Totally random thoughts

Rudeness

2009-09-13T21:30:00.001-05:00

In the wake of Rep. Joe Wilson's outburst during Obama's address to Congress, there are calls for his censure, online petitions denouncing his actions, and probably much worse. (I liked this line from Tigerhawk:"What is it with guys named Joe Wilson? Do they all accuse presidents of lying?")

For some, Wilson's rudeness is THE sudden collapse of civility and manners. Our political discourse has now been plunged into some unprecedented sewer depths.

Really?

Look--Wilson's act was rude and certainly displayed a distinct lack of class. He apologized directly to the President, who accepted his apology without qualification. Apparently that's not enough for some. Wilson is a racist, they say. He proves Republicans are a**holes, they say. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer ( D-MD) said: “I have never in my 29 years heard an outburst of that nature with reference to a president of the United States speaking as a guest of the House and Senate.”

Really? Gonna have to get Hoyer some new Beltones. I found this over at a blog called Cranky Conservative. It's a youtube rundwon of various examples of "civility" that didn't seem to spark any outrage from the Left. Highlights from the list:

--Bush getting booed at the Obama inaugural
--Rep. Baron Hill from Indiana--"This is MY town hall meeting . . ." Yep--he's a Dem.
--Democrats booing--BOOING--Bush during the 2005 State of the Union address. Watch the clip--the noise is somewhat prolonged and widespread, in contrast to Wilson's rather limited outburst. Was Hoyer asleep or what?
--Gore's "How Dare They" speech to MoveOn.org in 2004. ("How dare the incompetent and willful members of this Bush/Cheney Administration humiliate our nation and our people in the eyes of the world and in the conscience of our own people. How dare they subject us to such dishonor and disgrace. How dare they drag the good name of the United States of America through the mud of Saddam Hussein's torture prison.")
--Sen. Durbin comparing American soldiers to Nazis and to those who ran the Gulags.
--Sen. John Murtha saying that our troops killed "innocent civilians in cold blood."

And yet, the outrage, the spotlight is on Wilson for his rather rude remark. Don't get me wrong--Wilson was wrong in what he did. No matter what has passed for political discourse in the last 8 years should not give the Republicans a license to engage in the same tactics.

But if you are suddenly purple with indignation about the lack of civility, you are perhaps a little late to the game.

The headline for a recent Reason.com article perhaps said it best:

Show me a country without lawyers, hobos, and fighting politicians and I'll show you a dictatorship.

Van Jones--gone but not forgotten

2009-09-07T20:00:00.000-05:00

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/06/dean-jones-resignation-loss-country/

For those of you who have been reading the New York Times, or watching some of the network newscasts the last few days, you may not know who Van Jones is. Here's the tabulation of reporting as of September 4th, midday:

Total words about the Van Jones controversy in the New York Times: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy in the Washington Post: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy on NBC Nightly News: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy on ABC World News: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy on CBS Evening News: 0.

As one of Obama's czars, Jones was responsible for advising the president on how to increase the number of so-called "green" jobs in the workforce. His book The Green Collar Economy, received favorable reviews from Al Gore, Nancy Pelosi, and Laurie David, among others. Sounds like the man for the job, eh?

Well-a few days ago he had to apologize for referring to Republicans as "assholes." Then, there was this quote from Mr. Jones:

"You've never seen a Columbine done by a black child. Never. They always say, 'We can't believe it happened here. We can't believe it's these suburban white kids.' It's only them. Now, a black kid might shoot another black kid. He's not going to shoot up the whole school."

Bizarre and misinformed at the same time. I'll skip over his radicalization that occurred after the L.A. riots ("I was a rowdy nationalist on April 28th, and then the [Rodney King] verdicts came down on April 29th," he said. "By August, I was a communist.").

What SHOULD have clinched it for a lot of people is the fact that Jones signed a petition demanding an investigation into whether or not 9/11 was an inside job. That's right--Jones is a Truther. Now, you can believe whatever you want these days--but there's something truly disorienting about an Administration official wallowing in such muddy waters. And the Truthers seem to be well represented among the Democrats. Here's Mark Steyn's take:

Is Van Jones a real Truther or a faux Truther? The White House position is that he’s the latter - hey, he just glanced at [the petition], saw it was some routine impeach-Bush-for-killing-thousands-of-his-fellow-Americans thing, and signed it without reading it; we’ve all been there, right?
Van Jones Trutherism, like Van Jones Communism and Van Jones Eco-Racism Theory, is a kind of decadence: If you really believed 9/11 was an inside job, you’d be in fear of your life. Instead, for a cutting-edge poseur like Jones, it’s a marketing niche, one that gives you a certain cachet with the right kind of people - like, apparently, Barack Obama.

Well, now he's resigned. Gone. The victim, as he puts it, of a vicious disinformation campaign (wait--which part wasn't true?).

Except for the fact that his resignation is a "loss for the country," according to Howard Dean, former Democratic party chairman.

A loss for the country.

Dean's sentiments are being echoed in a Newsweek article entitled "Why Green Czar Van Jones Didn't Have To Resign" and by Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club whose piece is complete with lynch mobs, right-wing operatives, charges of racism and tortured explanations of what Jones was really trying to say.

A loss for the country. Or, as Pope would say, "we let our cause, our president, and Van Jones down."

I'm sorry, but I find this kind of thinking truly frightening.

Health care reform? How about some Legal Reform?

2009-09-06T22:43:00.000-05:00

If you believe people have a "right to health care," don't you also believe in the fact that we are all supposed to be equal under the law? Are you concerned about justice for the rich versus justice for the poor? Millions face jail time and financial ruin because they are unable to afford legal representation. Many of those who hire an attorney to successfully defend them are bankrupted in the process of paying back the legal fees.
Maybe the time has come for Legal Reform as suggested here. You just gotta love this stuff. Highlights include:

• Contingency fees will be discouraged, and eventually outlawed, over a five-year period. This will put legal rewards back into the pockets of the deserving—the public and the aggrieved parties. Slick lawyers taking their "cut" smacks of a bookie operation. Attorneys will be permitted to keep up to 3% in contingency cases, the remainder going into a pool for poor people.
• Legal "DRGs." Each potential legal situation will be assigned a relative value, and charges limited to this amount. Program participation and acceptance of this amount is mandatory, regardless of the number of hours spent on the matter. Government schedules of flat fees for each service, analogous to medicine's Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs), will be issued. For example, any divorce will have a set fee of, say, $1,000, regardless of its simplicity or complexity. This will eliminate shady hourly billing. Niggling fees such as $2 per page photocopied or faxed would disappear. Who else nickels-and-dimes you while at the same time charging hundreds of dollars per hour? I'm surprised lawyers don't tack shipping and handling onto their bills.
• Discourage/eliminate specialization. Legal specialists with extra training and experience charge more money, contributing to increased costs of legal care, making it unaffordable for many. This reform will guarantee a selection of mediocre, unmotivated attorneys but should help slow rising legal costs. Big shot under indictment? Classified National Archives documents down your pants? Sitting president defending against impeachment? Have FBI agents found $90,000 in your freezer? Too bad. Under reform you too may have to go to the government legal shop for advice.
• Collect data about the supply of and demand for attorneys.Create a commission to study the diversity and geographic distribution of attorneys, with power to stipulate and enforce corrective actions to right imbalances. The more bureaucracy the better. One can never have too many eyes watching these sleazy sneaks.

It's a great read--too bad it will never come to fruition.
Please understand that I am not against health care reform. The system is strikingly flawed, both on the government-run side as well as the private sector. It needs a rather thorough cleansing. But hey--if we can do it to the doctors, why can't we do it to the lawyers? Or the plumbers? Or better yet--our elected representatives? Hell--they "do it" to us all the time . . .

Weight loss and a vacation

2009-08-25T09:45:00.006-05:00

Okay--getting ready to leave for vacation in a few hours. First, a thrilling drive across the wilds of East Texas to Houston, where we will establish base camp at the Sleep Inn near the local aerodrome. Tomorrow morning we will fly out to Belize City, then local natives will transport us to Caye Caulker. Yes indeed.

So--how's that diet thing going, you ask? Quite well. The toughest thing has been cutting back on the little snacks here and there throughout the day, but it hasn't been too bad. We've found some really good recipes in Cooking Light that are quite filling and you would never know you were eating something low calorie. I'm not as uncomfortably hungry as I thought I would be, but a little hungry all the same.

Grand total? In the last 3 weeks I have lost just under 17 lbs. WOOT! Still no where near where I want to be (about 180 lbs, which I haven't weighed in several years), but it's a start. Found some pants I haven't been able to fit in for a while, and I'm definitely more comfortable. So far, Emma hasn't threatened to buy me any more weight loss pills, so maybe I'm looking a little better too (at least my wonderful wife thinks so).

And now vacation is looming. I think I am motivated enough not to blow it all by stuffing myself, and I am actually looking forward to eating a lot of the local fresh fish and produce. So--we shall see.

See you next week!

Props for the Prez

2009-08-15T11:00:00.004-05:00

I'm going to give credit where credit is due, and that includes President Obama.

At a summit of North American leaders, Obama slammed critics of his approach to the recent events in Honduras.

"The same critics who say the US has not intervened in Honduras are the same people who say we are always intervening and Yankees need to get out of Latin America," he said, accusing such opponents of "hypocrisy."

"You can't have it both ways,"

That is one of the most sensible things that has been said regarding Latin America in a long time. Even Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper defended Obama's approach:

"The United States is accused of meddling except when it's accused of not meddling," Harper said, praising the US "multilateral" role in efforts to reverse the coup and ease the Honduran crisis.

It is noticeable that Administration calls for Zelaya's restoration to power have been somewhat muted as of late, which I think is a good thing. From what I understand, Zelaya was a Chavez wannabe, and was in the process of suspending the Honduran constitution and having himself declared dictator for life, Venezuelan-style. The country has not been taken over by the army, and the National Congress is still in power, headed by Zelaya's lawfully elected successor. This is obviously not your typical banana-republic coup, and it is wise for the United States to maintain its distance.

"I'm a fan of disruptors . . . "

2009-08-14T13:06:00.002-05:00

That was then, this is now.
Certainly we shouldn't question each others partiotism.

Global warming geniuses

2009-08-13T07:47:00.001-05:00

I haven't posted much in this category in a while, but when I ran across this little item, I just couldn't let it go unnoticed.

Senator Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.) - recently appointed to the Senate Energy Committee - made clear that fighting the climate crisis is her top priority. "Climate change is very real . . . Global warming creates volatility. I feel it when I'm flying. The storms are more volatile. We are paying the price in more hurricanes and tornadoes."

"I feel it when I'm flying." No--I'm not making this up.

The more the global warming crowd sounds like this, the more inane their whole position appears.

This reminds me of Henry Waxman's stunningly stupid statement:

“We’re seeing the reality of a lot of the North Pole starting to evaporate, and we could get to a tipping point. Because if it evaporates to a certain point – they have lanes now where ships can go that couldn’t ever sail through before. And if it gets to a point where it evaporates too much, there’s a lot of tundra that’s being held down by that ice cap..”

This might be the scariest statement on "science" ever uttered by a Congressman. And this guy is co-author of the Markey-Waxman cap-and-trade bill, which is headed to the Senate for a vote in a few weeks. Is this the kind of "scientific attitude" that we want to guide us? Feeling global warming in Seat 22A, and all that tundra underneath the Arctic ice cap . . .

Funny how you don't hear anything on this from all of those who decried the "Republican war on science."

But she's not an elitist!

2009-08-12T14:13:00.003-05:00

That's Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee taking a freakin' call on her phone--not just in the middle of a town hall meeting, but IN THE MIDDLE OF SOMEONE ASKING HER A QUESTION!!!!

I'm going to guess that she did not--I repeat, did not--take any calls when she spoke at the Michael Jackson memorial in L.A.

Just a little confused . . .

2009-08-12T11:00:00.000-05:00

So, Obama's at the Town Hall meeting in New Hampshire, and is heard to say this:

“We have the AARP on board because they know this is a good deal for our seniors.”

At another point he said:

“Well, first of all, another myth that we've been hearing about is this notion that somehow we're going to be cutting your Medicare benefits. We are not. AARP would not be endorsing a bill if it was undermining Medicare, okay?”

Unfortunately, AARP is NOT endorsing this legislation.

Are your health care working?

During the same meeting, he attempted to speak (apparently without the teleprompter) about the efficiency of private vs. government enterprises:

"UPS and FedEx are doing just fine. It's the Post Office that's always having problems."

DUH! Really? That's the whole point!
How about that Post Office, anyways?:

On Friday, the New York Times Business Section actually called for the privatization of the post office amid staggering losses, and even said it was in “General Motors territory.” So while the President sells you on his “post office” of health care plans, here are some questions to consider:
1.) The U.S. Post Office is the only entity allowed by federal law to deliver first class mail to your mailbox. In fact, Fedex and UPS are strictly prohibited from delivering “non-urgent” letters. If the government can fairly compete and is setting fair rules, wouldn’t the post office be open to competition at your mailbox?
2.) If Americans were offered “free” postage paid for by massive government spending and tax hikes, would Fedex and UPS still exist?
3.) The Post Office is on track to lose a staggering $7 billion this year alone. How will a government-run health care plan manage taxpayer resources more efficiently?
4.) Postmaster General John Potter says he lacks the “tools” necessary to run the Post Office effectively like a business. Would a government-run health care system have the tools it needs to run as effectively as the private sector entities it is replacing?
5.) On the one hand, the President remarks how great his public health care plan will be. On the other hand, he notes it won’t be good enough to crowd out your private insurance, i.e. the Post Office comparison. So which is it Mr. President? Will it be so great that private insurance disappears or so awful that it isn’t worth creating in the first place?
6.) But the most important question is this: if you have an urgent piece of mail you need delivered, life or death, who are you going to call? Everyone saying the government…please raise your hands. (crickets)
The most frightening line from Joe Nocera’s New York Times piece is this: “As for Mr. Potter himself, while he may want more freedom to run the Postal Service like a real business, he, too, seemed surprisingly wedded to outmoded ideas about mail service in America. ‘This country needs to have and to protect universal service,’ he said.”
Protecting universal service at the expense of cost, innovation, and quality of care. Sound familiar?

There's a lot of noise out there about healthcare reform. No--there's no such thing as death panels--but hey--what did Obama say back in April?

President Barack Obama said his grandmother’s hip-replacement surgery during the final weeks of her life made him wonder whether expensive procedures for the terminally ill reflect a “sustainable model” for health care.

With a statement like that, why wouldn't people be misinterpreting various provisions of the bill?

Our country is in the very best of hands.

So, dissent isn' t the highest form of patriotism?

2009-08-10T08:19:00.006-05:00

Mark Steyn has a great article about those evil, swastika-carrying astroturfers who are showing up at those town hall meetings.

“The right-wing extremist Republican base is back!” warns the Democratic National Committee. These right-wing extremists have been given their marching orders by their masters: They’ve been directed to show up at “thousands of events,” told to “organize,” “knock on doors” . . .

No, wait. My mistake. That’s the e-mail I got from Mitch Stewart, Director of “Organizing for America” at BarackObama.com. But that’s the good kind of “organizing.” Obama’s a community organizer. We’re the community. He organizes us. What part of that don’t you get?

Suddenly, you're saying "community organizer" like it's a bad thing.

. . . on Monday, the official White House website drew attention to the alarming amount of “disinformation about health insurance reform.” “These rumors often travel just below the surface,” warned Macon Phillips, Chief Commissar of the Hopenstasi . . . whoops, I mean White House Director of New Media, “via chain e-mails or through casual conversation.”

“Casual conversation,” eh? Why can’t these “dissenters” just be like normal people and read off the teleprompter?

“Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help,” continued Commissar Phillips. “If you get an email or see something on the web about health-insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.”Reporting dissent is the highest form of patriotism!

What the hell is wrong with these people? After 8 years of Cheney and Ashcroft and Gonzalez, your president is asking you to report on your neighbors. How absolutely quaint!

And this isn't about being against reform of our health care system--most Americans want health care reform. Just not this one.

If only we’d stuck to the president’s August timetable and passed a gazillion-page health-care reform entirely unread by the House of Representatives or the Senate (the world’s greatest deliberative body) in nothing flat, we’d now have all the time in the world to sit around having a “serious discussion” and “real debate” on whatever it was we just did to one-sixth of the economy. But a sick, deranged, un-American mob has put an end to all that moderate and reasonable steamrollering by showing up and yelling insane, out-of-control questions like, “Awfully sorry to bother you, your Most Excellent Senatorial Eminence, but I was wondering if you could tell me why you don’t read any of the laws you make before you make them into law?”

I suggest you read the whole thing.

The Gaffemeister

2009-08-06T21:06:00.000-05:00

A Joe Biden post.

As brilliant a politician as Obama seems to be (and I mean that sincerely), I can't imagine that even his most ardent supporters were thrilled with Biden as his VP choice. It was certainly not an example of thinking outside of the box. One would think that with his vast amount of knowledge, Biden would not be prone to the stumbles he has exhibited over the last six months.

And yet . . .

I mean, if you thought Bush was master and commander of the English language, or Dan Quayle was captain of the Good Ship Verbal Gaffe, then you must be cringing ever time the Veep opens his mouth, which appears devoid of any neural connection to his brain. As Jay Ambrose wrote in The Washington Times, "has anyone noticed Joe Biden is a persistent, unreformed, downright clownish bungler whose gaffes are simply too many and too wild to be considered perfectly excusable slips of the tongue?"

Some screamers from the campaign trail:

". . . tackle the number-one job facing the middle class, and it happens to be, as Barack says, a three-letter word: jobs. J-O-B-S, jobs."

"A man I'm proud to call my friend. A man who will be the next President of the United States — Barack America!"

"When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened."

Perhaps we should excuse the last one, as recently Obama remarked to ABC News that "I'm always worried about using the word 'victory,' because, you know, it invokes this notion of Emperor Hirohito coming down and signing a surrender to MacArthur."

More recently, using his amazing medical mind, Dr. Biden warned everyone about the dangers of public transportation during the recent swine flu outbreak. He also indelicately summed up the administration's approach to stimulus spending:

"People, when I say that, look at me and say, 'What are you talking about, Joe? You're telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?" he said at a stop in Virginia. "The answer is yes."

Gee--I wish I had known that a few years ago.

Now, Bigmouth Joe has insulted the Russians, which has never been a good play in the foreign relations playbook. It was bad enough when Hillary presented them with the "Reset button" (did she order that from the Spencer's Gifts catalog?), but Biden has taken it a step further. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Biden said Russia's economic difficulties are likely to make the Kremlin more willing to co-operate with the United States on a range of national security issues.

"I think we vastly underestimate the hand that we hold,""They have a shrinking population base, they have a withering economy, they have a banking sector and structure that is not likely to be able to withstand the next 15 years, they're in a situation where the world is changing before them and they're clinging to something in the past that is not sustainable," Biden said in the interview.It’s a very difficult thing to deal with, loss of empire," Biden added.

The Russian response was predictable. "Joe Biden unexpectedly returned to the rhetoric of the previous Bush administration," the newspaper Kommersant wrote. Moskovsky Komsomolets said Biden showed what the Obama administration really thinks about Russia. "We should respond to the Yankees in the same way," the newspaper wrote. "Any other language, unfortunately or fortunately, they do not understand."

Maybe there are significant problems in Russia demographically and economically. But the heart of what makes someone a diplomat, and the core of foreign diplomacy, is tactful candor. What Biden may have in candor (some might call it boorishness) he completely misses in tactfulness. Yet this is someone that Obama continues to tout as great asset to his administration.

And you thought misspelling "potatos" was bad . . .

Two Cows

2009-08-05T15:38:00.004-05:00

This is kind of one of those things floating around the internet that Michael Scott would forward to you in an e-mail. I actually think it's pretty funny.

U.S./TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM
You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows. You sell them and retire on the income.

FRENCH CAPITALISM
You have two cows. You go on strike because you want three cows. The cows go on strike to keep out American hormone-fed milk and launch a stampede through a McDonalds franchise at Euro-Disney. The French Cow Liberation Front hacks into the Cheddar website with images of Roquefort and WAV files declaring "Vive la France!"

JAPANESE CAPITALISM
You have two cows. You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. You then create clever cow cartoon images called Cowkimon and market them worldwide.

EXTROPIAN CAPITALISM
You have two cows. You read their DNA and figure out a way to create lean beef directly in a vat. You upload your cows. You debate endlessly on what to do with the originals cows, which are still alive and well, and are demanding bovine rights.

BRITISH CAPITALISM
You have two cows. Both are mad.

CHINESE CAPITALISM
You have two cows. You have 300 people milking them. You claim full employment, high bovine productivity, and arrest the newsman who reported the numbers.

AFRICAN CAPITALISM
You have two cows. The government takes them because they used to belong to white colonists. No one feeds them and they starve to death. Then you starve to death.

Below are the more traditional "two cows" explanation of political ideologies.

Feudalism
You have two cows. Your lord takes some of the milk.

Pure Socialism
You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else's cows. You have to take care of all the cows. The government gives you all the milk you need.

Real World Socialism
Your cows are cared for by ex-chicken farmers. You have to take care of the chickens the government took from the chicken farmers. The government gives you as much milk and eggs the regulations say you should need.

Fascism
You have two cows. The government takes both, hires you to take care of them, and sells you the milk.

Pure Communism
You have two cows. Your neighbours help you take care of them, and you all share the milk.

Real World Communism
You share two cows with your neighbours. You and your neighbours bicker about who has the most "ability" and who has the most "need". Meanwhile, no one works, no one gets any milk, and the cows drop dead of starvation.

Russian Communism
You have two cows. You have to take care of them, but the government takes all the milk. You steal back as much milk as you can and sell it on the black market.

Cambodian Communism
You have two cows. The government takes both and shoots you.

Cuban Communism:
You have two cows. They swim to Florida and become capitalists.

Militarianism
You have two cows. The government takes both and drafts you.

Totalitarianism
You have two cows. The government takes them and denies they ever existed. Milk is banned.

Pure Democracy
You have two cows. Your neighbours decide who gets the milk.

Representative Democracy
You have two cows. Your neighbours pick someone to tell you who gets the milk.

Surrealism
You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.

A commenter over at Classical Values added this gem:

You have two cows. The larger of the two cows gives more milk but is determined to be a major producer of greenhouse gases.

The government takes that cow and gives you $4500 worth of other people's money toward the purchase of a smaller, hideously expensive but extremely tasteful and popular black Tajima-ushi cow, which produces less milk and requires daily brushing, purchased from a cattle rancher who recently marked up the cost of his product by roughly $4500.

The next day Youtube is hosting a video of your large cow being fed into a meat grinder tail first, surrounded by gibbering, giggling government sycophants. In certain circles, this is considered great justice.

Somehow, I understand the world a lot better now.

Weight loss

2009-08-04T23:35:00.005-05:00

Look--I know I have been needing to lose weight. I mentioned a few posts back that I had started walking in the mornings. It still feels good--I seem to have a lot more energy during the day after I walk, and I was really expecting to see the scale respond in an appropriate way.

Well . . .

The other night Emma and I were watching TV, and an ad for Xenadrine or some other weight loss pill came on. I looked up to see Emma glancing from me to the TV; finally she said, "For Christmas, that's what I want to get you, so you can be skinny like the rest of us."

Yes indeed.

So--time to get real serious about this. It's a significant health issue for me. My dad died prematurely due to complications from diabetes and hypertension that he chose not to address while he could. That is not the road I want to go down.

Exercise is only half the equation--in addition to increasing the number of calories you burn, you also have to decrease the amount of calories you ingest; this is something I have not done.

I've lost weight before, most successfully by actually counting every calorie that I put in my mouth (you would have thought I was training to run a marathon before I started to cut back). I found that with a little effort, I was able to comfortably keep my daily calories in the 1200-1500 range, so that from about March to July of last year, I lost about 30 pounds. I want to repeat that feat. I'd like to lose about 60 pounds this time, with my goal at about 10 pounds per month.

So--today is day one. I've actually been pretty hungry today, mainly because I haven't been gobbling handfuls of peanuts and crackers and chips all through the day. Hunger is good. I had a simple salad for lunch, and I carefully counted and weighed my meatballs and spaghetti supper--it looked pitifully small, but I made it work. For the day, I stoppped at about 1100 calories, and I don't feel like it was too hard.

I will do this, if only to keep Emma from having to buy me Xenadrine for Christmas.

Defacing the Bible

2009-07-29T05:45:00.002-05:00

In Glasgow, some 100 people gathered in front of the Gallery of Modern Art to protest the defacement of a Bible that was featured in a recent art exhibition.According to this article,

Artist Jane Clarke, a minister at the Metropolitan Community Church, asked visitors to annotate the Bible with stories and reflections, as a way of making it more inclusive. But visitors to the gallery took the invitation a bit further than she had anticipated.

"This is all sexist pish, so disregard it all," wrote one person, while another described the Bible as "the biggest lie in human history" and a third wrote: "Mick Jagger and David Bowie belong in here." On the first page of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, someone had written: "I am Bi, Female and Proud. I want no god who is disappointed in this."

"Writing our names in the margins of a Bible was to show how we have been marginalised by many Christian churches, and also our desire to be included in God's love.
"As a young Christian I was encouraged by my church to write my own insights in the margins of the Bible I used for my daily devotions -- this was an extension of that idea."

To be fair, the artist did express that she was "saddened that some people have chosen to write offensive messages." Still, it's hard to imagine her exhibiting the Koran to show how homosexuals or proud bi-females have been "marginalized" in Islam. Somehow that concept never entered her mind.

Why is that? Is it somehow "edgier" to dissect Christianity? Such a brave, envelope-pushing work, indeed.

Sigh.

I somehow doubt that we will see Christian riots, or fanatical crowds of Methodists rampaging through the streets of our major cities, or Baptists flying planes into skyscrapers.

And until we do, don't talk to me about the moral equivalence between Islam and Christianity.

2009-07-28T11:42:00.007-05:00

One would have thought that as of January 20th, 2009, our country had entered a New Age of politics, led by President Obama--or certainly so it seemed if you went by most of the major news media outlets.

So, I am continually amazed at how well our new government does things now. How about that stimulus bill? something like 1400 pages, and of course no one knew what the hell was in it. Apparently the pending health care reform bill is the same way. And don't try and call it "government-run health care" or Congress will get mad at you.

Does anyone have anything to say about this? You know, like "we're trying to change things for the better?" Not exactly. Here's John Conyers, Democrat from Michigan:

“I love these members, they get up and say, ‘Read the bill,’” said Conyers. “What good is reading the bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?”

Yeah--WHAT GOOD IS THAT?

Obama promised in his campaign that his administration was going to be so transparent, and specifically, there would be 5 days of public display of any legislation before he signed it into law. This promise was quickly discarded early in his Administration.

Yet what did Obama once carp about the Bush presidency? Here he is on "Air America" (remember those guys?) with Randi Rhodes (another "whatever happened to her" entry--did she get mugged again, or what?) from November of 2004:

BARACK OBAMA: ...When you rush these budgets that are a foot high and nobody has any idea what's in them and nobody has read them.
RANDI RHODES: 14 pounds it was!
BARACK OBAMA: Yeah. And it gets rushed through without any clear deliberation or debate then these kinds of things happen. And I think that this is in some ways what happened to the Patriot Act. I mean you remember that there was no real debate about that. It was so quick after 9/11 that it was introduced that people felt very intimidated by the administration.

No word from the White House about this failed aspect of hope and change.

Probably too busy drinking beer with Skip Gates and that stupid rogue cop.

Prof. Gates

2009-07-23T09:53:00.006-05:00

I wasn't going to touch this one at all, but now that the President has deemed it important enough to speak about, I'll throw in my two cents.

Briefly, Prof. Henry Gates is a well-known professor at Harvard, specializing in African-American studies. He was arrested at his home in Cambridge a few days ago when he was attempting to forcefully enter his own home and ended up in a scuffle with police. At least some of the media is reporting that Gates was arrested for breaking into his own home. There are questions being raised about racial profiling. And, of course, the charge of racism is being loudly trumpeted by Gates himself as well as many others. But is this an example of racism?

According to the police reports (which were mysteriously removed from The Boston Globe's website), police were called to Gates' house by a neighbor who witnessed two men trying to break in. As I mentioned, Gates had just returned from an out-of-town trip and found the door to his house was jammed and was forcing his way in with the aid of his driver. The police apparently arrived as he entered the house, and not being aware of his identity, demanded that he show his ID. Again according to the police report, Gates initially refused to show ID, and became increasingly agitated, yelling at the police and saying things like "This is what happens to a black man in America." He did show the police identification, but continued to shout at the officers. When he was asked to step outside on the porch, he continued to yell (now in front of a growing crowd of onlookers), and was arrested for disorderly conduct.

So where's the racism?

The police were called about a break-in in progress, and came upon Gates in his house. Not knowing who he was, they were right to demand his ID. I don't see how this is an example of profiling. How should the police have responded to an apparently increasingly agitated Gates? Everything I have been taught about dealing with the police suggests that this kind of behavior will not endear you to the officer on the scene, and this is often the charge that will be used to cuff you as one way to defuse the situation.

Of course, the Professor's version of the events is somewhat different than the officers--he claims that he was very cooperative, and that the officers refused to give him their names or badge numbers. This does not seem very plausible, given that uniformed officers most often have their names and badges prominently displayed, this being confirmed by the pictures of the officers arresting Gates on his porch; I can clearly see three badges in the picture.

My guess is that the true version of events lies much closer to the officer's version than to that of Gates'.

It is unfortunate that the charge of racism was almost immediately vomited all over the place. I mean, I thought racism was a redneck, fly-over red State kind of thing, and certainly not to be found in the progressive bounds of Cambridge, Massachusetts. People who are familiar with the officer so labeled are in disagreement with this rash assessment. I am not aware that his record indicates any kind of racist problems in the past. But perhaps because he is a cop who is white this is the default assumption.

I'm not sure why Obama decided to wade into all of this, which essentially amounts to a local police incident. His claim that the police "acted stupidly" is premature at best, given that not all of the facts appear to be in. From what I can read, the police acted quite appropriately, and without obvious bias.

I will admit that this whole thing could have been handled differently by all concerned--cops and professors both.

How old?

2009-07-14T09:53:00.007-05:00

Much has been made recently of Arizona State Senator Sylvia Allen, who was captured in a video clip quite adamantly stating that the Earth is only 6000 years old. She says it not once, but twice during the clip, so you can't attribute it to a slip of the tongue.

People can believe what they want, but I remain baffled by the Young Earth Creationists. There simply is no scientific basis for their claims; it flies in the face of most of what we know about the world and how it works. What is particularly galling is that she is talking about a uranium mine. Uranium-238, one of the more common isotopes of the metal, has a half-life of 4.47 billion years, which doesn't really fit with Sen. Allen's version of reality. I am surprised that the cognitive dissonance doesn't just make her little head explode.

Oh yes--she's a Republican. I'm not sure why there are so many of these folks in the GOP these days, but if this party is to survive, it's going to have to jettison this kind of anti-science thinking. Again, believe what you want, but when you interject these beliefs into a scientific discussion or a science class in school, you have crossed the line.

So, MSNBC trots out Ed Schultz, host of The Ed Show on its failing news channel. Maybe he's supposed to be the voice of reason as a counterpoint to Sen. Allen, but he's just as wrong as she is:

" . . . and it's through the radioactive decay of uranium that we know that the Earth is a billion years old.

Sorry, Ed, not even close. Try 4.5 billion years old. Don't send out someone to poke fun at the anti-science Republicans who doesn't even know the science themselves.

Psycho Talk indeed.

Truly Random Thoughts

2009-07-06T21:49:00.010-05:00

A few personal notes:

Light blogging these days. I think the summer heat takes it out of me. Or maybe I'm just being lazy. Or maybe it's both.

Actually, I'm not as lazy as I have been. For the last 2 weeks, I have been getting up about 6:45 am and walking--briskly, I might add--a little over a mile through the streets of Rockettown. Well--as briskly as the temperature-humidity index will allow. One almost needs a pair of gills to gulp in the oversaturated air. It helps to wear a sweat shirt, too--I easily sweat off what I hope are some of the extra pounds I am carrying. What with this and the AbCircle Pro that Anya bought about the same time I started walking, I hope to be able to fit into one of those cool, Borat thong-things by August, so I can look hot on the beach at Caye Caulker. High five!

I have made some new book acquisitions recently. I am waiting to begin The Angel's Game, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I really liked his The Shadow Of The Wind, with its underlying old books and the surrealism of post-war Barcelona (dude, I so sound like an English major!!!), so I am hoping that the sophomore effort is worth it. Speaking of Spain, I am also dipping into Ghosts Of Spain, by Giles Tremlett. I have not really read much about modern Spain, and the time around the Spanish Civil War; it is fascinating to read how a country that once ruled most of the New World had, by the 19th century, been largely relegated to the sidelines of world politics, burdened by superstition and an incredible depth of poverty.

I also picked up two science fiction novels. The Anubis Gates, by Tim Powers I acquired from some random review on the Web. An interesting time travel story, encompassing a dizzying collection of famous literary characters, it's a little too much all over the map for me, but I am almost done, so I will finish it out.

The other book is The City & The City, by China Mieville. It is truly interesting, and Mieville has a really great imagination, sharp and bizarre at the same time. I have only begun to read it, though; sometimes I read too many books at the same time, and my neurons get cross-wired with my glial cells.

We had a wonderful 4 day weekend here, including some rather impressive smoke bombs (these suckers blew smoke for like 3 or 4 minutes) and other assorted backyard detonations. We even had a nice trip to Lake St. John, courtesy of the Blackwells (thanks, Sarah and John). It's an old ox-bow lake, cut off from the Mississippi a long time ago, about 60 miles south of here. Nice boating and swimming and grilling.

July 1st means a lot of different things (as I blogged about last year). To me, it marks a kind of summer midpoint--the days are actually already getting shorter, the baseball All-Star break is just around the corner, and at least for the kids of Rockettown, school is only about six weeks away. Those prescient folks at WalMart were already setting up the back-to-school displays this weekend, hehehe. If I were a schoolkid, this premature display of your intentions, sir, would be an act tantamount to war.

Also--check out Eric's new art blog for Northeast Louisiana, artnela--I've linked it over there on the side. It is a great place to get some great writing about the arts in this area; I really admire Eric's personal blog, so you should check that out as well.

For those of you who haven't noticed, Anya has begun some new works in the last few weeks--I really like them, and I think you will too. She has some pictures posted on facebook and on her blog.

I am probably going to be tweaking the appearance around here a little, so you may notice a few changes (like this layout, for example).

Okay--enough rambling. Haven't forgotten about politics, nosirree, but with the McMahonFawcettJacksonMaysMalden demises piling up, perhaps a certain amount of reverence is called for, yes?

That was snarky sarcasm, in case you missed it . . .

Healthcare

2009-06-25T09:53:00.005-05:00

Obama is going to try and push through a universal healthcare bill. If it's anything like the stimulus bill, it will be another disaster. If I remember correctly, there were 1400 pages in that one, that essentially no one had a chance to read before voting on. Whatever happened to those promises of transparency and public review of pending legislation?

No one really knows whats in the President's healthcare proposal. Is he going to tax healthcare benefits? He slammed McCain for this idea during the campaign. How is it going to work? Who's going to pay for it? Are we going to model it along the lines of Medicare? Or is it the VA model? There's two wonderful examples of government efficiency for you.

Without a doubt, the system needs to be reworked from the ground up. I don't know of any good proposals out there right now. I do know that we should approach a government-run single payer model with extreme caution.

And then there's this:

President Obama struggled to explain today whether his health care reform proposals would force normal Americans to make sacrifices that wealthier, more powerful people — like the president himself — wouldn’t face. . . Devinsky asked the president pointedly if he would be willing to promise that he wouldn’t seek such extraordinary help for his wife or daughters if they became sick and the public plan he’s proposing limited the tests or treatment they can get. The president refused to make such a pledge, though he allowed that if “it’s my family member, if it’s my wife, if it’s my children, if it’s my grandmother, I always want them to get the very best care."

Apparently, government-run health care (like paying taxes) is only for little people.

Hope and change!

Measured response

2009-06-24T08:32:00.001-05:00

Heh.

Translation

2009-06-16T08:46:00.001-05:00

I SO get it now.

WalMart makes you skinny

2009-06-05T08:00:00.000-05:00

Oh man. There is a study coming out of UNC which seems to suggest that people with access to WalMart/Sam's /Costco may actually be skinnier than those who don't shop at such stores.

In this summary, the study (which was assessing links between obesity and discount retail stores) actually showed that access to WalMart was associated with a lower body-mass index and a lower probability of being obese. Further analysis which included other discount retail giants seemed to confirm the effect; interestingly enough, WalMart's positive effect on weight was most pronounced for women, the poor, African-Americans and people who live in urban areas. There was also a positive correlation between better eating habits and the presence of discount club stores.

There are a few explanations given by the study authors. First is the substitution effect, whereby a change in prices relative to one another leads to, for example, cheaper salad prices (as compared to chip prices).

Another suggested explanation is the income effect. "If Wal-Mart sells food at lower prices--even if our incomes don't change--every dollar can buy more. Therefore, we're richer."

Is this a definitive study? Nah--not by a long shot. I kind of think of it as one of those "caffeine studies"--you know, the ones that come out every few weeks that have caffeine intake first associated with heart disease, then lower blood pressure, then increased mental acuity, or a variety of conflicting and seemingly unassociated outcomes.

It is interesting that the "conventional wisdom" would have it that big bad WalMart makes poor people fat and sells "bad food." Why do we believe this? I don't know. It's a commonly held belief. WalMart is often portrayed as the big bad monster destroying local communities and devouring the people that live in them. I do know that I have been surprised by what I am able to buy at the WalMart here in Rockettown. It's not Whole Foods, but it's not hard to find a variety of healthy foods to eat.

You can choose to believe what you want about WalMart. But this study won't exactly back up your prejudices.

Terminate--with extreme prejudice . . .

2009-06-04T08:36:00.002-05:00

. . . is the line spoken by the enigmatic gentleman in "Apocalypse Now," referring to the request to kill Col. Kurtz. Obviously it's meant to be an example of tortured government speak.

The good folks at Talking Points Memo are a little more blunt. In an article posted under the anonymous byline "The Insolent Braggart," the question is pointedly asked: At what point do we jail or execute global warming deniers?

I kid you not.

Unfortunately, clicking on the link will not bring up the article. Instead, you get a "File Not Found" listing. Maybe the good folks at TPM want the post to just go away. However, Climate Depot was able to get a screen capture and posted the screed in its entirety.

A snippet (edited for impoliteness):

So when the right wing f***tards have caused it to be too late to fix the problem, and we start seeing the devastating consequences and we start seeing end of the World type events - how will we punish those responsible. It will be too late. So shouldn't we start punishing them now?

Nice. Classy. Remember, this isn't a commenter from the extreme edge of the TPM universe, this is a published article.

And it's really not an extreme position, as The Insolent Braggart has a lot of company. From the Climate Depot article:

NASA's James Hansen has called for trials of climate skeptics in 2008 for "high crimes against humanity.” Environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. lashed out at skeptics of 2007 declaring “This is treason. And we need to start treating them as traitors” In 2009, RFK, Jr. also called coal companies "criminal enterprises" and declared CEO's 'should be in jail... for all of eternity."

In 2006, the eco-magazine Grist called for Nuremberg-Style trials for skeptics. In 2008, Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki called for government leaders skeptical of global warming to be thrown “into jail.” In 2007, The Weather Channel's climate expert called for withholding certification of skeptical meteorologists.

They told me that if McCain were elected, people would be jailed for having opinions that the government didn't agree with . . .

Tiananemen Square

2009-06-03T10:06:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow (June 4th) is the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. To re-cap, sensing the feelings of deep, radical change that were sweeping the Communist world in 1989, some 100,000 Chinese students gathered in Tiananmen Square in April of 1989, protesting for the continuation of market and political reforms that had been taking place under the leadership of Hu Yaobang, a pro-market, pro-democracy official who had just died. The protests widened across the country, but the gathering in Beijing captured world attention.

The Chinese government declared martial law, and made several attempts to send troops into the square, all of them met with resistance by both the students and the Beijing populace. Some of the most powerful images from Tiananmen Square include the Chinese goddess of democracy statue, and, of course, the lone man standing against the line of tanks. The video of him, repeatedly moving to line himself up with the tanks as they tried to drive around him is absolutely riveting. Finally, on the night of June 3-4, armored personnel carriers and armed troops surrounded and entered the square, firing and killing indiscriminately.

The estimate of the number of those killed is varied, as one might expect. The official Chinese government number is a paltry 241. More reliable estimates place the death toll any where from 1000 to 7000. The actual number, like the fate of that lone man, will never be known. However, we should bear in mind, as this article by Claudia Rosett states, "the high-end estimate of the number killed in the Tiananmen uprising is dwarfed many times over by the millions of Chinese who died under the horrific communist experiment of Chairman Mao: forcibly collectivized, rusticated, starved, executed outright or dispatched to the torments of China's prison camps, the laogai."

Some of the reactions to the massacre have been disturbing. Sen. Dianne Feinstein self-righteously compared the massacre to the shootings of 4 students at Kent State in 1970, a statement which is perhaps one of the most egregious examples of moral equivalency.Charles Freeman, who was recently tapped as President Obama's head of the National Council of Intelligence (nomination subsequently withdrawn), said in 2006 that the" truly unforgivable mistake" the Chinese authorities made at Tiananmen was not the brutal massacre of peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators, but rather "the failure to intervene on a timely basis to nip the demonstrations in the bud." The Chinese communists were not "rash," but rather "overly cautious." That's right--you're overly cautious if you shoot down peaceful demonstrators.

Recently Secretary of State Clinton went out of her way to let China know that the United States will not let human rights concerns hinder our cooperation with China. Maybe that's how diplomacy is supposed to work, maybe that's the kind of treacle that the State Department has to spit out in order for the world to keep turning. I hope not. What happened 20 years ago, where an oppressed populace stood up for democracy and freedom, is too important to forget.

The Wise Latina

2009-05-30T09:47:00.001-05:00

A couple of comments on this issue. First, it is pretty clear that Judge Sotomayor will be confirmed--the Dems have an overwhelming majority in the Senate; the GOP doesn't seem to have the cajones to really stand up and oppose her; and I don't really think there is a lot to be concerned about other than the obvious ideological differences.

Except for that question about racism.

Sotomayor finds herself under intensifying scrutiny for saying in 2001 that a female Hispanic judge would often reach a better decision than a white male judge. This statement came out in a speech at Berkeley (aka, "Moscow-by-the-sea") in 2001. Certainly, on the face of it, such a statement at the very least borders on racism. Is there a contextual component to what she said? Of course, but I'm not sure it makes a big difference.

To quote her more fully:

"Whether born from experience or inherent physiological or cultural differences ... our gender and national origins may and will make a difference in our judging ... I simply do not know exactly what that difference will be in my judging. But I accept there will be some based on my gender and my Latina heritage."

I can't really disagree with that--we are human, and we all have different life experiences, which affect how we view the world around us. They can be useful to us, and they can also be a terrible hindrance to us.

She goes on to wonder

" . . . whether by ignoring our differences as women or men of color we do a disservice both to the law and society."

She then concludes with the controversial statement itself: "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."

That different people perceive these comments differently is perhaps evidence of Sotomayor's point. But it is one thing to make commonsensical observations about the difficulty of overcoming our personal prejudices; as a judge, however, I expect someone--man, woman, Latina, Asian--to not celebrate these differences, but to strive mightily to transcend them.

What exactly does "a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences" mean? Do all Latina women (isn't that a little redundant? are there any Latino women out there?) have the same rich experiences? Isn't this at the very least prejudicial?

As far as her "compelling" story goes, one commenter notes

The woman grew up in the capital of the world, went to two Ivy League schools, and was blessed by Providence with the precisely correct right race-gender two-fer for the moment. This is a story of privilege, dammit, not adversity. Show me a Montana girl of un-useful ethnicity who put herself through law school waiting tables, after being left with two young children when her Army husband was killed overseas, and I'll start oohing and aahing over her compelling story.

And it's not just angry white guys who have taken notice. Even Obama is concerned about Sotomayor's choice of words, stating to NBC news, "I'm sure she would have restated it."

Senator John Cornyn, who has criticized Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich for their recent comments on the controversy, had this to say:

“The American ideal is that justice should be colorblind. As we see people like Barack Obama achieve the highest office in the land and Judge Sotomayor’s own nomination to the highest court, I think it is harder and harder to see the justifications for race-conscious decisions across the board.”

Sounds pretty reasonable to me. And he didn't even have to think about his choice of words.

Terminology

2009-05-27T09:25:00.003-05:00

I ran across this over at small dead animals, a Canadian blog. It highlights the disturbing terminologies used by the MSM:

An Islamic thug screaming "death to Jews" in the streets of Sweden is a "youth" or an "activist". ('Cause some folks want us to be like Sweden.)

An Islamic thug screaming "death to Jews" from a podium at the United Nations is a "conservative". (I thought everyone loves us now.)

Sure--makes perfect sense to me.

NOT.

Pelosi and 9/11

2009-05-15T09:57:00.004-05:00

I saw this at Scrappleface:

(2009-05-15) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, under scrutiny for her changing accounts of when she knew about the CIA’s enhanced interrogation techniques, said today that she was not informed until late 2003 that Muslim terrorists had used passenger jets to kill thousands of people in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

“One of my aides mentioned in passing that she had been to a CIA briefing months earlier about these techniques,” said Rep. Pelosi. “At the time, I thought the discussion was theoretical…that this was something that could happen. It wasn’t until October 2003 that I learned that these methods had actually been use on American soil.”

Crashing hijacked planes into buildings full of non-combatant civilians is one of several “enhanced immolation techniques” forbidden under U.S. and international law.

Rep. Pelosi, clearly rattled by reporters’ questions on the subject, first said she knew nothing about the 9/11 attacks, but later acknowledged that she was “too busy helping Democrats win a majority in Congress to get involved in the details of a matter that was being handled through appropriate channels.”

Okay, all kidding aside--was it just me, or did Pelosi look a little rattled at her news conference? There seems to be a constant re-jiggering of the details and a complete deflection of responsibility and knowledge. Did she know about waterboarding in September 2002? Or not until February of 2003?

If we take the second scenario (to which even she has admitted, I believe), then she will have known about waterboarding, i. e., "torture," for almost five years, without voicing any concerns until most recently.

I'm sorry--her level of indignation is a little impossible to believe.

Much less her story on what she knew and when she knew it. Where are Woodward and Bernstein when you really need them? Oh, that's right--they're digging up the dirt on Miss California.

Gay marriage opponent topless photos leaked.

2009-05-07T09:38:00.003-05:00

HOT HOT HOT!

Sorry--I couldn't resist.

Obama and Miss California

2009-04-24T14:07:00.000-05:00

Lots of furor over Miss California's answer to Perez Hilton's question about gay marriage. It's interesting that Ms. Hilton confines his most vile comments to Miss California, completely overlooking the fact (as do many others) that Obama and VP Joe "What's that website number?" Biden have exactly the same opinion about the issue that Ms. Prejean does.

This article summed it up nicely. Here's Obama speaking with Rick Warren:

Rev. Warren: "Define marriage."

Sen. Obama: "I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman. Now, for me as a Christian, it's also a sacred union. You know, God's in the mix."

Rev. Warren: "Would you support a constitutional amendment with that definition?"

Sen. Obama: "No, I would not."

Rev. Warren: "Why not?"

Sen. Obama: "Because historically, we have not defined marriage in our Constitution. ... I am not somebody who promotes same-sex marriage, but I do believe in civil unions."

As the article says, there is very little difference between Obama's statement and what Miss California had to say.

I think Ms. Prejean was by far the bravest of the two. "She was being questioned by a gay judge and a gay-friendly jury, after all. She surely knew that the response of her heart was not the answer this audience was looking for. Obama, on the other hand, was speaking before a largely conservative audience in an evangelical church when he endorsed the traditional view of marriage. How hard was that?"

I don't have a problem with gay marriage. Gay marriage doesn't threaten my marriage or my relationship. I think the best way to resolve this controversy is to get the government out of the marriage business altogether. Have everyone register their civil unions, and have these unions form the basis of any societal rights that marriage confers now. And if a church wants to "marry" someone officially, then that's great. I don't think any church should be forced to perform a marriage ceremony if it is against their own doctrine. That way, everyone is on an equal footing.

One year anniversary

2009-04-23T10:29:00.000-05:00

I just realized that this blog had just turned one. I began blogging last spring--April 13th to be exact. Whoo-hoo!

I'm not sure it has turned out exactly how I thought it would. The banner reads "Science, skepticism, some balanced woo-woo, a little politics, and hopefully, something to make people smile."

Well.

There wasn't a "little politics," now was there? I guess that was sort of impossible, given the fact that it was an election year. It gave me a place to rant, and a chance to believe that I can be cleverly snarky and witty and wise, so forgive my illusions of being the next Jonathan Swift. I also got to debate and "crush" in the comments section my favorite Anonymous brother and his radical agenda. Yeah, right.

I didn't post as much science as I thought, and I didn't go out and crusade against the woo. Crusade against the woo? I participated in a HOME DELIVERY, baby! That almost brands me as a tofu-chewing, mantra chanting member of the Deepak Chopra, brigade!

Actually, I've become a little disillusioned of the skeptical community. When I found out that the intertoobs had skeptic stuff on them, I was quite pleased. I quickly became disillusioned with Skeptico, and others, and in particular, BadAstronomy. The condescending tone, as well as the anti-religious attitude along with the vile political venom has been a complete turnoff for me. I came to those sites looking for some calm discussion about science topics and some debunking. I am now (thanks to those sites) more willing to examine different issues with an open mind.

That doesn't mean I believe that the Earth was created 6000 years ago, or that vaccines are BigPharma's attempt to hijack our immune system, or that crystal energy will heal the planet. I do believe that you can confront anti-science ideas and beliefs in a respectable way without implying that someone has a case of "teh stoopid," as some skeptical sites seem to think. You can win more respect for your side by not stooping to a lower level. Also, science is supposed to be essentially apolitical; I certainly don't need a dose of someone's "Bushitler" opinions on a chemistry blog or an astronomy site.

Being in recovery, I'm a bit more spiritual about things in my life, more so than I have ever been. Of course, my wife is the most spiritual person I have ever met in my whole life, so I often find myself standing back in amazement and just watching how she does things. I will spend the rest of my life learning from her.

Anyway---happy birthday, blog!

CNN "reporter"

2009-04-16T09:22:00.003-05:00

I saw mention of a CNN reporter who was apparently critical of a tea party rally in Chicago, but I skipped over the story, thinking so what. As I was passing the TV though, Fox was running the clip in question.

I looked closely, realizing that I recognized the "reporter." It's Susan Roesgen, who used to be an anchor in New Orleans in the '90's.

I actually had an interview with her when I worked in Metairie. She was doing a report on Norplant, a contraceptive device that had just been released. The personal injury lawyers had decided to take it down, so there was some controversy (not well-founded) about it's safety. If I remember correctly, Roesgen's channel ran a few pitiful stories about women claiming they had been injured. The station was looking for a GYN's perspective on the product, and somehow ended up calling on me.

Roesgen and a cameraman showed up in my office, and spent about 15-20 minutes asking me questions. I was honest and open, but could tell by her line of questioning that she was convinced that Norplant was a terrible product; at the end she seemed less than pleased with my answers. When the segment aired, those 15-20 minutes had been distilled down to less than 8 seconds. Much of what I thought was cogent and reasoned discussion was gone. When I last heard of her, she was leaving New Orleans for something on the National Geographic channel, a venture which didn't work out to well, I guess.

But there she is, "reporting" for CNN. You don't often see a "reporter" wagging her fingers in someone's face.

A few quick questions about the tea parties:
Were any cop cars turned over?
Any store front windows smashed?
Any garbage cans set afire?
Any gas canisters set off?
Any attacks on law enforcement?
Any Bush or Obama mannequins burned in effigy?

Whether you agree or disagree with the tea parties, as a "reporter" your personal feelings should not enter into your job. But now knowing who it is, I'm not surprised.

Devochka

2009-04-15T09:45:00.001-05:00

Well, my little Katya is 8 weeks old now. Emma and I went over to the clinic a few nights ago and weighed her--she's about 10 1/2 lbs now; it's an estimate since I think the Huggie was a bit, um, weighty.

Each day, she's a little different, a little more of an individual. She is still emitting all of the strange noises that I previously mentioned, perhaps with a few new ones thrown in. She is quite attached to her mother, especially now that she is completely aware of the fact that the large loud figure looming in her life does NOT know how to breast feed.

I love watching her. I love watching her curled up next to her mom when she sleeps--I could watch that for hours. When she gazes up at Anya while she is feeding, it is the perfect picture of adoration and awe. Of course, as soon as she detaches from the nipple, she gets this crazy, drunken, goofy grin on her face, which is actually quite appealing in its own way.

And she is smiling much more now, on a daily basis. She smiles at everyone--mom, sisters, even me. Of course, some of her smiles seem directed at random things in the room, like the wall, or the fan, or the corner of the door jamb. She smiles in her sleep, which is really amusing. What is she dreaming of? Milk? A lot of milk?

My mother was in town last weekend, and she really enjoys Katya. I think she could have held her for 72 hours. Some good grandma time--every kid needs that.

Global warming (updated)

2009-03-30T10:28:00.002-05:00

I haven't posted too much recently on global warming, or Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW), or as it is now known, climate change. But a few stories have popped up that deserve mention.

It was Earth Hour Saturday night. In case you missed it, you were supposed to turn off all your electricity for one hour from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm. This was a worldwide event, although I'm not sure how that was going to work. This was another one of those stunts that's supposed to somehow make us feel better about climate change without really making any impact on the actual problem. So--let's look around and see how things actually went.

The good folks at WattsUpWithThat link to some graphs of power consumption in California that show that the whole thing was a bust, at least in our most environmentally conscious state. As you can clearly see, there is no step down in power consumption, no decrease in the power load during the magical hour--none. The Saturday night graph is compared to the graph for Sunday night, and they are almost exactly the same.

But surely Al Gore participated in this altruistic exercise, right?
President of the Tennessee Center For Policy Research Drew Johnson took a Saturday drive by Al Gore’s during the time most environmentalists went dark:

I pulled up to Al’s house, located in the posh Belle Meade section of Nashville, at 8:48pm – right in the middle of Earth Hour. I found that the main spotlights that usually illuminate his 9,000 square foot mansion were dark, but several of the lights inside the house were on.
In fact, most of the windows were lit by the familiar blue-ish hue indicating that floor lamps and ceiling fixtures were off, but TV screens and computer monitors were hard at work. (In other words, his house looked the way most houses look about 1:45am when their inhabitants are distractedly watching “Cheaters” or “Chelsea Lately” reruns.)
The kicker, though, were the dozen or so floodlights grandly highlighting several trees and illuminating the driveway entrance of Gore’s mansion.

Gore responded this morning to these observations, claiming that his lights were definitely off, and proudly trumpeting the fact that his home is "powered by geothermal power." However, as one commenter noted, "Adding a geothermal system is roughly like spraying silicone on a rusty bicycle chain – both actions reduce the amount of energy needed to achieve your task, but it would be as wrong to call the bicycle “silicone powered” as it is to say his house is 'geothermal powered.'" As another commenter put it, "I thought the point of the event was to show support for energy-saving efforts, and thus “save the planet” efforts, by not using power for that hour? If that WAS the point, then Mr. Gore missed it."

But hey, who cares, right? Magical thinking is fun!

And finally, our neighbors in Fargo are suffering through some of the worst flooding in years. Guess what? Yep--it's all because of the pesky global warming! Obama even says so:

If you look at the flooding that's going on right now in North Dakota and you say to yourself, 'If you see an increase of two degrees, what does that do, in terms of the situation there?'" Obama told reporters at the White House Monday. "That indicates the degree to which we have to take this seriously.

Except for the FACT that there is no evidence that global warming/AGW/climate change has anything to do with the Fargo flooding. In fact, there is good evidence that record cold in the area has helped stave off an even worse disaster:

The river crested in Fargo at 40.82 feet (12.44 meters) shortly after midnight yesterday, never reaching the 42-foot forecast the weather service expected, which would have put it at the top of some city dikes. The crest broke the record of 40.1 feet set in April 1897.
The river was at 40.27 feet as of 4:15 a.m. local time this morning and was forecast to recede to 38.1 feet as of 1 a.m. on April 5, according to the National Weather Service.

Freezing Temperatures
Temperatures as cold as 7 degrees Fahrenheit froze water running into the river and are responsible for turning back the flood, said David Kellenbenz, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Forks, North Dakota, about 80 miles north of Fargo.

Hmmmmm . . .

The New Religion

2009-03-24T11:14:00.000-05:00

This picture was snapped in the children's section of a Borders bookstore in Dallas.

. . . and the children shall lead them . . .

Tea parties and Obama's grass roots appeal

2009-03-23T10:25:00.000-05:00

I've noticed some snickering from some folks about the "tea parties" that have been a feature of the political landscape over the last few weeks. The MSM seems to have cast a blind eye on the whole phenomenon, with the rallies barely receiveing any coverage at all. The LA Times was recently taken to task for failing to report on a rally which drew some 15,000 people; they actually claimed it wasn't "newsworthy." Right.

Here’s a partial list of the cities that have seen Tea Party Protests rallies: Cincinnati, Nebraska, Tampa, Lexington, Ridgefield, Conn., Raleigh, Orlando, D.C., Staten Island, Pasadena, Boston, Rochester, N.Y., Jacksonville, Minnesota, Cleveland, Columbus, Mo., Little Rock, Ark., Philadelphia, Kansas City, Harrisburg, Green Bay, Salt Lake City, Fullertown, Boise, Monterey, Maui, Yonkers, Utah, Tucson, Phoenix, Hoboken and Chicago. I do believe there was even one down in Lafayette, LA. According to some sources, there are another 150 events planned in the coming weeks, many to coincide with April 15th.

Of course, none of this is "newsworthy." Especially if it doesn't advance the political narrative.

What a contrast, then, with Obama's attempt at grass roots organization. A few days ago, the President called for nationwide house parties this past weekend to build support for his economic stimulus plan. Apparently, not a lot of folks seem interested:

A McClatchy survey of sign-up rosters for a score of cities across the country revealed only 34 committed attendees in Tacoma, Wash., as of midafternoon Friday; in Fort Worth, Texas, only 54, and in Sacramento, Calif., just 78.

"Before the election, we would have had 500 to 800," said Kim Mack, 46, a Sacramento city-facility manager who's hosted house parties for political figures and causes since the mid-'90s.

Kinda shabby for a veteran community organizer, don't you think?

I haven't been able to find any real numbers for what happened at the house parties, but I did see that the ACORN sponsored AIG protests were a fizzle. At this Connecticut rally, only one bus full of protesters showed up, followed by some 20 vans of reporters.

And this is just priceless:

The protesters stopped at one point in an organic grocery store and were suprised to learn that many AIG execs were shoppers there, and that according to the store's proprietor, they were actually very nice people. The flummoxed protesters spent several minutes outside trying to figure out how such "evil" people could be nice to an organic grocer.

A long 4 years?

2009-03-20T11:32:00.004-05:00

I wasn't going to post something new on politics today. I was even going to let the whole "Special Olympics" thing go--it was a stupid gaffe, but I don't think anyone believes that Obama is mean to cripples.

It is a question of balance, though. I use the word hypocrisy a lot, and I've come to realize that maybe that isn't what I'm getting angry about. There is hypocrisy everywhere, everyday, in everyone; it's part of our humanity, part of what makes us human.

Balance is a lot closer to what I'm trying to capture. Imagine if Bush had made the same comment that Obama did on Leno; how do you think the press would have reacted, and more importantly, for HOW LONG? Remember, this is the Hope and Change guy we are talking about; he was so much smarter and better than the others, so well-spoken. He was going to bring a fresh new face to our relations with our international friends and enemies.

The Anchoress says it best:

Can you IMAGINE what the press and the Dems would have done with the Irish PM Teleprompter gaffe (the press has helpfully embargoed the video, so Obama doesn’t have to see it playing 24/7, as Bush would have - had Bush so gaffed). Can you IMAGINE what the press and the Dems would have done if Bush had given the Prime Minister of Great Britain a lousy pack of 50 “Classic” DVD’s that didn’t work in the UK?

Yeah, I know--she's just an overweight, self-centered nag. Read the article--see what she has to say, and maybe try not to worry about her appearance.
I just heard about the region code gaffe with the British Prime Minister's DVD "gift:"

While not exactly a film buff, Gordon Brown was touched when Barack Obama gave him a set of 25 classic American movies – including Psycho, starring Anthony Perkins - on his recent visit to Washington.

Alas, when the PM settled down to begin watching them the other night, he found there was a problem.

The films only worked in DVD players made in North America and the words "wrong region" came up on his screen...

Is this really the guy everybody voted for?

Evil bonuses

2009-03-18T14:42:00.003-05:00

According to ABC News, the good folks at AIG kept handing out the political donations, even after they received more than $85 billion in federal funds to keep from falling apart.

Of the top twelve recipients of AIG's political donations, only 4 were Republicans, including John McCain, who received almost $60,000. The top two recipients? Sen. Chris Dodd and Presidential candidate Barack Obama, who together received over $200,000, nearly 63% of what AIG gave to the top 5 people on the list.

No word yet on whether those listed are planning on returning the money.

In a related note, it appears that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, also beneficiaries of recent Federal bailout money, are planning retention bonuses for their own executives; in the case of Fannie Mae, this will be to the tune of some $611,000 each for 4 top managers.

The bonuses were authorized last year by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which seized control of Fannie and Freddie in September. The bonuses are more than double last year's, which ranged from $200,000 to $260,000.

It will be nice to see Barney Frank calling up these guys for a visit to his committee; maybe Jon Stewart can invite them to his show.

Think it'll happen?

Jon Stewart's insider info

2009-03-17T09:30:00.005-05:00

Much being made of Jon Stewart's skewering of Jim Cramer recently on his show. Cramer's kind of lame, so I guess Stewart figured he would be an easy target to shoot at. I mean, it's not like there isn't any other political fodder out there for the comedians, right? Bumbling foreign policy, our economy is "fundamentally sound," picking every tax cheat they can find for top posts, charging war vets for their care, silly fights with right-wing talkshow hosts in the middle of the deepest economic crisis in 70-odd years, etc.

Well, Stewart apparently had a little help:

Jon Stewart, the scourge of Wall Street and bane of CNBC, may have had a secret weapon in his corner to help him prep for his grudge match with "Mad Money" host, Jim Cramer - his older brother.

As the Wall Street Journal recently pointed out, Stewart's brother, Larry Leibowitz, is head of US Markets & Global Technology at NYSE Euronext. (Stewart's given surname is also "Leibowitz," but he famously told "60 Minutes" that he changed it to "Stewart" because Leibowitz "sounded too Hollywood"). Larry has also held high positions at Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley.

A Page Six spy who recently shared an elevator ride at the NYSE with Leibowitz and Big Board CEO Duncan Niederauer says, "They both got off on the sixth floor, after Leibowitz had practically been doing everything but shine his shoes for the short ride up. What a routine they have. One brother pretends to kick Wall Street's butt by crucifying Cramer on his show, while the other brother is down on Wall Street kissing it."

'Cause, you know, cable television is the real malevolent power behind the financial crisis. Mustache-twisting CEOs use financial news programs to manufacture consent!

I mean, that would be like me having a left-wing brother who reads Firedoglake and Talking Points everyday and probably has Carville and Begala on speed dial and . . .

. . . oh wait--I do!

Wanting the President to fail

2009-03-11T15:51:00.004-05:00

Much has been made of Rush Limbaugh's "I want him to fail" statement that he made in regard to President Obama. The statements, which most agree have been taken out of context, have been the fodder for the "Rush is the Republican God" movement coming out of the White House, ably orchestrated by Rahm Emanuel, Paul Begala and the incredibly good-looking James Carville. Funny--I don't remember Rove or Cheney or the Bush White House ginning up talking points memos about Michael Moore. This is Milhousian, don't you think? But I digress.

It seems that Carville suffers from the same brand of "patriotism" that he accuses Rush of being infected with:

[on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001]Just minutes before learning of the terrorist attacks on America, Democratic strategist James Carville was hoping for President Bush to fail, telling a group of Washington reporters: “I certainly hope he doesn’t succeed.”

Carville was joined by Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg, who seemed encouraged by a survey he had just completed that revealed public misgivings about the newly minted president.

“We rush into these focus groups with these doubts that people have about him, and I’m wanting them to turn against him,” Greenberg admitted.

The pollster added with a chuckle of disbelief: “They don’t want him to fail. I mean, they think it matters if the president of the United States fails.”

These remarks were quickly forgotten by the press due in large part to the terrorists attacks which subsequently dominated the news coverage. To be fair:

Minutes later, as news of the terrorist attacks reached the hotel conference room where the Democrats were having breakfast with the reporters, Carville announced: "Disregard everything we just said! This changes everything!"

You don't always see Jimmy backpedal like that, so I guess I'll give him some credit.

Surprising that these long ago quotes haven't received the play in the media that they deserve.

YO! It's the First Lady!

2009-03-06T09:13:00.003-06:00

I had to look closely at this picture to figure it out.

No--I get the part about Michelle Obama spending some time volunteering at a soup kitchen.

But it's like she's mugging for the camera, posing for a photo . . .

. . . and she is! The "homeless" dude that she is plating up a lunch for is taking her picture--WITH HIS CELL PHONE!

If it weren't for soup kitchens, many Americans would go to bed tonight without their cell phones.

Things I am learning (or re-learning)

2009-03-03T14:57:00.000-06:00

It's been an interesting 2 weeks since Catherine arrived. It has been 20 years since I have been involved in the life of a newborn. So, I am learning, or re-learning, some lessons about the care and feeding of a newborn human being. Such as . . .

1. Babies poop a lot. A whole lot. Much of Catherine's metabolic output goes to her converting breast milk into something mushy and yellow that my wife happily insists "smells like yogurt!" Ummmm, Dannon it is not.

2. I do not produce breast milk, no matter what Catherine seems to think.

3. Babies sleep a lot. I think that they withdraw sleep from their parents and use it to supplement their own. Anya and I are winding up like stumbling zombies by about 4 in the afternoon. And it is so cool to watch and listen to her sleep. The strangest noises are emitted--grunts, coos, sighs. Lately she's begun dreaming, I guess, based on the rapid eye movements she exhibits during her naps. Just what the heck does a newborn dream about anyway? I imagine her brain is exploring new connections, axons and dendrites reaching out everywhere, synapses firing and communicating.

4. Her siblings are quite protective of her. If I make any gentle jokes about Catherine, Emma immediately rises up to defend her. Even big sister Sarah calls daily--no longer to talk to me, of course, but to get a baby update.

Well, I'm sure there are plenty more lessons to come. I have come to realize that I am living in a house full of estrogen, which should make the upcoming years--interesting? Fun-filled? Prematurely graying?

And yet, I am more happier and relaxed than I have been in years. Thank you, to ALL of my wonderful family!

Ooooh, Baby!

2009-02-17T09:20:00.001-06:00

It's a girl! Catherine (Katya for short, Ekaterina pa russkie) weighed in at 7 lbs.11 oz.

What a weekend. Anya went to bed Friday night with a lot of back pain and cramping, and a little bloody show. We decided to check her Saturday morning; she was about 6 centimeters, which was kind of surprising, since in my experience with laboring patients, when you get to 6 centimeters, you are really and truly uncomfortable. But by Saturday morning, most everything had kind of settled down.

We decided to run a few errands, so it was off to Monroe. I kept wondering if we were going to catch a baby on the side of I-20. Anya somehow slowly waddled through Target and we got some last minute baby things (tub, bouncy seat). Back to the house and later to bed. I think she slept pretty well that night, although everything is beginning to blur a bit in my memory.

We got up Sunday, and just hung out lazily. We all got sleepy after lunch, and ended up drifting around the house. Emma and Eric went back to his place, and Nicole was parked on the computer playing an online Wizards game. I woke up about 3:30 pm, to find Anya in the tub, saying "I think I'm really in labor now."

Somehow, I felt calm--all the anxieties and fears that I had invested into this labor process just disappeared. I sat in a chair by the tub, and basically just watched my wife. I could tell she was uncomfortable, but after cracking a few lame jokes, I realized that it was just best for me to sit and be quietly supportive. Now in most deliveries I've done, I'm used to having a delivery table with all my instruments laid out for me. Here, in our bathroom, I've got 2 cord clamps from the delivery kit, and a couple of receiving blankets. That's it. I did use alcohol to sterilize some scissors to cut the cord. Kind of felt a little naked, you know?

So, I patiently watched my wife in second stage labor. Not a very useful feeling. After 1 or 2 pushes Anya moved around to squat in the tub. I knelt next to her as she pushed really hard; suddenly she stopped and said something like "I feel it." I looked down, and the top of the baby's head slid into view. We both reached down, and guided her out into the water, and then up onto Anya's chest, where the baby cried once and then settled down, squirming peacefully in my wife's arms.

I've probably delivered--I don't know--about 10,000 babies in my career. Some were more interesting, or terrifying, than others. But the intimacy and the emotional intensity of delivering Catherine, with Anya--that's not something that I can easily put into words. It was an incredible experience, to say the least.

I finally went out and got Nicole to come and see her new sister (she had been totally involved in casting spells the whole time); she was completely surprised. We called Eric and Emma to come. Emma was a little taken aback at first, but completely got into holding the baby, and making sure that she is comfortable. Eric took some great pictures, which we will try to get up online some where later today.

So--I assisted at a home water-birth. Yep. Me. Dr. Skeptic. I'll probably be cast out into the obstetrical darkness for this heresy. Heck--a few years ago, I would have excommunicated myself.

In fact--I was thinking about where my life has taken me the last few years. Exactly three years ago (if I am not mistaken) on February 15th, I was applying for a job at Barnes and Nobles. I was broke. Didn't have a house. Didn't really have a car. I had flushed my career away. My family relationships were broken. There was no way I could have possibly imagined that things would turn out the way they have.

If you would have told me, that I would be sitting here, in Rockettown, gazing at my beautiful wife and our beautiful daughter sitting on the couch in our living room, I would have just shook my head in disbelief. I do have so much to be grateful for.

Wow.

Soviet breakdancing

2009-02-14T10:49:00.002-06:00

Oh my.

If they would have attacked us with these dance moves, back in the '50's, this post would be in Cyrillic.

Global warming and WMD

2009-02-13T07:41:00.001-06:00

I ran across this site a few weeks ago. Yeah, it's a site that is a bit skeptical of the global warming hysteria, as I am (which does not mean that I don't agree that warming is taking place); it is pretty easy reading, just technical enough to keep my brain engaged, and doesn't stoop to shrill tactics to get its points across. I believe it was a Weblog Award winner just recently as Best Science Blog.

They had a post about a recent Guardian article which opens with the line, "Experts at Britain's top climate research centre have launched a blistering attack on scientific colleagues and journalists who exaggerate the effects of global warming."

Wow; pretty strong stuff for the likes of the Guardian, which has been pushing the apocalyptic global warming idea for some time. The reference is obviously to the likes of James Hansen, James McCarthy and Stephen Chu, who I posted about last week.

One quote from the article:

“It is easy for scientists to grab attention by linking climate change to the latest extreme weather event or apocalyptic prediction. But in doing so, the public perception of climate change can be distorted. The reality is that extreme events arise when natural variations in the weather and climate combine with long-term climate change.”

Sounds pretty reasonable to me.

This follows a recent article on HuffingtonPost (Jan. 3rd) absolutely blasting AlGore for "the biggest whopper ever sold to the public in the history of humankind." A bit angrier in tone, it too is well worth a read.

Finally, I ran across this little exchange over on Camille Paglia's blog:

(question) Have you noticed how much the call for combating global warming crusade has in common with how we got into the Iraq war?

In both cases, there are "experts" who tell us that evidence justifying action is undeniable. They say, "The risk of doing nothing is too great for us to do nothing." And as a fallback position they say, "Even if we're wrong, we'll still be doing some good in the world."

Kind of makes me think man-made CO2 emissions will turn out to be the biggest case of nonexistent WMD since Saddam Hussein's nukes. (Or maybe even bigger!) What do you think?

Jim Carroll

(reply) Wonderful letter! . . . I have been highly skeptical about the claims for global warming because of their overreliance on speculative computer modeling and because of the woeful patchiness of records for world temperatures before the 20th century . . . the global warming crusade has become a hallucinatory cult. Until I see stronger evidence, I will continue to believe that climate change is primarily driven by solar phenomena and that it is normal for the earth to pass through major cooling and warming phases.

Not that I place much scientific value on Ms. Paglia's climate theories, but the observation about the WMD evidence I thought was insightful. If you are going to apply the same skepticism to Colin Powell's UN testimony, why not apply it to climate "science?"

Special Forces

2009-02-12T14:16:00.004-06:00

Two servicemen pictured riding the new improved Nimbus 2000 in Tikrit, Iraq. The updated broomsticks are outfitted with Sneakoscopes and the latest model Foe-glass.

Check out a few other pics from Iraq. I especially like the one with the lady pilot with her purse danging from the controls.

Alabama vs. Europe

2009-02-11T11:15:00.002-06:00

Two recent observations came out that I find interesting in their juxtaposition.

First, as part of a study to examine American ideas about Islam, a college student dressed in a black abaya traveled to Arab, Alabama (yeah--never heard of it either) to see how the local townspeople would react to her attire. "I expected people to say, 'What is this terrorist doing here? We don't want your kind here,' " said Hailey Woldt, a 22-year-old blue-eyed Catholic, recalling her anticipation before stepping into a local barbecue joint. "I thought I wouldn't even be served."

Instead, Woldt’s experiment in social anthropology opened her own eyes. Apart from the initial glances reserved for any outsider who might venture through a small-town restaurant’s doors, her experience was a pleasant one.

Maybe she should be studying American prejudices about the South instead. You know how stupid and backwards us rednecks can be, staring slack-jawed at the terrorist Arab lady. One native Alabaman commenter noted that he’d feel safer in Birmingham in a turban than in San Francisco in a Bush/Cheney t-shirt.

The other study, commissioned by the Anti-Defamation League is a little more scientific and perhaps more disturbing. The ADL conducted a poll, which included interviews with 3,500 people - 500 each in Austria, Britain, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Spain.

They found that 33% of Europeans blame Jews for the global economic meltdown. That's one-third to us crackers who don't unnerstan addin' and minusin' and 'rithametic.

In Spain, 74 percent of those asked say they feel it is "probably true" that Jews hold too much sway over the global financial markets. Nearly two-thirds of Spanish respondents said Jews were more loyal to Israel than they were to their home countries.

I thought those Europeans were supposed to be so much more enlightened than us, especially us Southern good ol' boys.

I guess you don't have to go all the way to Alabama to find religious prejudice.

Really?

2009-02-10T17:11:00.005-06:00

The headline "Mythic birthplace of Zeus possibly found" struck me as bizarre.

Kind of like "Forge for Thor's hammer located," or maybe "Paul Bunyan's seamstress reveals secrets."

Torture

2009-02-10T14:50:00.003-06:00

According to the Washington Post, a Bush administration official has admitted that a Guantanamo detainee was actually tortured.

"We tortured [Mohammed al-]Qahtani," said Susan J. Crawford, in an interview. "His treatment met the legal definition of torture."

Qahtani is alleged to be 9/11's 20th hijacker. He was denied entry to the US by a suspicious customs inspector at the Orlando airport in August of 2001. Mohammed Atta, the murderer who piloted one of the planes into the World Trade Center, was at the airport that day to meet him. Qahtani was later captured in Afghanistan by US forces and has been a guest at the Guantanamo facility since January of 2003.

So--electrodes to his nether regions? Bamboo shoots under his fingernails? A little light flogging with the knout?

No. Qahtani "was forced to wear a woman's bra and had a thong placed on his head during the course of his interrogation" and "was told that his mother and sister were whores."

Wait--is this torture, or was he pledging a fraternity?

Okay, okay--I'm just an insensitive boob. And anyways, now that Obama is in charge we won't be having any more of these torture shenanigans, right?

Not exactly.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the policy of rendition predates the Bush administration. This policy of course brought howls of protest, and Obama promised to end the practice.

So, when questioned by the Senate as part of his confirmation process to head the CIA, Leon Panetta clarified that the US will still hand over foreign detainees for questioning, but only "with assurances they will not be tortured" (according to the AP).

You know, pinky swear. And no crossing fingers.

But apparently, that assurance was ALREADY part of US policy. Some former prisoners picked up during the war on terror alleged that they were nevertheless vitims of torture. When Panetta was asked about those allegations, he responded "I am not aware of the validity of those claims."

So, exactly what will be different with Obama's administration about this whole rendition thing?

"I will seek the same kind of assurances that they will not be treated inhumanely," Panetta said (emphasis added).

Hope and, umm, change?

Science--politicized

2009-02-05T10:25:00.003-06:00

According to Stephen Chu, Obama's new Energy Secretary, California is doomed, doomed I tell ya:

Chu warned of water shortages plaguing the West and Upper Midwest and particularly dire consequences for California, his home state, the nation's leading agricultural producer.

In a worst case, Chu said, up to 90% of the Sierra snowpack could disappear, all but eliminating a natural storage system for water vital to agriculture.

"I don't think the American public has gripped in its gut what could happen," he said. "We're looking at a scenario where there's no more agriculture in California." And, he added, "I don't actually see how they can keep their cities going" either.

Can someone point me to a study suggesting that there will be no more agriculture or cities in California by 2100? What does the IPCC say? What is the consensus view?

No more agriculture, abandoned cities . . . not quite an Ehrlich (or a Hansen), but impressive just the same.

Although he is a Nobel prize winner (in Physics, 1997, for using lasers to trap and cool atoms), he is NOT a climate scientist. How interesting, in that we are often lectured by climate alarmists that only qualified climate scientists should be listened to on the subject of climate change.

For years we've heard complaints about how the Bush Administration waged a "war on science" by, among other things, distorting or misrepresenting scientific findings in order to support its policy positions.

Is this any different? Or is it "okay," because it's in line with what Obama believes?

Delivery approaches

2009-01-27T15:24:00.000-06:00

Well, I've got our delivery room all outfitted just like I want. I'm pretty sure Anya is going to like the set-up; pretty mom-friendly, don't you think?

As Borat would say, "NOT!!!!"

Yes, the delivery date is coming. The official due date is March 3rd, I think, if we go by the last menstrual period. The sono that we did earlier showed February 28th, which is not that big of a difference. Either way, the baby is coming.

I remember when we found out we were pregnant--this delivery thing was far off, you know, after the holidays, over the horizon, too far away to even begin to think about. Not anymore.

I have been keeping a positive attitude about the whole thing, knowing that everything will go well. I am hoping that the baby comes so quickly that I will not have time to worry about anything and overthink the situation. My fantasy is that I am at work and Anya calls me and says "Hey Dave, baby's here! Come see!"

Well, I hope to be a bit more of a participant than that.

Byrd collapses

2009-01-21T08:50:00.002-06:00

Robert Byrd (D-WV, the Senate's only former Exalted Cyclops of the Ku Klux Klan) speaking in 1964:
"I'll drop dead the day a black man can be president."

HEADLINE OF THE DAY: Obama Inaugurated, Ex-Klansman Collapses.

Art world

2009-01-19T02:36:00.000-06:00

Andrew Wyeth died the other day at age 91 at his home in Pennsylvania. Both Anya and I were surprised; I could have sworn he had died years ago. I remember seeing his work at NOMA a few years back, and even then the impression I had was that he had already died. I can only surmise that these last few years, he was not working, although I understand that he painted well into his 80's.

I'll talk about the two pics in a second.

What I find amazing is the kind of criticism that was leveled at Wyeth's work during his lifetime. Common criticisms are that Wyeth's art verges on illustration, and that his rural subject matter is sentimental. Peter Schjeldahl, art critic for The Village Voice, derided his paintings as "Formulaic stuff not very effective even as illustrational 'realism'".

Here's Time magazine's take:

Even when Wyeth is admitted into the canon, he's held a bit at arm's length. The Museum of Modern Art in New York City owns his most famous canvas, Christina's World, which it acquired in 1948, soon after it was painted, for just $1,800. But while the picture is always on display at MoMA, it's consigned to what you might call an anteroom on the margins of the more respectably modern galleries . . .

The London Times art critic even cut poor Christina's feet off. You think they would have left off the bottom of a Pollock or a Rothko?

So I ran across this story. Seems Aelita Andre will be holding her first gallery showing at the Brunswick Street Gallery in Victoria, Australia later this month. The gallery's art director was shown her work by another client of his, liked what he saw and set up the show, with lots of press and promotion.
WhenThe Age's art critic, Robert Nelson, was shown the works, his first impression was of "credible abstractions, maybe playing on Asian screens with their reds. They're heavily reliant on figure/ground relations."

One problem. Aelita Andre is 22 months old. That's right--my kid COULD paint that.

Maybe Wyeth could have been more credibly abstract; he could have paid more attention to color-shape and that old bugaboo, figure/ground relations.

Well--of the two paintings above, one was done by an artist, the other was done by someone who woke up fussy from their nap.

Go ahead--guess which one!

Yes you can party

2009-01-16T08:30:00.002-06:00

"This is a time to celebrate. This is a great moment. Do not dress down. Do not wear the Washington uniform," said Tim Gunn, a native Washingtonian and Chief Creative Officer at Liz Claiborne, Inc.

Mr. Gunn is referring to the upcoming inaugural celebrations for President-elect Obama next Tuesday evening. Despite the dismal economy, continuing disturbances in the Middle East and talk of sending an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, the word is that glitz and pageantry are in. At some $45 million dollars, this is set to be the most expensive inaugural. Evah.

Great, huh?

Yet four years ago, the AP was singing a different tune. The nation faced similar difficulties as we do now, but many in the press suggested that it would be in poor taste for Bush to hold a lavish inaugural celebration.

Here's an excerpt from the AP story in January 2005:

President Bush’s second inauguration will cost tens of millions of dollars — $40 million alone in private donations for the balls, parade and other invitation-only parties. With that kind of money, what could you buy?

■ 200 armored Humvees with the best armor for troops in Iraq.

■ Vaccinations and preventive health care for 22 million children in regions devastated by the tsunami.

■ A down payment on the nation’s deficit, which hit a record-breaking $412 billion last year....

The questions have come from Bush supporters and opponents: Do we need to spend this money on what seems so extravagant?

New York Rep. Anthony Weiner, a Democrat, suggested inaugural parties should be scaled back, citing as a precedent Roosevelt's inauguration during World War II.

"President Roosevelt held his 1945 inaugural at the White House, making a short speech and serving guests cold chicken salad and plain pound cake," according to a letter from Weiner and Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash. "During World War I, President Wilson did not have any parties at his 1917 inaugural, saying that such festivities would be undignified."...

I actually think this is a time for celebration, not chicken salad. Obama's inauguration is an unprecedented historic event in our nation's history, and he (and our country) deserve to celebrate. So this isn't about Obama being inappropriate--it's about the behavior, the hypocrisy of our press corps.

This is the kind of stuff they are reporting today:

"Just because the economy is in a downturn, it doesn't mean that style is going to be in a downturn," agreed Ken Downing, fashion director for Neiman Marcus.

And if anyone does raise an eyebrow at those sequins, remind them that optimism is good for times like these. "Just say you're doing it to help the economy," chuckled good manners guru Letitia Baldridge.

For some reason, this brings to mind one of my favorite quotes by John Lennon, from a performance before the Royal family in 1963:

For our last number, I'd like to ask your help. The people in the cheaper seats clap your hands. And the rest of you, just rattle your jewelry.

An honest mistake?

2009-01-15T08:10:00.000-06:00

A plumber owed $1,000 in taxes that he didn’t even know about… …and it was headline news!

Yet, Timothy Geithner, Obama's designated pick for Treasury Secretary owed $26,000 in back self-employment taxes and it doesn't seem to be be a big deal.

What's up with that?

To be fair, I've been behind on taxes myself before--not a good place to be, but I knew about it, and eventually got straight with the Feds. To be fair, this guy paid what he owed when informed of his, um error. But this guy works at a Federal Reserve Bank. He's being proposed as Treasury Secretary. He's supposed to mastermind our economic recovery. The IRS is part of his Department.

And he forgot?

There are more than enough simple tax programs out there that will walk you through the necessary calculations--it's not a big deal. And I'm not really concerned about this guy's mistake. Maybe it shouldn't disqualify him for a Cabinet post. But if he had been a Bush nominee, or a plumber . . .

Others are not so forgiving. Here's what one blog commenter had to say:

Why would anyone neglect to pay taxes? Forgot? Not a good sign. Procrastination? Not good. Didn’t know about it? Maybe o.k. for a plumber, but… Above it all? Won’t get caught? Didn’t have the money? (I’m self-employed, too, and I make sure I have the money). Doesn’t believe in taxes? Can you think of one good reason for not paying taxes that portends well for a Secretary of the Treasury? I’d feel better.

I wonder if Biden is questioning his patriotism.

Playing at being green

2009-01-14T14:53:00.002-06:00

Recently-elected Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) wanted to promote electric car technology. So he figured out a way to drive an electric car from his district to his swearing-in at the Capitol in D.C. Unfortunately, the 300 mile distance is out of the driving range of the electric car. Hmmm, what to do? Well, Massa had it figured out:

Massa drove one fuel cell car while a hybrid SUV towing an additional SUV followed along. Once he got half way, he switched to new fuel cell car. The empty fuel cell was then towed back by the first SUV. As he continued on his journey, the second SUV followed. Once Massa arrived in DC, the second SUV then towed the second fuel cell car back to NY.

This green wannabe took 4 cars to drive 300 miles. But, you know, he REALLY cares, you know, about the environment . . .

This guy's capacity for theater combined with obliviousness portends for a successful career in politics.

Did you really think that the stoopid was leaving D.C. next week?

CPR instructions needed

2009-01-08T16:27:00.000-06:00

This was posted earlier today at Little Green Footballs. The story is that this "freelance" cameraman is out shooting footage in Gaza for a British news channel when he receives word that his 12 year old brother has been injured by Israeli gunfire.

Watch the video at the link (sorry, couldn't embed it here).

The chest compressions look, well, anemic. As the commenter at LGF notes, it's like the big guy is tapping on the kid's sternum (I thought he was compressing the abdomen actually). There is no one ventilating the patient, and in a full "code" situation this would most certainly be done. At one point the doctor is seen quite nonchalantly pasting EKG leads on the "victim's" chest. There is no sense of urgency, no "controlled chaos" that one would normally see during a code--especially in the case of trying to save the life of a child.

Another commenter noted, "I know if MY little brother was laying on a table fighting for his life, the very first thing I would do is run and get my camcorder!"

This originally ran on CNN, but surprisingly, the video has since been taken down from the CNN site. Hmmmm . . .

And the doctor in the video? He's Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian MD who has been quite vocal in his support of Hamas; he's apparently all over the place giving interviews to anyone who will listen, claiming that Israel is indiscriminately and purposely murdering civilians. In addition to being supportive of Hamas, Gilbert has voiced support for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

"The attack on New York did not come as a surprise after the policy that the West has led during the last decades," Gilbert told the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet on Sept. 30, 2001. "The oppressed also have a moral right to attack the USA with any weapon they can come up with."

When asked if he supported a terror attack on the U.S., Gilbert said, "Terror is a bad weapon but the answer is yes within the context which I have mentioned."

I would think he needs more than CPR lessons.

Torture and rendition

2009-01-08T09:24:00.000-06:00

As long as the left is patiently holding its breath, waiting for Bush or Cheney to be arrested and tried for war crimes, we perhaps should consider this. As early as spring of 2002, key members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, including Nancy Pelosi, were briefed thoroughly, and repeatedly, on the CIA's covert antiterror interrogation programs. Since they did nothing to stop the programs, wouldn't they also be complicit in these "crimes?" It will be interesting to see how this goes down; after all, the story is that Bush just thought up this torture stuff all by himself, sitting at his ranch in Crawford. Instead, it seems that intelligence officials were acting in good faith and with the full knowledge of key Members of Congress.

And rendition--the handing over of prisoners to other countries where torture is allowed--wasn't that a Bush invention? A lot of people seem to think so, but the program was really developed during the Clinton administration (see here and here).

And who's being named as the new head of CIA? Leon Panetta, Clinton's chief of staff.

Hope and change for everyone.

Gas prices

2009-01-06T10:27:00.002-06:00

I actually bought gas the other day for $1.33/gallon. Oh man, that was sweet.

There was a popular bumper sticker not too long ago that said "When Bush took office, gas was $1.46." No further details, but the implication was chimpy Bush and his cronies had jacked up the prices. You know, just sayin' . . .

Well, as of Dec. 29, the national average price of a gallon of gas was $1.59; adjusted for 2001 dollars, it works out to $1.33, 9% lower than when Bush took office.

I am educated enough to know that Bush personally did not have anything to do with gas prices during the last 8 years.

I'm just sayin' . . .

Revisionist and the terrorist

2009-01-05T17:58:00.000-06:00

Recently, Bill Ayers wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Times, in which he tries to defuse some of the criticisms lobbed against him during the recent presidential campaign. It is historical revisionism at its best. You know, he just wasn't that bad a guy.

I never killed or injured anyone . . . In 1970, I co-founded the Weather Underground, an organization that was created after an accidental explosion that claimed the lives of three of our comrades in Greenwich Village.

The explosion was that of a pipe bomb loaded with roofing nails, meant as a present to the Fort Dix enlisted club. I think a bomb is bad enough, but when you include roofing nails, are you trying NOT to kill or injure anyone?

The Weather Underground went on to take responsibility for placing several small bombs in empty offices — the ones at the Pentagon and the United States Capitol were the most notorious — as an illegal and unpopular war consumed the nation.

No, Bill--you had already plotted to explode 44 sticks of dynamite at a Detroit police station adjacent to a restaurant. And your participation in the failed 1969 Days of Rage is well-known. I say failed, even though innocent people were hospitalized and one district attorney (Richard Elrod) was paralyzed for life, a maiming Ayer's fellow Weathermen mocked with the crude lyrics of “Lay Elrod Lay.”

We did carry out symbolic acts of extreme vandalism directed at monuments to war and racism, and the attacks on property, never on people, were meant to respect human life and convey outrage and determination to end the Vietnam war. . . But it was not terrorism; we were not engaged in a campaign to kill and injure people indiscriminately, spreading fear and suffering for political ends.

As a famous tennis player once said, "YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS!"

The NYT had no problems running the Ayers fantasy--I mean op-ed piece. However, they refused (twice) to run a rebuttal piece by Larry Grathwohl, the FBI informant who had infiltrated the Weather Underground at the time, and who was responsible for saving many of the lives that Ayers was ready to sacrifice. Here it is in full:

“Response to ‘The Real Bill Ayers’”

By Larry Grathwohl

My name is Larry Grathwohl and I infiltrated the Weather Underground for the FBI. I had no idea when my journey began in August 1969 that I would see and experience the degree of violence and hatred of our democracy that existed in the Weather Underground. Bernardine Dorhn, Bill Ayers, and the other people I would meet had as their sole purpose the destruction of the United States. The fact that I ultimately became the only source of information regarding the activities of the Weather Underground and the fact that Bill Ayers now claims their goal was only to bring about the end of the war in Vietnam requires me to respond.

At least Bill admits the Weather Underground “crossed” the line of legality but mitigates this admission by stating that the effectiveness of the “symbolic acts of extreme vandalism” is still being debated. He further states that the selected targets were “property, never people” and that their only purpose was to end the war in Vietnam. Bill is simply not being truthful and is rewriting history to reflect a completely different role for himself and the Weather Underground from what actually took place. “Bring the war home, kill your parents” was the mantra being chanted when the group decided to go underground in December 1969 and there certainly isn’t anything anti-war in that statement. I’m also curious as to who is debating their status. When I think about the Weather Underground my immediate thought is “terrorism and death.”

Billy goes on about how the Weather Underground came into existence because “peaceful protests had failed” and “after an accidental explosion killed three comrades.” The explosion of the townhouse in Greenwich Village was the result of a bomb factory which was preparing bombs containing roofing nails for use at a Fort Dix enlisted club. The inclusion of roofing nails can have but one purpose and that’s to injure or kill people. Prior to this event Bill’s wife, Bernardine Dorhn, placed a bomb of the same design at the Park Police Station in San Francisco and killed Officer McDonnell. Additionally, I was still inside the Weather Underground when the townhouse blew up and the commitment to sabotage and terrorism had already been established and the purpose was the overthrow of the United States government.

Bill implies that the questioning of his activities is dishonest and that at worst he may have made some mistakes in judgment but his motivations were just. Personally, I can think of nothing that would justify the activities of the Weather Underground and am astonished by Bill Ayers’ attempts to corrupt the historical facts by making himself a misunderstood leader of the anti-war movement. Robert Kennedy, possibly the most notable anti-Vietnam war leader of the late 60s, was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan in 1968. The Weather Underground published Prairie Fire in 1974 and dedicated it to Sirhan Sirhan. Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dorhn, and others signed this dedication but now they would ask us to accept their explanation that all they wanted to accomplish was an end to the war in Vietnam.

I could go on with many other contradictions in the new history Billy is attempting to impose on us. Today we are supposed to believe that Bill is merely an educator with no interests in the political aspects of our society. If this is true then why the picture of him standing on our flag? Why the statement that his only regret is that they (the Weather Underground) hadn’t done enough? What is the meaning of “I now consider myself an anarchist”? I can only conclude that Billy is a confluence of contradictions and revised history meant to confuse us as to what he is really about. Consider “guilty as hell, free as a bird, America is a great country.” Do you think he really means that?

I must conclude by acknowledging that in one respect Bill is probably being absolutely truthful. When he says that “I never killed or injured anyone,” he is most likely being totally honest. Bill, like Charles Manson, never exposed himself to any kind of danger. He always gave orders and then left it to his then-girlfriend, Diane Oughton, and others to implement his plan. If you listen closely you can even hear the similarities in the arguments Manson and Billy use today to justify what they did: the 60s made me do it.

No amount of inspired fantasy, however, can omit the simple truth that there is only one significant difference between Bill Ayers and Timothy McVeigh.

Competence.

Please, not OJ!

2008-12-29T18:46:00.004-06:00

Mr. Simpson has been through enough.

These guys are really scary. Maybe they bomb orange groves.

Nerd Elitism

2008-12-20T12:47:00.000-06:00

When I was in high school last century (snicker), we had an open campus policy, which meant you could leave the school grounds to eat lunch, for example. There were a few businesses in the immediate neighborhood (besides Flame-N-Burger and Blimpie's) that we frequented, including a high-end home audio store in the next block. Home of the $1200 turntable, the $700-a-piece QUADROPHONIC speakers ("You can really blast your Bachman-Turner Overdrive, man!"), and your home plate, a receiver/equalizer combination, often the size of an expedition piece of American Tourister luggage. Remember kids, daddy didn't have any digital toys back then.

This is where I first became aware of the phenomenon of nerd elitism. You not only needed the finest turntable, you needed the needle that went with it--usually something constructed from the dew claw of a Tasmanian lemur. Sure, you can play your albums with that store-bought cartridge, but listen to the quality of the sound you get with that lemur claw--it's awesome! What . . . you can't hear the 17.5 dB difference in the mid-range?

Errrrr...no.

I was reminded of this phenomenon as I read "A Better Brew,", an article on extreme beer brewing, a topic that makes the Trekkie experience look positively uninvolved. The extreme brewers of the world are those posers who like to concoct their beer from obscure and/or rare ingredients. Because . . . because . . . well, like the dew claw above, obscure is better, right?

The article profiles one Sam Calagione, owner of the Dogfish Head brewery of Delaware (motto: “Off-Centered Ales for Off-Centered People”), regarded as one of the best by extreme beer geeks. Here's a description of one of DH's more interesting brews, aged in barrels constructed of some bizarre species of Paraguayan wood:

. . . he had filled the barrel with a strong brown beer. It was made with three kinds of hops, five kinds of wheat and barley, a dose of unrefined cane sugar, and a sturdy Scottish ale yeast. It had a creamy head when poured, like a Guinness stout, and contained about twelve per cent alcohol—two and a half times as much as a Budweiser. Calagione called it Palo Santo Marron. . . There were hints of tobacco and molasses in it, black cherries and dark chocolate, all interlaced with the wood’s spicy resin.

"It was an extreme beer, he said, but to most people it wouldn’t have tasted like beer at all." Gee--you think so? The combination of molasses, Vick's Formula 44 cough syrup, chocolate, pine sap and Skoal probably would not, I repeat, would NOT taste like beer. To anyone.

Ever.

No matter--Calagione pushes the envelope ever farther, the goal being to to make beers so potent and unique that they can’t be judged by ordinary standards (much less called beer). Hence, he uses ingredients like fresh oysters, arctic cloudberries, curry, coriander and lemongrass. He has in the past concocted a medieval gruit brewed with yarrow root and grains of paradise; an African tej made with bitter gesho bark and raw honey(yes, I was also ashamed that I did not know what a gruit or a tej was); there was even a green colored brew for St. Patrick's day that derived its hue from--mmmmm, blue-green algae. Why? Just because!

What is it that bugs me about this? I think it's the Emperor's New Clothes thing that smells it up for me (rather than the gesho bark and algae). It's the idea that if you throw a bunch of stuff in with the fermented barley, you're making some kind of tasty masterpiece. Maybe you're really just making a gag-inducing elixir that packs a liver-shattering wallop (many of Calagione's brews have a lot of alcohol) that you can charge your suckers--I mean, patrons, 20 bucks a snifter. And hey, if you can get 'em to belly up for your cleverly labelled swill again and again (Goatkiller, Hog's Vomit), why, then you can be a beer hero and pocket lots of money.

It's like a talking with a wine snob, but somehow seems worse. Or watching a Quentin Tarantino movie, and feeling small for not being in on the all the references to obscure 1970's Hong Kong martial arts movies. Or . . .

. . . in my teens, I could play a halfway decent game of tennis (suprising even to me). This one kid hung around the public courts, and always had the most expensive racquet, the vacuum-packed tennis balls, matching head and wrist bands, etc., etc. Challenging me to a game once, he snickered disdainfully at my beat-up wooden racquet and my Keds.

I mopped the court with his silly posing ass.

Global warming and severe storms--not so fast. . .

2008-12-19T18:17:00.003-06:00

Phil Plait is at it again. In a post earlier today, he claims that a recent study gives strong evidence to support the idea that warming global temperatures are associated with more severe storms. This is an idea often cited by climate change alarmists, including AlGore, who claimed that Hurricane Katrina's destructiveness and power was definitely a product of global warming. One would have thought this idea was already well-founded, being part of the climate change litany for some time, but this recent data makes it double super-duper well-founded. Or does it?

The study (from JPL) shows that very high clouds, which are associated with severe weather, are more frequent when the ocean is warmer. The correlation they found was very strong; "for every degree Centigrade the oceans warm, they saw a 45% increase in the number of these clouds!" exclaims the BadAstronomer excitedly.

But there's nothing to get excited about. Despite the post claiming a link between global warming and severe storms, the study only shows a link between warming ocean temperatures and high altitude clouds. I'm not sure how strong the association is between high clouds and severe weather, but the equation is warmer ocean = more high clouds, not warmer ocean = more high clouds = more severe storms. And there is a world of difference.

Even Plait admits that linking clouds, rain, and global warming is incredibly difficult because rain is very difficult to model. But that's okay: "This new result bypasses that, using the clouds as a proxy for storms." That's a pretty big leap right there--I'm not sure that you can just "proxy" your results that way. There may be a whole lot of influences and variables that we haven't uncovered yet between the high clouds and the severe storms part of the equation. There's even evidence that the hurricane forming region in the Atlantic is actually cooling down.

It kind or reminds me of the development of fetal heart rate monitoring in obstetrics back in the 1970's. It made perfect sense to think that if we could somehow monitor a baby's heart rate during the labor process, we could identify babies in "distress" and deliver them in a timely fashion. There was even a feeling that this monitoring would somehow decrease the number of C-sections. Of course, things did not turn out quite so rosy as expected, and many attribute the rise in unnecessary C-sections directly to fetal heart rate monitoring. The point is some of our best scientific ideas and assumptions turn out very differently in the end.

The whole climate change issue has become extremely politicized, unfortunately, from both ends of the political spectrum. Alarmists like Gore and Hansen, and deniers like Inhofe have done much to obscure the very real work that is being done and have helped inflame the passions of those on both sides of the issue, to the detriment of clear thinking on the subject. The climate is incredibly complex, and is certainly deserving of further study. It is folly to deny that the earth is warming (most "global warming deniers" do not deny this fact at all). But it is equally dangerous to proceed with large-scale, costly solutions that do not have a firm scientific basis to begin with.

Research like this is important, no doubt. But claiming that it establishes a strong link between global warming and severe storms is simply bad science from the BadAstronomer.

Just friends

2008-12-17T10:13:00.003-06:00

I don't think anyone is saying that President-elect Obama is directly tied to the sale of his recently vacated Senate seat by Gov. Blago. Most of the MSM and even the boys at FoxNews have been careful to preface their reporting on this story by remarks to that effect.

But for some reason, Obama has steadfastly claimed that no one on his staff had any contact with Blago about the Senate seat. It is quite clear that it would not have been illegal for Obama or anyone on his team to have had discussions about his replacement (as long as they didn't discuss pricing options). But it is becoming clearer that members of Obama's staff did indeed have contact on this issue with the beleaguered governor, perhaps with some of them being taped. I am baffled as to why Obama has seemingly backed himself into a corner on this issue.

I believe that there are some good politicians in the State of Illinois, just as there are a few here in the State of Louisiana (it sure is nice to have someone else wearing the mantle of Most Corruptedest State Evah for a change). I believe it is possible to play in the political mudpit without getting too soiled, although it probably requires superhuman effort. The Illinois scandal has the potential to engulf the President-elect unless he is completely forthcoming and ready to jettison anyone who had a direct role to play in the illegalities.

For someone who didn't realize how rabid his own pastor was, and then had only a fleeting idea that Bill Ayers had done something wrong a long, long time ago--well, maybe it is possible that he had no idea that Gov. Blago was a scum-sucking invertebrate bottom-feeder.

Size 10 WMD--UPDATED

2008-12-15T17:56:00.001-06:00

This clown is being hailed as a "hero" by many in the Arab world, after chucking his shoes at President Bush at a press conference in Baghdad.

"Thanks be to God, Muntazer's act fills Iraqi hearts with pride," his brother, Udai al-Zaidi, told Reuters Television.

"This was a spontaneous action by an Iraqi citizen who was showing his dismay at seeing the president of the country which is occupying our nation," said Liwaa Sumeissim from the anti-American Sadr movement.

According to one report, Al-Baghdadiya television played endless patriotic music, with Zaidi's face plastered across the screen.

Among those leaping up to support al-Zaidi was Khalil al-Dulaimi, Saddam's former lawyer, who said he was forming a team to defend the journalist and that around 200 lawyers, including Americans, had offered their services for free.

I found this comment from a Canadian named Allen King over on the Al Jazeera English site: "Al-zaidi's act will long be remembered in history, same as when an unarmed student stood before a tank in Tianaman Square in Bejing."

Some people have a different view of what heroic really means. No matter what you may think of Bush, there is a vast difference between a lone man facing down a tank and this journalist "expressing" himself.

Something tells me--and it's probably just a silly hunch--that for some strange reason, Manolo Boy (or how about Buster Brown? al-Thom McCann?) never contemplated tossing his Blahniks at the former leader of Iraq; I wonder why? I wonder how many lawyers would have rushed to aid his defense if he had thrown his shoes at Saddam.

Most likely, he would not have needed a lawyer at all. Just someone from forensics to ID his remains.

UPDATE (12/17/2008, 4:47 PM): I ran across this quote that someone left as a comment on another blog:

The reporter knows deep down that he can throw his shoe at Bush only because of Bush and it shames him. He can’t forgive Bush for that.

I thought that was another interesting take on the situation.

Burning churches and Bush and the Muslims

2008-12-14T11:15:00.000-06:00

A few unrelated items of interest:

First, Sarah Palin's church in Wasila was set on fire by an arsonist Friday night. There were several people in the church at the time, including two small children. It is pure speculation at this point to assign motives for the fire--whether it was related to the church's stand on homosexuality for example, or Palin's politics, or some other reason. I will predict that not much will be made of this event by the mainstream press. I can almost guarantee that if the fire had been set at someone else's church, especially while children were present, the outcry would be deafening.

Second, I am not (despite howls from some to the contrary) Geroge Bush's greatest fan. I think much of how the Iraq war was handled, especially after the invasion, was bungling and chaotic, to say the least. Ultimately, there has been a remarkable turnaround, and the country is a much better place than it was in 2001, or for that matter in 2006.

I ran across this interesting post last night. The title itself drew my attention: "Rescuing 50 Million People From Brutal Regimes Has Given Bush a Bad Name With Muslims." Indeed, the article quotes this AP story about the laundry list of horrors that Bush is responsible for:

The U.S. image globally has taken a deep hit during President George W. Bush's two terms in office, primarily because of opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, harsh interrogation of prisoners, the indefinite detention of terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and mistreatment of inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

(emphasis added)
Just above this quote is an embedded video with the label "Warning: very graphic" attached to it. Watch it carefully and with that warning in mind, but do watch it, please. These are the people that Bush freed the Iraqis from. Exactly how does something like Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo even compare?

I hope Obama can help change this impression that the Muslim world has of us. But this is not strictly Bush's fault; it is far more complex and far deeper than that. A simple change of face at the White House, even with "Hussein" as a middle name, is not going to do it. No better example of this can be found than Al-Qaida's al-Zawahri referring to Obama as a "house negro" (see my post November 19th).

This story also from the AP via the Knoxville News Sentinel begins this way:

President-elect Barack Obama, relatively young and inexperienced, is facing a rapidly growing list of monumental challenges as he prepares to take the reins of a nation in turmoil.

Funny how just a few weeks ago, "young and inexperienced" was actually "fresh and dynamic."

Medical marijuana

2008-12-08T21:00:00.000-06:00

The latest The New Yorker (December 1, 2008) has Sasha Frere-Jones' article on Steven Ellison, a "a tall, soft-spoken twenty-five-year-old who works under the name Flying Lotus." He is part of a growing movement that is guiding hip-hop into the next decade via a road paved with a "fractal spidering of sounds, a backdrop of crackles, and prickling, feverish rhythms no human hands could play." I was actually intrigued by this description of his music. Although I am no fan of rap/hip-hop, I like the reincorporation of musical ideas into new compositions, like Eno and Byrne's My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts, or some of the better mashup artists like CCC. So I began reading the article.

The article describes the interior of Ellison's Northridge L.A. apartment, "typical of the twenty-first-century musician: a collection of laptops, keyboards, and processing units, none of them large and most of them portable." There is also this decorative touch:

A series of pharmacy bottles lined the wall behind his equipment. The clear orange cannisters were familiar, but not the names on the laser-printed labels: Grape Ape, Purple Haze. “Medical marijuana,” Ellison explained.

Huh? The picture accompanying the article shows a robust young man, leaning back in his chair and laughing heartily. He certainly didn't appear to be a cancer victim, or a glaucoma sufferer. Just what are the indications for medical marijuana usage?

According to Wikipedia, medical cannabis was shown to have established effects in the treatment of nausea, vomiting, unintentional weight loss, and lack of appetite. It is also indicated for treatment of certain types of glaucoma. So far, so good. The Wiki article goes on to note that marijuana is "indicated" in a variety of other conditions, such as epilepsy, asthma, migraines and arthritis. I can think of a number of drugs that are "indicated" as first-and even second-line therapy for these conditions, but I am unaware that there is extensive literature to back up the "indication" of marijuana usage in any of them. But that's okay, 'cause Dr. Tod H. Mikuriya of California has compiled a list of over 250 conditions that he has treated with medical marijuana, including (I kid you not) sedative dependence and opiate dependence. I am so behind the times, man.

As a person in recovery myself, I am baffled as to why anyone would consider treating substance abuse with another mind-altering drug.

The Wiki article does mention some of the concerns that the medical community has about smoked marijuana, specifically an Institute of Medicine study that concluded that smoking cannabis is not recommended for the treatment of any disease condition. The FDA has approved Nabilone and Marinol for the treatment of unresponsive nausea associated with chemotherapy, and the use of a vaporizer has been mentioned as a delivery vehicle for the active components of marijuana.

Perhaps there are valid indications for the medical use of marijuana, other than glaucoma and nausea. In this era of evidence-based medicine, more trials are needed to establish its usefulness as a treatment. To claim that it is somehow useful in such diverse conditions as PMS or Grave's disease or (and again I kid you not) Writer's Cramp (International Classification of Diseases 9 Code 300.89) is farfetched based on our available evidence.

The push to legalize medical marijuana has been couched in terms that suggest opponents to its use are mean-spirited prudes who would want to see cancer-ridden bulimic glaucoma sufferers waste away into an even earlier grave than is their due.Unfortunately, Mr. Ellison, with his drug store bottles neatly lined up next to his water-operated “gravity bong,” paints quite a different picture.

Far out, man.

(BTW, I did check out the Radiohead "Reckoner" remix on the Flying Lotus MySpace page. Not bad, but not great, either.)

I am proud of you, New Orleans

2008-12-08T10:08:00.003-06:00

Bill Jefferson got his pink slip Saturday night from the good folks in LA's 2nd Congressional district. It's long overdue, as "Dollar Bill" has been an embarassment for some time (even before the cash-in-the-freezer incident). The district will now be represented by Anh Cao, America's first Vietnamese-American congressman. Interesting also is that he will be a Republican representing a predominantly black district.

So, two of Louisiana's top elected offices are occupied by people of color, specifically Asians. I am always impressed by the racial progressiveness of the South, which is often looked upon by the rest of the country as backwoods sheet-wearers. The recent murder by a collection of ignorant Klan wannabes received worldwide press coverage. I can only hope the AP reports favorably on Mr. Cao's election.

Hello--still here . . .

2008-12-06T14:34:00.000-06:00

Haven't had much of a chance to do much posting as of late, but I'm still here. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving--all of the food tasted exceptionally good, even a rather improvised turkey chili the next day.

Our attic conversion is complete, and functioning quite well, especially now that there is a TV and a Wii console installed. The mellifluous strains of Sponge Bob are but a distant fading memory.

On other construction news, Anya is getting ready to enter her 28th week. The baby is quite active, which freaked out Emma the other day, when she first felt some kicks. We are entering the home stretch--yay!

In addition to growing a new human being, my multi-talented and beautiful wife is also painting fairly prolifically (esp. when the girls are busy with school). She has revamped her website, too, so you should check it out. The old link should take you to the new place.

So now the holidays are rapidly approaching. Both the girls are in school plays, which makes our afternoons a little hectic, as they are both part-time ballerinas. BTW, our oldest daughter Sarah, is tapdancing her way to fame and fortune this afternoon in Washington DC at her dance recital. Just like Lisa in "Last Tap Dance in Springfield" . . .

My mother and my youngest brother and his family will be hanging out with us for Christmas, and I am truly looking forward to their visit. My other sibling will be joining his band Five Eight on stage in Athens, GA on New Year's Eve--it will be an incredible show and everyone should go if they can.

So--a little catching up. :)

An Enlightened Electorate, and a New Respect

2008-11-19T09:12:00.006-06:00

Two stories here:

First, an interesting Zogby poll of Obama voters. In this poll, they didn't seem, well, very knowledgable. More than half (way more than half) could not identify which party controlled Congress. Seventy-two percent did not know that Biden had quit a previous campaign over charges of plagiarism. Almost 90% did not know about Obama's stance on the coal industry.

They were pretty informed on Sarah Palin, though. Most were convinced (falsely) that Palin said she could see Russia from her window. And over 90% knew that she had a pregnant teenage daughter.

This is not about how dumb Obama voters are; there are obviously Obama voters out there who are much more informed about our government (although the majority of this sample were high-school and college grads). And there were plenty of examples of McCain supporters during the campaign who were most likely dropped on their heads in the delivery room. It's about the meme that by and large, Obama voters were somehow hipper and smarter than those racist Neanderthals who voted for the other guy. The idea that Obama voters are more focused on the "real issues" is maybe not so true after all.

Second, the #2 guy at Al Qaeda (vice-president? deputy CEO? assistant to the regional manager?) used a racial epithet in a message to President-elect Obama, referring to him (along with secretaries of state Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice) as "house negroes."

And you thought we were going to be respected now . . . awwww . . .

Michael who?

2008-11-17T12:15:00.000-06:00

So we're riding in the car a few days ago, listening to some Christmas music that I had playlisted on the iPod. The usual stuff, of course, but I like to find some more obscure stuff if I can (how 'bout "Dominic the Christmas Donkey" or James Brown's "Santa Claus Go Straight To The Ghetto"?). So a mashup comes on, mixing Lennon's "Imagine" with a very young Michael Jackson singing "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town." It's actually pretty well done; try Googling Santastic II; it'll take you to a bunch of interesting holiday downloads.

THe kids asked who that girl was that was singing in the song. Anya and I laughed, and thus began a rather long discussion about who Michael Jackson was, how he was a superstar both as a child and an adult, how he had been fabulously wealthy (we didn't go into detail about his rather spectacular fall from grace). The girls were particularly fascinated by his pictures that we showed them on the internet. Emma still has trouble understanding what happened to his nose and how can he still sing without a nose and why did he not want his nose anymore.

The saddest thing for me, though, was the fact that just a little over 10 years ago, Michael Jackson was wall to wall world famous. There wasn't a kid on this planet (and probably a few others) that didn't know who he was. And yet here were two little girls (4 and 8 1/2) who had no clue of his identity--none at all. What happened?

Obviously, Michael was a talented individual. Songwriter, dancer, performer--he did it all, and sold millions, if not billions of records. But was his talent that deep? Will he be regarded as a classic? Some hugely popular artists withstand the test of time. I predict that we will still be listening to the music of Lennon-McCartney "many years from now;" the same goes for the song stylings of Bing Crosby or Sinatra.
I am not so sure that Britney or L'il Wayne will be part of anyone's classic canon down the road. American cultural history is apparently littered with "sensations" that find themselves beached and forgotten when the popular tide recedes. Who really remembers Paul Whiteman, or George W. Peck?

I actually feel sad for Michael Jackson, as strange and creepy as he was (is). It is amazing what fame can do to people. Sometimes the changes aren't just internal.

Vincent Taylor

2008-11-11T22:29:00.000-06:00

A while back, I posted about a guy named Vincent Taylor. He was a guy in some unfortunate circumstances who found himself stuck in Rayville. He helped us out with some odd jobs around the house. Finally, we helped him catch a bus back to Seattle so he could be back with his family.

I thought about him every once in a while--did he make it all the way back to Seattle? How was he doing? Did he reunite with his family? I was not sure that I would ever hear from him again.

Well, my wife has been dabbling around on Facebook recently. One morning, she gets a message from--you guessed it--Vincent Taylor. Seems that he has landed on his feet back in Seattle with 6 months of sobriety under his belt. Awesome! The guy has a whole slew of friends on the Facebook site, too.

And as I was pasting in the html code for my original post, I realized that he had left a comment back in October.

So now I'm the one with tears in my eyes. They say miracles do occur in this program; I don't doubt that for a moment.

Mr. Taylor, thank you. One day at a time . . .

TISFS

2008-11-10T19:39:00.002-06:00

This Is Some Funny Stuff.

No, I don't have those mad skilz as a text hero. But I did find these cool texting acronyms for old folks, over at McSweeney's:

BIMD: Back in my day

ROFLACGU: Rolling on the floor laughing and can't get up

ML2N?: Matlock tonight?

OMGWTF: Oh my. Gee whiz. Tutti-frutti.

MBDC: My bad. Damn cataracts.

WIOLATS: Wore it out like a turn signal.

GTALNINFTCW: Gee, thanks a lot, now I'll never finish that crossword.

Not that I'm old or anything.

(YOU KIDS GET OUT OF MY YARD!!!!!)

Nicole's blog

2008-11-08T22:15:00.003-06:00

Nika has started her own blog! For a truly brain-bending tour of the mind of an 8 year-old, you should check it out.

You'll swear someone slipped something in your drink.

President-elect Obama

2008-11-08T22:11:00.002-06:00

Obviously, Tuesday was an historic day in the United States. Congratulations to President-elect Obama on his victory.

I was supporting McCain (could you tell? could you tell?), so this is not the outcome I wanted to see. But it is not the end of the world. I sincerely hope that Obama can bring some of the change that he talked about to our country. I want to believe that he actually has a viable and articulate vision, and that he (and the Congress) won't take our society too far to the left.

At the very least, this election marks a new chapter in race relations in this country. President-elect Obama was elected our first black president, largely because of white voters. With the apparent demise of the Bradley effect, and the obvious mischaracterization of many whites as bitter closet racists, I believe the idea of Amerikkka can be laid to rest. Racism did not end on the night of November 4th; perhaps it never will. But the change in this great country of ours is vast and powerful and positive. I hope that as a nation we can continue to rise above our past failings.

So now the right side of the blogosphere will enjoy a season in exile. It will be interesting to see how people react. From what I can see, most of the blogs have been offering their congratulations. And I'm not seeing a lot of gloating from the left, although Chris Matthews emphatically stated that his job as a journalist was to make sure that the Obama presidency succeeded.

(BTW, here's a piece from the Washington Post which talks about that nonexistent media bias. That's right--the Post actually admits [post-election, of course] that their coverage heavily favored Obama. Isn't that special?)

How do we keep from descending to the level of the "Bush=Hitler" robots who populated the left the last 8 years? I think that we have an opportunity to offer criticism in a way that many on the left seemed incapable or unwilling to do. I hope that we can express our disagreements in unified pro-American tones, rather than anti-Obama screeds. There should be no conservative counterparts of Bill Maher, Michael Moore, or Al Franken (who's still losing apparently). There is a vast difference between criticism and personal hatred. And don't talk to me about Ann Coulter, at least not until the day she is idolized by Hollywood.

Perhaps this will mark the beginning of an impressive and important change in American history. I hope so, like many others in this country; but I'm smart enough not to be holding my breath.

My Wife, American Citizen

2008-11-04T16:15:00.000-06:00

This morning Anya and I drove over to the high school gym and cast our votes. It was Anya's first time voting as a United States citizen; I think she was actually excited. She said she had voted before in elections in Russia; the first time she voted, they presented her with a flower. I made sure I told the poll workers that today was her first time voting as a US citizen; they smiled, but alas, no flower.

We voted for President and Senator. And there were about 5 or 6 propositions (amendments), too, all worded so as to completely confuse anyone who read them. I think Anya took her time and read them, because she was in there a lot longer than I was. This makes her about 150% more informed than I was.

So. A flower to my lovely, Russian-born wife.

Tomorrow's THE day

2008-11-03T15:00:00.001-06:00

At long last, we come to an end (I hope) of this dismal election season. I hope that things can be resolved tomorrow night without the controversy that marked the 2000 election. I have to wonder about the charges of voter fraud that have been made, and how that will play out. I hope that these allegation have been political BS as usual.

When Bill Clinton was elected in 1992, there were fears that the New World Order was about to be made good. There were UN forces massing in Mississippi, unmarked troop transports spotted all over the Southeast, and of course, the infamous Black Helicopters everywhere.

When Bush was elected in 2000 (and more so at the time of his re-election in 2004), the talk was of loss of our basic rights--you know, political speech shut down, the FBI monitoring your library habits, Bush=Hitler, etc.

None of these things happened. And despite this being the "most important election of our lifetime" (aren't they all?), no matter who is elected tomorrow, I don't think the country will look that much different 4 or 8 years from now.

This article talks about how a conservative might respond to an Obama presidency. "The actions of the left over the last eight years, and the behavior of Obama's supporters and the press over the past few months has made me angry," he writes. "It's not Obama himself who fuels my anger - it's the way the media covers for him. It's the fact that if he wins, I'll spend the next four years being accused of racism for disagreeing with his policy proposals."

It will be interesting to see how our MSM relates to Obama (if he is indeed the winner). My guess is that it will be quite a contrast to the last 8 years. Which brings up this, as a temptation, at least:

This is surely small of me, but if Obama wins, I plan on giving him as much of a chance as the Democrats gave George Bush. I will gleefully forward every paranoid anti-Obama rumor that I see, along with YouTube footage of his verbal missteps. I will laugh and email heinous anti-Obama photoshop jobs, and maybe even learn photoshop myself to create some. I'll buy anti-Obama books, and maybe even a "Not My President" t-shirt. I'm sure that the mainstream bookstores won't carry them, but I'll be on the lookout for anti-Obama calendars and stuff like that. I will not wish America harm, and if the country is hurt (economically, militarily, or diplomatically) I will truly mourn. But i will also take some solace that it occurred under Obama's watch, and will find every reason to blame him personally and fan the flames.

Not my cup of tea, necessarily, but surely tempting and attractive in a way. Or maybe these are the new rules of engagement. I sincerely hope not; the last 8 years of Bush hatery has been tedious, predictable and far from edgy.

Jerome Cole,writing about Obama Derangement Syndrome, adds this polite request:

Presidents are just people and have all the faults that go along with being human. They are also dealing with a huge number of nearly intractable problems while under intense scrutiny from all quarters. Shouldn't we be more forgiving of their mistakes? Even if we can't bring ourselves to be less critical, being less shrill would also be quite welcome.

Well. I don't know how tomorrow night will go; I suspect that a definitive call will not come until early Wednesday. I look forward to something else to occupy my blogging for a change. We won't shed our political fur at the end of the day, but it is my hope that we can set aside some of our pointed and shrill differences.

Less shrill would be real nice.

The Economic Failure (or, Media Losers pt 2)

2008-10-30T19:00:00.001-05:00

Just as I am not sure what to make of the polls, I have also given up trying to figure out what's happening at the stock market. Everyday, there is another wild swing, up and down.

Surprisingly, the FannieMae/FreddieMac debacle has kind of faded from view, which is interesting. No one seems to be reporting on just how we got from Point A to Point B. What's the story?

There is an obvious political angle here. This article by Orson Scott Card,(I only knew him as an interesting sci-fi writer) should be required reading. It not only gives a fairly succinct summary of the origins of the crisis, but calls the media on the carpet for their less than honest reporting of the situation.

This housing crisis didn't come out of nowhere. It was not a vague emanation of the evil Bush administration. . . This was completely foreseeable and in fact many people did foresee it. One political party, in Congress and in the executive branch, tried repeatedly to tighten up the rules. The other party blocked every such attempt and tried to loosen them.

Guess which party is which.

"Isn't there a story there?" asks Card. Of course there is--inconveniently though it involves the wrong party. So, it becomes not-news; not now anyways. So, Card hammers the media:

Now let's follow the money ... right to the presidential candidate who is the number two recipient of campaign contributions from Fannie Mae.

And after Fred Raines, the CEO of Fannie Mae who made $90 million while running it into the ground, was fired for his incompetence, one presidential candidate's campaign actually consulted him for advice on housing.

If that presidential candidate had been John McCain, you would have called it a major scandal and we would be getting stories in your paper every day about how incompetent and corrupt he was.

But instead, that candidate was Barack Obama, and so you have buried this story, and when the McCain campaign dared to call Raines an "adviser" to the Obama campaign -- because that campaign had sought his advice -- you actually let Obama's people get away with accusing McCain of lying, merely because Raines wasn't listed as an official adviser to the Obama campaign.

You would never tolerate such weasely nit-picking from a Republican.

The job of a "journalist" (ugh--there's that word again) is to tell the truth. But in this case, the truth is ignored, or, at best, only selectively reported. Card mentions how Sarah Palin's life and family (and Joe the Plumber too) got extensive attention and scrutiny, yet John Edward's rather messy and tawdry extramarital perambulations were studiously ignored and perhaps even covered up.

Remember--Card is apparently a Democrat, so this insight is amazing:

This was a Congress-caused crisis, beginning during the Clinton administration, with Democrats leading the way into the crisis and blocking every effort to get out of it in a timely fashion.
If you at our local daily newspaper continue to let Americans believe -- and vote as if -- President Bush and the Republicans caused the crisis, then you are joining in that lie.
If you do not tell the truth about the Democrats -- including Barack Obama -- and do so with the same energy you would use if the miscreants were Republicans -- then you are not journalists by any standard.
You're just the public relations machine of the Democratic Party, and it's time you were all fired and real journalists brought in, so that we can actually have a daily newspaper in our city.

And yet, with all of the media adoration, with the repeated mantra of change, Mark Steyn notes this:

This is an amazing race. The incumbent president has approval ratings somewhere between Robert Mugabe and the ebola virus. The economy is supposedly on the brink of global Armageddon. McCain has only $80 million to spend, while Obama's burning through $600 mil as fast as he can, and he doesn't really need to spend a dime given the wall-to-wall media adoration. And tonight Chris Matthews' doctors announced that his leg tingle has metastasized leaving his entire body like a vibrating cellphone whose ringtone is locked on "I'm In Love, I'm In Love, I'm In Love, I'm In Love, I'm In Love With A Wonderful Guy."

And yet an old cranky broke loser is within two or three points of the King of the World. Strange.

Strange indeed.

Big dummy!

2008-10-29T15:25:00.005-05:00

At least that's what Fred Sanford would say.

Apparently, Obama botched this pop culture test the other day, confusing Fred Sanford with George Jefferson.

"That ain't right," Obama said. "Can you imagine? If Social Security funds had been invested in the stock market, Americans wouldn't even need Social Security!
"You would be having Sanford and Son," the senator said, referring to the 70s sitcom featuring Redd Foxx as the proprietor of a junkyard.
"I'm comin', Weezie," he said, laughing, botching one of the signature lines from the show, in which Foxx clutched his chest in a mock heart-attack and prepared to meet his late wife in heaven.

As we all know, the actual line is "I'm comin', Elizabeth."

One commenter nailed it: "I guess all blacks look alike to Obama."

Big losers this election season

2008-10-28T18:54:00.001-05:00

When your reputation has fallen lower than both President Bush (25 percent) and the Democratic Congress (18 percent), I think there's a problem.

Former New York Times columnist and veteran newspaperman Michael Malone knows it. “I’ve begun - for the first time in my adult life - to be embarrassed to admit what I do for a living,” he said.

Why? Because the percentage of Americans who rate reporters as objective and not favoring either candidate is at a dismal eight percent.

No matter who wins next week, mainstream objective journalism comes out as a big loser.

As this article points out, "journalistic integrity now ranks along side communicable diseases and nuclear mishaps." It discusses some Pew research studies documenting the marked discrepancy between reporting on the McCain and Obama campaigns:

. . . while 71 percent of Obama’s recent media coverage has been “positive” or “neutral,” almost 60 percent of McCain’s coverage over the same period has been “decidedly negative.”

And how much positive coverage did the media give McCain? Fourteen percent.

The American people have figured this out.

“By a margin of 70 percent to 9 percent,” another Pew study reported, “Americans say most journalists want to see Obama, not John McCain, win on Nov. 4.”

Yes, whether we like it or not, there is media bias. I don't know that it was always this way; perhaps it was. And "media" is changing. Newspaper circulations are plummetting (I wonder why?), and viewership for the classic if moribund Big 3 news programs (CBS/NBC/ABC) is abyssmally low. The internet, and in particular, the blogosphere is in part responsible, but I suspect that people are also fed up with how MSM reports the news, especially political issues. The fawning over Obama, and the rather narrowly focused Palin reporting are the latest examples.

It's getting harder to find objective, neutral journalism. What is a "journalist" anyways? Not Limbaugh, or Hannity (I doubt that they would include themselves in that tribe). Certainly not Chris Mathews or Olbermann. Does anybody really consider Bill Moyers as anything but one of the most partisan reporters around? I'm pretty sure though that he would consider himself a "Journalist" (and that is Journalist with a big J). No--I think they are better classified as commentators, or entertainers. But is there even a place for neutral reporting?

What about the Florida newscaster who got Biden all flummoxed? I think SOME of her questions were over the top, no doubt (quoting Karl Marx, for example). But I have heard the MSNBC boys threaten what they would do if Palin ever happened to appear on their show, and believe me, it makes Biden's questioning look like a pep rally.

Look at how different Charlie Gibson's questioning of Obama and Palin was. Gibson questioned Obama on June 4, just days after he had left Wright's church. So how much of the interview was devoted to this very controversial pastor and church? That's right--none. So, when Charlie interviewed Palin on September 11, how do you think things went? Pretty differently. She got grilled for reciting a prayer in her church that was credited to Abraham Lincoln. Heck, Gibson couldn't even get her original quote correct.

I don't expect our reporters to be all meek and subservient, like the Kennedy press corps. Maybe they do need to ask the tough questions. But don't you think everyone should get the same level of questioning?

Spread the wealth around . . .

2008-10-26T18:51:00.002-05:00

This blurb is apparently making the e-mail rounds.

In a local restaurant my server had on a “Obama 08″ tie, again I laughed as he had given away his political preference–just imagine the coincidence.

When the bill came I decided not to tip the server and explained to him that I was exploring the Obama redistribution of wealth concept. He stood there in disbelief while I told him that I was going to redistribute his tip to someone who I deemed more in need–the homeless guy outside. The server angrily stormed from my sight.

I went outside, gave the homeless guy $10 and told him to thank the server inside as I’ve decided he could use the money more. The homeless guy was grateful.

At the end of my rather unscientific redistribution experiment I realized the homeless guy was grateful for the money he did not earn, but the waiter was pretty angry that I gave away the money he did earn even though the actual recipient deserved money more.

I guess redistribution of wealth is an easier thing to swallow in concept than in practical application.

You see, it's not about whether the plumber is licensed, or has a tax lien, or whatever. It's that he asked an embarassing question.

Plumbers, SNL, Ayers, etc.

2008-10-20T20:45:00.000-05:00

A smattering of political observations:

--Palin (you know, the one that the Secret Service isolated from the press) has been increasingly press-available (although I missed the SNL appearance, she helped garner their highest ratings in something like 14 years), yet according to CBS, Biden (3 letter word---J-O-B-S!) has not had a press conference in more than a month, and Obama has not taken questions from the press corps since the end of September.

--He did take an unfortunate question from Joe the plumber, and Joe's life hasn't been the same. The MSM was quite diligent in uncovering Joe's license status, tax liens, etc., all of which ignores the ACTUAL ISSUE of what Obama actually said to the guy.

--But, as Lileks notes in today's Bleat, "the small things matter, which is why Joe the Plumber has to be vetted, and Biden’s gaffes ignored. The big things are in the past, and the past is irrelevant."
He's got a good post about the Ayers and Obama connection (and yes, there is one). To me, it's kind of like the Wright thing; how did he sit there for 20 years and not hear anything objectionable from that pulpit? The fact that Obama was only 8 years old when Ayers was violently active is completely irrelevant. Out of all the people in Chicago to politically associate himself with, he picks Bill Ayers? Chicago has something like 2.8 million people; surely there was someone else he could have chosen to help launch his career.

More from Lileks:

You have to ask yourself how the media would cover a long-standing association between John McCain and a fellow who, in the hurly-burly-mixed-up-folderol of the Civil Rights Era, went a little too far and burned some Black churches, or led a group devoted to blowing up abortion clinics. Mind you, he was never convicted – technicalities, which was ironic, because Conservatives hate those – but he went on to serve on school boards and charity foundations that advocated for States’ Rights, an issue dear to conservative hearts. Imagine the deets are the same – cozy fundraisers, serving on the same boards, McCain’s name on Bomber Bob’s memoir. Add to that some other parallels – say, McCain attended a church that praised a fellow who believed black people were descended from the devil, and believed Jesus was an Aryan.

John McCain wouldn’t be the nominee, and if by some chance that happened, this association would be draped around his neck every day.

But, of course, it's more important to know about the details of the plumbers life.

Prague and Rockettown

2008-10-19T20:10:00.003-05:00

Whoa--Prague is beautiful. Every time I turned my head, there was another vista, another alley, another cathedral spire that was jaw-droppingly amazing. Check out Anya's blog for some pictures.

Eastern European for sure, but it seemed worlds away from my Russian experience. Certainly in Prague they kind of have the tourist thing down quite well. Waiters and staff people seemed actually interested in assisting you, something that I found to be somewhat lacking in Krasnodar. I especially enjoyed visiting Anya's family in the countryside at Rozhmital (that's a pic near the castle at the top of this post). I unfortunately lost the piano duel with Masha, Anya's cousin, who blew me away with her obvious talent. We also had a trip to Pilsen, where we met Anya's other cousin, Igor, who surprisingly does NOT work for a mad scientist. Who knew?

It has taken about the last 3 days to shake off the jet lag, although we did attend a local charity cook-off last night, where Anya's paintings were the hit of the show--she actually sold a couple on the spot. Tomorrow is a big bad Monday. Time to get back into the regular swing of things.

Trip to Prague

2008-10-07T11:28:00.005-05:00

We are off again, to Prague and the Czech Republic for some R & R and a belated honeymoon. So no kids this trip (awwwwww).

We will spend a few short days in Prague, and then visit with Anya's aunt in a little town outside of the city--not sure of the name, but apparently Smetana is buried there.

I will miss some of the political fireworks, but it will be nice to get out of the news cycle for a few days.

VP Debate Questions--Sneak Peek

2008-10-02T08:52:00.003-05:00

This is a sample of some of the questions that Ms. Awful--I mean, Ms. Ifill, is supposed to ask during tonight's debate:

Mayor Palin, Barack Obama is a handsome, charismatic demigod. How many boxes of Kleenex will you need after your crushing loss?

Senator Biden, what is your favorite color? And if you have time for a follow-up question: Why?

Mayor, you talk funny and you own a tanning bed. Why haven't you released Trig's birth certificate?

Senator, have you seen those pictures of Obama in his swim trunks? If not, I have them right here.

Mayor, what are the names, ages, and blood types of all 71 members of the Belgian Senate? And why are you unwilling to admit that your inability to instantly produce any and every fact I demand makes you unfit to stand in the way of history?

Senator, you've spoken at length. Could you please continue?

Mayor, which is your preferred method of stifling dissent, banning books or burning them? Since it's both, please explain how you can deny the accusation that you're a fascist, which I am making now.

Senator, could you please sign my book?

'Cause, you know, she's a journalist, so she's just gotta be neutral, right?

Questions courtesy of Jim Treacher.

One Year in Rockettown

2008-10-02T07:30:00.000-05:00

Wow--it's been one year, here in Rockettown, that bustling metropolis, that Gotham of the bayous, or, as those in the know refer to it, "Manhattan-on-the-Boeuf".

Actually, contrary to all of my expectations, it has been one of the best years of my life. Cityboy dragging his beautiful citywife and their decidedly un-country kids to the back end of the state . . . and everyone loves it. Who'da thunk it?

It took a little getting used to, for sure. No French Quarter; the top of the food chain is Olive Garden; accents so thick you need a machete to cut through them. I think living out of the Days Inn for the 1st 8 weeks didn't make the transition easier. But it has all been worth it. When I think back to where I was last summer, looking for work, counting pennies . . .

So I am immensely grateful for my life now. Sober now for over 3 years, my head's on straight (for the most part, although I'm sure my wife would like to adjust it every now and then). We live in a beautiful house that's about to get a little bigger (kind of like our family :) ), I have this great job (my commute is across the backyard), and the girls have made new friends and even know how to chew tobacco!

There are no traffic jams. At night, there are a million stars in the sky, and owls perch in the treetops, calling to each other. I get to spend a lot of time with my wife and the girls. Anya has her very own studio. And when we get a hankerin' for some city food, we hop in the car and drive down to N'awlins.

I never imagined my life could be this good.

Barackrolled!

2008-10-01T15:46:00.000-05:00

Awesome.

Is the sky falling? UPDATED

2008-09-30T11:00:00.001-05:00

I'm not sure what to make of the current or impending economic crisis. There are a lot of strange things going on. For example, the original plan (from last week) was drafted by Bush and the appropriate Cabinet members. This is the plan that was somewhat modified over last weekend, and pushed strongly by the Democrats. So, a plan crafted by Bush, who most Democrats regard as slow and stupid, was brilliant enough that Pelosi pushed to pass it. Strange bedfellows indeed.

Apparently, there is quite a lot of blame that can be doled out here, on both sides of the aisle. Yet one of the most vociferous voices in the fight so far has been that of Barney Frank, founding member of the Lollipop Guild, and also quite obviously at the heart of why FannieMae and FreddieMac went belly up. What's up with that? Have you no shame, sir?

When the original plan came out, it needed to be passed urgently, or the sky would fall and dogs and cats would start living together. Yet, for some reason Harry Reid attached a rider about discontinuing drilling for shale oil. What did that have to do with the bailout? If the sky is really falling, why don't you act like it? This was the same Harry Reid who said "we don't know what to do" and called on McCain (not Obama) for leadership on the issue.

I'm not sure about McCain's trip to DC last week--stunt or theater? Of course he has been accused of politicizing the process, although there are widely conflicting reports about what happened at that White House meeting (the one that they had to drag Obama back to DC for). Yet prior to the crucial vote on the House floor yesterday, Pelosi found it prudent to belch up a partisan rant against the Republicans and the Bush Administration (right--the one that came up with the original plan). Not exactly the kind of sober leadership that one looks for when the sky is falling. And she wasn't even able to convince all of the members of her own party to vote for the package; 40% of House Dems voted against. 40%.

Here's what I don't understand: When Republicans have control of Congress, it is Republicans' fault for not passing legislation to stave off economic trouble. When Democrats have control of Congress, it is Republicans' fault for not passing the bailout.

I don't know what to think here about this mess. It's not about the failure of the free market, because FannieMae and FreddieMac being government sponsored entities (kind of like the Post Office) were anything but free. Does that mean there was too much regulation? Not necessarily. Too little regulation? Maybe. I don't think it's about regulation; I think it's more about the law of unintended consequences (trying to provide more home loans to minorities and poor folks pushed banks heavily into sub-prime lending). I don't think there has been enough strong leadership from either side (including McCain and Obama, the current leaders of their respective parties). The failed bailout plan has been described as a crap sandwich without the bread. Too much extra stuff, like prohibitions on shale oil drilling; like money going back to ACORN and other controversial entitities; like the Treasury Secretary not having to answer to anyone at all.

We can do better. They need to all get out of their political uniforms and hammer something out that doesn't screw the taxpayer (no one wants their money going to fund someone's golden parachute). They can do this; they have to.

After all, the sky is falling, right?

UPDATE:n As of about 11:30 AM, the Dow is up about 230 points. So even in the absence of the bailout bill that is imperative to keep Armageddon from happening, the markets are calming themselves, and, it seems, recovering. Huh?

Sta uh way to Stawdom

2008-09-27T08:00:00.001-05:00

This treasure I ran across from a link at MetaFilter. Jaw-dropping in its awfulness. I think I actually threw up a little when I saw it.

There are a few related videos up on YouTube. Proceed at your own peril.

Some personal random stuff

2008-09-25T22:30:00.002-05:00

We are planning on enjoying the weekend here at home in Rockettown. Our consulting chief building officer has provided me with several more feet of new bookshelves, so I can unpack a few more boxes. Anya's studio is going well; with the set-up and all of the space, she is "cranking out the canvasses" (art world slang, yes? I am SO COOL) and gearing up to maybe give some art classes. Very nice. Pics are of the new studio in action, one of which was taken by the only 4 year old photographer in the city.

My oldest daughter is now blogging; visit her blog and pick on her if you'd like.

Oh--we had an ultrasound earlier this week--the baby looks great, and construction appears to be right on schedule. Not able to definitively identify what type of plumbing is present, but some of what I saw made me think that it's a girl. We shall see . . .

And congratulations to Nika, who got her green belt in Tae Kwan Do tonight!

"Everybody was Kung Fu fightin'
Them cats was fast as lightnin' . . .
Whoa-ho-ho-hooooooooo--CHOP"
Carl Douglas, Kung Fu Fighting, 1974

It's the End Of The World As We Know It

2008-09-24T09:17:00.003-05:00

. . . and Naomi Wolf is NOT feeling fine.

Seriously, this is one demented rant, prominently featured over at HuffPo.

In case you weren't sure, Palin represents the coming American police state. How do we know? Ms. Wolf has correctly intuited that Palin represents the continuation of the Rove-Cheney cabal (I thought it was the Bush-Rumsfeld cabal; whatever happened to the Bush-Cheney conspiracy, or was it the Cheney-Wolfowitz machination? the Haliburton-BigOil junta? wait--they're all the same . . .).

See, Ms. Wolf has formulated the 10 steps in the creation of a fascist state, and of course, this administration has already gotten all the way to like step 8 or 9. I mean, we already "invoked a terrifying internal and external enemy" (step 1; I guess we invoked them into flying planes into our skyscrapers), and certainly we've "developed a thug caste or paramilitary force not answerable to citizens" (step 3; why they just arrested all the Democrats here in town last night).

Ms. Wolf is horrified to see that Palin is "embracing lawlessness" (translation: avoiding politically charged subpoenas) and using "Mafia tactics" (translation: firing political appointees). She was terrified when she

"saw that she was even styled by the same skillful stylist (neutral lipstick, matte makeup, dark colors) who turned Katharine Harris from a mall rat into a stateswoman and who styles all the women in the Bush orbit --but who does not bother to style Cindy McCain."

I am not sure of the significance of why Ms. McCain is left out, but I'm sure that it has to do with something truly EVIL.

"How, you may ask, can I assert this?" [Ms. Wolf stage-whispers through clenched teeth.]

Well, she sees "the unmistakable theatre of Rove's S and M imagery -- and you see stages eight, nine and ten of the steps to a dictatorship as I outlined them." She mentions people arrested at the RNC, "protesters charged as terrorists" (I thought they were arrested for vandalism) as an example of the embryonic police state (no mention of those arrested in Denver at the DNC). She seems awfully hung up on the sartorial aspects of our new overlords: "riot police wore the black S&M gear of the Rovian fantasy . . . phalanxes of men in black wearing balaclavas . . . St Paul police had dressed as protesters and, dressed in Black -- shades of the Blackshirts of 1920 . . ." I don't know; maybe it's all about the style.

In summary, McCain has a virulent form of skin cancer and Palin is the "talk-show hostess" who will oversee the incoming police state and the end of elections in this country, working for "Halliburton, KBR, Rove and Cheney . . . the same people who have plundered our treasure, are now holding the US economy hostage and who murdered four thousand brave young men and women in a way of choice and lies."

She even believes people have infiltrated her bank accounts, and are reading her email and stealing her kid's reports cards. Not to mention the chicken blood, and that goober dust spread all around her bed, and those funny little voices coming from the satellite TV.

No--I'm not kidding (except for the second sentence, I think). Sadly, neither is she.

It's like being handed a 12 page, single-spaced rant from that twitchy guy at the bus stop who's always muttering at passersby and snatching at cockroaches.

Ms. Wolf asks, "Am I trying to scare you? I am. I am trying to scare you to death . . . "

Oh, yes. Pretty scary stuff indeed.

Gaffe-o-rama!

2008-09-23T16:52:00.004-05:00

Biden's been praised for his superior intellect, and of course, his experience. But, DOOD, this guy's experience is supernatural!

He saw FDR on TV!

Honest! He even told Katie Couric:

"When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the princes of greed," Biden told Couric. "He said, 'Look, here's what happened.'"

We'll give him a pass on the Chuck Graham wheelchair incident. But, seeing FDR on TV must have been a truly special moment.

Can you imagine if McCain had said that? Or--gulp--silly Sarah Palin? What part of the internet would that NOT have been on?

Biden--even Quayler than Quayle.

Stoopid?

2008-09-17T22:10:00.004-05:00

Michael Seitzman thinks you are.

Oh man--this stuff gets to me sometimes.

Mr. Seitzman really thinks that you are stupid if you are supporting McCain/Palin:

. . . if you are a McCain/Palin/Bush voter, you and I do not have a difference of opinion. We have a difference in brain power.

And if you loved the interview Palin did with ABC, well then:

You're an idiot. I mean that. This is not one of those cases where we're going to agree to disagree. . . you're mentally ill, mentally disabled, or mentally disturbed. What you are NOT is responsible, informed, curious, thoughtful, mature, educated, empathetic, or remotely serious. I mean it.

I knew it. I suspected it all along. My brain has failed me. We should probably just disenfranchise a large chunk of the population. Especially anyone that says "nucular," although it's okay if Jimmy Carter does it.

Who is this guy--an anonymous commenter lurking deep in the bowels of DailyKos? Maybe an MSNBC anchor? No--he's a regular columnist over at HuffingtonPost.com. And--he's smarter than you.

So let me see if I, a simple, unibrowed, knuckle-dragging mouth-breather gets this straight: this strategy is "Vote for Obama, you stupid bastards."

That'll work.

And in case you are wondering, I had my wife help me with the big words.

9/11 images and a lost essay

2008-09-11T08:00:00.000-05:00

I wasn't going to use a picture with this post, but as I wrote, I realized this picture needed to be here. Not a picture of the falling towers, or the hijackers, or Marines in Baghdad, or even an American flag. This picture--this very human picture.

I remember driving to work that morning, and one of the lead stories was about Michael Jordan coming out of retirement to play again in the NBA. I had two patients in labor, and I can recall rushing into an empty room to watch the TV reports after someone told me about a terrible plane crash in New York. I was back and forth between labor and delivery and the office all morning, trying to catch snippets of news, not quite comprehending what I was seeing on the TV. I remember telling one of my partners that he had to be wrong--the buildings hadn't fallen, that they were just obscured by all the smoke; even when I saw the replay of each tower collapsing horribly yet majestically, it was surreal--it was like a movie, or a strange dream. My patients delivered later in the afternoon, easily thank goodness, because I was finding it harder and harder to concentrate and focus. I slept poorly that night, and I think also for almost a week or so afterwards. It was difficult for me to wrap my brain around the enormity of what happened. The images were disturbingly compelling, like the cliche about watching a car wreck and not being able to avert your eyes.

I thought after awhile the impact would lessen, but at the one year anniversary, I ran across an essay that described the victims who jumped--how they streamed from every floor, how their clothes billowed out, some actually trying to parachute with curtains or articles of clothing. The most powerful part described how a man and a woman held hands as they stepped through the broken window. They held hands; such a simple everyday gesture, transformed into something so profound. What were they feeling and thinking?

Since then, I have tried in vain to find that essay again. I think the title was "Jump." I don't recall the author's name. I believe it ran in The American Scholar (published by the Phi Beta Kappa Society), but my Google attempts have come up empty. (Actually, not that empty. When I Google "Jump 9/11 essay," the first hit brings up the Wiki article on Ward Churchill's sickening 9/11 essay, in which he refers to the people working in the World Trade Center that day as "little Eichmanns.")

I realized the other night that the anniversary of 9/11 was again upon us when I noticed a number of cable programs devoted to the subject. I still can't watch them; if I do, I find myself very anxious and disturbed. I'll probably avoid the National Geographic channel and The Discovery Channel for a few days. I don't think I will ever be able to see that United 93 movie--ever. Yet, I am still drawn to those people and those pictures.

Tom Junod's Falling Man piece in Esquire is very moving and quite similar to what I remember reading in the "lost essay." It is about the picture at the top of this post, and who the people were who jumped that day, and in particular, the identity of the falling man. I enjoy Junod's writing immensely. He writes about our "resistance" to the images of 9/11, and how our society has tried to grasp the horror of that day. It is this line that really reached out to me:

The resistance to the image -- to the images -- started early, started immediately, started on the ground. A mother whispering to her distraught child a consoling lie: "Maybe they're just birds, honey."

I'm still resisting those images, I guess. Perhaps this one image is the best memorial to the victims of 9/11.

Bridge to Gravina Island

2008-09-10T10:00:00.000-05:00

I wonder how the people who work and live on Gravina Island feel when they are referred to as "Nowhere."

It's not like the bridge was going to dead-end in a field of caribou. The bridge would have connected the city of Ketchikan to its international airport, which is built on an island across the Inner Passage from the town; there is no road access at present, only a ferry. Pork? Yeah, probably, but really--is it any worse than this?

Anyways.

You know the story--Palin was for the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against it. What's interesting is who else was for it. Yep--Obama and Biden both voted for funding for the project, and were against diverting its funds to Katrina relief.

Against Katrina relief? Wow.

McCain is on record as opposing the Bridge. At least Palin changed her mind on the earmark, something that the Democratic ticket couldn't do, even when given a second chance.

Some Russian stories

2008-09-09T17:30:00.000-05:00

One of our first trips out of Krasnodar was to the Black Sea coast, near Divnomorskoye. It's a beautiful drive through the foothills of the Caucasus (kind of reminiscent of the Smokies), down to the sea. Misha, my father-in-law, brings his canoe with him whenever he goes, and enjoys paddling up and down the shoreline.

Now this is Russia, of course, and things aren't quite the same and as easy as they are here. You actually have to register the canoe with the local authorities (the equivalents of the Coast Guard and the police) in order to use it. So, Misha duly registers with the proper people, which has to be done on a daily basis; he actually called twice a day just to make sure. Very prepared, very smart man, my father-in-law.

Still . . . towards the end of the second day we are there, I look up from where I am sitting, enjoying the evening, and two guys, one in camo fatigues, the other in a police uniform, are purposefully strutting across the rocks towards us. I had a small shiver of fear, and even Anya tensed up a bit, but Misha is cool as a cucumber. They immediately start demanding to see his papers, and he quickly disarms them, with a laugh. He not only shows the appropriate documents, he whips out his cellphone, and asks them to call their boss, who he knows quite well and whose number he has in his phone. You could actually see these two roosters visibly deflate as they spoke with their superior, Misha joking and laughing with them all the while. After verifying that there were no threats to national security from the canoe, they scurried back across the beach. I asked Misha what had really changed from Soviet times; he replied, "Well, now you can actually own a canoe."

Basically, these guys were looking for bribes. If they can catch you without the proper papers and documentation, they can toss you in jail; of course, something can be worked out for the proper amount of roubles. Even if you have the right documents, if they're not properly filled out (i's dotted, t's crossed), well . . . And this isn't just at the beach--it's everywhere. Most people adapt, and adapt well. I think of Anya's parents as a particularly shining beacon of sanity in this country undergoing profound changes. You can rage against how things happen there, or you can adapt, and learn how to live within a flawed system.

There is money in Russia, at least in some parts. A lot of money. And everyone is grabbing for it. Is it wrong to want to make money? As a proud capitalist, I say of course not. But for the first time in almost 100 years, cash is flowing freely in Russia, and everyone wants their share. They grasp at it quickly, hungrily, as if it is going to dry up any moment and they need to get theirs before it all disappears. So there seems to be almost an underlying sense of desperation, almost a sense that things are tenuous, and could fall apart into chaos. I felt like I was at a raucous party, where the revelers were teetering on the edge of a dangerous drunk, and at the slightest provocation, a huge fistfight was going to erupt, dragging everyone one into it.

We were only about 120 miles from the Russian/Georgian border, although South Ossetia was about 300 miles away. I first heard of the conflict when a friend of Anya's mother stated that the Georgians (with American aid) had without provocation invaded Ossetia, and destroyed the city of Gori, including a city hospital. I was quite shocked, but didn't really have access to the news or internet. Of course, things weren't quite what we were told, as we found out a few days later. Almost a completely different story. I am not well-versed in the tribal divisions in the Caucasus (couldn't tell an Ossetian from an Abkhazi), but I thought this article (kind of long) has a pretty good summary of the historical background to the current conflict. It certainly doesn't paint the Russians in a good light, but I suspect it is more accurate than what was reported at the time in Krasnodar.

Sarah Palin hates teen moms!

2008-09-05T21:01:00.003-05:00

I'm working on a Russian post, but first . . . this stuff bothers me.

We all know that Gov. Palin supposedly "slashed" funding for teenage pregnant moms in Alaska. Kind of goes along with her being against women's rights and all that. Heartless, cruel woman.

Well, that is simply not true.

As this post points out, there was no cut in funding at all for the local Covenant House; in fact there was an increase--yes, you read that right:

It turns out that $5 million is the highball request for Covenant House and the $3.9 million is what Palin felt the agency deserved. As it happens, the $3.9 million actually represented a three-fold increase over the previous year. It was not, by any stretch of the imagination, a “slash” in the budget.

It has also been charged that Palin cut funding for "special needs" kids, by 62% according to CNN's Soledad O'Brien. Really?

This charge is based on looking at the budget for Alaska's Special Education Service Agency for 2007-2009. In fact, the December 2006 budget document that they cite would have been prepared by the outgoing administration — that of Republican Frank Murkowski, whom Palin defeated.

What's gone unmentioned is that the Palin signed into law a dramatic reform of the state's education financing system that equalizes aid to rural and urban districts, while significantly increasing funding for special needs students.

The reforms, in fact, increase spending for special needs children by 175 percent. As with the Covenant House, there was no “cut” or “slash.” There was a healthy increase.

Finally, this post contains a press release from the Executive Director of Covenant House Alaska. Read it for yourself, because I'm pretty sure you won't find it anywhere else, like the MSM, or DailyKos, or CrooksandLiars.

It just makes me wonder just how inaccurate are all the other smears about Palin.

Catching up

2008-09-04T16:19:00.002-05:00

Sorry--it's been kind of hectic around here, so I haven't had a chance to post. The office was quite busy (yay!), so I've kind of had my hands full there. Hurricane Gustav has also wrenched things up a bit. We were all set to spend Labor Day weekend in New Orleans, but obviously that idea was quickly rethought. My mother is here with us, after making a rather tortuous journey last Saturday. At one point, she was actually aiming to evacuate to Covington or Pineville; fortunately, she came here, as neither one of those places fared that well. Word from N.O. is that her house is intact, but without power, so she will hang out here with us for a few more days. We had Biblical rains here, and a fair amount of wind the last 2 days. It is amazing to me how much power these storms are still carrying this far north.

I have to mention briefly Sarah Palin. I thought her speech last night was great; as a first "test," she did extremely well. There is a lot more ahead of her, though, and she will be under enormous pressure in the next 50 or so days. I think most people left and right agree that the attacks on her and her family have been ridiculous and contemptible. Some of the "charges" (more like rumors) are baseless. I keep hearing that she banned books in the Wasilla library, yet other than two unconfirmed lines in a Time magazine article, I can't find anything to back it up. Same thing with the creationist charge (see this for clarification). The other stuff--she's against women's rights (!!!), she's not really the mother of the Downs baby--is just absurd.

She's a political pick, no doubt; ALL, and I mean ALL, VP picks are (why do so many in the MSM find this one "insulting?"). But I think she is going to be a lot more popular and resonate with a lot more people than anyone thought. Is she up for the big job? That remains to be seen, perhaps, but at least at this point, I gotta agree with the following (from a commenter over at Althouse:

Given all the slime thrown at her over the last 5 days, I feel like I just watched one of those action films where the hero disappears in debris, smoke, and a roar, the music pauses, and the hero steps forward out of the smoke, samurai sword slung over his shoulder. The music swells.

Even better was this gem (same post):

From now on, when a Democrat says "But what if McCain drops dead on his first day in office?!?!?!" I'm going to say "dude -- don't tease me like that."

Hope to get to some Russia stuff over the weekend. My lovely, incredible wife has a few pics up. Enjoy!

Return from Russia

2008-08-27T10:00:00.000-05:00

We actually got back late last Saturday night; I think we are all very grateful to be home. Three weeks away is long time, but it was an incredible trip. Lots of high points (seeing this artist at his home in Starokonskaya and attending Orthodox services at some incredibly beautiful churches, to name just two), and of course, a few lows (my wonderful in-laws had to bribe the border officials in Rostov to let me leave), but I have never experienced a trip like this one. I was able to get a glimpse of how people actually lived and worked and existed (a lot of bribes, in fact); I met a lot of my wife's family and friends and got to see the places where she grew up and went to school. I saw Krasnodar and the countryside and the Black Sea coast. I saw the city and little villages.

Still, it's great to be back. At least, I can read the street signs again.

Pics and stories to come.

Some personal notes

2008-07-24T20:32:00.000-05:00

I am leaving later this week with my family for a trip to Krasnodar, Russia, my wife's birthplace and where she grew up. Although I have traveled to Canada and the Caribbean in the past, I have never traveled overseas. So, I am quite excited about this trip, as all of us are.

I don't know how much blogging I will be able to accomplish, but I am planning on keeping a journal during the trip, and if I can come up with something interesting to say, I will certainly post it here, probably when I get back.

On another note, my wife is pregnant! A little unexpected, but we are all thrilled; even the girls seem happy with the prospect of a little brother or sister. The delivery will probably take place here at home (hence the post about home births); at least that is the general plan as of now. We are trying to link up with a midwife, and I am trying to be a supportive husband and not the anxious dogmatic doctor.

Home Births

2008-07-23T12:02:00.000-05:00

For a variety of reasons, this post is about home births.

I ran across this post (courtesy of the folks at MedBlogs Grand Rounds). I was hoping to find something concrete to reinforce my grudging acceptance of home birthing, as there does not seem to be very much that is scientifically unfavorable out there. Well . . .

Louise (the blogger here) cites an article that shows that outcomes for low-risk women who deliver at home are just as good as those for low-risk women who deliver in a medical setting. I tend to agree with some of what Louise says in the post, like the fact that"medical doctors are a vital part of health care. But they are not the only piece of the puzzle, especially when it comes to childbirth." It makes me think of the countless times I have attended a woman who had the "misfortune" (that's sarcasm, folks) of delivering outside of the hospital; better yet, for how many deliveries does the doctor arrive late?

But there are a couple of points that I can't agree with.

"A long, painful birth in an of itself is not a medical problem." For you, Louise, perhaps, but not for every woman. Painful birth does not harm the mother, although the Scientologists might argue about its effects on newborns. You know, you can go to the dentist and have your teeth extracted and filled without anaesthetic, too, but it's not how I would choose to spend my afternoon. Some women are highly motivated to deliver naturally, but to imply somehow that it is superior to a hospital birth is a bit much to swallow. Not even the study which she cites claims as such.

The study does seem to be well constructed, but I find it interesting that the vast majority of the women were white (89.4%), middle class (59.9%), and non-smokers (94.1%); I suspect that this does not reflect a typical mix of patients in the United States (the study was Canadian-based, but supposedly drew patients from North America). It would be prudent to know what the statistics would be for a more realistic mix of patients. I was also surprised that in the paragraph "Outcomes," the authors mention an actual total of 18 intrapartum and neonatal deaths, but excluded 7 of those 18 (38.8%) in their calculations, for reasons that I am not sure are methodologically valid. And even though the authors admit that "Breech and multiple births at home are controversial among home birth practitioners," there were still 80 planned breech deliveries at home, and 13 sets of twins delivered at home. How did these pregnancies get assessed as "low-risk"? I agree that this study is an important one in actually elucidating the risks and outcomes involved in home births, but it is not the definitive answer.

Louise is not a fan of ACOG. "Unfortunately," she states, "ACOG would like to impose artificial time frames on a natural process that was never set up around a clock or a doctor’s schedule." Whoa--there are no time frames imposed on the birth process. There are practice guidelines that are set up (some proposed by ACOG, some by other entities) that serve as suggestions in improving patient care and outcomes. They are based on actual, peer-reviewed research and studies on patients in labor and what happens when certain events occur in certain time frames. ACOG is not a bunch of old guys sitting around making up numbers to torture women with.

Louise continues: "The conflict of interest for ACOG and the AMA is glaring like a neon sign." How is concern about women's health and childbirth a conflict of interest for ACOG? Oh, wait, she explains it to us: "Every woman who chooses to give birth at home with a midwife means one fewer patient for ACOG. That’s pretty much the whole story."

Huh? ACOG isn't in the business of taking care of patients, doctors are. A woman who gives birth at home, or in a car, or at the hospital probably has no idea who ACOG is or what they do. "So ACOG and the AMA have chosen to take the undeniably sleazy route of hiding their primary interest (money) under the thin disguise of being concerned about the safety of mothers and babies." This statement is so ridiculous that I don't know what to say. Maybe she equates ACOG with BigPharma and the whole military-industrial complex run by the Rothschilds. Exactly how does ACOG make money when a woman delivers?

According to Louise, "each woman should be able to labor and birth where she is most comfortable, and have access to competent, licensed caregivers, regardless of where she chooses to give birth. It seems that ACOG and the AMA do not want to offer me that same measure of respect."

This is an admirable sentiment; I trained alongside midwives as a resident in Texas, and I found them to be knowledgable, competent and compassionate caregivers. But each woman should be offered appropriate info about the benefits as well as the actual risks of home birth, and I am not sure that this is being done. The statement that "midwives generally don’t accept unhealthy women or high risk pregnancies" made me cringe. As opposed to the midwives that I associated with during my training, many of the midwives (licensed and unlicensed) that I have encountered in private practice have seemed unwilling or unable to correctly assess high-risk conditions such as a previous C-section or diabetes.

I could go on and on. What's the bottom line? Louise presents one well-done study suggesting that outcomes in low-risk patients are comparable (not superior) for homebirth and hospital birth. Much of her post is spent demonizing two influential medical organizations, without backing up her opinions. And that's pretty much her "whole story." I was hoping for something a little more constructive.

I am not a fan of ACOG (nor a current member). I have become more open to the idea of home birth as a result of my lovely wife, and her experience with the process. She delivered at home 4 years ago, attended by a midwife. Her older daughter was born at Charity Hospital in New Orleans (I tell Nika that a lot of famous people were born there, but I'm not sure she believes me), and although it was not a bad experience, she much prefers the home birth experience, which for her was extremely positive and healthy. I no longer argue the point with her; who am I to argue with that success? Even though I haven't run across any negative studies comparable in scope and construction to this positive one, I still have some misgivings about it, but I think I deserve some credit for being very open to the idea.

I won't even go into the issues of depth of training, or the malpractice issue (hey--you want to jump in the water, maybe you should swim with the malpractice sharks just like us docs have to do). It's a neat idea to be able to categorize patients into high-and low-risk categories, but it can also be dangerously misleading, for a simple "low-risk" patient can turn into a obstetrical catastrophe very quickly.

I'd like to see more studies like this one. I'd also like to see less posturing by both sides; we don't need ACOG talking about the need to "legislate" the issue, and we don't need Louise or Ricki Lake generally bashing the medical establishment. The word of the day is evidence-based medicine, and not anecdotal-based medicine, something that has been practiced for far too long. More evidence, less rhetoric.