Jessica is the daughter of our friends. Every day, the school bus comes for Jessica, who happens to be the last child on the route. On this particular bus, the kids have assigned seating, and Jessica sits next to the same young boy--day after day. And, day after day, this young, frightened boy cried the whole trip. He was crying when the bus came to Jessica's house, and he cried the rest of the way to school...Use the title link for the rest of the story.
Actually, I should probably amend my earlier statement. Lung On and Ing Hay, together, are two of this area's favorite historical figures. There are pictures of them on the Chamber of Commerce page.In 1887, two young Chinese immigrants, Lung On and Ing Hay purchased the building on the site in John Day, Oregon and made it their home and the social and religious center of the Chinese community. Lung On operated a general store to supply miners and the public in the area, sold "bootleg" whiskey during prohibition, sold the first automobiles in Eastern Oregon in 1909 and was an advocate for the Chinese. Ing "Doc" Hay was a master of herbal medicine and pulse diagnosis and operated a lucrative practice in the building until 1948...
When I'm an old lady, I'll live with my kids,
and make their life happy and filled with such fun,
I want to pay back all the joy they've provided,
returning each deed. Oh, they'll be so excited.
...When I'm an old lady and live with my kids.
I'll write on the wall with red, white, and blue;
and bounce on the furniture wearing my shoes.
I'll drink from the carton and then leave it out.
I'll stuff all the toilets and oh, how they'll shout.
...When I'm an old lady and live with my kids.
When they're on the phone and just out of reach,
I'll get into things like sugar and bleach.
Oh, they'll snap their fingers and then shake their head,
and when that is done I'll hide under the bed.
...When I'm an old lady and live with my kids.
When they cook dinner and call me to meals,
I'll not eat my green beans or salads congealed.
I'll gag on my okra, spill milk on the table,
and when they get angry, run fast as I'm able.
...When I'm an old lady and live with my kids.
I'll sit close to the TV, through the channels I'll click.
I'll cross both my eyes to see if they stick.
I'll take off my socks and throw one away,
and play in the mud until the end of the day.
...When I'm an old lady and live with my kids.
And later in bed, I'll lay back and sigh,
and thank God in prayer and then close my eyes;
and my kids will look down with a smile slowly creeping,
and say with a groan, "She's so sweet when she's sleeping."
...When I'm an old lady and live with my kids.
I don't know about you, but I'm seeing a whole lot of good coming from the newest wave of adults and near-adults. I am amazed at how many of them are fighting back against PC madness of all sorts. Bravo.I was recently invited to speak to C-Fact, a conservative environmentalist group at the University of Minnesota. To some this might sound about as weird as saying I was invited to speak to a group of Socialist Yachtsmen in Monaco. Of course, there are plenty of yachtsmen who are more or less socialists (whether they meet in Monaco, I have no idea - but I will gladly go speak to them there). And, there are conservatives who love the environment - more of them than you might realize. More importantly, young conservatives are willing to fight for the environmentalist label, and that's a sign of progress...
SISU… courage, obstinacy, “guts”…four million Finns living in the jaws of Soviet Communism – flaunting their independence!This book is out of print, and of course history has veered a little since it was written, but it’s a great reminder that more than once in the past when the Finns were up against overwhelming odds, enough of them mustered the deep strength they needed to fight back hard enough and smart enough and long enough to win.
SISU is a national characteristic of the Finnish people. It accounts for their great exploits:
…The winning of independence from Russia in 1918, led by the genius of Marshall Mannerheim and SISU
…The 1939 Winter War against the Russians, when the vastly outnumbered Finns destroyed five Soviet divisions, using Molotov cocktails, the “motti” tactic, and SISU
…The continuing fight against Communist “silent aggression,” avoiding the fate of Czechoslovakia, without foreign aid but with SISU
A saga of courage and idealism at the Eastern parapet of democracy.
A PENSION trust where artists will pay installments in their own artworks was launched in London yesterday, dangling the prospect of a retirement nest egg for a very insecure profession.On that last point, perhaps it's because in the real world it's impossible for The Artist Pension Trust to have any idea whatsoever what prices the art will fetch down the road. Especially the art they haven't seen yet. At a guess.
The UK trust would aim to cover 250 working artists, vetted by experts before they join the scheme. They would contribute 20 artworks over 20 years, to be sold when prices are judged to be right...
A similar scheme was launched in the United States last year. After the launch of the UK scheme yesterday, Berlin is set to be next. The Artist Pension Trust offered few details on what cash sums artists could expect to receive from a collection that would run to 2,000 works of visual art, from video to paintings...
FROM THE PUBLISHER (via Barnes & Noble)For a related story, see http://suitableformixedcompany.blogspot.com/2005/03/thomas-jefferson-papers-america-and.html
A real-life thriller from acclaimed historian and author of The Pirate Hunter, Richard Zacks -- the true story of the unheralded American who brought the Barbary Pirates to their knees.
In an attempt to stop the legendary Barbary Pirates of North Africa from hijacking American ships, William Eaton set out in 1805 on a secret mission to overthrow the government of Tripoli. The operation was sanctioned by President Thomas Jefferson, but at the last moment he grew wary of "intermeddling" in a foreign government, and Eaton set off without proper national support.
Short on supplies, given very little money and only a few men, Eaton and his mission seemed doomed from the start. But against all odds, he improbably triumphed, recruiting a band of European mercenaries in Alexandria, along with some Arab cavalry and Bedouin fighters, and leading them on a march across the Libyan Desert. Once in Tripoli, the ragtag army defeated the local troops and successfully captured Derne, laying the groundwork for the demise of the Barbary Pirates. The success of the event is immortalized in the Marines' Hymn, but Jefferson never allowed Eaton the fame he craved. Now, Richard Zacks brings this important story from our nation's history to life.
Richard Zacks, author of the heralded The Pirate Hunter, is a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and a freelance journalist for Atlantic Monthly, Life, Time, and numerous other publications. He lives in New York City.
In 1987, Rush Limbaugh sat down at a microphone at radio station KFBK-AM in Sacramento and began broadcasting something called "The Rush Limbaugh Show."And it's not just Rush, of course, not by a long shot. Once Ronald Reagan took the sledge hammer of the Fairness Doctrine out of the hands of politicians, a lot has changed.
The rest is history...
An especially distinctive element in the new papal coat of arms is a bear with a pack-saddle, the so-called “Bear of Corbinian." There is a charming legend involving a bear that is told about Bishop Corbinian, who preached the Christian faith in the ancient Duchy of Bavaria in the 8th century and is honored as the spiritual father and patron of the archdiocese. It is said that while he was traveling to Rome a bear mauled his pack-animal. The saint then rebuked the wild beast, and commanded the bear to carry his packs to Rome. Once he arrived there, however, he let the bear go, and it lumbered back to its native forest. The meaning of the legend is clear: Christianity tamed and domesticated the ferocity of paganism and thus laid the foundations for a great civilization in the Duchy of Bavaria. At the same time, Corbinian’s Bear, as “God’s beast of burden,” symbolizes the burden of office. In the coat of arms of Benedict XVI, the Bear of Corbinian has now taken up permanent residence in Rome.
Aerial firefighting... has become the primary weapon in stopping brush and forest fires. Because of its size and history of devastating blazes, California operates its own fleet of helicopters, scouts and tankers.The title link goes to a short written article and a video report by William LaJeunesse of Fox News.
Pilots are positioned at predetermined points around the state, within 20 minutes they can be airborne and on top of any fire — working to stop small fires from becoming big ones.
It is a dangerous job. Four planes have gone down in the past three years — their wings gave way under the fatigue and stress of a heavy, liquid cargo.
Lawmakers are looking for alternatives to the blaze-fighting fleet now that there are only nine federal planes available to fight fire in 50 states.
In the meantime, California will rely on its own fleet, while other states scramble to find helicopters and planes that can be safely converted before fire season begins.
Use the title link for the rest of the story. Martha Radditz, currently of ABC News, plays a supporting role, since she was yelled at in the same sorry incident.For 20 years I have kept my silence. I will do so no longer. In the debate over John Bolton's nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, it finally has been made clear to me that a human being who yells at another human being does not deserve to hold high office. It's what Sen. George Voinovich calls “the Kitchen Test.”
And so, it's time I finally told the painful truth: Ted Kennedy yelled at me. He hurt my feelings. Therefore, those who believe John Bolton does not deserve to be confirmed must surely also agree that Senator Kennedy must step down. Here is the never-before-told story:
It happened in Ethiopia during the height of the Great Famine of the 1980s. Sen. Kennedy had come on a fact-finding mission. As Africa correspondent of The New York Times, I was assigned to travel with him...
One day, when Orville and Wilbur Wright were boys, their father returned from a trip with a gift that would help change their lives--and history--forever. The toy was a helicopter, made of cork, bamboo, and paper. It was powered by a rubber band...
The book to which he refers seems to be one of those that falls in the shadows between in-print and out-of-print. Most places that I routinely check only offer it used, but I notice that www.ecampus.com has it listed as available new. I'm not sure whether ecampus is closing out some of the last new ones available or whether it's a genuine reissue, so if you're interested in a new copy I'm not sure I'd dawdle....In the early 1990s, I was at a university event in New York that invited Dag Hammarskjold's biographer, his former assistant Sir Brian Urquhart, to speak about the UN's place in the world. (I recommend Sir Brian's book; it's excellent. But I digress.) He was engaging, bright, articulate and witty -- none of which, of course, was unexpected.
Yet a day or so prior to the event, word got 'round that a group of nincompoops were going to protest his appearance because he was British -- and therefore must have been supportive of a divided Ireland. That Sir Brian had had zero to do with British policy in Northern Ireland was irrelevant to the nincompoops, who appeared and stood in the back and challenged him during the Q & A at the end. He addressed them directly, explained his role, and the UN's role, and made them look foolish.
To me, he was a gentlemanly epitome of the UN careerist, who also acknowledged he had a nationality, and handled the combination with grace and a style that balanced the two. But I believe him to have been more a representative of an earlier era, for, unfortunately, many younger UN people today seem unable to meld both, and instead fall back on a delusion that they are somehow "citizens of the world". In particular, many have evidently come to think of themselves as living in another sphere that is rather different and even more elevated than the rest of us -- who dwell in (so "old-fashioned" and "unenlightened" are we) the sphere of (Yuck!) lowly nation-states.
I'd also like to take this opportunity to point out a search tip for people looking for used books at Barnes & Noble. My initial search this morning found three copies of this title, but when I went to the bottom of the page there was a "There may be more copies of this title available" notice, with a place to click to "Search for other editions and formats". Using that option, I got twelve used copies from which to pick.
Databases being what they are, I always check the "Search for other editions and formats" option when it is available to me. Saves oodles of money in the long run, for one thing, and sometimes it lets me find a used copy in better condition than those copies that came up on the first search.
And, oh, I might mention that the title of Robert's post might have been "Our Global Supreme Court - Not". He argues that there's a difference between what the charter says and what some people would have you think it says.
This blog is for Oregon's military community. It's a result of The Oregonian's experience covering the Oregon National Guard in Iraq, and is available to any family member, soldier, airman or Marine, whether still deployed or back at home...There are several pictures, about half of them featuring soldiers with kids.
Lingerie, Tupperware and murder mystery parties. They've been the rage for years. Now add a new one to the list: living wills parties.Down toward the end of the article is this:
Some Americans, prompted by their desire to avoid the problems that surrounded the Terri Schiavo case, are gathering at parties where they balance their chardonnay along with clipboards holding living will forms...
People may be overly concerned about ending up in a Schiavo situation, says Carl Schneider, a law professor and bioethicist at the University of Michigan Law School.There is a sidebar to the article in which advice is given on how to host a living-will, or "advance directive" party. A handful of organizations that provide documents or guidelines are listed, but I don't see National Right to Life's Will to Live program mentioned. That one is designed to have safeguards built in, so that you're not as likely to find your fate dependant on your medical provider's personal definition of "meaningful life". See http://www.nrlc.org/euthanasia/willtolive/WHYwtl.html
He calls Schiavo "the great exception" rather than the rule.
Schneider says living wills often are ignored and simply don't work because it's difficult to anticipate all the medical possibilities. Instead, he recommends only designating a medical decision maker.
At worst, critics say, living wills can be dangerous because doctors, in the thick of an emergency, can misinterpret the documents to mean a patient does not want treatment.
"Often in emergency medicine, we have seconds to minutes to act," says Ferdinando Mirarchi, chairman of the department of emergency medicine at Hamot Medical Center, Erie, Pa. "And if we don't act, that patient can suffer some serious disability or possibly even die."
He has written What's the Patient's Code Status?, a guide to help people be specific about their end-of-life wishes, available at livingwillconsultants.com. But he feels so strongly that uniform advance directives can do damage, he says, that he has refused to help large groups fill them out.
...A funny story is told about Reverend J. F. DeVore, who was a Methodist minister. At that time, there was no Methodist church in the South Puget Sound and Sunday services were held in settlers’ homes. Reverend DeVore was determined to build a real church in Olympia. He went to all the businessmen in Olympia and New Market and asked them to donate money for the new building. He figured that wealthy Captain Crosby, who owned the sawmill in New Market, would be able to give a large amount. Captain Crosby was a shrewd businessman, and didn’t want to part with any of his goods. However, he made a deal with the preacher, telling him that he could have as much lumber as he could take away from the mill by himself in one day.Then there's this, from the Historical Sketches on the First United Methodist Church of Olympia website (down the http://www.fumcoly.org/History/History.HTM page, under the title "Able-Bodied Pastor"):
This was no easy task. The mill was about 200 yards from the waterfront, and the boards were huge and heavy. Captain Crosby figured that the young preacher wouldn’t be strong enough to carry very many.
The next morning Reverend DeVore arrived bright and early. He rolled up his sleeves and got right to work, lugging the heavy boards on his shoulder. He worked so steadily that Captain Crosby began to worry. How much lumber would he have to give the young preacher? He tried to get Reverend DeVore to stop for lunch, thinking it would slow him down, but the preacher only stopped long enough for a few sips of water and a few bites from his lunch pail. At the end of the day, Reverend DeVore had carried away enough lumber to build the entire church! The Olympia preacher won the respect of the New Market settlers, even Captain Crosby...
DeVore said he would accept help from anyone in the form of money, labor and materials; and he was adept at soliciting all three. He asked a contribution from a farmer near Grand Mound who had a large crew of men harvesting grain. The farmer, doubting a minister's ability at manual labor, offered to give a day's wages for every man in his crew if DeVore could cut a swath around the entire field. The clergyman took the cradle, led the way through the harvest, and collected the money.There are a few other good Rev. DeVore stories on the same church history page, among them the very good reasons he was two years late showing up in Olympia.
Next he approached Capt. Crosby, for lumber from his mill at Tumwater Falls, which then marked the southern tip of Budd's Inlet. Crosby, a Roman Catholic like his descendant Bing, promised he would contribute all the lumber DeVore could "get down to Olympia in only day without help of man or beast."
The enterprising pastor chose a day with an afternoon ebbtide, when the tide flats were dry in the morning hours. He arrived early with his long list of needed lumber, and began his one-man effort to carry and drag it to the tide flat. There he lashed it together into a raft. By afternoon Crosby was aghast as he watched the minister float away toward Olympia with all the lumber he needed for the new church. Only the sills remained to be cut from trees on the church site.
The construction of that first building must have been solid, for the structure survived four separate moves around downtown Olympia, finally ending its days as a rooming house, destroyed by fire.
SEATTLE -- When cartoonist Charles M. Schulz passed away, he left behind an amazing body of work, including half a century of his beloved comic strip, Peanuts. Now, a Northwest publishing company is bringing new life to this American classic.Fantagraphics is known for publishing darker, less civil stuff than Peanuts, but the company presented a series design proposal that met with the approval of Jeannie Schulz, the cartoonist's widow, according to Johnson.
Seattle publisher Fantagraphics is presenting Charles M. Schulz's entire comic series in chronological order, releasing a new Peanuts book every six months for more than 12 years. That’s 50 years of comics in 25 books...
Top Dogs: Comic Canines Before and After Snoopy, Saturday, April 23rd through September 26th, 2005...This rare and unique display will feature approximately 50 cartoons from the era of Krazy Kat, Buster Brown, The Yellow Kid & Tippie through Blondie, Napoleon, Little Orphan Annie and Pogo to current features such as Mutts, Pickles, Luann, The Far Side, Dilbert, Red & Rover, Mother Goose & Grimm, Duncan, For Better or For Worse, Rhymes with Orange, and Marmaduke...
A Hypertext on American History from the colonial period until Modern Times
Department of Humanities Computing, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
The main body of this hypertext project, which was started in 1994, comes from a number of USIA-publications: An Outline of American History, An Outline of the American Economy, An Outline of American Government, and An Outline of American Literature. The text of these Outlines has not been changed, but they have been enriched with hypertext-links to relevant documents, original essays, other Internet sites, and to other Outlines.
A number of contributors have prepared additional texts and links for the project. And this project will grow als (sic) long as we find new texts and volunteers who are willing to contribute. You can help this WWW-project in collective authoring by contributing texts or by sponsoring.
You can read this hypertext as you like: follow the main text of the Outline of American History or just find your own way through the web of texts.
The second-largest elementary school in the nation, Hobart has more than 2,000 students; 90 percent live below the poverty level. All are from immigrant families, primarily Hispanic and Asian. Though none speaks English as a first language, Esquith's students read literature far above their fifth-grade level -- Catcher in the Rye, Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird.This interview includes an excerpt from Esquith's 2003 memoir, There Are No Shortcuts. From that excerpt, an excerpt:
But Esquith takes his students beyond contemporary literature and into a world at the heart and soul of his teaching: an intensive immersion in William Shakespeare -- reading his plays, studying his life and times. This yearlong study culminates in April, when students present a full-length, unabridged production of Shakespeare. Last year, it was Hamlet. This year, it's The Taming of the Shrew.
That intensive education has taken the "Hobart Shakespearians" far beyond their classroom; they've appeared at the Old Globe Theatre in London, before the Royal Shakespeare Company, and at Shakespearian festivals throughout the United States...
For several years this book and character became the highlight of my year of reading great novels with the students. It was Mark Twain's masterpiece, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn....
I, too, would reject society, and a school system damaged beyond repair. If a few cool kids wanted to light out for the territory with me, they were welcome to come aboard the raft on which I sailed.
Except I had come to a point where no one was getting on board the raft with me. I loved Huck, but I was still lost. I thought I knew who I was, but to be Huck was not to be a great teacher.
It took a ten-year-old to challenge and humble me into seeing that Huck was not the answer for me...
I was now ready to find the role model who had the answer for me. I reread Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, and I realized I had found my hero in Atticus Finch...
It hit me like a thunderbolt. You see, Atticus knows everything Huck knows. He knows society is racist. He recognizes the violence, hypocrisy, injustice, and ignorance of society. He knows he is going to lose. But Atticus does not light out for the territory. He goes back into the courtroom to fight the fight as best as he can, because it is what he believes in...
The room where Admiral Lord Nelson's body lay after the Battle of Trafalgar is to reopen to the public for the first time in 70 years.
The Nelson Room at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich opens from 26 April and will feature a life-size statue of Lord Nelson...
The Syrians have accomplished what almost no one expected -- they have actually left Lebanon without a shot being fired to chase them back across the Bekaa Valley. Even the Syrian intelligence services have packed up, or at least that's what the Syrians say...
Lebanon may be the only place in the world where you can buy a necklace with a Christian cross and a Muslim crescent moon fused together as one. What other country would even think of making something like this? I've never seen one before. But now I own two...And then there's a picture of the necklace, and the rest of the post.
I found a couple of interesting cartoons on New Sabah; in the 1st one here, the Captain of the aircraft is giving this announcement "Ladies and gentlemen; the atmosphere is democratic but there are a few sectarian bumps ahead, thank you"...
I was the second child born in Canyon City. Jennie Nunes Powers was the first. She certainly was no credit to the village.And so on for several pages. It's a colorful narrative, with Mrs. Ford quite obviously enjoying the spotlight. Oh, well. Many of the early settlers were full of themselves, of course. It went with the territory. And she does relay some riotous stories about herself as well as her friends and neighbors.
My father left Kentucky in 1849 and went to California. He heard of the big gold strike in Canyon City, and left California to settle in Canyon. You know, then you could almost pick up gold nuggets by the handful; at least it was much easier than it is now.
Father made a great deal of money out of the mines and started a grocery store in partnership with Poindexter. The store was known as the Poindexter & Clark Mercantile Store. My father started in this business with a great deal of money and no experience. Mr. Poindexter started in with no money and a great deal of experience. The partnership ended with Poindexter having the money and my father the experience.
Father worked for the Wells Fargo company, and had the stage line from The Dalles to Canyon City. Every Saturday morning the Chinese would line up outside of my father's business with their bags of gold dust to be weighed and shipped to San Francisco. I can still hear the clock-clock-clock of the Chinese as they talked to my father. They seemed to like him quite well. Often, father would have me come over to the office and sew the canvas he had into bags to hold the gold dust....
For starters, two sisters are making a dream come true for their third sister, a young woman, who died on United Flight 93 on September 11. Her dream was to publish a book. Vaughn Lohec and Dara Near finished the book their sister, Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas, started but never had the chance to complete...
I don’t want to sound unpatriotic, and I realize that this is not a wildly original point, but there is something creepy about how risk aversion has become a kind of unofficial American creed.Meghan Cox Gurdon has lived in several countries, indeed has given birth in different countries. Much of this particular column takes a look at how different it was being pregnant and going to doctors in Japan, England, Canada, and then the United States. In the U.S., she says, there seems to be a unique and grim focus on what might go wrong.
It’s creepy in the way that it has crept stealthily into our national life, and creepier still in its sinister, innumerate, fear-fanning, joy-squashing effects. There have been days lately when I have caught myself wondering aloud, “Can we really be the people who settled the Great Plains?”...
It was many years ago. Hadleyburg was the most honest and upright town in all the region round about. It had kept that reputation unsmirched during three generations, and was prouder of it than of any other of its possessions. It was so proud of it, and so anxious to insure its perpetuation, that it began to teach the principles of honest dealing to its babies in the cradle, and made the like teachings the staple of their culture thenceforward through all the years devoted to their education. Also, throughout the formative years temptations were kept out of the way of the young people, so that their honesty could have every chance to harden and solidify, and become a part of their very bone...But if you teach people to be good, but take away their chances of practicing being good, where in the world does it lead? Mark Twain (aka Samuel Clemens) presented some of his ideas on the subject in his 1899 story "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg". Use title link for one of several online reprints of the text.
On April 20, 1825, David Douglas (1799-1834) arrives at Fort Vancouver, the Hudson's Bay Company's new Columbia River headquarters, in the company of chief factor Dr. John McLoughlin (1784-1857). The young Scotsman is a collector for England's Horticultural Society, dispatched to the Northwest Coast to bring back specimens and seeds of the marvelous and new (to Europeans) plants of the region, for introduction into British gardens and forests. For the next two years, Douglas will use Fort Vancouver as a base for botanical explorations through much of present-day Washington and Oregon, where he will collect thousands of specimens of plants ranging from tiny, rare mosses and herbs to the giant and abundant tree that now bears his name, the Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menzeisii, not actually a fir, but a member of a Pacific Rim genus)...
I am convinced that God made dogs to enable us to see grace from the grace-giver's perspective, rather than our usual position as a recipient of grace. At our house we have a new canine addition, a mixed-breed (mostly lab) nine week old pup named Bob. His older brother, Matthias, is a four year old dog with so many bloodlines that we figure he must be like the original dog "kind" that padded after Noah when he disembarked from the ark...She goes on to mention some of the ways she thinks that living with dogs can teach someone about God's grace toward people. I especially like her first one: "He loves us even when we're yucky."
John Paul II’s pontificate left an unparalleled legacy of papal teachings. One key aspect of his tenure is the space he created for the work of other great theologians. The new pope, Benedict XVI, formerly Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, is one of them. Given Ratzinger’s sharp focus on doctrine, many have seen only one side of this man: the protector of the faith, the leader of a new “inquisition.” Few have focused on his rich analyses of freedom...The commentary was published April 20, 2005, on the Acton Institute's website. Use title link to see the rest of the article.
Oregon Wildflowers: Beginner's Field Guide
Minor correction: the actual subtitle is, "A children's field guide to the state's most common flowers."
Oil consultant Charles Westwood noted that the high oil price made it a "sensible time" to be hiving off assets and the $50-plus average is expected to tempt firms from across the globe. Of existing North Sea players, Paladin and Canadian firm Talisman are certain candidates, while the auction will also attract new independents.Uh, huh.
Graham Tran, of union Amicus, welcomed the move, saying it was key that the North Sea was "in the hands of those prepared to invest".The big three oil majors (Shell, BP and Exxon) have been criticized in recent years for sitting on assets while they explored new markets while more eager firms have been left stuck on shore.
Shell echoed the words of its union, saying the decision to put the fields on sale was in order to "unlock their potential and extend their life". Currently, all three are expected to cease production by 2012.
Given a choice between the enlightened ethics of my correspondent and the "archaic" ethics of Jewish law, I really see no choice. He is not the first educated person to announce to the world that traditional ethics are passe. But throughout history, the cheapening of life has inevitably led to the deaths of innocent people. Whether it is a communist nation that devalues the intellectuals or ethnic groups that cheapen the lives of their rivals, in every instance the beginning of the end is the concerted attempt to convince the population that some lives just don't matter.I can only hope that if you or I wind up in a medical facility, we draw a Dr. Eisenberg instead of someone like the other fellow. The other fellow, you see, thinks he can and should decide when to declare someone else a person. Once he culls you from the human race in his own mind, you're not to be fed any more.
WASHINGTON — Often meeting furtively, with no communication with fellow councils throughout the country, Iraqi scouts (search) remained active despite oppression under Saddam Hussein's regime and subsequent war with Iraq — a miracle say Arab scouting representatives.
"The (scouting) movement never died in Iraq, and that is something no one knew," said Malek Gabr, deputy secretary of the World Organization of the Scout Movement (search), based in Geneva, Switzerland...
The last hurdle to Germany’s participation in the "MEADS" transatlantic missile project has been overcome after the Green party, the junior partner in government, said it will vote in favor of the air defense system.This does not mean that they are signing on whole-heartedly (far from it), and they will undoubtedly expect something in return (politics is politics, and they've asked that other defense spending be cut in return for this), and there actually haven't been any final votes yet (so I'm not sure but there's still a chance that this might fall through), but, my golly, we have Green Party officials actually going on record to say that everything else taken into consideration, they can step aside and let a military project happen. My golly, the Greens in Europe looking at something in context, and being reasonable? Taking a big, broad view and looking ahead? Making compromises? In public, no less? There is hope, after all. (Knock wood.)
After weeks of opposition, Germany’s Green Party has decided to support the Medium Extended Air Defense System, or MEADS.
Funded by the US, Italy and Germany, MEADS aims to protect troops or sensitive locations from aerial assault by missile or plane. The system is intended to replace Patriot missiles in the United States and Germany, and Nike Hercules missiles in Italy...
In the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, approximately 250 km west of Cape Sable, Florida, and 70 km west of the Dry Tortugas, are a series of drowned barrier islands known as Pulley Ridge. The ridge was found in 1950, but it wasn't until recent years that scientists discovered something extraordinary...The Pulley Ridge coral reefs are much deeper than other known coral reefs, which means that they have much less light than usual to work with. They've adapted. Some of the colonies are flat instead of vertical, for instance. Use the title link for more info and a few photos.
MPM does NOT autograph photographs of herself either as "Elizabeth Peters" or "Barbara Michaels." Any offers of such for sale on the Web (or any place else) are FAKES. Caveat emptor!I think that pretty well says it. The title link is to the author's official web page.
...Although the name Art Thunell is synonymous with success in Oregon baseball circles, it is measured by more than wins and losses in Grant County.
"I didn't realize how good a coach and mentor he was until I got out of high school and started facing tough decisions in life," says Ken Niles, a former Grant Union player and assistant coach who now coaches Sheldon. "I spent three hours a day on the baseball field learning more about life than baseball. You just don't realize it when you're a kid."
And this is by design.
"We only ask three things of our kids: We ask them to play hard, to be focused and to be a class act," Thunell says. "My goal is to develop some really nice kids who go out and have success in the world outside of baseball. We want them to understand that commitment is extremely important and dedication is important and they need to work hard." ...
Barnes & Noble has a lengthy, detailed review by one of their own over at their website (click on the book cover - it should take you there). The review starts:
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, which first appeared in 1974, is arguably Le Carré’s masterpiece and is surely one of the great spy novels of the 20th century. Loosely inspired by the career of Kim Philby, a Russian double agent who worked his way into the upper reaches of the British Secret Service, Tinker, Tailor tells the story of donnish, unprepossessing master spy George Smiley and his quest to identify the "mole" -- the deep-penetration agent -- who has turned Britain's Intelligence Service (commonly known as the Circus) inside out....
A side note, to any author out there trying to think up a pseudonym for yourself: If you pick one with a prefix, you are apt to get misfiled both on bookstore shelves and in Internet databases. In the bricks-and-mortar world, Le Carre gets put in both "L" and "C", for instance. (And no matter where you put his books, some customers will be upset that they're not in the other place. Trust me on that.) In addition, in databases he gets listed both as LeCarre and Le Carre, which don't always show up together in some book searches. And in some databases the fact that the last 'e' in his name is really an é, well, that can cause minor havoc, too. Pick something that can't be broken apart quite so many ways, please. Pretty please. Thanks.
SIR George Mathewson does not recall the Battle for NatWest in the clipped tones of a stuffy businessman. Reminiscences are punctuated by scowls and an occasional fist in the air, as if the events happened only last week. This isn’t a banker’s tranquil recollection of balance sheets, it is Marshall Zhukov reliving the Battle for Berlin...I tell you, if you don't read business news, you're missing out on a great deal of drama and action. I didn't know that until recently. But I have had quite an education reading business news like this.
...The Battle for NatWest was brutal, a combination of a fist-fight and a high-stakes poker game played out by Scotland’s two banking leviathans. It was a civil war which had been coming for more than two and a half centuries, as Royal Bank faced old adversary Bank of Scotland.
The animosity runs deep. The Royal was founded to counter the Jacobite links of the Bank of Scotland and the very different traditions were well illustrated in September 1745. As Prince Charles’s Highland army crossed the Forth, John Campbell, the Royal’s chief cashier, moved the bank’s cash, securities and plate into Edinburgh Castle, only to find Bank of Scotland had moved in its assets the day before...
Daryn Kobata, editor of Caltech 336, is taking a leave of absence to serve as the communications officer for the World Relief Darfur Relief Collaboration, a group of six humanitarian agencies working in conflict-affected areas of West Darfur, Sudan. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of Caltech...(I wonder if the disclaimer has anything to do with the fact that Kobata is a person of faith? Nah, couldn't be. Right?)
With the eyes of the world fixed on Rome--upon the death of Pope John Paul II and the gathering of cardinals to pick his successor--many Americans might have missed the quiet passing of another prominent bishop. Earlier this week, His Eminence Archbishop Iakovos died peacefully at the age of 93. Today he will be interred in Brookline, Mass.Father Webster is a priest in the Orthodox Church in America and co-author of "The Virtue of War: Reclaiming the Classic Christian Traditions East & West." I'm not familiar with this author or this book, but it's an important topic, certainly.
Though not a pope in any familiar sense of the term, Archbishop Iakovos wielded an almost papal authority among the roughly two million Greek Orthodox in America, as well as among two million Orthodox Christians of other assorted ethnic origins. He was the senior Orthodox hierarch in the U.S. from 1959 to 1996--a reign half again as long as Pope John Paul II's celebrated pontificate in Rome...
FROM THE PUBLISHER (via barnesandnoble.com):
The way of life in the West is currently under assault, and Western Civilization hangs in the balance. Christians need to reclaim the great moral teachings on war and peace from the contemporary revisionists who would have Christians believe it is necessary to choose a "lesser evil" for a good cause or as a way of being "responsible" citizens of a nation-state. Professors Webster and Cole explore in detail the great moral teachings found in Holy Scripture, the ancient and Byzantine Church Fathers, canon law, manuals of penance, lives of the saints, liturgical texts, visual icons, the medieval Scholastics, the great Reformers, and even among modern theologians and literary authors. They present a powerful, genuinely ecumenical, meticulously documented, incontrovertible case on behalf of the moral teachings known to Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant Christians as the just or justifiable war traditions...
Oh, this is interesting. I went looking to see if Alexander Webster had any other books. Here's an earlier (and pricier) title from another publisher. From 1999, we have:
Pacifist Option: The Moral Argument against War in Eastern Orthodox Theology
FROM THE PUBLISHER (via barnesandnoble.com)
In this path-breaking study, Fr. Alexander Webster convincingly demonstrates that a distinctive pacifist trajectory, characterized by the moral virtues of non-violence, nonresistance, voluntary kenotic suffering, and universal forgiveness, has endured through two millennia of Eastern Orthodox history in unbroken continuity with the ancient Church. Webster consults a vast array of primary texts including Holy Scripture, patristic writing through the Byzantine era that terminated in AD 1453, Orthodox canon law from the Seven Ecumenical Councils and other Byzantine Greek legal sources among others. Of interest to historians and to students of theology and religion.
Just over six months ago I launched this blog, inspired by the now defunct and sorely missed Diplomad- not long after that Smiley joined me in this adventure in blogging. I think if anyone had told us at the time that we would last this long and attract any readers, let alone average about 1,800 hits per day we would have asked them to pass the bottle. We are having a lot of fun doing this, and don't plan to stop anytime soon, so please don't take this as a swan song- just a stroll down memory lane...And, by the way, anyone else who is on a China Watch these days should definitely check them out. They do regular China-related round-ups, with many folks putting their heads and expertise together, and they also provide lots of good links.
