Dark Bilious Vapors

In our New United States, "freedom of religion" appears to be coming to mean...

the freedom to practice the state approved religion. At least if this Marion County, Indiana judge has his way: Judge: Parents can't teach pagan beliefs

An Indianapolis father is appealing a Marion County judge's unusual order that prohibits him and his ex-wife from exposing their child to "non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals."

The parents practice Wicca, a contemporary pagan religion that emphasizes a balance in nature and reverence for the earth.

Cale J. Bradford, chief judge of the Marion Superior Court, kept the unusual provision in the couple's divorce decree last year over their fierce objections, court records show. The order does not define a mainstream religion.

Bradford refused to remove the provision after the 9-year-old boy's outraged parents, Thomas E. Jones Jr. and his ex-wife, Tammie U. Bristol, protested last fall.

Through a court spokeswoman, Bradford said Wednesday he could not discuss the pending legal dispute.

Damn, those canons of judicial ethics come in handy, particularly when there's no way the judge could discuss this case without making himself look like a bigger fool (or a more narrow-minded bigot) than he already looks.

The parents' Wiccan beliefs came to Bradford's attention in a confidential report prepared by the Domestic Relations Counseling Bureau, which provides recommendations to the court on child custody and visitation rights. Jones' son attends a local Catholic school.

"There is a discrepancy between Ms. Jones and Mr. Jones' lifestyle and the belief system adhered to by the parochial school. . . . Ms. Jones and Mr. Jones display little insight into the confusion these divergent belief systems will have upon (the boy) as he ages," the bureau said in its report.

But Jones, 37, Indianapolis, disputes the bureau's findings, saying he attended Bishop Chatard High School in Indianapolis as a non-Christian.

Jones has brought the case before the Indiana Court of Appeals, with help from the Indiana Civil Liberties Union. They filed their request for the appeals court to strike the one-paragraph clause in January.

"This was done without either of us requesting it and at the judge's whim," said Jones, who has organized Pagan Pride Day events in Indianapolis. "It is upsetting to our son that he cannot celebrate holidays with us, including Yule, which is winter solstice, and Ostara, which is the spring equinox."

...

"When they read the order to me, I said, 'You've got to be kidding,' " said Alisa G. Cohen, an Indianapolis attorney representing Jones. "Didn't the judge get the memo that it's not up to him what constitutes a valid religion?"

Hopefully, the Indiana Court of Appeals is more on top of the law than this Marion County judge:

Even the U.S. military accommodates Wiccans and educates chaplains about their beliefs, said Lawrence W. Snyder, an associate professor of religious studies at Western Kentucky University.

"The federal government has given Wiccans protection under the First Amendment," Snyder said. "Unless this judge has some very specific information about activities involving the child that are harmful, the law is not on his side."

What makes this case highly unusual is that the parents aren't in opposition here. They're both pagans. The fight is between the two parents on one side, and the judge on the other:

At times, divorcing parents might battle in the courts over the religion of their children. But Kenneth J. Falk, the ICLU's legal director, said he knows of no such order issued before by an Indiana court. He said his research also did not turn up such a case nationally.

"Religion comes up most frequently when there are disputes between the parents. There are lots of cases where a mom and dad are of different faiths, and they're having a tug of war over the kids," Falk said. "This is different: Their dispute is with the judge. When the government is attempting to tell people they're not allowed to engage in non-mainstream activities, that raises concerns."

Len on 05.31.05 @ 07:29 PM CST [link] [ | ]

"I always thought the record would stand until it was broken." --Yogi Berra

And here Karen's scared of sharks. It appears that there are other denizens of the freshwater deep that we should be worried about.

It appears that a couple weekends ago, an Alton, IL fisherman caught what appears to be world record blue catfish in the Mississippi River just below Alton.

An Alton fisherman, with help from his wife and a friend, landed a 124-pound catfish in their johnboat during a late-night outing on the Mississippi River below Alton.

Tim Pruitt caught the fish early Sunday after a 45-minute fight, said Fred Cronin, Illinois district fisheries biologist. The catch easily beats the Illinois and Missouri records for blue catfish and probably is enough for a world record, Cronin said Tuesday.

The world record is 121.8 pounds, set in January 2004 at Lake Texoma near Denison, Texas. Current state records for blue cats are 85 pounds in Illinois and 103 pounds in Missouri.

Unfortunately, Fishzilla didn't survive his encounter with Pruitt.

Pruitt, who underwent previously scheduled elbow surgery Tuesday, said the fish unfortunately died while being transported by special truck to the Cabela's outdoor store in Kansas City, Kan. Pruitt, who eventually wanted the fish returned to the Mississippi, was upset that the fish had died and stressed that special care was taken to try to keep the fish alive.

And for those of you readers (come on, there has to be one or two) who are angling geeks, the information you wanted to know:

Pruitt caught the fish, estimated at 25 to 30 years old, with a large salt-water rig, 40-pound-test fishing line and the head of a moon eye fish for bait.

Congratulations, Tim!

Len on 05.31.05 @ 07:16 PM CST [link] [ | ]

Well, we now know who "Deep Throat" was....

besides the fact that he's the guy who clued Woodstein in on the Watergate break-in. Apparently, he's former FBI deputy director W. Mark Felt, according to a story in Vanity Fair that's been confirmed by Woodward, Bernstein, and Ben Bradlee of the Washington Post.

I have to admit I share Ben Bradlee's astonishment:

Bradlee said today, "The thing that stuns me is that the goddamn secret has lasted this long."

Of course, the reason it lasted this long is that it wasn't the government that was keeping the secret.

:-)

Len on 05.31.05 @ 06:20 PM CST [link] [ | ]

End of an Era?

The title of this Daily Herald article from the AP just about says it all: Is it end of the road for HoJo’s?: Changing times put restaurant at crossroads.

For those of us who spent countless hours in the HoJo's which had been located over by the Kennedy -294 Expressway - in our Park Ridge high school and college years...it IS the passing of an era.



Karen on 05.31.05 @ 09:04 AM CST [link] [ | ]

So when are the traditionalist Catholics going to start complaining?

Ed Halter, in his Village Voice review of Star Wars Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith, makes this comment:

Ian McDiarmid's unctuous Emperor—who bears a strange resemblance to Pope Benedict XVI, sunken eyes and all—turns appropriately vampiric as he attempts to draw Anakin into the Sith fold with promises of eternal life.

Hmmmmm... of course, one of the main attractions of Catholicism (as indeed, with just about all variants of Christianity), is that promise of eternal life. Given that the Bushies are complaining about Sith as being a thinly veiled swipe at the bAdministration, are we now to get traditionalist Catholics complaining that Lucas is trying to tell us something by his creating an uncanny physical resemblance between Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious and Pope Benedict?

Len on 05.31.05 @ 08:35 AM CST [link] [ | ]

More Memphis Visit - In Parts...

We were downtown at Huey’s enjoying a beer and appetizers…

Len at Huey’s

We were having such a nice time - I FAILED to even notice the 8-Foot SHARK hanging over my head!!! LOL YIKES.

When… the Fire Alarm went off.

No one “seemed” to want to panic and acted as if it was clearly A False Alarm. But the Memphis Fire Brigade and trucks were dispatched…



We also didn’t get to do another BBQ Night (after our Blogger bash at The BBQ Shop) but had to take a picture of the ambiance at The Rendezvous Ribs:



The Rendezvous

Karen on 05.31.05 @ 08:09 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Using The Cover of a Woman's Skirt…

Ladies First by Rebecca Mead (New Yorker) in writing about the political cache of Mrs. Laura Bush:

"....Her willingness to express a dissonant opinion, however, does not amount to a shedding of wifely coverings; indeed, the reception she received in Jerusalem—where she was heckled by irate Jews and angry Palestinians—suggests that Blackstone’s dictum about wives being incorporated and consolidated into the person of their husbands holds firm in her case. Having hoarded the capital of her personal popularity for years by declining to enter the political fray, she is now able to spend it to salvage her husband’s approval rating, which is currently at forty-seven per cent. The newly opinionated Laura Bush is no more her own woman than she was while smilingly mute.

Rather, she has been transformed from a femme couverte into a member of a category that Blackstone did not identify: what might be referred to as a femme couvrante—a wife who covers for her embattled husband, concealing his weaknesses with her own quiet force. Her measured outspokenness, while seeming to be at odds with the White House line, is less an expression of marital difference than it is a dutiful form of marital compensation. In conversation with reporters during her Middle East trip, Mrs. Bush said of the recent anti-American rioting and demonstrating in Muslim nations, “You can’t blame it all on Newsweek,” a comment rightly deemed newsworthy, given that the President’s official mouthpieces were doing just that. But she stopped short of saying the further truth: that you might blame at least some of it on her husband, the man under whose wing, protection, and cover the entire country currently quails."

Karen on 05.31.05 @ 07:59 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Small Favors...

Thanks (So far) for "The Gang of 14"...

"The Gang of 14 specifically urged Bush to consult with Republicans and Democrats before choosing judicial nominees as a way "to reduce the rancor" that has built up over the confirmation process. Up to now, the president has done little consulting with Democrats on his nominations. Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), who with Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) penned the "advice and consent" paragraphs in the agreement, said that Bush's chances of winning bipartisan approval of a Supreme Court nominee may hinge on his willingness to consult across party lines. "That's what the Constitution says," Warner said on MSNBC's "Hardball" last week. "It is very clean."

By Dan Balz (Washington Post) Filibuster Deal Evaded Key Question on High Court Nominees.

Karen on 05.31.05 @ 07:38 AM CST [link] [ | ]

This is the thanks you get....

When I woke up this morning, Rachel Maddow was discussing this on her Air America radio show: Unceremonious end to Army career

John Riggs spent 39 years in the Army, earning a Distinguished Flying Cross for bravery during the Vietnam War and working his way up to become a three-star general entrusted with creating a high-tech Army for the 21st century.

But on a spring day last year, Riggs was told by senior Army officials that he would be retired at a reduced rank, losing one of his stars because of infractions considered so minor that they were not placed in his official record.

He was given 24 hours to leave the Army. He had no parade in review, no rousing martial music, no speeches or official proclamations praising his decades in uniform, the trappings that normally herald a high-level military retirement.

Instead, Riggs went to a basement room at Fort Myer, Va., and signed some mandatory forms. Then a young sergeant mechanically presented him with a flag and a form letter of thanks from President Bush.

Hmmmm. And how much do you want to bet that form letter was machine signed?

"That's the coldest way in the world to leave," Riggs, 58, said in a drawl that betrays his rural roots in southeast Missouri. "It's like being buried and no one attends your funeral."

So what cost Riggs his star?

His Pentagon superiors said he allowed outside contractors to perform work they were not supposed to do, creating "an adverse command climate."

But some of the general's supporters believe the motivation behind his demotion was politics. Riggs was blunt and outspoken on a number of issues and publicly contradicted Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld by arguing that the Army was overstretched in Iraq and Afghanistan and needed more troops.

"They all went bat s- - when that happened," recalled retired Army Lt. Gen. Jay M. Garner, a one-time Pentagon adviser who ran reconstruction efforts in Iraq in the spring of 2003. "The military part of [the defense secretary's office] has been politicized. If [officers] disagree, they are ostracized and their reputations are ruined."

A senior officer's loss of a star is a punishment seldom used, and then usually for the most serious offenses, such as dereliction of duty or command failures, adultery or misuse of government funds or equipment.

Over the past several decades, generals and admirals faced with far more serious official findings - scandals at the Navy's Tailhook Convention, the Air Force Academy and Abu Ghraib prison, for example - have continued in their careers or retired with no loss of rank.

Les Brownlee, who was then acting Army secretary and who ordered that Riggs be reduced in rank, said he stands by the demotion. "I read the [Army inspector general's] report and made that judgment. I happen to think it was that serious. Maybe I have a higher standard for these things," Brownlee said in an interview. "I still believe it was the right decision."

"Maybe I have a higher standard for these things...." How can that slimy bastard say that with a straight face? If he had truly high standards, he'd hand in his letter of resignation, and spit in the face of The Dishonorable Secretary of Defense as it hands it in.

What bothers me is that if these infractions were that serious, why the hell wasn't some formal action taken? I realize that when one achieves the rarified heights that LTG Riggs reaches that a referral to a court martial isn't likely, though that's probably the most appropriate disposition. But usually (in my experience in the Navy), referal to nonjudicial punishment (the kiss of death to any officer's career), or at least the issuance of a formal letter of reprimand, is most appropriate. But no, not in Rumsfeld's military. After all, that might leave some sort of record that will show the arbitrary and capricious nature of this punishment. And, gee, I wonder what gives me the idea that these alleged improprieties are trumped up? After all, it's not like such a course of action would be beneath slime like Rumsfeld.

But let's give the Dishonorable Secretary of Defense the benefit of the doubt. There was an investigation, after all:

Riggs himself and investigation documents say he was the subject of anonymous allegations that he was violating the Pentagon's contracting regulations and having an affair with one of the contractors.

The Army inspector general's office opened a probe in the spring of 2003. At the same time, a criminal investigation also looking at the issue of contractors was launched by the Army's Criminal Investigation Command.

Only the inspector general came back with findings of fault. An October 2003 letter from Lt. Gen. Paul Mikolashek, the inspector general, found two violations of contracting rules but concluded that the allegation of "an adulterous affair with a female contractor was not substantiated."

The report prompted Gen. John M. Keane, the Army's No. 2 officer, to write a disciplinary "memorandum of concern" to Riggs. The memo found that a female contractor was allowed to draft congressional testimony, respond to congressional correspondence and communicate with Capitol Hill staffers.

Allowing a contractor to perform functions that should have been undertaken only by government employees was improper, Keane wrote.

Also, since the contractor was serving in a role similar to that of a deputy director or executive officer, that amounted to an improper "personal services contract" that should have been filled by a government employee. Riggs was put on notice "to comply with all regulatory requirements," but Keane wrote that the memo would not be filed in Riggs' personnel records.

And what does GEN Keane have to say about the affair now?

Now retired, Keane said demoting Riggs based on a penalty that represents the "minimum administrative punishment" at his disposal was a "tragic mistake."

"It is outrageous that John Riggs was reduced in rank for such a minor offense, which should never outweigh his 30-plus years of exemplary service to the Army and the nation," Keane wrote in a letter to Army officials supporting Riggs' restoration as a lieutenant general.

Keane said the Army was partly to blame for Riggs' predicament because the service downsized its support personnel and forced officers to hire private contractors. "I believe we blurred the lines of contractors and department employees, so much so that many of the supervisors just saw it as one team," Keane wrote. "While John Riggs did blur those lines, we, the Army, contributed directly to that without a clear policy and clear command guidelines."

The again, maybe the charges weren't trumped up. But we're certainly seeing what appears to be SOP for the Dishonorable Secretary of Defense: fuck up at the top, and then let the underlings take the blame....

And of course, the Dishonorable Defense Secretary is so very concerned with, y'know, consistency in meting out punishment:

What's striking about the Riggs case is the comparison with how the Army and the other services have handled even more serious cases.

Seven years ago, Maj. Gen. David Hale, the Army's inspector general, was allowed to hastily retire after allegations that he pressured the wife of a subordinate into a sexual relationship. An Army investigation uncovered other affairs with subordinates' wives, and Hale was later put back on active duty and court-martialed. But it took an Army review panel another six months after his conviction to determine that Hale should be reduced by one star to a brigadier general.

Two Navy rear admirals were given letters of censure for not stopping lewd behavior at the 1991 Tailhook Association convention in Las Vegas, where dozens of women were groped and fondled by Navy and Marine Corps aviators. Both admirals retired at their two-star ranks.

More recently, the Air Force removed the four top officers at the U.S. Air Force Academy as part of a housecleaning after a sex scandal in 2003. While the superintendent was demoted from a three-star to a two-star rank, the other officers went on to jobs with similar responsibilities.

Were there any justice, it'd be the Dishonorable Secretary of Defense that would be retiring.... right before being cuffed and taken to The Hague (along with his bosses) to stand trial for their crimes against humanity.

But lucky for them, there is no such thing as justice.

Len on 05.31.05 @ 07:23 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Our exercise in bad taste for the day....

Late Sunday Brunch.

Credit to Bryan at Why Now?

Len on 05.31.05 @ 06:54 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Hmmmmm.... if my co-bloggers ever desert me, this might even make a good blog title...

Apropos of my fit of pique last week (note to Mike: I still love ya, man--and you remind me that I do need to catch another ballgame with you, hopefully soon), I think I'm going to start calling myself a proud member of the St. Louis Diaspora (go look it up; after all, I own an Unabridged Oxford English Dictionary, and I'm not afraid to use it; you can learn something from me).

Actually, that's by way of mentioning a couple additions to the blogroll, just because. I'd actually had my eye on Pretty War and its subsidiary, Pretty War STL, since Tom, the proprietor there, first showed up in the comments here, but when Tom posted a picture of blue dragons descending upon Dutchtown, which brought back some fond memories of living in Dutchtown way back when, I figured that I'd read the handwriting on the wall and welcome him to the blogroll (besides, it makes checking up with him easier).

Meanwhile, if I do steal the St. Louis Diaspora title, I'm going to give due credit to Cardsblogger Cardinals Diaspora.

Note to Karen: No, I'm not expecting you or Brock to desert me, no matter how badly I embarass y'all.

Len on 05.31.05 @ 06:43 AM CST [link] [ | ]

It's getting closer....

and I'm getting more excited....

UPDATE: It's not exactly a review, but a member of ANTENNA - The International Kraftwerk Mailing List forwards us this eyewitness account:

I just got back from seeing Kraftwerk Live at the 9:30 club in Washington DC...Incredible!!! DO NOT MISS THIS TOUR...they played 3 sets complete with wardrobe changes. The visuals were stunning and the music...what can I say?
There was a great live element in their performance...each member was adding and changing the parts within the song...almost like a live remix on every composition...including a killer jam and solo section by each member on the last song. Also...the robots were there!

I will be reeling from this show for quite a while...

I hope this bodes well for my hopes for a 2.5+ hour set Saturday night. My one concern being the late start time--9:00 PM--of this concert.

Len on 05.31.05 @ 05:54 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Thought for the Day:

[B]ox-office results reflect neither the appeal of the actual movies—nor their quality—but the number of screens on which they are playing and the efficacy of the marketing that drove an audience into the theaters. If a movie opens on 30 screens, like Sideways or Million Dollar Baby, there is obviously no way it can achieve the results of a movie opening on 3,000 screens. And how do studios motivate millions of moviegoers—mainly under 25—to go to the 3,000 screens on an opening weekend to see a film no one else has yet seen or recommended? With a successful advertising campaign.

Studios spend $20 million to $40 million on TV ads because their market research shows that those ads are what can draw a movie's crucial opening-weekend teenage audience. To do that, they typically blitz this audience, aiming to hit each viewer with between five to eight ads in the two weeks before a movie's opening. The studios also spend a great deal of money testing the ads on focus groups, some of whom are wired up to measure their nonverbal responses. If the ads fail to trigger the right response, the film usually "bombs" in the media's hyperbolic judgment. If the ads succeed, the film is rewarded with "boffo" box-office numbers.
--Edward Jay Epstein

Len on 05.31.05 @ 05:51 AM CST [link] [ | ]

In an ideal world, you wouldn't have to debunk a novel....

but this isn't an ideal world.

For some reason, there are a lot of people out there who seem to think that Dan Brown's novel, The Da Vinci Code, is a factual narrative and not a novel (the fact that Brown claimed (according to my sources; I haven't read The Da Vinci Code myself) that it was based on "historical truth" may certainly hasn't helped some members of the autience in keeping the two separate). For those who might be disposed to see The Da Vinci Code as a factual narrative, Professor Bart D. Ehrman, chairman of the religious studies department at the University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill, has written what looks like an interesting book, Truth and Fiction in the Da Vinci Code: A Historian Reveals What We Really Know about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Constantine. I've not read this particular work, but I own and have read three other books by Ehrman, The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: The Effect of Early Christological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament, Lost Christianities: The Battle for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew, and Lost Scriptures: Books That Did Not Make It Into The New Testament, and based on those works I know that Ehrman has both an encyclopedic knowledge of the relevant history, and a writing style that is clear and accessible to the intelligent layperson.

I'll be keeping my eyes out for this one.

Len on 05.30.05 @ 07:36 PM CST [link] [ | ]

Because I'm going to rub it in....

Less than a week now...

Len on 05.30.05 @ 12:34 PM CST [link] [ | ]

Holiday Visits

I have my Italian Great Aunts visiting for the Memorial Day Holiday.

Here's a wonderful picture of the crew:

Florence Sadaro, Joe Buktenica, Tony Tinghino, Lorraine Beutelspacher, Carmela Falcone.

They've not seen a Blog....so this is a new experience all around. Too Kool!

Karen on 05.30.05 @ 12:10 PM CST [link] [ | ]

Thought for the Day:

This is from a mailing list I subscribe to. The author is a middle-aged-to-senior female, several children, homemaker, and seemingly the last person on earth who should be worried about her profile:

And there are some precautions; I shop online with credit card, but my in-person day-to-day purchases are usually made with cash, so I do not leave a trail of gasoline receipts or other such petty stuff. I take enough money with me, so that I am not constantly hitting the ATM. If, when traveling, I need cash, I give the hotel a check for it rather than use a machine; it usually takes them days to cash it, and the hotel could be traced in any event. Ever since the Patriot Act passed, I buy books with a political orientation only in bookstores for cash. These are small things--habit now, rather than preoccupation.

My profile is Very Low. I keep remembering what my father-in-law, who was a very wise and overeducated type, always said: "Never think that it can't happen here. It may not, but the possibility should always be at the back of your mind."

So maybe I really am paranoid. I just assume that I am not because it's the government (and influences thereupon) I distrust rather than my neighbors or the space aliens.

Len on 05.30.05 @ 10:45 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Memphis Visit - In parts...

Since I was prevented from posting during my Holiday break about all the FUN Memphonian things Len and I were “busy” enjoying, I’m going to put up a short series of pictures for the next couple days and cover some of our tracks around Memphis.

The first day (after breakfast at Café Francisco) I had a drive by tour of Memphis sights:

The Pyramid



The Peabody Hotel

[Tho’ we kept missing the Famous Peabody Ducks. LOL ]



Court Square “Party in the Park”



Memphis Trolley Car System


Karen on 05.30.05 @ 08:39 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Travel Plans?

Sleep Here: Comparing chain lodgings on your way there is a good run down of many of the Hotel/Motel chains and their services, pricing and offered upgrades. Though, as I mentioned, be WARNED about expectations of WiFi services and availability. Not all Hotels are quite up to snuff on this WiFi service for some of these places.

Courtesy of USA Today.


Karen on 05.30.05 @ 07:07 AM CST [link] [ | ]

bAdministration Funnies...

Taking a read through my hotel copy of USA Today this weekend, I came across a funny article:

What Bush is saying when he's talking is yet another sad (very sad) commentary on what kind of a Presidency we have when the average reader must extrapolate some higher “meaning” out the few (very few) sound bites Bush has been taught to parrot on every issue.

However, the USA link doesn’t quite live up to the hard copy of its articles and is only a pale edited version for review and the full "interpretation" of Bush's words.

And, unfortunately, it’s other USA funnie for that day - about the most recent Commencement Graduation Speakers appearing at various facilities of higher education - does not provide the pictures or captions of the Glitterati. Oh, Boo Who on that one- But it was too funny.

Karen on 05.30.05 @ 06:57 AM CST [link] [ | ]

More "Buyer's Remorse?"

A Report out this week from Democracy Corp conducting a Voter survey on the GOP and bAdminstration policies and content has concluded that the electorate is conflicted with the GOP, our Fearless Leader and their policy agendas.

The revulsion about Washington is about the content, as well as the style, of Washington politics. By 57 to 33 percent, voter say Congress has the “wrong priorities” and is “not working on the issues that matter to me.” Rather than wanting to see Democrates ease the tensions and help the president with his agenda and avoid gridlock, the voter want Democrats to stand up and “provide a balance” and make sure the “Republicans do not go too far in pushing their agenda.” That is a remarkable result for a re-elected president, barely home from the honeymoon.”

So – Who are these Voters that must now be having “Buyer’s Remorse” here??? [You KNOW who you ARE!!!]

Why did ya vote for the jerk in the first place??? You One-Issue-Morons are the reason we’re ALL facing this crap of a Nationally Tone-deaf-dumb-and-blind President waltzing around on mis-begotten priorities ignoring what needs must be done around here. Time to get those issues Straight!!


Karen on 05.30.05 @ 06:06 AM CST [link] [ | ]

From the "Life in These United States" Department....

If you're involved in an adulterous affair, you can now get a greeting card specifically for your mistress/lover:

Soon, you could also find cards for your mistress or the other man in your life, thanks to a new line of greeting cards designed especially to express the feelings intrinsic to extramarital affairs.

Bethesda resident Cathy Gallagher created the line of cards called the Secret Lover collection.

Gallagher came up with the idea for the cards after she and her husband had a conversation about how many of their friends were involved in extramarital affairs.

"There were all the different people that we knew that were involved in [affairs] and I thought that must be a really difficult situation to be in," she said.

As someone who buys a lot of greeting cards herself, she said the idea came to her and she thought there would be an enormous, untapped market for it.

...

The collection includes cards that express love and intimacy, thoughts for special occasions and other sentiments, such as "sorry" and "goodbye" -- each with the distinctive voice of one engaged in a secret relationship.

For example, a holiday card begins with, "As we each celebrate with our families, I will be thinking of you."

Another card, meant for an office romance, says, "I used to look forward to the weekends but since we met they now seem like an eternity."

"Regular relationship cards don't come close to expressing the feeling of these relationships," Gallagher said.

I don't know whether to be happy or depressed that I have no need for such cards....

Credit: Mr. Roboto

Len on 05.29.05 @ 02:27 PM CST [link] [ | ]

Dr. Abby's Dr. Dad is A Very Wise Man Indeed....

and I probably won't be writing any special Memorial Day post. Abby's Dad said it all in his letter to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

I guess the Iraqi War is the final straw in the dissolution of any heroic memories. We entered this war based on a lie. We entered it unprovoked. It’s now justified by saying that Hussein was a bad, dangerous man, his soldiers committed atrocities. I now see our president as a bad, dangerous man, and read about our soldiers commiting atrocities. America is just another country with the foolish notion that only power can prevail in the world - power without principles.

What am I to remember on Memorial Day? What I feel is shame.

Len on 05.29.05 @ 02:17 PM CST [link] [ | ]

More Things That Are More Important Than John Ford's Indictment (or: Eatcher hearts out, guys...)

This week I'll be trying to get my ducks in a row at work because come Thursday I'm travelling to the Windy City:

Someone cue the vocoder:

Meine Damen und Herren [Ladies and Gentlemen]
Ladies and Gentlemen
Heute abend aus Deutschland [This evening, from Germany]
Die Mensch Maschine: Kraftwerk [The Man-Machine: Kraftwerk]

Then Sunday, I leave Chicago to head for St. Louis. A high school classmate of mine is a middlin' VIP. But still, she's VIP enough to have tickets to the St. Louis Cardinals-Boston Red Sox game on Monday, June 6, 2005, and there's no way in hell I'm not accepting her kind offer to let me tag along for that one.

So excuse me. There are much more important things happening in my life than some criminal indictments in Tennessee....

Len on 05.29.05 @ 01:53 PM CST [link] [ | ]

Gems o'the Week:

Catching up on my reading I've been ignoring while I've been making sure Karen didn't get too bored in Memphis.... I think that The Pesky Fly and his commenters have gotten an attack of inspiration. First, Pesky comes up with a classic post header:

The name Frist is derived from an archaic German word meaning "sap-sucking bastard who can't get laid."

while Pesky's frequent commenter "sylamore" graces us with a classic piece of filk, the "Bill Frist Theme Song":

Cloture eyes and I'll kiss you,
tomorrow I'll dis you.
Remember I'll always fling poo.
And while I'm away
I'll be joining DeLay,
to send all my Dobbins to you.

All my Dobbins,
oooh, all my Dobbins,
All my Dobbins,
I will send to you.

The Christians support me,
and they won't abort me.
They know I am Born Again too.
The Nuclear Option
is holy like adoption,
And I'll soon return to it too.

Chorus....

I've only got one chance,
To get to the Big Dance,
And that means I suck wingnut ass.
I only sing one note,
A "true up or down vote,"
And God's people give me a pass.

BraVO!

Len on 05.29.05 @ 12:00 PM CST [link] [ | ]

Sorry Mike, but some of us liberals have, like, lives y'know....

I've already mentioned Mike Hollihan's being perturbed at the lack of blogospheric comment from the liberal side of the house on the "Tennessee Waltz" indictments, arrests and arraignments (I think; at least bail hearings have been held). In an earlier post Mike had said:

Interestingly, Tennessee's number one "progressive" (He used to be a liberal.) blogger, South Knox Bubba hasn't posted a single word on this. Maybe he's just busy at work. That must be it....

For the record, Mike, if you were paying attention to SKB, you'd know he's taking a trip in the Southwest right now. If you check over there today, you can see some lovely pics that SKB's taken over in New Mexico and Arizona. And yes, Bubba's at least aware of the developing situation in Nashvegas and Memphis.

There are more important things in life than the local news, y'know.

Len on 05.29.05 @ 11:22 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Faux BBQ????

Engrish begs the question of whether our Blogger Bash was held at a Legitimate Barbecue place.

So…were we eating For Real?? Or Fauxing BBQ-ing it??? You Decide…

And for things we were NOT DOING this week (So ...we skipped this product permanently. LOL)

Karen on 05.29.05 @ 10:44 AM CST [link] [ | ]

No surprises here.....

Wandering over to get myself some more coffee, I notice that another patron here at Café Francisco is reading the Commercial Appeal. A fairly prominent headline in the section on local/regional news is: Legislature ends session.

Not a surprise, since it seems that a significant percentage of the Ledge is in residence at the federal slammer.

Len on 05.29.05 @ 10:34 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Thought for the Day:

If you think you know what the hell is going on, you're probably full of shit.

Len on 05.29.05 @ 09:43 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Party On...

Now, I don’t mean to “complain” or nothing on my Tenn. visit about the FUN stuff Len is showing me, BUT All I KNOW is I didn’t get an Invite to this party:

Courtesy of USA Today.


Karen on 05.29.05 @ 09:30 AM CST [link] [ | ]

More Café Francisco...

However - The WiFi at Café Francisco works Just Fine!! So, here’s a picture of the afore mentioned breakfast place:

Café Francisco



And the California Frittata and fresh fruit is FAB!! Yummy!!


Karen on 05.29.05 @ 09:12 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Soon To Be Back Posting...

As Len mentioned below - posts are scarce as hen's teeth this week at DBV (my "fault" of course. LOL) Plus, Tho' the Sleep Inn at Court Square is fine on accommodations and the usual Hotel stuff...the WiFi stinks (promised to be available both in my room and all over the Hotel - but barely enough of a signal to get through to write and send an e-mail - I'd get a connection for a few seconds before it would disconnect me. BLEH!!!)

But - I AM enjoying the sights and cuisine and Memphonian Hot Spots this week.

So, sorry about the lack of fun DBV usual posts...But -GET OVER IT!!!

[And don't worry - once I get out of Len's hair (*teehee*) and back to my own "issues", they'll be loads to say and lots of pictures to post of all the FUN stuff we've been up to.]

Karen on 05.29.05 @ 08:39 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Sorry guys, I've had more important things to do.

Mike Hollihan is a bit perturbed that I've not mentioned the recent indictment of Senator Ford. Well, Mike's a good man (though a bit, um, obsessed in some areas, but aren't we all?), and I hate to disappoint him. I also hate to disappoint a few other commenters (Kev ("Nothing to say on the whole scandal in the TN legislature?") and btb ( What a travisty.. you can not even mention the horrid crimes in our state... You are a sad example of what it means to lean so far left that you can't act with dignity")). I don't know exactly what the implication of these comments are, but Some People seem to think that an explanation for my silence in L'affaire Ford is required....

However, Mike's also a regular reader here, and he should know the following (but I'll be happy to remind him):

1) As readers of earlier posts know, my partner in crime here, Karen, has traveled down from the frozen wastes of Dennis Hastert Country to make Brock's and my acquaintance. I'm sure that regular readers have noticed that posting volume around these parts has gone way down the past few days. That's because I've been taking great swaths of what life I have and using them to entertain Karen (who doesn't know anyone in Memphis besides Brock and myself--or, at least, she didn't know anyone in Memphis before Wednesday night; now she's met Dr. Abby, both Rachels, Eric Janssen, Mark Richens, E.J., and Trisha). I've also been using that time in the related activity of familiarizing myself with a few places and aspects of the city that I migrated to 4 years ago that I'd not bothered to acquaint myself with, not to mention that we had two Memphis Redbirds games to attend this weekend. Reading the local newspapers is a pretty low priority for me (when I'm not doing the bi-weekly Memphis news review I don't read the Memphis papers much at all) when I'm not this busy, and I don't watch TV news of any kind (local or national). I first became aware that Ford was indicted on Friday about noon, as Karen and I were walking to Sawaddii Thai Restaurant on Union downtown to meet Brock for lunch and we saw the big STUNG! headline in the Commercial Appeal. Shortly thereafter, I took the liberty of asking an acquaintance in the Memphis legal community if I was reading the headline correctly, and if Ford had been indicted, and received confirmation of that fact. Beyond chuckling a bit to myself, and wondering what took the authorities so long to catch up to the bastard, I really had no further concern with the story, as I had more pressing issues (like keeping my guest amused).

2) As I've said on a number of occasions, I do not consider myself a Memphian. I am a St. Louisan in exile. As I mentioned earlier, I don't read the Memphis papers much, nor do I watch local TV news or listen to local radio at all (all the radio listening I do is pretty much XM Satellite Radio). I do read the St. Louis Post-Dispatch website fairly religiously, though I don't pay close attention to St. Louis area or Missouri state politics since I'm not there on the scene anymore. Tennessee state politics, Shelby County politics, and Memphis city politics are utterly of no interest to me. Furthermore I don't vote for any Tennessee state, Shelby County, or City of Memphis elected officials, since all the officeholders here, and all the candidates from both parties seeking to replace them, are pretty much clowns and idiots who I wouldn't vote for if they were the last candidates on Earth, much less around here. Therefore, beyond the entertainment I've derived from mentioning the John Ford Follies in some of the Memphis news reviews and another couple odd posts I've done, he's really not a big concern to me, just as Tennessee state politics, Shelby County politics, or Memphis city politics aren't a big concern to me, either (frankly, besides The John Ford Follies I don't recall blogging any Tennessee state or Memphis/Shelby County issues in a while, if at all; they are certainly not the major focus of this blog). And for that matter, corruption in local government doesn't concern me much either. I lived for about three and a half years in Chicago, and I know from that experience that the locals have a lot to learn about corruption.

I have no brief for or against John Ford. He's a corrupt SOB, but he's so incompetent and ridiculous in his corruption (for example, his child support case claim that he has one household in two separate houses is, I believe, an all time classic) that he provides first class entertainment for anyone who pays attention to his behavior. If he goes up the river, things will be a lot less entertaining around here.

But guys, I have a life, and I have my interests. John Ford's pissant corruption case isn't part of them.

Len on 05.28.05 @ 11:36 PM CST [link] [ | ]

Thought for the Day:

I have just extended my own major league record for most words invented in ATM reports.

Off the top of my head, I can think of at least 4--

Bichetted, v., to inflate stats in Coors Field
Coorsed, v., to inflate stats in Coors Field
longevitied, v., to accumulate a total in a category merely by longevity, without being any good at it
career unworst season, adj., when a player has the best year of his career, but he's so bad that his best year still isn't good

I'm sure there has to be more over the years.

However, since I am also my own league average, my WIAA (words invented above average) is just 0.
--Lee Sinins

Len on 05.28.05 @ 09:10 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Thought for the Day:

Alle Kunst ist umsunst wenn ein Engel auf Zündloch brunzt.

Len on 05.27.05 @ 08:38 AM CST [more..] [ | ]

Not Hard to Believe...

As I’ve often suspected….

”Depression, stress, loneliness, a positive (or negative) outlook on life, and other psychosocial factors extend beyond affecting mood and reach into the heart. How you think, feel, and behave can affect heart disease for better or for worse, reports the June issue of the Harvard Heart Letter.

In terms of their contribution to heart attacks, psychosocial factors are on a par with smoking, high blood pressure, obesity, and cholesterol problems. How do emotions, behaviors, or social situations promote heart disease or make it worse? No one really knows, says the Harvard Heart Letter, which will be exploring the mind-heart connection in its next two issues as well. But there are plenty of theories.

Stress hormones top the list. They constrict blood vessels, speed up the heartbeat, and make the heart and blood vessels especially reactive to further stress. Psychosocial factors have also been linked with factors that signal increased inflammation, which plays an important role in artery-clogging atherosclerosis. Psychosocial factors could also make people more or less likely to pick up habits that tip them toward heart disease or away from it.

The connection between psychosocial factors and heart disease is so strong that today's cardiologists should ask their patients about moods, stress, and support, says the Harvard Heart Letter. Most don't, at least not yet. If yours doesn't, it's worth bringing up these issues yourself. Because physicians get little training in this area, though, don't be surprised if yours is uncomfortable discussing psychosocial factors, or doesn't know how to help. If that's the case, don't hesitate to ask for a referral to a mental health professional.

Contact Christine Junge at Christine_Junge@hms.harvard.edu for a complimentary copy of the newsletter.

Courtesy of US News Wire.

Karen on 05.26.05 @ 07:49 AM CST [link] [ | ]

A Night Out For BBQ and Bloggie Conversations...

The Guest were there, the food was yummy, and the Beer was poured - for yet another Memphis Blogger Bash at the BBQ Shop.

Here's a few pictures:

Here is our own DBV: Len, Brock & Karen.



The entire Blogger group at the table.



Rachel, Mark, Len.



Abby, Rachel, Chris.

Chris conducted an informal Blogger survey – So, look for his "Fly on the Wall" article about the Memphis Bloggers’ view of their “craft” in the upcoming Memphis Flyer.

Nice to meet all of you (finally) and See ya round the Net!!
And Abby posted another bunch of Great Bash Photos [ and of other Bloggers who aren't in my photos.]

Karen on 05.26.05 @ 07:01 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Alas, more sad news....

I've just heard that Thurl "Tony the Tiger" Ravenscroft has died at age 91.

Thurl Ravenscroft, who provided the long, rumbling "They're Grrrrreeeat!" for Kellogg's Tony the Tiger and voiced a host of Disney characters, died here on Sunday. He was 91.

The cause was prostate cancer, said Diane Challis Davy, director of Pageant of the Masters, a program in Laguna Beach for which he provided the narration for 20 years.

For more than 50 years, Mr. Ravenscroft was the affable voice of Tony the Tiger, TV's popular cartoon pitchman for Kellogg's Frosted Flakes.

"I'm the only man in the world that has made a career with one word: Grrrrreeeat!" Mr. Ravenscroft told The Orange County Register in 1996. "When Kellogg's brought up the idea of the tiger, they sent me a caricature of Tony to see if I could create something for them. After messing around for some time I came up with the `Grrrrreeeat!' roar, and that's how it's been since then."

He'll be missed.

Len on 05.25.05 @ 03:37 PM CST [link] [ | ]

Cafe Francisco

Hokay...

Landed safely - and Having a wonderful start to my Mom Holiday.

Enjoying some Frittata's and fresh fruit and toast at Cafe Francisco with Len. And soon to be "Walking in Memphis" (Tho' hopefully not in the pouring rain...as it is a Bee-A-You-Ti-Full Day in Memphis.)

Here is Len on the WiFi.



So - See Everyone Tonight at the Bloggie Bash. Be there or be Square []. LOL

Karen on 05.25.05 @ 10:29 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Thought for the Day:

The war in Iraq is reaching its most critical stage, a stage that should be supported by civilized people and powers everywhere—Western, Eastern, and Middle Eastern—regardless of their views about the war at the outset. Yet, just as President Bush should be recalibrating and refining a case for this support, both to the American people and to the rest of the world, he's rehashing canned clichés and shallow falsehoods, which will only deepen the disaffection.

On Monday, at a White House press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Bush was asked whether he thought the Iraqi insurgency was getting harder to defeat militarily.

"No, I don't think so," Bush replied. "I think they're being defeated. And that's why they continue to fight. The worst thing for them is to see democracy. … The worst problem that an ideologue that uses terror to try to get their way is to see a free society emerge. And I'm confident we're making great progress in Iraq."

Almost since the second phase of the war began, President Bush and his aides have been reciting this mantra—that the insurgents fight so dirty because they're so desperate. The claim had a whiff of self-deception back then; after 18 months of nonstop guerrilla warfare, with the insurgents still mounting 70 attacks a day, it borders on the pathological.
--Fred Kaplan


Len on 05.25.05 @ 06:23 AM CST [link] [ | ]

I could go for that...

Gee, I haven’t had a good Megalomaniac Feminine rant in a while (aside from just being tooo darn bizee) but here’s John Tierney (NY Times) goes and writes one hum-dinger on Women's roles in business.

Give read to What Women want.


Karen on 05.24.05 @ 07:50 PM CST [link] [ | ]

On to the Veto Chopping Block...

CNN has this story about the passage of the two bills to increase Federal funding for Stem Cell research. Shy of the 2/3's majority necessary if GW exercises his single solo Veto, the bill did pass the House by 238-194.

”…Several representatives spoke in support of the measure, both at the start of the session and during debate.

"To reduce this issue to an abortion issue is a horrible injustice to 100 million Americans suffering the ravages of diabetes, spinal cord paralysis, heart disease, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, cancer, MS [multiple sclerosis], Lou Gehrig's disease and other fatal, debilitating diseases," said Rep. Jim Ramstad, a Minnesota Republican.
…
Lawmakers on both sides of the debate also scheduled news conferences Tuesday. Medical societies, scholars, patient groups and advocates joined Castle and DeGette to speak in favor of the measure.
"What could be more pro-life than working for a cure for a loved one?" asked Rep. James Langevin, a Rhode Island Democrat, another of the bill's 200 cosponsors, who suffered a spinal cord injury at age 16 and cannot walk.

Family members of those with diseases that could potentially be helped by the research also spoke.
"No parent should ever have to look at their child and say, 'There are no more options,' " said Beth Westbrook, whose daughter, Katie, died four years ago at 15 of bone cancer.
…
A poll released Monday shows Bush does not have the support of the majority of Americans when it comes to government funding of stem cell research.

Forty-two percent said the federal government should ease restrictions on funding research, and another 11 percent said there should be no restrictions at all, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll of 1,006 Americans surveyed over the weekend.

But 19 percent said there should be no funding of such research -- an increase from 14 percent in a poll conducted last year.

….DeGette, "Frankly, they're good for different things, so let's not muddle the science."
She and other supporters of both bills argued the two should not be divided.

"Separating these two legislative initiatives would be like separating the flag from the Pledge of Allegiance," said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat.

And, pointed out Rep. Gene Green, a Texas Democrat, "We'll never know the true promise of embryonic stem cells if we hold back federal dollars for the research."

Karen on 05.24.05 @ 07:27 PM CST [link] [ | ]

The Granny Shot

Today on our local public radio station, WKNO, I heard an interesting Moment of Science regarding the granny shot. According to the story, the granny shot is a much better way to shoot a free throw than an overhanded shot.

Making a free throw, or any shot for that matter, depends on arc. A shot with an arc of thirty-two degrees or less has a good chance of hitting the back of the rim and bouncing out. A shot with more arc has a better chance of swishing straight through the net. The upward tossing motion of the granny shot naturally imparts the arc needed to give it a good chance to fall through the hoop.

The granny shot also makes it easier to put more backspin on the ball than you can with an overhand shot. Backspin stops the ball's forward motion when it hits the rim, similar to how a drop shot in tennis freezes the ball when it bounces.

And finally, the granny shot uses both hands, which helps keep the ball on a straight path. An overhand shot requires separate motions of the wrist, elbow, and shoulder, increasing the likelihood of sending the ball off course.

Of course, this raises (not begs!) the question of why professional (and even amateur) players don't use the granny shot when shooting free throws. Is it just because it doesn't look cool?

Brock on 05.24.05 @ 06:44 PM CST [link] [ | ]

I notice a hole in his resume, though....

A member of a mailing list I'm on sent this to the list:

War Films, Hollywood and Popular Culture

Michael Medved
Radio Host and Author, Right Turns: Unconventional Lessons from a Controversial Life

Michael Medved is a nationally syndicated radio talk show host, best-selling author and film critic. He graduated with honors from Yale and attended Yale Law School. After working as a screenwriter in Hollywood, he reviewed films for CNN and later worked as chief film critic for the New York Post. He also served for twelve years as co-host of Sneak Previews on PBS. His daily three-hour radio program is heard in over 170 markets and his columns on media and society appear regularly in USA Today, where he serves as a member of the Board of Contributors. Mr. Medved is the author of ten books, including Hollywood vs. America, Saving Childhood: Protecting Our Children from the National Assault on Innocence (with Diane Medved) and, most recently, Right Turns: Unconventional Lessons from a Controversial Life.

The following is adapted from a lecture delivered on March 9, 2005, on the Hillsdale College campus, during a five-day seminar on the topic “War on Film,” sponsored by the Center for Constructive Alternatives.

---

On my radio show today, I addressed the topic of military "counter-recruiters." You know what military recruiters are ­the people who go to high schools and colleges and tell young people about their opportunities to serve their country in the military. Well, now there are also "counter-recruiters" who go to these schools and tell young people why they shouldn’t serve their country in the military. I had one of them on my show today and put one of your Hillsdale freshmen on with him, and she asked him the crucial question he couldn’t answer intelligently: "What would the world be like without the American military?" He said that the world would be a "beautiful place." But of course this would only be true if a world enslaved under Nazism or communism or Islamo-fascism could be called beautiful. Without the U.S. military in the last century, it would be one of these.

We'll leave aside the issue of the "intelligence" of the counter-recruiter's answer; I'm not disposed to defend that. But I do notice one thing, skimming that capsule biography of Mr. Medved that precedes his speech (and reading in detail his much lengthier biography on the Web) that he himself thought that the "opportunites to serve [his] country in the military" were so wonderful, and so compelling, that he gave military service a pass himself.

Fucking hypocrite.

As a veteran, and as a former Navy JAG, I am of the opinion that there should be "counter-recruiters". I know a lot of kids (most of them were clients of mine, obviously) who got bad paper (most of them bad conduct discharges for purely military offenses) and resultant federal criminal convictions (courts martial count as federal convictions for your record) that they never should have had in an ideal world, because they really weren't cut out for military service, but nobody ever sat them down and forced them to deal with reality.

I have nothing against military service; I signed up voluntarily, myself. But it's not for everyone, and it's not treasonous to point that out to potential recruits. Both the military and the potential recruits would be better served for it.

Len on 05.24.05 @ 06:23 PM CST [link] [ | ]

There's another Volunteer Tailgate Party.....

and you can crash it here if you feel so inclined.

Nope, you won't find anything by me there; I didn't produce anything worthy of inclusion recently. IMHO.

Len on 05.24.05 @ 12:39 PM CST [link] [ | ]

Leap Dobson...Leap...

Allocating my ten minutes to CNN for news this morning - I saw a piece of a very good interview with Ron Brownstein (LA Times) discussing the “deal” to prevent the Nuclear Option and save the Minority Right to Fillabuster.

Mr. Brownstein echoed my own sentiments (just a paraphrase here) that the Movers and Shakers on both sides of this Political debate really have the President to blame for refusing to consult with them over high profile nominations and make any attempts to choose candidates acceptable for both sides without this kind of partisan “drive over the edge of that cliff” scenarios.

Consistently GW has acted to polarize these Senators precisely by his refusal to be that “Uniter-Not-A-Divider” campaign sloganeer he promised.

This continues to fall right at the Prez’s little feet as he may now have to face an pre-emptive strategy to get votes for an over-ride of his “threatened Veto” of the Bill to ease restriction on the Federal funding of stem cell research. Maybe for once, Congress will show him he’s not been driving the agenda the American people support and expect out of their legislators…and are being woefully underserved in this, Our Foster-Grant Pres.

As another note: Somebody please invite James “Spongy” Dobson to that Highest Point of the Highest at the site of the Sermon On The Mount…and Tell Him to Take A Flying Leap!!! Or Just give him a Good Shove!!! Then he can take his Un-Christian principles right to the bottom where they belong.

Karen on 05.24.05 @ 12:20 PM CST [link] [ | ]

Catching up with some back reading....

I see that the always sensible Sherman Wright has weighed in on the Air Force Academy religious oppression issue:

Here’s some free advice for my contemporaries running the show at the US Air Force Academy. If you want to promote Christian belief, back off of making it pseudo-mandatory! Bad things happen when people are forced into religious observance. I know this because chapel attendance was mandatory at West Point when I was there. For the first three years I didn’t mind, since I would have gone anyway. Let’s talk about why I had an issue in the fourth year in a minute. One thing that was pretty obvious about the situation was that cadets started equating chapel with the most disagreeable aspects of cadet life. For example, one particularly disagreeable aspect of cadet life was getting up early in Saturday AM, preparing your room for inspection, running off to a full morning of classes, and running back to change into full dress gray for inspection in ranks immediately followed by parading on the Plain. At least the Corps of Cadets didn’t parade in winter! With mandatory services, though, cadets had to get up early on Sunday, even in winter, had to again don full dress gray under the heaviest woolen cloak ever made, and march uphill to the chapel. Now consider some of the logistics behind a mandatory chapel policy. There were only three chapel buildings, so each cadet had to annually choose which to attend: Protestant, Roman Catholic, or Jewish. If you were, say, Mormon, you probably picked Protestant. If you were Greek Orthodox, you probably picked Catholic. If you were Buddhist or a non-believer, you flipped a coin. One of my classmates rotated between the choices, ending up one year as the ranking cadet in the Jewish chapel squad, a role traditionally dubbed “King of the Jews.” The arbitrary nature of it all caused Chapel to be seen as yet another harassment component of the cadet experience. Consider “I’m Mister Gung Ho,” sung sotto voce in particularly unpleasant marches (to the tune of the Official West Point March, affectionately known to every member of the Long Gray Line as “The Thumper.”) Here are the lyrics: “I’m Mr. Gung Ho/I double time wherever I go/I shine my B-plate up/Write my roommate up/I go to chapel twice on Sunday.” Anyway, I really got peeved Firstie (Senior) year during Constitutional Law class. I remember wandering through the halls in shock after reading the First Amendment Establishment of Religion chapter, since it was blatantly obvious that mandatory chapel was unconstitutional. And so it was ruled a few years after I graduated. I figured that if a country is going to all that trouble to have a Constitution and to have its soldiers swear “truth faith allegiance” to it, the Officer Corps might as well break down and play along with what it says. So here is Air Force sending a message to its future officers that adherence to the Constitution is optional. Is that really the kind of training experience we want our tax dollars funding?

Len on 05.24.05 @ 12:13 PM CST [link] [ | ]

"Having George W. Bush talk to you about ... ethics is like a leper giving you a facial. It doesn't really work." --Robin Williams

Not that I would let Bush or any of his toadies lecture me about ethics anyway, but.... Where's the outrage? From Editor and Publisher: The Tillman Scandal: 'Newsweek' Error Bad, Pentagon Lying OK?

Where, in the week after the Great Newsweek Error, is the comparable outrage in the press, in the blogosphere, and at the White House over the military's outright lying in the coverup of the death of former NFL star Pat Tillman? Where are the calls for apologies to the public and the firing of those responsible? Who is demanding that the Pentagon's word should never be trusted unless backed up by numerous named and credible sources?

Where is a Scott McClellan lecture on ethics and credibility?

...

While military officials' lying to the parents have gained wide publicity in the past two days, hardly anyone has mentioned that they also lied to the public and to the press, which dutifully carried one report after another based on the Pentagon's spin.

Tillman was killed in a barrage of gunfire from his own men, mistaken for the enemy on a hillside near the Pakistan border. "Immediately," the Post reported, "the Army kept the soldiers on the ground quiet and told Tillman's family and the public that he was killed by enemy fire while storming a hill, barking orders to his fellow Rangers." Tillman posthumously received the Silver Star for his "actions."

The latest military investigation, exposed by the Post earlier this month, "showed that soldiers in Afghanistan knew almost immediately that they had killed Tillman by mistake in what they believed was a firefight with enemies on a tight canyon road. The investigation also revealed that soldiers later burned Tillman's uniform and body armor."

Patrick Tillman Sr., the father -- a lawyer, as it happens -- said he blames high-ranking Army officers for presenting "outright lies" to the family and to the public. "After it happened, all the people in positions of authority went out of their way to script this," he told the Post. "They purposely interfered with the investigation, they covered it up. I think they thought they could control it, and they realized that their recruiting efforts were going to go to hell in a handbasket if the truth about his death got out. They blew up their poster boy."

"Maybe lying's not a big deal anymore," he said. "Pat's dead, and this isn't going to bring him back. But these guys should have been held up to scrutiny, right up the chain of command, and no one has."

Mary Tillman, the mother, complained to the Post that the government used her son for weeks after his death. She said she was particularly offended when President Bush offered a taped memorial message to Tillman at a Cardinals football game shortly before the presidential election last fall.

Newsweek made a bad mistake in its recent report on Koran abuse at Guantanamo. But it was a mistake, not outright lying. Yet the same critics who blasted the magazine —- and the media in general —- are not demanding that same contrition or penalties for anyone in the military.

One Newsweek critic after another has asked in the past week that the media come up with just one case where they erred on the side of making the military look good, not bad. One hopes the Tillman example takes care of that request, though there are, of course, many others.

Len on 05.24.05 @ 11:52 AM CST [link] [ | ]

At last!

Someone gets to the truth behind the original Star Wars trilogy....

Credit: SadPunk

Len on 05.24.05 @ 07:51 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Funny, I hadn't thought of that....

but over at the comments of Democratic Veteran, Kevin Hayden of The American Street makes an interesting observation:

Speaking of Rummy, they sure have the lid on that loose cannon lately. Ya never hear about Rummy or even Cheney anymore. Rove must be reading some terrible numbers.

Len on 05.24.05 @ 07:25 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Damn! Sometimes you get what you want...

I was hoping that a transcript of George Galloway's remarks to the Senate would find its way to the Web:

On the very first page of your document about me you assert that I have had "many meetings" with Saddam Hussein. This is false.

I have had two meetings with Saddam Hussein, once in 1994 and once in August of 2002. By no stretch of the English language can that be described as "many meetings" with Saddam Hussein.

As a matter of fact, I have met Saddam Hussein exactly the same number of times as Donald Rumsfeld met him. The difference is Donald Rumsfeld met him to sell him guns and to give him maps the better to target those guns. I met him to try and bring about an end to sanctions, suffering and war, and on the second of the two occasions, I met him to try and persuade him to let Dr Hans Blix and the United Nations weapons inspectors back into the country - a rather better use of two meetings with Saddam Hussein than your own Secretary of State for Defense made of his.

I was an opponent of Saddam Hussein when British and Americans governments and businessmen were selling him guns and gas. I used to demonstrate outside the Iraqi embassy when British and American officials were going in and doing commerce.

You will see from the official parliamentary record, Hansard, from the 15th March 1990 onwards, voluminous evidence that I have a rather better record of opposition to Saddam Hussein than you do and than any other member of the British or American governments do.

...

Now, Senator, I gave my heart and soul to oppose the policy that you promoted. I gave my political life's blood to try to stop the mass killing of Iraqis by the sanctions on Iraq which killed one million Iraqis, most of them children, most of them died before they even knew that they were Iraqis, but they died for no other reason other than that they were Iraqis with the misfortune to born at that time. I gave my heart and soul to stop you committing the disaster that you did commit in invading Iraq. And I told the world that your case for the war was a pack of lies.

I told the world that Iraq, contrary to your claims did not have weapons of mass destruction. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to al-Qaeda. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to the atrocity on 9/11 2001. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that the Iraqi people would resist a British and American invasion of their country and that the fall of Baghdad would not be the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the beginning.

Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong and 100,000 people paid with their lives; 1600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever on a pack of lies.

If the world had listened to Kofi Annan, whose dismissal you demanded, if the world had listened to President Chirac who you want to paint as some kind of corrupt traitor, if the world had listened to me and the anti-war movement in Britain, we would not be in the disaster that we are in today. Senator, this is the mother of all smokescreens. You are trying to divert attention from the crimes that you supported, from the theft of billions of dollars of Iraq's wealth.

Have a look at the real Oil-for-Food scandal. Have a look at the 14 months you were in charge of Baghdad, the first 14 months when $8.8 billion of Iraq's wealth went missing on your watch. Have a look at Halliburton and other American corporations that stole not only Iraq's money, but the money of the American taxpayer.

Have a look at the oil that you didn't even meter, that you were shipping out of the country and selling, the proceeds of which went who knows where? Have a look at the $800 million you gave to American military commanders to hand out around the country without even counting it or weighing it.

Have a look at the real scandal breaking in the newspapers today, revealed in the earlier testimony in this committee. That the biggest sanctions busters were not me or Russian politicians or French politicians. The real sanctions busters were your own companies with the connivance of your own Government.

Priceless.

UPDATE: And Brian Leiter asks the question of the day:

Could George W. Bush survive even ten minutes in a national debate with MP Galloway? Wouldn't it be priceless?

Len on 05.24.05 @ 07:17 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Murderous Metaphors

I was TOO BUSY last night and only just caught up to the NEWS that a compromise has been reached preventing Sen. Frist from carrying out his Political Nuclear Implosion. This Gem of an article by E. J. Dionne Jr. (Washington Post): 'Watch Those Guys' has a good "Quote of the Day" and post-anaylsis of this months long wrangling debate. [Thankfully defused for the moment.]

"...Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and other Republicans who backed the nuclear option hurt themselves badly with shameful rhetoric suggesting that murder and mayhem, not honest differences, were at the heart of this battle.

Thus did Frist accuse the Democrats of wanting to "kill, to defeat, to assassinate" President Bush's nominees. Oh, my. That's what comes out when a Princeton graduate plays the role of counterfeit populist in pandering to the Christian right.

Frist is waging this fight because he wants to be president and needs support from social conservatives. But especially in a time of terrorism, politicians worthy of the presidency don't toss around the word "assassinate" with the alacrity of a small-market radio host. The Republican moderates knew this.

Then there was the comment from the other Republican senator from Pennsylvania, Rick Santorum. Senate debates routinely produce tortured metaphors...."

Karen on 05.24.05 @ 06:54 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Thought for the Day:

Last week at a Republican fund-raising gala, President Bush saluted Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, and House Majority Whip Roy Blunt. "In the last two elections, the American people made clear that they want judges who faithfully interpret the law, not legislate from the bench," Bush told the crowd. "The Senate also has a duty to promptly consider each of [my] nominees on the Senate floor, discuss and debate their qualifications, and then give them the up-or-down vote they deserve."

This week, Republicans will put that principle to the test—but not in the way they've advertised. As the Senate approaches nuclear war over judges, the House will take up stem-cell research. On the former issue, Republican leaders have a majority. On the latter, they don't. The real test of a principle—in this case, majority rule—isn't whether you invoke it when it's convenient. The real test is whether you practice it when it isn't.

Four years ago, Bush restricted federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research (or ESCR) to cell lines derived before Aug. 9, 2001. Last year, 58 senators and nearly half the House signed letters asking him to relax that restriction. For at least three years, most senators have supported legislation that would approve human therapeutic cloning. Last year, more than 200 members of the House co-sponsored legislation to expand ESCR funding.

None of these bills ever got an up-or-down vote. Why? Because the same Republicans who now preach about up-or-down votes bottled them up or threatened to filibuster them.
--William Saletan

Len on 05.24.05 @ 06:25 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Last Minute Items...

Well, if you all are BORED by lack of posts and waiting [breathlessly - LOL] for tomorrow night's Fun Bloggie Bash, you can still be entertained by the latest Capital Steps political satire routine "Detective Story".

It's purty darn good. I'm goin to see them perform in here in July at the Hemmens Center in Elgin, Il.

Should be a Howl!!

And speaking of *winging* my way south - here's a cute Engrish entry.

Time to FRY...LOL.


Karen on 05.24.05 @ 05:50 AM CST [link] [ | ]

And we'll miss her, but....

there are some things more important than mere society.

The bad news is that the Memphis News Diva, Peggy Phillip, won't be joining us Wednesday evening. The good news is that's because her son's soccer team is apparently going to be playing in the state tournament. We wish them the best of luck: go kick some butt and take some names!

Len on 05.23.05 @ 08:02 PM CST [link] [ | ]

Kinda sad news for me....

but you have to understand that, during my time in the Navy, I spent several weeks aboard USS America: Retired Carrier Sunk Off Atlantic Coast

Rest in peace, old girl. You served your country well, and we'll remember you fondly.

Len on 05.23.05 @ 07:57 PM CST [link] [ | ]

WTF?????

The Religious Right is making Trent Fucking Lott sound like a moderate?

Regular readers know my conviction: The Christian Right is about to split the GOP right down the middle. The entire point of the Evangelical movement is to ADVANCE the word to every corner of the world. When retreat isn't an option and caution is the Devil's work overreaching is inevitable. In fact, it's happening right now.

"James Dobson: Who does he think he is, questioning my conservative credentials?" Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., said in an interview. Dobson, head of the conservative group Focus on the Family, criticized Lott for his efforts to forge a compromise in the fight over the judges. Lott is still angry. "Some of his language and conduct is quite un-Christian, and I don't appreciate it," the senator said.

When Trent Lott starts sounding level headed and questions the spiritual bona fides of a Pearly Gatekeeper like Dobson we are nearing the intersection of shit and fan.

More popcorn please....

Len on 05.23.05 @ 07:40 PM CST [link] [ | ]

Hmmmmm... Is he singing that same old song?

From Brian Arner at Resonance:

Makes sense to me:

[QUESTION]: Do you think that [the Iraqi] insurgence is getting harder now to defeat militarily?

BUSH: No, I don't think so. I think they're being defeated, and that's why they continue to fight.

Uh, if you're defeated, doesn't that mean you stop fighting?

Hmmmm.... They're still fighting means they're being defeated. Where have I heard that logic before....

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength....

Ah, yes. Now I remember.

Len on 05.23.05 @ 07:31 PM CST [link] [ | ]

Optimism, Part II

REMINDER:

The Dark Ages lasted only a thousand years.

Credit: This week's Ironic Times

Len on 05.23.05 @ 08:03 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Optimism, Part I

Len on 05.23.05 @ 08:01 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Thought for the Day:

There's another troubled old institution where loyal workers are getting crammed down, thanks to mismanagement. On May 12, the New York Times reported that "the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston is proposing cuts in its pension benefits for priests." Why? The pension fund has notched poor returns, and it's had to spend money settling sexual-abuse litigation. The archdiocese wants to freeze pension benefits at the current level ad infinitum and slash medical benefits and other measures. Here's the kicker: The archdiocese apparently failed to make any contributions to the pension plan between 1986 and 2002, even though it held fund-raising drives to fund priests' retirements twice annually. As the Times notes, "[F]or many years the archdiocese has used that money to fill other needs."

Using money dedicated for retirement savings for other needs? What does the Boston archdiocese think it is, Congress?
--Daniel Gross

Seems to me, if there were any justice, Boston Catholics would rise as one and slay the archbishop and his chief functionaries. But, alas, they won't....

Len on 05.23.05 @ 06:51 AM CST [link] [ | ]

John Q....Where ARE You???

Apparently John Q. Public (and his family) are NOT Angry Enough - or yet Economically Depressed Enough - to really force this bAdminstration to respond with policies favorable for the Nation’s interests.

America Wants Security by Paul Krugman (NY Times) considers one possible reason for this:

”…The latest Wall Street Journal/NBC poll showed what the pollsters called an "angry electorate." By huge margins, voters think that politicians are paying too little attention to their concerns, especially health care, jobs and gas prices.
…
Why, then, is Washington so out of touch?

At a gala dinner in his honor, Tom DeLay cited his party's recent achievements: "bankruptcy reform, class-action reform, energy, border security, repealing the death tax." All of these measures are either irrelevant to or actively hostile to the economic security of working Americans.
….
Everyone loves historical analogies. Here's my thought: maybe 2004 was 1928. During the 1920's, the national government followed doctrinaire conservative policies, but reformist policies that presaged the New Deal were already bubbling up in the states, especially in New York.

In 1928 Al Smith, the governor of New York, was defeated in an ugly presidential campaign in which Protestant preachers warned their flocks that a vote for the Catholic Smith was a vote for the devil. But four years later F.D.R. took office, and the New Deal began.

Of course, the coming of the New Deal was hastened by a severe national depression. Strange to say, we may be working on that, too.”

Where are these “Silent Majority” of voters? The average people who know what the issues are and can see that the Important Policy items aren’t even on the event horizon of our so-called “Mandate with Political capital to Burn” bAdministration?? How much lower do GW's already historically low poll numbers have to be before our Fearless Leader “Gets It??”

Karen on 05.23.05 @ 06:29 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Mom Holidays

So – as our readership KNOWS by now – I’ll be headed to Memphis for a “Mom Holiday” to visit the sights and tourista spots of that Great City. And I’ll be at the BBQ Shop Blogger’s Bash this up coming Wednesday, May 25th !!!

Date: May 25, 2005
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: The Bar-B-Q Shop, 1782 Madison Ave., Memphis, TN (Midtown)

But there is (as always) that Price to be paid in getting chores and work done before I get out of town…Mom's have to *think* of Everything!!

I know everyone will understand, then, that my Blogging will be “sparse” for a bit. I’ll post when I can.

Hope to see Y’All on Wednesday!!!


Karen on 05.23.05 @ 06:09 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Lawyer screws others as well as his clients....

Lawyer leads double life as porn star

Makes perfect sense to me....

Len on 05.22.05 @ 10:53 AM CST [link] [ | ]

Thought for the Day:

Now we have four more years with W., as they call him, as if he were an icon. (An icon for what? Ineptitude?) Please, this guy would have made a terrific Elks Club president, and I am sure he would have done well if he were in charge of the Rotary. Hell, let's just put him in a rotary and let him go around and around and around until he's as dizzy as the rest of us are. That seems to be the only thing most of our presidents are qualified for, anyway.

Where do I begin, and when will this ever end? He has uttered banality after banality, in these most serious of times, with a self-confidence that borders on the delusional. Apparently he feels self-confidence is a substitute for intelligence. If you listen to him tell it--and I know that's a chore--he has never made a mistake. For God's sake, what more can we ask of him?

He stumbled with a purpose into a war with Iraq and had absolutely no plan for what to do afterward. And no one even called him on it until it was too late. He photoopted himself onto an aircraft carrier just weeks after the war, appearing in front of a huge banner that read MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. The irony of it all just kills me.

W. believes that if he repeats something enough it will become the truth. I could go on for days like this, but why bother? Let me just say, he is so funny that he is not funny.

In my lifetime I have gone from John F. Kennedy to John F. Kerry, and from Dwight D. Eisenhower to George W. Bush. If that's the evolution of leadership in this country, in just a few more years we'll all be voting for plants. Which might not be so bad. After all, thanks to their ecological purpose in this world, at least plants try to clean up the air. And that would certainly be an improvement over what we've got now.

Pundits tell us we get the representatives we deserve. I have just one question for the American public. Who the fuck ran over God's dog and never bothered to apologize? I will not rest until I find you. And I will. Trust me, you cannot hide.
--Lewis Black, Nothing's Sacred

Len on 05.22.05 @ 09:46 AM CST [link] [ | ]

UP the Meds, David...

David Brooks needs to Up the Meds yet again as he write some slop as his editorial The Senate's Quavering Middle for the pages of the NY Times.

Ostensibly about the filibuster, Brooks has written a diatribe about supposed Democratic issues that fit surprisingly well on the GOP foot, snug as a glove...

So, I sent him this note:

As usual Mr. Brooks:

You've got your foot up your arse and your head stuck in a GOP toilet
on this one:

You write: "But many moderates are simply people who feel
cross-pressured by different political forces, and their instinctive
response is to shrink from pressure. They lack spirit to take risks,
to actually lead."

Gee - sounds like every Republican who is about to sweat bullets over
the FIRST if ever threatened Presidential VETO on Anything - over
Federal Funding for Stem Cell research.

Here are Republican and Democrats alike coming together on an issue
favored by that "Majority Of Real American People" (whom the Prez
pretends just ought not be countenanced on what they want) being
preemptively targeted for a Pres dressing down and cowing by an
"activist president" injecting his own personal, narrow, views to
legislate from the Executive office on an issue for the Congress to
decide on behalf of the American people. Even Home-Boy Dennis Hastert
is fighting to get a floor vote on this one for the good ole' American
way!!

How exactly are these Republican's supposed to show "Spirit to take
risks?" "Show they can Lead?" With a "threat" from our Fearless
Leader hanging over their heads?

Talk about "Cross-pressure by different political forces"??? Get your
mind out of that whirlpool of flushing sludge and use that vast
intellect, I KNOW you have, to present at least an Honest argument for
cripes sake.

Goodness, you really must need them "prescriptive medicines" to
handle these wild mood swings and yo-yo brained opinional delusions.

Time to Up the Meds, Mr. Brooks.

And on this issue of Federal Funding for Stem Cell research, Michael Kinsley (LA Times) has written this editorial Bioethicists Fiddle as Patients Die: Mr. Bush, don't I matter more than tiny clumps of cells?.

Click on the "more" button to read an excerpt from this piece.

Karen on 05.22.05 @ 05:30 AM CST [more..] [ | ]

Denny Starts to Strut Some Stuff

Well, here at DHC (Dennis Hastert Corner), everyone know how fond we are of Home-boy Dennis Hastert. But I’ll have to give him some credit where credit is due. If he can bring this Stem Cell Funding bill to the floor for an up or down vote - and pull off a Win for the moderates social conservatives on this issue - that WILL be saying something:

Bush Objects to Stem Cell Bill By Mary Curtius and Peter Walls