Everything looks worse... in black and white.

“It is not often in the law that so few have so quickly changed so much,” Justice Breyer said.
...
“If our history has taught us anything,” Justice Thomas said, “it has taught us to beware of elites bearing racial theories.” He added in a footnote,

“Justice Breyer’s good intentions, which I do not doubt, have the shelf life of Justice Breyer’s tenure.”

*cue spooky music*

---------------------
I know what Justice Breyer is getting at, but to me and most folks not set to the glacial pace of legal time, things won't seem to be moving so fast at all. The consequences in days to come... sure. But this is really a change in direction, a shift in where we're heading, don't be expecting a great burst of speed any time soon.

(It's) Smooth in a sense because we can all see it coming -- nothing sudden about it. Like on other supposedly set legal rights, we're aiming at different shores now. Chief Justice Roberts has plenty of time, no need to be so abrasive or hurried like Justice Scalia. Better to slowly wear away as the issue is mentally rubbed to a fine polish. His logic, say what you will, is impeccable on paper. The case construction he's built on this one is solid, and will hold. He's Jesuit trained, and no doubt commands a crop of the finest young legal minds as clerks as apprentices. It's almost art, folks.

Justice Kennedy here is the limiting hand, similar to the role played by Justice Alito in Morse, assuring us for the time being the majority understands that there are always greys.

And turning about takes time.

More Court cases to come down this term, probably later today, right? This one's on school choice, and "balancing" efforts. It relates, somewhat, to yesterday's post.

It's a good thing when protections are lifted, something to be celebrated in the case of the eagle, no? Flying free in healthy numbers, not needing special protections, with the understanding there are still limitations on what you can do to agitate breeding birds and their nests.

Unlike say, Justice Thomas in his Morse reasoning, I don't trust that you have to strip rights completely and leave all matters in the hands of local officials. That's a recipe for trouble; look around at the authorities in your area ask yourself if you trust them with unfettered decision-making. Are they truly independent, that is?

Still...
Choice is good -- even more limited local choice (as these things so often happen by circumstance or necessity.) And the crux of it is, local choice often leads to imbalance that is not maliciously intended. Me, I'm ok with that -- accepting the occasional imbalance -- so long as you don't strip basic rights we've come accustomed to in American education.

Because to fly above special protections, guided by personal choice in direction, really isn't that what all living beings seek? And shouldn't it be celebrated, not feared? Enough with the "protect me" mentality that potentially can ground one many years too young. We may not all get to cover the same ground, but if we all get some say in direction setting and there's no one urging special protections for some because of the fear of flying... we get more winners, on balance.

-------------------------
It goes without saying: the more winners in America, the better. Of course, some who urge special protections no doubt prefer that "winners" pool stay as exclusive as possible.*

That's never been the American way though, but undeniably an attitude that has dominated in seepage pockets for periods of time. Not long-term overall ground though, as we can take comfort in the fact that the domination simply wasn't as mighty as some believed. Balance.



*See, that's why you should reject unfettered local decision-making. Ideally noble sure, but not realistically independent, capable of standing alone in r/l.

Back.

The American bald eagle.

Ubiquitous as an emblem, the number of actual birds dropped to just 417 nesting pairs in the contiguous 48 states by 1963, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. This was despite federal protection for the bird that started in 1940 and continued with an official designation of endangerment in 1967, even before the Endangered Species Act became law.

The current number of nesting pairs is at least 9,789, the wildlife service said on its Web site, crediting efforts by federal, state and local governments, conservation groups, corporations, native tribes and American individuals.

Bald eagles, native to most of North America, are now present in 49 states. They were never endangered or threatened in Alaska and are still present there; they are not tropical birds and never were present in Hawaii.
...
The bird's removal from the endangered species list -- it was designated as threatened in 1995, a less severe status than endangered -- would not leave the bald eagle unprotected.

Federal law prohibits killing, selling or otherwise harming eagles, their nests or eggs. Bald eagles may not be disturbed, which means they may not be agitated or bothered to a degree that they are injured or that their normal breeding, feeding and sheltering behavior are substantially interfered with.

Good decisions.

You'd really have to be a twisted-up pretzel to believe "Bong Hits for Jesus" is not advocating anything, folks. Something about the "for". And it seems less non-sensical if the words "bong hits" are more familiar in some vocabularies than in others. So a good decision -- you can't let the schools have no authority, and if you want an early release to watch an Olympic parade, you don't advertise your advocacy, kids. I sure hope this one's received with a collective "duh". No idea how it got that far; here's a where-are-they-now?

Frederick, now 23, said he later had to drop out of college after his father lost his job. The elder Frederick, who worked for the company that insures the Juneau schools, was fired in connection with his son's legal fight, the son said. A jury recently awarded Frank Frederick $200,000 in a lawsuit he filed over his firing.

Joseph Frederick pleaded guilty in 2004 to a misdemeanor charge of selling marijuana at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogodoches, Texas, according to court records.

IN other Court news,
looks like more issue ads will be flooding the airwaves before elections. "Let Lousy Ads Win". Luckily, we're still free to turn off the tv.

And my favorite headline, not sure why,
Shabaz beats Posner. Happy Monday, these weeks are flying by, no?
-------------------
Remember this one? The judge taking on the drycleaner?

He lost.

"A reasonable consumer would not interpret 'Satisfaction Guaranteed' to mean that a merchant is required to satisfy a customer's unreasonable demands" or to agree to demands that the merchant would have reasonable grounds for disputing, the judge wrote.

Special-treatment consumers take note. :)

And you pay for every mile you go...

and you spread some dust around.
But we all have destinations and the dust will settle down
Cause life ain't no easy freeway, just some gravel on the ground*

KABUL, Afghanistan - President Hamid Karzai accused NATO and U.S.-led troops Saturday of carelessly killing scores of Afghan civilians and warned that the fight against resurgent Taliban militants could fail unless foreign forces show more restraint.
...
In the past 10 days, more than 90 civilians have been killed by airstrikes and artillery fire targeting Taliban insurgents, Karzai said. The mounting toll is sapping the authority of the Western-backed Afghan president, who has pleaded repeatedly with U.S. and NATO commanders to consult Afghan authorities during operations and show more restraint.
...
"You do not fight terrorists by firing a field gun 20 miles into a target," Karzai said. "That is definitely surely bound to cause civilian casualties.

"We want to cooperate with the international community. We are thankful for their help to Afghanistan," Karzai said. "But that does not mean that Afghan lives have no value."

-----------------
*Hat tip to Mac Davis.

Hockey in Columbus.

I like "Go Wild" over "Let's Go, Blue Jackets" myself... but the Blackhawks have picked up a player surely worth watching. And Wisconsin hockey fans might also have something to enjoy.

The Chicago Blackhawks, trying to rebuild a once-proud franchise after four consecutive losing seasons, selected Patrick Kane with the first pick. The 5-foot-9, 160-pound right wing, is a native of Buffalo, N.Y., who scored 62 goals and had 83 assists in 58 games last season with the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League.

Then with the No. 2 pick, the Philadelphia Flyers selected left wing James vanRiemsdyk, a member of the U.S. National Team Development Program from Middletown, N.J. The 6-3, 200-pound physical power forward had 33 goals and 30 assists in 42 games for the U.S. National Under-18 team a year ago.

Twice before Americans had taken two of the top three spots, in 1983 and 2005.

Rated the No. 2 skater in North America by the NHL Central Scouting Service, Kane is expected to give the Blackhawks, who were 31-42-9 a year ago, a creative scorer and deft puck-handler.

The top two picks appeared to support pre-draft rumors that teams were shying away from the top-ranked North American skater, Kyle Turris of Burnaby, British Columbia, because he had already committed to play next season at the University of Wisconsin.

Friday...

and we're turning the treadmill up...

Not that there's anything wrong with that. This time of the year is to be savored, like a ripe strawberry, right? Have a great weekend, y'all.

On the Palestinian "problem"

The song lyrics from this morning?

It's a little too little
It's a little too late...

The effects of the "embargo" maybe won't be so easily erased by just turning the money spigots back on again. Something about starving dogs -- women and children too -- that doesn't make them lick your hand the next time you deign to feed them...

Good luck, but so many of these initiatives are backwards-looking. Maybe next time actions should be considered before you get an elected slate of "terrorists" in there. Start winning the hearts and minds earlier, backed up by action, rather than trying to force or buy cooperation. Of course, assuming your opponent is genetically incapable of reason, peace or trust isn't such a great starting place. And now that the race is being run, it's amazing how many ill-advised opponent actions get blamed on that genetic inferiority when people react naturally to oppressing forces. Suddenly, Mr. Sharon's tactics don't seem so smart as a long-term strategy, eh? Anybody celebrating news out of Gaza in the past week, thinking you're pitting the dogs against themselves, is foolish. This is failure, folks. And when your neighbors fail through whatever fault, it's never good regionally. No matter how pretty you might think you're sitting today, how secure you are that all those problems are theirs, "over there".

Daniel Levy, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation and a former Israeli peace negotiator, said the American move to back Mr. Abbas “looks suspiciously like there’s an effort afoot to reimpose single party rule on the Palestinian body politic.”

...

A “West Bank first” strategy would mean leaning on the Israeli government to dismantle settlements, ease up on travel restrictions for Palestinians moving around the West Bank, and release a substantial number of Palestinian prisoners being held by Israel, Middle East experts said. Such moves would probably require significant prodding from the Bush administration; it is unclear whether Mr. Bush, who has thus far refrained from pressuring Israel to make political concessions to Mr. Abbas, will actually do so now.

“This is as serious as it gets,” said Ziad Asali, head of the American Task Force on Palestine. “It is time to lift the siege off the Palestinian people. This is the time to open up the political and economic horizons, and wage a campaign for the hearts and minds of the Palestinian people.”

-----------------------------

Here's another one you may have missed:

On Fox News Sunday General David H. Petraeus expressed concern about the new US plan to arm Iraqi Sunnis who promise only to fight al Qaeda.

"How do you know, or do you worry, that they are going to end up using those weapons to either attack US forces or to fight their civil war against the Shiites?" asked host Chris Wallace.

"Those are legitimate concerns," replied Petraeus, but said that the US was taking precautions to prevent that from happening.

The Iraqi government has strongly objected to to the US strategy of arming Sunni insurgents. In a Newsweek interview published Saturday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki blasted that strategy, saying that it "will create new militias."

Link to Larry Kaplow, Newsweek interview w/Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki

UPDATE: I thought that name sounded familiar...
------------------------------
Reading this account now, I see Rep. Ackerman and I think alike:

"It's a day late and a $100 million short," said Rep. Gary Ackerman (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y., who chairs a House subcommittee focused on the Middle East. "If we were delivering goods to Abu Mazen and making him the Muslim Santa Claus in the Arab world so we was giving out the goodies, instead of Hamas, they wouldn't have lost the last election. And Hamas would have withered in the desert."

Hamas' surprise 2006 legislative victory ended decades of rule by Abbas' Fatah Party. Hamas won largely on the strength of the services and smooth government it delivered in its Gaza stronghold.

You wonder what Secretary of State Rice really thinks, what's worth fighting for most effectively in her position and how much she has been pushing back from within lately, if at all, on some of this administration's policy choices:

As a first step, Rice said she will ask Congress to rework an existing $86 million aid request for the Abbas-led government. At the same time, she announced a separate $40 million contribution to United Nations relief for Palestinian refugees, a gesture to the 1.5 million Palestinians living in increasingly desperate conditions in Gaza.

"We are not going to countenance that somehow ... the Palestinians are divisible," Rice told reporters. "We're not going to abandon the Palestinians who are living in Gaza."

___


Reading this weekend of the father who raised her makes her more interesting a figure to me; I don't think she's as simple a read as say, the Cheney girls (the one just got hired to push Fred Thompson as president). Sometimes the workings of the mind are hidden, and you risk misinterpreting outward actions. This book, I think I'll (deign to:) read:

Twice As Good: Condoleezza Rice and Her Path to Power, by Marcus Mabry of Newsweek, provides insights into the professional and private life of a powerful, polarizing woman. Yet the most intriguing personality in the book is not Condoleezza Rice but her father, preacher and educator John Wesley Rice.

Mr. Mabry reminds us that for the most part, the upper-middle class and black professionals preferred to carve out a bubble of freedom within the boundaries of segregation rather than agitate to overthrow the system. John Wesley Rice subscribed to that premise. Living in the then-elite black enclave of Titusville on the outskirts of Birmingham, Ala., he created a kind of discrimination-free sanctuary for his only child.

Rather than submit Condoleezza to the discrimination that other blacks routinely endured, he chose to block it from her view. When the segregated state fair came to Birmingham, he would drive "5 miles out of the way" to keep her from seeing the soaring Ferris wheel. For such an experience, he took her to Coney Island in New York City. He did not involve her in protest demonstrations or otherwise permit her to participate in the civil rights movement. With his wife, Angelena Ray Rice, he set out to create a highly educated, well-mannered, perfect child, who as an adult would conduct herself in a dignified manner at all times.

...
In 1968, the Rev. Rice moved his family to Tuscaloosa, where he became dean of students at Stillman College. He went on to become vice chancellor and the first African-American administrator at the University of Denver. Having been hired because he "was socially conscious but not radical," he learned early on to establish covert relationships with the local black community. By working both sides of the color divide, he brought significant change to a very white, highly privileged university.

To educate white students as well as blacks, the Rev. Rice created the course "The Black Experience in America," which brought in such African-American speakers as Quincy Jones, Fannie Lou Hamer and Louis Farrakhan. But when Chancellor Maurice Mitchell, who had hired the Rev. Rice, left the university, his protégé was forced out and his position eliminated. Angelena having died in 1985, the Rev. Rice moved to California to be near his beloved daughter, then provost at Stanford. He had advised her to become a Republican because "they look after their own."
...
In John Rice, Mr. Mabry has profiled all the black fathers who during segregation sought to advance their children by holding them above the fray. Such fathers were convinced that they could shield their own from racial prejudice that could limit ambition and achievement by making them twice as good as those who would deny them opportunities for advancement.

The irony is that self-imposed paternal classism has made possible extraordinary individual advancement but left behind most of the masses that stormed the racial barricades to gain blacks' civil rights and freedom.

The summer of Loving.

Take a few minutes this lunchhour to chew over this one? ... (and the kids say the history you teach them is boring!)

Not long after our wedding, we were awakened in the middle of the night in our own bedroom by deputy sheriffs and actually arrested for the “crime” of marrying the wrong kind of person.

Our marriage certificate was hanging on the wall above the bed. The state prosecuted Richard and me, and after we were found guilty, the judge declared: “Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.” He sentenced us to a year in prison, but offered to suspend the sentence if we left our home in Virginia for 25 years exile.

We left, and got a lawyer. Richard and I had to fight, but still were not fighting for a cause. We were fighting for our love.

Though it turned out we had to fight, happily Richard and I didn’t have to fight alone. Thanks to groups like the ACLU and the NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund, and so many good people around the country willing to speak up, we took our case for the freedom to marry all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. And on June 12, 1967, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that, “The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men,” a “basic civil right.”

My generation was bitterly divided over something that should have been so clear and right. The majority believed that what the judge said, that it was God’s plan to keep people apart, and that government should discriminate against people in love. But I have lived long enough now to see big changes. The older generation’s fears and prejudices have given way, and today’s young people realize that if someone loves someone they have a right to marry.

Surrounded as I am now by wonderful children and grandchildren, not a day goes by that I don’t think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the “wrong kind of person” for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people’s religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people’s civil rights.

I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard’s and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That’s what Loving, and loving, are all about.

Monday music.

Now we can quibble if this is a true mid-June choice or more late October fare -- maybe even later when the killing frosts set in where you may be -- but timing aside, there's no denying this qualifies as poetry. No, no denying, I said. Argue away, but you'll lose in the end. Just an observation, no need to fear, my friends:

Sirens are screaming and the fires are howling
Way down in the valley tonight.
There's a man in the shadows with a gleam in his eye
And a blade shining oh so bright.
There's evil in the air and there's thunder in the sky
And a killer's on the blood-shod* streets.
Oh and down in the tunnel where the deadly arise
you know I swear I saw a young boy down in the gutter
He was starting to foam in the heat...

It's a love song really. Not aimed at anyone in particular myself, but I can appreciate beauty in even the ugliest places. Some can't. I think they add to the problem really...

It's an ugly world out there, but you don't have to get down and play in the slop. Beauty exists everywhere. And happy Monday...
-----------------
*When I start quoting from memory,
I'm going to quote the way I heard it.

The Cure, Friday

It's been a death theme on the blog this week. But today's Friday. Everybody together now...

I don't care if Monday's blue
Tuesday's grey and Wednesday too
Thursday: I don't care about you
It's Friday, I'm in Love
...
Saturday... wait!
And Sunday always comes too late
but Friday, never hesitate...

What the hell are those kids up to now?!?

Imagine turning on your baby monitor, and finding ... live feed from inside the space shuttle Atlantis.

That's what Natalie Meilinger of Palatine, Ill. has been picking up since Sunday. Her 2-year-old and 3-month-old children are unimpressed, but not Natalie:

"Whoever has a baby monitor knows what you'll usually see," said the elementary school science teacher. "No one would ever expect this."

Meilinger silenced disbelieving co-workers by bringing in a video of the monitor to show her class on Tuesday, her students' last day of school. ...

"I've been addicted to it and keep waiting to see what's next," Meilinger said.

Not summertime yet...

but it's definitely roll-down-the-windows, turn-up-the-good-tunes weather. From yesterday's random dial, which makes even summertime driving such fun:

Every time I look in the mirror
All these lines on my face getting clearer
The past is gone
It went by, like dusk to dawn
Isn't that the way
Everybody's got their dues in life to pay

Yeah, I know nobody knows
where it comes and where it goes
I know it's everybody's sin
You got to lose to know how to win

Half my life
is in books' written pages
Lived and learned from fools and
from sages
You know it's true
All the things come back to you

Sing woman, sing for the year
Sing for the love, sing for the tears
Sing woman, if it's just for today
Maybe tomorrow, the good lord will take you away

Yeah, sing woman, sing for the year
sing for the love, sing for the tear
sing women, if it's just for today
Maybe tomorrow, the good Lord will take you away

Dream On Dream On Dream On
Dream until a dream come true
Dream On Dream On Dream On
Dream until your dream comes through
Dream On Dream On Dream On
Dream On Dream On
Dream On Dream On

Sing women, sing for the year
sing for the love, sing for the tear
sing women, if it's just for today
Maybe tomorrow, the good Lord will take you away
Sing women, sing for the year
sing for the love, sing for the tear
Sing women, if it's just for today
Maybe tomorrow, the good Lord will take you away......

I don't know why I like it...

I just do ! *

Well, it looks like we missed Yeat's birthday on the 13th, by 12 minutes. Still, I found this poem and was going to share in the morning, then noticed the coincidence of reading him on his birthday. Coincidence. God acting anonymously, they say. Well, the bulletin board on the expressway through Milwaukee says that, or did two weeks ago. They keep the messages fresh; I like it well enough.

Anyway, here's the poem. Called The Coat, it's really just him finding his style of poetry, and he chooses a simple one at that:

I made my song a coat
Covered with embroideries
Out of old mythologies
From heel to throat;
But the fools caught it
Wore it in the world's eyes
As though they'd wrought it.
Song, let them take it,
For there's more enterprise
In walking naked.
---------------------

* Bonus point if you can name that tune.
Not really a lyric, but if you listened to the album,
you might remember the phrase.

You know you got it...

Shout if it makes you feel good !
(oh yes indeed...)

Jack Naylor, Apple Valley: 21¼ inches, 6 pounds, smallmouth bass, Lake Superior:

The first week of June, friend Ron Bukovich and I traveled to Chequamegon Bay, Wis., to see if we could catch some of the huge smallmouth bass this water is famous for.

We found small areas holding fish in 2 to 3 feet of water.

The bass hit on Texas-rigged tubes, and 4- to 5-inch stick worms.

I used a medium spinning rod and 8-pound test line, and had all I could handle with these very heavy, thick-bodied fish.

I caught two personal best that were each over 21 inches.

This one was 21¼ inches, and weighed 6 pounds.

All fish were released.

Nice picture at the link...
---------------

BOSTON - A 50-ton bowhead whale killed off the Alaskan coast last month had a weapon fragment embedded in its neck that showed it survived a similar hunt -- more than a century ago.

Embedded deep under its blubber was a 3½-inch arrow-shaped projectile that has given researchers insight into the whale's age, estimated at 115 to 130 years old.

"No other finding has been this precise," said John Bockstoce, an adjunct curator of the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

Calculating a whale's age can be difficult, and it usually is gauged by amino acids in the eye lenses. It is rare to find one that has lived more than 100 years, but experts say the oldest have been close to 200 years old.

The bomb lance fragment, lodged in a bone between the whale's neck and shoulder blade, was probably manufactured in New Bedford, on the southeast coast of Massachusetts, a major whaling center at that time, Bockstoce said.

It was probably shot at the whale from a heavy shoulder gun around 1890. The small metal cylinder was filled with explosives fitted with a time-delay fuse so it would explode seconds after it was shot into the whale. The bomb lance was meant to kill the whale quickly to prevent it from escaping.

The device exploded and "probably hurt the whale, or annoyed him, but it hit him in a nonlethal place," he said. "He couldn't have been that bothered if he lived for another 100 years."

Insta-experts... and the people push back.

If you've got some time, it's worth reading this hypothetical, set up by Law Prof. Orin Kerr ... and then following the shellacking he gets in the comments. Some are better written than others (all sic), but ultimately, the pushback seems to consist of this:

Most common folk aren't fans of legal trickery - they want the guilty punished and the innocent set free. They also, however, support the bill of rights - and an officer of the court should do so as well. If the choices (as here) are "detain an alleged terrorist indefinitely with no trial" or "try a terrorist in open court where the government must present its evidence", you should always support the later option.

ps. You know you're not convincing anyone with your logic when you resort to emotional appeals like this one: Cassandrus, as the the son of a concentration camp survivor, whose grandmother and uncles were gassed at Auschwitz, I would appreciate it if you thought twice about making casual and unexplained comparisons of my views to those of the Nazis.

Ah, but Cassandrus has some suffering in her background too; she doesn't just concede the point:

I lost a grandparent in Buchenwald. Doesn't change the fact that the theory you propose comports rather well with Schmitt's theory of the exception.

Just to make it clear though, my problem with Schmitt, as far as it relates to this, is not that he was a Nazi. It was that he was wrong--good faith wrong even--and that carving out gigantic exceptions the way he does makes one a handmaiden of power.

Really, read the whole thing. Even if you're not a lawyer. (Or maybe especially if you're not a lawyer. Don't concede time-tested American principles based on fear, or allow others to do so on your family's or country's behalf.)

Here's two to give you a quick taste of the argument:

Does the following properly summarize Orin's hypo:

Due to unconstitutionally acquired evidence, a number of foreigners who were preparing to detonate a dirty bomb cannot be prosecuted. It would be bizarre to set them free of evict them, so they should be detained on the basis of the unconstitutionally acquired evidence. Apparently we are balancing constitutional rights here. It seems to me that if the evidence was acquired through for instance torture it seems equally as bizarre to use the tainted evidence as the basis for the detention of these foreigners. If that's the case, I am wondering were Orin would draw the line. An unconstitutional search is okay, so not reading their Miranda rights would be to I assume.

and

The problem with Orin's hypothetical: No one would ever know whether the "detained" person had such great evidence of guilt against him. Instead, the evidence regarding at least the marginal cases is kept confidential - national security, we'd be told.

Orin's hypothetical gives us a God's eye view of the evidence. But our government will not, at least in the marginal cases, even give us a bird's eye view.

Here is why I hope Orin's view doesn't become the law: I don't trust our government to detain people and to keep evidence of guilt hidden. And why should we trust the current administration? Really. How many more lies need to be exposed? How much more incompetence needs to be exposed before we begin to become skeptical of those in power?

I'm not a partisan person, by the way. I'd no sooner trust the previous administration to detain people without due process.

-----------
ADDED: I also liked this reminder about picking and choosing issues in the quest for "strict constitutional interpretation":

If you're for ignoring the law and getting the "right result" in some cases, it really crumbles credibility when you hold out for strictly interpreting the constitution in other areas. You can always claim that your exceptions to the rules are more important, but that's a matter of opinion.

He means well, I'm sure he does...

RIP

We know Death will win, but Death need not be proud. Johnny fought a valiant fight; and, along the way, he gained the respect of his family, friends, his doctors, and strangers. His life becomes a sort of experiment. And, in the end, the doctors could do nothing. "All the doctors!--helpless flies now, climbing across the granite face of death."

Johnny was sometimes able to function at a level that could almost be called "normal," but he was continually faced with the realization that his mind was deteriorating. His memory began to fail him, as more of the healthy tissue was taken over. As Gunther writes, "All that goes into the brain--the goodness, the wit, the sum total of enchantment in a personality, the very will, indeed the ego itself--being killed inexorably, remorselessly, by an evil growth!" And, no matter what new treatments they tried, they couldn't find a cure.

The struggle against death is a fight against the void, against the loss of life--the spark. It is, as Gunther says:

"A primitive to-the-death struggle of reason against violence, reason against disruption, reason against brute unthinking force--this was what went on in Johnny's head. What he was fighting against was the ruthless assault of chaos. What he was fighting for, as it were, the life of the human mind."

Ultimately, Death came, like a thief in the night. The warmth of his body crept away. "Then little by little the life-color left his face, his lips became blue, and his hands were cold."

...

Like John Gunther, Frances asks the big questions: "What does it mean? What can it mean, now?" But, then she draws upon the universality to her discussion of death: "Parents all over the earth who lost sons ... have felt this kind of question, and sought an answer. To me, it means loving life more, being more aware of life, of one's fellow human beings, of the earth."

I didn't know this man, but I knew of him living here in Madison. My thought are with the family.

Goodnight Sopranos.

Have I mentioned I don't get cable? Not that there's anything wrong with that. Just fell into the habit of not having it myself.

But I hear there is this little HBO show called the Sopranos ending tonight, and reading about it makes me wonder if the director is a Willa Cather fan. Here's the ending of one of her more obscure short stories, Paul's Case:

The carnations in his coat were drooping with the cold, he noticed, their red glory all over. It occurred to him that all the flowers he had seen in the glass cases that first night must have gone the same way, long before this. It was only one splendid breath they had, in spite of their brave mockery at the winter outside the glass; and it was a losing game in the end, it seemed, this revolt against the homilies by which the world is run. Paul took one of the blossoms carefully from his coat and scooped a little hole in the snow, where he covered it up. Then he dozed awhile, from his weak condition, seemingly insensible to the cold.

The sound of an approaching train awoke him, and he started to his feet, remembering only his resolution, and afraid lest he should be too late. He stood watching the approaching locomotive, his teeth chattering, his lips drawn away from them in a frightened smile; once or twice he glanced nervously sidewise, as though he were being watched. When the right moment came, he jumped. As he fell, the folly of his haste occurred to him with merciless clearness, the vastness of what he had left undone. There flashed through his brain, clearer than ever before, the blue of Adriatic water, the yellow of Algerian sands.

He felt something strike his chest, and that his body was being thrown swiftly through the air, on and on, immeasurably far and fast, while his limbs were gently relaxed. Then, because the picture-making mechanism was crushed, the disturbing visions flashed into black, and Paul dropped back into the immense design of things.

'Ugly Cubs' is NOT good PR...

Just sayin'. Did the tuff-guy bug bite the North Siders this year?

I was visiting my sister's family when the catcher and pitcher went at it in the dugout. Big pictures in the paper, and a chance to talk with the kids about what is NOT good sportsmanship or teamwork. Then the manager kicks dirt and gets suspended, which maybe they justify with the brief win streak.

But now this kinda crap. Not good PR for the brand...*

Lilly had a 2-0 count on Renteria when he plunked him near the left shoulder, and the ball glanced off his hand. Renteria took a couple of steps toward the mound before home-plate umpire Jim Wolf and Cubs catcher Michael Barrett stepped in front of him to prevent a fight.

Both benches emptied, but no punches were thrown.

In the Braves' 9-5 victory on Saturday, Atlanta starter Tim Hudson hit Cubs leadoff hitter Alfonso Soriano with a pitch in the back. The day before, Soriano hit three homers in a 9-1 win.

Renteria homered and drove in four runs on Saturday.

And Oscar Renteria? A man whose trademark is playing with pure passion, which always injects an anything-can-happen vibe into a game -- the Big Games included? A man's hands are his career, regardless if you're only aiming for the shoulder.

What are they thinking in the Cubs' organization this year?
-------------------

*Oh and guess what? I don't care if Atlanta played ugly first... The Cubs are not Atlanta.

Sound familiar?

Orlando Thomas fights ALS.

By Mark Craig, Star Tribune

Orlando Thomas never had a bad day. Oh sure, life would knock him down sometimes. But friends, former teammates and relatives say their beloved "OT" always got back up with a smile and five words that will forever define this 34-year-old former Vikings free safety:

"Every day is a holiday," said former Vikings strong safety Robert Griffith, repeating his friend's favorite mantra and chuckling at a headful of memories from playing next to Thomas from 1995 to 2001.

"He'd say it probably once a day. Sometimes three or four times. Even when he'd be hurt and standing on the sideline, you'd hear him yelling, 'C'mon, Griff. You gotta make that play. Get your name in the paper. Remember, EVERY DAY IS A HOLIDAY!' "
...
Thomas, whose ALS was diagnosed in September 2004, is paralyzed above the waist and has only limited movement in his legs. He can't walk or sit up on his own and is unable to chew or swallow. He's fed through a tube and needs his throat cleared regularly by suctioning. He also lost his speech recently, although Demetra said his overall physical decline has slowed the past month or so to a point where she considers him "stable."

Like most people with ALS, Thomas' mind remains as sharp as it ever was. Yet somehow, even though he understands his condition is terminal, Thomas still doesn't believe in bad days.

"I used to think that Orlando was just real carefree," Demetra said. "But I'm learning so much from him now. He can't walk into a room and bring on the excitement or bring out his favorite quote -- 'Every day is a holiday!' -- like he used to. But he's showing that, regardless of what's going on in your life, if you live from the heart and you have love, joy and peace, there's nothing greater than living from that place within."

Thomas was unable to be interviewed for this story. But, through Demetra, he was able to say, "Tell all the Vikings fans that I said 'Thank you,'" and, "Tell them Minnesota had a good draft this year ... definitely!"
...
It's hard for some teammates to see their beloved OT in his current physical condition. They're mostly afraid of weeping in front of him. Former Vikings receiver Jake Reed isn't one of them. He visits his friend regularly, and just spent five hours with him on May 27. They smiled a lot. Laughed. And really cracked up when Reed reminded Thomas "how much money we used to take off poor [teammate] Chuck Evans, who wasn't exactly the best card player in the world."OT asked a lot about Cris Carter, and I talked to Cris afterward and we're going to go see OT [this] month," Reed said. "Cris hasn't seen him in a while. It's tougher on some guys. It kind of overwhelms them. They hear that OT is sick, but they don't have experience with how terrible Lou Gehrig's Disease is. They're thinking, 'This is big, strong OT. He's young. He can't be that sick.' But this disease doesn't care who you are, how much money you made or how famous you are."
...
Demetra said that through it all, Orlando has never asked, "Why me?" In fact, she said the entire family "feels blessed." The couple has a 13-year-old daughter, Philamisha Davis, who is Demetra's from a previous relationship; a 10-year-old daughter, Alexis Thomas, who is Orlando's from a previous relationship; and their 6-year-old son, Orlando Jr.

"With the love that exists in our family, the kids don't see Orlando like other people see him now," Demetra said. "They see their dad. They see someone who loves them. They see someone who smiles when they walk in the room. They see someone who never complains.

"Our son said to me, 'Mom, Dad's going to walk again.' It's not false hope. They are well aware of the disease and the diagnosis. But we have instilled in them that there is a God. They understand faith, so they don't see us as any different than any other family going through life's journey."
...
"If you were to come to our house, you would see God's presence," Demetra said. "Whether you live in a cardboard box or on top of a hill, it doesn't matter as long as you have that in your home. People who come and spend time with Orlando leave with something from him they didn't expect."

Perhaps it's a sense that in their own lives, every day really is a holiday.

Rebuild downtown.

Good decision:

MADISON, Wis. -- St. Raphael's Cathedral will be rebuilt in the parking lot of the current cathedral, according to diocese officials.

After two years of waiting and anticipation, Madison Bishop Robert Morlino told parishioners that the cathedral won't be moved away from downtown. In addition, Morlino said that the recently refurbished steeple will be saved as well and will be incorporated into the new building, WISC-TV reported.
...
No cost estimate or timetable on the project was immediately available. The cathedral will be built from the ground up on what is now the parking lot for the historic downtown church, WISC-TV reported.

"Not tomorrow, but this afternoon..."

"I would get rid of Guantanamo and the military commission system and use established procedures in federal law," Powell said.
...
"It's a more equitable way, and more understandable in constitutional terms," he added.

Stronger voice than the insta-experts too.
We'll see who's listening, who matters...

More strange Saturday stories...

BUTTE, Mont. - Two inmates, including one who was once accused of plotting to kidnap David Letterman's son, escaped Friday in a truck while working at a state prison ranch. Kelly A. Frank, 45, and convicted burglar William J. Willcutt, 22, were assigned to a crew that moves irrigation pipe at the prison ranch, jail officials said.

A supervisor noticed Willcutt and the 1965 truck were missing around 4:20 p.m., and the prison was locked down, a jail statement said. An inmate count showed Frank was also gone
...
Frank was arrested in March 2005 on allegations that he had devised a plan to kidnap Letterman's son, lied to investigators and overcharged Letterman for painting work at his ranch. Prosecutors later dropped a charge of solicitation to kidnap, in exchange for guilty pleas on three other charges, including felony theft and misdemeanor obstruction.

Frank was sentenced to 10 years in prison for overcharging the talk show host.

Beware...

the buses smell of Ben gay.

A cross-country runner at Notre Dame Academy on Staten Island, died after her body absorbed high levels of methyl salicylate, an anti-inflammatory found in sports creams such as Bengay and Icy Hot, the New York City medical examiner said Friday.

The medical examiner's spokeswoman, Ellen Borakove, said the teen used "topical medication to excess." She said it was the first time that her office had reported a death from using a sports cream.
...
Methyl salicylate poisoning is unusual, and deaths from high levels of the chemical are rare.

June 8, 1972 to June 8, 2007...

This is a just a story of two pictures, taken by one man, 35 years apart.

Nick Ut was the Pulitizer-Prize-winning photographer in Vietnam who gave us the naked little girl running in pain from napalm burns. Here, he recalls the larger picture of that early June day.

Today, Mr. Ut snapped this picture of another young woman no doubt in a great deal of pain. I'm not a Paris Hilton hater, and personally I think the amount of publicity for what is essentially a DUI/suspended license/lack-of-respect-for-the-court offense is way overblown and says more about the haters than Ms. Hilton.

Still, when you compare these two photos, line them up side-by-side and consider what they say about the priorities of a media-saturated society in wartime, I just think, "God Help Us All."

Happy Birthday to my sister Eileen.

Shopping for school clothes at the end of the summer, we'd try something on, come out of the dressing room, and ask each other, "What do you think?"

Do you keep lines in your head? Things that jump out at you at the time as they're said, lines you still know years later by heart?

This is one of my favorite childhood lines, from my big sister, now a truly great mother herself: "Well, I wouldn't wear it... But it looks good on you!"

(If I recall the extraneous detail, I bought the outfit.)

Happy Birthday
and as always,
thank you to Eileen.

And while we're at it...

God bless all the homosexual servicemen and women risking life and limb for their countries. Now is not the time to debate DADT here in America, I agree. That will come soon enough.

I suspect it'll come in the same time a majority of Americans get over the tuff-guy-talkin' routine, and see folks like Rudy Guiliani for the laughingstock he is. That character does make me laugh. I don't hang out in such circles, so it really is a kick for me to see urban MachoMan characters strutting like this, in our century.

He's kind of like GWB for the older set, but even GWB with his handsome looks (?) and smooth-talking ways is fading off in the sunset. Don't they see this? Is there really such a dearth of masculinity in some strata of our cultures that they need -- are attracted to -- this kind of big-stick stroking? I just don't see the appeal... Daddy-in-Chief? Don't think a Fred Thompson-type is what most people are looking for either. A Big Ol' Bear, maybe that's what they need... :)

Here's another light Guiliani moment:

Citing his experience both as a prosecutor and recommending pardon while working in the Justice Department under President Reagan, he said he would seriously consider it, especially in light of the harsh sentence.

When Mr. Blitzer, tried to cut him off, he stopped him, saying, “A man’s life is at stake.”

Nevermind "Scooter" Libby or the sentence -- a man's life is at stake! ?? Ohmigoodness! This shows, to me, how that little mind works. All of a sudden he's concerned about life? -- poor Scooter Libby's? I don't get it, how you could even say something like that with so many other lives gone or in shambles. Drama!

This man is empty. I personally missed what great need he filled for the country after 9-11, but then I have a father of my own, brothers and male friends, if I felt the need for some holding or chin-upping talk. That's not the government's job. Seems like as Mayor of New York, there was a lot of failure that day and after. I wish everyone was having their needs met in their families and communities, and didn't have to look for such "security" from their government to assuage their personal fears. Air quality, radio between first responders -- less hugging, more thinking or finding experts who aren't just responding emotionally.

Rudy Guiliani is not going to be our next president. Nobody really wants to be a nation rebuilder abroad -- for all the talk, you'll never find enough workers. Better to concentrate on our problems at home, rebuilding American communities. Daddy-in-Chief just isn't efficient to play that role and enough healthy Americans will reject that kind of character.

And hey, aren't the Sopranos ending soon too?
--------------

In case the Republicans want to end the show and put up some serious competition in November -- a nice long year from November, plenty o' time for these current chuckleheads to burn out -- let me help out their side:


HAGEL / BLOOMBERG
An intelligent choice.


It's a manly realistic face, especially around the eyes. (Did your Daddy drink or smoke?) You've got your military experience, and no knock to Sen. McCain but I wonder what he really learned sitting as a POW all those years. He's another cheerleader, all right, more about the talk than the walk.

Hagel's Middle East policy is more realistic, and more likely to convince the men and women the Republicans will need to vote for him. I don't think those factors that Guiliani appeals to are widespread outside his base; luckily, we seem to be more secure than needing that schtick. Or maybe we're just tired of it, and can see what it results in over time. Hugs aside.
---------------

For more on Hagel:
check out these posts. I think even semi-colon friendly Andrew has given the man a lookover. :)

God bless America...

Can a few more volunteers make a ... happing ending?
Why yes. This one does end nicely:

Six-year-old Jacob Lee Lagerquist was found alive and well this afternoon about three-quarters of a mile north of his house on St. Louis County Highway 4 after being missing for 21 hours.

Lagerquist was found in the woods at about 3:30 p.m. by a volunteer from nearby Biwabik.

Jacob was quickly reunited with his parents and then was checked by paramedics but appeared fine.
...
Jacob said he spent the night “out in the woods. I was sleeping out there,’’ the six year old told reporters. Search officials said temperatures dropped to about 45 degrees overnight and that hypothermia and exposure were a concern.

Jacob was found by Tim Baldonado of Biwabik Township, a volunteer who has a child the same age as Jacob. He was searching in a group of 10 volunteers and first saw the boy hugging a small tree about 25 feet away.
...
Heather Kothbauer of Superior, Jacob’s cousin, joined the search with her husband, Jeff, early Tuesday. She said the family was thankful for the outpouring of support.

“He’s an outgoing, curious, 6-year-old boy,’’ she said. “The number of searchers is just great.’’
...
Josh Larson, who lives about five miles from the Lagerquists, joined the search about noon.

“I have a lot of nephews the same age,” Larson said. He and seven other searchers spaced themselves 30 feet apart and walked about a mile.

“There were lots of little ponds, lots of old junk cars back there — lots of places he could be,” said Larson, who is taller than six feet, was wet to his knees.

Reminds me of people pitching in to fill sand bags in Fargo; the Red River is expected to crest Friday.* It's not just wars that can bring people together. In fact, they really don't. Better to find a more common enemy? Human insurance?

-------------------
Corrected: "The city is not establishing a sandbag volunteer center at this time"

FOX news: black and white, red all over...

Heh.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Fox News Channel apologized on-air Tuesday for running tape of a different congressman while reporting Monday on the indictment of Rep. William J. Jefferson on bribery charges.

The network ran footage of House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers of Michigan instead of Jefferson. Both congressmen are black.

Fox blamed the mistake on a 22-year-old production assistant hurriedly grabbing a wrong videotape. Fox's Washington bureau chief, Brian Wilson, said he was mortified by the error.

Come on, feel the noise... (sic)

Quiet Riot, eh? I like it. If he's playing the demographics numbers, gotta hand it to him for courting the non-Boomers.

Seems like he's doing a lot of courting here, in fact. I wonder who this should worry more? Myself, I trust the religious left -- particularly non- "established Protestants" which is an open category -- far more than I do than what passes for the Religious Right.* Too hypocritical, too 'giving free passes to some' for my tastes.

But that's just me, my demographics...

"Those 'quiet riots' that take place every day are born from the same place as the fires and the destruction and the police decked out in riot gear and the deaths," Obama said. "They happen when a sense of disconnect settles in and hope dissipates. Despair takes hold and young people all across this country look at the way the world is and believe that things are never going to get any better."

He argued that once a hurricane hits or a jury renders a not guilty verdict, "the frustration is there for all to see."

Obama, who is bidding to become the first black president, took the stage after a succession of ministers repeatedly brought the crowd to its feet, singing, praying and swaying to music.

Repeatedly, with evangelical zeal, he raised issues that roused the crowd: increasing the minimum wage and teacher pay, funding for public schools and college financial aid for the poor, ending predatory lending and expediting the reconstruction of New Orleans and the Mississippi coast.

He introduced his own pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Chicago's Trinity United as "Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian." He credited Wright with introducing him to Christ, and peppered his speech with Scriptural references, at one point invoking the opening lines of the Lord's Prayer.

Obama noted that during the riots, a bullet pierced the abdomen of a pregnant woman and lodged in the elbow of her fetus. The baby was delivered by caesarian section, the bullet was removed and the child, Jessica Glennis Evers-Jones, has only a small scar on her arm to show for it.

Using the incident as a metaphor, Obama said society's problems are worsening because "in too many places across the country, we have not even bothered to take the bullet out."

"When we have more black men in prison than in college, then it's time to take the bullet out," he said.

Gimme back... Gimme back... Gimme back my Bullets! ...
Yeah, he'll do fine.
---------------------

*Don't read too much into that.
Pick Your Poison, so to speak...

Brave Words.

Tom Segev, a columnist for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, is the author, most recently, of “1967: Israel, the War and the Year That Transformed the Middle East.”

What if Israel hadn’t taken East Jerusalem and the West Bank in the Six-Day War? Would the Palestinian situation have found some solution and Israel be living at least in relative peace with its neighbors? Would Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism have been avoided?

Perhaps. But the alternate history is not as outrageous or inconceivable as one might think. Leading Israeli policy planners had determined six months before the Six-Day War that capturing the West Bank would be bad for the country. Recently declassified Israeli government documents show that according to these policy planners, taking over the West Bank would weaken the relative strength of Israel’s Jewish majority, encourage Palestinian nationalism and ultimately lead to violent resistance.

...
Acting under the influence of the age-old dream of return to Zion as well as Israel’s spectacular victory over Egypt’s forces a few hours previously, the ministers decided with their hearts, not their heads, to take East Jerusalem.

Their emotions propelled the Israelis to act against their national interest. It may have been a series of threatening moves taken by Egypt, or it may have been the intoxication of victory, but in view of the results of the war there was indeed no justification for the panic that had preceded it, nor for the euphoria that took hold after it, which is what makes the story of Israel in 1967 so difficult to comprehend.
...
Forty years of oppression and Palestinian terrorism, both extremely cruel, have undermined Israel’s Jewish and democratic foundations. With about 400,000 Israelis living in East Jerusalem and the West Bank and with extreme Islamism as a driving force among the Palestinians, the conflict has become infinitely more difficult to solve.

Hence young Israelis have good reason to look at my generation and say, “You blew it.” I suppose we did. In contrast to my generation, these young people no longer presume to know what should be done to solve the conflict; indeed they often no longer believe in peace. Many resort to cynical skepticism and fatalistic pessimism.

And yet — less idealistic and more pragmatic than people of my generation — young Israelis may also be more realistic than us. Their immediate challenge is conflict management, rather than futile efforts to formulate grand schemes of ultimate solutions to the conflict. With fewer hopes and lower expectations they just may be able to make life at least somewhat more livable for both Israelis and Palestinians. Given the present circumstances, that would be no small accomplishment.

I wonder if liberal American Jewish tourists visiting the Western Wall, including the young ones visiting for the first time on those freebie "Birthright" trips, consider the homes -- and connected lives -- that were bulldozed to open up the plaza they now stand on.

Always in retrospect one asks, was it worth it? Where do you go from here? Why is America's promise to Jewish Americans any greater than to say, Cuban Americans? No, really...

S.N.A.F.U. ?

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — A military judge on Monday dismissed terrorism-related charges against a prisoner charged with killing an American soldier in Afghanistan, in a stunning reversal for the Bush administration's attempts to try Guantanamo detainees in military court.

The chief of military defense attorneys at Guantanamo Bay, Marine Col. Dwight Sullivan, said the ruling could spell the end of the war-crimes trial system set up last year by Congress and President Bush after the Supreme Court threw out the previous system.
...
The judge, Army Col. Peter Brownback, said he had no choice but to throw out the Khadr case because he had been classified as an "enemy combatant" by a military panel years earlier — and not as an "alien unlawful enemy combatant."

The Military Commissions Act, signed by President Bush last year, says only those classified as "unlawful" enemy combatants can face war trials here, Brownback noted during the arraignment in a hilltop courtroom.

Sullivan said the dismissal has "huge" impact because none of the detainees held at this isolated military base in southeast Cuba has been found to be an "unlawful" enemy combatant.

...
The U.S. military has hoped to accelerate its prosecutions of Guantanamo detainees, with the Pentagon saying it expects to eventually charge about 80 of the 380 prisoners held at this isolated base, but questions lingered about the legitimacy of the process.

Trolling motor.

If you fish, you know a trolling motor pushes you along at a slow speed, so you're free to cast into the shore hoping to draw out the big 'uns. If you get a few hits, you can drop anchor if you choose, and quit trolling.

In meat-market kind of bars, of course, trolls have a different meaning, generally someone older perhaps physically repulsive, preying on those younger just out seeking to have a good time. In fairybooks, a troll hides under the bridge and demands payment if you or your brothers are trying to cross his bridge.

In the blogsphere, a troll is loosely defined -- I'm going by context here -- as someone who revisits blog sites and comments generously, with the sole intent to harass the blogger or other commenters. But nowadays, like with so many other fear tactics, there's a troll behind every negative comment.

It amazes me at the personal things people post, with comments open, who become dismayed when other people suggest a different take. But really, if you're such a great writer, why not respond to words as "weapons" with words? Or consider if you're really cut out to be an exhibitionist, even if it doesn't assauge your personal neediness.

Because if you make your blog accessible to all, and choose to keep comments open, chances are you're going to encounter words contrary to your implied personal perspectives. Think of it like this: If you're wearing an out-there outfit, or taking a risk in any kind of sporting way, you have to accept that you won't solicit only praise. You might hear some catcalls too. Part of the game.

You can do like me on Subsumed: wear the outfit for your own reasons, not looking for direct praise but because it fits and is comfortable at the time. Or if you care to seek out what others think: sure, open your window and ask -- but don't whip out that troll label so quickly when you don't always get praise and compliments back.

Better to just practice "catch and release" than to blame the wrong kind of fish for biting at whatever lure you happen to be casting...

But I betcha The Kite Runner holds up in time as a better book than I Am America (And So Can You).

NEW YORK (AP) -- That Stephen Colbert sure is funny, and he sure has some funny ideas about books. Just ask "The Kite Runner" author Khaled Hosseini.

Hosting a Saturday breakfast at BookExpo America, Colbert tangled good-naturedly with Hosseini, whose novels include "The Kite Runner" and a new best seller, "A Thousand Splendid Suns." Colbert introduced Hosseini by stating that he had not read "The Kite Runner," a million-selling novel about two Afghani boys and the tragic recent history of their country, and assumed it was a book about a boy who loves kites.

"I loved yo-yos, so I can relate," Colbert said, who then referred to "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by groaning, "Great, another book about global warming."

Hosseini, meanwhile, declined to play the straight man. Before discussing his work, he turned to Colbert and announced that he would like "to address our emcee."

"You trashed `The Kite Runner,'" Hosseini accused his host, alleging such mistreatment on "The Colbert Report," Colbert's Comedy Central satire of television punditry. "It is un-American to diss `The Kite Runner.'"

"I was a little mad at you at the time; I don't remember why," Colbert responded, saying that after making fun of the book his yard was "filled with women's book clubs." Colbert also plugged his own book, "I Am America (And So Can You)," through a pre-taped infomercial, supposedly filmed in his "underground studio bunker."

Silly passes in time after the laughing moves on. I suspect Colbert knows that and he's joking around trying to grab that money quick. The other has chosen to write something that will better stand up. I mean, I got a stack of Mad books that I enjoyed, but they're in a box and not taking up precious shelf space.

This too shall pass...

Speaking of the human machine...

did you just see that Liu Xiang / Terrence Trammell race on CBS?

Mens 110 hurdles.
Excellent times.
Great competitors.

Xiang's race was a thing of beauty, pushed obviously by his American competitor in the next lane. Personal best for Trammel too.

I love true competition. I love the idea of America as a continual winner "pushing" to bring out the best. The Chinese counterpart even showed emotion too... with health and good luck, the next summer Olympics will be something to truly savor.

Looking ahead...

... West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wy-o-o-ming!

Burning coal accounts for half of America's electricity. And coal produces more carbon dioxide than any other commonly used U.S. fuel source. The states that rely the most on coal — Wyoming, North Dakota, West Virginia, Indiana — generally produce the most carbon dioxide pollution per person, but also have the cheapest electric rates.

States that shun coal — Vermont, Idaho, California, Rhode Island — and turn to nuclear, hydroelectric and natural gas, produce the least carbon dioxide but often at higher costs for consumers.

It's unfair to pin all the blame on the coal-using states, said Washington lawyer Jeffrey Holmstead, who as an attorney at Bracewell Giuliani represents coal-intensive utilities and refineries. Holmstead is the former Bush administration air pollution regulator who ruled that carbon dioxide was not a pollutant, a decision that was overturned recently by the U.S. Supreme Court.

"Coal-fired generation is the most economical, least expensive way to produce power almost anywhere in the world," he said. He argued that outlawing such plants would have little overall impact globally; however, the U.S. has long been the leading global source of carbon emissions.

Instead of trying to wean themselves from coal, Texas government officials went out of their way to encourage the state's biggest utility, TXU Corp., to plan for 11 new coal-burning power plants that would have produced even more carbon dioxide. The strategy collapsed when an investor group buying TXU cut a deal with environmentalists to drop plans to build most of the coal plants.

The "Heh" days are over; Bring on the "Duh" 's!

“I do believe that we are instinctively prone to look for technological solutions,” said one senior Pentagon official. “That’s the way we are wired, and that’s the American tradition.

“But bigger armor, more high-tech detectors and jammers will only take you so far. We never will solve the problem until we can get better intelligence and can break up these I.E.D. cells. And that will require changing the attitudes of the local population toward these explosions and those responsible for them. The Iraqis will have to help us root out the people involved.”

All together now: Duh!
--------------

Now let's re-examine current occupation techniques**, with reliance on technology and might over intelligence and knowledge of human nature:
Q. #1) Building more enemies, or friends to the cause?

(Take your time -- I'll wait, though many aren't so patient... Use other countries' histories w/technology reliance over common sense/human knowledge to see if there's a pattern. Have such efforts succeeded in stopping -- or merely escalating -- desperate violence elsewhere? Are there common traits those fighting the great "War on Terrorism", and if so, which techniques have proved successful in quelling violence and which are essentially just "spinning their wheels" for a good number of years, at a very very high price tag that will of course affect efforts in the future? Think demographics, a survey of several countries, and again, we can't emphasize too much a common knowledge of humanity, psychology, history, and science. The latter not for technology benefits so much*, but for the sheer honesty needed to see what is working -- and what is not. Plenty o' good case studies out there -- Americans as a whole have never bought into "entitlement" attitudes, at least not for a successful long run. Something about that pendulum, our ideas of individual worth over collective lumping, and the sheer mix of ambition and survival techniques -- moxie, if you will -- amongst those who had the good fortune to plant themselves successfully on these shores... )
------------

* the best machine ever built was Man.
We cheapen ourselves by refusing to acknowledge it.

** as with the nod to science, feel free to discuss honestly effects such as the refugee problem, and don't shy away because of politeness from discussing such aspects as the rising sex trade in Iraq, because crimes against the person are emblematic here: it's passionate, affects families, and is more culture related, I suspect, than many Americans -- knowing only their own -- can ever hope to realize. Something that runs deep, and can't be quickly apologized away or compensated for. Things like what happens years down the road when you point a gun today at an innocent old man, and bully him in front of his family, young members present for the humiliation. If a family, clan or tribe can't secure their own family in their own home -- protecting, maintaining, even adapting traditions internally, not at the barrel of a gun... well you can save quoting all the technological successes in the world.

Unless you're a big fan of after-the-fact "Duh's".






p.s.
Worth clicking that link, just to ponder the headline. We're lucky so much of the WWII generation is not here to see it... Good Lord.

Another Way Of Love


I.

June was not over
Though past the fall,
And the best of her roses
Had yet to blow,
When a man I know
(But shall not discover,
Since ears are dull,
And time discloses)
Turned him and said with a man's true air,
Half sighing a smile in a yawn, as 'twere,---
``If I tire of your June, will she greatly care?''

II.

Well, dear, in-doors with you!
True! serene deadness
Tries a man's temper.
What's in the blossom
June wears on her bosom?
Can it clear scores with you?
Sweetness and redness.
_Eadem semper!_
Go, let me care for it greatly or slightly!
If June mend her bower now, your hand left unsightly
By plucking the roses,---my June will do rightly.

III.

And after, for pastime,
If June be refulgent
With flowers in completeness,
All petals, no prickles,
Delicious as trickles
Of wine poured at mass-time,---
And choose One indulgent
To redness and sweetness:
Or if, with experience of man and of spider,
June use my June-lightning, the strong insect-ridder,
And stop the fresh film-work,---why, June will consider.

~Robert Browning


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Happy weekend, happy June.