Stages of a young man's life

This was published a couple of years ago in a small, regional publication I helped put together, and people seemed to like it. I hope the people who read it then will bear with me while I trot it out for an encore. :-)

Stages of a young man’s life
c.2003 Kathryn Judson

1. Eat and sleep a lot. Can’t walk.
2. Can’t cross the street without holding a grown-up’s hand.
3. Finally allowed to cross street alone.
4. Can’t drive car without an instructor.
5. Finally allowed to drive car alone.
6. Go off to school to prove independence.
7. Ask for extra money from parents. Whichever parent you ask gives in.
8. Ask for more money from parents. Find that parents, now over shock of separation, have started calculating how much you’ve cost them over your lifetime. Might possibly be working on bill for services rendered.
9. Ask for handouts from grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, old friends, new friends, government, and also the parent showing the most wavering, in desperate attempt to continue to live like a dependent.
10. Finally get job.
11. Spend too much in anticipation of first paycheck. Lose face with new employer by asking for an advance.
12. Finally get a few pay periods under your belt. Slowly recovering from shock of how much is withheld for government. Reassess ideas about how wonderful government programs really are.
13. Discover the joys of independence. Declare yourself weaned of handouts. Feel better about yourself than ever before in your life.
14. Still manage to spend more than you make. Discover inconveniences of being weaned.
15. Start to get hang of living within budget.
16. Fall in love. Don’t care about budget. Budgets do not allow enough for gifts to beloved.
17. Find out the hard way that current girlfriend cares more about the gifts than about you.
18. Repeat stage 17 several times.
19. Meet woman who starts looking ahead to life with gifts but not grocery money and isn’t sure she likes the idea. Finally get it through your head that this bodes well for you – if you can stop acting like an idiot. For reasons that are not entirely clear, you have never been half so prone to stupid missteps as you are around this woman.
20. Get engaged.
21. Beloved bride-to-be who was consternating about savings account and future earnings potential finds herself, despite herself, planning a wedding that both families combined cannot possibly afford.
22. Everybody panics.
23. Wedding somehow comes off.
24. Bride and groom do not make it out the door for their honeymoon before being pulled apart by new in-laws, who have instructions on what to bring to their house for Thanksgiving dinner.
25. Finally grab your bride and escape the church. In the background, over the sounds of well-wishers, you hear your mother and hers patiently (or not) explaining to each other what they have independently decided regarding your travel plans for every holiday between now and the end of time.
26. First Thanksgiving arrives. Try to appease both families by eating early dinner at one house, later dinner at the other.
27. Eat so much you can’t walk.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Battle flags captured by British officer to be auctioned

I seem to have missed the story of Lt. Col. Banastre "Bloody Ban" Tarleton before, but it seems that during the American Revolution, some of his troops killed about a hundred Virginian troops who had already surrendered. According to American accounts, Tarleton ordered the slaughter. According to Tarleton, somebody shot his horse after a truce was declared and when his horse fell and pinned him to the ground some of the loyalists ran amok. (All this according to this article in the Washington Times written by Will Bennett.)

Whatever really happened, rightly or wrongly Col. Tarleton was dubbed "Bloody Ban" and the phrase "Tarleton's quarter" was used to mean 'take no prisoners,' Bennett says.

Sometime next year, four battle flags Tarleton took back to England with him will be auctioned at Sotheby's in New York, his "great-great-great-great nephew" finding them too expensive to keep insured. (I hope to shout. They are expected to bring between $4 million and $10 million...).

For a picture of Tarleton painted by Joshua Reynolds, see here or here.

I first ran across this story today in the above-linked Washington Times article. In that article, by the way, it says that the captured flags are what are at the feet of Tarleton in the Reynolds painting.

Upon looking, I find that the story has been all over.

For instance, Stripes, Stars and Dollar Signs by Glenn Collins (New York Times, November 11) has pictures and the interesting news that the auction might be held on Flag Day, June 14. Catchy, that would be. (Collins reports that the flags at Tarleton's feet in the Reynolds painting are generic Continental flags, not specifically these that have come up for sale.)

The Collins article also states that in the Mel Gibson movie The Patriot, evil British commander Col. William Tavington was based in part on Tarleton. The real fellow's descendants, quite understandably, think the characterization is not fair. (Noted.)

Collins also reports:

"This is an incredible find," said Walter H. Bradford, acting chief of collections at the United States Army Center of Military History in Washington, D.C., which under federal law maintains the Army's flag collection. "They are extremely rare. The Army would be very interested in acquiring them. We don't have those kinds of funds, but we could accept the gift of a private individual."

(Just in case you know any philanthropists who have a soft spot for the military...)

Oh, rats. On closer look, I see that in the New York Times piece, the story is that Tarleton's heir says that:

In the telephone interview, Captain Tarleton Fagan said his ancestor "has been given a much worse name than he should have" for the Waxsaws bloodshed. "His horse was shot from under him, and his troops thought he'd been killed," his descendant said. Angered, they "went to town and butchered people - which was monstrous - and Tarleton got the blame for it."

Don't you just love it when you run across something for the first time, and the first two references you check have different accounts altogether? I don't have time to follow this up today. Maybe someday...

The London Daily Telegraph has the same Will Bennett story that ran in the Washington Times today (but with pictures). The headline there is "Americans to pay millions to recapture battle flags." That's not a bad way of looking at it, I'm sure, if you're on the British side of all this.

The Washington Times story (which clearly lists Will Bennett as being from the London Daily Telegraph - no one's trying to be sneaky here), runs the story under the headline, "Battle flags captured by Bloody Ban return."

It's all a matter of perspective, I guess. :-)

Cozy Reader

Another new blog find. Jane is a former teacher, a minister's wife, and loves books. She started the Cozy Reader blog October 22. At the top of her blog, she says:

I am a reading fanatic. I feel lost without a book. In this forum I want to share book recommendations, daily happenings in my life and my thoughts on current events. Maybe you will find something of interest to you and hopefully something that may be entertaining. Join me.

Welcome to the neighborhood, Jane. I like what you have up so far.

Daddy's Roses: 1000th Visitor

Joan of the Daddy's Roses blog is closing in on her 1,000th visitor and is offering a small prize to the lucky person who hits it just on the dot.

C'mon. You remember how exciting it was to reach that first 1,000 mark, yes? Help her get there by her birthday!

In the Teeth of the Evidence, by Dorothy Sayers

I've been reading a bit in In the Teeth of the Evidence, a collection of short stories by Dorothy Sayers. It is billed, I see, in several places on the Internet as a Lord Peter Wimsey book. Uh, well, yes and no. My copy (Avon, mass market paperback, eighth printing) has two - count 'em two - Wimsey short stories, five Montague Egg stories, and ten "other" stories. Just so you know.

The title appears to be out of print except in audio.

There aren't as many used copies available as I expected - but there are still quite a few, including some quite inexpensive ones.

In the Teeth of the Evidence and Other Stories (6 Cassettes)

The original copyright for this title was 1940, by Dorothy Leigh Sayers Fleming. The copyright was renewed in 1967 by Anthony Fleming.

Texas State Board of Education removes itself from National Association of State School Boards

I received an e-mailed press release today about a move by the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) to disassociate itself from National Association of State School Boards (NASBE). In the release, Texas State Board of Education member Terri Leo explains the reasons behind the breakaway. For example:

Stating that NASBE's policies continue to gravitate to liberal left, Leo cited three current policy decisions which she feels do not reflect a proper balance. Leo questioned the NASBE October 2004 publication on citizenship education. "Under the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights, the publication listed only the words 'Separation of Church and State,' a phrase that does not even appear in the Bill of Rights. Thomas Jefferson used the phrase 'separation of church and state' eleven years after the Bill of Rights was passed; he was writing to allay the fears of the Danbury Baptists who had heard a rumor that a national religion was going to be established. NASBE should promote correct information and not misinformation. Why didn't NASBE mention the rights guaranteed in the First Amendment for peaceable assembly, freedom of the press, and the petition of the government for redress of grievances? Are these no longer important for students to learn?"

Leo continued by saying, "Why should we entrust NASBE with developing and funding a national curriculum on civics education when the editors of the NASBE publication think that 'separation of church and state' is a proper condensation of what the Bill of Rights says?"

I've filed the press release in its entirety at The Suitable For Mixed Company Annex.

ScrappleFace: Under Senate Pressure, Bush Reveals Iraq Strategy

Touché

Castle Coalition: Think Successful Redevelopment Requires Eminent Domain? Think Again.

From Seattle to Florida, time and again (and again and again) there have been successful urban revitalization projects without using or threatening to use eminent domain. See here for an editorial outlining some of the success stories.

Ohio Governor Bob Taft has signed limited eminent domain moratorium

It sounds like Ohio residents have a fighting chance to clamp down on eminent domain abuse, if only they can mobilize well enough during the next year. Here is a news release from Governor Bob Taft's office:

GOVERNOR SIGNS BILL

COLUMBUS (November 16, 2005) – Governor Bob Taft today announced that he has signed the following bill, which will be filed with the Secretary of State’s office.

Amended Substitute Senate Bill 167, sponsored by State Senator Timothy Grendell (R-Chesterland), establishes, until December 31, 2006, a moratorium on the use of eminent domain to take, without the owner’s consent, private property when the primary purpose for the taking is economic development. The bill also creates the legislative task force to study eminent domain and its use and application in the state. The bill goes into effect immediately after it is signed by the Governor and filed with the Secretary of State.

I'd like to note that there is at least one huge loophole in this bill, from where I sit. From a press release from Tim Grendell's campaign site (he wants to be Ohio Attorney General) titled Grendell Bill Suspending Eminent Domain Becomes Law, it appears this only applies to so-called "non-blighted" properties. If I'm translating this correctly, if a city says it's fighting blight instead of merely pursuing economic develpment, it might be able to waltz right past all this, beauty being in the eye of the beholder...

People working on protective legislation in other states might want to fight for better bills than this one. That's not to say that this isn't a step in the right direction. It's just that various and sundry city officials across the country have proven themselves happy to use very broad definitions of "blight" in the past, and I'm not convinced that enough of them see any reason to change their attitudes now.

Elephants in Academia heads into second year

Happy (belated) first blogoversary wishes to Academic Elephant, who celebrated one year of blogging yesterday.

Leave it to a professor to thank people for being "supportive of her freshman year." :-)

Now, as long as she doesn't do that strange attitude thing that sophomores are infamous for, we should be all right...

(Like I'm worried?)

The Common Room: Simple Toys

All right, you have one old corncob and three feathers. What can you make?

That post, by the way, has a link to a website with information on games and toys of Eastern Woodland Indian Peoples. There are several online interactive games as well. I actually did quite well at Ojibwemowin!, an Ojibwe Language Game. Go figure.

Exhibits and events at the Jimmy Carter Library & Museum

I was looking for something specific on President Carter and was trying his library's website. I didn't find what I was looking for, but I found the current list of exhibits and events. Check out items three and four here:

"First Ladies: Political Role and Public Image" - October 22, 2005 - January 16, 2006 - Free with paid admission to the Museum A memorable, one-of-a-kind exhibition, "First Ladies" recounts the exciting sweep of American presidential and cultural history, while offering a rarely examined account of women's political history in the United States. First Ladies: Political Role and Public Image was developed by the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, Behring Center, and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. First Ladies is made possible by A&E Network...

William E. Leuchtenburg - The White House Looks South - Monday, November 21, 2005 at 7:30 pm - Free and Open to the Public Mr. Leuchtenburg will discuss his new book, The White House Looks South: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson more...

Al Franken - "The Truth (with jokes)" - Wednesday, November 30, 2005 at 7:00 p.m. in the Day Chapel - Free and Open to the Public Comic and author Al Franken will discuss his new book, "The Truth (with jokes)". This program is co-sponsored by the Georgia Center for the Book and A Cappella Books. more...

The E.W. Oliver Elementary School Choir - Monday, December 12, 2005 at 12 noon - Free and Open to the Public The E.W. Oliver Elementary School Choir will return to the Carter Museum lobby to sing Christmas Caroles. The program lasts about half-an-hour. more...

Did I read that right? Al Franken will discuss his book in a chapel? And an elementary school choir will get to sing "Christmas Caroles" in the lobby?

I am waiting with bated breath for the freedom-from-religion folks to pounce on Franken and the folks who run the Carter Library...

No, that's not true.

I just wish the rest of us could have "Christmas Caroles" in our local government-administered lobbies without someone threatening a lawsuit. That would be better.

Less pouncing. More singing. I could go for that.

New Blog: The Reading Teacher

The Reading Teacher says:

This is a place for the discussion of the teaching of reading and children's literature. Your comments and suggestions are welcomed.

Carol has had this particular blog up about a month, but I just found it today. You might want to pop over and say howdy, at the very least. She's posted on quite a few of her favorite books already.

Not that anybody who reads my blog likes to discuss books, or anything ;-)

Yesterday's News: Thursday, Nov. 5, 1959: A homemade burglar alarm

OK, I'm showing my age, but I identify with this newspaper article about burglars caught by a burglar alarm made with a rotary-dial phone, a cork, and string.

C'mon, all you other middle-aged (and older) folks. Before you click here, how would you have made a burglar alarm using a phone like we grew up with?

You can do it. You watched all those television shows encouraging ingenuity that I did... You've lived through a make-it-yourself craze or two...

Poll alert

The current poll question at the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion & Liberty is "Should control of the Internet be shifted from the United States to the United Nations?" (The poll is beneath the "Press Room" section in the middle of the page. Scroll down.)

Blogger KING: Growing up after the tsunami

Margaret Larson, a former news anchor at KING 5 (Seattle), recently visited the South Asia tsunami area on behalf of World Vision. From her post for the KING 5 blog:

... Nurmiliani was pregnant with Awil when the tsunami hit on December 26, 2004. She, her husband and their then 4-year old son saw the enormous black waves breaking over the tops of the tall coconut trees in the distance, and ran for their lives...

The thought of her unborn child kept her feet moving long after she was exhausted. They were able to reach higher ground, but the husband's family was lost, their village destroyed, the site of their former home still underwater.

Awil grins and chews on his fingers and has no idea that his family is facing such difficult times. His father has no job, and the family has no money as yet to rebuild. For a couple of months, they all lived in a flimsy tent by a busy road. With heavy rains and high winds, Nurmiliani was terrified that baby Awil would not survive. But at that point, Federal Way based aid agency World Vision stepped in to provide sturdy transitional housing for families all across the region. Awil now lives among other families from his original village, and though the economic future is uncertain, there is comradery and support and a sense of community for his start in the world.

World Vision has concentrated on the lives of children in Banda Aceh, offering special "Child Friendly Centers" where children can play and create artwork and recover from the trauma of such a massive natural catastrophe....

Full post here

NWCN.com | Elderly Ore. man survives three days in a ravine

Sometimes missing person cases have happy endings.

No Left Turns : Peter Drucker

Peter Schramm crossed paths with Peter Drucker when Schramm was a grad student in government. He shares some memories.

Coming in January: Parish Priest

Parish Priest: Father Michael McGivney and the Knights of Columbus

Douglas Brinkley and Julie Fenster are co-authors on this biography, due to come out Jan. 10. Currently available for pre-order.

hat tip: Knights of Columbus. The Knights of Columbus also have a Father Michael J. McGivney website.

Among Brinkley's earlier books are:


The Boys of Pointe du Hoc: Ronald Reagan, D-Day, and the Heroic Feats of the U.S. Army Rangers


Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War

Among Fenster's previous books:


Race of the Century: The Heroic True Story of the 1908 New York-to-Paris Auto Race


Mavericks, Miracles, and Medicine: The Pioneers Who Risked Their Lives to Bring Medicine into the Modern Age

I'd say neither of these authors is stuck in a rut... ;-)

People of the Book : How to Have a Good Day

Jim Manney shares a quote from St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life, that might be good to remember if you're prone to being too hard on yourself or are feeling a little overwhelmed by what you want to get done.

Regarding before the Iraq War, now, slogans, and memories

Norman Podhoretz asks "Who is Lying About Iraq?" (At OpinionJournal)

The RNC lets the Dems speak for themselves... (via Betsy's Page). OK, so it provides clips of them from 1998, 2002, etc...

I often look at national politics in this country, and think of the book Animal Farm. Honestly. Specifically, I think of the pigs on the farm repainting the end of the barn with new slogans, and then pretending that it's always been that way. Go figure. Silly me.

Student group eases burden at funerals

Wow. A Pallbearer Society. The members are high school students. Hooray for these young men. Robert L. Smith of The Plain Dealer has the story.

hat tip: Dev, who led me to Amy Welborn, who had the link...

Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: Such a cute gorilla

Nicholas Carr looks at one of the latest moves by Google - giving away tools for analyzing web ads - and what Google stands to gain from it.

Myrna Blyth on the new British citizenship test

Myrna Blyth compares the citizenship tests of the United States and Britain here. They couldn't be more different, she says.

Tell me again why guys shouldn't open doors for us...

I am trying to remember back to my college days, specifically why in the Sam Hill our feminist flock cackled every time a guy held a door open for a woman, or helped her on with her coat, or held her chair for her as she sat down, or whatever other nice little bit of extra attention he bestowed.

I seem to remember that we were supposed to think the guys were being patronizing.

Who. Were. We. Trying. To. Kid???

The thought comes up because the other day, as I was leaving the post office, a guy in work coveralls, a bit scruffy, black-smeared, was coming toward the post office, saw me, and jogged to reach the door in time to open it for me. I said "Thank you, sir" as I went by him, and he stood two inches taller. I don't know this guy, and I presume he doesn't know me. There was nothing personal about it. Just a guy seeing me, registering "lady", and making a point to show a little extra courtesy.

I love this kind of stuff.

The point comes up because today, as I was heading out of the bank, a teen boy with jewelry bodily attached all over the place made a point of holding the door for me. I don't know this kid, for that matter I dislike jewelry studs in odd places, but I said "Thank you, sir" as I went by him, and he smiled a smile I took to mean "You're welcome." Imagine that. Two cultures crossing paths and being nice to each other.

It happens all the time, at doorways where people hold the door for other people.

I'm not a hardliner. I hold doors for guys, too, if I get there first or if they have packages and I don't. But I have come to appreciate the guys who make sure that ladies get a little extra consideration.

I also have hope for the future. Today, for instance, as I was coming out of the post office, two boys who looked like ranch kids were coming in. I'd have to say they were brothers. They were giving each other a very bad time. But between them they ceased hostilities long enough to see that they held the door for me, and then they went back to their friendly squabbling. I didn't say "Thank you, gentlemen," but only because the way they were chattering I couldn't get a word in edgewise.

But, hey, if even boys at play can remember their manners regarding womenfolk, that's a good sign, yes?

A couple of weeks ago, I was at McDonalds. A father called out to his son, about five years old at a guess. "Hey, Bud, be sure and get the door for the ladies." The kid headed to the door ahead of his mother and sister, and threw his whole body into opening the door. He had to. With his size, it took a mighty effort. "Be sure and hold it until the ladies get all the way through," his Dad instructed.

I was headed out, and joined the procession.

And got the door in my face, as the boy took off like a shot to get the car doors open.

Apparently, the kid only keyed in on his mother and sister when told to watch out for the ladies. At his age, that might be a good thing, of course. You don't want very young lads running around making themselves useful to strangers after all.

I got a good laugh out of it. And a bit of hope.

There are families out there teaching their boys good manners and extra respect for ladies. Yay!

Addition: Welcome to the folks coming over from Doors and Bores over at The Common Room.

USATODAY.com - Emus and ostriches are worlds apart

I don't know about your part of the world, but we have a few places around here where people raise emus and/or ostriches, or just have one or two as a pet. (Not my idea of a pet. I'm afraid of their kicks.)

Use the title link for April Holladay's WonderQuest column in USA Today on what's the same and what's different between emus and ostriches. The column has several links to other sites with more information.

Eminent domain abuse fought in Missouri

Attention St. Louis, Missouri, residents. There will be a town hall forum on eminent domain this Saturday. From the Castle Coalition website's Rallies and Events page:

Sponsored by: State Senator Maida Coleman

Hosted by: Missouri Eminent Domain Abuse Coalition and the St. Louis City Coalition Fighting Eminent Domain Abuse

When: Saturday, November 19, 9:00am to 12:00 noon

Where: Forest Park Community College in the cafeteria at the south end of center building

Details: Attorneys Michael Wolff and Irene Smith will discuss how eminent domain use has changed over the past 50 years and describe two current court cases. 11 state representatives and 3 senators who represent St. Louis City have been invited to attend this forum. Individuals will be able to testify about eminent domain abuse.

Some folks in Kurdistan say "Thank you"

May I suggest that you go here, and then go down to the "Adverts from The Other Iraq Campaign 2005" and watch "Thank You." I suspect you'll be glad you did. I know it made me feel good.

(Thanks to The Anchoress for sending me to Gateway Pundit, who had the link.)

A Dad Is Born blog

Mark Correa, editorial page editor at the Courier-Post newspaper, Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and his wife Amanda are expecting a baby. He's writing a blog about it. See his October 27 post for the background post.

This is definitely a guy's blog :-). See, for instance, Nov. 1:

Amanda really hated my idea of selling the naming rights to the baby. I still think it was well planned and would have worked fine...

Heh.

CourierPostOnline - Three eminent-domain foes elected in South Jersey

This week, property protectors from both parties won in Westville, New Jersey. The winning candidates were backed by a grassroots group formed in January in opposition to a proposed redevelopment project.

Since the Supreme Court more or less threw us to the wolves with Kelo, I guess it's up to us to elect sheepdogs, eh?

hat tip: Castle Coalition

How Things Work

My thanks to the University of Virginia for How Things Work, a website devoted to "Explaining the physics of everyday life."

Monterey County Herald | Jordan attacks hit close to home

Monterey, California, reporter Dania Akkad's uncle and cousin Rima were among those killed in the recent bomb attacks at hotels in Jordan. Rima was like a sister to her.

My condolences, Dania.

Mommy Life: Loudoun celebrates Veterans Day

Here's a school district that takes Veterans Day seriously.

Remarks at the Veterans Day Ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial

A voice from the past: President Ronald Reagan, November 11, 1988. (Available in text or mp3 audio.)

Gypsy Vanner Horses

Tell me these aren't cool horses !

Yesterday's news, from Minnesota

The Star Tribune (Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota), is mining its archives and putting together regular historical features on a 'blog' called Yesterday's News.

For an example, here's Sunday, Oct. 13, 1918: Flu outbreak closes churches, schools, theaters, for those of us wanting to know a little more about the "Spanish Influenza" pandemic.

The Edmund Fitzgerald remembered

The Star Tribune has a wonderful interactive feature and articles on the Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank thirty years ago. Thanks to Amanda at Wittingshire for steering me to Doug at Bogus Gold, who steered me to the special feature at the 'Strib'.

The Wardrobe Door: Feel all better

What would we do without three-year-olds?

GM's Corner : Bloggers Need YOUR Help... Not Tomorrow - TODAY!!!

GM Roper has gotten notice that Congress is considering two bills that will affect bloggers - one good, one bad. His call to immediate action is here.

Mackubin Thomas Owens on the Marine Corps on National Review Online

From an associate dean of academics and a professor of national-security affairs at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I.:

On November 10, 1775, 230 years ago, the Continental Congress authorized the formation of two battalions of Marines. Tradition says that the earliest recruiting of Marines took place at Tun Tavern in Philadelphia, owned by Robert Mullan, who later became a Continental Marine officer. The Marines' first operation was a raid on a British base in the Bahamas. As I like to say, the Marine Corps was formed in a bar and then immediately went on a Caribbean cruise.

The Marine Corps has the reputation of being one of the finest fighting organizations in history. In his wonderful book First to Fight, Lt. Gen. Victor H. "Brute" Krulak recounts a discussion he had early in his distinguished career with a senior Marine NCO. To Krulak's query about how the Marines had come by their reputation, the old Gunny replied, "Well, lieutenant, they started right out telling everybody how great they were. Pretty soon they got to believing it themselves. And they have been busy ever since proving they were right."

Read the rest of the article here.

For more information on the book he recommends (or to order), click on the book cover.


First to Fight (Bluejacket Books Series): An inside View of the U.S. Marine Corps

Barbara Pasquet James on France on National Review Online

In The Writing Was on the Wall, Barbara Pasquet James talks about visiting a friend who lived in one of the quartiers sensibles around Paris in the early 1990s.

Dog lover refuses to give up on pet

Meet Sam, the dog on wheels (Scotsman, November 10, 2005, reported by Jane Bradley).

And if the picture that accompanies this article doesn't make you smile, I don't know what would. :-)

Poetry...

...on how to be happy.

...on how quickly life passes.

She'll never live it down

Earlier today I linked to a post over at Wittingshire, which relates a story of hiding things in the oven, and then turning on the oven... I ended with a crack about 'at least the house didn't burn down'...

It turns out this was a day for house fire stories. Not too long after I posted, some neighbors noticed a roaring chimney fire at a house up the hill from us and called 911. The firefighters got there and knocked on the door. No answer. They thought maybe the back entrance would be easier to force, so they went around there and were about to bash in when they looked in the window and saw the lady of the house sitting in the living room, probably about five feet from them - watching television. The chimney, you understand, is doing a very good imitation of a blowtorch, the fire has spread to the attic and the rafters - and she's kicking back and watching TV.

It gets better (or worse, depending on your point of view). As we hear it (I haven't talked to the lady in question, but we're fairly sure of this since some firefighters let it out), B---- had noticed a fire in the chimney earlier. Sparks had rained on her carpet. She had put out those fires with a couple of cups of water - and then had gone back to her show.

She's old, but she's not that old.

Her family and friends will remind her of this for years, I'll just bet.

I hear the fire was kept contained to the roof and attic. I hope so. Even at that, this is a bad time of year to have holes in the house. It's cold. We're having rain and snow off and on, separately or mixed, at least as often as we're having clear skies. I assume there's water damage from the fire hoses. Ugh. At least she and her husband have family in town, if they need help or a place to sleep.

In the town about a dozen miles east of here, I understand that another family lost its house altogether from fire today. I heard that the Red Cross got called in to find them emergency shelter. I guess they don't have anybody near at hand.

It's that time of year. We get a lot of chimney fires around here in winter, especially early winter. People just don't seem to think to clean them between seasons. Or they toss any old flammable stuff in to burn, without thinking about the rules about what's safe to burn in fireplaces. (I have a special beef with folks who burn treated wood, and send nasty fumes out into the town for the rest of us to choke on. Shame on people like that. I like wood smoke, within limits. But toxic fumes I can do without, thanks.)

You-all who have chimneys, take proper care of them now. Please.

And, uh, if your chimney kicks a bunch of sparks out at you, turn off the TV and pay attention, OK?

(Or at least answer the door when the firefighters pound on it.)

I wish I knew what show is so good that it can keep you riveted even during a disaster on the premises...

Camp Katrina round-up

Spc. Phil Van Treuren is on a roll over at Camp Katrina. After dithering about which post to highlight, I've decided to toss my hands in the air, give up trying to be picky, and link to the top contenders.

While Europe Thinks, We Shoot Back (On British soldiers being afraid to defend themselves because of fears of ending up in court.)

Good For Them (Some Iraqis aim for a tourist trade.)

England Nixes Mixed-Sex Training (Women are different from men, government discovers.)

Time to Regroup on the Whole Torture Thing (Some folks on the right are sending the wrong message.)

I've Got Your Rotation Right Here, Pal (In which AP makes a possible reduction in troops look like an increase in troops.)

More Good Work in Pakistan (A military field hospital treats its 1,000th patient.)

GM's Corner : One Year Old ~ And Still Growing

Happy one year blog anniversary to GM's Corner. Click here to help give GM Roper and Woody great stats for their celebration... :-)

While you're there you can read GM's 'story behind the blog'.

WorldWatch - The End of Moderation? (The Ornery American)

Orson Scott Card looks at Brent Scowcroft, Harriet Miers, so-called realism, idealism, "courage and core", Big Money, Fanatical Money, and more in The End of Moderation?. If you are not familiar with Card's columns, here's a hint. You should never read just part of one. If you walk away in the middle you'll likely have the wrong idea about what he's trying to say. Stick it out. The guy's thoughtful in ways that most people aren't.

At Least You Didn't Do This Today (Wittingshire blog)

Having once upon a time hidden something in the oven at the last second to have the appearance of a tidy kitchen for guests - and then regretting it immediately because it called for way too much remembering - don't use the oven before clearing it out, don't use the oven before clearing it out, don't... - I can identify with this post by Amanda Witt. It's kind of one of those "there but for the Grace of God go I" things with me. (But, of course, you've never hidden things in the oven or the dishwasher or...)

At least the house didn't burn down. So we're allowed to laugh, right?

The American Enterprise: French Musings

Wilfred M. McClay writes on France, the difference between religious America and secular Europe, and on elites and non-elites on both sides of the pond. He uses as his starting point a conference he recently attended at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.

One bit I want for my files:

...Yet what set of values can energize the French and other Europeans to reclaim their culture? It is said that you can’t fight something with nothing, and now that it is under fire, secular hedonism seems, in effect, to be fairly close to nothing. In this connection, a small but indicative detail emerging from this conference has remained in my mind. One of the presenters, a British sociologist who has done extensive polling on religion and religious identity across Europe, discovered that a significant number of the French (somewhere around 10 percent, as I recall) insist upon identifying themselves both as atheists and as Catholics. How to explain this? I doubt they are “Santayana Catholics,” who embrace the rituals and symbolism as a form of poetry, while rejecting the faith itself. The speaker himself said that he believes these Frenchmen were using “Catholic” as a passive cultural (or, in more Huntingtonian terms, civilizational) identity marker. In other words, it was a convenient (and not entirely socially unacceptable) way of saying “I am European, white, and not a Muslim.”

To say “Christian” apparently would imply positive belief in a way that they aren't willing to do. Thus, “Catholic,” to them, is not so demanding as a moniker. But somehow I think this is likely to be just a way station for them, and I greatly fear it's more on the way to being “white” than anything else. Such cultural use of religious markers tends to mangle and degrade the religion they batten upon. I’m reminded of the famous joke about the Irish terrorist who grabs an unsuspecting fellow, hauls him into an alley, and demands at knifepoint to know whether he is a Protestant or a Catholic. The man calmly replies, “Actually, I’m an atheist.” Impatient with such fine points, the mugger insists, “Are ye a Protestant atheist or a Catholic atheist?” The joke is, of course, no joke at all.

hat tip: Joseph Knippenberg's post Europe’s "regressive" future? at No Left Turns.

I-90 reopens after rockslide closure at Snoqualmie Pass ...

...but it's not up to full capacity yet. There's only one lane in each direction at the pass, with reduced speeds. Drivers are being told to allot an extra hour for the trip, and to consider detours through Stevens Pass on Highway 2 or White Pass on Highway 12. More.

The Anchoress : An Email from Marianne in France

The Anchoress shares, with permission, parts of an email she received from a reader in France. It's bad enough when your neighbors want you dead. When the media plays along with the violent neighbors, though...

Another Anchoress post on the troubles in France, It's economic! It's social!, has several links to other news and blog posts.

Jimmy Carter versus Francisco Flores on liberation theology

This is a two-part post. The first part is to note that Bret Stephens, writing recently at Opinion Journal, seriously dislikes former President Jimmy Carter's new book. His review begins:

Jimmy Carter's 20th book is a tedious meditation about the appropriate uses of moral values in political life--as wisely and humbly exemplified by Himself--and of their misuses under the current Bush administration.

But tedious isn't quite the right word here, because it suggests mere boredom while Mr. Carter's prose manages to be irritating as well. Is there an English-language equivalent to the German Rechthaberei, which loosely translates as the state of thinking and behaving as if you're in the right and everyone else is in the wrong? Yet even such a term doesn't quite capture the sanctimony, the self-congratulation, the humorlessness, the convenient factual omissions and the passive-aggressive quirks that characterize our 39th president's aggressively passive world view. Mr. Carter is sui generis. He deserves his own word.

So, you will agree that he seems to seriously dislike the book, yes? Not to mention the author? Try to put that to the side for now, please...


Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis

...because here comes the part that caught my eye, perhaps because Latin America is in the news right now, or perhaps because I recently read a dynamite speech about the amazing transformation of El Salvador. In any case, the following part of Stephen's review jumped out at me (emphasis added):

Everything about "Our Endangered Values" is wrong, beginning, obviously, with the title. The values Mr. Carter says are "ours" are certainly not mine and probably not yours and therefore, necessarily, not ours. In fact, it is not at all obvious that the things Mr. Carter speaks of even qualify as values, properly speaking, unless you believe that "economic justice" is a value, or you subscribe to Marxist liberation theology (Mr. Carter considers the Catholic priests who practiced this theology to be "heroes"), or you would like to pay your "personal respects" to Syria's dictator (never mind that he just had the prime minister of Lebanon assassinated), or you can think of nothing bad to say about Saddam Hussein except, perhaps, that he is "obnoxious."

How very odd, I thought, that I would read about long-discredited (or I thought it was long discredited) liberation theology in two places at nearly the same time, but coming from entirely different directions. This passage from a speech by former President of El Salvador Francisco Flores was still in my head:

El Salvador was destroyed by 13 years of unremitting violence. Every Salvadoran family had to mourn the loss of at least one of its members. One third of the population fled to neighboring countries. Its infrastructure was devastated, with no resources to reconstruct itself, and more than half of its population lived under the poverty line. At the end of the war in 1992, El Salvador seemed hopeless...

I say hopeless in a literal sense. At the beginning of the war, El Salvador was a deeply Catholic country. However, led by revolutionary priests beginning in the 1970s, important sectors of the Church embraced liberation theology. The Bible was read as a political program that justified armed insurgency. Christ’s teachings were used to justify terrorism.

As they sought the protection of the Church in their need for spiritual comfort, our campesino families found that the pulpit had become one more source of violence. They were asked to hate, and told to act violently.

They did neither. These campesinos searched for Christ’s teachings elsewhere. I remember them walking through the narrow pathways of our mountains in those terrible days. The men wore long sleeved white shirts and black trousers, the women long skirts and their hair under white veils. If the guerrillas or the army stopped them, these humble people held a Bible up to the gun barrels that were pointed at them. They were courageous in their silence and though greatly vulnerable, they were immensely dignified. Never in my life have I been prouder to be a Salvadoran.

Well. I guess you can see why I found the contrast jarring.

I am inclined to be more impressed with Flores than Carter, for what it's worth.

Related previous post: Commentary: El Salvador's Secret: Freedom and Opportunity Cure Poverty

Books and Culture's Book of the Week: The Sinister Way

Wright Doyle, director of the China Institute in Charlottesville, Virginia, says of The Sinister Way: The Divine and the Demonic in Chinese Religious Culture by Richard von Glahn (University of California Press):

Despite its foreboding title and evident academic audience, von Glahn's treatment of Chinese religion offers a wealth of information and insight to general readers as well as to students of Chinese culture. To explain the rise and transformation of one prominent cult--that of Wutong, a precursor to the smiling face we see today--the author ranges widely throughout Chinese history. The end product is a general overview of popular Chinese religion from earliest times to the present.

After a succinct and critical review of recent theories of traditional Chinese religion, von Glahn traces the development of Chinese "vernacular" religion from the Shang Dynasty up to the 20th century. Such a survey complements the usual treatments, which neatly separate Confucian, Buddhist, Daoist, and "popular" beliefs and practices.

In particular, von Glahn traces the vicissitudes of what he terms "the sinister way." This menacing phrase refers to the "dark side" of Chinese religion. While some objects of worship, such as the Goddess of Mercy (Guanyin), represent nothing but benignity and kindness, others, such as Wutong, display a propensity for malice.

Full review (Christianity Today)

To order, or for more information from Barnes & Noble, click the book cover below.


The Sinister Way: The Divine and the Demonic in Chinese Religious Culture

MakeZine.com (please use responsibly)

OK, so one of our customers placed a special order for Make: technology on your time, Volume 3, which was the first we'd heard of it:


Make: Tech on Your Time, Volume 3

Next thing I know my husband has told a young friend in college about the magazine and the online site, and now it sounds like maybe this guy is getting an entire engineering club immersed in it. And... Well, to make a long story short, some sort of "Make" fever seems to be spreading around here. I don't know whether to applaud or go for cover, to be honest with you. Interspersed with perfectly civilized projects are some that look like they could, ummm, get out of hand, I guess you could say.

I have Volume 3 on hand as I type. It's just short of nine and a half inches tall, by just over six and a half inches wide. It's 194 pages, perfect bound (like a trade paperback), and the paper and the cover stock both feel good; not flimsy. It's definitely aimed at the sorts of folks who appreciate ingenuity and like to tinker with things. Have a VCR on hand? It can be used to make a cat feeder that delivers a set amount of food at specific times. For the, ummm, more active invention geek, there's a potato cannon. (I can see why this might appeal to college guys...). There's a primer on using a portable wire-feed welder. There's an article on an alarm clock that moves so you have to get out of bed to turn it off. (The link provided is www.clocky.net.) In another article, a fellow issues a challenge to people to develop an inexpensive computer for blind kids. There's also an article for hobbyists who like to build replicas of "classic microcomputers from the 70s and early 80s" as they put it. There are instructions for turning a $10 single-use camera into a reusable digital camera... There are tools to drool over, if you're the sort to drool over new tools... There's an article called "A Fusion Reactor for the Rest of Us"... And there's lots more.

Please don't show this to anybody who reminds you of Tim "the Toolman" Taylor on the television show Home Improvement - or to anybody else with a badly skewed enthusiasm-versus-common-sense ratio. Otherwise, have fun.

Captain's Quarters: You Have To Break A Few Humans To Prevent An Omelette

Captain Ed of the Captain's Quarters blog has some information on recent Senate testimony by an animal rights activist who says straight out that he thinks it's OK to kill people who he thinks are causing harm to animals. I haven't had time to follow the links yet. No, more precisely, I haven't found the stomach to follow the links yet. If you're up to it, start here.

Photios: Carlo Maria Giulini - Rest in Peace

The blogger Photios recently wondered what had become of a conductor who had a large impact on his life years ago. He found that the man died just a few months ago. Carlo Maria Giulini was 91 when he died in northern Italy. He conducted in both Europe and America in a career that spanned several decades. He resigned from the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1985 to spend more time with his ailing wife, Marcella, who died in 1995.

The BBC has an artist profile on Giulini here.

Remembering good and brave men

Let some soldiers tell you about their fallen brothers.

Hat tip: A Rose By Any Other Name.

Update: There's a companion piece that ran October 31. See Heroes. The men being remembered: COL William Wood, CPT Michael Mackinnon, CPT Ray Hill, and SPC Shakere Guy. My condolences to their friends and families.

Update: Trey Jackson's blog has a related post: A Soldier's Letter From Iraq

Landmark Dresden, Germany, church rebuilt and reopened

Dresden's Frauenkirche, a Baroque church destroyed in World War II, has been rebuilt over the past few years, and was consecrated in late October. I'm impressed.

Landmark Dresden Church Completes Rise From the Ashes (Deutsche Welle)

Frauenkirche Restoration (Friends of Dresden)

Dresden consecrates famed church (BBC)

Frauenkirche - 'Dresden's miracle' (BBC)

Chronology of a landmark (Dresdner Bank)

I-90 still closed; crews working to open two lanes to traffic

A major mountain pass in Washington state is suffering from bad rock slides just now, which has meant the closure of an interstate highway. See here for the latest news. (Or try www.nwcn.com later.) See also Snoqualmie pass alternate routes for a map showing where the closure is, as well as recommended alternate routes. Part of the problem is that crews responding to the initial slide found that the hillside had big cracks and it looked like more of it was about to come down. So what was to be a clearing operation also became a securing project.

According to news reports, about 26,000 vehicles a day generally use Snoqualmie Pass this time of year. The hope is to get at least one lane of traffic open in each direction by tonight.

Thank Bush for Ben Bernanke (Bangkok Post)

Gotta love the Internet. How else could I read this, written by Kenneth Rogoff, a professor of Economics at Harvard University, as presented to a Bangkok readership?

The world may not know it, but we all dodged a bullet when George W. Bush nominated Ben Bernanke to succeed the all-powerful US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan. There were some positively scary names for a potential Fed chairman floating out of the White House, and I, for one, had no confidence in the outcome.

Instead, almost miraculously, we got an absolutely first-rate economist, a safe pair of hands to guide the global economy. Those of us who know Mr Bernanke view him as someone who has the experience, intellect and personality to sparkle in the position that he will assume in February.

Why is the job so important? Alan Greenspan is a great man, but it is a curious set of circumstances that has elevated the job of Fed chairman to Mount Olympus...

Full article

Yes, sir. A fellow with a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School, plus real world experience, plus scores and scores of expert advisors - why, it's a miracle he made a good pick to lead the Fed. (Hee, hee.)

And I'm no economist, but is the Fed chairman actually all-powerful and up there with the gods? So to speak? I mean, I know he can greatly influence the economy, but really, I don't lay awake of nights hoping he doesn't take it into his head to give humankind a jostle or two.

Kidding aside, I'm delighted that there's at least one appointee out there who has professionals from across the political spectrum counting their blessings and celebrating their good luck. I have to agree that we seem to have lucked out with Bernanke's appointment.

And I hope Kenneth Rogoff will forgive my gentle jesting. If I worked at Harvard I'm not sure I'd have the guts to say anything nice about anyone remotely related to the Bush administration. I'm guessing that isn't necessarily a popular thing to do in a liberal stronghold right now...

A side note: Rogoff used to be a chess champion back before he became an economist. (He has some links to photos and articles in the bio linked in the previous paragraph.) This reminds me. I didn't mention it the other day, but Gambit, the Rex Stout book from which I lifted a quote the other day, revolves around chess players. I don't think you have to know chess to enjoy it, but I suspect that folks like Rogoff would notice some inside jokes that I just know must be in there but don't have the background to pick up.

USGS Reports Preliminary Wetland Loss Estimates for Southeastern Louisiana from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita transformed some 100 square miles of marsh to open water in southeastern Louisiana, according to preliminary estimates by U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) based on an analysis of Landsat satellite data from September and October.

Future observations of Landsat imagery over the upcoming year will allow scientists at the USGS National Wetlands Research Center (NWRC) in Baton Rouge and Lafayette, La., to determine how much of the loss is permanent and how the marsh recovers. Although this early analysis of wetlands does not take into account some marsh recovery, indications are that much of the loss may be permanent. Some of the new areas of open water will likely become new lakes...

More

Watch for blogger in New York City Marathon

Flip, of the Suitably Flip blog, plans to be one of the about 37,000 runners in tomorrow's New York City Marathon. Says Flip:

So long as the thunderstorms that have been popping in and out of Sunday's forecast are not called for as of tomorrow afternoon (and if they do call for rain, I'm cashing in my '06 guaranteed entry and going to the see that Wal-Mart movie which is so certain to angry up my blood in a way the director didn't intend), keep an eye out for me on the course.

I'll be bib # 16600 and clad in heart-swellingly patriotic colors.

Update: Flip reports after the race: Abrupt Climate Change: NYC Now Hottest, Hilliest City on Earth. (He's joking. He's joking.)

Baghdad contractors go from dollars to dinars

CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq (Army News Service, Nov. 4, 2005) -- Iraqi contractors supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom III are now counting dinars instead of dollars on payday.

Another milestone in Iraq’s economic development was reached Oct. 14 when a 3rd Infantry Division finance office issued the first payment in Iraqi currency while in theater.

Local vendors and contractors were previously paid in U.S. dollars. This is the first time in all the rotations of Operation Iraqi Freedom that a dinar check payment has been issued to local vendors and contractors within the Baghdad area of operations.

This is a huge step according to Maj. Richard Santiago, commander of 3rd Finance Company, 3rd Soldier Support Battalion, Division Support Brigade, who said paying locals in dinars benefits both the Iraqi people and Coalition Forces...

Full story

Did they say checks?

hat tip: Defend America

A Lady's Ruminations: A Lesson in Dairy Science

I take issue with a few of the definitions presented in this list, but it's not my list, and the parts that are good are rather good indeed. So, with minor reservations, here is how it starts:

Lesson in Dairy Science (no animals were maimed or killed during any part of this test)

DEMOCRATIC
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
You feel guilty for being successful.
Barbara Streisand sings for you.

REPUBLICANISM
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
So?

SOCIALIST
You have two cows.
The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow.

COMMUNIST
You have two cows.
The government seizes both and provides you with milk.
You wait in line for hours to get it.
It is expensive and sour.

Lady Jane's full post.

US Helicopter Flights Top 1000 in Pakistan

Here's a military milestone for you from United States Central Command:

Disaster Assistance Center Pakistan – U.S. military helicopter crews delivering relief aid to earthquake survivors in Pakistan’s remote mountain ranges have flown more than 1000 trips since beginning flight operations here Oct 11.

When helicopter flight operations ended for the day on Nov. 3, U.S. military pilots had flown 1,056 missions into Pakistan’s Kashmir and Northwest Frontier Provinces, a rugged mountainous region.

There are 24 U.S. military helicopters supporting Pakistani-led relief efforts. The U.S. Army has 17 CH-47 Chinooks and three UH-60 Blackhawks providing aid, while the U.S. Navy has two MH-53 Sea Stallions and two MH-60 Knighthawks.

More than 3,200 injured Pakistanis have been evacuated to medical facilities aboard U.S. military helicopters in the past 25 days. In addition, the amount of relief supplies delivered by U.S. military helicopters totaled more than 4 million pounds.

hat tip: Camp Katrina

Nifty Nero Wolfe quote

The author Rex Stout put some great lines in the mouths of some of his characters. This is from the book Gambit, the Bantam paperback edition, c.1962, 8th printing (1975), page 34. The detective Nero Wolfe is growing tired of a man named Mr. Hausman who is asking him unanswerable questions, like "how far can you be trusted?" From Wolfe's response:

...But this is fatuous. Do you hope to determine my quality by asking banal and offensive questions? You must know that a man can have only one invulnerable loyalty, loyalty to his own concept of the obligations of manhood. All other loyalties are merely deputies of that one.

Hmmmm.

Storm helps some NW ski resorts open early

Good news, bad news. The bad news is some passes and roads that generally close for the winter in Oregon and Washington are closed already (one of the entrances to Crater Lake National Park, for instance). The further bad news is that driving conditions are a bit dicey in much of the U.S. Northwest right now. The good news is that ski hills are opening one right after another right now, some for their earliest opening ever. News report from kgw.com.

I don't ski anymore, and haven't for years and years. But I love watching the faces of skiers light up this time of year.

We don't have a ski hill right around here, but we have hundreds of miles of snowmobile trails that volunteers keep groomed. Out-of-town snowmobile enthusiasts generally spend enough money at retail stores, repair shops, motels and restaurants to prevent the massive winter layoffs we used to have around here. Last year we didn't get enough snow at the right times and the economic impact was really impressive, in a very bad way.

Think snow!

New blog: Hans Rosling, writing from Sweden

Speaking of statistics, Hans Rosling, a professor of International Health at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, has just started a blog. His first post, October 29, says:

This blogg will be used to comment on how world development is presented in relation to the best available "facts", as well as to the uncertainty of these "facts".

In the sidebar, Professor Rosling relates some of his accomplishments and associations, among them:

Co-founder of Gapminder, a non-profit ICT-venture for increased use and understanding of UN statistics. Lecture on Global Change using animations from www.gapminder.org

At Gapminder it says:

OUR VISION:Making sense of the world by having fun with statistics!

Download and distribute free software for a world in motion.

At a wild guess, the Professor and I will probably have our differences of opinion, but anybody who launches his blog (after a brief intro), by politely requesting that UNICEF update its portrayals of Bangladesh, and then points out what a more accurate portrayal would be, well...

Rosling clearly has more respect for the UN than I do - and recommends contributing to UNICEF, which I used to do but have long since stopped doing. But, hey - if he can encourage the UN to hold itself to a higher standard, all the more power to him. Somebody needs to do it. And it looks like he's not going to be shy about pointing out when things aren't as bad as they used to be. (Yay! I am soooo tired of academics who insist upon painting the worst possible picture they can cobble together, based on "facts" they cherry-pick, twist or edit to suit their purposes, or conjure out of thin air.)

I should probably warn you that Gapminder, at present anyway, comes with pop-up ads that get past my pop-up screening devices. One of the ads was impossible to close out - at least I never figured it out - and I had to exit the website and try again. (Grrrr.) But if you can outmaneuver the ads, the animated charts I've looked at so far are an interesting - and easily readable - way to see how the UN looks at the world.

Social Science Statistics Blog: The Value of Control Groups in Causal Inference (and Breakfast Cereal)

OK, so I don't remember the last time I laughed out loud reading about anything related to proper statistical research methods. This did it.

hat tip: Katie at A Constrained Vision blog

House Votes To Block Land Seizure

Hah! State and local governments who liked Kelo have a reason to think twice. (Yay!)

(AP) Contending that the Supreme Court has undermined a pillar of American society, the sanctity of the home, the House overwhelmingly approved a bill Thursday to block the court-approved seizure of private property for use by developers.

The bill, passed 376-38, would withhold federal money from state and local governments that use powers of eminent domain to force businesses and homeowners to give up their property for commercial uses...

More, from CBS

Update: The Castle Coalition Media Center release. They note that this now goes to the Senate. Maybe my relief and rejoicing earlier today was premature? (That's what I get for relying on headlines as I skim over stories on a busy day... I should know better by now.) At any rate, H.R. 4128, the Private Property Protection Act of 2005, as passed by the House, cuts off economic development funds for two fiscal years to state and local governments that use eminent domain for private development. Hmmmm. Not as strong as I'd like, but it's something. And I really like the other provision being talked about from this bill - it prohibits the federal government from using eminent domain for private development. C'mon, Senate.

Camp Katrina: The New Camp Katrina

Good for "Specialist Van T."

He's expanding the mission of his blog (bold in original):

Check it out: Camp Katrina has a new look and a new motto! We’re still blogging the Katrina soldier stories you’ve come to love, but we’ve expanded the site to highlight the entire compassionate side of our military that is often overlooked . . . from hurricane rescue efforts to aid missions overseas.

The military’s primary responsibility will always be to win victory in battle, but we do much more than just kill people and break things. Camp Katrina is proud to highlight stories of our armed forces' humanitarian efforts here and around the world.

We at Camp Katrina believe that the United States military is the greatest defender of freedom and the most virtuous humanitarian force in the world. If you come across any stories, pics or news links that reflect this view, please give Camp Katrina a heads-up.

And Camp Katrina has a new address, too. You can still visit the blog at our original TypePad URL, or try our new address at www.campkatrinablog.com.

Commentary: El Salvador's Secret: Freedom and Opportunity Cure Poverty

Francisco Flores, former president of El Salvador (1999-2004), gave the keynote address at this year's Acton Institute annual dinner:

The important message is this: Fifteen years ago, El Salvador was destroyed by war, seven years ago by hurricanes, four years ago by earthquakes. Extremely poor, 15 years ago, some 60 percent of the population lived under the poverty line. The country was totally dependent on its traditional agricultural exports and unable to honor its financial obligations. Fifteen years ago, its infrastructure had collapsed: Roads, energy systems, water distribution, telecommunications.

Today, El Salvador is a different country. It has the most accelerated poverty reduction rate in Latin America. From 60 percent to 30 percent under the poverty line, El Salvador has reduced its poverty level by half in twelve years. Twenty-five percent of our population could not read nor write; now it is down to 12 percent. Infant mortality has dropped from 45 out of a thousand births to 24.

The unemployment rate has dropped from 13 percent to 6.5 percent. Interest rates have lowered from 30 percent in 1992 to 6.8 percent last year. El Salvador has the lowest inflation rate in Latin America...

[snip]

What is El Salvador’s secret? I believe that it is the systematic application of the concept of freedom to public policy....

Read the rest.

As of my post time, there was also an audio link available on the Acton Institute's home page, in the Press Room section, radio column.

Flores also talked about his own life:

In my own small and private world, this meant that, at the beginning of the conflict in 1977, my parents feared for our safety and, like most Salvadoran families, felt that our country had no future, and that we should construct our lives elsewhere.

For seven years, I tried to develop a sense of purpose through intellectual understanding. I lived here in the United States, England and in India for a brief period of time. I studied philosophy and political science principally, but also literature and history.

But knowledge can never quench our deeper thirst. Though the waters of the Charles River flowed so peacefully that October morning in Boston, and the fire of artillery raged endlessly in Central El Salvador as the army and the guerrillas sought control of the strategic Lempa River, I decided to go
back.

I decided to go back because I couldn’t accept being tossed by history at her whim. If I accepted the loss of my country, my life would become a consequence of the decisions others would take, whether in Cuba or Moscow, the United Nations or Washington.

I could certainly build my life abroad but it would not be a choice. It would be an acceptance of fate, and therefore a negation of freedom...

I was conscious I was trading safety for freedom, particularly when I had decided to be involved in the turmoil El Salvador was living.

But I must say that for the safety one gains by avoiding risk, a huge price is paid in the ever present insecurity of leading a life that is always on the defensive. Though it might be unsafe, there is a great sense of security in leading a life according to one’s conscience.

Update: Academic Elephant at Elephants in Academia has taken this post and built on it, at Another voice from Latin America. Be sure and see the updates.

Media myths and the war

The Opinion Journal article Baggage Claim: The myth of "suitcase nukes" by Richard Miniter is excerpted from Miniter's new book:


Disinformation: 22 Media Myths That Undermine the War on Terror

From the publisher (via Barnes & Noble):

In Disinformation, a veteran investigative reporter and bestselling author Richard Miniter debunks the myths of the left (and the right) with hard evidence, high-level interviews and on-the-ground reporting in more than a dozen countries.

Miniter also wrote:


Shadow War: The Untold Story of how Bush Is Winning the War on Terror


Losing Bin Laden: How Bill Clinton's Failures Unleashed Global Terror

Expat Yank: How Not to Forget

Robert Tumminello looks back at American soldiers from previous wars - and the monuments and memorials to them around the world. And then he wonders about today.

In his post, he includes an excerpt from this book by John S.D. Eisenhower:


Yanks: The Epic Story of the American Army in World War I

From Robert's excerpt, I'd like to share this part:

...The next day the three Americans were buried in the small town of Bathelemont, just behind the lines where they had fallen. General Bordeaux himself conducted the service with some solemn remarks:

The death of this humble Corporal and these Privates appeals to us with unwonted grandeur. We will, therefore, ask that the mortal remains of these young men be left with us forever. We will inscribe on their tombs, "here lie the first soldiers of the United States to fall on the fields of France for justice and liberty." The passerby will stop and uncover his head. The travelers of France, of the Allied countries, of America, and the men of heart, who will come to visit our battlefields of Lorraine, will go out of their way to come here to bring these graves the tribute of their respect and gratitude. Corporal Gresham, Private Enright, and Private Hay, in the name of France I thank you. God receive your souls.

A fellow blogger is looking for a nice copy of the Nácar-Colunga translation of the Bible

Dev Thakur of the Against a dictatorship of relativism blog is looking for a Spanish-language copy of the Bible, specifically the Nácar-Colunga translation, in hardback or imitation leather or otherwise a nicer copy. I've struck out so far at my usual sources. Anybody?

If you can help, please use the link and let him know over at his blog. Thanks.

Bookworm Room: Aren't dogs wonderful?

:-) Bookworm has found another puppy-saves-man story. Just in case you'd like to read something uplifting for a change.

WILLisms.com: Some Call It A Bonfire (Or Carnival) Of Classiness...

Is it Tuesday already? (Where does the time go?)

Will Franklin has another Carnival of Classiness up at WILLisms.

Ann Rice's new book, from a Catholic author's perspective

Amy Welborn took a look at Ann Rice's new novel Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, and gives us her first impressions.

Wasps trained to recognize specific odors, volatile compounds

Wasps can be trained to recognize and respond to odors. More to the point, someone has figured out how to make them stick around and use this ability when wanted. The Wasp Hound is a device with a cup, a fan, a camera, and contained wasps. If the conditioned wasps congregate around the pinhole letting the sample into the device, then tah dah - you've probably found what they've been trained to associate with sugar water, or whatever other goodie has been used to train them.

Now comes the fun part of figuring out all the ways this discovery might be useful. Trained wasps have already been used to detect aflatoxin, a fungi-produced poison that attacks crops in storage. They can be trained to detect explosives. They might be useful in forensics. Who knows? It's early days yet.

For a kid's version of this news, see Wasps trained to sniff out trouble.

For articles written at the adult level, see:

'Wasp Hound' uses tiny insects to track scents (University of Georgia)

Drug-Sniffing Wasps May Sting Crooks (National Geographic)

Sting Operation Targets Terror (Wired.com)

Burke and Hare kill their last victim, October 31, 1828

Parents, this may be a bit of history you don't want your children knowing until they're older.

On October 31, 1828, Edinburgh, Scotland's infamous serial murderers William Burke and William Hare killed what Burke later confessed was their 16th person for profit. Another way of putting it is they created their 16th corpse, there being a market for corpses at the time, and they having found by chance that it was lucrative to provide fresh bodies to medical researchers.

Luckily for people prone to drinking in Edinburgh at that time (Burke and Hare had a penchant for drunks and 'daft' people), a couple of tenants at Hare's boarding house found the body and told police.

After his trial, Burke was hanged before a crowd estimated at between 25,000 and 30,000. Thousands viewed his corpse when it was put on public display. The authorities granted public access to the dissection of his body by the Royal College of Surgeons. (Does this fall under the saying, "What goes around comes around"?)

(Yuck.)

His skeleton was put on display and people have sold and exhibited items said to have been made from pieces of his skin. (I think this rates a Double Yuck.)

Hare was released in return for testimony against Burke. The physician who bought and bought and bought freshly dead human bodies without asking enough questions was cleared because there was no evidence of murder on individual corpses. (That would be a Dr. Robert Knox, if you're wondering.) To be a bit more specific, Professor Knox was officially cleared, for all the good it did him. The general public never forgave him.

Brendan O'Brien has more, at Scotsman.com. See also The Grave Robbing Business, or the Burke and Hare article at Edinburgh City Libraries, or William Burke & William Hare, 'The Resurrectionists'. (The last title refers to a snide nickname for grave-robbers.)

The case has long since passed into folklore. I don't know which details in these articles are true and which got added by active imaginations along the way. But as a friend who taught both English and folklore once told me, 'It's not what happened, but what people think happened that influences history.' And history it is, even if it comes down to us in odd and sorry ways; I understand that there are parents even now who threaten their youngsters with a visit from Burke and Hare if they don't behave.

See also the History of the College page at The Royal College of Surgeons at Edinburgh. It doesn't mention Burke and Hare, nor any other illicit corpse providers for that matter, but that it and other European universities mounted a major push to apply scientific method to medicine in the 1700s and 1800s did cause some unintended consequences. One of the few things I remember from a History of Medicine course in college was that a fair amount of grave-robbing and a few murders went along with early classes in anatomy, not to mention early clinical trials meant to amass data for analysis. You can't dissect bodies if you don't have bodies, after all. And if you've convinced yourself that science will conquer disease, and science needs data, and key data can only come from autopsies, well...

(There are reasons graveyards grew stout walls and individual burial plots sprouted pointy fencing back then. Not that Burke and Hare are accused of grave robbing, but they were catering to the same market as body snatchers.)

Side note: The Royal College of Surgeons at Edinburgh is celebrating 500 years this year. On a brighter note, I'd be very surprised if it still buys bodies under the cover of darkness, "no questions asked"...

Cafe Hayek: Breyer and Constant on Liberty

Don Boudreaux has been noting the hype around Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer's book Active Liberty and says that Breyer and some of his admirers are misreading the work of a fellow named Benjamin Constant. This wouldn't matter very much - except that Breyer seems to base so much of his judicial philosophy on his inside-out version of Constant's explanation of the differences between ancient and modern liberties. Boudreaux kindly provides a link to Constant's 1816 essay The Liberty of Ancients Compared with that of Moderns to help make his point.

For anyone trying to figure out where Breyer and his ilk are coming from, I have to wonder if Boudreaux is onto something.

For anyone wanting Breyer's position...


Active Liberty: Interpreting Our Democratic Constitution

Townhall.com :: Asking for contributions

Townhall.com has just kicked off a fund drive, aiming for $250,000. Here's the page that breaks down donations by state. As of my posting time, California accounts for the most dollars and the most donors, but Wyoming leads the pack in the "dollars per electoral vote" division.

OpinionJournal - When the Leaders Of Civil Rights Were Civilized

On the occasion of Rosa Parks' death, Jason L. Riley, a senior editorial writer at The Wall Street Journal, looks back at when the leaders of the civil rights movement stood for principle:

That Rosa Parks cited [James Weldon] Johnson as an inspiration along with giants like [Booker T.] Washington and [W.E.B.] Du Bois tells us something about her deep appreciation of him. But it's also a reminder of Parks's dignified brand of social activism. Like Johnson, Parks recalls a time when the NAACP was an important institution staffed by serious people tackling real problems faced by a marginalized race.

While laboring under the thumb of policies enacted to preserve racial inequality, these pioneers consciously compiled a large store of near-universal respect for a movement whose goals couldn't have been more principled. The passing of Parks, and what she represented, leaves us with black leaders who seem to excel in cheapening this legacy when they're not squandering it altogether.

Full Riley commentary

Elephants in Academia: What a difference 50 years can make

The blogger "AcademicElephant" looks at the current relations between Japan and the United States, looks back half a century, and finds food for thought. Regarding a recent press conference featuring Japanese officials with U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, AcademicElephant says:

...several interesting things were said, such as this, from Rice: "...we have had a very broad discussion that is only befitting two of the closest allies in the world, an alliance that is clearly based on common values, that is clearly based on a desire to see freedom and liberty spread. And that understands that when democracy is on the march then we are all safer, and when democracy is in retreat we are more vulnerable."

Such a statement...would have been unimaginable 50 years ago. But with Japan for an example, we might not want to be overly pessimistic about the potential of democracy to reduce the warlike tendencies of previously-aggressive states, and to turn former deadly enemies in to our closest and most helpful friends in distant but vital regions.

Full Elephants in Academia post

Michelle Malkin: It's Samuel Alito

As usual (how does she do this?), Michelle Malkin has kicked into overdrive on a top story and has a round-up of links and comments on the Supreme Court nominee announcement.

For my two cents' worth, I'm glad Bush broke out of the "it has to be a woman" tunnel vision thing. I am soooo tired of people in Washington being stuck back in the 1970s. By now, thank you very much, we should have moved along to "the best person for the job" thing. Really. Honest. Truly outstanding women can compete on a level playing field for that sort of post. There's no need to be patronizing about it - and dividing candidates into male and female subcategories is horribly patronizing, I think. For what it's worth.

Update: Kathryn Jean Lopez, writing in Bench Memos at National Review Online, in a post from early this morning, This Is the One and Only Time I Will Point this Out, says:

I just got the White House talking points on Alito. Nowhere in them does it say that he is one of the best male lawyers in New Jersey.

Touché.

Closed circuit for George Miller's relatives

Just because I know that one of my regular readers is related to the George Miller who used to write the London Calling blog... Robert at the Expat Yank blog is asking if he's still out there somewhere.

Harold Frederic review of The Red Badge of Courage (January 1896)

In a comment on an earlier post, Mark Mossa mentioned that he lives down the way from a home in which William Dean Howells lived, and that his Master's thesis was on Harold Frederic, a friend of Howells.

Frederic's name didn't bring anything immediately to mind, so I've been browsing -- and stumbled across this wonderful contemporary book review of Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage. (Also this snippet from Random House on one of Frederic's books.) Gotta love the Internet.

Unfinished Work: Top 25 Book List

Another list.

And this one, ahem, has To the Golden Shore: The Life of Adoniram Judson, which I read shortly after I met my husband, when I was immersing myself in all things Judson, just for the joy of it. :-)

How nice to know that someone likes the book on its merits. I found it fascinating, as I remember - but I've always been worried that my obvious bias might have blinded me.

Related earlier posts here and here.

You Duped Me Lord's list of great novels

Like Cindy Swanson (see previous post), Mark Mossa took the occasion of Time magazine's list of 100 best books to come up with a list of his own. Hey, any list that can mix Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Rise of Silas Lapham by William Dean Howells...

Actually, I lifted these books from his list in part so I'd have an excuse to include that last book. I haven't read The Rise of Silas Lapham in years, but I remember it got under my skin, in the good way that good books do. But I'm just about the only William Dean Howells fan around here. (Sigh.) Most people, in fact, seem to have never heard of him. How nice someone else is keeping this book on the still-alive-and-talking list (as opposed to the nobody-remembers-anymore list).

It also gives me an excuse to ask if anybody knows how in the Sam Hill that last name "Lapham" is supposed to be pronounced? I suppose it's a good old New England name that all halfway-educated Easterners know, but I haven't got a clue. I've heard it every which way, which doesn't help.

Mossa has a rather more varied and broad-ranging list than my very few examples can show. I suggest you go take a look.

(And, hey, if you post your own list of great books, please leave a note in the comments here. I'm busier than usual lately and can't make the blog rounds like I used to. I'll be counting on you guys for more tips than usual for a while.)