Darn Floor

How to win the war on terror.

2007-03-28T13:53:00.000-05:00

I've made it a goal in life to avoid Las Vegas. This only convinces me that my goal is a wise one.

Michael Jackson is in discussions about creating a 50-foot robotic replica of himself to roam the Las Vegas desert, according to reports.

Let's pause right there and let that sink in.

Fifty. Foot. Michael Jackson Robot.

Think about it.

Fear it.

The pop legend is currently understood to be living in the city, as he considers making a comeback after 2004's turbulent child sex case.

It has now been claimed that his plans include an elaborate show in Vegas, which would feature the giant Jacko striding around the desert, firing laser beams.

Firing laser beams.

While I'm absolutely terrified by the idea, I also want to see it happen, because if we could develop an army of fifty foot Michael Jackson Robots firing laser beams, every rogue nation on the planet would cower before us. And most of our allies, too.

We need this.

Blogging may resume . . .

2007-03-26T09:47:00.000-05:00

Where have you been, you blogging sluggard?

Promises, promises. I told you all I'd be a good little blogger and stick at it for more than a month, didn't I? Well, the fates had another plan.

At the beginning of February I was contacted by a former employer, asking if I'd temporarily fill in for awhile. One of the editors was leaving, and then wanted to take about a month to find his replacement. They also asked if I would interview for the position. Given that it was a different (and more structured) position than the last one I had over there (and one more to my liking), I agreed. I also figured it would be no problem getting the permanent position since 1. I knew the business, 2. I knew the procedures, 3. I knew the special software they used to run everything, 4. I already knew most of my co-workers. Maybe that last one was the sticking point?

Anyway, I agreed, and spent all of February and a bit of March working hard like a good employee, putting on a happy face, pretending that I LOVED LOVED LOVED this job. I also had figured out that the key to surviving was to be part of the "inner circle," I would become the boss's best buddy. I would even talk about golf if it helped (because that seemed to be topic #1 among the inner circle). I might even (gasp!) play golf!

Unfortunately, I don't think I ever really got much of a chance to schmooze. And the only other person they interviewed for the position--my position--they hired.

And then I had to train that person in.

Lucky for them I'm a good sport about such things. (And lucky for me I never burn bridges behind me even while several people pour gasoline all over the bridges in front of me.)

Meanwhile, all of my own projects began piling up on my desk at home, so after my time of testing was over, I had to dig out from under the pile.

I'm still digging, but I'm breathing air again. So it goes.

Welcome back, me.

NFL sourpusses demand you watch the S__ B_ on smaller TVs

2007-02-01T17:23:00.000-06:00

If you have plans to watch the S---- B--- on your new 58-inch flat-screen plasma television, better change 'em now. The meanies at the NFL have declared it illegal.

The NFL has nixed a church's plans to use a wall projector to show the Colts-Bears Super Bowl game, saying it would violate copyright laws.

NFL officials spotted a promotion of Fall Creek Baptist Church's "Super Bowl Bash" on the church Web site last week and overnighted a letter to the pastor demanding the party be canceled, the church said.

Initially, the league objected to the church's plan to charge a fee to attend and that the church used the license-protected words "Super Bowl" in its promotions.

Pastor John D. Newland said he told the NFL his church would not charge anyone and that it would drop the use of the forbidden words.

But the NFL objected to the church's plans to use a projector to show the game, saying the law limits it to one TV no bigger than 55 inches.

It's a shame, but I understand. That one church could really cut into the NFL's proceeds.

Why didn't somebody tell me about this thing?

2007-02-01T14:33:00.000-06:00

This is such a great idea. You find a book you want to read, subscribe to it, and Dailylit.com will e-mail you a portion of the book each day. They seem to be all public-domain works (that is, the "classics") and there's no charge at all.

Forgive me if everyone's known about this and I'm late to the party. I just thought it was a fantastic idea and a great use for e-mail.

That's just a bit of dust in my eye.

2007-02-01T09:05:00.000-06:00

In an otherwise dull set of American Idol auditions last night, this one stood out. Have a box of tissues handy.

Sherman

Night of the Lepus

2007-01-31T13:53:00.000-06:00

Holy crap! That's a big bunny! And it's not a Photoshop job either. Check it out.

A German pensioner who won a prize and worldwide fame for breeding his country’s largest rabbit — Robert, a 10.5kg (23lb) bruiser the size of a dog — has been offered an unusual opportunity to exploit his talents overseas.

Karl Szmolinsky has been given a contract by North Korea to supply giant rabbits to help to boost meat production in the reclusive Communist country, which is suffering severe food shortages.

More about these giant bunnies at the link above, plus a bonus recipe for Korean Spicy Rabbit and Potatoes! (Just make sure that your main course's larger relatives don't find out.)

Blogstuff

2007-01-31T12:20:00.000-06:00

Still a lot of clean-up around here due to being AFB (away from blog) for 18 months. I think I've weeded out all the dead blogs from the blogroll, leaving a few "mostly dead" in the hopes that they'll resurrect at some point. At some point I'll probably weed out more and add new ones.

As I try to reconnect with the blogosphere I'm finding that a lot of the blogs I used to enjoy are now slow to load, (probably because they're) cluttered with ads, (and as a result are) poorly laid out, and have a high noise-to-signal ratio (due to ads and other crap) making them very difficult to read.

Folks: Less is more.

Are you really making anything off those ads you have cluttering up your site? Or do you put them up there in the vain hope that someday, someday your blog will be a cash cow?

I think many formerly excellent blogs are coasting on reputation now. The standard for excellence seems to be dropping. (Not that I'm helping any.)

Also, folks: sans serif for screen; serif for print. That's the standard rule. Break it at your own peril.

(Man, what got into me all of a sudden?)

When the wind is southerly, I know a sink from a urinal.

2007-01-31T09:48:00.000-06:00

In a story tangentially-related to the one below, here's an indication that Western cultures do make accomodations when they can.

No stoning please, we're Canadian

2007-01-31T08:39:00.000-06:00

Immigrants wishing to move to the town of Herouxville, Quebec have been warned: the town council has created an ordinance against the stoning, burning, or circumcising of women. Furthermore . . .

We consider that men and women are of the same value. Having said this, we consider that a woman can; drive a car, vote, sign checks, dance, decide for herself, speak her peace, dress as she sees fit respecting of course the democratic decency, walk alone in public places, study, have a job, have her own belongings and anything else that a man can do. These are our standards and our way of life.

However, we consider that killing women in public beatings, or burning them alive are not part of our standards of life.

Other sections of the new "Standards" document inform immigrants that in Herouxville, there are no laws preventing female medical professionals from treating men, or male medical professionals from treating women. Likewise, members of emergency services, such as police officers or firefighters may also help members of both genders.

You wouldn't think such a statement would be considered controversial, would you? But apparently it is.

[T]he president of the Muslim Council of Montreal, Salam Elmenyawi, condemned the council, saying it had set back race relations decades.

He told Reuters news agency: "I was shocked and insulted to see these kinds of false stereotypes and ignorance about Islam and our religion."

The new community standards say nothing about Muslims or Islam at all. It mentions religion in two sections: one on education where it states that schools do not have places set aside for prayer or incantation, and another on "fesitivities," which reads in part:

We listen to music, we drink alcoholic beverages in public or private places, we dance and at the end of every year we decorate a tree with balls and tinsel and some lights. This is normally called “Christmas Decorations” or also “Christmas Tree” letting us rejoice in the notion of our national heritage and not necessarily a religious holiday. These festivities are authorized in public, schools, and institutions and also in private.

The Standards document closes by informing prospective immigrants that the document is intended to help them decide whether or not they wish to make the decision to move there, while making it clear that if anyone does wish to modify their habits and customs, there is a referendum process.

So what is Elmenyawi's concern? The document makes no specific reference to Islam or any ethnic or religious group, and covers much more territory than just the treatment of women. So if it's true that Islam does not mistreat women, then Elmenyawi should feel right at home in Herouxville.

Perhaps if there was not already concern about Canadian Muslims attempting to establish Shari'a courts in Canada, community regulations like the ones in Herouxville might never have had to be written.

Download a copy of Herouxville's "controversial" document here.

Tracking the Urban Amish

2007-01-30T23:12:00.000-06:00

Hey, remember Troy Benham? That guy from Sarona, Wisconsin who auditioned for American Idol in Minneapolis, referring to himself as "Urban Amish"? (Those of you who know where Sarona is -- or was before the DOT paved it over with Highway 53 -- you know there's nothing "urban" about it.) The Spooner Advocate has a story on him. Turns out he's not Amish after all. (No kidding?) He's Mennonite. But whatever, the story is an interesting look into how the audition process works as well as a nice profile of someone who seems like a nice guy.

Oh, say can you sing?

2007-01-30T22:17:00.000-06:00

Ladies and gentlemen . . . your next American Idol!

(Bleep) save the Queen!

2007-01-29T16:36:00.000-06:00

You might think it was the work of an insidious anti-God censor in the entertainment industry. But it's not as bad as it sounds. An inexperienced employee at a company that censors films for in-flight showings mistakenly bleeped out every single utterance of the word "God" in the Oscar-nominated film The Queen.

The censor was told to edit out all profanities -- including any blasphemy -- for the version of the movie distributed to Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, Air New Zealand, and other carriers.

So the new censor mistakenly bleeped out each time a character said "God," instead of just when it was used as part of a profanity, said Jeff Klein, president of Jaguar Distribution, the company that distributed the movie to airlines this month.

"A reference to God is not taboo in any culture that I know of," Klein said. "We excise foul language, excessive violence and nudity."

In-flight viewers of the film at one point heard "(Bleep) bless you, ma'am," as one character spoke to the queen. In all, the word "God" is bleeped seven times in the version.

Hat tip: Muzzy at Blogizdat

So who's the focus of worship here anyway?

2007-01-29T14:39:00.000-06:00

With approval by the Church of England, a congregation in central England will stage a "U2-charist" -- a communion service featuring songs by the group U2 instead of the usual hymns.

"Rock music can be a vehicle of immense spirituality," said Bishop of Grantham Timothy Ellis, announcing plans for the unique service in the central English town of Lincoln in May.

A live band is to play U2 classics like "Beautiful Day" and "Mysterious Ways" with special singalong lyrics displayed on a giant screen. Seating for the 500-strong congregation is to be re-arranged so everyone can dance and wave their hands.

As crazy as it might sound to some, it's really not at all unusual. Many Protestant churches in America have replaced the hymnbook with simple worship songs projected on a screen. It would not even surprise me to learn that some church somewhere in America has U2's "40" among their worship music repertoire.

American Evangelicals also have their own "supergroups" from which they freely borrow worship music, and worship leaders have become "rock stars" in their own right.

It's this last bit that I find somewhat troubling. I appreciate it when worship leaders can effectively lead the congregation in corporate worship, but there seems to be a fine line between "worship" and "musical performance" and for a few months I attended a church where it was often unclear if I was at a church service or a concert.

Having a cover band doing U2 songs before a group of dancing and swaying U2 fans seems to step over that invisible line.

Battling Bush Fatigue

2007-01-29T12:59:00.000-06:00

Back during Clinton's second term when the 2000 elections were in full swing, there was much talk about Clinton fatigue.

WASHINGTON (May 27, 1999) -- From bimbo eruptions to draft dodging to pot smoking to Whitewater to the Lincoln Bedroom to Monica Lewinsky, Clinton's personal life has drained the country.

Sure, Clinton's agenda remains popular. Most people continue to think President Clinton is doing a good job, although the war in Kosovo is beginning to create some doubts. But the president's personal behavior? Americans have long since tired of that soap opera.

The message is, enough already and it's showing up politically in the form of Clinton fatigue. Ask the public, 'What if Clinton actively supports Al Gore and campaigns for him -- would that make you more or less likely to vote for Gore?' Most voters say Clinton hurts Gore and only 29 percent say Clinton helps him. If voting for Gore seems like giving Clinton a third term, people really don't want to do that, even though times are good -- enough of Clinton already.

Right now the Republicans are probably feeling the effect of Bush fatigue. And if Clinton fatigue was a problem for Al Gore back then, Bush fatigue is going to be an even bigger problem for any Republican candidate in 2008, given that President Bush hasn't got (and never really had) the bedrock popularity, charisma, and "celebrity" of President Clinton.

Following the President's State of the Union Address, Newsweek reports a new poll that indicates the country is just plain tired of President Bush.

President George W. Bush concluded his annual State of the Union address this week with the words “the State of our Union is strong . . . our cause in the world is right . . . and tonight that cause goes on.” Maybe so, but the state of the Bush administration is at its worst yet, according to the latest NEWSWEEK Poll. The president’s approval ratings are at their lowest point in the poll’s history—30 percent—and more than half the country (58 percent) say they wish the Bush presidency were simply over, a sentiment that is almost unanimous among Democrats (86 percent), and is shared by a clear majority (59 percent) of independents and even one in five (21 percent) Republicans. Half (49 percent) of all registered voters would rather see a Democrat elected president in 2008, compared to just 28 percent who’d prefer the GOP to remain in the White House.

Fifty-eight percent is quite a vote of no confidence, although this poll is hardly official. But if the public sees another Republican administration as simply a continuation of the Bush presidency and its policies, then the going just got even rougher for the Republican candidates. We will surely see a scramble by likely candidates to distance themselves from the President (which shouldn't be too hard for John McCain, having already had much practice at it). Republicans will have to assure voters that they differ from both the President and any Democratic candidates.

Political triangulation was Clinton's specialty. Can Republicans adopt it as a winning strategy?

By the way, only four Presidents have gone lower than Bush's 30% approval rating since Gallup began doing these polls when FDR was president: George Bush, Sr. at 29% in a poll taken in August, 1992; Carter at 28% in July of 79; Nixon at 23% in a poll taken the first week of 1974; and Truman at 22% in a poll taken in February of 1952. Does anyone know what accounted for Truman's low approval in 1952?

The Newsweek poll also had good news for Republicans.

[T]he new poll, which examined the preferences of registered Democrats for their party’s presidential nomination in 2008, shows that Sen. Hillary Clinton, an initial supporter of the war, has a 20-point lead over junior Sen. Barack Obama (55 percent to 35 percent) and a 34-point lead over former Sen. John Edwards (63 percent to 29 percent).

If Hillary got the nomination, Republicans could rest a bit. After all, there is still a whiff of Clinton fatigue in the air.

More poll results here.

Dental PTSD

2007-01-25T22:16:00.000-06:00

I don't like going to the dentist. Never have, and I can't imagine that I ever will.

My wife, on the other hand, loves it.

Loves. It.

"Don't you just love how it makes your teeth feel?" she gushes.

She says it's like going to the spa or having a manicure, and she feels all pampered and pretty when she comes out. I, on the other hand, feel all poked and prodded and in pain.

I brush my teeth. I even floss. But I don't like having someone with Very Sharp Torture Instruments digging around inside my oral cavity.

Part of this stems from a horrible dentist I had as a child. An "old school" dentist, his solution was to drill-n-fill at the first sign of decay. I received a mouthful of silver fillings from that man, and I have a suspicion that few of them were necessary. But the worst part about it was that he never offered Novacaine or any other sort of anesthetic. He'd just pin you down and get that drill a-spinnin' while your legs would be kicking futilely in the air and your screams were scaring the other children sitting in the waiting room.

I once remarked to my mother that it was really painful to go to the dentist, and devout Catholic that she was, she said "Yes, but then I remember that Jesus endured a much more painful agony on the cross, and if he could endure that, then the least I could do was put up with the drilling."

Well, how can you answer that without sounding like a pansy? By telling her that Jesus' agony ended in death?

Dr. Evil Dentist also once cemented a strange block-like device onto my front teeth in order to correct the angle of an upper incisor. If you thought braces were bad, imagine a huge metal blob protruding from your mouth. (And remember, this was before the days that people began regularly adoring their faces and mouths with bits of metal. Today this would be consider "alternative" and cool. But back then . . . ) Take a middle-school kid with thick glasses who already has a low self-esteem and then uglify him with a huge and hideous dental device, one that also causes a slight speech impediment, . . . and then watch the fun.

For what it's worth, the device didn't work, but not a single dentist since has ever mentioned this supposed "problem" that Evil Dentist, DDS was trying to correct. I suspect ED, DDS had payments on a yacht or something.

Anyway, the trauma of my childhood dentist means that I cannot fully embrace the cheery abandon which marks my wife's regular dental check-ups. But my wife makes appointments for me anyway with joyful gusto. Thanks, honey.

Last week I went in for my regular check-up, and the dental hygienist expressed "concern" over an area between two of my upper molars where a larger than usual gap meant that more food was able to get down below the gumline, become trapped, and cause some problems. I knew this was a problem area; the problem was created by another former dentist who got sloppy with a filling that ended up irritating the gum for years. And then yet another former dentist attempted to fix that problem, but apparently didn't fix it well enough. And now my wife's dentist (I cannot call her my dentist for I refuse to claim any) is having a go at it.

So today I had to go back in so the hygienist (who, we must admit, is the one who wields the Very Sharp Torture Instruments) could really scrap and poke and prod up in there and try to get it all healthy again. At least I got Novacaine.

I was a bit surprised to discover that they've now started taking blood pressure at the dentist with each visit. When mine was taken, the hygienist expressed "concern" at how high it was. "I'm at the dentist!" I told her. "What were you expecting!?"

One thing I don't like about dental hygienists are the lectures. "Are you flossing?" she asked. I said yes. "How often" "Hourly, I deadpanned." "Show me how you do it," she instructed. So I had to perform the floss maneuver for her. Then I had to show her my brushing technique so she could judge my worthiness some more. She wasn't particularly pleased.

She gave me some dye to put in my mouth. Remember those little red tablets they made you chew in elementary school? They were supposed to show you where the plaque was. The red coloring would stick to the plaque, and the school nurse would then determine whether you were a good brusher or not. Gold stars for the good ones.

The dye the hygienist gave me was sort of like that, but no gold stars. After swishing it around my mouth for a bit, the hygienist handed me a mirror.

Oh. My. Lord.

My lips, my tongue, my gums, . . . everything was livid purple. I looked like I'd just snacked on Barney the Dinosaur for breakfast, his purple blood still dripping from my mouth. (In fact, I secretly hoped the dye would last until I got home so I could tell my kids exactly that.)

After the Novacaine kicked in, the hygienist got down to business of scraping and poking while the overhead speaker played annoying hits of the 70s. As if going to the dentist wasn't suffering enough, I had to listen to "Hotel California," "Piano Man," and "Benny and the Jets."

When did they stop letting patients spit in the little sink? Instead, the dentist sprays water in your mouth, and then invites you to suck it all out with a powerful vacuum tube. The hygienist kept making fun of me because I could not operate the suction tube properly. "Little kids know how to do it," she snarked. But I couldn't get the hang of it, and it would either suck air directly out of my lungs, causing me to gulp like a fish, or it threatened to pull my esophagus inside out.

Just let me sip from a cup and spit in the sink, already! Even Dr. Evil Dentist let me do that!

When it was over, my mouth still numb, and she was done haranguing me about oral hygiene, she started talking about all the follow-up visits. Excuse me? There's going to be follow-up? Several visits?

And the sad part is, my wife is envious of me.

Tommy in 2008?

2007-01-23T10:38:00.000-06:00

I guess I was busy herding children when former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson announced he was exploring a run for the presidency in 2008. Sorry. Here's my tardy slip.

I don't know if Tommy was a good fit for Washington. When he was Sec. of Health and Human Services, he always seemed uncomfortable, and he didn't last long. But when he was Governor he wore it like a second skin.

Today I decided to poke around on the Interweb, just out of curiosity, to see if he'd set up a website. Yep. But maybe this is just the sort of thing people do about this time in the election cycle. For all I know, I have aunts and uncles and cousins setting up exploratory committees.

The View From Today

2007-01-22T11:26:00.000-06:00

One of the curious side effects of being away from this blog (and the whole blogosphere) for 18 months is the urge to go back and delete some rather embarassing older entries that do not accurately reflect where my head is at today.

When I started up this blog, it was about five weeks before the 2004 election, and the divisiveness of that campaign felt like the climax of the divisiveness that has afflicted our nation since the 2000 election. (And before that, I'm sure.)

In the aftermath, I found myself becoming gradually apolitical, something that I've noticed happening after previous presidential elections, too. After spending months talking about nothing but politics, it seems that some time away from that is necessary. One thing I find completely irresponsible about the heated political rhetoric that issues from both sides of the aisle is that after whipping up their constituencies into believing that their opponents aren't merely wrong for the job, but evil or criminal or a minion of Satan himself, on the day after election day they move on (either to Washington or back home to Podunk) and act as if all that rhetoric was just part of the show, and now it's Act 2.

Meanwhile, the constituents who they've whipped into a frenzy are still frothing at the mouth about the opposition party and aren't able to set it aside so quickly.

In other words, in order to get themselves elected, they get us to hate the other guy, and then they wonder why we all hate each other afterwards and why political discourse is at an all-time low. They cannot see that the consequences of poisonous election-year rhetoric is a poisoning of our entire system of governance.

Having jumped into blogging and having positioned myself on the right side of the blogosphere through the positions I took and the viewpoints I advocated, it was a bit difficult to disconnect from politics. The blogs I read (and quoted) regularly were still in "heated rhetoric" mode, and I wanted to get over it and move on.

At the same time, the power of this thing that I'd tapped into -- the "blogosphere" as they called it back then -- was starting to frighten me. You can see the beginnings of this discomfort here.

My blogging dropped off after that for a variety of factors, but my desire to withdraw from political debate, combined with the discomfort I was feeling about political blogging in general was certainly part of the reason.

Jump ahead 18 months and what's changed?

Politically, I find my support of George W. Bush, whom I voted for twice and supported on these pages, to be flagging. I haven't quite been able to nail down the reasons for this feeling, but I think Doug at Bogus Gold has neatly articulated what I've been feeling in his post here, and then again later here. I'll quote from the second post:

We conservatives have to be brave enough to acknowledge reality, even when it's uncomfortable. I'm willing to admit it: I thought George Bush was more capable than he has turned out to be. I don't think the idea of invasion was wrong. I think he is personally not up to the challenge of executing it.

This doesn't mean I suddenly support the Democrats either. They want to pull us out, damned be the consequences. I find that notion somewhere between insanely naive and damnably politically expedient. I think a leader and communicator like Rudy Giuliani would be succeeding where President Bush is failing; to whit: Keeping the American people supportive of the war effort.

Face it fellow conservatives, we saw President Bush's resolve to stay on course, even in the face of crumbling public opinion, as a sign of his integrity and principled belief in the importance of victory. I see no reason to question that even now. But we failed to appreciate that there were other qualities just as important to victory that he lacks. He lacks the ability to gain and hold the trust of the American people. Blame the people rather than him if you like. Blame the media if you like. But it's time to acknowledge that this is the situation we now face. We're fighting a counter-insurgency war in which our commander in chief is incapable of accomplishing the most important strategic objective: holding the support of the American people.

That's pretty sobering, but I think it's spot-on. Like Doug, I'm no longer sure whose side I'm on, if any. I supported the invasion of Iraq for what I felt was a good reason -- deposing Saddam Hussein. I thought the insurgency would dwindle eventually as the people of Iraq tasted more freedom. They would now stand up for themselves and create a thriving democracy that would make all the despots of the region pale.

Except it didn't happen. And we're still over there and it's still a mess. Earlier this month I read this, and got very depressed.

Iraq's massive oil reserves, the third-largest in the world, are about to be thrown open for large-scale exploitation by Western oil companies under a controversial law which is expected to come before the Iraqi parliament within days.

The US government has been involved in drawing up the law, a draft of which has been seen by The Independent on Sunday. It would give big oil companies such as BP, Shell and Exxon 30-year contracts to extract Iraqi crude and allow the first large-scale operation of foreign oil interests in the country since the industry was nationalised in 1972.

I spent months -- years -- telling people that this war was not about oil, and then I read that perhaps it was. Thanks, guys. Now I feel like a real fool.

I'm not ready to jump ship to the Democrats yet. I haven't voted for a Democrat in the Presidental Election since 1984 (when, God help me, I voted for Walter Mondale, an action I blame completely on my youth), but for the first time in a long time I will seriously consider what Democratic candidates have to bring to the table. How could we do any worse?

Hillary's in!

2007-01-22T09:54:00.000-06:00

She's made it official.

Now go enjoy this Darn Flashback.

Today is the most depressing day of the year.

2007-01-22T08:45:00.000-06:00

January 22nd is Blue Monday. At least according to "happiness and motivation expert," Dr. Cliff Arnall. Today is the beginning of the final week of January when, supposedly, a series of combined depressive effects is lined up to knock us right off the wagon.

Arnall even developed a mathematical equation to prove that this is the most wrist-slittingest day of the year. It looks like this:

The model was broken down using 6 immediately identifiable factors; weather (W), debt (d), time since Christmas (T), time since failing our new year’s resolutions (Q), low motivational levels (M) and the feeling of a need to take action (Na).The equation calculates that Monday 22nd January 2007 is officially the worst day of the year, when the Christmas glow has faded away, New Year’s resolutions have been broken, cold Winter weather has set in and credit card bills will be landing on doormats across the land - whilst the January pay-check is still one week away.

So if you were thinking about shuffling off this mortal coil, the math proves it. This is the day to do it.

I think one of the factors he's missing is the relative sunlessness of January. If you work in a windowless office like me, you're a prime target for Seasonal Affective Disorder, so appropriately abbreviated "SAD," I can't help but wonder which came first: the diagnosis or the acronym. (I'm betting on the latter.)

Here's my cure: Seed Catalogs.

Yep, just order up some seed catalogs and start planning for the garden. And hurry! Spring is only 4 months away!

Okay, . . . I think I just depressed myself.

American Idol

2007-01-17T15:15:00.000-06:00

I love American Idol and I'm not ashamed to say it.

(Okay, maybe a little.)

But it's nice to have this back as part of our weekly schedule since there's very little television we watch these days. But something has changed: Simon wasn't nearly as acerbic as he could have been, Randy actually had useful comments, and Paula had very little to say at all.

These audition rounds are usually very painful to watch, but last night's was painfully dull. Even the awful people weren't awful in an entertaining way, like we expect from these vocal train wrecks. And whoever edited the show let some of the train wrecks go on for far too long, by which time any entertainment value became pathos and pity. Although I did enjoy the irony of the kid singing a cheesy Michael W. Smith song, and then letting loose a string of bleeped obscenities when he didn't make it.

Of those who moved ahead to the Hollywood round, the best of the lot was probably Our Fair City's own Sarah Krueger.

dfj58gj

Brief article in the local paper here.

More AI tonight, and more painful cringing from us viewers. But it's back, and that makes me happy. I am so shallow.

Barack Obama makes it official

2007-01-17T12:07:00.000-06:00

End the speculation. Barack Obama has officially thrown his hat into the 2008 Presidential ring. And that sound you heard was Hilary Clinton cracking three molars.

The linked article suggests that having less experience in Washington means "fewer ties to the political polarization of the past two decades there," and that is to his credit. But his inexperience is a double-edged sword. On one hand, I agree that a newbie outsider might be a better choice for the Democrats than a career politician like the dismal John Kerry. On the other hand, Washington chews up and spits out newbies like a threshing machine. Unless he has the sort of fortitude to withstand it, Washington is more likely to change Obama than the other way around.

Barack Obama has had only two years in the Senate. If I had voted for him, I'm not sure how I'd feel about the guy spending two-thirds of his Senate term running for president. That wasn't the job the voters hired him for.

I like what I've seen and heard from Barack Obama. He's a Democrat I might actually be able to vote for. But would it have hurt him to wait until 2012 or 2016? Apparently it would. Obama is hot right now. His star is on the rise. If he's ever going to run for president, now is the time, inexperience or not. Such is the state of American politics.

Cognitive Dissonance

2007-01-17T10:33:00.000-06:00

Oh my Lord! What have they done to Bridge to Terabithia!?

Just before I signed off for 18 months, I mentioned that Walden Media was picking some excellent properties for feature films, relying on smart children's literature instead of the dumb snotty-kids-and-booger-jokes that usually accounts for kids' movies. So the Newbery Award-winning Bridge to Terabithia is a great choice. But to look at the trailer, it seems they've turned the book into a Narnia-style fantasy. (Perhaps not entirely unexpected, since there is a very slim Narnia connection in the story.) If you watched American Idol last night, the TV spot seemed to highlight the fantasy elements even more.

But if you've ever read the book, you know that there's not a bit of fantasy anywhere in it. Sure, the two main characters create a make-believe land out in the woods, but it's clearly pretend play like all kids do, and it's a minor part of the story. They certainly do not enter a magical land like Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy.

(Spoilers ahead, so turn back now if you wish . . . )

The book, by prolific children's author Katherine Paterson, very sensitively addresses the issue of death as the boy, Jess, copes with the loss of his new friend, Leslie. Paterson even touches on the issue of salvation and eternal life as Jess worries about whether Leslie will go to heaven.

That's pretty much the meat of the story right there. It's not a Narnia-style fantasy at all. Which means that either Walden has drastically altered the story, or the trailers are very misleading. I am hoping it's the latter, because a faithful film adaptation of Bridge to Terabithia should be a winner.

(But if they changed anything about the story, let's hope they changed the time period from the 70s to something a bit less hippie-influenced.)

The Zombies are here! And they've got . . . popcorn?

2007-01-16T16:36:00.000-06:00

Orville Redenbacher is back from the dead. Sort of. He's been resurrected to once again sell popcorn. But unlike other ads that use computer wizardry to lift dead celebrities from film clips and insert them into commericals, this new Orville Redenbacher was created digitally. (A short clip is available at the link.) If no one had told me, I wouldn't have known. (At least, not given the resolution of the tiny streaming video on my monitor) But now that I know . . . I'm a bit unsettled.

Finally, Snow!

2007-01-15T13:38:00.000-06:00

The kids were excited to see snow falling this morning when they woke up (before the crack of dawn). I snapped this picture of Mimi with her face to the window, and I like the way it turned out.

Click here for a larger version.

2007-01-15T12:59:00.000-06:00

Here's what Mimi was looking at in the photo above: the snow-covered Spirea with Christmas lights shining from within.

Outside later to shovel . . . the light a little bluer.

Liatris in the garden with snow on the seed-heads.

My other blog for 2007

2007-01-15T10:07:00.000-06:00

Our church is encouraging the entire congregation to read through the New Testament this year with a daily reading schedule that puts us all on the same passages on the same day. As part of that, we've also started a blog with reflections on the daily reading. Yours truly has been tapped to join the bloggers, and today I wrote my first entry. Of course, it would be a passage where Jesus is saying crazy stuff that sounds very unJesus-y. I think I did okay.

2007-01-08T12:49:00.000-06:00

Heh. Regarding the previous mention of the "Bible Faith Handkerchief," I guess someone's done the homework on these people. The connection to Robert Tilton is quite amusing, and confirms my suspicion that there isn't anyone on the other end but someone opening envelopes looking for cash.

It's just so crazy it might work!

2007-01-05T15:41:00.000-06:00

This how all great scams pull you in: an awesome envelope!

And so it was that one arrived yesterday at Stately Darn Floor Manor. In lieu of a return address, the envelope featured these words:

God's Holy Spirit instructed us to loan you this to start turning things around for you. So here it is. Use it and be blessed.

Given our increasingly bleak financial situation (the result of my decision to become entirely self-employed about 18 months ago) this sort of come-on is exactly the kind of thing that's going to pique my interest. I have no use for get-rich-quick schemes, I distrust multi-level marketing, and Robert Tilton is for entertainment purposes only. But this little piece of bulk mail hit me right in the sweet spot: challenging my faith while provoking my cynicism. That sort of thing can make your head explode.

It's wording like this that makes the cynic in me run around happily with a silly grin on his face:

Heavenly Father, we pray that this one who needs this divine help will write their needs on page two of this letter and will place this blessed, biblical, Acts 19:11, 12, Handkerchief and this sealed --

WHOA! This what? This "blessed, biblical, Acts 19:11, 12 Handkerchief"? The cynic grins.

-- and this sealed Bible prophecy under their side of the bed as they sleep tonight. Let Thy power from heaven descend upon this home tonight and tomorrow night, after this one has mailed their most pressing needs back to the 56-year-old church ministry. We pray that they will break open this sealed prophecy after sunset tomorrow. Amen.

Ignoring for a moment the mixed use of single and plural pronouns (a pet peeve) the whole sealed prophecy thing is intriguing. A sealed prophecy for me? Like one of those scrolls from the book of Revelation? What if I open it and it rains frogs in my kitchen?

Well, we'll worry about that later.

For now, you know these people are serious because although most of this message (and this is still on the envelope itself -- we haven't even opened it yet) is in a pleasant Garamond typeface, the "Amen" is in a heavy calligraphic typeface, suggesting not only that these people have a nice collection of fonts, but that they mean for you to see this "Amen" as if it were being sung by heavenly choirs on golden harps. A perfectly harmonious chord full of grandeur.

But back to the biblical handkerchief. Inside, the message continues. "I've read and reread in the Holy Bible how God instructs ministers to send Bible faith handkerchiefs to people's homes, and as a result, miracles of blessings occur." And then in large friendly letters are the words "Here, I loan you, in Jesus' holy name, this paper, bible faith handkerchief for something good to happen to you." This is tagged with Acts 19:11, 12.

For those as curious as I was, this passage does say that "God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them." So although it's a bit of a stretch to say that "God instructs ministers to send Bible faith handkerchiefs to people's homes," it's not entirely false. Just mostly.

The "handkerchief," by the way, was a piece of paper designed to look like a piece of cloth. The letter instructed me to print my name in the middle of the handkerchief along with my most pressing problem and the name of someone I loved who needs God's help. I am presuming that the loved one is not also the most pressing problem. Then I was told that I had to open my bible to Acts 19: 11, 12, place the paper handkerchief on it, and put it under my bed so I could "sleep on it."

Now that part's kind of weird, but I took this as a battle between cynicism and faith, and went ahead and did it anyway, smirking cynically all the while. Maybe that's the reason I had a horrible night's sleep -- that this bible faith handkerchief acted as the pea under the mattress of my cynicism upon which I have been known to recline with some regularity. Or maybe it was because the toddler woke at 3 am and decided it was the perfect hour for crawling out of her crib, running to the foot of our bed, and crying her head off.

Whatever the reason, I woke up grumpy.

The instructions for the next day were to mail the paper handkerchief back to the sender, along with a little form. "Pray for my family and me for . . . " the form started off, followed by a series of statements to check off. "A closer walk with Jesus." Sure, I checked that. "To be saved." Got that covered. "Our family member's health." I couldn't think of anyone ailing in our family, so I left that blank. "Confusion in my home." No, I didn't think I wanted that, so I left that blank, too. But I checked off "A better job," "A new car," "A money blessing." (Amen in fancy type to that!) There was also a separate spot that read: "Pray for God to bless me with this amount of money: _____________" Throwing caution (but not all my cynicism) to the wind I wrote: $1,000,000. What the heck. There's a faith journey I'm willing to take!

And of course, as you might guess, there was the suggestion that I also "sow a biblical seed offering unto the Lord" which we all know means "send us money." Perhaps this letter was from Robert Tilton after all.

But nowhere did it appear that God was going to withhold his blessings if I didn't give "Saint Matthew's Churches" of Tulsa, Oklahoma a bit of seed money. So I put the paper handkerchief back in an envelope and sent it back without a "seed offering." The letter instructed me to use the pre-paid envelope, but that had my address printed on it, and I felt that if this was really going to be a test of faith, God's blessings would have to find me without the help of the post office.

And then I opened the prophecy.

And really, it was just a lengthy bit of encouragement, and I really couldn't find anything unscriptural about it. No plague of frogs either. My cynicism was left unfed. I guess this is a good thing.

I have a suspicion that whoever opens this letter will look around for the seed offering, and finding nothing, toss it in the trash. (There goes the cynic again.) But what does it matter? Even if this mailing was just an unscrupulous method used to get money, for a few minutes it made me aware of how cynicism chips away at faith. I doubt that's what the sender had intended, but if it means that I will begin choosing faith over cynicism, this is a good thing, right?

And if a million dollars happens to come my way? Well, . . . I'll let you know how that goes.

2007-01-04T10:51:00.000-06:00

Man, what a mess. I go away for a few months and the comment SPAM blooms like dandelions on a fresh spring lawn. I've turned on comment approval while I try to delete all this excess garbage. Please forgive the inconvenience.

Pat Robertson predicts doom, gets publicity.

2007-01-03T19:18:00.000-06:00

I hate seeing stuff like this in the news.

In what has become an annual tradition of prognostications, religious broadcaster Pat Robertson predicted Tuesday that a terrorist attack on the United States would result in “mass killing” late in 2007.
“I’m not necessarily saying it’s going to be nuclear,” he said during his news-and-talk television show “The 700 Club” on the Christian Broadcasting Network. “The Lord didn’t say nuclear. But I do believe it will be something like that.”

Robertson said God told him during a recent prayer retreat that major cities and possibly millions of people will be affected by the attack, which should take place sometime after September.

I hate this sort of stuff because it reflects poorly on Christians. And I sometimes think the media loves to report on the babblings of Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and other embarassing evangelicalsbecause they know it reflects poorly on Christians. Honestly, I don't know a single Christian that pays any attention to Pat Robertson, but the media treats him like the Evangelical Pope, upon whose words all of Christendom hangs. Nothing could be further from the truth.

There's a particular subculture of Christianity that gives these people some power, but in my experience, most American evangelicals ignore them. Unfortunately, they have their own TeeVee shows and lots of media exposure from people willing to quote them.

But let's look at the dire prediction itself. There really are only three possibilities (and if this sounds a little like C.S. Lewis's famous trilemma, it's on purpose).

First is the possibility that God really did speak to Pat Robertson and tell him this prediction. If this is true, why did he only tell Pat Robertson? Is Pat the only Christian who God talks to about these things? And what would be the point of telling us at all, unless there was a way to avoid it? When God warned Abraham that Sodom and Gomorrah would be destroyed, at least Abraham pleaded with God to spare those cities, and God gave him five chances to find enough people to fill the "righteousnes quotient." Will Pat Robertson intercede for us? Or does this sound like he's a bit prideful of his predictions:

Robertson suggested in January 2006 that God punished then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon with a stroke for ceding Israeli-controlled land to the Palestinians.

The broadcaster predicted in January 2004 that President Bush would easily win re-election. Bush won 51 percent of the vote that fall, beating Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts. He also predicted Bush’s victory for a second term in 2005.

“I have a relatively good track record,” he said. “Sometimes I miss.”

In May, Robertson said God told him that storms and possibly a tsunami were to crash into America’s coastline in 2006. Even though the U.S. was not hit with a tsunami, Robertson on Tuesday cited last spring’s heavy rains and flooding in New England as partly fulfilling the prediction.

Second is the possibility that Pat Robertson really didn't hear God tell him anything of the sort, and he's a big fat liar.

And third is the possibility that Pat Robertson only thinks he heard God give him this little piece of prophecy. And I think this is the most likely.

What Pat Robertson should find most troubling is the fact that some of his earlier predictions haven't come true. Does he recall what the Old Testament instructs about what should be done to false prophets? Hint: it involves rocks.

UPDATE: Heh.

18 months later . . .

2007-01-03T14:49:00.000-06:00

So here's what's changed in the 18 months since I've posted last:

First: Daughter number two arrived a couple weeks after my last blog posting. If you think there might be some connection between lack of blogging and having a second young child around, you're exactly right!

Second: I quit my job about a month after my last blog posting so I could work from home. This is often a good thing, although it's not nearly as lucrative as we'd like, and I will probably be looking for a different job quite soon. Being one's own boss is nice. But being poor is not.

Third: The children destroyed my brain cells, and it's taken quite awhile for me to build up immunity to their mind-control rays. With the help of this hat made of aluminum foil (tin really doesn't work) I should be able to write again regularly.

But really, I just hope to be able to cultivate the discipline of daily writing again. And I've sat around for weeks wondering how I should jump back into the blogging fray, seein' as how I don't even read blogs daily anymore.

So I thought I'd just do it.

Here I go again.

If I only had the time . . .

2005-06-08T20:43:00.000-05:00

If I actually had any free time anymore, I would be forced to choose between blogging and doing a totally awesome "art" project like this.

And I'd likely choose the latter.

Narnia Trailer/Disney's new partnership

2005-05-10T17:49:00.000-05:00

In case you missed it during Saturday night's airing of "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" on ABC, here is a link to the first trailer for "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe."

It looks great!

I think Disney made a wise move to team up with Walden Media. Walden seems to be picking the right properties to turn into feature films. "Holes" was an excellent book-to-film translation, even if the movie didn't have the same feel as the Newbery Medal-winning book. (The book is a deceptively simple children's book, but in fact is a philosophical treatise on fate and self-determination. At least, that's how I saw it.) "Because of Winn Dixie," was a Newbery honor book, though reviews were mixed. (Haven't seen it yet, but Nehring didn't like it.) Walden is working on a live-action "Charlotte's Web," too. And along with "Narnia," Walden is planning another multi-book series: "The Dark is Rising" by Susan Cooper, a five-book series, one of which was a Newbery Honor Book, and another which won the Newbery Medal.

Disney needs a new partnership since its partnership with Pixar is at an end, and everything Pixar has done has been a winner for Disney.

With properties like the above, the Disney name could start being synonymous with "family films" again.

By the way, I've always wondered why more filmmakers didn't turn to Newbery titles when looking for family-oriented films. I can think of a bunch that would make excellent movies. I'd love to see a film version of the strongly pro-life book "The Giver." (Not because it's pro-life, but because it addresses a number of serious ethical questions that resonate with modern society.) It would have to be black and white, too, so it could be all artsy and stuff. (In my spare time (asssuming I have some once the kids get older) I think I may have to start writing screenplays of some of the better Newbery books.)

A failure to communicate

2005-05-10T17:34:00.000-05:00

A Darn Friend writes:

You may have heard the tragic news of the death of two eight year old girls in Zion, IL. Zion is the town in which I was raised.

While listening to Fox News (while waiting for an elevator at work) the female anchor was interviewing someone and asked a question like the following "since this town was founded as a religious community in the early 1900's has it been difficult to get information out of the town?"

I always found Zion's history interesting.

But, even as a child in the '70s I knew that Zion had been sociologically absorbed into the Chicago metropolitan area. I found the anchor's question amusing since the thought of 20,000 people living a life in no way isolated from the broader economy\transportation system\communication system\etc . . . and could in some way maintain a distinctive sense of community is pretty amazing . . . .

Not only amazing, but perhaps slightly offensive.

So here's the set-up. Scrap all the Red-State/Blue-State stuff. What lack of understanding is evident here? Is it that the coasts can never understand the heartland? Is it that the media elites -- whether conservative or liberal -- can't understand the common folk? Or is that the secularists -- whether conservative or liberal -- will never properly understand religious people?

Or is it something else?

Don't click here

2005-05-10T12:29:00.000-05:00

Feel free to ignore Arianna Huffington's new blog, which isn't so much a blog as it is a 48-car celebrity freeway pile-up, with pearls of wisdom from such luminaries as Bill Maher, Larry Gelbart, Gary "Monkey Business" Hart, Rob "Meathead" Reiner, Jerry "Governor Moonbeam" Brown," and Walter "I'm Still Alive" Cronkite.

Sense a theme?

The antichrist doesn't live here anymore

2005-05-07T19:06:00.000-05:00

No wonder we haven't been able to discover the identity of the Beast. We've been dialing the wrong number!

A newly discovered fragment of the oldest surviving copy of the New Testament indicates that, as far as the Antichrist goes, theologians, scholars, heavy metal groups, and television evangelists have got the wrong number. Instead of 666, it's actually the far less ominous 616.

So I guess this means that the Beast isn't R-O-N-A-L-D W-I-L-S-O-N R-E-A-G-A-N or G-E-O-R-G-E W-A-L-K-E-R B-U-S-H-J-R .

Meanwhile, Satanists are taking it in stride:

. . . [S]atanists responded coolly to the new 'Revelation'. Peter Gilmore, High Priest of the Church of Satan, based in New York, said: 'By using 666 we're using something that the Christians fear. Mind you, if they do switch to 616 being the number of the beast then we'll start using that.'

Doomed if you do, doomed if you don't.

2005-05-06T20:16:00.000-05:00

(Hat tip: Everything I Know is Wrong)

We'd long been told by our environmental betters that the planet is doomed because of global warming, so we'd best reduce our toxic emissions, including those caused by that 4-alarm chili. So here in the U.S. we've been doing a great job keeping the air clean and pure, imposing lots of environmental regulations on businesses, increasing standards for automobiles, etc.

So have we delayed doom?

No, say our environmental betters. In fact, we now have a new problem. Our air is too clean.

Reductions in industrial emissions in many countries, along with the use of particulate filters for car exhausts and smoke stacks, seem to have reduced the amount of dirt in the atmosphere and made the sky more transparent.

That sounds like very good news. But the researchers say that more solar energy arriving on the ground will also make the surface warmer, and this may add to the problems of global warming. More sunlight will also have knock-on effects on cloud cover, winds, rainfall and air temperature that are difficult to predict.

. . .

Researchers will now focus on working out the long-term effects of clearer air. One thing they do know is that black particulate matter in the air has been contributing a cooling effect to the ground. "It is clear that the greenhouse effect has been partly masked in the past by air pollution," says Andreas Macke, a meteorologist at the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences in Kiel, Germany.

In other words, "Oops, sorry folks. I guess air pollution actually reduced global warming!"

Sigh. Ever feel like you just can't win with these people?

Shrek: Blech

2005-05-06T15:39:00.000-05:00

Last time I checked, the number one movie at the box office last year was "Shrek II." "The Passion of the Christ" came in third.

Third, of course, is amazingly good for a film that had so much stacked up against it: an R-rated Biblical film in a foreign language with tons of gory violence and a lot of bad press by people who pronounced it anti-Semitic.

In contrast, "Shrek II" had it easy. An animated sequel to an enormously popular film, aimed squarely at the family filmgoers.

I didn't see either film. I did see the original "Shrek," and with all the adulation heaped upon it I thought I might be the only one who hated it. All poop and fart jokes and double entendres. No thanks. It bugs me when Hollywood creates a movie designed to appeal to pre-teen kids, and then fills it with adolescent- to adult-level vulgarities. Mixed messages? You bet.

So I was pleased to see Nehring ripping Shrek II today. He also makes some great points about this and other "post-modern family films."

I really hated this piece of crap. I know this is a very successful film and people loved it. I am not one of those people. Honestly, I think films like this are quite damaging to our culture.

This film is another in the new string of post-modern family films. These films (Shrek, Robots, Shark Tale, Cat In The Hat) are thinly veiled attacks set up to usurp traditional morality. They push relativist morality, sneer at traditional life and disdain for all authority beyond one’s nature. These “kid films” also are littered with blunt sexual and drug references, and poop humor.

Shrek II is the king of these post-modern films. It pushes the notion that we should trust in our natures over our traditions. The characters find happiness in themselves over accepting the tenets of society. Can societies be wrong in their thinking? Yes, without question. But Shrek and the rest of these films push the blanket notion that traditional society is always wrong. The individual and his singular truth are always right. This is a deadly message to offer to children. (Emphasis mine)

He also adds this:

And to think, the director Andrew Adamson is helming The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

Yep. That worries me a bit, too. I left that out of my post on the pitfalls facing the new Narnia film, but it did occur to me as well.

Last year pundits couldn't resist setting up the false dichotomy of "Fahrenheit 9/11" vs. "The Passion of the Christ," but perhaps the great divide should have been betwen "The Passion" and "Shrek II."

I Want My M(onk)TV

2005-05-04T19:47:00.000-05:00

(Hat tip: The Anchoress)

Though most reality tv participants get their fifteen minutes of fame and disappear back into obscurity, here's one reality tv show that gave its participants something eternal.

Five men, ranging from an atheist in the pornography trade to a former Protestant paramilitary, have found their lives unexpectedly transformed in the latest incarnation of reality television - the monastery.

More Oh Brother! than Big Brother, the five underwent a spiritual makeover by spending 40 days and 40 nights living with Roman Catholic monks in Worth Abbey, West Sussex.

The experiment, which will be shown on BBC 2 this month, was designed to test whether the monastic tradition begun by St Benedict 1,500 years ago still has any relevance to the modern world.

Although participants were not required to vote each other out, they faced the challenge of living together in a community and following a disciplined regime of work and prayer. By the end, the atheist, Tony Burke, 29, became a believer and gave up his job producing trailers for a sex chat line after having what he described as a "religious experience".

Gary McCormick, 36, the former Ulster Defence Association member, who spent much of his early life in prison, began to overcome his inner demons.

Peter Gruffydd, a retired teacher, regained the faith he had rejected in his youth and Nick Buxton, 37, a Cambridge undergraduate, edged closer to becoming an Anglican priest.

The fifth "novice", 32-year-old Anthony Wright, who works for a London legal publishing company, started to come to terms with his childhood traumas.

Deleting an "Incredible" Scene

2005-05-04T19:09:00.000-05:00

At Townhall.com, Paul D. Gallagher writes about a scene that was deleted from the theatrical release of The Incredibles, but shows up on the DVD. It would have been interesting to hear the reaction a theater audience might have had to this scene. I suspect certain members of the audience would have stood and applauded. But I'll let Gallagher tell about it:

The setting is a backyard barbeque in their neighborhood. Helen Parr is introduced to Beth, a commodities broker. Beth talks excitedly about her job, then asks what Helen does. “I’m a homemaker,” Helen replies. Blank stare from Beth, who cuts off Helen’s next sentence with a curt, “That’s nice.” Beth walks off, and Helen scowls.

A minute later, Helen overhears Beth talking to some other neighbors:

Beth: “Throw away my prime years trailing after a bunch of snotty kids? No, thank you! Hello, no thanks! Hello, I want to do something with my life!”

Helen: “Wait a minute! You consider raising a family … nothing?”

Beth: “Well, it’s fine if you’re not suited for more substantial things.”

Helen: “Do you have any idea how much suffering would fail to take root if more people were just good parents? What’s more important than that? What kind of job?”

Beth: “Uh … uh …”

Helen: “A job saving lives? Is that important? What about risking my life?”

Beth: “Well, I … uh …”

Helen: “What about confronting evil on a daily basis for years so that people like you can sleep in safety and security? Would you consider that kind of job ‘substantial’?”

Beth: “Yeah. I would. Yes.”

Helen: “Well, that’s the job I gave up for my new job -- raising a family. And nobody’s going to tell me it’s any less important.”

Wow. Let’s take a moment to let that sink in. We have a hero in a major film defending the job of homemaker. Rewind it all you like. Then notice the sky’s not falling. And if you think I liked it, imagine how my wife, Cindy -- a homemaker and mother of six -- felt about it.

Like I said, imagine a theater full of stay-at-home moms who have taken the kids out to a Saturday matinee showing would have reacted. Loud applause? I think so.

Before you presume some Hollywood conspiracy to take out this powerful scene, read on:

Brad Bird said he included the scene because it reflected what his own wife encountered every time they went to a social function. People who found it easy to chat with others who worked outside the home felt awkward and didn’t know what to say when they met this strange creature who called herself … a homemaker.

. . . But Bird said he cut it reluctantly and only because he realized it would be better to begin with the heroes being heroes (and he was right). Besides, the finished film still strongly endorses the homemaker option (albeit implicitly), and the scene is available for all to see on DVD.

By the way, if you haven't seen Brad Bird's "The Iron Giant," go out and rent (or buy) that one. It's quite enjoyable.

Cool Pictures of Storm Clouds

2005-05-04T19:05:00.000-05:00

Kent at Trolling in Shallow Water doesn't know where these pictures came from, but he's posting them anyway.

This is what storm chasers live for. Typically, I don't mind severe thunderstorms. In fact, I think they're pretty cool to watch through the big picture window in the living room. But when the wind picks up, I head for the basement. Tornados are one of my recurring nightmares. I've never seen one, but when I was a kid one touched down in our tiny town. If you'd traced the path of the damage, it appeared that it might have touched down a half a block to the SW of our house, and then again a half a block to the NE of our house, and then again about another block NNE, where it must have stayed down, doing lots of damage in a two-block area. One person was killed by downed power lines. I was a bit freaked out, to put it mildly.

I'd still like to see an actual tornado someday, out on the prairie where you can watch 'em from a distance.

Knowing that I'm a big baby about tornados, I don't know why I went to see Twister when it came out in the summer of '96. But I did. And it just so happened that a big windstorm hit Our Fair City later that evening. At the time I lived in a second-floor apartment, and I spent most of the night in the stairwell.

I should have known better.

Welcome to tornado season. I'll be in the basement until September.

It's May . . . not that anyone would notice.

2005-05-03T19:10:00.000-05:00

One more thing before I buckle down and get to work.

I am sick and tired of the cold. We actually had snow this weekend. Almost blizzard-like conditions for a few minutes. And I need to scrape my car in the morning before work.

Look at the date. It's MAY!

Mid-April, when the temperatures were up in the 70s, my garden sprung to life. But now each morning I go outside and note how the cold has affected the plants. My bleeding hearts were coping well with the freezing temperatures at night, springing back during the day. But last night they'd had enough, and there was no resurrecting them this morning. They are all lying flat. And dead. And I am quite upset about it.

"Especially tiny tots and your pregnant women!"

2005-05-03T18:58:00.000-05:00

I mentioned yesterday that I was disappointed with the new film version of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." But I failed to mention the very best thing about the film -- the thing which catapults it ahead of the book, the radio series, and the television series.

It's this song.

Serving God, one ink cartridge at a time

2005-05-03T18:44:00.000-05:00

Some monks make wine, and some make delicious fruitcakes.

And then there are the Laser Monks, providing office supplies at huge savings.

I'm not making this up.

Narnia movie a minefield for Disney

2005-05-03T12:49:00.000-05:00

The Life section in today's USA Today has this lengthy article (lengthy for USA Today anyway) on the new Narnia movie which Disney studios hopes will be the first of a seven-film franchise. The first trailer for the movie will air Saturday night during ABC's showing of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and a longer trailer will be attached to this summer's most highly-anticipated film: Revenge of the Sith. The film itself won't arrive in theaters until December.

I'm looking forward to seeing the film, but it will be interesting to see if Disney can avoid all the pitfalls that accompany bringing a book like this to the screen. Consider:

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is an enormously popular book: Until HarperCollins got the US Publication rights, LWW was considered the first book in the series (it was the first Narnia book that Lewis wrote, and really should be read first even though HarperCollins numbers it second), and as such, it's the book most people will have read if they read any of the series at all. Fans of the book will want to see a film version that's faithful to the story. Even minor detractions will cause an uproar from some quarters.

The story is a parallel of the death and resurrection of Christ: C.S. Lewis was one of the greatest Christian thinkers of the last century. His books are read, reread, quoted, excerpted, and passed along almost like religious tracts by many Christians, and Christians -- who already have a love/hate relationship with Hollywood -- will want to make doubly sure that a film version of one of the best-loved novels in Christendom remains faithful to its message of sacrifice and redemption. If the film downplays or dilutes the Christian message in any way, count on an outcry.

Actually, count on an outcry anyway, because no matter how faithful the film version is, some people won't be happy unless there's an altar call at the end. And other people will reject it because a) it's a fantasy, b) it's got a witch in it, and c) the Christ figure isn't Jesus himself.

Disney has been repeatedly targeted by some Christian and pro-family organizations: In recent years, Disney's managed to alienate the very audience it seeks, so this is a big risk for Disney. If they don't do it right, they will only be confirming for some Christians how seemingly out of touch they are.

The first trailers will be telling. A positive reaction from Narnia fans will likely result in an overall positive feeling toward the filim as the release date approaches. Negative reaction will dog the film until December.

I'm hoping Disney manages to pull it off, if only because I want to see film versions of the later books in the series. But I'm already wondering how Disney will handle "The Last Battle," which is essentially the Narnian "Revelation" with all that end of the world heaven and hell stuff. If the Narnian worship of Aslan is Lewis's parallel to Christianity, what will Disney do with the Arab-like Calormenes who appear in later books, and whose religion is Lewis's parallel to Islam?

In spite of the changes to the source material, Tolkien fans were so pleased with the first film in the Lord of the Rings trilogy that their initial outcry turned to fevered anticipation for the next two films. But because the Narnia series has such strong religious symbolism, Disney's going to be walking a minefield with each release.

The Reader's Digest Condensed Version of the Hitchhiker' Guide

2005-05-02T19:31:00.000-05:00

Saw "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" movie this past weekend. If, like me, you've heard the original radio play, own the DVD of the BBC series, and have read all five books in the trilogy, know that the new feature film is just different enough from the other versions of the story.

But also know that it clips along at a frenetic pace, and the best gags from the radio/tv/book version are reduced practically to one-liners. So if you liked one or more of the other versions, you're going to be disappointed. And if you've never heard/watched/read one of the other versions, you're going to be confused.

There are a couple nifty cameos. Simon Jones plays the holographic image that greets the Heart of Gold upon its arrival at Magrathea. And the original Marvin from the tv series appears in one scene.

But honestly, the most important plot point of the whole thing -- the whole Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything question -- is downplayed to tbe point of being unnecessary. Which suggests that the film itself was unnecessary, though the special effects are quite special. The Vogons in particular were very well done.

But I think I'll just pull out my DVD of the tv series, and watch it again. The tv version was a lot funnier.

Two Toddlers, Six Projects

2005-05-02T19:16:00.000-05:00

It's two-toddler night here at Stately Darn Floor manor; meaning that once again we are watching my wife's sister's kid while she attends a night class. So it goes, Mon thru Wed, for the next three weeks. Lid and Em were born 6 days apart. I suppose this means they'll be best of friends some day. Right now they're rivals for my wife's attentions. And at the moment I can hear them both upstairs whining in unison about some toddler-level injustice.

And I'm feeling like a rat for being down in my "office" while chaos reigns upstairs.

But not only is it two-toddler night, it's six-project week, and that means that as soon as I punch out at my day job, I punch in at my night job.

(Yes, I'm taking a small break, but project #1 pays by the job, not the hour.)

Serenity, now!

2005-04-30T11:40:00.000-05:00

Surely you watched "Firefly" in its brief run on television, right?

&amp;lt;br&gt;

And surely you bought the awesome DVD set that included unaired episodes, right?

Then surely you'll agree that September is a long time to wait for this.

Video footage of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker

2005-04-30T07:20:00.000-05:00

Here is a link to a video news release about the rediscovery of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker which contains a brief glimpse of the bird itself (as well as archival footage from over 60 years ago). (Hat tip: Laura Erickson's Birder Blog, which also has a number of entries on the find.)

The video is really rough . . . like seeing fuzzy pictures of Nessie or Bigfoot or UFOs. But it was enough to identify this flying object.

Obsolete Again

2005-04-29T18:41:00.000-05:00

I still haven't fully embraced the MacOSX, and though I now spend more time in OSX than I do in OS9, I'm still more comfortable with OS9, having worked on Macs since the days of OS6. OSX was such a departure from the usual way of doing things that I was (and to an extent continue to be) reluctant to let go of the known and take a leap of faith into the unknown.

My Mac has the ability to start up in either OS9 or OSX -- a feature Apple has since discontinued. And for the longest time I kept it in OS9, only conducting small experiments with OSX. The only thing that kept me in OS9 was that I hadn't upgraded to OSX versions of QuarkXpress and Photoshop -- and that running these programs in Classic Mode was often a dicey proposition.

And then I got a project which required me to have the latest version of QuarkXpress, which also required me to go one step further into OSX and upgrade to Panther (OSX 10.3) And now I've slipped even further from the safety of my moorings.

One of the reason I've never been fully satisfied with OSX is that it's far too much like Microsoft Windows for my tastes. The navigation is Windows-like, and though you can set it up so it looks like OS9, it still operates like a web browser. Can someone explain to me why navigating through your file system should act like a web browser? Navigating the file system should not require a "back" button.

Moving files and folders in OSX now requires me to have two finder windows open at the same time. This goes against the logical construction of a file system. Think of it in physical terms. Let's say you have a desk drawer with two folders in it. You want to move a document from one folder to the next, so you open both folders, remove the document from one folder, and place it in the other. You close both folders and then you close the drawer. That's how it worked in OS9.

In OSX, the equivalent actions requires that you summon up a second desk that is an exact duplicate of the first desk. You open the drawers in both desks, remove the document from the folder in one desk, and transfer it to the equivalent draw er in the second folder in the second desk, which causes the exact same action to happen in the equivalent drawer in the first desk. You then cause the second desk to vanish in a puff of binary code.

This makes no logical sense, and it's one reason OSX never struck me as particularly friendly.

I upgraded to Panther less than a month ago, and as often happens to me, the moment I upgrade, the upgrade becomes obsolete. Today, Apple releases the next version of OSX -- nicknamed "Tiger," and I'm only just getting used to Panther. I suspect my computer is old enough and slow enough that upgrading is probably not a wise idea. So is it time to get a new computer? Probably. But my affinity for OS9 makes the prospect of a new computer less appealing. Curse you Steve Jobs! I want my dual startup! I want the freedom to start up in OS9 if I feel like it!

Granted, there are some awesomely cool features in Tiger that I can't wait to try out. But . . . but I like my OS9! (Besides, I still have some very good games for OS9, and what the heck am I supposed to do about them? Give them up?)

Maybe there's a hack somewhere that will allow the latest and greatest G5 to start up in lowly OS9 if so desired.

If not, I'm sure I'll end up buying a new computer eventually anyway, but I'm hanging on to my current one . . . just like I hung on to my even older Mac, . . . the one with the SCSI interfaces by which I can operate (among other things) my elderly but quite useful scanner.

I shouldn't need to have three computers to get my work done.

But at least none of them are running Windows.

Ivory-Billed Woodpecker -- Found!

2005-04-28T22:31:00.000-05:00

Well, this is cool news.

Once a dominant creature of great Southern hardwood forest, its numbers dwindled as logging increased. The woodpecker inspired one of the first conservation efforts in the nation's history, but its seeming failure turned the ivory bill into a symbol of loss. The last documented sighting was in Louisiana in 1944.

But the ivory bill lived on as a kind of ghost in rumor and in numerous possible sightings. Despite lengthy expeditions, no sighting was confirmed, until Feb. 11, 2004.

On that date Gene M. Sparling III sighted a large woodpecker with a red crest in the Cache River refuge. Tim W. Gallagher at the Cornell Lab saw the report from Mr. Sparling on a Web site where he was describing a kayak trip.

Within two weeks Mr. Gallagher and Bobby R. Harrison of Oakwood College in Huntsville, Ala., were in a canoe in the refuge, with Mr. Sparling guiding them.

Mr. Gallagher said he had expected to camp out for a week, but after one night out, on Feb. 27, he and Mr. Harrison were paddling up a bayou bounded on both sides by cypress and tupelo when they saw a very large woodpecker fly in front of their canoe.

When they wrote down their notes independently and compared them, Mr. Gallagher said, Mr. Harrison was struck by the reality of the discovery and began sobbing, repeating, "I saw an ivory bill."

Mr. Gallagher felt the same. "I couldn't speak," he said.

Once Mr. Gallagher convinced Dr. Fitzpatrick of Cornell, the effort to confirm the sightings began in earnest, and the result, published in the online version of Science, carried the names of 16 people from seven institutions who participated in a search that turned up seven confirmed new sightings and a blurry bit of videotape.

Actually, I'm not surprised that the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker has been "rediscovered." There have been a number of suspected sightings in recent years. And though pedigreed researchers from universities never turned up any Ivory-Billed Woodpeckers, locals always insisted that they had seen the birds.

Very cool. I guess they'll have to put it back into the field guides now.

Serve your time or surrender your season tickets!

2005-04-27T15:50:00.000-05:00

Now here’s creative sentencing, and I’m tempted to say that this could only happen in Wisconsin where season tickets to Packers games are jealously guarded.

Sharon E. Rosenthal, 59, of Appleton will decide whether to donate her family’s Packer tickets for the next season to charity or serve 90 days in jail as part of her sentence for one felony count of theft. She was sentenced in Winnebago County Circuit Court Friday.

The criminal complaint states that Rosenthal had taken money totaling more than $3,000 from labor union accounts prior to leaving the organization’s membership. The check transactions were later discovered. When interviewed by police, Rosenthal said the money was taken and later reimbursed from her husband’s retirement fund. She withdrew money from the union in order to help pay household bills, according to the complaint.

While Rosenthal told police financial hardship was an issue, she and her husband managed to maintain the cost of four tickets to the Packers’ three-game season package.

Rosenthal argued that the tickets were her husband’s rather than hers. Judge Scott Woldt nonetheless offered her the decision to either serve the jail time or donate the 12 tickets for the upcoming season to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

A geek and his money are soon parted

2005-04-22T18:46:00.000-05:00

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

The Amazon.com link doesn't have an image -- yet -- but I saw one of these lightsabers at our local Borders, . . . and my geek-o-meter red-lined. The Amazon.com link doesn't have a price yet, either. But the one I saw was over $100 bucks. And it was very, very cool.

I mean, really . . . what else are you going to spend that $100 on?

The internet brings people together

2005-04-19T23:41:00.000-05:00

Football Fans for Truth (hey, wait . . . they're not "Football Fans and Beyond" anymore? When did that happen?) points to proof that where two or three fans of something are gathered together, there a webpage will be in their midst. I mean, how many members could the Poseidon Adventure Fan Club actually have?

Okay, the truth is I was deeply affected (damaged, more likely) by all the disaster movies I saw in the 70s. Where some people blame their nightmares on horror movies or slasher flicks, mine are rooted in "The Towering Inferno" or "Earthquake" (in Sensurround!) or one of the assorted "Airport" movies. But "The Poseidon Adventure" really spurred my imagination. I remember reenacting the movie with a Fisher-Price Little People Village, flipping it upside down and forcing all the wooden peg-people who were stuck on the ceilings of their plastic businesses to escape doom -- somehow.

Whoa . . . sudden flashback. I now have "There's got to be a morning after" running through my head.

Blogkeeping stuff

2005-04-19T23:09:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I finally changed the "Mp3 of the Week" which turned into the "Mp3 of the Month," but hey, it was Don Chaffer of Waterdeep, and how can you go wrong?

I've actually been listening to a lot of Waterdeep lately, and even purchased Sink or Swim as a download from their online store, and it's spent more time in my car's CD player than any other CD in recent memory. I think I blunted the laser playing "And" over and over until I figured out the meaning of the title. Besides that, it's a lovely song. And so is "Lonely Sometimes" and "18 Bullet Holes." The entire album is worth purchasing if only for these three songs. But you can download single songs at their website, too.

But the new "Mp3 of the Week" is "Summertime" by Mae. Actually, that link takes you to a page with about four downloads on it, so go and partake.

I also added a few blogs to the blogroll.

First, there's "Hook and Crook" by a friend who is crazy into crocheting. Plus she links to me, so she's obviously got good taste in blogs.

Then we've got "Nehring the Edge," a fellow Badger Stater who brings us movie reviews and nothin' but. But I like his take, even if he didn't care for "Sky Captain." C'mon, sometimes you just have to let art wash over you.

I also added blogs by Mark Lee of Third Day and Jeremy Thiessen of Downhere. Go, read, and support those rock stars.

Aslan is on the move; his website is not

2005-04-19T22:48:00.000-05:00

Jeffrey Overstreet says the new website for the Narnia movie is fantastic. I wouldn't know, since it's so overloaded with animated graphics my computer bogs right down.

Why I am switching to Coca-Cola. Forever.

2005-04-17T20:40:00.000-05:00

Was this ad campaign developed by Pokemon-saturated high fructose corn syrup-addled tragically hip first graders? Because I do not get it.

Happily, this means I am not the desired demographic.

But, . . . who is? Thirsty robots on a diet?

The inertia of slack

2005-04-15T17:04:00.000-05:00

Sorry sorry sorry. It's been a busy week. And when it wasn't busy, it was far too nice outside for me to spend it sitting in front of the computer. But a change is on the horizon, and within the month I may be back up to my regular posting level, because there's no way I'm giving up this blog. But in the meantime, y'all may have to put up with these extended absences, and plain ol' boring entries.

Part of the problem (and part of the solution is admitting it) is that the longer I stay away -- for whatever reason -- the easier staying away becomes. When you're uninspired, it's easier to stay uninspired than to expend energy in the search for inspiration.

But here's what's been inspiring me this week:

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Wonderfalls was a television series that aired briefly on the Fox network last year. Though it launched to critical acclaim and quickly gained a strong following, it wasn't strong enough, and the series was cancelled after only four episodes aired. But 13 episodes were produced, and they're now out on DVD.

Though I've only seen about half the episodes so far, I'm really enjoying the series. The premise is certainly original. The protagonist, Jaye Tyler, is a twenty-something slacker who attended Brown University and earned a degree in philosophy, but then returned to her home in Niagara Falls where she works in a souvenir shop and lives in a trailer park, much to the chagrin of her affluent, successful family.

Though Jaye's main personality trait is an ironic detachment to life and the people around her, everything changes when a lion figurine at the souvenir shop begins talking to her. The lion (and a wide assortment of knick-knacks and chotchkies) start commanding Jaye to commit random acts of kindness. Though these acts don't always seem like kindness, no one is more surprised than Jaye when obeying the voices brings about good consequences for those around her.

On the surface it sounds like a one-gimmick show, yet over the course of just the seven episodes I've seen, I'd say the show works on multiple levels. On one level, the show perfectly captures that angsty post-college period of finding your place in the world. The snappy dialogue and ironic sensibility fit the wacky situations that Jaye encounters. But on a deeper level viewers will notice existential questions about God and life and "the meaning of it all." This other level isn't readily apparent in the four episodes that aired, but start to color the series in the episodes viewers will only get to see on DVD.

Jaye, the slacker philosophy student who hears voices and reluctantly accepts her role as "Joan of Niagara Falls" find a fitting foil in her brother, an atheist theology student who first thinks Jaye is going crazy, but begins doubting his belief that nothing is out there.

Christians will probably be a little put off by prime-time-level obscenities ("bitch" or "ass" for example) and the frank talk of sex (the series is not appropriate for children in spite of having the occasional talking puppet), but may find much to embrace in a tale of a woman who regularly hears a still, small voice and obeys it. In being forced to connect with other people -- in spite of herself -- she changes both their lives and her own.

The show has also has me reflecting on God's providence, and passages such as Jeremiah 29:11 or Romans 8:28. The objects that speak to Jaye do not explain themselves, and at times their instructions seem counterproductive (in one episode she is told to smash the taillight on a car) but there are always good results.

And sometimes following God means doing things that just seem . . . crazy. Or sometimes things seem like they must be outside of God's will because they don't make sense from a human point of view. But everything works out for the good anyway.

In that sense the show strengthens my own faith and has me listening a little more carefully for the still, small voice.

Drew says "check it out"

Doyle to Reject Cigarette Tax Increase

2005-04-08T16:51:00.000-05:00

What? Diamond Jim Doyle rejecting a tax increase? A tax increase proposed by Republican lawmakers? What is this? Bizarro Wisconsin?

Hoping to reduce the number of smokers while shoring up the financially troubled Medicaid program, a bipartisan group of legislators introduced a bill Wednesday to raise the cigarette tax by $1 a pack.

But lawmakers on the Legislature's budget-writing panel, as well as Gov. Jim Doyle's administration, might have snuffed it out before it gains momentum.

Doyle's top deputy, Department of Administration Secretary Marc Marotta, told the Joint Finance Committee that Doyle doesn't support any tax increases, including those on tobacco sales. And some committee members added that they wouldn't back it, either.

Okay, first of all, let's all have a chuckle at the claim that Gov. Doyle doesn't support any tax increases.

Heh-heh.

But, okay, you want to cut down on the number of smokers? Raise the tax 2 dollars. No, make it 5 or 10. Heck, make 'em cost 20 bucks a pack. Not only will that cut down on smoking, but think of the money you'll raise from the poor souls who are so addicted that they'll spend their last dollar just for a jolt of nicotine.

Why doesn't the state simply outlaw cigarettes altogether if the goal is to reduce the number of smokers? Because there's good money to be made from people's vices. So they'll pretend that they're doing it for our health, while brazenly making money off it. I think there's a word for these kinds of people: hypocrites.

But Jim Doyle's against it? I think I just stepped through the looking glass. Granted, Doyle claims that his budget has no tax increases either.

Heh-heh.

We also have State Rep. Carol Roessler, who claims that the $1 tax increase isn't a tax increase at all. It's a "user fee." And Rep. Curt Gielow says that it's an insurance "co-pay."

Perhaps these semantic gymnastics are their way to try to get Gov. Doyle to sign it.

Group opposes lowering flag for Pope

2005-04-07T13:03:00.000-05:00

This week I'd noticed that a number of flags around Our Fair City were at half-mast, and I couldn't figure out why. Then it occurred to me that it was probably for the Pope. Rather unexpected, given that he wasn't an American, but on the whole I think everyone would agree that it's a nice gesture.

Everyone except these people.

An anti-religion group is denouncing Gov. Jim Doyle's executive order to lower flags to mark the death of Pope John Paul II.

Doyle's directive appears like "an endorsement of Roman Catholicism over other religious viewpoints," according to the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

On Saturday, the governor praised the pope as both an inspiration spiritual leader and a man who has made "a significant impact on social justice." Doyle cited the pope's fight against communism, his opening of dialogue with other faiths, and his fight for peace around the world.

The governor's office today noted President Bush had directed that flags be lowered to half-staff at all public buildings. The governor's directive matches the president's order.

Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, saw the pope in a different light from the governor.

"The pope was the world's leading sexist," Gaylor said in a statement issued today. "Why should Wisconsin women be expected to revere his anti-woman, antediluvian teachings?" The pope also had been critical of gay marriages, the statement noted.
"Let's reserve the honor of half-staff for true American heroes," Gaylor said.

Hmmmm. How did she feel about flags at half-staff for Ronald Reagan? I wonder . . .

Anyway, here's a link to the group's statement. Oh, look! Reagan is mentioned!

Has there ever been anything like this media adulation? Whole front news sections were devoted yesterday to "His Holiness," as if the whole world were Catholic. It is hard to imagine the death of any world leader summoning the same kind of uncritical coverage, with the possible exception of an assassinated U.S. President. Former Pres. Reagan's death last summer certainly rated nothing like this.

Go to the link for the whole ridiculous thing. I shouldn't be giving these guys any more attention than they're already getting, because I know they just love it.

Nightmare fuel

2005-04-07T12:26:00.000-05:00

(Hat Tip: Ghost of a Flea)

On the whole, I think bats are pretty cool. They're also fantastic bug-eating machines, and so as far as I'm concerned, if having a lot of bats around means fewer mosqitoes, I'm all for it.

Vampire bats, on the other hand, are like mosquitoes in mammalian form. And if the very idea of a bat swooping down to have a little nip at your jugular creeps you out, then don't click here, because you don't want to read the following:

Vampire bats' thirst for blood has driven them to evolve an unexpected sprinting ability. Most bats are awkward on the ground, but the common vampire bat can bound along at more than 1 metre per second.

One meter per second isn't that fast. But while you should be able to outrun them easily, the fact that you have to outrun them sends me over the edge.

Researchers made the discovery at a ranch in Trinidad, with five adult male vampire bats (Desmodus rotundus), which they caught using cows as bait.

Whoa, . . . stop right there. Cows as bait? There aren't many animals for which you'd use cows as bait. (A Tyrannosaurus Rex comes to mind.) And those animals who would see a cow as "bait" are not the sort of animals I want around me.

We continue:

They put the bats on a treadmill inside a Plexiglas cage and recorded their movements with high-speed video. . . . After one short walk on the treadmill the bats mastered both the dynamics of the machine and recognized the purr of the motor. "Vampire bats are ridiculously smart," Riskin says. "As smart as a dog."

Okay, the idea of bats on a treadmill is a hilarious image. But take a look at this and tell me if that doesn't completely creep you out. And remember . . . "vampire bats are ridiculously smart." (And also remember that you have to outrun them.)

In the wild, vampire bats feed on the blood of large animals such as cattle, horses and pigs. They sneak up over the ground and make small incisions in the skin (usually the heel) of sleeping prey.

"Bats take a long time to feed," explains Colin Catto of the London-based Bat Conservation Trust. "If they were trying to hover for all that time they would expend an awful lot of energy."

See, there's nothing to fear from a bat on the wing. It's the bat that's loping along the ground at you that you've got to worry about. Let's go to the video again.

That's enough fuel for more than a dozen nightmares.

Euthanasia and Co-Dependency

2005-04-06T21:07:00.000-05:00

The Pope wasn't the only person who passed away while I was taking a blogging break.

This third attempt by the courts to end Terri Schiavo's life succeeded. And as a result I can't help but think that we as a nation failed. The polls that showed that nearly 70% of Americans supported the removal of her feeding tube utterly astound me. This was not, as some seemed to think, an issue that followed the usual political divides. Conservatives and liberals, Democrats and Republicans, supported ending her life.

I commented earlier that I thought the reason so many people supported removal of her feeding tube was because we fear that we may one day be in that state ourselves, and because we don't think we could handle it, we don't really want her to handle it either.

Rachel Rose, guest-blogging for her daughter at The Dawn Patrol, says this is an issue of co-dependency. (Now there's a psychobabble phrase I haven't heard in quite awhile. I think it's fallen out of vogue.)

It must have been about 15 years ago. The concept of co-dependency was just making the rounds at the time. A friend of mine was interested in learning more about it. She decided to attend an open Codependents Anonymous meeting. When I met her afterwards, I asked her how it went. "Ridiculous", she replied. "There was a woman there who described her mother as saying, "Here, take a lozenge. I have a sore throat."

"What's wrong with that?" I playfully rejoined.

This funny episode became a sad object lesson to me today, as I began to see my American brethren as (maybe) fitting into the roles of just "co-dependent" people, good people, compassionate people, but pathologically overidentifying with how they thought they would feel in Terri's place. It is, of course, impossible for anyone to know how they would really feel. Any student of elementary logic knows that A cannot be B unless all the attributes of both are equal. This is one of the big rational problems with relativism. Yet, these moral relativists were in so much pain looking at Terri and thinking about how they thought she must be feeling. There had to be a way to stop those intolerable feelings. "That's it!" they concluded.

"Here, Terri. Let's have your feeding tube. I have a sore psyche."

Sure it's darkly amusing, but I think there's something to this connection between co-dependency and our cultural support of euthanasia and doctor-asssisted suicide.

The power of forgiveness

2005-04-06T20:33:00.000-05:00

A couple weeks before the Pope's death, I started writing a post about him, but never got around to finishing or posting it. What I was going to say is similar to what my colleague Mark said over at Stones Cry Out. This Pope's firm stance on moral issues made him a stong ally of evangelical protestants --an alliance that is, perhaps, unprecedented in the history of Christendom. And let me echo what Mark said here:

At a time when theological liberalism was as likely to take over the heart of the Catholic Church, he was called by God to be a bastion of support for orthodoxy.

But the image that may stay with me the most is of the Pope meeting with Mehmet Ali Agca, the assassin who gravely wounded the Pope in a 1981 shooting. During the meeting, the Pope forgave Agca for the attack.

Recently, Mehmet's brother Adnan Agca reported that Mehmet was in deep mourning for the Pope.

"He is extremely saddened, he is in grief. He loved the Pope," said Adnan Agca. "They developed a personal friendship while Mehmet Ali was (imprisoned) in Italy, and they had announced their brotherhood.

"The Pope showed my brother and the rest of our family closeness. He was a great man," Adnan Agca said, adding he and his mother were received by the Pope six times at the Vatican over the years.

Forgiveness is really just a small, simple act, but the reverberations echo for years.

Now is the time at Darn Floor when we dance!

2005-04-06T20:31:00.000-05:00

Why? Because it's time to send out invoices!

Gene Robinson hints that Jesus was gay

2005-04-05T18:46:00.000-05:00

Greg at What Attitude Problem says "Gene Robinson is a goiter on the body of Christianity."

A goiter? Why a goiter? Well, while you're pondering that, ponder this: in recent comments, Rev. Gene Robinson, the Bishop of New Hampshire in the Episcopal Church of the U.S. whose ordination made headlines not too long ago, seemed to be hinting that Jesus was gay.

Bishop Robinson, whose consecration in 2003 triggered a schism between evangelicals and liberals in the worldwide Anglican Communion, was giving an address entitled "Homosexuality and the Body of Christ: Is There a New Way?"
In answer to a question from the congregation about how the acceptance of homosexuality could be squared with the scriptural emphasis on redemption for sins, the Bishop replied: "Interestingly enough, in this day of traditional family values, this man that we follow was single, as far as we know, travelled with a bunch of men, had a disciple who was known as 'the one whom Jesus loved' and said my family is not my mother and father, my family is those who do the will of God. None of us likes those harsh words. That's who Jesus is, that's who he was at heart, in his earthly life.

"Those who would posit the nuclear family as the be all and end all of God's creation probably don't find that much in the gospels to support it," he said.

While Robinson certainly doesn't come right out and say it, he does seem to be strongly suggesting it, while at the same time severely downplaying the importance of the nuclear family. (Maybe this can form the plot of a new Dan Brown conspiracy thriller. "Oops! I was wrong about the whole Mary Magdalene thing.")

More here.

Commenting on this post at Stones Cry Out, Greg says:

I consider Gene (I refuse to endow him with a title) a goiter and not a cancer. A cancer is potentially fatal. A goiter is a growth that is not life-threatening, merely ugly to look at and a nuisance to live with. The condition can be treated with a combination of diet and surgery.

Heh. Okay! A goiter it is!

There are, I suppose, two responses to the discovery that you no longer believe what your church teaches. One is to find another church -- and this is the usual method amongst us evanglical protestants. The other is to try to change your church. I guess I never understood why Robinson chose the second method. His desire to be ordained Bishop threatened an Anglican schism. One might wonder why he felt it necessary to put the stability of the entire worldwide Anglican communion in jeopardy just because he wanted to be Bishop. If you no longer believe what the church teaches, shouldn't you resign your post? Isn't anything else dishonest? If your role is to defend the position of the church, it seems that you have to actually hold to that position.

Anyone here?

2005-04-04T17:36:00.000-05:00

More apologies for such a long absence. I'm sure I've lost the three readers that were trying to stick it out.

By the time Blogger finally started cooperating last week and allowing me to post, I got handed an emergency composition project that kept me occupied for the rest of the week. So it was work at the office all day, work at home all night, collapse into bed, . . . wake, rinse, repeat.

Tonight I was really hoping to get some writing in, but the phone just rang, and here we go again.

We are glad to have some freelance projects at last -- it's what we've been praying for -- but it's taking its toll.

Of course, the week of my absence is the week where a few big things go down, and I can't get around to commenting. Not that I'm anyone worth listening to, anyway. But still . . .

So apologies again. I may find time to squeeze out a post later, but don't bet on it.

Simon Cowell is good for Self-Esteem

2005-03-28T22:03:00.000-06:00

Accompanied by a rather frightening illustration of Paula Abdul, Bret Stephens' WSJ editorial last Friday focuses on "American Idol," and suggests that the real star of the show is Simon Cowell, not because he's a particularly pleasant individual, but because he's "judgmental."

Of the three judges, Stephens has this to say about Randy Jackson:

He is strictly about performance. If a singer does poorly, he'll complain she was "pitchy"; if she does well, then she's Mr. Jackson's Dawg: "You were hot, man: I give you props for that." In the Jackson world view, either you succeeded or you didn't, but no performer's feelings will ever be hurt by a word he says because it's all about the singing, never about the singer.

I'd also like to add this: Randy Jackson needs to build a bigger vocabulary. A'ight, dawg?

Of Paula Abdul, Stephens says:

Although she is the only performer among the judges, she never seems to care about the performances themselves. What she cares about is each contestant's "potential": She wants them to feel proud no matter what. If she were a pedagogue, she'd be into social promotion; her fundamental belief is self-belief. It certainly took her far.

And Paula Adbul certainly seems to enjoy her role. Watch closely and you will often see her leaping to her feet and groovin' along with the contestants. She'll also swoon dramatically if some crooner makes her weak in the knees. And she also seems to be the most emotionally invested in the contestants, and perhaps it's because as a performer herself she remembers all too well the cold hand of judgment.

But the cold hand of judgment is what's needed sometimes, and that's where Cowell comes in:

And then there is Mr. Cowell, the daddy who is not afraid to spank the children. . . . The greater part of Mr. Cowell's appeal, however, is his honesty. . . . of sparing people from the worst of themselves. "I met someone the other night who's 28 years old," Mr. Cowell said once, "and he hasn't worked a day since he left college because he's pursuing a dream he'll never, ever realize: He thinks he's a great singer. Actually, he's crap. But nobody has said to him, 'Why have you been wasting your time for eight years?'"

Sure, Simon's harsh judgments garner him lots of boos from the audience, but aren't his judgments exactly what some people need to hear?

Back in February, USA Today had this interesting article on how the seeds sown by the "Self-Esteem Movement" back in the 70s have now grown:

Kids born in the '70s and '80s are now coming of age. The colorful ribbons and shiny trophies they earned just for participating made them feel special. But now, in college and the workplace, observers are watching them crumble a bit at the first blush of criticism.

"I often get students in graduate school doing doctorates who made straight A's all their lives, and the first time they get tough feedback, the kind you need to develop skills," says Deborah Stipek, dean of education at Stanford University. "I have a box of Kleenex in my office because they haven't dealt with it before."

. . .

Roy Baumeister, a psychology professor at Florida State University in Tallahassee, says he had "high hopes" for the benefits of boosting self-esteem when he began studying it more than 30 years ago. But his lengthy review of 18,000 articles, published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, ended with the realization that only two clear benefits emerge from high self-esteem: enhanced initiative, which boosts confidence, and increased happiness. "There is not nearly as much benefit as we hoped," he says. "It's been one of the biggest disappointments of my career."

I don't find any of this particularly surprising. Nor did Orson Scott Card, who wrote on the subject in his Jan. 23rd column at Ornery.org. Card manages to bring in both American Idol and the Baumeister study which was the subject of an article in the January issue of Scientifc American.

Roy F. Baumeister, Jennifer D. Campbell, Joachim I. Krueger and Kathleen D. Vohs published an article in the January 2005 Scientific American titled "Exploding the Self-Esteem Myth."

Their method was not so much research as a review of research.

They went through all the published research on self-esteem and immediately eliminated all the studies that depended on self-reporting along.

Here's the problem: If somebody reports that they have a very positive self-image, and then tells you that he is very successful in his job and his social life, what have you actually learned?

That people who have a high opinion of themselves have a high opinion of themselves.

Duh.

. . .

There is no statistically significant connection between high self-esteem and genuine achievement, ability, or successfulness. Not in the real world.

Except in one area: Making new acquaintances like you. If you have high self-esteem, you're probably a little bit better at making friends (though it's not inevitable -- just slightly more likely).

Card doesn't suggest completely eliminating "You can do it!" boosterism, but says it's important to strike a balance between building up esteem and leveling the necessary critique. Failing to provide the honest truth, Card says, is actually a selfish act, which I think is an interesting way to look at it.

The truth might hurt at the moment -- but nowhere near as badly as seeing themselves made ridiculous in front of an audience of millions.

Yet I can also understand their friends and family. It's so much easier just to say, "Sure, you're great, you're wonderful" and then change the subject. No confrontation. No moments of unhappiness that you've caused.

Praising people who have done nothing to deserve praise is the lazy, selfish thing to do. It makes them like you while setting them up for embarrassment and failure later.

He closes with some good advice:

Here's what works: You teach children the connection between work and achievement.

Great achievements aren't made by feeling good about yourself. They're made by boldness, originality, hard work, painstaking attention to detail, long practice, self-effacing cooperation, reliability, and a host of other attributes and actions.

Whom would you rather hire to work for you? The person who thinks he's wonderful all the time, regardless of what he does, or the person who is always questioning the quality of his own work and trying to do better?

. . .

Children need encouragement -- but they also need realistic assessments of their current level of achievement so they know what they need to work on.

The people who know them best and love them most are in the best position to do this.

. . .

Praise real achievements, however small, and you help a child. Praise him regardless of achievement, and you do damage, either to your own credibility or to the child's ability to know himself well enough to improve.

This is so obvious it shouldn't even need saying.

Probably. But it's always good to hear people say it.

Boo Simon Cowell if you like, but he might just be doing these contestants a favor.

Screwtape proposes another toast

2005-03-23T18:59:00.000-06:00

I'd been meaning to link to this after The Anchoress pointed it out. Meghan Cox Gurdon, writing at the National Review Online, does a superb job imagining what C. S. Lewis's netherworld bureaucrat Screwtape might have to say about many modern moral issues, such as embryonic stem cell research, euthanasia, and Terri Schiavo. The key to unlocking the worst in the human heart, says Gurdon's Screwtape, is vanity.

"Vanity is a rusty key that was left lying about, and it was I alone who saw what it could unlock at this point in human history."

"It is true," Screwtape continues with a shrug, "that much of the groundwork was already laid. We had already convinced people of the rightness of destroying inconvenient life. Now they talk quite coolly of "blastocysts," and "clumps of cells" and "surplus embryos." My genius was to recognize that they needed just a little push to be convinced, with their mania for recycling, that by harvesting something that would otherwise be chucked out, they are doing a positive good! Think of it: They believe they occupy "the moral high ground." Oh, the profits for us — "

Go here for the whole thing.

We are all Terri Schiavo

2005-03-22T18:24:00.000-06:00

Just in case you need some perspective on the Terri Schiavo case, Noel at Sharp Knife, is happy to provide. (Hat tip: What Attitude Problem)

If Terry Schiavo had only starred in "Superwoman", we'd find a way not to kill her.

If she were a corporation, we'd indict the Chief Financial Officer--her HINO (husband-in-name-only).

If she were a killer, she'd be protected under the supreme court's ban on executing the retarded.

If she were a terrorist, Teddy Kennedy would be making blistering speeches on the Senate floor condemning her torture-by-starvation.

If she were a teen-aged murderer, she'd be spared execution under the 'Cruel & Unusual' clause.

If she were Scott Peterson, she'd get an automatic appeal...and 20 more years of life.

If she were a beached dolphin, we'd demand not just her feeding, but that heroic measures be taken.

If she were in Guantanamo, we'd see to it that she had appropriate meals and medical care.

If she were on another Death Row, her parents and her priest would be allowed visitation.

. . .

And if we hadn't been desensitized by three decades of the Death Culture . . .

would we even ask "If"?

Though we often refer to modern society as a "culture of death," never has death been less present than it is today. We no longer routinely face death. Death occurs in hospitals and nursing homes where the elderly and infirm are hidden away from society. Because we do not regularly bear witness to the ravages of disease and decay upon our bodies, I might suggest that on the whole we Americans are ill-equipped to face it when it comes.

For this reason, opinions on the Terri Schiavo case do not seem to follow the usual conservative/liberal political opinions (except perhaps in Congress where pandering to one's perceived constituencies is part of the job description). Friends who self-identify as liberal/left have also lined up in support of Terri Schiavo's parents. Friends who lean rightward are also insistent that she be "let go."

Because deep down we fear crippling infirmity, . . . because we are not equipped to deal with it, . . . because we look at Terri Schiavo and recognize that "there but for the grace of God go I," we wish to "end her suffering." Because we would never want to live like that, we believe it's best that no one else has to live like that either.

Because we have accepted the ideal of "quality of life," and have drawn our own arbitrary lines marking the point at which quality of life ends, we are entirely willing to draw that line for others as well.

The reason so many people support ending Terri Schiavo's life is because we are all potential Terri Schiavos, and it scares the crap out of us.

To whom much (snow) is given, much (shoveling) is expected

2005-03-21T23:22:00.000-06:00

Sorry, for the long break. I'm still trying to find a balance between real life and blogworld. Real life always wins, which is how it should be. Besides, it was the weekend, and you expected me to sit in my basement office, blathering away about politics and culture, while outside there's so much shoveling to do? (There's always shoveling in blogworld, of course.)

Anyway, what did I tell you about March?

Friday an honest-to-goodness blizzard blew in, knocking us back to January. And Saturday morning we awoke to discover a smooth, flawless ocean of white covering the front yard from house to street, with no discernable lines of demarcation separating the yard from the sidewalk from the driveway.

I kissed my wife and child goodbye, and headed outdoors to start the process.

The drift in front of the garage was easily surmounted, but the snowblower was not in proper working order anyway, so out came the cheapie shovel.

On the last few trips to the hardware store, I have had my eye on a very fine shovel. A veritable "Firebolt 3000" of a shovel, with a price to match. Here's where my practical side always triumphs. I cannot reason spending $30 on a shovel no matter how good it is. In the end, it's just a shovel, it has a humble purpose, and there is no good reason one needs a Lexus when a Chevelle will do.

So a couple years ago I bought the cheap plastic Shovelle, merely as an auxilliary to the snowblower. Snowblower for the driveway and sidewalks; Shovelle for the steps.

But with the snowblower on the fritz, the Shovelle has been pressed into service for the heavy jobs.

"I'd help," my wife said, "but we only have one shovel."

"That's okay," I said, "I don't expect you to be shoveling snow in your condition anyway," I added, achieving both chivalry and martyrdom in one brief statement.

And it was bad. Heavy, deep. The biggest snowstorm we had all winter. In March.

Oh, how I groaned and complained! (Or was that my back?)

I also battled with envy as neighbors up and down the block started their snowblowers and quickly and efficiently cleared their driveways. Didn't they see me struggling? Couldn't they spare just a few moments to help their neighbor in distress?

Last year when my snowblower was working just fine, I would clear the sidewalk on our whole side of the block. You'd think one of my neighbors would return the favor.

Across the street, Sam was clearing his steps with his own shovel. If not for me, how about for Sam? Sam's the patriarch of the neighborhood. He was the first resident here back in the 40s. I couldn't believe these people with snowblowers would let Sam try to shovel all the heavy, wet snow from his driveway.

I kept my eye on Sam as I contined to shovel. Just in case he went down, I wanted to be ready to call 911. But then the guilt started in on me. What kind of neighbor was I that I let this elderly gentleman shovel his own driveway? Shouldn't I set aside my own shoveling to go help Sam? I continued to shovel, thinking bad thoughts about the people with snowblowers and then thinking bad thoughts about myself.

And then I looked up and noticed that Sam had disappeared. Had he fallen? I craned my neck to see if I could spot him sprawled on the sidewalk.

And at that moment he came out of his garage pushing his own snowblower.

So I started thinking bad thoughts about Sam.

Then a neighbor from a few houses away started clearing the city sidewalk, slowly making his way down the block. Hooray! My telepathic thoughts had been received! He cleared his own sidewalk, . . . then the sidewalk in front of the house two doors down . . . then the sidewalk in front of our next-door neighbors, . . . and as he reached the edge of our driveway where our property line began, . . . he turned around and went back up the block. He never came back.

So I grabbed my shovel, ran up behind him, gave him a sharp whack on the head, and laughed maniacally as he crumpled to the pavement.

No, not really.

Instead I turned back to my bitter task, figuring I could really play up the whole martyr angle later. My back is just killing me, honey. I think I need to just lie here on the couch for awhile, okay? Oh, say, about three hours.

I finally cleared the driveway just before we needed to leave for my sister-in-law's.

Which, unfortunately, was just before the plow came by and blocked the end of the driveway with an enormous snowbank.

I don't know if I'll get the snowblower fixed before spring makes itself permanent, but if we get another snowstorm, I'm getting the $30 shovel.

What kind of life?

2005-03-21T22:09:00.000-06:00

Lileks writes about Terri Schiavo, and manages to make a reference to Star Trek. Captain Pike in particular. Which really makes me uncomfortable because of my views on the whole Captain Pike controversy. But go read Lileks, then come back and I'll try to explain.

Oh, here's a nice portion:

In short: err on the side of life is not a bad motto to keep in mind. This seems simple enough. I respect those who nod, count to three, and offer a soft “however” so that we may refine the particulars. But I don’t have much time for those who hear “err on the side of life” and automatically bristle, because they hear the voice of someone who, damn their black and God-addled brain, once sent $10 to a politician who opposed parental notification law that did not have a judicial review.

You may not always agree with that sort of person. You may have no need for them. But you never think you have need of any chocks until you're in the truck, and you realize it's rolling down the hill. Backwards.

Now about Captain Pike. In the very first Star Trek pilot -- when the good ship Enterprise was under the command of Captain Pike, and there wasn't a Shatner within miles of the set -- the Captain is captured by the big-headed Talosians who surround Pike with blissful illusions so that he will happily live out a fantasy existence in their human zoo. Pike's fellow captive is a woman who was horribly disfigured when her ship crashed. She chooses to remain in a fantasy where she is young and beautiful. But in Pike's refusal to embrace illusory happiness, the show makes a strong case in favor of reality, no matter how harsh that existence might be.

Later in the series came the follow-up, when Pike, now horribly disfigured himself, confined to some sort of mobile life-support system, unable to even speak, seeks to return to the Talosians where he now wishes to embrace the fantasy existence. With this episode, Star Trek undoes the message of the first pilot. The message in the sequel episode is that illusory happiness is just fine, thank you, when your quality of life sucks.

And it's hard to argue against that. But who gets to decide if your quality of life sucks enough?

We can't give Terri Schiavo a Talosian illusion. Does this mean that her life is not worth living? Terri Schiavo can't tell us what she wants, and if she'd want to refuse sustenance. But what's happening to Terri Schiavo isn't anything like assisted suicide. It's slow-motion murder. She isn't being given a lethal injection and quietly drifting off to eternal dreamland. She is slowly, agonizingly being starved to death. If we decided to deal with death-row inmates in this manner, the outrage would be deafening. If I thought my old dog needed to be put down, but instead of going to the vet for the procedure I did it myself by starving the elderly beast, I would likely be arrested for cruelty.

And yet a judge in Florida has decreed that this is how our nation will deal with people like Terri Schiavo.

What kind of life is considered "quality" enough? Do we really want courts deciding this issue for us? Regardless of what happens to Terri Schiavo next, we cannot let this issue pass from the public consciousness until we can be certain that an old man in a robe won't someday make that call without our consent.

Like Flypaper to Moonbats

2005-03-17T17:36:00.000-06:00

Lileks writes:

This morning I was clicking around, following some links about Wolfowitz’ nomination to the World Bank (mrghmghfm) (surpressing mad laughter) (mrghmghfm) (Sorry, mwa HAHAHAHAHA) and encountered one of those brand-name sites I don’t visit much because the proprietor has nothing to say and no particular skill at saying it. He referred to that “filthy Wolfowitz.”

Do you often come across the word “filthy” applied to many politicians? No. Can you recall which group, in the last, oh, 60 years, got tarred with that word most frequently? Just curious. If the word rings no bells for you, then I’m overreacting. Obviously rung no bells for the author. I expect he will be equally unaffected if Trent Lott refers to “that uppity Rev. Jackson.”

Well, it rang a few bells for me. Not that I'm anybody in particular. I'm just sayin' is all.

But I'm not surprised to learn that there are those on the left responding this way to Wolfowitz's nomination. Frankly, when I heard who Bush nominated, my first reaction was "What a brazen thing to do!" Or to borrow a phrase from Peggy Noonan, "He's got two of 'em."

My second reaction was "This is going to send the moonbats 'round the bend."

And which moonbat in particular was Lileks reading when he came across that phrase? He's not going to get a link from me, so you'll have to do some research. Here, let me help.

Skip the formalities . . .

2005-03-16T20:13:00.000-06:00

. . . just give the American Idol crown to Nadia Turner already. She's got more talent than all the rest of 'em put together.

Little pink houses . . .

2005-03-16T17:25:00.000-06:00

I am gradually getting used to the idea that offspring #2 will be an infant of the female persuasion (assuming that the ultrasound technician is correct). Though I will be quite outnumbered, I've begun to notice a few fringe benefits.

For example, we have a two-bedroom house. Though we intend to eventually create a third bedroom in our finished basement, the two girls should be able to share a bedroom for quite some time. And of course, we already have all the girl-clothes we'll need, assuming little ~~Augusta~~, ~~Miriam~~, ~~Chloe~~, ~~Cora~~, whatshername will accept hand-me-downs for many years before the teen fashion police beam their mind control waves at her unprotected head.

Having one girl child in the house has already resulted in an abundance of pink. With two, we'll easily reach some sort of "pink critical mass." I am not looking forward to it.

But last night I discovered something very interesting while doing laundry. Other people separate their whites; I was able to do an entire load of wash consisting of nothing but pink clothes.

This never happened to me when I was Single Guy.

Who Would Jesus Dismiss?

2005-03-14T19:50:00.000-06:00

(Hat Tip: Brainpost)

You may not have heard that a professor was recently fired from the University of Colorado for his controversial viewpoint. No, I'm not talking about Ward Churchill -- he's still there. I'm talking about Phil Mitchell, a professor in the history department.

According to Family News in Focus, Mitchell lost his teaching position for assigning a history class to read Charles Sheldon's In His Steps -- the book that asks the question "What Would Jesus Do," the phrase that launched a thousand marketing gimmicks.

Mitchell said he was immediately terminated when one student complained to the history department about the assignment.

"I called the director of my program on Monday morning," Mitchell explained, "and he confirmed that the department was going to let me teach one more year and then I would no longer be permitted to teach history at the University of Colorado."

When asked about Mitchell, a secretary in the history department—who asked that she not be identified—angrily responded, "We don't let him teach here."

This isn't the first time Mitchell, who has taught at CU for more than 20 years, has taken heat for using conservative sources in his classes. He said that when he quoted from Thomas Sowell, a conservative black commentator, the department head berated him and called him a racist.

Now I'm not exactly sure why one would assign In His Steps in a history class, but I might make a guess or two. The message of the book -- "What Would Jesus Do?" -- is certainly a timeless one, but the book itself is locked to a particular era in U.S. history. Written around the turn of the last century, one can connect In His Steps to a period of religious revival -- what some might consider the nation's third "Great Awakening." Christians began to emphasize the sins of society. There were temperance movements calling for the prohibition of alcohol, and poverty was seen less as a personal problem and more of a societal failure. This religious revival probably resulted in a political revival that led to FDR's "New Deal," and other social programs that are still with us today, even while their religious roots have been lost in time.

In His Steps certainly touches on the problems of turn-of-the-century America, even as its wide cast of characters seek their own personal revivals by trying to do what Jesus would have done. But though the message is timeless, I might suggest that the book itself is not. When I read it a few years ago, I found it difficult to relate to the struggles of the book's characters. One, a newspaper publisher, rethinks his newspaper's decision to run stories about boxing matches. He believes that people should not be reading about such things and so excises them from his newspaper. Later he decides that people should not be reading newspapers at all on Sundays, "the one day in the week which ought be given up to something better and holier," though it costs him advertisers and subscribers.

This isn't exactly a modern moral dilemma, which might explain why Sheldon's great-grandson decided to write an updated version a few years ago.

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Meanwhile, back to Phil Mitchell.

The timing of the controversy is especially odd, considering how the campus has rallied around Churchill.

"I think it's interesting," Mitchell said. "People are marching for Ward's academic freedom, and I think—to a point—that's legitimate. I just wish somebody would march for mine. I don't have any."

I could see assigning In His Steps in a history class if one is discussing the social and political issues at the time the book was written, particularly as they relate to religious revivals which are certainly a historical reality. I have no idea if that was the context in which the book was presented.

I would love to know more about this story.

Heebie Jeebies

2005-03-12T15:34:00.000-06:00

I'm completely freaked out by this.

The Actroid robot, developed by Kokoro and Advanced Media, will greet guests at the information booth of Japan’s World Expo opening March 25 in Aichi. She understands 40,000 phrases in each of four languages and has nuanced facial expressions to match the more than 2,000 types of answers she can give. She’s even imbued with a sense of irony; when asked if she is a robot, she answers disconnectedly and with clumsy movements — followed by a “just kidding!” before reverting to smooth humanoid motions.

Some people probably think of it as a precursor to Commander Data. I can't stop envisioning it as a precursor to the Terminator.

(Hat tip: What Attitude Problem?)

Life's Little Irritations

2005-03-12T13:17:00.000-06:00

Doug kindly offers a brief list of people who suck.

Among them is this one:

People who use "creative" tones for the ringer on their cell phone who do not pick up after the first ring.

I would have cut it off at: "People who use 'creative' ring tones on their cell phones." Period. End of quote. Just set the blasted thing to ring like a normal phone, okay people? Why does it have to play Fur Elise?

I recently picked up the latest "Sixpence None the Richer" CD, and on the packaging were instructions for how to make your cell phone ring out their ubiquitous smash hit "Kiss Me."

I'm hoping nobody actually takes 'em up on this offer.

"Million Dollar" review

2005-03-12T11:51:00.000-06:00

Ruth, a quadriplegic, and Meredith, her personal aide, head off to see the controversial hit movie "Million Dollar Baby."

For the two of us, going to a movie requires planning. It's hard to be spontaneous when you're in a wheelchair, or trudging along beside one. But nothing was going to keep us from judging Clint Eastwood's controversial new movie for ourselves.

Their recounting of their experience is warm and amusing, but with (obviously) very painful and personal insights into the issues that surround the film. Here are two spirited ladies not afraid to tell you that they both declared the film "able-ist crap." (And if you haven't seen it, and wish to remain spoiler-free, you might want to skip this entry.)

Meredith: We go on about Million Dollar Baby for days and that's when I realize that for all its problems (e.g., the musical score is puerile), I've seen an important movie during this year's Lent. I don't want people to boycott this film. I want them to see it even though -- and perhaps because -- they know the ending. And then, I want them to get angry, not at God, but about flaws in the structural apparatus of faith (i.e., religion) that would make assisted suicide seem an appropriate response instead of becoming a living witness to suffering. I want viewers to wonder why the character of Maggie Fitzgerald has the determination to become a prize fighter but not enough spiritual strength to manage life as a quadriplegic. I especially want Christians to remember that throughout our history, the Spirit has lived large and worked well within broken bodies; something to ponder as we come to the Cross during this holy season.

Ruth: It took nearly a decade for me to arrive at a place of acceptance. I've chosen life, believing that it's not my place to decide to die because life is too difficult, inconvenient, or no longer to my liking. Some may feel the choice to commit suicide is a form of ultimate freedom. What I know is that by surrendering my option to play God, I've lived long enough to learn that a life of dignity, usefulness, and hope is possible for a quadriplegic. If only the character in Million Dollar Baby could've stayed in the ring of life long enough to discover this for herself.

Go here for the whole article.

(Hat tip: The Dawn Patrol)

Another geek moment

2005-03-11T19:29:00.000-06:00

I was going to suggest that Bill Wallo is thinking far too deeply about a film series that has turned out to be far more shallow than I expected.

But then I thought, heck, this is a worthwhile discussion after all.

How will Lucas choose to depict Anakin’s descent? Will it be inevitable - will it be his “destiny?” Is he part of some sort of obligatory sea change in the Force from light to dark? Is the portrayal a positive one or a negative one? By and large, Anakin has been portrayed as an impetuous but well-meaning youth up to this point. Will there be something in Revenge of the Sith to excuse Anakin’s fall from grace, or will it truly be characterized as the “wrong” choice? These are questions for which I as of yet have no answers, but which I think are far more important in terms of understanding the Star Wars universe than that the finale will be “dark.”

I wrote it all off as pointless the moment that Liam Neeson uttered the word "mitichloridans" (or whatever) and the Force stopped being a philosophy and became a matter of genetics.

Er, . . . the geeks will know what I mean by that.

Still, as disappointed as I've been in Star Wars, I am interested in seeing how the prequel trilogy is concluded. And Bill raises some interesting questions.

Meanwhile, Bill, I do recommend Battlestar Galactica, which you also mentioned. Lots of food for thought there.

Though if anyone watched last week's episode, and didn't heed my warning that it's not suitable for children, I hope you didn't have to try to explain to the kids what Dr. Baltar was doing all alone in his lab with his pants down.

9998, . . . 9999, . . . .

2005-03-11T19:03:00.000-06:00

The Sitemeter counter just recorded Darn Floor visitor number 10,000, coming from the Llamabutchers. (Thanks, Kathy!)

Michael Schiavo rejects offer of $1 million

2005-03-11T17:15:00.000-06:00

Earlier today, World Magazine reported that an American businessman named Robert Herring had offered Michael Schiavo $1 million if he would end his pursuit to starve his disabled wife to death. (Note the headline on the BBC link, erroneously calling this a "coma case." Sigh.)

The $1m offer expires on Monday, 14 March, four days before Mrs Schiavo's feeding-tube is due to be removed. Under the offer, Mr Schiavo would hand over his rights to decide his wife's future to her parents.

Mr Herring, who founded an electronics firm and later a satellite channel, said he was moved to act after following the legal battle and realising that time was running out for Mrs Schiavo.

As a supporter of stem cell research, he said he believed that there was hope of a medical cure.

He said he was a "neutral party", insisting he had no connections with the woman's parents, husband or any organisation involved in the case.

"I believe very strongly that there are medical advances happening around the globe that very shortly could have a positive impact on Terri's condition," he said.

"I have seen miraculous recoveries occur through the use of stem cells in patients suffering a variety of conditions.

"With a date of March 18th quickly approaching, and no other viable hope for Terri to be able to keep her feeding tube, I felt compelled to act."

In a follow-up posting, World Mag reports that Michael Schiavo has rejected the offer.

Terri's family members said the offer was "incredible," but were not surprised Schiavo didn't take it. "After he has denied Terri therapy for so many years and denied our family any opportunity to help her, we can only come to the conclusion that he is not comfortable with the prospects of her regaining her abilities to speak and communicate to us the reasons for her condition," they said in a statement.

I'm inclined to agree. Since the man has obviously moved on with his life, fathering two children by another woman, one wonders why he pursues Terri's death so doggedly.

It's a . . . blur!

2005-03-10T21:57:00.000-06:00

Today was ultrasound day! Or, as we called it, "Gender Determination Day" for child #2.

Deciding upon a name for child #2 has been a major topic of conversation around stately Darn Floor manor. Lid is no help, because she always suggests names like "glix" or "thir" or "dadadadadada."

I have only been considering boy names, because I was already certain of this child's gender. Had Lid been a boy, she would have been called "Titus," a name that alarmed friends and family. Our families were generally relieved when Lid turned out to be a girl.

At the time, my wife liked the name "Titus," but it no longer makes her top ten. Or even her top twenty. So I've been suggesting a number of other great names. "August," for example. I think it's a great name. "Gus" for short, of course, but you can't just have "Gus." So "August" for long.

She did not respond positively. Nor did she embrace "Owen." She liked "Benjamin," but I was afraid that people would call him "Benji," and so I suggested "Bennett" as a compromise. I'm not sure she's sold on it.

The sonagram above will replace the one on our fridge that was taken at six weeks, when offspring #2 was just a head and a butt. Since then I have been peppering the image on the refrigerator door with words from a Magnetic Poetry set, beseeching the appliance to make the child a boy. One recent sentence read:

give me a boy please

Another said:

ask god for a baby brother

But when my back was turned, visiting relatives rearranged the words so that they read:

sweet baby girl

From the youngest of the nieces to the oldest of the aunties, they were all certain that the baby would turn out to be a girl. And they all got a charge out of telling me so.

Yesterday, I held Lid up to the picture on the fridge and asked her if she thought it was a boy baby or a girl baby. She pointed and replied "gur!" with enthusiasm. They're all against me. But she's only 15 months old. What does she know?

Yes, she's only 15 months. The two children will be roughly 18 months apart. This is much closer together than we expected. When we decided that we were ready for another child, we expected it would take some time. It took a whole year for Lid. This time it took once.

Surprise!

I'm sure someday we'll be glad they were this close together. I hope that day comes really soon.

In discussing names, I'd remarked to my wife that we could be old-fashioned and name the child after a virtue. But I noted that most of the virtues are girl's names: Prudence, Patience, Charity, Grace, . . . even Wisdom is described as a woman in the Bible.

And though they sound a bit more manly, no one names their children Courage or Strength.

"Or Penmanship," I offered.

"Penmanship isn't a virtue!" my wife said.

"Well it should be" I argued. "Hardly anyone has good penmanship anymore." (I certainly don't.)

"Well we can't name the child Penmanship. What would you call him for short?"

"Penny?" I suggested.

Of course, that's a girl's name again, just like all the other virtues.

So today was the day. Gender Determination Day.

I think the ultrasound machines are soooo cool. I have often remarked that I would like to have one at home. I think it would be neat to be able to just look around at your insides whenever you wanted. I could put the wand up against my wife's head and look at what's inside. I still wouldn't be able to tell what she was thinking, but it would be cool to be able to do it.

When we entered the room, the ultrasound tech asked us if we wanted to know the gender of the baby. "Duh!" I said. "This is Gender Determination Day! What do you think?" Well, no, I didn't say that. Not exactly. Something close to it, though.

The ultrasound lasted much longer than expected, as the tech seemingly took every possible measurement of the baby's various body parts. "Here's baby's head!" she said, cheerily. "Here's baby's heart." Nice, strong beat. Four chambers. Noted.

I also noted with frustration her refusal to use any gender-identifying pronoun. She did this with Lid, too.

"This is baby's leg . . ."

C'mon, c'mon . . .

"Here's the spine . . ."

Yes, nice. C'mon, c'mon, get to it.

"Now, here's baby's face, . . . you can see nostrils here . . ."

Nostrils?! You're looking at his nostrils!?

"And this is a foot, see here?"

C'mon! C'mon! Show me his pee-pee!

I really don't know how they can tell what they're looking at. Occasionally, as she moved the wand, something recognizable swam into view, like an arm or a foot, but just as quickly it would move away. I wanted to grab the wand from her and look for myself, but I think this is frowned upon.

The picture at the top of this entry is the best picture we got. At least from my point of view. It's one of the few where you can tell that the thing kicking around inside my wife is actually a baby, and not a puppy or a space alien. The baby is reclining backward, with its legs up over its head. This can't be comfortable, which might explain all the kicking.

As we were leaving the clinic, an elderly lady in the waiting area asked to see the pictures. She said she'd never seen one before, and of course they didn't have such things when she was pregnant.

It's amazing how this little peek inside the womb has altered the way people think about the unborn child. Prior to the development of ultrasound technology, it was easy to think of the baby as an unviable tissue mass. But even at six weeks, the tech could point out the baby's head and butt. We had images of Lid at 10 weeks, and arms and legs were quite visible. Small, but visible.

And today at 24 weeks, the ultrasound tech could point to a blur on the sonagram and state "I think this is the labia right here."

In case you're not well-versed in anatomy, that means it's a girl.

"What do you think of the name 'Miriam'?" my wife said.

Miriam.

I wonder if she'd go for "Augusta"?

Not the sort of day off I'd envisioned

2005-03-09T21:05:00.000-06:00

I really intended to have a bunch of new stuff up today, but instead I spent most of the day on the couch, sleeping. Earlier this week, Lid came down with one of those common kid ailments. Nose running like a faucet, slight fever, frequent crying fits. On Monday night she decided to keep us all up until 2:00 am.

I'm guessing that I now have the same thing, though I probably won't engage in crying fits until 2:00 am.

Lid got over it in a day, and was about as happy as I've ever seen her this evening. I'm hoping that means that by tomorrow my throbbing headache and congestion will be replaced with extreme euphoria.

This is, of course, part of the whole parenting thing -- sharing your kid's colds. It's expected, what with all the snot-soaked kleenexes lying about.

Anyway, I'm heading back to my bed of affliction.

But watch this space. I'm promising an awesome announcement tomorrow.

Neither New nor Improved

2005-03-08T22:24:00.000-06:00

Well, he edited out the lies about James Watt, but Bill Moyers is still shopping this shrill piece of moonbattery around.

Here are my comments regarding this article when it appeared in the Mpls. Star-Tribune.

But I don't think my wife would go for it

2005-03-08T22:15:00.000-06:00

An intriguing business plan.

(Hat tip: Blogizdat)

War and Bleach

2005-03-08T21:14:00.000-06:00

Greg Wallace says that this is Bleach's best record ever. (Another review here.)

I hope to find out soon enough.

I've been enjoying Bleach's music for many years. Though Bleach hasn't jumped on the "Let's Put Out a Praise and Worship Record!" bandwagon like so many others artists have done in the last decade, I think they've had a number of incredibly worshipful songs. (For an emo-geek-rock band anyway.) Their 1999 self-titled CD (their third) was much maligned, but it's always been in regular rotation in my CD player. "All That's Sweet," "All to You," and "Good" are outstanding expressions of worship -- the last two in particular could and should be Praise and Worship standards by now.

But I digress.

In searching for a review of the new CD, "Farewell Old Friends," I came across this interview from September of 2003, done upon the relase of their previous CD, "Astronomy." (Second favorite of mine.)

In the liner notes for "Astronomy," the band notes that the brother of band members Jared and Milam Byers, was killed in Fallujah in July of 2003. In the interview linked above, Jared and Milam share a bit about their brother, Captain Josh Byers, and his thoughts on our military actions in Iraq.

Do you remember the last time you spoke to Josh?

Milam: Yeah, it was April 2, the night before he flew to Iraq. He called all of us as a family to say goodbye. That was a hard thing. When your brother goes to war, all you can think about is, "Will I ever talk to him again?" He also wrote us every week or two, so we have letters that will just forever be special. My parents got a letter he wrote the day before he was killed. It's just amazing, because in the letter he talks about how our security is not in our circumstances but in God and a great faith-words that mean so much now, you know?

Obviously, Josh might still be alive today if not for the war in Iraq. Do you think his death was a necessary part of a necessary war?

Milam: Yes, because he believed it. For me to think any different would mean that he died in vain. Before he left for Iraq, he said, "The reasons I'm going is not the things you hear on CNN. It's not about oil, it's not about policing the world, it's not about weapons of mass destruction. It's about freedom. It's about us wanting to afford these innocent people a freedom that we Americans enjoy, and it's about people like Saddam not being able to bully the world around and kill innocent people anymore." That's what it was about. It wasn't any of that political propaganda bull that we're flooded with. It was about him wanting to free those people and genuinely caring for those people.

Jared: Josh was fighting to free those people and to free our country from terrorism. Josh believed in what he was doing, and I did too. I know why he was over there, and I know what he believed in. He felt it was a necessary cause, so I do too. I hate the war; nobody wants war. But I know that Josh believed he was there for a good cause.

Here is a military family who has lost a son and a brother. Anyone would understand if they reacted strongly against the war and against the administration that sent him there. But they don't. And this scenario is repeated countless times among countless military families. I'd like to think that I would continue to support our military presence in Iraq if such a tragedy would affect my family, but I fear that I might become bitter instead.

"Understand there are reasons beyond ours," goes a line from the title track of "Astronomy."

I don't know how they do it.

If "Farewell Old Friends" is, indeed, the final album from Bleach, I'm going to miss them. But these guys miss their brother every day.

Technology begets strange alliances

2005-03-08T20:24:00.000-06:00

(Hat tip: World Magazine Blog)

LifeNews.com reports on an unusual bill introduced in the Maine legislature that would outlaw abortions of gay fetuses. The article points out that the bill has the support of a national gay-lesbian pro-life group. Of course, I would assume that any anti-abortion legislation would have the support of any pro-life group.

What I find particularly unusual is that the bill is based on the notion that the mythical "gay gene" may one day be discovered, and as a result, parents may choose to abort an unborn child who is discovered to have that gene.

State Rep. Brian Duprey of Maine has introduced legislation to prohibit abortions on unborn children who are gay. The measure has raised eyebrows and generated debate whether or not genetics has any bearing on someone's sexuality.

The Pro-life Alliance of Gays and Lesbians says it supports the bill.

"We recognize that at this time the gay gene has not been isolated, but with all the advances of genetics we believe that it may just be a matter of time" said Jackie Malone, executive vice president of PLAGAL.

Malone's group contends that homosexuality may not be a matter of preference or choice, but could be controlled by a person's genetic makeup. If a so-called "gay gene"is discovered and could be determined during a pregnancy, it could lead to abortions, PLAGAL believes.

"Abortion tries to get rid of real human beings who are threatening or undesirable," says Cecilia Brown, president of PLAGAL. "Children are routinely aborted now because of gender or disability. It is not inconceivable to see people aborting because of a possible gay gene."

May I assume that heterosexual fetuses could still be aborted?

(If you think China's "one child" policy that has resulted in more female children being aborted will create problems in the future, imagine what could happen with this! The mind boggles!)

Even more interestingly, Rep. Brian Duprey, who introduced the legislation, said he was inspired by a comment made by Rush Limbaugh.

Last month, Duprey told the Portland Press Herald newspaper that listening to the Rush Limbaugh show gave him the idea for the bill. Limbaugh had commented that if scientists ever discovered a gene that caused a person to be gay, then homosexual activists would become pro-life "overnight."

I've heard this sort of comment before -- not sure if it was Limbaugh or someone else -- but I think it's accurate. And science is continually challenging those who insist that an unborn child is a mere "tissue mass."

Jonah Goldberg actually wrote about this bill last month. I missed it at the time. But he also makes a good point about how the discovery of a "gay gene" would affect not just pro-life gays and lesbians, but perhaps alter the thinking of all who identify themselves as homosexual.

Just imagine, for the sake of argument, that Rep. Duprey is right — that sometime in the near future women will be able to abort their pregnancies solely to avoid giving birth to a gay kid. Would this increase the number of pro-life gays and put pressure on the political alliance between gay groups and pro-abortion groups? Probably (although there are significant numbers of pro-life gays and lesbians already).

Nothing sharpens a man's mind as much as knowing he'll be hanged in the morning, as the saying goes. Likewise, one may assume without fear of much contradiction that homosexuals would greet the prospect of the quiet annihilation of their culture with a special revulsion they do not (for the most part) reserve for the consequences of abortion generally.

The iPod Tax

2005-03-08T20:05:00.000-06:00

Governor Doyle may be trying to pass off his budget as a "no new taxes" plan, but hidden away in his budget is at least one sneaky provision -- to tax internet downloads.

Gov. Jim Doyle wants you to pay Wisconsin's 5% sales tax whenever you pay to download a song, book, movie or piece of art.

A little-noticed provision of the Democratic governor's proposed state budget would extend the sales tax to those Internet transactions, officials said Monday. There would be no Internet sales tax police, however, because compliance would be on the honor system.

It's a matter of equity, said state Revenue Secretary Mike Morgan, defending Doyle's goal of having consumers voluntarily pay the sales tax on "intangible" items they buy and download from the Internet. Buyers would have to pay the 5% sales tax if they purchased those items at any Wisconsin store.

It's not exactly clear how you purchase these "intangibles" at any Wisconsin store. I don't know of any "brick and mortar" download emporiums.

Rep. Scott Jensen called the Governor's plan the "iPod Tax" and vowed to "delete" it.

Interestingly, those who do the most downloading are likely to be young people. If Democrats like Gov. Doyle are really chasing after the youth vote, the last thing they'll want to do is alienate them by taxing one of their most cherished activities.

Besides, . . . Doyle's budget is already alienating them:

Some University of Wisconsin-Madison students, staging a hunger strike in the Capitol to protest tuition increases, said they should not be asked to pay the sales tax on any music, movie or other materials they download from the Internet. They noted that Doyle's budget would increase in-state undergraduate tuition next year by 5% to 7%.

I'm unable to listen to Charlie Sykes' radio program, but apparently he was discussing the issue today. A friend wrote to tell me that during the program, a caller complaining of the "iPod Tax" responded that it made him so mad he wanted to write a new School House Rock song about it.

You even had the nerve to tax my MP3.
I've got to tell you, Doyle, I really don't agree.

It's just a bill, . . . yes, it's only a bill . . .

All Spring in a Day

2005-03-07T18:25:00.000-06:00

Cabin fever hit us hard last week. At midweek, the temps dropped back down to January levels, and resultingly, so did our moods. When they talk about a "cold snap" up here, what they mean is that it's still cold outside and we're all about to snap.

Luckily for us, this past weekend the temperatures scraped the underside of the 60s, and no one snapped.

T. S. Eliot wrote that April is the cruelest month, but here it's March. March will tempt you with a taste of coming spring one day, then howl down a winter blast on the next. April can surprise you with blizzards as well, but by April, winter has lost its power. In January, winter is the crazy old uncle who pays you a visit -- and stays. He lies around the house all day, eating your food, using all the hot water, drinking right from the milk carton. But in April, the crazy old uncle gives up and goes home.

March is a different story. March is when the crazy old uncle makes noises like he's going to pack up and leave, but the next day you find him settled down on the couch, the fingers of one hand welded to the television remote. In the other hand he's got a cell phone; he's just ordered out for pizza, and he's charged it to your bill.

So that's March up here.

Yesterday we had a taste of spring. Knowing it wouldn't last, we took advantage of the exceptionally warm weather to walk around Our Fair City and enjoy the sunshine for a change. Everyone was out enjoying the weather. The rest of the country bundles up against temps in the high 50s. When it hits the 50s up here in the north, we go out in shorts and T-shirts and hit the bike trails.

Unless you're one of those crazy people who goes out running no matter how cold it is (and I used to be one of those people) winter makes you sedentary -- sometimes against your will. So on these first warm days, it's easy to overexert yourself. I put Lid in the backpack and we walked much farther than we anticipated, resulting in aching shoulders and sore legs for me, but a good mood for all of us.

In late winter, when the temperatures get this high this suddenly, the ground can't soak in the water as fast as the snow can melt. Our backyard became a pond, with a small stream that emptied into the driveway. Under these conditions, the low spots make themselves quite apparent. A swimming pool formed between the garage and the house, and our exceptionally dry basement had water seeping in. Luckily, it's seeping in in the unfinished part of the basement, and running directly into a floor drain.

Last night the wind howled something fierce. It dried up the swimming pool in the driveway. I couldn't sleep, so I think I heard every creak of the house. The temperatures dropped back below freezing, and they haven't come back up all day. This is March.

But we had Spring for a day. And this is enough to give us hope to get us through the rest of the month.

You're Still Here?

2005-03-07T12:33:00.000-06:00

Well, thanks. I'm flattered. A week away, and you're still bothering to check to see if I've got anything new posted.

Apologies again for the silence. Between the presence of in-laws and the persistence of overtime, I've been far too busy to do much of anything blog-related this past week. This week doesn't look any better. I'm trying to get a book in print before the end of the month, and the editing has been painstakingly slow. This is not so much a function of my pains-taking as it is a function of how poorly-written the book is. One cannot transcribe an oral presentation and expect that it will make a readable book. And yet it has been done. Though I sounded a warning when I spied an early draft, my warnings were not heeded. The "book" is awful. And it is my job to take the herky-jerky cadence, and jargon-filled and colloquial delivery of the speaker and clean it up so that he sounds like a professional. All on a topic I really know very little about.

This goes above and beyond the call of duty.

Meanwhile another author is holding up the second printing of her book while she sends daily "corrections" that so far have amounted to over a couple dozen pages of new material. And they keep coming. I just got another "correction" this morning.

And that's more than I ever intended to write about work.

What's going on in the news? In the blogosphere? I haven't a clue. I haven't read the news in days.

And if I'm to be completely honest, I'm sort of enjoying the break.

But I also have a number of half-written posts on a variety of subjects, and I'm hoping to find some time to complete them and get them posted.

Welcoming Ward to Wisconsin

2005-03-02T17:38:00.000-06:00

Sean at "The American Mind" has photos of the competing demonstrations surrounding Ward Churchill's appearance at UW-Whitewater. (That would be both the "Capitalism is Terrorism" protesters, and the "Remember the 9/11 Victims" demonstrators.)

Sean adds his own thoughts here.

Jib of Jiblog also has quite a few pictures and more commentary. And a picture of someone who decided that this would be the most opportune moment to announce her sexual orientation.

UW-Whitewater's excuse seems to be that this is a free speech issue. No one is disputing that Churchill should be free to espouse whatever loony claims he wants. We just don't think he should be subsidized by taxpayers for it.

If you're an alumnus of the UW system -- UW-Whitewater in particular -- you might want to explain it to the person who calls every year asking for a donation.

Blogging Forecast

2005-02-28T17:53:00.000-06:00

The Blogging Forecast is looking very dismal this week, folks. My apologies in advance. It's not likely I'll get anything posted, but something may slip out.

In the meantime, go amuse yourselves with Dinosaur Comics.

Confiscate! Confiscate!

2005-02-26T18:17:00.000-06:00

We haven't been home owners that long, so I don't know how unusual this is. But we just got a notice in the mail that, if I'm reading it correctly, states that we have been assessed nearly $4,000 in street repairs. Yes, our street needs it badly, but where does the city think that we and all our neighbors are going to get $4,000 each? This ain't a ritzy neighborhood.

"Tammy Faye with a law degree"

2005-02-25T12:15:00.000-06:00

Peggy Noonan says this is how you know Hillary is running for Presient.

Ten days ago a reporter interviewed her in the halls of the Senate . . . and asked if she planned to run for president. She did not say, "I'm too busy serving the people of New York to think about the future." She did not say, "Oh, I already have a heckuva lot on my plate." She said, "I have more than I can say grace over right now."

I have more than I can say grace over right now. What a wonderfully premeditated ad lib for the Age of Red State Dominance. I suggested a few weeks ago that Mrs. Clinton was about to get very, very religious. But her words came across as pious and smarmy, like Tammy Faye with a law degree. Maybe she still thinks in stereotypes; maybe she thinks that's what little Christian ladies talk like while they stay home baking cookies. Whatever, it was almost as good as her saying, "I'm running, is this not obvious to even the slowest of you?"

Menards vs. Wisconsin DNR

2005-02-24T21:18:00.000-06:00

Owen over at Boots and Sabers recently criticized the Wisconsin DNR for forcing Eau Claire-based Menards, Inc. to move jobs out of the state. Not only has Menards announced that it would seek to build in Belgrade, MN, but it also announced plans to expand a plant in Plano, IL, rather than in Eau Claire.

Menards' side of the story is that the DNR made several requests regarding a building project, and that every time Menards agreed to one of the requests, the DNR added more stipulations. So the company announced that it would simply stop trying to adhere to DNR rules and move its business out of the state.

The DNR, on the other hand, seems taken aback by this sudden obstinance by Menards, saying that working with Menards had been going smoothly. They insist that they did not kill the building plan, but suggested a relocation to a different part of the parcel of land that would not affect the wetlands area. The DNR says that Menards didn't even bother to research that possibility.

Lots of stuff in the local paper regarding this conflict. Aside from the article linked above, here is a two-part series on the dispute, and an editorial calling for some sort of compromise with the goal of keeping jobs here.

I'll let you read those articles on your own. I wish I could find the Menards Press Release that's mentioned in these articles.

DNR officials insisted they were working with Menards on the project and were stunned when the company issued the press release. It’s common for companies to rework plans after getting guidance from the DNR, said Scott Humrickhouse, director of the DNR’s west-central region.

The DNR ultimately ends up approving 80 percent of applications for wetlands fills, he said.

“We thought we were working with them toward a mutually agreeable solution,” Humrickhouse said. “It’s pretty typical on a project this big that you’re going to have some give and take.”

The DNR said the Truax Prairie watershed drains into a series of connected wetlands, including two under the footprint of the proposed building.

A couple things that may be a factor in this dispute -- which I believe is nothing more than a power play by Menards. They probably figure if they make noise and threaten to move business elsewhere, the county will urge the DNR to let them destroy this wetland.

I'll tell you about this area. In the spring these fields flood, and are a magnet for a wide variety of migrant ducks, geese, swans and shorebirds. When birding, this is one of my most frequently-visited places in the spring and summer. I have witnessed over 1,000 Tundra Swans here at one time. I've spotted all kinds of shorebirds. While birding here, I have also run into people from all across the state -- and even from other states -- parked along the county road, checking out the fields with their spotting scopes. It's a well-known hot spot. Because of this, it also brings money into the area. Birders travel. And they travel long distances by car. And they spend money in the areas they visit. The Chippewa Valley should be promoting its birding hot-spots -- and this is one of the area's hottest. (Yes, there is a little bit of the "environmentalist wacko" in this conservative. But environmentalism and conservatism are not mutually exclusive concepts -- particularly in Wisconsin.)

But is there any reason to believe that Menards would actually comply with DNR regulations? Consider that Menards has had run-ins with the DNR in the past. And is in the middle of a dispute right now over improper disposal of hazardous waste.

Menards has been prosecuted by the DNR for violating environmental laws, including a case hotly contested by Menards scheduled for trial this spring. Last fall the company was charged in Eau Claire County Court after authorities said Menards employees flushed hazardous materials down a drain in a maintenance shop at its Eau Claire distribution center.

The distribution center in question is right there next to the wetlands.

Because of their regulatory powers, the DNR is an easy target in this state. However, in this case I'm certain the DNR wants to work with Menards. I'm not certain at all that Menards ever intended to work with the DNR.

As I said over at Boots and Sabers, the county should call Menards' bluff, let 'em go ahead and leave, and then work to bring in a Home Depot. I understand they've been wanting to build a store here for many years.

UPDATE: Dave at Less Lethal takes Menards' side, understandably wishing to support private businesses in their conflicts with state regulatory agencies. As I said above, the DNR is an easy target in Wisconsin, because they tend to get in the way of development. If you have a home on a lake in Wisconsin (as most Illinois and Minnesota residents do), you'll probably run afoul of DNR regulations. And heaven help you if you have a wetland on your property.

The thing is, when it comes to trying to choose whether to trust an obstructionist regulatory agency like the DNR or a corporation like Menards, I will choose the DNR. This should give you some idea of where I rank Menards on the grand scale of things.

NBC claims episode not based on Sawyer County incident

2005-02-24T12:28:00.000-06:00

File this one under "How Stupid Do They Think We Are?"

Last night, the NBC series "Law and Order" aired an episode with a plot eerily similar to the massacre in Sawyer County last November. (See my earlier entries here and here.)

Yesterday an NBC spokesperson claimed that the episode had no connection at all with the incident.

A “Law & Order” episode airing tonight might hit a nerve for people in northwestern Wisconsin, but an NBC spokeswoman said it’s not based on the Sawyer County tragedy.

“ ‘Law & Order’ is totally fictional,” spokeswoman Jeannette Ketoen said. “It’s ripped from the headlines, but it’s not based on what has happened in your area.”

If it's "ripped from the headlines," I'd like to see the headlines to which she's referring.

Let's compare:

In Sawyer County, one hunter assaulted a hunting party after he was discovered in their tree stand. He killed 5 men and 1 woman and injured two others. Law enforcement officials describing the scene said that the killer "chased them down." The killer used a semi-automatic rifle, and there has been some discussion as to whether such a rifle is even fit for deer-hunting. The hunting party was a group of friends and family that hunted in that area every year.

In the Law and Order episode, one hunter assaulted a hunting party, in an apparent dispute over a tree stand. He killed 4 men and one woman. He is described as having chased them down. The killed used a semi-automatic rifle, and at the hearing a character comments that it's not suitable for deer-hunting. The hunting party was a group of friends and family that were said to have hunted in that area every year.

So again, what headlines is she referring to, if not the local headlines regarding last November's hunting massacre?

Barron County Sheriff Thomas Richie said the episode hits too close to home.

. . .

Richie said it made him sick to see previews for tonight’s hauntingly familiar “Law & Order” episode.

“This isn’t TV material, this is real life for the people up here,” he said.

But Ketoen said the plot has nothing to do with the shootings in Sawyer County.

“If you watch the show you’ll see it’s totally fictional,” Ketoen said. “Perhaps the same thing has happened somewhere else.”

Hey, you're the one who says it's "ripped from the headlines." Show us the headlines and you can dispense with the "perhaps."

I was going to give NBC a pass because, although I figured people from the area would find the episode too unsettling (particularly the scenes of blaze orange-clad bodies sprawled on the snow in the woods), at least the episode didn't toss in the racial angle of the actual incident or try to paint hunters as racist northwoods hillbillies with guns as many media commentators did.

But for them to make this startling claim that there's no connection just boggles the mind. I'd be more impressed if they admitted it and apologized for the effect the episode would have on people who live up here. But they'd rather play CYA and dive for the bunker. (A common media theme these days.)

The Leader-Telegram article linked above also mentions this aspect of the episode that I hadn't thought of.

Eau Claire attorney Harry Hertel said potential jurors in Sawyer County who see the episode might wonder about the facts of the real case and be tainted.

“You certainly hope that people will decipher that,” Hertel said. “A substantial risk in airing the show is that they will lose potential jurors in Sawyer County if that is where the case is held.”

(Cross-posted to Badger Blog Alliance)

"Law and Order" followup

2005-02-23T22:04:00.000-06:00

I just got done watching that "Law and Order" episode featuring an incident based on last November's hunting massacre in Sawyer County near my home town. While the situation in the episode was eerily similar to the Sawyer County killings, the episode focused more on the actions of another hunter who pursued the killer. There was no attempt to explain the motives for the killings in the episode, except for the suggestion that it might be a disagreement over a tree stand. Nor was there any racial aspect to the incident as depicted.

I guess I'm glad that "Law and Order" used the incident only as a backdrop to a different sort of story, but I can imagine that family members of those killed in Sawyer County would have found the depiction of the scene of the crime quie unsettling. I hope they didn't watch.

Though the episode set the murders in upstate New York, Door County, Wisconsin, was mentioned by one of the characters as a place where he used to go hunting.

I leave it to the gun experts to comment on the rifle shown in the episode -- which was called both an "automatic" and a "semi-automatic."

By the way, this is the first episode of "Law and Order" I've ever seen. Didn't care much for it. Is Sam Waterson's character always that annoying?

Sanctity of Life

2005-02-23T20:25:00.000-06:00

Greg over at "What Attitude Problem" passes along this list from Chuck Colson, outlining what Colson feels are the top ten moral issues facing America today. It should come as no surprise that Colson puts "Sanctity of Life" at #1. Colson doesn't limit this to mean only abortion, but defines this as "preserving sanctity of life by resisting the encroachment of abortion, euthanasia, cloning, and embryonic stem cell research."

One might also add: defending the disabled from those who seek their destruction. Terri Schiavo, for example. Stand in the Trenches is one of many blogs that has been following her story closely.

Today on his "Breakpoint" radio program, Chuck Colson highlights a sneaky bill going through the Washington State legislature that purports to outlaw human cloning. In fact, the bill doesn't do that at all. It merely outlaws bringing a cloned human to full term.

[The bill] takes advantage of the public’s confusion about cloning to sell the moral equivalent of snake oil. To understand why this is the case, we need to understand cloning. It’s a process known as “somatic cell nuclear transfer,” or SCNT.

In SCNT, a “biotechnologist removes the nucleus from a mature human egg.” He replaces that nucleus with “nucleus of a body cell from [a] DNA donor. . . . A little shot of electricity comes next, and if all goes well, a new human cloned embryo comes into being.”

While all of this is much easier said than done, the important part is that “there is no more cloning to be done since a new human organism now exists.”

The Washington bill, like similar legislation in New Jersey , does nothing to prevent SCNT. All it would do is prohibit implanting the cloned embryo “with the purpose of producing a human being.” But since a human being has already been produced, when they use the words producing a human being, what the sponsors mean is bringing the cloned embryo to birth. Anything short of that is permissible under this bill.

You could clone human embryos and harvest stem cells, or you could grow fetuses for medical experiments, or let embryos gestate for nine months, abort them, and harvest the organs. [Wesley Smith, writing in National Review] gives these moral horrors a fitting name: “fetal farming.” People in the state of Washington have been misled into thinking that the bill would prevent the advent of a “Brave New World.” Instead, as Smith says, it ushers it in.

In other news, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the Bush Administration's challenge of Oregon's assisted-suicide law -- the only law of its kind in the country.

Oregon's Death With Dignity Act, the administration's target, was approved twice by the state's voters and took effect in November 1997. According to the state, in a brief filed last month, 171 patients have used the law to administer lethal doses of federally regulated drugs that their doctors prescribed for them.

In the administration's view, suicide is not a "legitimate medical purpose" under regulations that carry out the federal Controlled Substances Act. Consequently, the administration will argue before the Supreme Court, as it did unsuccessfully in the lower federal courts, that doctors who prescribe drugs for committing suicide violate the federal law and are subject to revocation of their federal prescription license. The license applies to broad categories of medications and is necessary, as a practical matter, for a doctor to remain in practice.

2005-02-23T18:06:00.000-06:00

What the heck does "heteronormative" mean?

2005-02-22T23:07:00.000-06:00

Lileks is Podcasting!