who tends the stable.

And, he will never be the first to “slap leather”. He may clear his iron first, shoot first, hit the target first, but he will not initiate the draw. Good guys do not do that. The good guy wins because truth and justice and God are on his side.

This is the ideal so many of us grew up with. It is why Japan and Germany were doomed to lose. It is why I do not understand why we attacked Iraq. Some issues have a lot of shades of grey, but some are black and white. There are some things a man just does not do.

The news is full of stories about humanity's inhumanity to man. I guess that is what sells. At our level, people here on The Eastern Shore of Virginia really are nice folks.

We went down to our local Post Office. A man I had never met parked outside with a bushel of nice looking corn in the back of his pickup. I asked him where he got it and he replied, “I growed it.” He gave me an armful, refusing to accept any payment.

We live on a road which accesses a number of small communities along The Bay. I like to fuss around in my yard. Most of the folks who drive past, have no idea who they are, smile or wave. The receptionist at the doctor's office, when we called to check on the time of an appointment, cheerfully told us to drive safely coming there. One thing after another that makes small town life enjoyable.

Across the road are two houses with two elderly people, “born heres”, farmers. Fine and kindly lady and gentleman. We live next to a smaller house that is rental property. It has changed hands several times. There has not been an unpleasant occupant. We all share keys, watering houseplants, etc. Our daughter who lives in a town house in The Big City also has one next door neighbor who is friendly and “neighborly”. The other side and the rest of the people on her little of town houses do not even recognize that you exist if you pass them. Lots of reasons to avoid living in “The Big City”.

Maybe it comes down to people at a face-to-face level know how much we depend on one another. Maybe it is in our expectations. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Also filth is in the eye of the beholder. As is fear and mistrust. You look for people to be nice, and guess what? They are! You look for filth and guess what? You find it. There are always a few SOB's but the preponderance of good folks makes it easy to just pass them by.

I am usually pretty aware of scams. One got by me a couple of days ago, however. Not a biggy, someone got one of my passwords but I think that is all. I changed my important passwords, which I should do more regularly, and all should be well.

What happened was that I received a very official email from what appeared to be an eBay member site (expert copy) with a normal sort of question except that it stated that I had bid on a Gibson guitar (it went for over $2000). I had not. Not that I would not want a Gibson guitar, but I do not have $2K for a toy. In order to respond, I signed in, using my password, on a very official looking site. A similar thing had happened a couple of days ago with a $170 mobile phone except that I did not sign in their way. The fact that it happened twice made me suspect that eBay had a computer glitch.

I contacted eBay, got a very prompt response. They let me know that it was a scam and what to do. Since then, Janne Marie, of Paris, told me that I owed the $2000 for the guitar. I checked the guitar on eBay and it had already been paid for. Sent eBay the data on that one, too. I must say that eBay seems very professional and prompt in taking care of it. I hope Janne_Marie32@yahoo.com and 8985Wendy get nailed for this. A word to the wise.

I heard a story from a television comentator. It concerned a frog and a scorpion on the banks of the Jordan River. The scorpion asks the frog for a ride across. Of course, the frog says “You will just sting me when we reach the other side.” The scorpion replies that he promises not to. So they start across. In the middle of the stream, the scorpion stings the frog and they both start to sink. The frog asks “Why?”. The scorpion replies, “Because this is the Middle East.”

Back in the Arafat – Sharon era, I thought that the solution to the problem then would be to erect a steel wall with no doors around the area. They could solve their own problems and we could come back in ten years to see if anyone was still alive. If the gunfire and bombing had stopped, they could be admitted to the rest of the world. It still sounds like a great idea. It would just take a bigger wall.

There are a lot of things that cause me to doubt the sanity of some humans. This conflict is definitely one of them. A recent interview on CNN between one of their reporters and a man in Lebanon in which the man had so little knowledge about the facts that I doubted his mentality. Of course, he had his own axes to grind. I know our news organizations tell us what will increase their readership – we think their goal is to convey the truth but alas. They are much better than much of the rest of the world, however. Maybe there are a bunch of things I just do not understand. Or am I the one who is stupid?