07/03/2008

Dear Leona Helmsley

Ruff Ruff.

06/28/2008

Sandbags

I've been wondering, in light of all the recent flooding, whey they don't build levees out of sandbags? The earthen levees eventually get soaked and fail. What if they used kevlar sandbags to build the levee's structure and then covered it with dirt to begin with?

Race and the Presidential Election

Check out this well balanced reprimand from NPR's Scott Simon

06/22/2008

Handwringing About the State of the US

A new AP article bears the title, "Everything seemingly is spinning out of control" (link). The article brings to mind several things:

1. Not everyone agrees on what the "right track" should look like. Thus, right-track/wrong-track poll numbers about the US are hard to interpret.

2. Everyone does not agree on the identification of something as a problem.

3. Even with almost universally diagnosed "problems", the causes, and thus the solutions, are not a matter of universal agreement.

Handwringing is an unproductive use of time, obviously. But are there major problems now that are unprecedented in some way? What are the biggest problems facing the US right now? What solutions are promising? What cures are worse than the disease? And don't say that the biggest problem facing America is "myself" - that's pious and self-deprecating, but even noble activists and groups of activists can fail at being part of any given solution.

06/20/2008

The Trucker of Sorrows



We saw this truck on our recent trip down South. I wonder - is this guy just generally asking for forgiveness, or did he shoot a man in Reno just to watch him die?

06/18/2008

Graffiti from 1913 Has Serifs



(As seen at Dismals Canyon in North Alabama)

06/16/2008

Legal / Ethical Exercise

Well, in honor of California's first day of legal same-sex marriages, I thought it might be an interesting legal/philosophical exercise to give you guys a discussion question. Is it possible to construct an argument, under United States constitutional principles, that same-sex marriage should be allowed but that polygamy should not? If so, try your argument out here. My suspicion is that it is going to be very difficult, if not impossible, to do this.

Another wrinkle - what legal argument could you adduce against same-sex marriage between, say, first cousins? Because no offspring could result from the marriage, it would be impossible to argue against this kind of incest on biological grounds, right?

OK, go to it.

06/13/2008

I live with Amelia Bedelia

So, Ann told #1 to "match the socks together" as a chore one day. And you know what? #1 matched those socks. In fact, all eight identical ones ended up together:

A Worthy Charity

I just received a letter from Palmer Home for Children that the bad economy has really hurt their finances. Palmer Home is an orphanage and the children are divided into cottages that resemble normal homes with a hallway attached that has numerous bedrooms branching off. That way, each child lives with a family that takes care of the particular cottage. The fundraising letter mentioned needing to actually consolidate cottages because the donations were so scant. If you have any spare money to donate, the Palmer Home accepts online donations.

James 1:27 - "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction..."

06/12/2008

Vaccines and Autism

Young HA, Geier DA, Geier MR. "Thimerosal exposure in infants and
neurodevelopmental disorders: An assessment of computerized medical records in the Vaccine Safety Datalink". J Neurol Sci. 2008 May 1 4. Article PDF

06/11/2008

Some New Internet Acronyms

1. ROTFLAHLBOI
2. ROTFWAS
3. RIM5.0GTRTDSMHCB
4. ROTFWABCOH5N1
5. ROTFBTEIATF
6. ROTFBIDIAR

06/07/2008

Barlow Does "More" by The Sundays



(oy, four takes to get it right... voice hoarse by the end...)

Popping Corn with Cellphones

06/04/2008

Overblown Rhetoric

"We will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth."

From Obama last night. Oh boy, this is going to be a trying decade.

06/03/2008

Sewing Machine Question

Have any of you, dear readers, been successful transferring .jef files from a Macintosh computer to a USB drive and then into the Janome 350E? Let me know if you have; a friend of mine is having trouble getting it to work properly.