Current Events

Alot of eyes are watching the Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Iran right now. I do not wish to minimize the events there but I am confident in Israel's moral right and ability and resolve to accomplish their aims. Cliff May at National Review describes those aims:

More and more, it appears that Israel has determined that its goal is to cripple Hezbollah. If that trick can be managed, it will deliver a blow not only to Hezbollah but also to Syria and Iran and the entire Militant Islamist movement.

It also would produce a huge benefit for the vast majority of Lebanese who do not want their country run by Hezbollah/Syria/Iran and who do know that the Israelis have no wish to remain.

Since disarming Hezbollah is what is called for by the “international community” in UN Security Council Resolution 1559, it is hard to see how even the French could call such an action disproportionate.”

Oh well, the UN also passed resolutions agaist Saddam Hussein but condemned the US led coalition in Iraq, so I am not so sanguine as Cliff that the international community wont begin to moan about Israel's actions. Still the nation of Israel has a founding notion of "Never Again" and the ability to turn places into smoking craters. No, I am not so terribly worried about Israel.

What has really grabbed my attention is North Korea. North Korea has well and truely screwed themselves by alienating China. North Korea has grabbed Chinese trains and not given them back. They have launched 7 missiles. The question becomes what damage can they do before there are no more people alive in North Korea? Ed Driscoll digs up a old Christopher Hitchens piece on North Korea:

North Korea broke down in the 1990s and lost an unguessable number of people to sheer starvation. The survivors, especially the children, have been stunted and malformed. Even on a tightly controlled tour of the place—North Korea is almost as hard to visit as it is to leave—my robotic guides couldn't prevent me from seeing people drinking from sewers and picking up individual grains of food from barren fields. (I was reduced to eating a dog, and I was a privileged "guest.") Film shot from over the Chinese border shows whole towns ruined and abandoned, with their few factories idle and cannibalized. It seems that the mines in the north of the country have been flooded beyond repair. In consequence of this, and for the first time since the founding of Kim Il Sung's state, large numbers of people have begun to take the appalling risk of running away. If they make it, they make it across the river into China, where there is a Korean-speaking area in the remote adjoining province.

More:

Kim Jong-il and his fellow slave masters are trying to dictate the pace of events by setting a timetable of nuclearization, based on a crash program wrung from their human property. But why should it be assumed that their failed state and society are permanent? Another timeline, oriented to liberation and regime change, is what the dynasty most fears.

Now here is John Bolton, US ambassator to the United Nations:

This Resolution also demands action. It sends an unequivocal, unambiguous and unanimous message to Pyongyang: suspend your ballistic missile program; stop your procurement of materials related to weapons of mass destruction, and implement your September, 2005 commitment to verifiably dismantle your nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs. It is not just Pyongyang, though, that must act. It also "requires" Member States to do what they can to prevent the transfer of resources to the DPRK missile program or the procurement of missile-related items from the DPRK. The United States expects that the DPRK and all other UN Member States will immediately act in accordance with the requirements of this resolution passed by the Security Council.

This is the first UNSC resolution on North Korea since 1993, reflecting the gravity of this situation and the unity and determination of the Council. We hope this Resolution will demonstrate to North Korea that the best way to improve the livelihood of its people and end its international isolation is to stop playing games of brinkmanship and restore its missile moratorium, return to the Six-Party Talks and implement the terms of the Joint Statement from the last round of those talks.

We look forward to North Korea's full, unconditional and immediate compliance with this Security Council Resolution. We hope that North Korea makes the strategic decision that the pursuit of WMD programs and threatening acts like these missile launches, make it less, not more secure. We need to be prepared, though, that North Korea might choose a different path. This is why it is important that if the DPRK does not comply with the requirements of this Resolution, the United States and other Member States have the opportunity at any point to return to the Council for further action.

I think it likely that Kim Jong-Il is more like to make a last Ahab-ian gasp with what is in his possession:

". . . from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee."

Be sure and look at North Korea from night.

Quick Hits

The Verbalist, denied other options, cut his own hair. Afterwards he was terrified of being bald when the styalist evened it out.

The Muralist has a new invisible friend, a giant turtle which likes to jump rope. This is noteworthy because the Muralist doesn't have the plethora of imaginary friends that the Verbalist does - and hers tend to be rather prosaic. I am not calling the Muralist unimaginative but she tends to be less fantastic than her brother.

The Shrieker has been test driving new words lately in the burble bubble talk most comprehended by doting parents. Every now and then a word is spoken with clarity and force which is a great relief to this author who was beginning to think Shreaking would be the sole form of communication. To date: "Mama, Dad (no dada, straight Dad), Cookie, Bites, NO!, yeah, Book and DOG! Priorities are good to have.

8 explosions in Bombay

Good news round up at Pajamas Media.

Counterterrorism Blog has a good map explaination of what happened.

Don't Run With them Either.

Back at the beginning of June the Verbalist went into the pre-Kindergarten skills test at the elementary school. The tests examine not only academics, but social skills, coordination, ect. We walked away from the tests with the examiners encouraging the Verbalist to hone his skill with scissors and to know when he needs to listen instead of talk.

I purchased a new pair of kid scissors and we have been having sutting sessions. First, we started with basic shapes but the Verbalist wanted to move onto to bigger and better things: the Batman logo.

For a good part of the day yesterday and this morning, he has been doggedly cutting a whole stack of bats. The Muralist, respecting that he has a skill he must master before Heading to School (you can hear the capitalization in her voice) has stuck to practicing her letter writing and making abstract art. (She can draw people and whatnot but she explained the other day that scribbling on a blank peice of paper was satisfying. You can see what you want in scribbles she earnestly informed me. One of these days I will show her this site.)

They were working quietly so I slipped off to the other room for a minute. The quiet was not to last. A minute later the Muralist came trotting into the room, her face sober. Taking a deep breath she said, "Mom, I don't want my hair cut."

"Ok," say I, not making the connection. "You don't have too."

"Good!" she says emphatically. She executes an abrupt about face and marches into the other room. "Mom says NO!" she nearly shouts.

"NO HAIR CUTTING!!!" I shout as I run in on the Muralist's heels. "Why," I quiz, "do you want to cut your sister's hair?"

"Well," drawled the Verbalist in mulish consideration, "I didn't want to cut mine but it seems interesting."

"Don't. Cut. Her. Hair."

He eyes me and determines I'm in deadly earnest. He begins cutting away at Batman again and I turn to walk away. The Verbalist calls the Dog in a stage whisper.

"No haircutting at all - not even the Dog." I say, not even turning around.

"Yes Mom." drones the Verbalist clearly upset there are no loopholes to exploit.

The Dog rolls her golden eyes my way, a silent Thank You.

Brain

I am having one of those difficult days where I can't wake up. I have been up since 630 and been battling the brain the whole time. My early bird kids got me up. The brain assesed the day and said: "Meh, you can do this one without me."

"But Brain, I need you. I've got stuff to write, children to wrangle, laundry...Ok I grant you the laundry. No one actually needs to think while doing laundry."

Brain pauses for a minute. "Copy and paste, tell them to ride bikes, problem solved; I'm going back to bed."

"NOOO!!! Kaaahhhnnnnn!"

So here I am writing brainless content and eating warm coffecake. Maybe I can persuade Brain to lightly exercize later.

Home Depot

I went into Home Depot yesterday and talked with the resident "guy". You know the one. He has a homing device for people helpless in the face of so many different sizes and types of nuts and bolts. I showed him what I had, he took me to what I wanted straight off and spoke with a New Jersy accent. I swear he said, "I need to ax youse how many youse wanted."

GI Joe

Bowing to the refrain of: "Can you get your dollies down?" I finally did. I hoisted down the box of (Hank Hill) Barbies and Barbie accessories. (/Hank Hill). The Muralist wanted to play tea party and house. The Verbalist, well, the Verbalist's GI Joes need companionship. Then, horror of horrors, the wheel came off GI Joe's pick up truck.

I had weeded through the Barbie box, book shelves and closets so donations in hand we set out to the thrift store. We found a jeep of correct proportions amid the jumble. Triumphantly we left the thrift store goal accomplished.

The Verbalist clutched the jeep in his arms, crooning all the way to the car: "Just wait for GI Joe to see you." GI Joe was happy.

Verbalist: "Look at this new Jeep I bought you Joe. You can drive it anywhere, even..." pause whilst the brain serches for an exotic destination, "Florida! You'll like Florida that's where Buzz Lightyear is...and Mickey Mouse."

GIJOE: "Cool car thanks! Now I have a place for my guns and dog."

Verbalist as Barbie 1 (high pitched squeaky voice): "Cool car GI Joe."

Joe: "Yes, it's and H-B-06 Noc class super Jeep. Lasers shoot out of the headlights."

V as Barbie 2 (still high pitched but breathy): "Oh Joe can I ride in your cool car?"

Joe: "Uh sure, but you have to ride in the back, the dog's in the front. You can man the gun though -we've got bad guys to shoot."

Muralist (from the back seat): "GI Joe, would you like Princess ice cream? I've made a whole lot!"

Life Imitates...

...James Lileks. James on Junes 29th:

It seems like the New York Times is revealing all our national security secrets, but relax: they have their limits. If the Times learned that US troops were force-feeding Gitmo detainees with Coca-cola, they wouldn’t publish Coke’s secret formula. They might get sued. If there’s a CIA program that uses offensive cartoons of Mohammed to communicate with agents, they’ll keep mum, lest they have to publish the images. They might get stabbed. But secret law-enforcement-type programs as classified as the access code to the Times top-floor elevator? Fair game. You’ve the right to know.

Today:

Williams, 41, of Norcross, Ga., and 30-year-old Ibrahim Dimson of New York and 43-year-old Edmund Duhaney of Decatur, Ga., were arrested on charges of wire fraud and unlawfully stealing and selling Coke trade secrets, federal prosecutors said.

Aromatherapy

You got to wonder: what scent combination? From the WaPo:

Shortly before Christmas 2004, King Abdullah and Queen Rania of Jordan gave Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld an "aromatherapy gift set" valued at $380.

I am guessing gunpowder, napalm and sandalwood.

Fireworks and Aaron Copland

Well, I could blog about Independance Day. We blew stuff up (take that George III!). We ate (Carmel apple, mmmmmm /homer>). I sang the national anthem at the top of my lungs, three verses - from memory (I only got a bit screetchy at the end).

I have a rhetorical question. Why does someone attend a patriotic celebration, sponsered by an evangelical church if they like neither patriotic songs (God Bless America, America the Beautiful, Star Spangled Banner) nor public prayer?

I sat next to a couple women who seemed angry at the whole spectacle. They cringed and sneered at the multiple church choir singing anthems. They were snide and blasphemous during the prayer for our nation, leaders and troops. They derided the community as bourgeois and tacky.

At last as the fireworks display began they began to quiet only to chortle at the musical accompaniment. The first selection of music, Fanfare for the Common Man, was not recognized but was trivialized as the theme from Star Wars , proving that they did not recognize Aaron Copland or John Williams. So it went wearily along, the ignorance astounding.

By funny coincidence, the second piece of music played by the orchestra for the fireworks display run by the local station was - Theme from Star Wars. I laughed at that.

From the Wiki on Copland:

Copland, in his autobiography, wrote of the request: "Eugene Goossens, conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, had written to me at the end of August about an idea he wanted to put into action for the 1942-43 concert season. During World War I he had asked British composers for a fanfare to begin each orchestral concert. It had been so successful that he thought to repeat the procedure in World War II with American composers". A total of eighteen fanfares [1] were written at Goossens' behest, but Copland's is the only one which remains in the standard repertoire.

Goosens had suggested titles such as Fanfare for Soldiers, or sailors or airmen, and he wrote that "[i]t is my idea to make these fanfares stirring and significant contributions to the war effort...." Copland considered several titles including Fanfare for a Solemn Ceremony and Fanfare for Four Freedoms; to Goossens' surprise, however, Copland titled the piece Fanfare for the Common Man. Goossen wrote "Its title is as original as its music, and I think it is so telling that it deserves a special occasion for its performance. If it is agreeable to you, we will premiere it 12 March 1943 at income tax time". Copland's reply was "I [am] all for honoring the common man at income tax time".

The fanfare was also used as the main theme of the fourth movement of Copland's Third Symphony.

On a Petty Note...

Hugh! What are you doing? The word Revolution on a red background evoke images of communism. That's wrong, so wrong. Throw a little blue on the screen, please.

We the People of the United States

in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. . .

Amendment I - Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression. Ratified 12/15/1791.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment II - Right to Bear Arms. Ratified 12/15/1791.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Amendment III - Quartering of Soldiers. Ratified 12/15/1791.

No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Amendment IV - Search and Seizure. Ratified 12/15/1791.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Amendment V - Trial and Punishment, Compensation for Takings. Ratified 12/15/1791.

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Amendment VI - Right to Speedy Trial, Confrontation of Witnesses. Ratified 12/15/1791.

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

Amendment VII - Trial by Jury in Civil Cases. Ratified 12/15/1791.

In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

Amendment VIII - Cruel and Unusual Punishment. Ratified 12/15/1791.

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Amendment IX - Construction of Constitution.

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment X - Powers of the States and People. Ratified 12/15/1791.

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

When In the Course of Human Events

... it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred. to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Letter to Elected Representatives

Dear Ms. Murray (Cantwell and Mr. Larsen),

I am writing because I am very concerned over the efforts of prominent news organizations, namely the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, to undermine the safety of our armed forces abroad and citzens here at home. However the populace feels about the legitimacy of the war in Iraq, the War on Terror has been substantially harmed by the exposure of the NSA wiretapping story as well as the SWIFT program. More over I do not see the harm balanced out any good wrought from "the public need to know." Indeed, concern is too mild a word for the emotion I feel - rage is more apt.

I urge you to seriously investigate the leaks to the NYT and the LAT. The leakers should be held accountable for damaging the security of our nation and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. I further urge you to publicly censure the NYT and the LAT for their disgraceful conduct. I will be sending similar letters to my other representatives and be publishing this letter on my (we)blog.

Sincerely,

Berry Picking

The kidlings and I went strawberry picking the other day. Unlike our friends who picked 26 pounds of strawberries, we picked barely enough to cover the bottom of our basket- about four pounds.

It was the perfect day, sunny , warm, lightly breezy. The kids bounced around. Navy planes were flying low as they prepared to land on base. The Verbalist jumped up and down squealing, "Navy Plane! Go Navy!!"

The Muralist was more focused, she was hunting for "the perfectus, juciest, reddest berry for daddy."

"What about me?" I ask. "Are you going to find one for me?"

"No," she replies dismissively. "Find your own. You're good at berry picking."

Well. That puts me in my place. She ran up and down the rows parting leaves and peering at the berries.

The Shreiker sat in the stroller and glanced interestedly around. She accepted the bounty of berries given to her with good cheer. Heaven help us if we were not fast enough. A preemptory shout of displeasure would ring down the road. I detailed the Verbalist on Shreiker berry duty.

*Screech* (Shreiker)

"Here baby," pipes the Verbalist placing a berry somewhat near her hands as his eyes scan the skies expectantly. "NAVY PLANE!!!!! Go Navy!!"

*Screech!*

"Oh. Here baby..."

Rest in Peace

Jim Baen has died. The innovative sf publisher was only fifty years old. David Drake has an obituary up.

My connection to Mr. Baen is slim. I submitted stuff to his new magazine for publication hoping to get one of the coveted "Introducing" slots. I exchanged an email or two and a Baen Bar exchange or two and that's it. What it doesn't do is describe the incredible morale boost it was to an aspiring author who struggles to write in the midst of the chaos of three children.

Thank you Jim, you'll be missed.

Summer Movies

Ross Douthat over at Slate's summer movie review extravaganza tries to pinpoint the death of the epic film:

There was a moment in Hollywood in 2001, soon after Ridley Scott's Gladiator took home several hundred million dollars and a best picture Oscar, when the sweeping, stirring, blood-and-Technicolor historical epic seemed poised for a long-overdue renaissance. In the digital age, conjuring up castles and cavalry charges no longer required a cast of thousands or sets the size of Egypt: Technology alone could offer moviegoers a glimpse of ancient Greece or medieval Europe, the battle of Gaugamela or the siege of Petersburg. Directors, stars, and studios scrambled to commission their own period pieces—to do for Arthurian England, feudal Japan, or even the topless towers of Ilium what Scott and Russell Crowe had done for Rome.

Five years later, the DVD release of another Scott film, Kingdom of Heaven—in a pathetically lavish four-disc "director's cut" box set—rings down the curtain on the historical-movie moment. The rush to produce big-budget visions of the past—which gave us The Patriot, Gangs of New York, Troy, The Last Samurai, Master and Commander, Cold Mountain, King Arthur, Alexander, and finally Kingdom of Heaven—appears to be petering out, a victim of middling box-office and worse reviews. For the foreseeable future, Hollywood's encounters with history are likely to be occasional and idiosyncratic, such as Terence Malick's The New World or Sofia Coppola's forthcoming Marie Antoinette. The studios had the technology, it turned out, but lacked the vision thing.

To understand what went wrong, it's worth enduring the three-hour-and-10-minute cut of Scott's Crusades epic.

Douthat goes on to hammer Kingdom of Heaven (which I failed to make it through, BTW) and works up to what he sees as one of the two big reasons these movies are failing:

But based on the evidence of the last few years, the rank of current actors who can convincingly portray a premodern hero starts and ends with Russell Crowe.

and

But like Cruise studying Bushido, or Farrell wandering in the Hindu Kush, Bloom never looks like anything but what he is—a handsome, unreflective 21^st-century guy dropped down in a medieval setting, with none of the hardened masculinity or the defiant otherness that would make you believe that he belongs to a different time.

Having worked up a head of steam he barrels on to the second point:

The past's otherness—in dress and mood, belief and attitude—hasn't just created casting problems for epic-makers; it's ruined plots as well. Gladiator, like Braveheart before it, succeeded by keeping its story simple: a wronged man with a dead wife and a tyrant to overthrow. But subsequent epics wandered from that formula, allowing pixelated carnage or politically correct revisionism to overwhelm the human drama, and lost their way in the thickets of the past.

Both fine points, and I agree mostly with Mr. Douthat. Russell Crowe is not the end all of fine period heros. Clive Owen was the shining bright spot in King Arthur. Karl Urban - Lord of the Rings' Eomer, Viggo Mortensen, Jim Caveisel, Christian Bale, Daniel Day Lewis, and Liam Neeson have all turned in great performances as epic and period heros with as much, if not more, charisma that Crowe.

I love epics, especially sword and sandals, but an epic requires more than just a pretty face it requires big themes and the definative good vs. bad guys. The problem Douthat notes of pc revisionism can be attributed to the inability of the movie makers to take an unambiguous stand. Comic book movies are all the rage right now because we have good guys and bad guys. The successful ones clearly delineate who to cheer for: Spiderman-good, Green Goblin-bad. Even when the villian has a sympathetic side, Doc Ock or Magneto, we still understand that they are bad.

As much as Douthat despairs that the epic has died he contradicts himself in the last paragraph by pointing to the remaining successful epic maker:

It's encouraging, then, that the only quasi-epic due out this year is Mel Gibson's Mayan-language Apocalypto, about the collapse of a Mesoamerican civilization some time before Columbus. With The Passion of the Christ, Gibson proved that he could woo audiences, if not the critics, with a hallucinatory, blood-drenched trip into ancient Palestine, without big-name stars or even English-language dialogue to mitigate the strangeness of his vision. He may not draw similar crowds for Apocalypto (there's no Christianity this time, or culture-war controversy), but at the moment Gibson is the historical epic's last best hope. He seems to understand that the movies can be a time machine, but only if you treat the past like the foreign country it is.

Gibson is not afraid to take chances -real chances- with his movies. He clearly delineates the villians, heros, and gawking masses. He takes chances with lesser known actors rather than the box office names and Teen Beat heartthrob du jour.

Clarification

In response to inquiry, I am not advocating that the government be able to dictate what newspapers print. When I said that I hoped Keller et al. got jail time I was thinking jail time a la Judith Miller, who didn't want to give up her source and for aiding and abetting the commission of a crime, that crime being leaking of national secrets.

The compromising of national security for no other reason than spite and self aggrandizement is a foul and traitorous thing to do and deserves punishment. Yes, I said traitorous I do not think thst it too harsh a word. I do not think that you can possibly equate exposing the SWIFT program with exposing the perfedies of Nixon or Clinton, no matter how ardently their shades are invoked. Bush is not investigating his political enemies, he is tracking down head lopping 11th century wanna-bes who hate Grandma getting her hair set at the beauty parlor, and my 3 year old singing "Jesus loves me" at the playground. So don't tell me I am overreacting.

Open Letter

Dear Mr. Keller, Mr. Lichtblau and Mr. Risen:

I do not consider myself and my fellow citizens idiots incapable of understanding basic facts.

Fact One: Terrorists have bank accounts, they do not carry all their funds in shiny metal briefcases.

Fact Two: "following the money" is a tried and true investigatorial tactic.

Fact Three: US Government already knows plenty about domestic transactions, we provide annual updates every April 15th.

Fact Four: The NY Times has been (mildly stated) unhappy with the Administration since it's inaugeration January 2001.

Fact Five: The NY Times has already had bad juju with compromising classified information.

Fact Six: "Loose Lips Sinks Ships" is an aphorism for a reason.

Now those are out of the way you need to ask yourself some questions:

1. - Are you a citizen of the United States?
2. - Do you believe that we are engaged in a war?
3. - Do you believe that the purpose of the Constitution, including the provision for a free press, was formed to safeguard US citizens?
4. - Do you believe it is the Government's duty to safeguard it's citizens?
5. - Do you believe your newspaper is read outside of US borders?
6. - Which is more threatening to the health, happiness, and welfare of US Citizenry: a well armed terrorist or a governmental flunky sifting through international fiscal transactions.

By your own article you conclude that the program was effective, legal, and properly oversighted to check abuse. You had no compelling reason to compromise my safety for your ego. I hope you all see jail time. To be pithy: Fuck you and the horse you rode in on. That is all.

T. Sinclair
Whidbey Island, Washington

************
See also Hugh Hewitt, Gateway Pundit and Humorists iowahawk, SeeDubya

Summer Reading

Island Passage is soliciting suggestions on a good annual summer read:

But the lapse of a year allows the ideas and themes of the novel to grow roots in your mind; and re-reading the novel allows new growth to experience of reading. . .And, that, I think is the key. The annual desire to reacquaint ourselves with books that changed how we viewed the world.

And my annual summer read?

*Sigh*

It used to be The Lord of the Rings, but I have set that aside for a while. I'm looking for the next big, complex narrative, loaded with the frieight of ideas and new viewpoints that will be worth re-reading.

Any suggestions?

For those that are unaquainted with my reading habits, I read alot. Every year though I reread 4 books that shaped alot of my thought processes and are sheerly enjoyable on top of that. They are: To Kill A Mockingbird, Till We Have Faces, Fahrenheit 451, and Have Spacesuit, Will Travel. A rather odd assortment of books, but then, I have a rather odd mind.

To Kill A Mockingbird is the best American novel ever written. There are many fine novels out there, many influential ones but TKAM does something wonderful: it preaches without being preachy. Racism, and especially racism typified by the Jim Crow American South, has become an epithet hurled into political arguement these days. I suggest that people who cry "racist" at the drop of a hat reread Mockingbird. Atticus is the embodiment of hope and the model Harper Lee sets up, not just for Scout and Jem, but for her readers and Americans as a whole. Atticus sets the standard but does not condemn his fellow townsfolk for not being as enlightened as he is. He treats everyone with unfailing courtesy and understands that change comes slowly. He does what he can, influences where he can and does not shirk from duty.

Till We Have Faces, by CS Lewis, is one of those novels that teaches something new each time it is read. The myth of Psyche and Eros it explores the nature of love, self-love, identity, forgiveness, and how all of those are affected by our relationship with God.

Fahrenheit 451 is a denunciation of the trivial. It is infatuation with the trivial which blinds Bradbury's society to the destruction of their heritage and their very existence. Books are only the medium Bradbury uses to convey the denunciation. Guy Montag thoughtless in trivial pursuits in the beginning becomes the steward of the Book of Ecclesiastes in the end.

Have Spacesuit, Will Travel seems, at first, to be an strange addition to this list. Bob Heinlein's perhaps fluffiest juvenilia it follows Kip and Peewee through space pirates and interstellar tribunals. It emphasises optimism, individualism, hard work and perserverance.

Solar Eclipse

The kids are mercifully quiet right now. This is like an eclipse, intellectually you know it happens but it is rare enough that you marvel at it when it does. More, none of them are napping-it's like a solar eclipse!

The Verbalist made about 5 contraptions all designed to knock things over. Long complicated ramps which zig-zagged, windup walking toys, rolling balls - all with the grand purpose of knocking something over. His former contraption designs (such as the Santa trap - the Aradaro) will be the culminations of his efforts.

The Muralist dug out a long abandoned coloring book and is coloring away. She is finally attempting to stay within the lines but not to the point of realism when shade and hue are important. She is coloring a bear red because it's mad and another bear pink because it's good. Each item on the page is assigned an emotion, even the grass (which is happy; fulfilling its unique grassy destiny I suppose).

The Screecher has pulled some wooden puzzles off the (low) shelf and is blissfully shoving random pieces at random holes. Her brow is furrowed in concentration.

The Dog is laying in the shade panting happily. She counts it a success that she "drove off" the trash collectors.

LATER

The kids are out riding bikes now. Round and around the bottom of the driveway they go. Occasionally one of them labors halfway up the slope to the road then takes their feet from the pedals and coasts, whooping, back to the flat. It is the kid equivalent to a rollercoaster. They pedal maniacally trying to ram each other. Rarely do they catch each other, they laugh like loons as they narrow the gap, the laughing saps concentration which in turn lengthens the gap again. At last puffing and out of breath they run to the front door and demand sustenance.

Sustenance in this case means Otter Pops (tropical mix). Hot day. Fast Bikes. Sugary Ice. Summertime Kidhood typified.

Pictures Worth 1000 Words

The President swung by Seattle and the protesters were out with their signs. While they are not as virulent as some of the San Francisco protesters, I did want to link to a few.

No drums, I beg of you.

I always knew Turtle Bay was it's own mad country.

Clever! Except it's 2006 and Bush is not a candidate.

Spoonerists Unite!

Remember, Angry Protest=Smiley Faced "U"s.

Eloquent, pursuasive. PIck A CAse.

Political Ideology Quiz

Via Hugh Hewitt comes this quiz on political ideology. Unsurprisingly, I fall out on the line between conservative and libertarian. I believe that private individuals can do most things better than our government does (see Katrina -FEMA & state agencies vs. Red Cross).

Losers and Sportsmanship

Eugene Volokh points out this AP article which reports:

Any Connecticut high school football coach who runs up the score in a game now runs the risk of being suspended.
The football committee of the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, the state board that governs high school sports, has adopted a "score management" policy to keep teams from winning by more than 50 points.

Why?

The rout is considered an unsportsmanlike infraction and, beginning this fall, the head coach of the offending team will be disqualified from coaching the next game, said Tony Mosa, assistant executive director of the Cheshire-based CIAC.

Volokh says:

The problem, it seems to me, is quite real: It is indeed dispiriting and embarrassing to be so badly beaten. One possible solution (which the story describes, but which wasn't adopted) is to stop the game when the score gap gets too large. Another is to split the league into divisions in each of which the teams would be more closely matched, though that might not work well for a small league. There are other reasonable alternatives as well.

But the solution of requiring the winning team to essentially stop competing effectively strikes me as worse than the problem.

I don't think that playing well is unsportsmanlike. I don't think that it is right to penalize a talented team and an effective coach. Lord knows the highschool I attended had an mediocre football team at best and there were times we were soundly trounced by more than fifty points. I recall pep assemblies where we would cheer our team but were also encouraged to be good sports to maybe win the "Spirit Award", the award for neither being braggarts for winning or whiney gits for losing.

The story references a powerhouse school and coach that precipitated the rule:

Still, some around the state have dubbed it the "Jack Cochran rule," after the New London coach of the same name.

During halftime of New London's 60-0 rout of Tourtelotte/Ellis Tech last season, opposing coach Tim Panteleakos was arrested on breach of peace charges. With his team sitting on a huge lead, Cochran called a timeout just before the half, and that apparently riled Panteleakos.

He allegedly hit a New London security officer and tried to hit a New London assistant coach.

Cochran's teams logged four wins of more than 50 points last year.

"It's basically the Jack (Cochran) rule," Hyde Leadership-New Haven football coach John Acquavita told the New Haven Register. "For one guy, you're putting the stress on the entire state. It's the most asinine, insane thing I've ever heard of in my life."

The asinine thing is that these people have lost sight of what sports are about: teamwork, exercize, healthy competition and fun. Sure it's no fun to lose but golly it's always a possibility. Don't tell me the kids have no idea that they are going up against the powerhouse school. Instead of penalizing the coaches and students that do well, the coach that is punching someone should have swallowed the bitterness and modeled sportsman like behavior for his team. He should have encouraged them to have fun while they played and commended them for playing hard.

My dad always says if it's not fun then don't play the game. Sounds like this coach needs to walk away for a while. Part of being an adult and something that sportsmanship teaches is that sometimes you lose big no matter how hard you try. You either learn, move on and strive to be better or you change the rules and throw a pity party.

Gitmo...That's Guantanamo....I Knew That One

In today's NY Times, Mourad Benchellali, a French citizen and former Gitmo detainee, weighs in on the suicides of the inmates there. Before I delve into this much further let me share this little tidbit The US prison suicide average per year is:

Nationwide, the prison suicide rate is about 13 deaths per 100,000, compared with 11 deaths per 100,000 in the general community, said Hayes, a project director with the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives.

So in 4 or 5 years that enemy combatants have been held at Gitmo we have only had 3 suicides. Now obviously, there are only 465 detainees or so so the ratio of suicides to prisoners is a lot higher than the nation average, but if we really were torturing detainees hideously you'd think that suicide rates would be higher. Waterboarding and stress positions seem to be the worst things we've done to those guys, and while I am not going to make the call on whether or not they should be considered the legal definition of "torture" that's a world away from the rusty saws and rape rooms of the Taliban and Saddam Hussien. Anyway, let me get in to the meat of the op-ed.

Says Mourad:

In the early summer of 2001, when I was 19, I made the mistake of listening to my older brother and going to Afghanistan on what I thought was a dream vacation. His friends, he said, were going to look after me. They did — channeling me to what turned out to be a Qaeda training camp. For two months, I was there, trapped in the middle of the desert by fear and my own stupidity.

As soon as my time was up, I headed home. I was a few miles from the Pakistani border when I learned with horror about the attacks of 9/11. Days later, the border was sealed off, and the only way through to Pakistan and a plane to Europe was across the mountains of the Hindu Kush. I was with a group of people who were all going the same way. No one was armed; most of them, like me, had been lured to Afghanistan by a misguided and mistimed sense of adventure, and were simply trying to make their way home.

I was seized by the Pakistani Army while having tea at a mosque shortly after I managed to cross the border. A few days later I was delivered to the United States Army: although I didn't know it at the time, I was now labeled an "enemy combatant." It did not matter that I was no one's enemy and had never been on a battlefield, let alone fought or aimed a weapon at anyone.

Leaving aside the "dream vacation" spot that was Taliban controlled Afghanistan, where soccer stadiums were used to showcase beheadings and the punishment for wearing nail polish is the removal of fingers and fingernails, leaving that insanity aside let's assume that young Mourad is really that ignorant and take his story at face value. What do we know about young Mourad?

* He spent months training to be an Al-Qaeda terrorist (whether he planned to put the knowledge to use or not)

* He has close family ties to an Al-Qaeda recruiter

* He was traveling in a party with other men who trained to be Al Qaeda terrorists, a portion of whom knew what they were getting themselves into

From his own words we know that there is reasonable grounds for assuming that he would be a terrorist. As for his words:

It did not matter that I was no one's enemy and had never been on a battlefield, let alone fought or aimed a weapon at anyone.

Would you have believed him? If a young American man went through Basic Training, whose brother ran a Army recruiting post (store? facility?), and who was travelling with other Army guys in a foriegn country would you believe him if he said he wasn't in the Army because he had never actually seen action? Unlike the Army though, these guys don't wear uniforms, they will kill anyone who gets in their way, and they do not distinguish between 4 year olds and 24 year old Marines.

Still, give him the benefit of the doubt, he's a stupid kid caught up by circumstances:

You repeat yourself over and over again to interrogators from the military intelligence, the F.B.I., the C.I.A. The first time you hear "Your case is being processed," your heart, seizing on the hopeful possibilities in those words, skips a beat. After months of disappointment, you try to develop an immunity to hope, but hope is an incurable disease.

I remember once an interrogator warming me up during several sessions for a polygraph test I was going to take, that was, according to him, infallible. After I took the test, I was left alone in the interrogation room; an hour later, the interrogator returned. "Congratulations," he said grimly. "You have passed the test." And he gave me a box of candy.

In the outside world, I thought, the difference between telling the truth and lying, between committing a crime and not committing it, is the difference between being in jail and being free. In Guantánamo, it is a box of candy.

I was eventually released and I will go on trial next month in Paris to face charges that I've never denied, that I spent two months in the Qaeda camp.

They were assorted cremes and he wanted nuts damn it! Goodness gracious, what if they were Danish chocolates offensive to Mohammed! So here's a stupid kid who managed to weave his way through government beauracracy in 2 and a half years (lightning quick in government circles - just ask Brent Kavanaugh who was sitting waiting to be confirmed to an appellate court for 6 or is it 8 years?). Never mind that he has potentially extremely valuable information about who he was with in that training camp, or who his brother's associates might be - those 2 years were horrible because they couldn't believe he was that stupid.

Can we look at another story of Gitmo detainees? Three Afghanistan boys who say:

The boys never spoke to Guantanamo's other prisoners - "lots of Arabs and Afghans," according Naqibullah.

Meanwhile, their own interrogation became a predictable affair. "I said, 'Look, I don't anything about the Taliban'," said Asadullah. "But anyway, the Taliban were the government so lots of people worked with them. Just because you were Taliban it doesn't mean you're a criminal."

Hmm. Not a criminal eh? How about their inhumane time at Gitmo?

Naqibullah's first 10 days in Guantanamo were the worst of his life, he said. He was put in a tiny cell with a single slit-window as his interrogation continued. Then everything changed. "I was taken to an American general who said, 'We will educate you and soon you will go home'. And my situation improved."

Naqibullah, Asadullah and Mohammed Ismail were moved into one large room, which was never locked. They were taught Pashto (their own language), English, Arabic, maths, science, art and, for two months, Islam. "The American soldiers ate pork but they said we must never do that because we were Muslim," said Naqibullah. "They were very strict about Islam."

The boys played football every day, and sometimes basketball and volleyball with their guards. Asadullah said his particular friends were called Special Sergeant M and Private O - their real names were kept from him. Officially, he was called Prisoner 912. "But my friends called me Asadullah, which made me happy."

After five months, Naqibullah wrote home for the first time. Taking this first letter, written on Red Cross notepaper, from his pocket, he now reads it aloud. "My greetings to beloved family, to my beloved father, to my beloved uncles, to my beloved cousins, to my beloved brothers. I am in good health and happy. I am in Cuba, in a special room, but it is not like a jail. Don't worry about me. I am learning English, Pashto and Arabic." The next two lines of the letter were scrubbed out by the Guantanamo censor. Asadullah said he couldn't for the life of him remember what they said.

No Powerpoint though

The Verbalist runs into the room when I call him.

"Put on clothes," say I. It is 10 am, his cousin is visiting and everyone else is dressed.

"I can't, Mom. I'm late for my staff meeting - I have a presentation." He runs off and I am speechless. Staff meeting? I detect father emulation.

Drifting in from the other room comes the Muralist's dulcet tones:

"Make a space: I brought doughnuts." Ahhh, my kind of staff meeting.

Murphy's Law

I start big changes on the blog and my hard drive dies. Sorry folks.

While Dad's Away

Dear Husband is out of state attending a memorial service for his granddad, Curt. His granddad was one of those big personalities; he filled the room. Those are the kind of people you can't conceive of as not being there or sickening. When I last saw him, I felt a strange disconnect. He had been spiraling downhill in health, everytime I saw him he was progressively worse, but I still experienced that jolting shock anew. My mental picture of him always reverted back to the loud, bluff man from my early memories and erased the failing octegenarian. Anyway, it's weird that he is gone.

So DH has been gone and the kids have been playing the "when dad gets home" card. When dad gets home....I'm going to have ice cream. When dad gets home....we are going to stay up past bed time and play legos. When dad gets home....we are going to charm him into breaking the rules that mean old mom puts down.

Ah yes, the rules, those harsh cruel ones like: dinner before desert, don't run up and down grocery store aisles shreiking like banshees, put you bikes under the breezeway. Say please and thank you, let seniors go through the door first, DON'T POKE THE BABY. My goodness - don't poke the baby.

Incidentally, Glenn and Helen interview James Lileks (author of Mommy Knows Worst: Highlights from the Golden Age of Bad Parenting Advice) and Cathy Seipp on child rearing. It's well worth listening to. One of the questions they ask is why are large families less obsessive about safety than small families? Cathy thinks it's because large families see the different stages of ability and it's easier to give the elder's autonomy. My answer: the more kids you have, the more wisely you pick your parenting battles. As a parent you only have so much energy to funnel into things. I tend to funnel my energy into things I think are essential rather than battle my strong willed kids over convenience issues. Ultimately, it doesn't really matter if the Muralist wears a garish pink tutu over her jeans and yodels "A Dream is a Wish your Heart Makes" at the top of her lungs going down Highway 20.

Technicalities

From the Washington Times:

The long-fought Senate immigration bill that opponents say grants amnesty to 10 million illegal aliens is unconstitutional and appears headed for certain demise, Senate Republicans now say.
A key feature of the Senate bill is that it would make illegals pay back taxes before applying for citizenship, a requirement that supporters say will raise billions of dollars in the next decade.
There's just one problem: The U.S. Constitution specifically prohibits revenue-raising legislation from originating in the Senate.
"All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives," according to the "origination clause" in Article I, Section 7.
Republicans -- including the bill's supporters -- say this will kill the bill, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist says he's offered a simple solution. He wants to attach the immigration bill to a tax bill that has already passed the House. It would then proceed as planned to a "conference committee," where negotiators from the House and Senate hammer out differences between the two chambers' immigration bills.
"This is a procedural issue that we could overcome," said Carolyn Weyforth, spokeswoman for Mr. Frist.
But Minority Leader Harry Reid won't go along with that fix. His office said yesterday that the concerns raised by Mr. Frist and House Republicans are "technical in nature" and can be ignored.

You know the US Constitution is so pesky about those details. Not that I epect much better from the Senate, they spat out the egregious McCain/Feingold Act which kills political speech inspite of the First Amendment "technicality".

To skirt the ban, Republicans say, the Senate easily could agree to attach the immigration bill to the House-approved tax legislation. They see Mr. Reid's refusal to fix the problem as an attempt to scuttle the bill, and thus deny the Republican Congress a "victory" for passing immigration reform before this fall's elections.
"We can solve this constitutional issue if Harry Reid would drop his obstructionism and allow the comprehensive immigration legislation to move past the Senate," Ms. Weyforth said.

Now I don't like Harry "Love the Fights" Reid much, but I am glad to see this bill scuttled. It's a bad law that the majority of citizens oppose. I know "Tickets are not a Bribe" Reed is not doing this for any other reason than political grandstanding but I am glad it is happening.

U of O, Diversity, and a Silly Abstract

Mike Adams takes a stick and pokes at the University of Oregon's new 46 page "diversity plan". Now Dear Husband attended U of O as have many of his family members, so this particular article caught my attention when a story highlighting Yale might not. Mike's column is formatted as an open letter to President Frohnmeyer and questions the assumptions and muddy thinking that pervade the "diversity plan" - including it's inability to articulate what "diversity" is.

But, of course, all of this discussion of diversity is moot unless UO can decide just what diversity really means. The following footnote in your report suggests that no one can be certain what anyone is really talking about when the subject of diversity is broached:

We recognize the difficulty of using a term like diversity that is subject to multiple interpretations. We intend to be inclusive when we use this term. The risk of listing examples of diversity is that no list can be all inclusive. In defining diversity for use in this document, we do not intend to leave out any group. In this document when we discuss persons "of diverse backgrounds or experiences" we mean by that description to refer to the broad range of diversity intended by our definition here. Further, when we discuss "underrepresented groups" we intend to refer again to the broad definition of diversity.

UO ought to be embarrassed by that definition. And any taxpayer reading your report should demand that you de-fund all of your diversity initiatives until you decide exactly what “diversity” really is. I don’t have a good definition of “diversity fund” but I do have a synonym. It is called “slush fund.”

I immediately thought of that little jingle: "one of these things is not like the other...." Diverse according to Merriam-Webster is simply unalike. How a person identifies themself often falls outside of the neat little catagories that the staff at U of O have decided are diverse. So the U of O has decided that some elements of identity are more important than others but declines to call it a value judgement. As a woman I am under represented, as a white I am not. As a woman I am valued by U of O as a descendant of European immigrants I am not. Says the U of O:

Programs such as Ethnic Studies and Women's and Gender Studies provide courses, opportunities for advanced study, and scholarly work of interest to students and faculty from underrepresented groups. Strengthening these and other programs that focus scholarship and teaching on issues of diversity will serve to strengthen diversity at the University.

Oh please. Gender and ethnicity define parts of identity but are not what make me unalike. It doesn't matter what facet of identity is thrown into the equation, defining the value of individuals by a single characteristic is like saying all equations with irrational numbers in them are better than others. For a silly example:

What makes me unalike, diverse, is that I am a clarinet player. The ratio of clarinet players to the rest of the campus are diminishingly small and if you think clarinet players are never discriminated against just ask yourself- why is it that oboes always get the privilege of tuning the orchestra? No one is going to defer to me for being a clarinet player, though you probably don't think of yourself as being a clarinetist bigot. Let me ask you some questions:

Have you ever made a disparaging remark about clarinets?
Have you ever felt uncomfortable in a room with someone who plays the clarinet?
Have you ever shown a preference for another orchestral instrument?
If the first clarinetist got up to lead the orchestra would you think, "hey! that's the first violin's job?"
Would you deny your discomfort has anything to do with that person's clarinetist affiliations?
Would you rather I not make a big deal about my clarinet playing?

At this point some of my readers are shaking their heads and saying, "Stop being idiotic, no one has ever killed a clarinetist for being a clarinetist."

Au contraire, say I, they did in Mao's China.

Says the U of O:

Cultural competence is an active and ongoing process of self reflection, learning, skill development, and adaptation, practiced individually and collectively, that enables us to engage effectively a culturally diverse community and world. Cultural competence allows us to recognize that our statements, convictions, and reactions are conditioned by the culture in which we live.

Persecuting clarinetists isn't a moral wrong, it's only cultural conditioning according to the U of O, if you follow it's logic to a Swiftian conclusion.

Engineering

Yesterday the Verbalist, Muralist, the Screecher and I were shopping and picked up MouseTrap, the boardgame where you build a Rube Goldberg machine to trap other people's game pieces. It won the immediate approbation of the Verbalist, whom you might recall drew up plans for trapping Santa Claus last Christmas.

The Muralist was more concerned with collecting pieces of cheese than construction of the trap, but she was suitably wary when it was completed. The Verbalist could hardly keep from running the partially completed contraption as we hopped along the board. His hand kept sneaking out to turn the gear crank.

Game one ended when I captured both Verbalist and Muralist pieces in one go. Game two ended after the Verbalist captured me and the Muralist captured him in turn. He had a brief gloating session before, unwary, his sister turned the crank on him.

He has decided to build a full size sister trap and is drawing up plans.

Suspect Zero

This week's movie is Suspect Zero (2004). A mostly sidelined crime/horror thriller, Suspect Zero stars Ben Kingsley as a serial killer who kills other serial killers and Aaron Eckart as the FBI agent trying to catch him. Watching it I was struck by it's similarity to Se7en (1995). The main killer, O'Ryan (Kingsley), communicates with Mackelway (Eckert) making him integral to the puzzle and solution of how to catch him.

Kingsley gives as creepy and compelling a performance as Kevin Spacey did in Se7en but manages to invest a shade of empathy for him that makes you more uncomfortable than the unvarnished evil of Spacey's John Doe.

In Se7en, Brad Pitt seemed to move in slow motion, pacing himself to Morgan Freeman's measured narration. Eckert exudes tension and fatigue all through Suspect Zero, making his emotional collapses believable. By the time the final scenes roll around you wonder if Mackelway will fall victim to the manipulations of O'Ryan.

Carrie Anne Moss portrays Mackelway's partner, Fran Kulok. I know from Memento (2000) that Carrie-Anne Moss is capable of being something other than wooden on the screen, unfortunately there is only one scene where she emotes at all in Suspect Zero. Mackelway is convinced he knows O'Ryan's motives and goes to Kulok's hotel room looking for a sense of support - an understanding that he is not moving in the direction of insanity. Kulok declines to accompany Mackelway back to the office and urges him to come into her room. Moss manages to convey helplessness and concern over her partner's slide into intuitive leaps and obsessing. Other than those 2 minutes, Kulok is a two dimentional cypher.

Bottom line: Suspect Zero needed Morgan Freeman. Freeman brings depth to whatever project he is working on and Aaron Eckert and Ben Kingsley's performances were better than Pitt and Spacey's. Plus, Suspect Zero didn't have the gratuitous nastiness that was in Se7en.

Summer Reading and the American Novel

Powerline has created a "Greatest American Novel" poll:

We've selected 21 contenders for the title of all-time best American novel. The list will no doubt provoke disagreement; it is, pretty much by definition, arbitrary and capricious. We tried to select candidates based on literary merit. Politics and sociology were ignored. Here is the list:

Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter
Melville, Moby-Dick
Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin
James, Portrait of a Lady
Twain, Huckleberry Finn
Cather, My Antonia
Wharton, The Age of Innocence
Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
Warren, All the King's Men
Bellow, The Adventures of Augie March
Ellison, Invisible Man
Chandler, The Long Goodbye
Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
Updike, Rabbit, Run
Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor
Heller, Catch-22
Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird
Nabokov, Pale Fire
Roth, The Great American Novel

I don't see any glaring omissions, although a reader of their's chastised them for neglecting Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. I think I would have included some James Fenimore Cooper (despite Twain's distain) likely The Prairie or Last of the Mohicans. Cooper's flowery and rambling prose are no worse than Melville or Dickens and he touches important themes: individaulism, conservation, and competing cultures while celebrating the beauty of the continent.

Still, Cooper can not compete with To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Fahrenheit 451 and The Long Goodbye ultimately are hindered by their genres although they are as finely written as Mockingbird. I enjoy both hard boiled crime noirs and speculative/science fiction but many people don't and would find it as difficult to read past the conventions of either as they would the snowstorm of words in Moby Dick or Age of Innocence.

Lost Season Finale

I don't watch 24, Jack Bauer holds no allure. I stopped watching American Idol when allegations of vote counting scandals surfaced in season 2. No thanks, Washington State has it's fill of that in regular politics; besides, Simon Cowell wins every year anyway. Lost is the tv show for me and boy, was it a slam bang season finale last night.

Lost provides a valuable public service - it keeps alot of people obsessing over conspiracy theories they know are fake. Can you imagine if these folks obsessed over Rove in Democratic Underground or Vince Foster's murder elsewhere? No, it's best that they go off chasing the Hanso Foundation.

What happened to the denizens of Oceanic Flight 815 last night? Well, we found out that the man purporting to be Henry Gale (Fenry) pulled a Verbal Kint. We found out that the numbers do mean something. Michael and Walt were reunited and got away. The Skipper killed Maryanne to persuade the natives to give him a fishing boat and a map to Hawaii so he and Gilligan could get away - holey moley.

Damon Lindeloff has thrown down the alien gauntlet to the obsessive fans in the form of a four toed statue. Two people died and no less than nine main characters lives are now in jeopardy. After all, do you believe Fenry's claim to be the "good guys"? Me neither.

New Blog Look

This will change. I especially hate comments right now.

Blogiversary

My one year blogiversary is this month. Hoorah! I have had 13,000 visitors on average of 50 people a day.

Breaking News: French are Rude

So a bunch of Brits say the French are rude and the French say they are just "moody". Poe-tay-toe/Pa-tah-toe - I know what my Dear Husband means when he says "moody" nice person code for "b*tchy".

A decisive 46 percent of the 6,000 people surveyed by travellers' website Where Are You Now (WAYN) said the French were the most unfriendly nation people on the planet, British newspapers reported.

The Germans have no to reason to celebrate the damning verdict. They came second on all three counts.

WAYN's French founder, Jerome Touze, told the papers he had been stunned by the thumping condemnation of his compatriots and sought to blame it on Gallic love-struck sulking.

"I had no idea that the French would emerge as such an unfriendly country," he said.

"I think our romantic 'moodiness' is misunderstood and I will be sure to pass on the message to my family and friends back in France to be a bit more cheerful to tourists in the future."

My favorite bit:

Italy was voted the world's most cultured nation with the best cuisine, while the United States was named the most unstylish with the worst food.

Yeah, Hollywood so unglamorous. Plus, are the Brit's anyone to be criticizing about bad food?? These are the producers of blanc-mange and blood pudding. I will back a greasy burger anytime against blanc-mange.

Chicken n' Dumplings

Let me state a couple of things right off: when I heard the catagory for recipes this week was crockpot comfort food this is the recipe that sprang to mind. Second, as a kid I hated this food and ate it under protest, my mother is now laughing her head off in schadenfruede. This is her recipe from my kidhood. I am aware that it does not actually contain chicken.


Chicken n' Dumplings

In crockpot combine:

2 turkey drums
1 bay leaf
one small onion, chopped coarse
1 stock celery (leaves on) chopped
1 tsp parsley
2 tsp salt
1 tsp sage

Cover with water and cook on medium until meat falls off the bone. Remove meat/bone to cool. Add to crockpot:

3-4 yukon gold or red potatoes diced, skin on
3-4 carrots coined, skin on
2 tbsp butter
1/2 cup of milk or cream

When veggies are tender add in the meat, being sure to pick the bones clean. Add 1/2 cup green peas. Then thicken broth with cornstarch or flour, about 2 Tbsp. Turn heat down to low and stir occasionally until thick. Add dumplings to stew in spoonfuls and cook 10 minutes covered and 5 minutes uncovered. Dumplings should be fluffy and have a skin on top.

Dumpling dough:

2 cups biscuit mix (Bisquick in singled out in mom's recipe)
1 tsp parsley
and milk enough to form very soft dough.

Enjoy!

Feh! Prepare for pogroms

I know it is considered bad form to invoke Nazi comparisons, but what are you going to do?(ht: NRO)

Human rights groups are raising alarms over a new law passed by the Iranian parliament that would require the country's Jews and Christians to wear coloured badges to identify them and other religious minorities as non-Muslims.

"This is reminiscent of the Holocaust," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, the dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. "Iran is moving closer and closer to the ideology of the Nazis."

Iranian expatriates living in Canada yesterday confirmed reports that the Iranian parliament, called the Islamic Majlis, passed a law this week setting a dress code for all Iranians, requiring them to wear almost identical "standard Islamic garments."

The law, which must still be approved by Iran's "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenehi before being put into effect, also establishes special insignia to be worn by non-Muslims.

Iran's roughly 25,000 Jews would have to sew a yellow strip of cloth on the front of their clothes, while Christians would wear red badges and Zoroastrians would be forced to wear blue cloth.

I am surprised there is no mandate for gays to wear pink - oh that's right, they hang them.
Update: The story is unconfirmed and looks like false. That's good.

Excavations

I am standing folding laundry and watching Last of the Mohicans (1992) the Michael Mann extravagana that manages to be better than the original source material. As Nathanial (Daniel Day Lewis) passionately tells Cora (Madeline Stowe) that he will find her no matter how long or far, I begin to sniffle anticipating the final scenes. For those of you who have never seen the movie or read Cooper's book; I stress Last of the Mohicans, and not last in line for an ice cream cone either.

A shreak of fear breaks my emotional movie wallow and a tearful Muralist races into the room. Her finger seems to have stuck up her nose. As she babbles somewhat incoherantly, I realize it is not her finger which is stuck up her nose but something else entirely. The finger it seems has pushed the object so far up her nose it can not dig the item out - hence the fear and panic. I dislodge the finger and pull her into a beam of sunshine. Tilting her head back, I look up. Nope, the light is not good enough to see.

The Dear Husband has a Mag-lite that doubles as a club for intruders and it was this gargantuan number which aided in locating and identifying the foriegn object. It was little and yellow. It was organic in nature. It was an old-maid, popcorn kernal and boy howdy it was a big one. I got a tissue, held it and commanded child to blow. It failed. It was lodged too tightly.

"What ever possessed you to stick something up your nose?" I questioned in exasperation as I scrounged for tweezers through the bathroom drawer.

The Muralist considered the question with considerable gravity. "Becaauuussseee," she replied, drawing the syllables as long as possible, "it was stuck in my feet."

For a moment I was utterly floored. I had no words. Putting aside the fact that I have no idea where the popcorn originated, who, who, WHO? puts something stuck in their feet up their nose? My delicate bloom.

"Why?" I asked bemusedly, tweezers cradled, temporarily forgotten, in my hand.

"It made sense when I did it." was her calm reply. The calmness evaporated when she saw the tweezers. After a brief struggle and then promise of an Oreo, we managed to extract the kernal with the Verbalist holding the light and armchair coaching the whole while.

Three year olds, an adventure everyday.

Fridge Magnets for Freedom

I have, for a while, been part of the Iowahawk Legion of Dumb. The Legion has been handed a task that I pass to you my faithful readers:

Now Doc is over in the Big Sandy (Iraq - translation me) making life miserable for Zarkman (Zarqawi - me again), so I'd like to return the favor. Doc writes:

...I need lots of refrigerator magnets to envelop my Humvee with. Naturally you will get the picture of the completed project. I must not let the evil Cavalry types get ahead of me on this one. Perhaps your readers would like to take part with a secret PSYOP decoder ring going to the best magnet.

This is exactly the type of surreal absurdist activity the LOD was founded to support. Thus you are hereby commanded: Send your weirdest refrigerator magnets immediately to

Dr. Lee

TPT 1634 1-33 CAV

3rd BCT 101 ABN DIV

APO AE 09390

And while your at it, you can support our other servicemen and women by supporting Operation Gratitude which is aiming to get 40,000 care packages together by the 4th of July.

Who knows? Perhaps my readers consist of those poor souls whose 'fridges are solely adorned by a magnet for the local pizza takeout, perhaps a monochromatic plastic strawberry; somehow I think better of my readers. So send Dr. Lee a magnet and strike a blow (though glancing to be sure) for freedom.

More on Illegal Immigration

President Bush will be giving a speech in prime-time about illegal immigration, a subject which is bleeding conservative support away from the GOP. The upshot is it's likely to do no good. Why? Baldly put, it's because no one trusts him to secure the border any more than no one expects a Democrat to cut taxes. Putting 10,000 National Guards on the border will not fix the problem. The only way to fix the problem is to enforce the law and to reform and stream line legal immigration.

UPDATE:
From what I am seeing and reading it is as bad as I feared. Get this from quintessential party man Hugh Hewitt:

My interview with Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Julie Myers staggered me, undoing in a handful of minutes my confidence in the president's commitment to border security first. Either the president's team had not communicated effectively with sub-cabinet appointees about the fence, or the president doesn't really believe in the fence, because Assistant Secretary Myers is clearly not a proponent of the fence.

John Hawkins:

Amended grade: D-. At least he didn't use the, "jobs Americans won't do," line. So, he did deserve a small boost for that.

End Update

In related illegal immigration news I ran across this story in the Seattle Times:

PENDLETON, Ore. — Out of ideas and low on cash one cold morning, the man with the biggest badge in town put his meaty fingers on a keyboard and tapped out a letter to the leader of Mexico.

"Dear Precidente [sic] Fox," it began.

"My name is John Trumbo. I am Sheriff of Umatilla County in northeastern Oregon, United States of America." Illegal immigrants "from your country" who committed crimes here, the letter said, cost Americans lots of money.

Last year, more than 360 of "your citizens" spent time in jail "at a cost of $63 a day which equates to a request for payment of $318,843," the letter concluded. "At this time, you will not be billed for medical, dental and transportation costs. Your prompt attention to this request will be very much appreciated."

Trumbo goes on to explain about the very real cost to citizens in monetary and non-monetary fashions:

To anyone who asked, Trumbo explained:

The county has a daily jail capacity of 252 inmates but can afford staff and services for only 135 inmates. The sheriff's office should have a minimum of 27 patrol officers but can fund only nine. Between 2 a.m. and 8 a.m. each day, no patrol officer is on duty.

"When people call the police, they expect to see the police," Trumbo says. "They see it on TV all the time. But there are times when I can't send anybody, because I don't have anybody, because I don't have the money."

One reason, he says: The department spends much of its $6.5 million annual budget on apprehending and jailing illegal immigrants.

***

In the past 16 years, the Hispanic population in 20 of Oregon's 36 counties has as much as tripled. The Pew Hispanic Center estimates the number of illegal immigrants in the state has jumped to as many as 175,000, compared with 25,000 in 1990.

The population increase has led to a corresponding rise in the number of undocumented immigrants who commit crimes. Trumbo says between nine and 15 of his jail beds are occupied each day by illegal immigrants from Mexico.

The Mexican Consul eneral for Oregon says Trumbo is racist. From the article:

The Mexican consul general for Oregon, Fernando Sanchez Ugarte, who received a copy of the letter, says he doesn't know whether Fox will respond. Ugarte says he personally dismissed the letter as political posturing, not to mention racist. The sheriff, he says, "is pinpointing one ethnic group," and he's not sending letters to the presidents of all the other countries in the world.

"If a visitor from Switzerland does something wrong while visiting Umatilla County," Ugarte says, "will Mr. Trumbo send a bill to the leader of Switzerland? I don't think so."

This is what we call in my house, bargin price baloney. If 9 to 15 beds a day of Trumbo's jail were filled by crime committing Swiss, and regular governmental channels were not doing anything about it, I imagine he would be writing to the Swiss government. The Swiss are not and the Mexicans are, race discrimination has nothing to do with it - or at the most very little.

Playing the race card, when hard facts do not support you, will lose you support you might otherwise enjoy. Case in point from Don Surber:

Mexican President Vicente Fox is allowed to sound worried about militarizing the border without being held accountable for his own actions. The Mexican government has sent instructions, given fake IDs to use in the US and otherwise encouraged citizens to break American law.

Baker wrote, "The president's plan could increase the strain with Fox, who has grown disenchanted with Bush's failure to ease immigration rules as promised. Fox for years has pressured Bush to help the 11 million illegal immigrants now in the United States, many of them from Mexico, with little to show for it."

Little to show for it? How many billions do these illegal aliens send back to prop up the economy of Foix's racketeer-influence, corrupt nation?

Senor Fox has been especially incompetent in running his country. Mexico cannot make a go of it even with NAFTA? That is Jimmy Carter-level incompetence.

A few weeks ago, I was Mr. Open Borders. But after that May Day fiasco, I see this is just another socialist plan to undermine America in the name of Illegal Alien Rights.

And now...

I have the flu...

You Don't Say....

I sat poking food into the gaping maw of the Infant and chatting with Sis-I-L. The two elder children were (supposedly) eating dinner and enjoying the edifying music of Schoolhouse Rock in the other room. Our chat was interrupted with a shriek of rage and a crash. Before an adult could leap to investigate, the Verbalist ran into the room.


"Mom! She threw the toaster at me!" Blissfully this is a toy toaster, but still throwing things is Not Acceptable Behavior. The Verbalist leans close and whispers in my ear stotto voce: "That's not a good idea!"

Ears and Viruses

The Dear Husband went to the hospital 3 times this last week due to a nasty virus. Then the Infant and the Verbalist developed ear infections - a first for both. So it has been a bit, hmm, crazy around here. In a fit of end of rope-dness, I called in reinforcements my Sister-in-law. The amazing helpfulness of an extra pair of hands and a sympathetic ear can not be overrated.

Hiatus

I am on a short hiatus until May 7th unless I manage to carve out more time than I think I'll have. See you then.