Ribbons!

Debbie was at a local NADAC agility meet yesterday, in Ramona, California. She ran both Mo’i and Lea, three trials each. And they placed in every single trial, plus Mo’i qualified ("Q’d") in two of them. So between the two dogs, they took home eight ribbons in a single day — the biggest “ribbon haul” they’ve ever made!

And they’re back at it today…

In the photo (click for a larger view), the ribbons from left-to-right are:

Fourth place: Lea

Third place: Lea

Second place: Lea

First place: Mo’i

First place: Mo’i

First place: Mo’i

Qualified: Mo’i

Qualified: Mo’i

Woohoo!

One Year!

One year ago today I made the first post to this blog. In that year, this little blog has had just over 10,000 unique visitors (the counter in the green area at far right was started a couple of months after the blog actually started, so it reads a bit low).

For me, the most enjoyable part of blogging is the interactions I’ve had with my readers, in comments and in private emails, and even in some phone calls. Of all the many things I’ve done with the web, this blog has been the most fun by far — largely because of that interactivity, which all of my previous web adventures lacked. Blogging is also an outlet for two of my favorite creative activities: writing and photography. I get to inflict both on the world, and the world can’t do anything about it (except ignore me, of course)! And there have been all sorts of other benefits, like bragging about Debbie and her dog agility adventures (with our two field spaniels, Mo’i and Lea), doing some actual reporting (such as the Jamul Casino groundbreaking ceremony), and getting my political voice heard. It’s been lots and lots of fun, and I have no plans to stop anytime soon…

Of course, that last statement will disappoint some <smile>.

The graph above right shows the number of page views ("hits") on JamulBlog, per month since its inception (February is linearly projected). The general trend is obvious enough, though I think this month will be anomalously high because Michelle Malkin (who has the most popular blog on the web) linked to my blog early in the month, causing a surge in visits. But no matter how I squint at the numbers, the trend is up. When I look more closely at the logs, I see that there are a steadily increasing number of people who visit my blog regularly (thank you!). That number is hard to measure with any precision, as some folks visit several times a day; others visit only once or twice a month.

No author likes anything more than to have his scribblings read. I cherish every one of those visitors, and I’m just tickled pink to see the numbers increasing. Can’t account for it by any rational means, but I sure do like it…

Thanks!

Rain

Just a half-inch or so of rain, but it sure is nice to see it. And the forecast says we might even get a little more!

At far right is the weather radar view from earlier this morning, and immediately at right is our rain gauge readings for the past few days.

As usual, click on the small pictures for a larger view.

Kitten and String

Peaches and cream, bread and butter, kittens and string — all things that just really need to be together.

Maka Lea, the latest feline to join us (we have eight others!), is still in that cute kitten stage. He’s got some problems with his locomotion (more about that here and here, along with more pictures!), but he doesn’t let that bother him in the slightest.

Way on the right, little Maka Lea spots me carrying the camera into the livingroom. He can be hard to find — he’s so small that he fits into the tiniest hidey-holes, and under just about anything. But his curiousity got the better of him this morning — he saw that strange thing in my hands and just had to come see what it was.

Then I took him into the bedroom for one of his favorite games: playing with a short piece of twine. You can see how much he’s enjoying himself; he completely forgot about the camera. Eventually he did the universal kitten-and-string thing, getting himself all wrapped up in it.

It’s interesting to watch Maka Lea deal with his disabilities. Basically his strategy is to ignore them, along with their consequences. He’s bouncy and energetic, even compared with other kittens, and this results in all sorts of incidents that just look awful to us. For example, he might run headlong, at full throttle, into a piece of hard wooden furniture — making a resounding “thunk!” that we can hear on the other side of the house. Maka Lea acts like this is just a normal part of life; shakes his head a couple times, and resumes his headlong, full-throttle galivanting. We’ve seen him up on high places, not knowing how to safely descend. You can see him reach a point where he figures he’s got nothing to lose — can’t stay stuck here all day! — and he just launches himself into space. He might be over a hard rock or ceramic floor, or over a dog, or over some pointy object — it doesn’t matter, he just goes for it and ignores the consequences.

With this positive attitude, little Maka Lea does just about everything the “big kitties” do — even a little earlier, I think, than a normal kitten would do. His utter fearlessness lets him march right up to our dogs (who scatter whenever he comes too close, as they’re leery of getting nailed with Maka Lea’s awesomely sharp little claws). He just seems to have no idea that any action might have consequences; the very opposite of the stereotypical scaredy-cat. It’s good compensation for his disabilities, so long as we keep him strictly indoors (which we do)…

As usual, click on the small pictures for a larger view…

Troubling

Troubling. It seems I keep reading about politicians calling this or that “troubling”. I first wondered if I was imagining things, so I did a little research:

Google the web for “troubling” and you’ll get 27 million hits; google “trouble” and you get 340 million. So troubling isn’t exactly an unusual word, but it’s far from the most common.

Google News, on the other hand, has 8,820 hits for “troubling” at the moment I tried it. I perused the first 100 hits, and the majority of them are in stories related to politics. Not all of them, to be sure, but the clear majority. Ah, ha!

My final experiment was to do four searches on Google News: “troubling hillary-clinton", “troubling harry-reid", “troubling president-bush", and “troubling bill-frist”. The hits, respectively, were 38, 22, 976, and 16. But there’s another pattern, slightly subtler, that’s more interesting: the hits on the two Republicans were almost all about the Republicans, and the hits on the two Democrats were almost all said by the Democrats.

This is very one-sided. Apparently Republicans are very troubling to Democrats.

Then I wondered if I really understood what the word “troubling” meant, so I looked it up:

troubling

adj : causing distress or worry or anxiety

Well, that’s about what I thought it meant.

So why are the Democrats so one-sidedly “troubled” by the Republicans? Not that I’m really troubled by this, I’m just kind of curious about why that word seems to keep popping up.

I googled all sorts of things, trying to find someone who knew the reason; didn’t find a darned thing. So I took the more difficult approach: I sat down and pondered. And here’s what I came up with:

I think this is a conscious effort on the part of the Democrats — a word wouldn’t be so lop-sidedly used, otherwise. The Republicans are, I’m sure, just as troubled by the Democrats as vice versa. Yet they aren’t saying so. That difference can really only be accounted for by a deliberate effort.

If the Democrats are doing it on purpose, why are they? I’ll bet they got some advice from someone they trust, a political strategist most likely. I’ll further bet that they got advice that the word “troubling” is a splendid way to make your political enemy look bad — it’s completely non-specific and can’t really be countered. Think about it: Harry Reid calls the NSA wiretaps “troubling”. What’s President Bush going to say? “No, Harry, they’re not troubling"? Doesn’t work. But anybody listening to Harry Reid hears a respected [did I really say that?] Senator calling President Bush’s actions “troubling”. Sounds bad, doesn’t it?

I think that’s the explanation. When faced with a situation where they have no reasoned, defensible counter-position (something that seems to happen to them with great regularity), the Democrats have deliberately decided to invoke the generic, all-purpose adjective “troubling” to register their non-specific objection, and to convey their concern with the proper gravitas.

I’d like to see the Republicans counter this troubling trend. Everytime a Democrat uses “troubling” to characterize a Republican policy or action, I’d like to see the Republicans challenge the Democrats to articulate and defend their alternative. I don’t hear that enough; instead, the Democrat’s non-specific whining is usually allowed to stand unchallenged, like the mom who ignores her screaming child.

Sometimes the child really does need a good spanking.

Education Matters

My readers (all 11 of them) know how concerned I am by the anti-results, anti-science, touchy-feely culture that pervades our educational system. A report delivered to the National Academies on Thursday provides some concrete evidence that competition in the intellectual arena is heating up. Financed by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, which “…strive[s] to foster an environment nationwide in which entrepreneurs have the information and tools they need to succeed” (from their web site), it reports on a survey of over 200 multinational companies. The survey aimed at uncovering the factors that drove outsourcing. Key graf from the press reports:

The study contended that lower labor costs in emerging markets are not the major reason for hiring researchers overseas, though they are a consideration. Tax incentives do not matter much, either, it said.

Instead, the report found that multinational corporations were global shoppers for talent. The companies want to nurture close links with leading universities in emerging markets to work with professors and to hire promising graduates.

In other words, America is no longer the premier source of talent — many other countries now have talent pools that look very attractive to these companies, and the trend is for that to be even more true down the road. When our children get a shoddy, short-changing education, we are as a nation crippled in our ability to compete in this arena. This is the core of what worries me on this issue.

The report’s author also had this to say:

"The United States would seem to have a comparative advantage in maintaining its innovative leadership through the high caliber of its scientists and its strong protection of IP,” said Lesa Mitchell, vice president of Advancing Innovation at the Kauffman Foundation. “Industry and universities must be alert to removing obstacles to joint research, or emerging countries will overtake us in innovation breakthroughs, and the burst of discovery that has been driving our economy for the past half-century will be over."

Another public policy implication of the findings, say the researches, is that the United States must focus on highly skilled worker immigration.

"We are educating the best and the brightest, but make it impossible for them to stay in America and immigrate. We need major immigration reform that welcomes, instead of pushes out, highly skilled workers,” said Dr. Marie Thursby.

That first point, about the collaboration between universities and companies, is new to me … but it certainly makes sense, and it jibes with my own experiences in Estonia. The point about our immigration policies stupidly preventing us from importing talent is one I whole-heartedly agree with. If we can’t educate our own children (through our own mismanagement of the education process), well, the next best thing would be to allow (and encourage!) the world’s best and brightest to become American citizens. Why any current American citizen would object to that is beyond me…

A presentation about this report is available here. The report itself is currently undergoing peer review; when it is actually published I’ll let you know.

Puppy Journal

From Sheila Miller:

So the puppies were born late afternoon/early evening on Sunday. A very civilized time to be born. Let me go on record right now by saying that Picabo is one hell of a brood bitch. I can’t believe how much she has emotionally matured since her first litter almost two years ago. She was a great mom then but so serious. Age and experience have left her very skilled but easy going with the newborns.

It was an easy delivery and easy clean-up. We settled into bed by 11:00 p.m. If you haven’t been around neonate puppies, they mew like kittens. I laid in bed and listened to the sounds they made. They have sounds for “too cold", “too hungry", and “too squished” and one for “just practicing my mew”. They weren’t cold, they weren’t hungry, and they weren’t being squished. They nursed and slept. So then I laid in bed and listened to all the sounds this end of the house makes. There was the ticking of the clock, the rumble of the space heater and further from the bedroom I could hear the whole house ventilation fan and every once in awhile, the fridge. IOW, I didn’t sleep much. One of the things that kept me awake is my new Dura-Whelp whelping box. Since it is winter, I couldn’t buy my reliable $6.00 wading pool and had to buy the $280.00 plastic box. I’m happy enough with the Dura-Whelp though I’m still a bit in shock over the price. The box is held together by Velcro. Every time Picabo would stretch out, I would hear that distinctive tearing sound of Velcro separating. I was positive the whole thing would collapse in the night. It didn’t but the bedding kept shifting.

I am always “sick” for a day or two after a litter is born. This time I really was (still am) sick. Some respiratory virus that has overtaken our school has traveled the whole of my body and settled in my chest (and has turned me into a mouth-breather). I was hoping Monday would be a day of checking on dogs, puppies and sleeping. Monday was spent ironing out the wrinkles of the Dura-Whelp. My main concern was the bedding. The bedding is just a square of synthetic fleece with Velcro sewn in the corners to match the Velcro in the corners of the box. Picabo doesn’t dig much in her box but she does shift her body position. Every shift from her, shifted the bedding. Every shift of the bedding put the puppies at risk of getting caught underneath the bedding or on the cold, slippery surface of the plastic box. I had some Velcro in my sewing box and tried adding more to the edges but its adhesive wouldn’t permanently stick to the plastic. I wasn’t about to use a stronger

adhesive and let those babies inhale the fumes. I had to fix this problem because in just another day, Picabo and her puppies would be on their own all day long. What I came up with was carpet tape. I clean and dry the Dura-Whelp and then place additional squares of carpet tape around the fleeces bedding. It sticks fairly well to the plastic an OK to the fleece. Enough to last the day. When I change the bedding, I just pull off the tape and repeat the process.

Monday night was another short night because Picabo had her post-whelping diarrhea. I would like to know how the other breeders on this list feed their bitches during the first 36 hours after whelping. Mine all get yucky diarrhea as they work out all those consumed placentas from their bodies.

We headed over to Elk Tuesday afternoon for tail docking and dew claw removal. I used to be so conservative about this. I always waited until they were 3 or 4 days old and had definitely put on weight. No more. Picabo’s first litter was docked at 48 hours old and they immediately bounced back. This litter was a few hours shy of 48 hours and each one’s whimpering stopped before the next puppy was docked. It is the most disgusting ordeal to witness but I like the look of a docked tail and they really do recover quickly.

Wednesday I was back in school and Picabo was on her own. I came home to a stinky house as she had a poopy accident (but hit the papers!) in the bedroom. Picabo’s GI tract consumed a lot of my time with her first litter. I am going to stay on top of her digestion this time. I’ve added bran cereal to her diet to help hold her together as she adjusts to the physical stress she is under. It seems to be working so far.

Now it is Friday and these puppies and their mom are just great. OK, I said 2 boys and 1 girl were liver and 2 boys and 1 girl were black. But you really didn’t think they were all black and all liver coming from Cosmo and Picabo did you? LOL

Little Black Boy: White muzzle, white toes on front feet, white chest, and a thin white line between the eyes.

Bigger Black Boy: Dusting of white on nose. White cross on chest.

Liver Boy (AKA the Border Collie): White muzzle, four white feet, white chest, and white spot on the BACK of his neck.

Other Liver Boy: Dusting of white on nose, white chest, white toes on two front feet. This boy is a darker shade of liver than the other two liver puppies. He is also the only puppy in the litter NOT to show bright tan under the tail. Most believe that is a sign the puppy is a carrier for tan markings.

Black Girl (AKA the springer): White muzzle, full white blaze between the eyes, white chest, and four white feet.

Liver Girl: White chin, white chest, and white toes on the two front feet.

The good news is that everyone now has “dirty feet” meaning they are ticking up. I am confident that all of the facial and toe white will fill in. I know that the chest white will decrease in size to just a flash of white. But they sure are cute now. :-)

Debbie is going to stop by my house on Saturday. We will take pictures and I hope to have some up for you to view by Monday.

Sheila Miller

Wolftree Acres

Nevada, USA

Puppy Journal

You’ve read my scribblings about our two field spaniels (Mo’i and Lea). In fact, you’re probably really tired of them <smile>! Well, I’ve got bad news for you: things about about to get worse.

We’re going to have a new field spaniel puppy in a few weeks! That means completely out-of-control field spaniel blogging (with photos!) is just around the corner…

Meanwhile, Sheila Miller will pick up the slack. Sheila is the field spaniel breeder whose inspired matchings produced Mo’i, Lea, and a whole bunch of other beautiful brown dogs. This time, though, they’re not all brown — you see, field spaniels come in variations and mixes of browns, plus black and white.

Picabo just gave birth a few days ago to the litter from which our puppy will come — and that litter, as you can see below, has a variety of colors. A little later Sheila will have the puppies “temperment tested", so we can choose one with a better likelihood of being a good agility dog. I’m hoping that the winner of that contest will be at least partially black — I really like the black, black-and-liver, and black-and-white field spaniels that I’ve seen at shows…

Sheila is writing a “Puppy Journal” on her experiences with this litter, and here’s the first installment:

Sheila Miller’s Puppy Journal:

First, let me thank all of you who have sent private and public congratulations. Its not like me to not reply to an e-mail but I’ve been busy. :-) I appreciate your warm thoughts.

I also want to thank Picabo’s co-owners Debbie Miller and Sandy Burt-Jones for allowing me to lease Picabo. Like Scarlett O’Hara’s line, “I depend on the kindness of others”. LOL

Let’s go back to May 23, 2004 when Picabo whelped her first litter. Her puppies were huge, the time between water breaking and first puppy being born was long, and every puppy was delivered with screams from her. I told myself that I would not lease Picabo again (I’m a wimp when it comes to the pain of others). After the dust settled with that whelping, I told myself that IF I lease her again, then 2006 would be a good year to have puppies.

Picabo’s first litter was sired by Cosmo, son of Spicer and Juno. They are turning out very nicely and I figured I would breed her to a relative of Cosmo’s (half-brother, nephew or cousin). Well, the best laid plans… After the fourth stud dog choice wasn’t going to work out, I found myself with an in-season bitch and nowhere for her to go. So I brought Picabo and Cosmo to the vet for blood tests (brucellosis and thyroid) and made the appointment in Reno for eye checks.

I’ve never repeated a breeding before. I don’t have anything against it. It is just that since I’ve never bred a bitch more than twice in her life, I’ve always chosen different studs just for the genetic variety. The breedings went very well. I would crate all of my dogs for dinner, put Picabo out in the front yard and Cosmo out in the backyard. I would close all the doors to rooms where I didn’t want a breeding to take place and then let the two of them in. They would run around the house while I flipped channels on the TV. When they stopped running, I would go look for them and wait out the tie. What could be easier than that? :-)

Flash forward to a couple of weeks ago. I’m getting ready for the whelping by making sure I not only have everything the dam and puppies will need but also everything I will need such as food, paper products, beer, wine, etc. Once the puppies come, I will be a weekend-only shopper.

Wednesday, February 8th. Picabo and I run to Elko after school for her x-ray. Since I live so far from my vet (75 miles) and there aren’t any emergency vet clinics closer than 250 miles, I x-ray my bitches to get an idea of how many and how big to expect. Picabo is water buffalo big but the x-ray only shows 4 puppies. One puppy shows a complete spine, full ribs and head. I ask Dr. Rob if that couldn’t be two puppies overlapped. He said, “Where’s the second head"? OK, good point. So four for sure, maybe, just maybe a fifth. Rob thinks they look good-sized (i.e. big like the first litter). He then tells me that he is leaving the next day (Picabo’s first due date) for a four-day rock climbing trip near Las Vegas. He asked me if I wanted some oxytocin to go. Of course I do. I always have a shot on hand in case I need it. If I don’t need it, then I give it an hour or so after what I think is the last puppy as a clean out shot. He gave me four shots. OH MY GOD. Does he think they will be so big that I will need one per puppy??? Oh, this will be a long weekend by myself.

Even though Thursday is her first due date, I absolutely don’t expect puppies until the weekend at the earliest. Picabo’s first litter taught me that she breeds well before she ovulates. Thursday and Friday go by as normal days for little black water buffaloes.

Saturday is pretty normal too. The only thing I noticed about Picabo is that she crated herself after dinner (not her crate, but Cosmo’s crate). No nesting, just sleeping. She didn’t show any other signs of labor. Her appetite and attitude were both good. She was crated in my bedroom that night and I awoke at 12:00 a.m. to sounds of her digging in her crate. I listened as she flipped her crate pad around and settled back down. I fell asleep. I awoke at 1:00 a.m. to the same sounds. She settled down and I fell asleep. I had a dream…

I dreamt that Picabo easily whelped her puppies. Puppy #1 was a bitch! Unfortunately she was a rather large Bernese Mountain Dog. :-( Puppy #2 was a dog. A big, fat, deadgrass MALE Chesapeake Bay Retriever. A handsome boy but I need another male CBR like I need… Puppy #3 was a bitch! A small bitch! A black bitch! A black bitch with two white stripes down her back??? Puppy #3 was a skunk! LOL Not a puppy marked like a skunk but an actual skunk. It doesn’t take a dream analysts to know that I was worried about the size, sex, and color of these puppies. I awoke again at 2:00 a.m. to sounds of Picabo digging in her crate. Enough was enough. I put all of my dogs outside for a potty break and went into the spare room/office/whelping room and made up the bed in there. By 2:30 a.m., Picabo and I were in bed. She scratched around the whelping box a couple of times then jumped in bed with me. We slept the rest of the night away…

Sunday morning dawned and Picabo’s appetite and attitude were good although once again she crated herself. She had to be in the early stages of labor. She asked to go out with the rest of the dogs around noon. I watched her dig a nest under a bush. By the time I walked to the back door, Picabo was at the front door asking to come in. She came in and went back to bed. Later that afternoon came out all peppy and joined us on a walk (well, more like a waddle). When we came back to the house, I told the dogs we would feed the birds and put out the trash. Picabo said, “groan”. I said, “Picabo was that you"? Again she said, “groan”. The two of went in the house. I admit all I could think about was that I was hungry and wasn’t going to get to eat for awhile. :-) Her water broke and she delivered the first puppy ten minutes later. This was an easy, stress free delivery. Boom, boom, boom. 3 puppies followed and Picabo took it all in stride. I on the other hand, became more depressed with each birth. We were expecting four puppies and the first four were all boys. I crossed my fingers that there would be a fifth but I had to wait about an hour to find out. Boom, boom, two more puppies this time girls!

Here they are in birth order:

black male - 9 ounces

liver male - 13 ounces

liver male - 12 ounces

black male - 10 ounces

black female - 15 ounces

liver female - 14 ounces

These sizes are all normal for FS and very good for little Picabo. They are now four days old and the only puppy who hasn’t yet crossed the one pound threshold is the first black male and he is only an ounce away.

To be continued…

Sheila Miller

Wolftree Acres

Nevada, USA

Promoting Ignorance

Sometimes I have to read something several times to be sure the author was serious. This was one of those, and sadly, the author was serious. From the Washington Post (why do I even go there?):

What Is the Value of Algebra?

I am haunted by Gabriela Ocampo.

Last year, she dropped out of the 12th grade at Birmingham High School in Los Angeles after failing algebra six times in six semesters, trying it a seventh time and finally just despairing over ever getting it. So, according to the Los Angeles Times, she “gathered her textbooks, dropped them at the campus book room and, without telling a soul, vanished from Birmingham High School."

Gabriela, this is Richard: There’s life after algebra.

In truth, I don’t know what to tell Gabriela. The L.A. school district now requires all students to pass a year of algebra and a year of geometry in order to graduate. This is something new for Los Angeles (although 17 states require it) and it is the sort of vaunted education reform that is supposed to close the science and math gap and make the U.S. more competitive. All it seems to do, though, is ruin the lives of countless kids. In L.A., more kids drop out of school on account of algebra than any other subject. I can hardly blame them.

This piece was written by Richard Cohen, a well-known liberal columnist.

It turns out, as you read further, that what’s got Mr. Cohen upset is the idea of required subjects (such as algebra) for high school graduation. He objects to the idea of having to pass a test to graduate, as well. The column is specific to Los Angeles, which has such requirements for the first time this year.

I can understand (though I don’t agree with) other arguments I’ve heard against stringent graduation requirements. But Mr. Cohen is definitely thinking out-of-the-box here — his argument is that things like algebra shouldn’t be requirements because they’re not needed!

Oh, my. I posit that Mr. Cohen just doesn’t grasp what his world would be like without algebra. Virtually all the things he takes for granted — technology, cars, medicine, as obvious examples — would all be back in the Stone Age without algebra (amongst other things). As I hope most people understand better than Mr. Cohen apparently does, mathematics underlie an awful lot of things that separate us from the gerbils.

Mr. Cohen goes on to relate how algebra has never once been a requirement for him, once he left school. Well, that may well be, Mr. Cohen — it’s certainly possible to choose a career where no mathematics is required, just as it’s possible to choose a career where no ability to write prose is required. But neither of those statements says a darned thing about the importance of either area of study.

But here’s Mr. Cohen at his most condescending:

Look, Gabriela, I am not anti-algebra. It has its uses, I suppose, and I think it should be available for people who want to take it. Maybe students should even be compelled to take it, but it should not be a requirement for graduation. There are those of you, and Gabriela you are one, who know what it is like to stare at an algebra problem until you have eyeballed a hole in the page and not understand a thing you’re seeing . There are those of us who know the sweat, the panic, the trembling, cold fear that comes from the teacher casting an eye in your direction and calling you to the blackboard. It is like being summoned to your own execution.

"I suppose…” How arrogantly certain he is! And so certain about such a really dumb piece of advice, all projected from his own inability or lack of initiative to learn mathematics. And how typically liberal the notion that the kid’s feelings matter more than actually learning something. I’ve been battling that meme for a long time, which makes it all the more disheartening to see something like this from a prominent columnist…

And if you extrapolate this mindset (which I will remind you is very much like the National Education Association’s mindset), you can confidently predict America as a second-tier country in science and technology, with our leadership lost to those with a more … serious … educational system.

Different Cartoons

For your viewing pleasure, and as a counter to all the negative press on political cartoons — here’s a collection nobody should object to. And if they do, well … I guess that’s just too flippin' bad!

As usual, click on the little pictures for a larger view…

Laws of the Universe

I can personally confirm most of these laws:

LAWS OF THE NATURAL UNIVERSE

Law of Mechanical Repair: After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch or you’ll have to pee.

Law of the Workshop: Any tool, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible corner.

Law of Probability: The probability of being watched is directly proportional to the stupidity of your act.

Law of the Telephone: When you dial a wrong number, you never get a busy signal.

Law of the Alibi: If you tell the boss you were late for work because you had a flat tire, the very next morning you will have a flat tire.

Variation Law: If you change lines (or traffic lanes), the one you were in will start to move faster than the one you are in now (works every time!).

Bath Theorem: When the body is fully immersed in water, the telephone rings.

Law of Close Encounters: The probability of meeting someone you know increases when you are with someone you don’t want to be seen with.

Law of the Result: When you try to prove to someone that a machine won’t work, it will.

Law of Biomechanics: The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach.

Theatre Rule: At any event, the people whose seats are furthest from the aisle arrive last.

Law of Coffee: As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.

Murphy’s Law of Lockers: If there are only two people in a locker room, they will have adjacent lockers.

Law of Dirty Rugs/Carpets: The chances of an open-faced jelly sandwich of landing face down on a floor covering are directly correlated to the newness and cost of the carpet/rug.

Law of Logical Argument: Anything is possible if you don’t know what you are talking about.

Brown’s Law: If the shoe fits, it’s really ugly.

Oliver’s Law: A closed mouth gathers no feet.

Wilson’s Law: As soon as you find a product that you really like, they will stop making it.

Terror Alerts Raised

Maybe our color-coded terror alert levels aren’t so bad after all…

The British are feeling the pinch in relation to recent bombings and have raised their security level from “Miffed” to “Peeved.” Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to “Irritated” or even “A Bit Cross.” Londoners have not been “A Bit Cross” since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from “Tiresome” to a “Bloody Nuisance.” The last time the British issued a “Bloody Nuisance” warning level was during the great fire of 1666.

Also, the French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from “Run” to “Hide.” The only two higher levels in France are “Surrender” and “Collaborate.” The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France’s white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country’s military capability.

It’s not only the English and French that are on a heightened level of alert. Italy has increased the alert level from “Shout Loudly and Excitedly” to “Elaborate Military Posturing.” Two more levels remain: “Ineffective Combat Operations” and “Change Sides."

The Germans also increased their alert state from “Disdainful Arrogance” to “Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs.” They also have two higher levels: “Invade a Neighbour” and “Lose."

Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual, and the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels.

Not to be left out of the fun, some of the newer European countries have also raised their alert levels. For example, little Estonia is currently at the “Pretend You Can’t See Them” level, increased from the “Speak In Estonian to Confuse Them” level. They have two higher levels: “Hide In The Forest” and “Beg Putin To Be Readmitted To Russia”.

On the other side, the terrorists have only two levels: “Yell, Bomb, and Shoot” and “Flee or Die When the Americans Arrive”.

Seems like Al Qaeda spends a lot of time at heightened alert these day…

Hansen Harangues -- Again

NASA’s Jim Hansen is flogging his theories again, this time with an article in the Independent (what’s the matter Jim — can’t get a respectable scientific journal to print your rants? The Independent? That’s really bottom-scraping…). The lead:

Greenland ice cap breaking up at twice the rate it was five years ago, says scientist Bush tried to gag

A satellite study of the Greenland ice cap shows that it is melting far faster than scientists had feared - twice as much ice is going into the sea as it was five years ago. The implications for rising sea levels - and climate change - could be dramatic.

Yet, a few weeks ago, when I - a Nasa climate scientist - tried to talk to the media about these issues following a lecture I had given calling for prompt reductions in the emission of greenhouse gases, the Nasa public affairs team - staffed by political appointees from the Bush administration - tried to stop me doing so. I was not happy with that, and I ignored the restrictions. The first line of Nasa’s mission is to understand and protect the planet.

Let me translate that for you: NASA told him to shut up about the connection between greenhouse gas emission and global warming for two reasons: (1) that connection has not been proven, and there is no consensus in the scientific community on the question, and (2) the entire notion global warming itself has not been proven. While it is certainly true that in the past century the earth’s average temperature has increased, it’s done the same thing many times in the past (long before humans were around). We just don’t know yet whether our recent warming is another transient effect, as in the past, or if it really is something mankind is doing. The most recent findings I’ve read cast a lot of doubt on the “we’re killing ourselves” theory — especially the unexpected finding that forests are emitting the majority of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Oops. And thank you, NASA, for attempting to muzzle this dangerous nutcase.

But Jim Hansen is a “true believer”. He’s got religion, and he’s had it for a long time. Like Jimmy Swaggart’s fundamentalist Christian schtick, Jimmy Hansen’s “global warming religion” and schtick has brought him fame and fortune. For a flavor of his publications, check out this list. And just in case you think I might be the only one questioning Jim Hansen’s objectivity on the issue, look here, here, and here.

I don’t usually get all fired up over a dispute in science — they’re generally more interesting than they are alarming. But this man wants to change our lives in ways that I certainly am not interested in. He wants us to drastically change our lifestyles (especially in reducing our commuting and travel, to reduce oil consumption) and to increases our taxes (to pay for greenhouse gas reduction). If — and that’s a very, very big if — I believed that the case had actually been made for global warming’s existence, for mankind’s activities causing global warming, and for the proposed remediation efforts “fixing” global warming, then I would actively support this program. But not one of those three requirements has been met — and to undertake civilization-changing efforts like the ones Jim Hansen promotes on the basis of speculation is sheer folly. Ol' Jim-boy though, would make out just fine in such a scenario — he’d be the de facto “religious” and intellectual leader. Kind of like that Jim Jones fellow a few years ago, except Jim Hansen’s “flock” would be the whole world, and he’d likely to be able to fool them for all his natural years. Scary prospect…

Hamas and Iran

In this morning’s Jerusalem Post is this story and its lead:

Mofaz: Hamas consulting with Iran how to lead PA

Hamas has asked for guidance, instructions and financial assistance from Iran as it prepares to take over the Palestinian Authority, [Israeli] Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told the European Union’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana on Friday.

Now we really shouldn’t be surprised by this — Iran has a long history of assisting Hamas. But I am dismayed by it nonetheless. It looks like the first moves toward making Palestine a wholly-owned subsidiary of Iran. An Iranian colony, so to speak. Or even an Iranian “state”.

Iran, the country who has repeatedly vowed to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. Yup, that ought to help the peace process along all right…

If you’re not familiar with the Hamas/Iran connection, I’ve collected some reading material for you. I particularly recommend this paper [web] [pdf] by Matthew Levitt (a former FBI counterterrorism intelligence analyst). A sample:

According to press reports, moderate Palestinian parents find it increasingly difficult to shelter their children from Hamas recruiters seeking to breed future suicide bombers. One mother recounted how her son’s behavior changed when he started going to the mosque regularly:

At first I thought it was normal when my son Muhammad, who is eighteen, started going to the mosque frequently. But when I found out he was watching films about suicide attacks, I was worried … My son was going to the mosque late at night and early in the morning, adding to our fears … His behavior changed. He became introverted, which made his father and me search his room and spy on his comings and goings … We even locked the door to stop him going out … We later found out that those in charge of the mosque are members of Hamas, which teaches children about jihad and shows them documentaries about suicide bombings.

The father of fifteen-year-old Hamas recruit Musa Ziadah told a similar tale. Originally pleased with his son’s growing faith, the father did not realize Hamas had begun radicalizing his son when the boy was just ten years old and sweeping the mosque floors. Musa would later tell reporters that Hamas “taught me about the heroes of Islam who were killed as saints and how they are now in heaven beside God … I also learned that the Jews have no right to exist on this land, which belongs to Muslims.”

This paper is very well researched and cites numerous other papers publications (many with links). In addition, these two web sites (here and here) have lots of additional and useful background on Hamas and their relationship with Iran.

I worry that with Hamas now in power, and with the new-found aggressiveness that Iran is displaying, we’re going to see even more outrageous terrorist actions by Hamas against Israel — better funded, and using more sophisticated armaments openly imported from Iran. The only effective counter (at least, at the moment) is the Israeli military. Certainly none of the Middle East “peace efforts” have brought any relief from the terrorists; in fact, the continuous concessions wrung from the Israelis looks to Hamas (and Iran) like their enemy is weakening and is now more vulnerable than ever. In other words, the peace initiatives were actually counter-productive (just like the appeasement of Hitler before WWII) — not that anybody will learn from that, I’m sure.

Unsettling news for this otherwise fine Friday morning…

Casino Update

Lakes Entertainment, Inc. (based in Minnesota, of all places!) is the investor and speculator funding the Jamul Indian tribe’s attempts to build a casino just outside the town of Jamul. Lakes Entertainment is a public company, trading under the symbol WPTE. They were delisted from NASDAQ after getting into some trouble with the SEC; they claim to have resolved these issues and are now in the process of being re-listed.

My readers will know that this casino is something I am vehemently opposed to, so we try to follow the news on this issue. The process of getting approval for such a casino is far from transparent — there’s an awful lot about it that’s not only invisible, but unknown. An observer like me gets the impression that the process isn’t even well-defined. This is the perfect setup for corruption, for dirty money to drive the outcome.

Well, Lakes Entertainment just announced their fiscal 2005 results, and they’ve issued a press release about it (the usual practice for a public company). Buried in there is this little gem (emphasis added):

The net unrealized gain on notes receivable was $5.2 million and $3.1 million for 2005 and 2004, respectively, related to the adjustment to fair value of the Company’s notes receivable from Indian tribes. During 2005 the net unrealized gain of $5.2 million included unrealized gains of approximately $11.4 million, which were partially offset by unrealized losses of approximately $6.2 million primarily related to the termination of the agreement with the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas. The unrealized gains of approximately $11.4 million related primarily to increased probability of opening related to the casino development projects with the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians in New Buffalo, Michigan and with the Jamul Indian Village near San Diego, California.

Read at face value, this says that the company believes its chances of getting the Jamul Casino built have increased so much that they should book some increased value (the “unrealized gains") on their balance sheet. However, as I read this company’s financial report (and look at their stock price), it’s easy to see that they must be desperate for anything resembling good news — so I have to be a bit skeptical of their statement. And its one of those judgment things; there’s no objective criteria that I’m aware of that would let us accurately set a fair value on this.

So I guess I’m not quite sure what to read into this. I am sure that I hate seeing anything that says the casino is more likely to be built!

And I really, really like the trend on the WPTE stock price — let’s hope that continues, right into the ground…

Death Penalty Craziness

This story in yesterday’s Sacremento Bee (free registration required) has my head spinning. The lead:

California must either scrap plans to execute Michael Angelo Morales next week or change the way it will put the condemned inmate to death, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel of San Jose, responding to a defense challenge that the state’s method of carrying out lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment, gave state authorities the option of defending their current procedure in a two-day court hearing.

The judge said official state logs “in at least six of 13 executions by lethal injection” raise “at least some doubt” whether inmates were rendered unconscious before being injected with chemicals that would cause “excruciating pain."

Set aside for a moment any feelings you have (pro or con) about the death penalty. It’s the law of the land here in California, and it’s this judge’s duty to uphold the law. And he’s concerned that the inmate may not be unconscious before the drugs that actually kill them — because these drugs can cause excruciating pain.

Ok, I can certainly see the judge’s concern here, though I’m not sure I agree with him. After all, if you’re going to kill somebody, why is it so bad to inflict some pain along the way? In fact, wouldn’t that provide some addition deterrent force — if those bad guys out there knew that their demise would be horrible, grisly, and excruciatingly painful, wouldn’t that give them a bit more pause? I can hear the screaming already from the criminal-coddling class…

But put that issue aside for a moment. When you read a little further in the article, you find out what the evidence is that inmates might be conscious when the fatal drugs are administered:

While “no direct evidence” showed anyone was conscious to feel pain, said Fogel, the logs noted “respirations” continuing at least until the start of the administration of pancuronium bromide in the six executions of Jaturun Siripongs, Manuel Babbitt, Darrell Keith Rich, Stephen Wayne Anderson, Stanley Tookie Williams and Clarence Ray Allen. Williams may still have been breathing when the administration of potassium chloride began.

Now wait just a doggone minute here! Just because someone is breathing, that’s evidence that they’re conscious? Last time I checked, someone who wasn’t breathing is dead, not unconscious! This argument amounts to the judge saying “The inmate isn’t dead yet, so you can’t kill him."

And we pay these people!

But back to the question of the death penalty… Most of my life, I’ve been a supporter of the death penalty for certain kinds of crimes (basically those involving the death of, or irreparable harm to, their victims). I based this support on the value of permanently removing the offender from society (I have no confidence that liberal judges will honor permanent incarcerations), along with the deterrent value.

But in the past few years, I’ve changed my position on this; I’ll call myself now a “reluctant opponent” to the death penalty. My opposition stems from the demonstrated failure of our justice system to actually execute convicted criminals (just look at the death row statistics compared to the execution statistics — 3,300 on death row vs. 60 executed in 2005), the alarming number of death row inmates being exonerated (often by contra-indicatory DNA evidence), and the costs of the process (including the long-term special incarceration of death-row inmates). It just isn’t working, no matter how much I would like it to.

So now I’m a supporter of permanent incarceration as a replacement for the death penalty, with supporting law that makes it impossible for a judge or the “Corrections” department to release inmates under such a sentence for any reason other than exoneration. I also support the notion of severely restricing “privileges” for such inmates (e.g., no TV, no reading, no Internet, no visitors, etc.) and requiring punitive labor (preferably mind-numbingly menial and physically taxing). Those animals are in there for punishment, not molly-coddling, and their misery should be as public as possible for its deterrent effect. I’d even support the idea — if carefully designed — of isolated “colonies” where criminals under such a sentence were turned loose to fend for themselves.

That ought to endear me to the liberals, don’t you think <smile>?

More UCSD Woes

A UCSD student named Jeff commented on my earlier post UCSD and Art. He said:

As a current UCSD student, I’m far less concerned with what a small minority of the students in the Literature deparment are doing as I am with what the administrators are doing.

He also passed long three links to examples of his concern here, here, and here.

I can see why he’s worried — from the facts reported in these stories, UCSD’s chancellor (Marye Anne Fox) appears to be very highly compensated (earning almost $700K in taxpayer’s money last year, making the big assumption that all compensation has now been disclosed) and very distracted by the obligations incurred by sitting on the Boards of ten corporations. She also earned about $340K in compensation from those Board positions; this is nearly as much as her (nominal) UCSD chancellor’s salary of $360K.

A little googling led me to Ms. Fox’s Board memberships. These aren’t little lightweight kinds of companies that one could imagine her just being a kind of token Board member — the organizations she’s a Board member of include SRI International, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, and RedHat, for example. I’ve read somewhere that the average Board member spends 200 hours per year preparing for and attending Board meetings. Having been a Board member of a public corporation myself, I can attest to the investment of time required; if anything, that 200 hours seems too little to me. Ten companies? That would be 2000 hours per year, which is what most people would consider a full time job. When does Ms. Fox find the time to do her job at UCSD? Or is she short-changing all those shareholders at the companies she’s supposedly helping to manage? Any way you look at this picture, it’s disturbing.

On top of the preceding attention-deficit disorder, to be so highly cash-compensated is like salt being rubbed into the taxpayer’s wound. And as a taxpayer, I think Jeff is right — this is even more of a concern than what I described in my original post…

Sheesh!

UCSD and Art

From the UCSD Literature department comes this email (tip of the hat to Bob C., one of my readers, who forwarded this email to me):

Date: Tue, 14 Feb 2006 10:40:53 -0800 ( PST)

From: “UCSD Literature Dept.” <ucsd-flyers-relay@ucsd.edu>

To: “UCSD Flyers” <ucsd-flyers-dist@ucsd.edu>

Subject: Dept. of Lit - Sex Workers' Art Show This Thursday

Errors-To: ucsd-flyers-errors@ucsd.edu

Sender: ucsd-flyers-relay@ucsd.edu

Department of Literature and the T.M.I. Queer and Feminist

Performance Show

Sex Workers' Art Show

Thursday, February 16, 2006

7:30 PM

UCSD Price Center Theater

admission: $7 - $25, sliding scale

(no one turned away for lack of funds)

The Sex Workers' Art Show Tour is coming to San Diego!!! The show is an eye-popping evening of visual and performance art created by people who work in the sex industry to dispel the myth that they are anything short of artists, innovators, and geniuses!

The wildly successful cabaret-style show is hitting the road again, bringing audiences a blend of spoken word, music, burlesque, and multimedia performance art; as well as a visual art display that travels with the show. The artwork and performances offer a wide range of perspectives on sex work, from celebration of prostitution and sex-positivity to views from the darker sides of the industry.

This year’s incredible lineup of performers includes acclaimed Whitney Biennial artist and burlesque performer Julie Atlas Muz; iconic queer writer and author of The Chelsea Whistle Michelle Tea; hip-hop poet Juba Kalamka; foremother of the prostitutes' rights movement Scarlot Harlot; artistic director of the only existing Black burlesque troupe Harlem Shake, Simone de la Getto; filmmaker and performance artist Bridget Irish; writer and feminist smut purveyor Tralala Farsi Sentiamo; and tour founder and ringmaster Annie Oakley. Visual artists include infamous camgirl and artist Ana Voog and activist and filmmaker Teresa Dulce.

The show includes people from all areas of the sex industry: strippers, prostitutes, dommes, film stars, phone sex operators, internet models, etc. It smashes traditional stereotypes and moves beyond positive and negative into a fuller articulation of the complicated ways sex workers experience their jobs and their lives. The Sex Workers' Art Show entertains, arouses, and amazes while simultaneously offering scathing and insightful commentary on notions of class, gender, labor, and sexuality!

For more information or to schedule interviews, please visit www.sexworkersartshow.com, or email Annie Oakley at annie@sexworkersartshow.com.

Sponsored by T.M.I. Queer and Feminist Performance Show and UCSD Dept of Literature

Annie Oakley doesn’t need a gun. She’s armed with fierce creativity, political passion, big brains and exquisite sexiness. As the Sex Workers' Art Show’s director, Oakley leads a brilliant crew who serves up whore culture at its most delicious and satisfying.

-Annie Sprinkle, Phd

The Sex Workers' Art Show is not simply a display of those in the sex industry… but an active force in articulating, shaping, and contesting the meaning of the identity sex worker in the public sphere.

-Theatre Journal

What in the world is the University of California, San Diego (USCD) thinking? With all the serious subjects in the world that they could address, they choose this?

One could easily question the taste or propriety of this event, but never mind those. What frosts me is the notion that taxpayer dollars are being used to promote (and subsidize, I’d wager) this show, in the name of studying “literature”. Do you believe our tax dollars should be used to educate students on a “…wide range of perspectives on sex work, from celebration of prostitution and sex-positivity to views from the darker sides of the industry."? Do you believe our students need such an education — our would they be more likely to educate their teachers?

Lest you think this is a hoax, you can read all about this on UCSD’s web site. And you can also read all about the show itself on their web site.

I’ll just add this to the (long) list of reasons to worry about this country’s educational system. While our students study the finer points of the physics of tassle-twirling, other students will be studying mathematics, non-tassle-twirling physics, and perhaps even Steinbeck or Hemingway. That would be the students in those countries who will compete with us for economic leadership in the future. Who knows — maybe the U.S. can take over leadership in the sex industry? Come to think of it, that might be a significant economic sector!

Cartoons Revisited

A couple of weeks ago, I published the twelve controversial Danish cartoons that the Muslim world is still raging about. That post has received more comments than any other post I’ve ever made on this blog.

Some of the comments come from people who appear to be Muslims, such as this one from “Mohammed":

MR Dwayne, I am a Muslim, and i’m proud of my religion, by the way a fondamenta Muslim, by i am not willing to kill a ant not even a person is very similar to me, why should i kill, you have to understand that the meanning of ISLAM in english is PEACE, islam is for peace not for Killing, wake up and find out that the invisible enemy for mankind is everywhere, and they are making mass by the name of Islam, Killing people by the name of Islam, terrorizing by the name of Islam, making conflict between Christians and Muslims, by the name of Islam, they are killing our religion mentally not physically, physically they can’t do anything, if you are talking about physically, just have a look what happening nowadays in the world, do you want to know that who is that invisible enemy to the mankind???? do not just point your finger to the Muslims, we are not happy what happening to the world right now,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,That invisible enemy is afraid by our power now, they afraid by our knowledge, they are afraid by our media, they are afraid by our independence,,,,,,,,,, Shame on Israel=Invisible enemy of mankind

And others are clearly from non-Muslims, like this one from “Aerrys":

I’m completely sickened by this nonsense. I consider myself to be a fair minded liberal who believes in everyone’s right to believe as they see fit. I’m now in a position where I’m swaying toward the conservative side if only to preserve a way of life that allows for rational, lucid thought. We can no longer tolerate this idea of “one true religion” from any of you. You are all damaged and filled with vanity and pride. I’ve always said in passing “I don’t care what anyone believes in so long as they don’t use those beliefs to justify killing me” or “whatever you believe in that says you don’t get to kill me is fine by me”. But ALL of you who think they found the “one true religion/god that everyone should conform too” need to go burn in the hells of your own design. Your rights to live, inhabit the earth, govern your affairs, and secure happiness do not supersede mine or anyone else’s. You are not here to tell me what to believe. There is no god on your side that is against me. You are all corrupt. Join is in this century or perish.

Check out the whole collection — they make interesting, and sobering, reading.

And thanks to all my commenters…

A Valentine

Last night, a good friend emailed us a Valentine’s day “card” that included a slide show she knew we’d like. The pictures at right are some of my favorites…

Of course, as usual, click on the small picture for a bigger view…

New Jersey

For fellow New Jersey people and for those who make fun of it -check this out!!!!

If you’ve ever lived in Jersey…you’ll appreciate this!!! If you live somewhere else, you might find it interesting.

New Jersey is a peninsula.

Highlands, New Jersey has the highest elevation along the entire eastern seaboard, from Maine to Florida.

New Jersey is the only state where all of its counties are classified as metropolitan areas.

New Jersey has more race horses than Kentucky.

New Jersey has more Cubans in Union City (1 sq mi.) than Havana, Cuba.

New Jersey has the densest system of highways and railroads in the US.

New Jersey has the highest cost of living.

New Jersey has the highest cost of auto insurance.

New Jersey has the highest property taxes in the nation.

New Jersey has the most diners in the world and is sometimes referred to as the “Diner Capital of the World."

New Jersey is home to the original Mystery Pork Parts Club (no, not Spam): Taylor Ham or Pork Roll.

Home to the less mysterious but the best Italian hot dogs and Italian sausage w/peppers and onions.

North Jersey has the most shopping malls in one area in the world, with seven major ! shopping malls in a 25 square mile radius.

New Jersey is home to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

The Passaic River was the site of the first submarine ride by inventor John P. Holland.

The first Blimpies Sub Base (sandwich shops) was in Hoboken

New Jersey has 50+ resort cities & towns; some of the nation’s most famous: Asbury Park, Wildwood, Atlantic City, Seaside Heights, Long Branch, Cape May.

New Jersey has the most stringent testing along our coastline for water quality control than any other seaboard state in the entire country.

New Jersey is a leading technology & industrial state and is the largest chemical producing state in the nation when you include pharmaceuticals.

Jersey tomatoes are known the world over as being the best you can buy.

New Jersey is the world leader in blueberry and cranberry

production (and here you thought Massachusetts?)

Here’s to New Jersey - the toast of the country! In 1642, the first brewery in America, opened in Hoboken.

New Jersey rocks! The famous Les Paul invented the first solid body electric guitar in Mahwah, in 1940.

New Jersey is a major seaport state with the largest seaport in the US, located in Elizabeth. Nearly 80 percent of what our nation imports comes through Elizabeth Seaport first.

New Jersey is home to one of the nation’s busiest airports (in Newark), Liberty International.

George Washington slept here. Several important Revolutionary War battles were fought on New Jersey soil, led by General George Washington.

The light bulb, phonograph (record player), and motion picture projector, were invented by Thomas Edison in his Menlo Park, NJ, laboratory.

We also boast the first town ever lit by incandescent bulbs.

The first seaplane was built in Keyport, NJ.

The first airmail (to Chicago) was started from Keyport, NJ.

The first phonograph records were made in Camden, NJ.

The game Monopoly, played all over the world, named the streets on its playing board after the actual streets in Atlantic City.

And, Atlantic City has the longest boardwalk in the world,

Not to mention salt water taffy,

New Jersey has the largest petroleum containment area outside of the Middle East countries.

The first Indian reservation was in New Jersey, in the Watchung Mountains.

New Jersey has the tallest water-tower in the world. (Union, NJ!!!)

New Jersey had the first medical center, in Jersey City.

The Pulaski SkyWay, from Jersey City to Newark, was the first skyway highway.

NJ built the first tunnel under a river, the Hudson (Holland Tunnel).

The first baseball game was played in Hoboken, NJ, which is also the birthplace of Frank Sinatra.

The first intercollegiate football game was played in New Brunswick in 1889 (Rutgers College played Princeton). Rutgers won.

The first drive-in movie theater was opened in Camden, NJ, (but they’re all gone now!).

New Jersey is home to both of “NEW YORK’S” pro football teams!

The first radio station and broadcast was in Paterson, NJ. (WPAT)

The first FM radio broadcast was made from Alpine, NJ, by Maj. Thomas Armstrong. (The tower he built can be seen on the “Palisades” over looking the Hudson River)

All New Jersey natives: Sal Martorano, Jack Nicholson, Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Jason Alexander, Queen Latifah, Susan Sarandon, Connie Francis, Shaq, Judy Blume, Aaron Burr, Joan Robertson, Ken Kross, Dionne Warwick, Sarah Vaughn, Budd Abbott, Lou

Costello, Alan Ginsberg, Norman Mailer, Marilynn McCoo, Flip Wilson, Alexander Hamilton, Whitney Houston, Eddie Money, Linda McElroy, Eileen Donnelly, Grover Cleveland, Woodrow Wilson, Walt Whitman,

Jerry Lewis, Tom Cruise, Joyce Kilmer, Bruce Willis, Caesar Romero, Lauryn Hill, Ice-T, Nick Adams, Nathan Lane, Sandra Dee, Danny DeVito, Richard Conti, Joe Pesci, Joe Piscopo, Robert Blake, John Forsythe, Meryl Streep, Loretta Swit, Norman Lloyd, Paul Simon, Jerry

Herman, Gorden McCrae, Kevin Spacey, John Travolta, Phyllis Newman, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Eva Marie Saint, Elisabeth Shue, Zebulon Pike, James Fennimore Cooper, Admiral Wm.Halsey,Jr., Dave Thomas (Wendy’s), William Carlos Williams, Ray Liotta, Robert Wuhl, Bob Reyers, Paul Robeson, Ernie Kovacs, Joseph Macchia, “Uncle Floyd,” Kelly Ripa, and, of course, Francis Albert Sinatra.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You know you’re from Jersey when . You don’t think of fruit when people mention “The Oranges."

You know that it’s called Great Adventure, not Six Flags.

A good, quick breakfast is a hard roll with butter.

You’ve known the way to Seaside Heights since you were seven.

You’ve eaten at a diner, when you were stoned, or drunk, at 3 A.M.

You know that the state isn’t one big oil refinery.

At least three people in your family still love Bruce Springsteen, and you know the town Jon Bon Jovi is from.

You know what a “jug handle” is.

You know that WaWa is a convenience store.

You know that the state isn’t all farmland.

You know that there are no “beaches” in New Jersey — there’s the shore — and you don’t go “to the shore,” you go “down the shore.” And when you are there, you’re not “at the shore"; you are “down the shore."

You know how to properly negotiate a circle.

You know that this is the only “New” state that doesn’t require “New” to identify it (try . . . Mexico . . York Hampshire — doesn’t work, does it?).

You know that a “White Castle” is the name of BOTH a fast food chain AND a fast food sandwich.

You consider putting mayo on a corned beef sandwich a sacrilege

You don’t think “What exit?” is very funny.

You know that people from the 609 area code are “a little different."

Yes they are!

You know that no respectable New Jerseyan goes to Princeton — that’s for out-of-staters.

The Jets-Giants game has started fights at your school or localbar.

You live within 20 minutes of at least three different malls.

You refer to all highways and interstates by their numbers.

Every year you have at least one kid in your class named Tony.

You know the location of every clip shown in the Sopranos opening

credits.

You’ve gotten on the wrong highway trying to get out of the mall.

You know that people from North Jersey go to Seaside Heights, and people from Central Jersey go to Belmar, and people from South Jersey go to Wildwood. It can be no other way. (The Schimmenti’s go to Long Beach Island)

You weren’t raised in New Jersey — you were raised in either North Jersey, Central Jersey or South Jersey.

You don’t consider Newark or Camden to actually be part of the state.

You remember the stores Korvette’s, Two Guys, Rickel’s, Channel,

Bamberger’s and Orbach’s.

You also remember Palisades Amusement Park.

You’ve had a boardwalk cheese steak and vinegar fries.

You start planning for Memorial Day weekend in February.

And finally You’ve NEVER, NEVER pumped your own gas.

Political Ponder

One of my readers emailed me yesterday, taking me to task for contributing to the general level of political hostility and polarization by my repeated use of the word “liberal", usually in a derogatory fashion, or even as a kind of cuss word. I replied that for a certain category of liberal — personified by the likes of Teddy Kennedy, Tom Daschle, Harry Reid, etc. — his description was exactly how I felt, and in those cases for me the word “liberal” really is a cuss word. I further said that I had no interest in a debate with the likes of them — my interest lies in stamping them out.

But my reader got me to thinking about exactly why I make this distinction between individual politicians. I can fit any of the politicians I know much about into a strict dichotomy: those with whom I think it’s useful (and it would be fun!) to have a debate, and those with whom I think all debate is useless and we should instead concentrate on getting them out of office. Note the absence of a category for politicians with whom no debate is needed — there’s no politician I know who is in complete agreement with my own views, including politicians I admire (President Bush, Rudy Guiliani, Zell Miller, Newt Gingrich, etc.).

In thinking about how I categorize politicians into one of these two buckets, I can identify two key factors.

One of them is easy to describe: it’s whether the politician is motivated more by ideology than by personal gain or power. Everybody is motivated to some extent by what benefits themselves, and I have no quarrel whatsoever with that. But my read of some politicians (i.e., McCain, Daschle, Teddy Kennedy, Kerry, DeLay, Pelosi) is that they are completely willing to set aside whatever ideological beliefs they have (if they even have any — I wonder about a lot of these folks) to further their drive for power or other personal gain. That’s another way of saying they put their personal interests ahead of the nation’s interests — which I call unpatriotic. Yes, that’s right, I’m calling every one of these people unpatriotic.

The other factor is a little squishier. It has to do with the basis for someone’s ideology, or perhaps the seriousness of their ideology. Some politicians can readily articulate why they believe what they believe, using facts that can be independently verified or arguments with supporting logic. Examples of these folks would include Ronald Reagan, Harry Truman, Newt Gingrich, Zell Miller, and President Bush. Some politicians can also be characterized as have a constancy of position, or at least of the reasons they choose positions. In other words, observers can look at the history of their actions and see a coherent theme. These are politicians I can respect, and whom I welcome into our political arena, even if their ideology doesn’t happen to agree with my own. I enjoy a political debate with these folks or their like-minded supporters. The flip side of this is are the politicians for whom ideology is an article of faith (by which I mean unsupported by facts or logic, just something you have to believe in), a matter of political convenience, or even completely absent (in which case factor one completely dominates their behavior).

Of course neither of these factors is completely black-and-white; there are many colors to all of this. But one can (and I do!) make a judgment about any individual politician on these factors. When I judge a politician to be (a) motivated mostly by aspirations to personal power and/or personal gain, and (b) taking actions based on an unarticulated, unsupported, or absent ideology, then I put that politican in the category of those with whom all debate is fruitless, and all we can do is to get them out of office before they hurt us too badly.

Back to my reader’s email (and my reply)… I told my reader that I considered politicians in the aforementioned category to be the second most consequential threat to the future of America (right after radical Islamic fundamentalism). For whatever reasons (there’s a lot of debate to be had on that point!), most — but certainly not all — of the politicians that fall into this dangerous category are self-identified liberal Democrats. So it’s easy to fall into the habit of using “liberal” as the cuss word to associate this enemy (and that is most definitely how I think of them). This is quite unfair, I freely admit, to those liberals who are not in this category (e.g., Lieberman, Miller, etc.) — and it unfairly excludes those non-liberals who are in this category (e.g., McCain, DeLay, etc.). I’d welcome any suggestions for a better, more descriptive label to apply to them.

But at least now you know what’s going through my mind you hear (or read) me say “liberal” with a sneer and some spittle…

Cheney's Coverup

My apologies to the Wall Street Journal, from whose pages I lifted this gem. With this piece of satire they have captured my feelings about the Cheney shooting incident perfectly. Somehow I suspect they will forgive my copyright transgression…

Cheney’s Coverup

The press corps is outraged that the White House waited 20 hours or so to disclose that Vice President Dick Cheney had shot a hunting companion, and we can see why. Don’t these Bush people understand that the coverup is worse than the crime?

In the name of media solidarity, and in the interest of restraining the Imperial Presidency, we have put together the following coverup timeline with crucial questions that deserve to be answered:

• 5:30 p.m., Saturday (all times Central Standard Time). Mr. Cheney sprays Harry Whittington with birdshot, and the Secret Service immediately informs local police. Who is Harry Whittington and whom does he lobby for? Does he know Scooter Libby?

• 6:30 p.m. White House Chief of Staff Andy Card informs President Bush that there’s been a hunting accident involving the Vice President’s party. Did Mr. Bush ask followup questions? Was he intellectually curious?

• 7 p.m. Karl Rove tells Mr. Bush that it is Mr. Cheney who did the shooting. Why was this detail withheld for a full 30 minutes from the President? Who else did Mr. Rove talk to about this in the interim? Was Valerie Plame ever mentioned?

• 5 a.m., Sunday. White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan learns that Mr. Cheney is the shooter. He also fails to alert the media. Did he rush to write talking points or fall back to sleep?

• 11 a.m. Katharine Armstrong, owner of the ranch where the shooting took place, blows the story sky-high by giving the news to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. According to Ms. Armstrong, Mr. Cheney told her to do what she thought made sense. Has Ms. Armstrong ever worked for Halliburton?

• 11:27 a.m., Monday. Mr. McClellan finally holds a press conference and gets grilled. One reporter actually asks (and we’re not making this one up), “Would this be much more serious if the man had died?"

• 1:30 p.m. The Texas paper posts the story on its Web site, after calling the Veep’s office for confirmation. Everyone involved confirms more or less everything, or so the official line goes. Their agreement is very suspicious.

For the record, Mr. McClellan replied, “Of course it would.” We hope the 78-year-old Mr. Whittington recovers promptly after his heart attack yesterday. As for the Beltway press corps, it has once again earned the esteem in which it is held by the American public.

You just gotta love that closing line!

Hamas

As you most likely know, in the recent Palestinian elections the Islamic Resistance Movement — more commonly known as “Hamas” — won a resounding victory. They now hold a majority of the seats in the Palestinian Authority Legislative Council, effectively giving them control of the government. The folks at MEMRI (an absolutely essential resource on the Middle East) have translated the covenant of Hamas into English — the document that defines their beliefs, strategies, and policies. It is a chilling document, which I’ve reproduced a sample of below. But you really should go read the whole thing, to gain a appreciation of what we’re up against with radical Islamic fundamentalists…

From MEMRI’s English translation of the Covenant of Hamas:

Peaceful Solutions, Initiatives and International Conferences

Article Thirteen

The initiatives, the so-called peace solutions, and the international conferences for resolving the Palestinian problem stand in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement, for to neglect any part of Palestine is to neglect part of the Islamic faith. The nationalism of the Islamic Resistance Movement is part of its [Islamic] faith. It is in the light of this principle that its members are educated, and they wage jihad in order to raise the banner of Allah over the homeland.

"And Allah has full control over His affairs; but most people do not know.” (Koran, 12:21)

From time to time there are calls to hold an international conference in order to seek a solution for the [Palestinian] problem. Some accept this [proposal] and some reject it, for one reason or another, demanding the fulfillment of some condition or conditions before they agree to hold the conference and participate in it. However, the Islamic Resistance Movement - since it is familiar with the parties participating in the conference and with their past and current positions on the issues of the Muslims - does not believe that these conferences can meet the demands or restore the rights [of the Palestinians], or bring equity to the oppressed. These conferences are nothing but a way to give the infidels power of arbitration over Muslim land, and when have the infidels ever been equitable towards the believers?

"The Jews will never be content with you, nor will the Christians, until you follow their religion. Say: 'The guidance of Allah is the right guidance.' But if you follow their desires after the knowledge which has come to you, then you shall have no protector or guardian from Allah.” (Koran, 2:120)

There is no solution to the Palestinian problem except by jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are a waste of time and a farce. The Palestinian people is far too eminent to have its future, its rights and its destiny toyed with. As stated in the Hadith: “The people of Al-Sha’m are [Allah’s] rod in His land. Through them, He wreaks vengeance on whomever He wishes among His servants. The hypocrites among them are not allowed to be superior to the believers among them, and they shall die in grief and distress.” (Recorded by Al-Tabarani with a chain of transmitters to Muhammad, and by Ahmad [Ibn Hanbal] with an incomplete chain of transmitters to Muhammad which may be the accurate record, the transmitters in both cases being trustworthy - Allah alone is omniscient).

In other words, Hamas' official position is that all this talk of peace initiatives, reconciliation, and co-existence is just a bunch of Jewish/Christian crap — the only answer is jihad, until the infidels are all gone or dead.

(from Webster’s)

Jihad \Ji*had"\, Jehad \Je*had"\, n. [Ar. jih[=a]d.] (Moham.)

A religious war against infidels or Mohammedan heretics; also, any bitter war or crusade for a principle or belief.

Their courage in war … had not, like that of the Mohammedan dervishes of the Sudan, or of Mohammedans anywhere engaged in a jehad, a religious motive and the promise of future bliss behind it. — James Bryce