Asparagus, Broccoli, Cabbage...

Mr. Berg meet Mr. Tucker.

...
In Oregon, Wes Tucker, Private Tucker's father, said in an interview with a local NBC affiliate on Wednesday that the apparent brutality of his son's death might have been in retaliation for American attacks.

His son's attackers, he said, "were doing a job and they probably overstepped the bounds of the job they were supposed to do, just like the ones in our military overstepped the jobs they were supposed to do."

Kay Fristad, a spokeswoman for the Oregon National Guard, said Thursday that Mr. Tucker wanted to clarify his remarks, saying in a statement that "he has no anger towards the Iraqi people, because they are not the ones responsible for the death of their son. The fault lies with the insurgents."

Riddle Me This...

Cheney mum, but his money talks
By Tom Blackburn
Palm Beach Post Columnist, 6-19-06

Vice President Dick Cheney's investment portfolio got a little attention among bloggers recently. Nobody really jumped on it. The rules are different for Republicans.

In theory, you can tell what a person expects from how he invests. The theory hasn't been applied to important public officials much before. Kiplinger's Personal Finance applied it to the Cheneys' financial disclosure statement and printed the analysis under the provocative headline, "Cheneys betting on bad news?"

The bad news would be of two kinds: A higher rate of inflation and a lower value for the dollar.

Kiplinger's got the inflation hint from the Cheneys' stakes in a fund that specializes in short-term municipal bonds, a tax-exempt money market fund and an inflation-protected securities fund. The first two hold up if interest rates rise with inflation. The third is protected against inflation. The disclosure statement provides ranges for the investments, so Kiplinger's could tell only that the Cheneys have between $10 million and $25 million in the municipal bonds, between $1 million and $5 million in the money market and between $2 million and $10 million in the inflation-protected securities.

The hint about a loss of value of the dollar comes from their $10 million to $25 million in a foreign, mainly European, bond fund. Of course, a weak dollar - which no government ever admits to encouraging - would help exports. That would help to cut the trade deficit. Not all "bad news" is bad news for everybody in all respects.

Does Mr. Cheney know something we don't? He always says he does, but that's when he talks about foreign affairs. Anyone, such as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, can see indications of inflation. On the question of the dollar's future, though, how vigorously the Treasury Department will defend its value could be a subject of inside information.

There is a caveat here. The vice president turned his money over to outside managers. Kiplinger's quotes Mr. Cheney's lawyer saying the vice president has "nothing to do" with his money.

You have to wonder, though. It's customary for top officials to put their money where they don't have day-to-day control of it. For some jobs, that's the law. Still, who could keep his lips locked if he knew something his money manager could cash in on? The hands-off approach is a fig leaf that the public demands, but a strong breeze will blow the leaf away.

Mr. Cheney's money market account and municipal bonds are tax-exempt. When he was young, Mr. Cheney said he had more important things to do than fight in Vietnam. Now that he is rich, he or his manager decided that he has more important things to do than help pay for a war he helped to start.

The vice president doesn't like it when people talk about his money. He told Sen. Pat Leahy, D-Vt., to commit an impossible physical act on himself when the senator tried to twit him about his payments from the Halliburton Company. Friends say his deferred salary payments from Halliburton were earned while he was head of the company and have nothing to do with the company's contracts for the war he helped to start. And he says he is donating the profits on his more than 400,000 Halliburton stock options to charity.

But, as noted, he really thinks that his money is nobody else's business. If you add up the money in just the accounts Kiplinger's considered, he has between $23 million and $65 million invested. From its analysis. Kiplinger's figured that the Cheneys' total assets could be as much as $94.5 million.

That represents a considerable amount of saving for someone who spent most of his working life on the public payroll as a member of Congress or the executive branch. Mrs. Cheney earned $120,000 a year for a while on the Lockheed board for her expertise in whatever. She also wrote some books, but most or all of the royalties went to charity.

That $94 million would still be a nice pot for someone who spent only five years in the private sector. Maybe public service is more remunerative than people think. Maybe the Cheneys are better investors than Warren Buffett but are too modest to talk about it.

But if Harry Truman had left office with that kind of money stashed away Republicans would still be holding investigations of how he got it. The rules are different for them.

Think before you sink...

Fear is the biggest factor, she said, particularly for children who have never swum before. The teachers say it takes a lot of patience and coaxing, but the results are worth it. Even if the children do not become expert swimmers, they leave with basic survival skills and are comfortable in the water.

--------
Madison opened an outdoor aquatic center (pool, slides, fountains) this summer after years of pushing to get one built and significant private donations. Good for them. Lots of folks bitched -- why spend my tax money maintaining such a public facility which I would never use? ... and call it a damn swimming pool already!

We have lakes and several city beaches here, but the storm sewers all drain directly into them. Hence, about this time of the year, the phosphorus from fertilizers and yard waste stoke the milfoil and other weeds. Plus, bacteria levels from goose poop will be closing many soon, if past years are any guide. Lake Wingra is a smaller lake -- feels like a bathtub temperature-wise, and micro-organisms love that.

So a public pool for kids to learn to become comfortable in the water -- did you know Wisconsin has more lakes than even our neighbor Minnesota, which brags to be Land of 10,000 lakes? To me, you have to teach all children to swim, even if you don't yourself. Double drownings -- one person going in after the other -- are all too common.

(Lots of people don't like to think things through -- visualize deaths. I had the chance to listen once, to a man whose brother drowned as a child. Like most, he went in after him trying to help. When someone is going under and needs air to survive, the instinct is to grab any solid item that comes nearby. This surviving brother, with help, understood his drowning brother was not trying to kill him. That instinct, to grab onto anything and push down to elevate yourself to get air and survive, explains why so many drown in pairs. One gets in trouble, the other goes in to help, and neither makes it out alive.)

Teach your kids to swim. Tell them to love and look out for their brother. But teach them more effective ways to get help. "Reach or throw, don't go." Please do everything you can within your powers, parents, never to allow your kids to get into that situation -- find those public pools and hide your own fears, if necessary, so they relax enough to float, and build their skills from there once comfortable in the water.

And those Waterwings? Get rid of them now. It's not like training wheels on a bike or a protective bike helmet even, as some parents try to justify. It's a crutch that some kids don't get over, and some believe to be a magical cape protecting them from going in depths they wouldn't dare without. "In over their heads" Let your children experience deep water without any special protection, except you right there beside them -- and teach them to respect the water, currents in rivers and streams. Talk to them about water safety. Once a child can float unassisted -- and remind them since you float at the surface, it doesn't matter whether it's in 10 inches or 10 feet -- and then glide, kick and paddle, you have succeeded in helping drownproof them.

I hope your sons and daughters never have to experience what that surviving brother did. I think this new pool in Madison, and other efforts through school p.e. classes, can go a long way in helping to be part of the solution.

3-2, first(!) period

Edmonton.
I like the rule changes. Some of these shots and the passing are beautiful. Penalties being called, power play scoring. And the message under the ice, in prime position just off the center line? "Thank you fans."
Ah, hockey.
In June.

Now stay with me here, as I make a case for it as America's new sport. It's fast. Yes, soccer/futbol can be exciting ... but you have to sit through a lot of boring games for those precious moments. Baseball? It's best days are behind it. Too... predictable in the way backgammon loses its allure after you figure out how to play the odds in positioning your men. It's slow, and really, not all that exciting to watch the variations in the scoring. ok, ok. That may be a little strong -- see me in September. But at a few hours, it can get to be a bit too long, you have to admit. Unless we're talking a 74-pitch game. And basketball I like, don't get me wrong, but not the whole game. Just the end.

Sports snob? Not really. I just have limited time, and a two-hour block is about as long as can be spared, not "multi-tasking". And if you really like the game, you want to watch it, not just look up every now and then. These new rule changes are helping hockey in that way. You want to keep your eye continually on the action...

It has international flavor, nothing wrong with that, and as I've said before, I like the cadence, the announcing, the "sound" of the action, which calls to mind cold, still, dark nights. Now it's a summer night, windows open, 3-2 after the 1st. My vote's for hockey...

UPDATE: Tied 'er up! These guys are scrapping around the net, just poking and poking until something gets in.

God Help Us All ... there's got to be a better way

GAZA (Reuters) - An Israeli missile strike on a van in Gaza carrying militants and rockets killed 11 Palestinians, nine of them civilians, on Tuesday in the deadliest such attack in nearly four years.

The air strike signaled that Israel would not flinch from targeting rocket squads in densely populated areas in spite of an outcry over the deaths of seven Palestinians on a Gaza beach on Friday in a blast militants blamed on Israeli shellfire.
...
Israel said it targeted the Gaza van because it was carrying powerful armaments.

"The car that we hit was loaded with Katyusha rockets and launchers and they were on their way to launch those Katyusha rockets at Israel," an army spokeswoman said after the attack in the eastern outskirts of Gaza City.

Witnesses said an Israeli aircraft fired two missiles. The first hit the vehicle, causing it to crash into the pavement. A second hit as a crowd gathered and rescuers arrived.

Hospital officials said nine civilians, including two children and two medics, were killed as well as two Islamic Jihad militants. About 30 people were wounded.

-------

ISRAELI INQUIRY

Chief of staff of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), Dan Halutz, said an investigation of the timing of Israeli shelling of Gaza beach and the shrapnel taken from victims showed that his forces were not to blame for Friday's blast.

"We can say, surely, that the IDF is not responsible for the incident," Halutz told a news conference, flanked by Peretz.

No clear explanation was provided for what did cause the explosion, but the head of the investigation, Major General Meir Califi, suggested Palestinian militants might have been responsible.

A spokesman for the Hamas-led Interior Ministry described Israel's denial of responsibility as a fabrication. "The Israeli denial is an additional crime," Khalid Abu Hilal told Reuters.

Blaming Israel for Friday's explosion, Hamas declared an end to a 16-month truce with the Jewish state. The group, dedicated to Israel's destruction, was responsible for nearly 60 suicide bombings in Israel since a Palestinian uprising began in 2000.

Human life...

"They have no regard for human life," he said. "Neither ours nor their own. I believe this was not an act of desperation but an act of asymmetric warfare against us."

...

"He told us he would rather die than stay in Guantanamo," the attorney said. "He doesn't believe he will ever get out of Guantanamo alive."

Oh, and happy anniversary...

to our Canadian neighbors.

"an apparently errant... shell"

In the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, thousands of Palestinians mourned the death of most of the Ghaliya family. Many in the crowd wept as Huda Ghaliya, 7, kneeled to kiss her dead father before he, her mother and four siblings were buried.

Ali Ghaliya, 49, his wife, Raisa, 35, and their children Ilham, 15, Sabreen, 7, Hanadi, 1, and Haihsam, 4 months, were among the eight killed when the Israeli shell struck the beach where they were having a picnic. Huda had been playing away from them.

The Ghaliya family lost four members less than two years ago when an Israeli army shell hit their farm in Beit Lahiya. Then, as now, the army was shelling to try to stop the Palestinians from firing rockets into Israel.

On Saturday, Huda asked mourners, "Please do not leave me alone." The Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniya of Hamas, who called the incident "a war crime," said he would adopt the girl. Later, Abbas, who called the incident "a dangerous, horrible, ugly crime against civilians," issued a presidential order adopting her.

Israeli officials said they regretted any casualties among the innocent.
-----------------
Andrew Sullivan on poor Mary's Turn.

(Isn't that how this has been marketed? "Poor Mary gives us 'her side'" ? And why book form and not just a follow-up magazine article or blog interview? But the life of Mary Cheney bound in book form ... who's going to be taking that one off the shelves in a few decades?)

It's not the size of the dog in the fight...

Cat trees bear.

Be good to yourself...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPFS7Yyq8E0&search=mahnamahna
(If you liked Cake, seen this version?
Worth watching the whole thing:
"Question is: who cares?")

...

The Grant County, Ind., coroner's office apologized for the error on Wednesday. Coroner Ron Mowery said students had identified the survivor as VanRyn but no scientific testing was conducted.

"I can't stress enough that we did everything we knew to do under those circumstances, and trusted the same processes and the same policies that we always do," Mowery said. "And this tragedy unfolded like we could never have imagined."

The VanRyn family's blog announced that a memorial service for Laura had been scheduled for Sunday in Kentwood, a Grand Rapids suburb.

The family posted Psalm 18 on the blog Thursday, followed by a message affirming faith in Jesus: "He is there for all of us and for you. God's Word is sufficient, no matter what your circumstance."

The Cerak family will take over the blog and continue updating readers, said Debbie Harlukowicz, office manager at the Gaylord Evangelical Free Church, where Whitney's father, Newell, is youth minister.

...

"...I had to put up some kind of a fight..."

Belated Memorial Day good wishes. Our state appears to have turned into that beautiful heaven on earth we know for about five months. Unfortunately, the camera temporarily is out of commission, so you'll just have to take my word, or come visit if you're not from here.

Has it been a year already? That was one long winter, but all signs so far point to an even more invigorated springtime and summer. (Recordbreaking 90s on what usually averages out to be a rainy weekend, and all the animal life starting to show themselves.)

The garden is finally growing. Wait for Decoration Day, they say... Norm's onions look great; he inspired me to put in some of my own. Lots of Romas which freeze uniformly, grape and cherry tomatoes. The pepper plants are pulling through (it got cold after I put in my plants and they didn't do much considering the early start.) Ruth is doing ok too; going through the motions, but not swallowing much down the few times we visited. Life -- it goes on.

Mostly, it was an outside weekend my body needed. Just enough sun every day for cinnamon skin, fires, early yet sweet corn, a feeling of being in your own skin once again, clean cold rivers, the flea markets kicking up ...

I am proud to be an American; I should mention that more I suppose.