All of us were ordinary...

...compared to Cynthia Rose...

That last post? ... tomorrow.

So here's one more for tonight, continuing the Payton theme. Always loved that voice!

On the road again...

The way bloggers are dropping like flies these day, just wanted to tell you this is a typical scheduled outage, common here.

I leave you with a schoolyard tale:
A bully, a fighter, a victim, a blowhard. A bully was hurting the victim. A big bully. The blowhard, with not enough to back it up, took on the bully. He talked a good game, but didn't come through for the victim. The fighter, a wise one, estimated his capability against the bully. Realizing he had to finish anything he started or else it would turn out worse for the victim, he used everything he had instead of just jumping in and flailing away like the blowhard. Brains in garnering complete schoolyard support against the bully. Charisma in convincing others with power that the bully needed to be marginalized. Honesty in leveling with his classmates on what could and couldn't be accomplished through violence alone. Then, he fought smart. Effective jabs here and there. Like a cartoon, or even a David with a slingshot, he timed his actions effectively, expending just enough energy to trip up the bully, while keeping himself alert to respond to changes in the fight, other possible bullies in the schoolyard. Eventually, the bully fell under his own weight and the victim survived.

The blowhard? He flamed out early, after spending everything he had in an ineffectual fight. It was a comfort to him, knowing his intentions were good, and in coming years he tried to convince everyone that he really had been tougher than the fighter. No matter. Anyone with a bit of common sense knew who to follow, and why.
---------
Gotta had it to the GOP.
In political strategy, they're no dummies...

Why Fall is the best.

Alfred R. Ferguson (no indentation but all his, italicized emphasis mine)

Perhaps no single poem more fully embodies the ambiguous balance between paradisiac good and the paradoxically more fruitful human good than "Nothing Gold Can Stay," a poem in which the metaphors of Eden and the Fall cohere with the idea of felix culpa.

Six versions of the poem exist, the first sent to George R. Elliott in March, 1920, in three eight-line stanzas under the title "Nothing Golden Stays." In this version the poem lacked any Edenic metaphor, reading in the three last lines, "In autumn she achieves / A still more golden blaze / But nothing golden stays."

In its first published version, however, in The Yale Review (October 1923), under the present title, the poet caught both the moment of transitory perfection and the sense that the Edenic ideal must give way to earthly dying beauty:

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leafs a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

The poem begins at once in paradox: "green is gold . . . leaf's a flower." At once, common knowledge, precise observation, and the implications of ancient associations are brought into conflicting play.

Green is the first mark of spring, the assurance of life; yet in fact the first flush of vegetation for the New England birch and the willow is not green but the haze of delicate gold. Hence green is a theory or sign of spring; gold is the fact. Gold, precious and permanent as a metal, is here not considered as a metal but as a color. Its hue is described as hard to hold, as evanescent as wealth itself.

In the second couplet of the heavily end-stopped poem, paradox is emphasized again, this time in the terms of leaf and flower instead of green and gold. The earliest leaf unfolds in beauty like a flower; but in spite of its appearance, it is leaf, with all the special function of its being, instead of flower. Yet as apparent flower (the comparison is metaphoric rather than a simile—that is, leaf is flower, not leaf resembles or is like flower), the leaf exists in disguise only a moment and then moves on to its true state as leaf. In terms of the two parallel paradoxes, we find the green which appears as gold becoming the real green of leaf; the leaf which appears to be flower with all the possible color of flower becomes the true green of leaf.

Our expectations are borne out: apparent gold shifts to green; apparent flower subsides into leaf. But in each case an emotional loss is involved in the changed conditions. The hue of gold with all its value associations of richness and color cannot be preserved. Nor can flower, delicate and evanescent in its beauty, last long; hence we are touched by melancholy when gold changes to green and flower changes to leaf (actually "subsides" or sinks or falls into leaf).

Yet in terms of the poem,
the thing which metamorphoses into its true self (gold to green of life and flower into leaf which gives life to the tree or plant) undergoes only an apparent or seeming fall.

The subsiding is like the jut of water in "West-Running Brook, " a fall which is a rise into a new value. It is with this movement of paradox that Frost arrives at the final term of his argument, developing the parallel between acts within nature and acts within myth.

"So Eden sank to grief" with the same imperceptible movement that transformed gold to green and made flower subside to leaf. By analogy the third term in the poem takes on the character of the first two; gold is green; flower is leaf; Eden is grief. In every case the second element is actually --a value--, a part of a natural process by which the cycle of fuller life is completed.

Thus by the very movement and order of the poem, we are induced to accept each change as a shift to good rather than as a decrease in value; yet each change involves a seeming diminution, a fall stressed in the verbs "subsides" and "sank" as well as in the implicit loss in color and beauty.

The sense of a fall which is actually a part of an inherent order of nature, of the nature of the object, rather than being forced unintelligibly and externally, is reinforced as the final natural metaphor recapitulates the first three movements of the argument:

"So dawn goes down to day." The pattern of paradox is assured; the fall is really no fall to be mourned. It is a felix culpa and light-bringing.

Our whole human experience makes us aware that dawn is tentative, lovely, but incomplete and evanescent. Our expectation is that dawn does not "go down" to day, but comes up, as in Kipling's famous phrase, "like thunder," into the satisfying warmth of sunlight and full life.

The hesitant perfections of gold, of flower, of Eden, and finally of dawn are linked to parallel terms which are set in verbal contexts of diminished value. Yet in each case the parallel term is potentially of larger worth. If the reader accepts green leaf and the full sunlight of day as finally more attractive than the transitory golden flower and the rose flush of a brief dawn, he must also accept the Edenic sinking into grief as a rise into a larger life.

In each case the temporary and partial becomes more long-lived and complete; the natural cycle that turns from flower to leaf, from dawn to day, balances each loss by a real gain. Eden's fall is a blessing in the same fashion, an entry into fuller life and greater light.

Frost, both through language and through structure, has emphasized in "Nothing Gold Can Stay" not merely the melancholy of transitory beauty—of Paradise—but an affirmation of the fortunate fall.

Here is Frost's most evocative use of the felix culpa metaphor. The subsidence, the sinking, the going down is, by the logic of the poem, a blessed increase if we are to follow the cycle of flower, leaf, bud, fruit, into the full life that includes loss, grief, and change.

from "Frost and the Paradox of the Fortunate Fall." Frost: Centennial Essays. Copyright © 1973 by University Press of Mississippi.

All this beauty out there...

... right here at our fingertips.

Is this a great time or what?

Variations on the theme ...

And this is just pretty sweet.

If you can start it about 2:15 in,
it really starts to get funny...

*1993 Dylan and Santana interview
----------
And more playing

More fun with Queen...

"Like the Nuremberg rallies...

...with a band at it." LiveAid85


"Course, we knew what we were doing, really..."
~Roger Taylor


"My God, this is not a Queen audience but, this is happening. It was an incredibly eh, charged moment."
~Brian May

"Like the Nuremberg rallies...

...with a band at it." LiveAid85


"Course, we knew what we were doing, really..."
~Roger Taylor


"My God, this is not a Queen audience but, this is happening. It was an incredibly eh, charged moment."
~Brian May

LiveAid85

All right

Veddy veddy interesting...

Look who's raising money for Sen. Lieberman's campaign. Apparently when you lose party support, you need help from more than just the Democratic hawks.

They could always flip a coin.

This review makes the film sound like a walk-in-the-woods version of My Dinner with Andre.

Good job, kiddo.

Here are

two articles about planning for the annual Halloween extravaganza here in Madison. My impression: it might be a spooky dangerous Halloween this year. Somehow Altamont or the Who stampede come to mind. That or a lot of broken places in cheap plastic fencing.

I've seen private security groups fence (chainlink) a tubing resort prior to concert, and staff the entrances. Essentially, that's what the city's doing this year. Police response hasn't been effective in the past -- they subscribe to a more hands-off, light-handed method of policing here, and if/when that doesn't work -- overpower, it seems. This year, private security will help manage the crowd of costumed revelers, staffing the gates.

In years past, I know of hockey fans -- sure middle-aged and curious -- who have eaten on State Steet, or walked around checking out the scene before and after the games. Maybe take some photos. These types of adults presumably won't be there this year, because of the ticketing policy. Or they could pay the $5, but I doubt many will. No loss for the adults, but I wonder if the ticketing policy will actually vamp up the party crowd and help pit crowd against authority and vice versa, without the random passerby's and non-partiers mixed in there.

Also interesting is the vote for County Sheriff. Democrat Dave Mahoney is my pick; his opponent is a public information spokesman for Madison police. Unless Halloween comes off unusually smoothly this year, you almost feel for the opponent, who'll probably still be handling the PR aftermath, explaining actions taken and all. Though, it's not expected to be a close race, so Halloween probably won't be a deciding factor.

Back to topic,
so it is lawful to block off a city street, and require residents and their weekend guests arriving at whatever hour (lots of roadtrippers come in) to present a ticket to get home -- or wait until the party ends? Because free tickets are provided? And you can't "cut through" on State either if you live nearby? Well, I hope it all works out. I've been amazed every year that the worse things turn out, the more appeasing and calls to uphold tradition come from politicians. (ca-ching, ca-ching -- somebody is making a lot of money on liquor that night, even if it is costing the city money overall)

At least, that's how it seems to me. In my Chicago-area high school 20 years ago, Madison and Southern (SIU) were the Halloween party places. Bars in Carbondale now shut down that weekend. Drastic sure. But under control. There's got to be an in-between, you'd think: a way of keeping the party, but getting more police off the high horses and preventing the trouble before it happens. Private security, I fear, may just bring a special slew of troubles for the city -- see the discussion on liability in that second article. Who knows? Maybe the kids will be more passive this year, and won't come to town intent on resisting authority. But on Halloween night, of course anything goes. Ooh, scary scary!

"Together we have pushed some big rocks...

...to the top of the mountain,
even if others have slipped
from our grasp and rolled back.

I yield my place to others
with an obstinate feeling —
a real obstinate feeling —
of hope for our common future."

Memory Lane

Amazing how easy it is to validate your memories these days.
My first concert was Waylon Jennings at ChicagoFest -- 8/8/79
I went with my family.

Around that time, he sang the Dukes of Hazzard theme song.
I had the 45 where he added the additional verse:
"I'm a good old boy. I know my mama loves me.
But she can't understand: they keep a-showing my hands,
and not my face on tv?"

Of course, you think Waylon (RIP), you think Willie.
Luckenbach Texas was another early favorite.
(Turns out it's a real place... who knew?)
"where ain't nobody feelin' no pain" -- spose that's still true?

Did you know Willie sang at Bill + Melissa Gates' wedding reception? Now ya do! See the good things that come from blog reading?

Speaking of, this is my favorite Willie song, I think. (Though this version sounds unusually slow, and his voice sounds more deeply sexy than usual, go figure.) Anyway, wouldn't this make a great soundtrack for those considering abandoning their blogs? ("Leave me if you need to... I will still remember... Angel Flying too close/to the ground...")

There must be, 50 ways to leave your blog url...

This isn't mine, but it's funny and you might use it as a pointer if you're contemplating ending your blog:

(older message about site follows):
Well, I finally found out that trying to keep a website up to date while still maintaining a full career schedule is a real pain in the ass. So here I am again, after about a six-month absence. This website stuff is a real bother, because it lacks instant gratification. There's no psychic payoff. All the other things I do give me a charge and a lift. This seems more like doing homework. Fuck that shit!*

Therefore, I've decided to do a minimal amount of work on the website. I'll check in from time to time...just like you. But that's it.

So! I just made some new timeline entries, including news about last year's HBO show, the latest CD, the book, the Grammy Awards, my movie plans and my Broadway plans. Something there might interest you. Naturally, I'm still doing my short theater-concert tours, and I still do 12 weeks a year at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Details on those things are always available on the "Schedule" part of this web page.

Laugh.com (the comedy website I have a small interest in) continues to grow and grow. It's quite a flourishing record company now, in addition to being a great comedy website. We have 22 CD's in stores right now from coast to coast, and hundreds more coming. We've made deals with the three big records companies (Sony, Universal and BMG) and have the rights to sell and market many of their best titles from over the years.

The first 20 (from Universal) will be pressed in a couple of months, including CD's by Jackie Mason, Bill Cosby, Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Lily Tomlin, Jonathan Winters, Mort Sahl, Rich Little, Phyllis Diller, Shelly Berman, Buddy Hackett, The Smothers Brothers...etc etc etc. Check the site. Many other CD's, not yet in stores, are available at the site. We also have Firesign Theater. Yay! Fuckin' yay!

Okay, that's it. I gotta go watch my dog take a shit.
Thanks for visiting. Stay cool, and don't believe anything the Bush administration tells you. In fact, play it safe: don't believe anything anybody tells you.

George Carlin.

I just got myself a ticket, aisle seat orchestra level, for Sunday night's show. Yay, fuckin' yay! That's all I can say...
-----
*I used to use this one alot, substitute "noise" for shit ...

Update

Ah, I'm glad someone brought this up.

I had a long post going before this one, where I shared personal details. Bringing my kayak to campus 1L. Keeping it at the boathouse in Lake Wingra -- small park, courts, fields, benches, occasional accordian music. The biggest park on the small lake is Vilas. You notice the Mexican immigrants playing their music -- it's a big park and diffuses, and it reminded me of summer evenings and weekend afternoons with my family on the Chicago Lakeshore (Lake Michigan's public parks. The best memories are the late-late nights, smelt fishing when they were really running.)

It's a sad beach at Vilas really. Almost always closed down for a few days because of bacteria. Muck silt bottom that goes about 6 inches down, no kidding. At the boathouse anyway; it's probably packed down better by the beach. The geese and birds leave feathers and crap, and the temperature is like bathtub water. I stopped paddling there because I wondered if the minor splashes on the hands and occasionally in the eye were healthy. Did I mention they've apparently got it constructed so the street runoff is piped in untreated?

Still, it's a nice enough lake and park, and public. Free. A place to get out, in the healthy enough air and water. Some men, women too, like to have a can of beer, or a few, with their sandwiches, or grilled meat. Any shared music, in the company of families with children or even workers off together, is expected in a park, diffused since you're not packed in close, and for most of us is appreciated that you're running your van battery like that. Vulgar lyrics, maybe I'd think otherwise, but most park music is upbeat instrumentals.

Those were my background thoughts and amazed reactions at reading an alcohol ban was even being considered, needed in Vilas or all city public parks. So it's an interesting story to follow, if you're local. Racism? That's the thing, is it when it's not aimed directly, similar to some of the effects of privatization of public services. Does it matter since your average man with money drinks in a bar, and doesn't take his family to parks like Vilas for the day? If somebody in one of the groups has problems with alcohol, there's no inbetween in policing than to take away that freedom for everyone? Or, like the group claims, is this a way of discouraging people to use the parks?

Yeah, but he punctuated it wrong.

Sign of the Times
17 Sep 2006 07:02 am

Andrew Sullivan reports:

Glenn Reynolds yesterday actually used the following words:

"... the currently-deteriorating situation in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Off season, but this still rates as the funniest thing I have ever read on the Internet.

After the fifth egg, writing "HAPPY EASTER" lost its novelty. But Easter is short on alternative taglines. If these were Christmas Eggs we could have written "Joyeux Noel" and "Season's Greetings" and "Ho Ho Ho" and whatnot, but with Easter you're pretty much stuck with "HAPPY EASTER."

I did a bunny face, just to be different. But it's very hard to do fine detail with a crayon on an eggshell, so I gave that up. Then Satan, who was hanging around the chapel looking for somebody to bother, came over and whispered in my ear, "You know what would be funny?" ...

Friday nights...

...goes pro.
(sic)

Burke Magnus, ESPNU’s vice president and general manager, has heard the criticism that it is crossing the boundaries of exploitation. ESPN’s ombudsman, George Solomon, for one, wrote in an online column on Aug. 31 that the network’s push “tells the world high school sports are about winning, big-time recruits and ratings — but not education.”

Magnus said: “Is there a concern that there is an exploitive element to it? Absolutely. We think about it all the time, but we live in a different world than we did 15 years ago, and if people have an interest to get this content, they’re going to find it.

“We’re beyond the point of time where you can prevent something like this from pervading into culture."

---------
Dan Moffett takes on a local social problem:

It will be easy to construe what follows as an indictment of bleeding-heart liberals and their approach to solving complex social problems. So, let me start by saying that I believe I'm well-qualified to offer the commentary, since I've lived most of my life as what's easy to construe as a bleeding-heart liberal.

That disclosure aside, you've probably noticed the alarming increase in youth violence throughout South Florida, but particularly in Palm Beach County. A spate of killings in West Palm Beach has claimed the lives of dozens of young black men during the past few years. Street muggings against immigrants have increased, as they have in Martin County. The crime wave in West Palm Beach has touched even CityPlace, an upscale shopping enclave guarded by city police and private security guards. If you can't keep people safe at CityPlace, a couple of blocks from the city's police station, there is little reason to feel confident about safety anywhere else.
...
Last week, Mayor Lois Frankel and Police Chief Delsa Bush called a news conference to announce that the city is budgeting $1 million to spend on two centers and other programs to curb youth violence. Details are sketchy, but at least the mayor can say the word million whenever she gives speeches about crime prevention. Nobody can be against providing recreation and help with homework for kids. But the notion that this will strike a mighty blow against teen violence is a feel-good fantasy.

If you're going to be serious about turning the worst neighborhoods around, you have to take a long view and deal with two realities that are politically unpopular and won't offer immediate political payoff during election campaigns.

For one, society must accept that many teens cannot be saved, and it's a waste of time and money trying. Killers won't stop killing because a well-meaning person tosses them a basketball. Better to spend resources on more police and also prosecutors who are committed to getting convictions in court, rather than pleading cases out and spinning the revolving door.

Second, and more important, society must recognize that most of these lost teens were lost while they were in diapers, or before. Society must intervene much earlier, and that means doing something about teen pregnancy. It is astonishing that the Criminal Justice Commission would spend 18 months producing a study that has no significant mention of teen pregnancy. It is regrettable that city and county officials will spend millions to help kids with their homework but next to nothing to educate them about sex. As long as babies are born to babies, as long as children come into the world to single mothers who know nothing about caring for themselves - let alone a young life - then the production of young killers will continue.

RIP

Norm once told me I looked like a young Patty Berg.

She sounds like a good woman.

An old postcard...

...framed in wallpaper.

I got it this summer at the Saint Germain Monday flea market. Lots of fun old collectibles up there, cabin decor such as stuffed creatures, and those tall pines always reaching for the sun... There's a relaxing air, nothing special about the drive up from Madison, but fun driving once you are up there. If I had more friends like me, I imagine it would be a fun place to indulge the senses together. I think hearing is my favorite -- the sounds of a natural quiet night are hard to find in most places I know.

------------
Here's one from yesterday at Goodwill, an Austin Prod $3.50.
Still, I think it looks at home in the room the houseplants have taken over, and I'm the one living here so that's the opinion that counts, right?

If groups of people are drinking in city parks and law enforcement has trouble keeping the peace... what to do, what to do?

Fun read

Howard Kurtz tallies commentary on the President's speech:

At Americablog, John Aravosis says the speech was "all about Iraq. Surprise. What a pathetic little man. Rather than give a speech that Ronald Reagan might give, about our sorrow and the hope for our future, Bush decided to go political, giving the nation a laundry list of how great he is, how wonderful HE has done, and by implication, why everyone should vote Republican in the fall. The man is simply pathetic. Today isn't about Iraq. It's about the dead. It's about our grief. And about our future. It's about all of us. But it is most certainly not about Iraq nor George Bush's personal report card."

The Boston Globe notes, "In his blitzkrieg of 9/11 speeches, Bush has lumped together numerous countries, foreign leaders, religious figures, and political movements under one banner -- as supporters of terrorism -- and ignored the differences among them. On the stump, this conveys a sense of moral clarity, of a battle between good people and evil people, suggesting a clean distinction can be made. But it also has led to a widespread misunderstanding -- that all the people cited by Bush are working in concert against the United States."

And Greg Sargent of The American Prospect looks closely at the NYT: "The big news orgs have been pushing the idea that the White House's planned commemmoration of Sept. 11 was somehow intended as apolitical -- when it wasn't intended that way at all. Check out how the New York Times characterized the Dem reaction to President Bush's speech Monday night using 9/11 to defend his disastrous war in Iraq:

" Mr. Bush's address brought to a close a day when leaders of both parties put aside, at least for the moment, the acrimony that has characterized the national security debate since the brief period of national unity after the attacks. But as soon as the speech was over, the partisanship flared again. Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, said the president 'should be ashamed of using a national day of mourning' to justify his Iraq policy."

Got that? The partisanship only 'flared' after the president's speech, when Dems attacked him for it. But here's what the president said: " 'Whatever mistakes have been made in Iraq, the worst mistake would be to think that if we pulled out, the terrorists would leave us alone. They will not leave us alone. They will follow us. The safety of America depends on the outcome of the battle in the streets of Baghdad.'"

Gotta run. Best check out the beachlike, color-coded safety flags to see how safe your hometown streets will be today...

Here's what I don't get...

If there's a rational argument for autonomy in allowing people to "govern themselves", are others rightly more certain than me in their confidence of line drawing?

For example, you can imagine the federalism argument extended:
Strong states rights. Let the majority of local people determine the legal mores and laws, and for the most part -- leave them alone. But even in Iran, hanging homosexuals is against basic human moral codes, no matter the laws. You just don't do that -- no matter what the majority thinks, and we're not even certain the silent majority there is in support.

Likewise, the Federalist Society believes in the outcome of Brown v. Board, and the passage of the Jim Crow era into time. No one argues that local choice denying personal civil rights significantly change minority lives and lifestyles. Or that anyone who wants better should save up, pick up and move to friendlier environs. The Supreme Court is right to enforce freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution in our country.

It's a strange part of democracy -- the wise overriding part, like the wisdom of one good parent or guardian.

For example, you want to encourage free elections in Gaza and Lebanon (and in EU countries, even)... but then cringe when Hamas, Hezbollah (or one of those wacky facist parties) posts a win. Like Brown or hanging homosexuals, having parties of violence representing people -- you want to override the current majority.

Sometimes the tie is immediacy -- violence, threat, death, killing off a way of life. Sometimes it's based on the majority moral code. Sometimes you wonder at the wisdom of those drawing the lines.

And so it goes.

The movie was beaten soundly in the ratings by the regular-season debut of NBC's "Sunday Night Football," matching Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts against younger brother Eli of the New York Giants. The National Football League game had an estimated 20.7 million viewers, while "The Path to 9/11" had 13 million, according to Nielsen Media Research. The ABC movie did, however, beat CBS' third airing of a 9/11 documentary, which was seen by an estimated 10.6 million people, Nielsen said.

I like the people in the football-watching America better. They seem more healthy than the drama fanners.

From a Papal Point of View : *

People in Africa and Asia admire our scientific and technical prowess, but at the same time they are frightened by a form of rationality that totally excludes God from man’s vision. They do not see the real threat to their identity in the Christian faith, but in the contempt for God and the cynicism that considers mockery of the sacred to be an exercise of freedom and that holds up utility as the supreme moral criterion for the future of scientific research.”
...
But one man, Gerhard Huber, 35, said that while he liked the pope, he struggled to understand exactly what he was saying. “A little bit too intellectual ­ for me,” he said.

-------

*Not to be cynical,
But I wonder how
many first read
that and think Paypal.

Only in America...

would the tv show raise more heated discussion,
than the original hardcover release... * **

(Wish I would have kept the link to Tom Blackburn's column; he was one of those purchasing from the first-day stacks, if I recall correctly, daily wading through it.)
-------

Speaking of the PB Post, if you are a big World Trade Center fan, spread the good word and check out this link:
Keeping It Real.

I've never met Theresa Golden. Don't know how old she is or whether she shares my disdain for the hip-hop culture, raunchy rap and bootylicious music videos. What this woman did recently, however, convinces me that we are "sho nuff" coming from the same place in our desire to celebrate good black men.

Theresa Golden is the aunt of Jason Thomas, a 32-year-old ex-Marine sergeant who is a security officer at the Ohio Supreme Court in Columbus. I'm not surprised if you've never heard of him. I hadn't, until his aunt brought him to public attention.

...

After meeting Sgt. Thomas, the producer added, "He's the greatest guy ... the kind of hero you want." To me, that apology rings hollow.

Even in our race-conscious culture that too often stereotypes black men as drug addicts and thugs, how Sgt. Thomas' racial identity could have gone unnoticed and unreported - whether or not his given name was known - astonishes me.

World Trade Center will be seen around the world. It will become a symbol of America's resiliency after the 9/11 slaughter. The fact that a modest, strong, brave black man served our country without thought for his own safety needs to be a visible part of that record. His altruistic profile can counter the negative media images of black youths that appear daily. So we all should thank Aunt Theresa.

Each day, I scan the news for pictures of inspiring black men. Their stories rarely are spotlighted without outlining in excruciating detail any past transgression they may have committed from time of birth***, often to the extent that their accomplishments are diminished or rendered incidental to any positive news coverage. Given that painful reality, I want Mr. Shamberg and director Oliver Stone to prepare a trailer that identifies Jason Thomas as the once-anonymous hero and require that this information be permanently attached to the film.

In times like these, when catastrophes natural and man-made daily strain race relations, America needs another black hero.****

------------
*of the 9-11 Commission Report,
released in July 2004.

**Not that there's anything wrong with that;
I'm as populist as the next.

***She's not being dramatic. She lives in
South Florida, where the papers are
full of such stories, indeed.

****And they diss the " MSM "... try to think of
of it not as an ugly letter label, but as coming
from a human writer.

Calling 'em...

...when/like you see 'em.

***********
Here's (sic) two good examples on the legal blogs of needing to call bullshit, regarding religion and characterizations:

First, Althouse tells us, "Yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee voted for the "Public Expression of Religion Act," which prevents the recovery of attorneys' fees in lawsuits based on the Establishment Clause:

Supporters say the bill, if passed and signed into law, would keep special-interest groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union from "abusing the system" when filing challenges to government actions that may endorse religion. Opponents say it would have a chilling effect on the ability of religious minorities to defend their freedoms.

The committee's vote was split down party lines, with all 12 Republicans present supporting the bill and Democrats opposing it....

"[T]he ability to recover attorneys' fees in civil-rights and constitutional cases, including establishment-clause cases, is necessary to help protect the religious freedom of all Americans and to keep religion government-free," the [ACLU] statement said, noting the fees in such suits often total "tens, if not hundreds of thousands, of dollars."

"Few citizens can afford to [pay such fees]," it continued. "But more importantly, citizens should not be required to do so where the court finds that the government has violated their rights and engaged in unconstitutional behavior."

Rep. John Hostettler (R-Ind.), the bill's chief House sponsor, said the act was necessary to prevent such groups from intimidating governments into agreeing to out-of-court settlements.

"It is outrageous that public officials have been threatened with the prospect of financial ruin merely because they wish to defend their constitutional rights in a court of law," he said in a statement. "This is a big victory for Americans who care about our rich religious heritage in this country."

Those are some sharply drawn party lines. I'm definitely with the ACLU on this one. "Americans who care about our rich religious heritage in this country" -- that really grates. Taking a strong position in favor of separating religion and state doesn't mean you don't "care about our rich religious heritage in this country." I mean, could Hostettler get any more conservative buzz words into his sentence? Victory, Americans, rich, religious, heritage, country."

*******

Good job. She seen (sic) the pitch; she knocked it right back. (The last unindented graph is Althouse.) Contrast this post on Volokh (the last unindented graph is Volokh):

Evangelical Christian Stephen Green] faces a court appearance today charged with using 'threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour' after his attempt to distribute the leaflets at the weekend 'Mardi Gras' event in Cardiff.

A spokesman for the police said the campaigner had not behaved in a violent or aggressive manner, but that officers arrested him because 'the leaflet contained Biblical quotes about homosexuality'....

The anti-gay campaigners were first asked by police to leave the site of the [Mardi Gras event] following 'complaints from the public', and complied with the request. However, they were approached again by police when they began handing out leaflets at the entrance to the park where the Mardi Gras was staged.

Mr Green refused to stop distributing leaflets and was arrested, and then questioned for four hours at a police station. He was charged after refusing a caution.

The leaflets were headed Same-Sex Love - Same-Sex Sex: What does the Bible Say?, and included a series of quotations from the 1611 King James Bible, a text usually regarded as one of the foundation stones of the English language.

Aimed at demonstrating Biblical disapproval of homosexual sex, they included from the Old Testament Leviticus 18.22, 'Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind: it is abomination'.

The leaflets also quoted Romans 1:25-27 from the New Testament, to the effect that homosexuals are given to 'vile affections'.

The handbills urged homosexuals to 'turn from your sins and you will be saved'.

The charge against Mr Green is that he used 'threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress thereby', contrary to the Public Order Act 1986....

Colin Hart of the Christian Institute think tank said: 'This was a very gentle leaflet. There was no use of words like "perversion". I have to wonder if churches, bishops and archbishops are now vulnerable to arrest for their views on homosexuality....'

There may well be more to the case than the article reports, of course; if readers know more, I'd much appreciate their pointing it out. I should note that I'm puzzled by Mr. Hart's distinction between "perversion" and "vile"/"abomination," but I agree that it's hard to draw a principled line between Mr. Green's leaflets and broadcasts, newspaper articles, and other anti-homosexuality items that may "insult[]," "alarm," or "distress" some readers. It does look like publicly teaching traditional Christianity might indeed be a crime in England."
*********

Now he had a fair argument going there, but that last line grates on me and apparently others as well. Teaching anti-homosexuality is not "teaching traditional Christianity". Like we currently urge Muslims to speak up, as others have noted, when their faith is ill defined by fundamentalists, so should "traditional Christians" better expand on the core teachings of their faith. Volokh swung hard -- points for taking a big cut -- but in that artlessly written last sentence, unfortunately he whiffed bigtime.

Clearing the cache...

Have you seen Sunshine State, by writer/director John Sayles?* Such a human film, with so many great lines. Remember Alan King's, "Nature...on a leash!" or "...but we'll miss it when it's gone..." (There are so many quotables in this film, as I've mentioned before.)

Still cracks me up when King posits "all those family farm election commercials ... shot in Canada". Here are some more shots from last week's trip north:





That's a male sumac flower already changed color, I'm speculating, plus some of those "leaves of 3; let them be" poisonous ivy or oak.



(I wear long pants and sleeves in the woods, and ignore rubbing the hands if they begin to feel tingly in the dense wood air. No touching of course, plus I've heard if you eat a lot of local honey, you build up an immunity to the pollens.) So, Itch-free nature photos: what did we do before the internet made all this easier?


Don't you love the dignity of trees, even in death and how they try to revive? The ones that fall, yet maintain leaf growth for a few additional years, or the many forms they take in their falling -- unique all, and untouched in the woods and on the water.(Yeah, I know this is a cut tree, but was referring to others that fall.)
------
*That film, and the star-studded "Noises Off" are two of my favorites, for some reason forgotten when I was creating the blogger profile.

In the email:
The Tomato Garden
>
>
>An old Italian man lived alone in the country. He wanted to dig his tomato garden but it was very hard work as the ground was hard. His only son, Vincenzo, who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament.
>
>Dear Vincenzo,
>I am feeling pretty bad because it looks like I won't be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I am getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. If you were here, my troubles would be over. I know you would dig the garden for me.
>Love,
>Papa
>
>A few days later he received a letter from his son.
>
>Dear Papa,
>I would help if I could but please do not dig up that garden. That's where I buried the bodies.
>Love,
>Vinnie
>
>At 4 am the next morning, FBI and local police arrived with picks and shovels and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left. That next day the old man received another letter from his son.
>
>Dear Papa,
>Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That's the best I could do under the circumstances.
>Love,
>Vinnie

He's got me convinced. Fish tonight?

Unlike the land animals we confine to pens, fatten on synthetic feed and selectively breed for growth, most fish we eat roam the open ocean, hunt down prey and choose their mates according to their own inexplicable desires. They feed us without any interference on our part. Giving up on fish would mean the end of the last large-scale hunter-gatherer relationship we have with wild food, as well as signal our capitulation in the fight to save the oceans. ... Line-caught fish cost more, sometimes twice the price of trawl-caught fish. But shouldn’t we be willing to pay more for the chance to eat a truly undomesticated creature?

How bout that moon?

Not Harvest, but Full Corn Moon.
Full Corn... I like it.

And people diss...

... flea market gleaners .

Decades later, when Robert Swope, a gentle punk rocker turned furniture dealer, came across their pictures — a hundred or so snapshots and three photo albums in a box at the 26th Street flea market in Manhattan — he knew nothing about their stories, or Casa Susanna, beyond the obvious: here was a group of men dressed as women, beautiful and homely, posing with gravity, happiness and in some cases outright joy. They were playing cards, eating dinner, having a laugh. They didn’t look campy, like drag queens vamping it up as Diana Ross or Cher; they looked like small-town parishioners, like the lady next door, or your aunt in Connecticut.

Also in the news...

"He finally acknowledged the elephant in the room that everybody had always been talking about," said Jumana Musa, advocacy director for Amnesty International USA.

***********

"I cannot describe the specific methods used — I think you understand why," President Bush said in the East Room, where families of some of those who died in the Sept. 11 attacks heartily applauded him when he promised to finally bring the perpetrators to justice.

"If I did, it would help the terrorists learn how to resist questioning and to keep information from us that we need to prevent new attacks on our country. But I can say the procedures were tough, and they were safe and lawful and necessary." He insisted the detainees were not tortured.

"I want to be absolutely clear with our people, and the world: The United States does not torture," President Bush said... Earlier this year, an anti-torture panel at the United Nations recommended the closure of Guantanamo and criticized alleged U.S. use of secret prisons and suspected delivery of prisoners to foreign countries for questioning.

***********

President Bush said the information from terrorists in CIA custody has played a role in the capture or questioning of nearly every senior al-Qaida member or associate detained by the U.S. and its allies since the program began. He said they include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused Sept. 11 mastermind, as well as Ramzi Binalshibh, an alleged would-be 9/11 hijacker, and Abu Zubaydah, who was believed to be a link between Osama bin Laden and many al-Qaida cells. The president said interrogators have succeeded in getting information that has helped make photo identifications, pinpoint terrorist hiding places, provide ways to make sense of documents, identify voice recordings and understand the meaning of terrorist communications, al-Qaida's travel routes and hiding places.

***********

The administration had refused until now to acknowledge the existence of CIA prisons. President Bush said he was going public because the United States has largely completed questioning the suspects, and also because the CIA program had been jeopardized by the Supreme Court ruling. The Supreme Court ruled that prisoner protections spelled out by the Geneva Conventions should extend to members of al-Qaida.

In addition to torture and cruel treatment, the treaties ban "outrages against personal dignity" and "humiliating and degrading treatment." The Supreme Court ruling put a damper on the CIA's program, virtually putting the interrogation of detainees on hold until such prohibitions like "outrages against personal dignity" could be defined by law. "We're not interrogating now because CIA officials feel like the rules are so vague that they cannot interrogate without being tried as war criminals, and that's irresponsible," President Bush said Wednesday, in an interview with Katie Couric during her first week anchoring the "CBS Evening News."

*********

With the transfer of 14 men to Guantanamo, there currently are no detainees being held by the CIA, President Bush said. A senior administration official said the CIA had detained fewer than 100 suspected terrorists in the history of the program. Still, the president said that "having a CIA program for questioning terrorists will continue to be crucial to getting lifesaving information." ...

"I think what surprised me is he seemed to be asking Congress to legalize it through statutes," said Jumana Musa, advocacy director for Amnesty International USA, "essentially allowing him to continue to detain people in secret by sort of putting forth all this information that they got from these folks, and somehow using that to justify what has been recognized by U.N. committees as an unlawful act and contrary to our treaty obligations."

*********

The administration-drafted legislation would authorize the defense secretary to convene a military commission with five members, plus a judge to preside. It would guarantee a detainee's access to military counsel but eliminate other rights common in military and civilian courts. The bill would allow reliable hearsay and potentially coerced testimony to be used as evidence in court, as well as the submission of classified evidence "outside the presence of the accused."


Senate Republican leaders hailed President Bush's proposal. "It's important to remember these defendants are not common criminals," said Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. "Rather, many are terrorists, sworn enemies of the United States." But Democrats and GOP moderates warned that the plan would set a dangerous precedent, ensuring the legislation would not likely sail through Congress unchanged.

Republican Sens. John Warner, John McCain and Lindsey Graham have drafted a rival proposal. Unlike the administration's plan, the senators' proposal would allow a defendant to access to all evidence used against them. The plan by Senator Warner, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, also would prohibit coerced testimony.

Senator Graham, R-S.C., said withholding evidence from a war criminal sets a dangerous precedent other nations could follow. "Would I be comfortable with (an American service member) going to jail with evidence they never saw?"

"No," Senator Graham said.

*********
Also on Wednesday, the Pentagon put out a new Army field manual that spells out appropriate conduct on issues including prisoner interrogation. The manual applies to all the armed services but not the CIA.

Now don't run off at lunchtime...

You'll miss all of the "how I spent my Labor Day weekend" stories:

Police in Orlando, Florida, said that Mr Meadows had survived by sipping water from the swamp and avoided sun exposure because he was under a shady tree canopy and slathered in mud. He even managed to sleep where he stood, they said, with his feet immobilised by the thick muck.

Rerun

Roadside shots

Who kidnapped Johnny Gosch?

Stop me if I've told you already, but I used to be a paperboy. The Hammond Times, Illinois edition. An afternoon paper. My customers on the route were workers, mostly in the steel factories in the early to mid 80s, wanting closer business coverage than the Trib or Sun Times offered. So it wasn't every house, more like in the low 30s for my neighborhood. I biked it, even in winter unless it was way icy. Bag across the chest on my ten-speed, 2 trips on Sunday.

I liked the monotony. Riding, thinking, throwing papers. Every now and then, I'd have to backtrack -- did I deliver that house? can't recall... But sure enough, the paper was always there out of unconscious routine. You just don't remember every throw when you're dissecting the day's events in your head, or some other cerebral exertion.

I had the route through high school, and would just deliver a bit later after swim/track practice. I don't recall reading about Johnny Gosch when it happened (ask me about the unfolding of the Gacy case, by contrast. Crawlspace -- it's not just for Christmas ornaments anymore.) But the subsequent coverage about his disappearance -- if you lived in the 80s, you heard the name.

Now our newspapers were dropped in front of the house (my sister delivered too, though in a different part of the subdivision). And in my town, I had no fear. The paperboy knew the comings and goings, the change in town daily, and you could ride down the center line of Chicago Road on Sunday morning. Then, geographic proximity was all you had to worry about.

Now, we see more of what might have happened to John Gosch. Conspiracy theories probably can never add up to equal the horrors of truth -- that's the evil thing 9-11 reminds some of us. Still, like a mother maybe gone round a bend, we need to know, -- or want to know, more...

Summer to fall.

Too many tines

Daily Activity
The obscure grasshopper is a phytophilous species, spending most of each day sitting vertically head up on the stems and leaves of grasses. Observations made shortly after sunrise and before the grasshoppers became active indicate that the night is spent 1 to 2 inches above ground on both grasses and sedges. When the rays of the sun have struck their perches, about one hour after sunrise, both nymphs and adults begin to bask by adjusting their positions so that they directly expose a side or sometimes their back. They may also expose their back by taking diagonal positions on blue grama plants or small soil mounds. Occasionally they are found basking on bare ground, in which case they expose a side and often lower the associated hindleg. During the basking period, ground temperatures range from 70° to 100°F and air temperatures 1 inch above ground level range from 64° to 83°F. Activities such as feeding begin when ground temperature has risen to 85°F and air temperature to 70°F. No observations of their mating have been made in their natural habitat. In the mixedgrass prairie of western South Dakota females have been observed ovipositing into soil adjacent to buffalograss.

Because of their habit of sitting vertically on grasses, they are prone to remain inactive. When nymphs are flushed from their perches, they usually jump onto another plant. Occasionally they land on bare ground but quickly climb a grass leaf or stem. Adults may jump and behave like the nymphs or fly evasively.

High soil temperatures of 110° to 130° and air temperatures at or above 90°F induce the grasshoppers to seek protection. They react in three main ways: they climb up to 4 inches on midgrasses, or they take diagonal positions on blue grama facing the sun to expose less of the body surface, or they rest in the shade under a canopy of vegetation above ground level on blue grama.

Their day ends with basking in the evening rays of the sun while resting vertically on grasses. As sunlight dims and temperatures cool, they eventually assume their nighttime positions.

Adults and Reproduction
The adults generally remain at the same site in which the eggs hatched and the nymphs developed. There they have plenty of blue grama for food and patches of midgrasses for refuge and roosting. First appearance of adults in the mixedgrass prairie of Montana and Wyoming and the shortgrass prairie of Colorado occurs during late July or early August. In Arizona adults appear as early as April. The attrition of adults by parasites and predators goes on daily, and by October few individuals are left alive.

No special study of the obscure grasshopper's mating behavior has been made. In a laboratory terrarium, one observation was made of a male mounting a female and attempting, unsuccessfully, to engage his genitalia with the female's.

Females deposit their eggs deep in the soil and form a pod with weak earthen walls (Fig. 10). The eggs themselves are held together tightly and covered by cementing secretions of the female. An observation of oviposition was made of a caged female in a laboratory terrarium that contained mixedgrass sod and bare ground. The female chose bare ground beneath a 15-watt incandescent bulb. She worked her ovipositor into the soil to the full length of the abdomen and took 100 minutes to complete oviposition, after which she took 20 minutes to withdraw her abdomen and 90 seconds to brush loose soil over the hole with her hind tarsi. Following this parental care she walked away.

Pods of the obscure grasshopper are seven-eighths inch long and contain eight to ten small (4 to 4.3 mm long), pale tan eggs. The eggs overwinter, but no study of their embryology has been made. The species has one generation annually.

Maturing nicely...

Nope...

It's not really my park...

But from the looks of the signs, it could be: