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“We cannot in good faith, and with veneration to those lost, sick, and injured, welcome the president to our hallowed grounds until he fulfills his commitment,” said a recent letter to President Biden. It was signed by 1,800 family members of victims, first responders and survivors of the attacks on September 11th, 2001.
They are upset at him because he’s refused to declassify documents relating to the attack, which they think will implicate the Saudis. Which would not surprise anybody too much. But the thing is, if the Saudi government was involved, then the U.S. government was probably involved. They are officially an ally of the U.S., one of the U.S.’s largest arms customers, and especially tight with American oil companies. It could get ugly indeed. But, if there are any bombshells, the documents will probably never be released.
And that’s exactly how we should read it: any time anybody is unwilling to release information, it’s because that information could be damaging to them. With the possible exception of surprise parties.
There’s certainly no possible way, after 20 years, that any information contained therein could possibly pose a threat to American security. It’s been 20 years. A lot has changed. This is not the same world it was then.
What gives a government the right to keep anything secret at all? If they were operating honestly, in the best interests of all the people, they would not need to.
I’m glad Biden is being called out on this.

I was watching an episode of Voyager last night, the one where the doctor’s program was found and activated by a Kyrian scientist some 7 centuries after they’d come across that planet, in a museum dedicated to Voyager, but in their view of history Janeway and crew were the bad guys, Chakotay’s tattoo pretty much covered his whole face, Harry Kim got to brutally beat the shit out of a detainee and Janeway was like a pirate queen (but actually kind of sexy in that role). Anyway, the thing that bothered me, that didn’t make sense, is that if the doctor is alive and well on an obscure planet in the Delta quadrant 700 years post Voyager, how is it that in all the other episodes, he continues with Voyager to Earth?
I suppose there are possible explanations, apparently he did not have the mobile emitter on him, and they can always re-activate the original program, minus the opera and stuff, but they didn’t explain it and that was sloppy, and it raises another question. As effective as the doctor was (he saved the ship more than once, and even served as Emergency Command Hologram in at least one instance) why wasn’t he ever duplicated? Couldn’t every star ship have used 3 or 4 with his abilities?
Same with Data on TNG. When you’ve got an android crew member whose knowledge is endless, whose reaction time is instantaneous, and whose strength is superhuman, wouldn’t it make more sense to manufacture millions of them, put them in command of their own ships, and send THEM out to explore the Galaxy? Some humans could go along for the ride, of course, because the whole point of exploring space is so that humans can explore space, but as far as piloting the ships is concerned, why would you ever want to go with less than the best?
I believe it was Carl Sagan who said that first contact was likely to be our machines talking to their machines. And I’m O.K. with that. The human crew just makes it more relatable to a T.V. audience.
And perpetuates that myth, which humans cling to, that we are somehow important.

Well, we are back in Prague, after a lovely and eventful vacation. On the way home, we made one stop, someplace I’ve never been, some place I never wanted to go, but it was on our way and Helena decided, so we went. We went to Auschwitz. It was larger than I thought it would be, probably a couple of kilometers across and a kilometer front to back.
I was glad to see they didn’t charge to go in. In a perfect world, even one a little better than this one, that wouldn’t even need to be said, but in the world we’re living in, wherever there is the lure of tourist money, it proves irresistible. So, I was relieved and impressed that it is treated like a proper memorial site. Sort of like walking through a cemetery.
I’d avoided ever visiting a concentration camp because it seems a bit morbid to me. I know it happened, and it was horrible, but I even reached my fill of films about the holocaust several years ago. I have never seen Schindler’s List, or Sophie’s Choice, and never want to.
But, going there was like a pilgrimage, an homage to the dead, a small bit of penance from the living, the fortunate, someone who is alive to enjoy the future that was stolen from the million and a half people who were murdered there.
We owe them that, to always remember.
So, I’m glad we went.

After our strenuous hike yesterday, today was going to be a bit more relaxing. At least that was the plan. It was, at the very least, a day of discovering things right in our neighborhood, and they were lovely things.
I was up before anybody else so decided to go for an early morning walk. Right next to our villa, between our building and the next, I noticed that the driveway ended in a sheep meadow, so I took a walk out that way and it is actually a huge, grassy area above the main body of the town, which was much more pleasant than walking into town and back. Stopped at the bakery for some breakfast pastries and my Polish (which basically amounts to speaking Czech and hoping they understand) was quite inadequate for the task, but the girl behind the counter spoke English.
Then, we went back to Tatra National Park, but via a different entrance, within easy walking distance of our accommodations. On the way, we discovered a couple of restaurants that actually seemed quite affordable. The park was beautiful, no mountain lake or horse and wagon this time, but a steeper, rockier trail alongside a rushing stream, crossed and recrossed by small, wooden bridges, leading up to a very impressive waterfall. Then we tried another side trail but decided to come back down when we got exhausted. Just outside the park, our path was blocked by a flock of sheep crossing the road.

The restaurant we chose did, indeed, serve big, healthy, Polish meals at reasonable prices and then we took a walk back by a different way, which turned out to be a dead end, but a couple of the villas there (this town is well over 50% tourists and damn near 100% that style of architecture) were very lovely, particularly the one Helena said reminded her of a Smurf house.
Tomorrow, we drive back to Prague. It has been a beautiful, and memorable vacation.

Home again in our cozy little rooms in our villa in Zakopane, which is constructed in the Zakopane style of architecture, which means wood, very steep ceilings, balconies all around and, often, wood panels with elaborate carvings in front of those balconies. A place just down the road from us, where they always have a sheep grazing in their front yard, has planters on all their balconies, big purple blooms, a tower of flowers, a lovely combination of the natural world and the ingenuity of man.
We just had dinner and are relaxing, tired and sore after a long, arduous, and, hate to bitch about it, rather expensive day. We took the bus up to Tatra National Park, where the main feature is a crystal clear mountain lake, which truly was beautiful, there were waterfalls all around feeding into it and a fast stream pouring out of it.
Catching the bus up was a trip. We still haven’t figured out the local buses, and were walking in the general direction of the train station because we knew buses left from there, and while we were standing on a street corner, I saw a bus driver across the street motioning to us and shouting “Morskie Oko!” out the window (which is exactly where we were going, it means eye of the sea and it’s the name of the lake) So, we boarded, no money changed hands at that point, and it was entertaining as he drove around town picking up more passengers in the same way. It was a lovely drive up, about an hour through lovely scenery, and it was 12 zloty per person, so 36 zloty, which is close to 200 crowns, so about 7 or 8 bucks. Not unreasonable at all. Then it was 7 zlotys to get into the park (3.50 for Isabel), and we started walking toward the lake. We saw people passing us in horse drawn wagons, which looked kind of fun, but we were pretty sure that was going to be a major expense. It was a couple of hours before we got to any place selling food and drink, by which time we were famished. I had a ham and cheese sandwich (7 zlotys) the girls each had something called zepekana, which is a long piece of bread with some ham and cheese, baked and slathered with way too much ketchup (15 zlotys apiece, but definitely a good sized serving) We also got a large bottle of water, and some iced tea. By the time we got to the lake, we were not only too exhausted to do the hike all the way around it (we went about a quarter of the way and turned back), but we’d decided to take the horse and wagon back down whatever it cost, which was 40 zlotys per person. The bus back to town, of course, was the same price as the bus there. So, no specific complaints, none of the prices were outrageous but, by the end of the day, the money we’d budgeted for the trip was seriously depleted and it’s entirely possible we’ll have to hit a cash machine before we get back to the Czech Republic.
Also, a tip for anybody planning to visit Tatra National Park in Poland. Take the horse ride on the way UP to the lake, that way you’ll still be fresh for the hike when you get there, and the way back is downhill all the way.
All for tonight. Thanks for reading.