beware the spotted walrus

First:  news headline (fearsome); second, 3 Reader Comments -- (discouraged, distressed); third, an excerpt from the Jane Austen novel, Emma.

     Austen's writing can give a sort of soothing, freshening feeling to the mind of the modern reader, I think....  A literary sorbet...


headline in today's New York Times

| |  Security Breach and Spilled Secrets Have Shaken the N.S.A. to Its Core

(written by Scott Shane, Nicole Perlroth and David E. Sanger)

3 out of 354 Reader Comments

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~~  The NSA + FBI + CIA + O(D)NI couldn't find a spotted walrus in a bathtub.  See:  "Fighting among ourselves".
---------- HLB Engineering
Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania


~~  I recommend the show "Mr. Robot" for capturing the zeitgeist of the moment.  The latest season depicts especially well the fog of cyberwar - internet chaos, disinformation, breakdown of identity, morals, facts, loyalties, 

and society on the whole.  We are in the thick of it and not about to emerge any time soon.
------- Slim Pickins
The Cyber

~~  Well said.  We have lost the glue in between the parts that make up this community, this Nation.  And it appears that in every case, self-dealing is the solvent.  Where did we let ourselves down?  Wait!  I'll tell you.  We let ourselves down by the thousands of little cuts that occurred in countless childhoods where children were abandoned to the moment instead of guided through the moment.  

They were abandoned by tired, stressed-out parents in families where both parents were compelled to work.  Both parents were compelled to work because wages are not keeping up with costs.  

Wages are not keeping up with costs because the capitalist ruling class in this country has decided that wages are not to increase while their profits do increase.  Therefore, our society is dissolving because of greed.  

Thank-you.  Any other questions?
------------------ On the road

______________________________________

In Emma, we continue from where we left off, with Mr. Knightlley speaking to Mrs. Weston.
[For clarity, I have to add a piece of info:  Mr. Knightley's brother John is married to Emma's sister, Isabella.]

     "...I have a very sincere interest in Emma.  Isabella does not seem more my sister; has never excited a greater interest; perhaps hardly so great.  There is an anxiety, a curiosity in what one feels for Emma.  I wonder what will become of her!"

    "So do I," said Mrs. Weston gently, "very much."

     "She always declares she will never marry, which, of course, means just nothing at all.  But I have no idea that she has yet ever seen a man she cared for.  It would not be a bad thing for her to be very much in love with a proper object.  I should like to see Emma in love, and in some doubt of a return; it would do her good.  But there is nobody hereabouts to attach her; and she goes so seldom from home."


     "There does, indeed, seem as little to tempt her to break her resolution at present," said Mrs. Weston, "as can well be; and while she is so happy at Hartfield, I cannot wish her to be forming any attachment which would be creating such difficulties on poor Mr. Woodhouse's account.  

I do not recommend matrimony at present to Emma, though I mean no slight to the state, I assure you."


    Part of her meaning was to conceal some favourite thoughts of her own and Mr. Weston's on the subject, as much as possible.  

There were wishes at Randalls respecting Emma's destiny, but it was not desirable to have them suspected; and the quiet transition which Mr. Knightley soon afterwards made to "What does Weston think of the weather; shall we have rain?" convinced her that he had nothing more to say or surmise about Hartfield.

CHAPTER VI


Emma could not feel a doubt of having given Harriet's fancy a proper direction and raised the gratitude of her young vanity to a very good purpose, for she found her decidedly more sensible than before of Mr. Elton's being a remarkably handsome man, with most agreeable manners; and as she had no hesitation in following up the assurance of his admiration by agreeable hints, she was soon pretty confident of creating as much liking on Harriet's side, as there could be any occasion for.  

She was quite convinced of Mr. Elton's being in the fairest way of falling in love, if not in love already.  

She had no scruple with regard to him.  He talked of Harriet, and praised her so warmly, that she could not suppose any thing wanting which a little time would not add.  His perception of the striking improvement of Harriet's manner, since her introduction at Hartfield, was not one of the least agreeable proofs of his growing attachment.

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