Saturday, December 31, 2005
Hard Sayings: The Verdict is In
Hard Sayings: The Verdict is In Anthony Tardiff reviews the Narnia movie (with side commentary on The Lord of the Rings).
Dreaming of Hanoi: Vietnam is Booming
Blogger Preya has an eyewitness account of how much Hanoi, Vietnam, has changed in the last decade or so.
A Circle of Quiet: Late Night Musings
A Circle of Quiet: Late Night Musings New Year's reflections, from "Circle of Quiet.
neo-neocon: Top 10 things New Yorkers can do to stay sane in '06
neo-neocon: Top 10 things New Yorkers can do to stay sane in '06 Some good advice, even for non New Yorkers. Includes///(5) Don't try to protect your children from all hurt. It won't help them, and it's impossible, anyway. But don't you be the one to dole out the hurt unnecessarily. There's plenty that will come naturally; your task is to help them get through it.(6) If you've sustained a loss, remember that grieving doesn't have a time frame. In fact, it can take many years, or even a lifetime. Loss changes you, and there's no going back, so don't expect to.(7) Visit flyover country at least once. Maybe Kansas City, for some BBQ?(8) Remember the words of Winston Churchill--almost any words of Churchill will do--but how about these, for starters: "Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm."
David's Daily Diversions
David's Daily Diversions Dissent Will Not Be Tolerated, re UK police being called, and subsequently warning, people who haven't committed a crime, but merely stated their opinion on something.
Medpundit
Medpundit A Christmas Card from Iraq / Letter to the editor from U.S. Air Force Maj. Jim RippleSpecial OperationsOperation Iraqi Freedom. See original, uncut at http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/editorial/13479660.htm.
hat tip:http://www.echo9er.net/blog/?p=602, which I found by following the link at http://arosebyname.blogspot.com/2005/12/echo9ers-daily-twain.html and browsing.
hat tip:http://www.echo9er.net/blog/?p=602, which I found by following the link at http://arosebyname.blogspot.com/2005/12/echo9ers-daily-twain.html and browsing.
Expat Yank: One American living in the south of England
Expat Yank: One American living in the south of England re the more covert aspects of the war against terrorists.
Dances with Kiwis: First Post!
Dances with Kiwis: First Post! New blog alert. Paddy and Yvonne, in their About Us description, say, "We have left our safe and secure jobs in the UK to work in New Zealand. We are having our first baby in February. It really sounded like a good idea..."
Started the blog December 16. So far, so good.
Started the blog December 16. So far, so good.
Friday, December 30, 2005
The Chief Brief: Fake But Accurate
The Chief Brief: Fake But Accurate Post on Ted Kennedy and UMass, which includes link to "Rethinking Marxism" conference information. Direct link at http://www.rethinkingmarxism2006.org/index.html.
The Chief Brief: Iraq's Future, Our Past
The Chief Brief: Iraq's Future, Our Past excerpt from WSJ opinion piece by several East European ambassadors.
Thursday, December 29, 2005
Fimble Fowl: Chai and Chekhov
Fimble Fowl: Chai and Chekhov
reading Ivanov by Anton Chekhov, and turning things over in her mind afterward...
reading Ivanov by Anton Chekhov, and turning things over in her mind afterward...
Focus on the Family Challenges Christians on Abortion in the Church
Focus on the Family Challenges Christians on Abortion in the Church
start quote/
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Dec. 29 /Christian Wire Service/ -- As churches prepare to celebrate Sanctity of Human Life Week, January 15-22, 2006, Focus on the Family has challenged clergy members to consider recent statistics on abortion in the church when addressing their congregations. A survey by The Alan Guttmacher Institute conducted among women who had abortions found that one in five self-identified themselves as Evangelical Christian.
Kim Conroy, Sanctity of Human Life Director for Focus on the Family believes that it's time for churches to be proactive on this issue. "Every post-abortive woman sitting in our churches needs to know that there is help and forgiveness available—and it's our hope during this Sanctity Week that pastors and other clergy will extend that to her."
Conroy added that while abortion is always a tough topic to discuss, especially when considering the emotions of someone who has experienced it firsthand, it is vital that churches prioritize talking about this growing problem. "Justice, mercy and compassion must be at the forefront of the conversation if we truly desire to extend healing to the women in our churches affected by abortion—both those who've already experienced it and those who are right now contemplating it," Conroy said.
start quote/
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Dec. 29 /Christian Wire Service/ -- As churches prepare to celebrate Sanctity of Human Life Week, January 15-22, 2006, Focus on the Family has challenged clergy members to consider recent statistics on abortion in the church when addressing their congregations. A survey by The Alan Guttmacher Institute conducted among women who had abortions found that one in five self-identified themselves as Evangelical Christian.
Kim Conroy, Sanctity of Human Life Director for Focus on the Family believes that it's time for churches to be proactive on this issue. "Every post-abortive woman sitting in our churches needs to know that there is help and forgiveness available—and it's our hope during this Sanctity Week that pastors and other clergy will extend that to her."
Conroy added that while abortion is always a tough topic to discuss, especially when considering the emotions of someone who has experienced it firsthand, it is vital that churches prioritize talking about this growing problem. "Justice, mercy and compassion must be at the forefront of the conversation if we truly desire to extend healing to the women in our churches affected by abortion—both those who've already experienced it and those who are right now contemplating it," Conroy said.
OpinionJournal - Cross Country
OpinionJournal - Cross Country
//start quote//
Death of a Sawmill Environmentalists wreck small businesses--and do ecological damage while they're at it.
BY JIM PETERSEN Thursday, December 29, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST
EUREKA, Mont.--My friend Jim Hurst auctioned his sawmill in August.
Jim's decision to pack it in after 25 years of beating his head on the wall made big news here in northwest Montana but, alas, not a peep from this newspaper or the New York Times. That's too bad, because the loss of our family-owned mills also signals the loss of technologies and skills vital to our efforts to protect the West's great national forests from the ravages of increasingly fearsome wildfires.
I was in Jim's office a few days before the auction. He told me he was at peace with his decision, but Jim has a good game face, so I suspect the decision to terminate his remaining 70 employees tore his guts out. They were like family to him....
//start quote//
Death of a Sawmill Environmentalists wreck small businesses--and do ecological damage while they're at it.
BY JIM PETERSEN Thursday, December 29, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST
EUREKA, Mont.--My friend Jim Hurst auctioned his sawmill in August.
Jim's decision to pack it in after 25 years of beating his head on the wall made big news here in northwest Montana but, alas, not a peep from this newspaper or the New York Times. That's too bad, because the loss of our family-owned mills also signals the loss of technologies and skills vital to our efforts to protect the West's great national forests from the ravages of increasingly fearsome wildfires.
I was in Jim's office a few days before the auction. He told me he was at peace with his decision, but Jim has a good game face, so I suspect the decision to terminate his remaining 70 employees tore his guts out. They were like family to him....
RedState.org/ What Roe Really means
|| RedState.org Built around that New York Magazine article about the Haven Coalition, which provides free overnight home stays for women and girls getting late term abortions.
2blowhards.com: "Time" Marches On ... Into the Ditch?
Donald Pittenger compares Time magazine's Man/Person of the Year selections decade by decade, scoring each decade.
Liberated women - Comment - Times Online
start quote//
Liberated women
The law that unleashed a social revolution
Long before the Sex Discrimination Act was passed, 30 years ago today, those who fought for it were already fond of noting that if men had babies most of its provisions would be unnecessary. Men still cannot give birth, but real life has proved a worthy substitute for biological fantasy...
Liberated women
The law that unleashed a social revolution
Long before the Sex Discrimination Act was passed, 30 years ago today, those who fought for it were already fond of noting that if men had babies most of its provisions would be unnecessary. Men still cannot give birth, but real life has proved a worthy substitute for biological fantasy...
How feminism began with shopping in the 17th century - Times 2 - Times Online
December 22, 2005///
start quote///
How feminism began — with shopping in the 17th century
Viewpoint by Celia Brayfield
In Stuart England women finally got hold of the purse strings, and they've been loath to let go of them ever since
Shopping is bad for women. It must be true, all the feminists say so. In fact, it’s the one thing they’ve always agreed on. In the first wave of women’s liberation, Germaine Greer and her sisters defined consumerism as just another face of patriarchal oppression, a way of tricking the powerless housewife into servicing the capitalist machine.
There followed a brief backlash,...
start quote///
How feminism began — with shopping in the 17th century
Viewpoint by Celia Brayfield
In Stuart England women finally got hold of the purse strings, and they've been loath to let go of them ever since
Shopping is bad for women. It must be true, all the feminists say so. In fact, it’s the one thing they’ve always agreed on. In the first wave of women’s liberation, Germaine Greer and her sisters defined consumerism as just another face of patriarchal oppression, a way of tricking the powerless housewife into servicing the capitalist machine.
There followed a brief backlash,...
Comment: Brenda Power: Sisters, home-makers aren't traitors - Sunday Times - Times Online
November 27, 2005
start quote///
...The feminist movement is waning because we are too busy waxing our legs, our hardwood floors, our top lips and our silly pink Smart cars. Our pursuit of professional fulfilment has been abandoned in favour of a bubble-headed concept of femininity.
At least, that is what a growing number of feminist commentators would have us believe. Heading the campaign to get us back on message are two Irish women: former president Mary Robinson and Maureen Dowd, the New York Times columnist and daughter of west of Ireland emigrants.
In a polemic entitled Are Men Necessary?, Dowd complains that modern females are squandering the achievements of the women’s movement by carrying on like flibbertigibbets, obsessing about Botox and designer shoes and texting their boyfriends.
Last week Robinson took up the theme, arguing that well-educated women who stay home to look after their children are “copping out”. The most alarming aspect of this trend, according to Ireland’s high priestess of feminism, is not that women are being forced to become home-makers, but that they are choosing to do so....
start quote///
...The feminist movement is waning because we are too busy waxing our legs, our hardwood floors, our top lips and our silly pink Smart cars. Our pursuit of professional fulfilment has been abandoned in favour of a bubble-headed concept of femininity.
At least, that is what a growing number of feminist commentators would have us believe. Heading the campaign to get us back on message are two Irish women: former president Mary Robinson and Maureen Dowd, the New York Times columnist and daughter of west of Ireland emigrants.
In a polemic entitled Are Men Necessary?, Dowd complains that modern females are squandering the achievements of the women’s movement by carrying on like flibbertigibbets, obsessing about Botox and designer shoes and texting their boyfriends.
Last week Robinson took up the theme, arguing that well-educated women who stay home to look after their children are “copping out”. The most alarming aspect of this trend, according to Ireland’s high priestess of feminism, is not that women are being forced to become home-makers, but that they are choosing to do so....
Pretending that women aren't grown-ups - Sunday Times - Times Online
Janey Daley, November 27, 2005, start quate///
Do women want to be treated like grown-ups or don’t they? After 40-odd years of modern feminism the question remains unresolved: are women the equals of men as adults who can take responsibility for their own actions? Or are they vulnerable creatures who need unique protection and special allowances made for them? ...
Do women want to be treated like grown-ups or don’t they? After 40-odd years of modern feminism the question remains unresolved: are women the equals of men as adults who can take responsibility for their own actions? Or are they vulnerable creatures who need unique protection and special allowances made for them? ...
Women feminism forgot - Comment - Times Online
Women feminism forgot - Comment - Times Online by India Knight, November 20, 2005
Having it all gives way to girdle girls - Sunday Times - Times Online
Having it all gives way to girdle girls
Equality is faltering as women opt for the constricted life of a 1950s housewife, writes Maureen Dowd
November 13, 2005
Equality is faltering as women opt for the constricted life of a 1950s housewife, writes Maureen Dowd
November 13, 2005
Times Online - Entertainment
Times Online - Entertainment A hard woman is good to find
Hollywood sells sex in feminist clothing - and leather boots - but Kevin Maher isn't buying it
//Oct. 6, 2005
Hollywood sells sex in feminist clothing - and leather boots - but Kevin Maher isn't buying it
//Oct. 6, 2005
Who knows what women want? - Entertainment - Times Online
Who knows what women want? - Entertainment - Times Online by Joe Joseph
//start quote///IT IS sometimes perplexing for men to watch programmes such as Big Ideas That Changed the World (Five) and to hear Germaine Greer still talking about how women need to become not just equal to men (“a profoundly conservative aim,” Greer reckons), but to achieve liberation. It’s perplexing because although she quotes Aristotle (“the male is by nature superior, and the female inferior”) and assures us that “feminism has hardly begun ”, as far as many men can see women have pretty much had the upper hand throughout history. When someone told Churchill that by the year 2100 women would rule the world, he replied, “Still?”....
//start quote///IT IS sometimes perplexing for men to watch programmes such as Big Ideas That Changed the World (Five) and to hear Germaine Greer still talking about how women need to become not just equal to men (“a profoundly conservative aim,” Greer reckons), but to achieve liberation. It’s perplexing because although she quotes Aristotle (“the male is by nature superior, and the female inferior”) and assures us that “feminism has hardly begun ”, as far as many men can see women have pretty much had the upper hand throughout history. When someone told Churchill that by the year 2100 women would rule the world, he replied, “Still?”....
Letters to the Editor The Times Sunday Times Times Online
Letters to the Editor The Times Sunday Times Times Online
Feminism and the 'eternal feminine'
From Dr Alistair J. Sinclair
/April 19, 2005/
Feminism and the 'eternal feminine'
From Dr Alistair J. Sinclair
/April 19, 2005/
The Times Online guest contributors Opinion
The Times Online guest contributors Opinion
"We've gone from being Amazons to can't cope, won't cope wusses"
by Carol Sarler.
"We've gone from being Amazons to can't cope, won't cope wusses"
by Carol Sarler.
Indoor Environment Notebook:Salvaging moldy books
Indoor Environment Notebook:Salvaging moldy books Yet another way to attack moldy books, and a warning about the improper use of air conditioning systems in the Midwest. start quote///
...The problem results from the improper operation of air-conditioning systems. The mostly-empty building is cooled to below 75oF, and then the system is shut down when administrators go home at the end of the day. Then warm, moist air enters the building passively and comes into contact with relatively cool surfaces. This can result in very high relative humidity, condensation, and even puddling. It produces optimum conditions for mold growth.
Mold especially loves to grow on much-handled books. It loves “hand grease” as one can see from the pattern of mold growth on infested books. Penicillium and/or Aspergillus are the dominant mold types present...
[snip]
All infested surfaces should be vacuumed with a HEPA vacuum. Follow this up by wet wiping all infested surfaces with isopropyl alcohol or 70% ethanol. Ventilate the room with outside air by opening windows (if openable windows are present) to minimize the buildup of vapors....
...The problem results from the improper operation of air-conditioning systems. The mostly-empty building is cooled to below 75oF, and then the system is shut down when administrators go home at the end of the day. Then warm, moist air enters the building passively and comes into contact with relatively cool surfaces. This can result in very high relative humidity, condensation, and even puddling. It produces optimum conditions for mold growth.
Mold especially loves to grow on much-handled books. It loves “hand grease” as one can see from the pattern of mold growth on infested books. Penicillium and/or Aspergillus are the dominant mold types present...
[snip]
All infested surfaces should be vacuumed with a HEPA vacuum. Follow this up by wet wiping all infested surfaces with isopropyl alcohol or 70% ethanol. Ventilate the room with outside air by opening windows (if openable windows are present) to minimize the buildup of vapors....
Indoor Environment Notebook: archives
Ball State Univerity site run by Thad Godish, Ph.D., answering questions on indoor air pollution, mold, more.
Indoor Environment Notebook:
Indoor Environment Notebook: re: Do houseplants improve the quality of indoor air? Thad Godish, Ph.D., cites Dr. B.C. Wolverton's research only to dispute it, claiming that botanical air cleaning may work under laboratory conditions, but in the real world the effect is minor. He does, however, praise Wolverton's work in using plants for wastewater treatment.
My take is that even if the effects are minor, that's no reason to not use them how you can, as long as you don't go overboard and raise the humidity beyond healthy levels and start growing mold. But then, I like houseplants in and of themselves...
My take is that even if the effects are minor, that's no reason to not use them how you can, as long as you don't go overboard and raise the humidity beyond healthy levels and start growing mold. But then, I like houseplants in and of themselves...
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Betsy's Page
Betsy's Page The battle of Trenton anniversary, David McCullough, David Hackett Fischer's book Washington's Crossing, Fischer's other books...
Cops seek "Indiana Jones"
Malaysian authorities don't agree with American Philip Greco about what constitutes "household goods." When they opened some freight containers of his headed for Dubai, they found swords, drums, antique weapons, and other things they didn't think he should be shipping out of the country.
Reading the top part of this article by Wani Muthiah in The Star (of Malaysia), one might think that Mr. Greco is only being sought to "help solve a case related to those artefacts" or that he is merely needed "to help local authorities authenticate some items."
Reading down -- and getting past the reassurances that the authorities are only interested in the "heritage items" found in the siezed containers -- one finds that Greco is "wanted by the Customs Department for false declaration and by the police for possession of serviceable firearms."
Greco is said to be a permanent resident of Malaysia under something called the "Malaysia My Second Home programme."
Perhaps he should consider becoming an ex-resident?
Just a thought.
Reading the top part of this article by Wani Muthiah in The Star (of Malaysia), one might think that Mr. Greco is only being sought to "help solve a case related to those artefacts" or that he is merely needed "to help local authorities authenticate some items."
Reading down -- and getting past the reassurances that the authorities are only interested in the "heritage items" found in the siezed containers -- one finds that Greco is "wanted by the Customs Department for false declaration and by the police for possession of serviceable firearms."
Greco is said to be a permanent resident of Malaysia under something called the "Malaysia My Second Home programme."
Perhaps he should consider becoming an ex-resident?
Just a thought.
Terri, We Will Never Forget You: Feeding tube bill filed for 2006 (Terri Schiavo)
Terri, We Will Never Forget You: Feeding tube bill filed for 2006 (Terri Schiavo) Georgia may move to protect the disabled.
Wittingshire: What Might Have Been
Wittingshire: What Might Have Been About a rumor about someone dying, who hadn't - and how easily it might have been true. With a poem by Emily Dickinson, which begins /
The distance that the dead have gone
Does not at first appear;
Their coming back seems possible
For many an ardent year.
The distance that the dead have gone
Does not at first appear;
Their coming back seems possible
For many an ardent year.
Wittingshire: Learning by Heart
Wittingshire: Learning by HeartAbout the difference between committing to memory, and using automatic retrieval, using an excerpt from George Steiner's Real Presences.
Interesting point. What we learn by heart "constitutes the ballast of the self."
Interesting point. What we learn by heart "constitutes the ballast of the self."
"He Wrote His Way to Freedom"
OpinionJournal - Leisure & Arts Tom Nolan reports on how Cuban novelist Jose Latour made it out of Cuba.
NWCN.com | News for NW Cable News | NWCN Top Stories
New law would require passports at Canadian border.
Captain's Quarters
Captain's Quarters Poland Stands By The Coalition // Poland will maintain forces in Iraq throughout 2006, as requested by the new Iraqi government.
Considerettes
Considerettes On Morgan Freeman thinking Black History Month is ridiculous, and asking people to stop using the "white" and "black" labels.
I'd like to second that.
I'd like to second that.
Stones Cry Out: Welcome to Self-Government, Iraq
Stones Cry Out: Welcome to Self-Government, Iraq
by Doug, on December 9/
start quote///
However, what's really the point is that it will be Iraqis deciding on how they want to be governed. This is, after all, self government, something they've not had in Iraq for a good long time. And no matter how it turns out, that's a win for them.
Will it be full of halting progress and missteps? Undoubtedly. This is all new to them, and the idea of governing by force is still too ingrained to be removed at the drop of a hat. We'll still hear of police overstepping their boundaries. But they are at least on the road, taking the journey, and not under the thumb of a ruling minority that would kill you if you looked at them sideways.
Will there be arguing and bad-mouthing and legislative logjams? Yup, just like here. That's part of being a representative democracy. Don't forget, this country was started because of an argument....
by Doug, on December 9/
start quote///
However, what's really the point is that it will be Iraqis deciding on how they want to be governed. This is, after all, self government, something they've not had in Iraq for a good long time. And no matter how it turns out, that's a win for them.
Will it be full of halting progress and missteps? Undoubtedly. This is all new to them, and the idea of governing by force is still too ingrained to be removed at the drop of a hat. We'll still hear of police overstepping their boundaries. But they are at least on the road, taking the journey, and not under the thumb of a ruling minority that would kill you if you looked at them sideways.
Will there be arguing and bad-mouthing and legislative logjams? Yup, just like here. That's part of being a representative democracy. Don't forget, this country was started because of an argument....
ABC News: Texas Wildfires Blamed in 4 Deaths
Texas having worst drought in decades, bad grass fires. Oklahoma also suffering.
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Homeless for Over a Century, a Tribe Awaits U.S. Redemption - New York Times
Montana -- in brief, Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians wants federal recognition and money.
start quote/
...The recognition process was created by the government in 1978 to make reparations to tribes that had been forced to move from place to place throughout American history. There are now 562 federally recognized tribes in the United States.
Roughly 220 others have expressed interest in recognition, but such efforts are often strongly opposed. Some of that opposition comes from tribes, already recognized, that are eager to protect their vast casino gambling income, and from states that do not want recognized tribes within their borders, because a bid for recognition is occasionally a ploy of relatively few Indians with dubious historical ties simply to open a new casino....
[snip]
The Little Shell band is not claiming land. But with $3.5 million held in trust for it by the federal government until recognition is achieved, it would buy 200 acres of farmland here in Cascade County, where most tribal members live, and build a headquarters, a clinic and housing.
In November, Cascade County commissioners passed a resolution calling for the county to be the home base of the tribe, even though that would mean the removal of 200 acres from the tax base.
"We support them moving forward with official recognition," said Commissioner Lance Olson. "But if they aren't going to recognize them, they should tell them."
Federal recognition would also allow the Little Shell to apply for minority contracts and to have a government-to-government relationship with Washington.
start quote/
...The recognition process was created by the government in 1978 to make reparations to tribes that had been forced to move from place to place throughout American history. There are now 562 federally recognized tribes in the United States.
Roughly 220 others have expressed interest in recognition, but such efforts are often strongly opposed. Some of that opposition comes from tribes, already recognized, that are eager to protect their vast casino gambling income, and from states that do not want recognized tribes within their borders, because a bid for recognition is occasionally a ploy of relatively few Indians with dubious historical ties simply to open a new casino....
[snip]
The Little Shell band is not claiming land. But with $3.5 million held in trust for it by the federal government until recognition is achieved, it would buy 200 acres of farmland here in Cascade County, where most tribal members live, and build a headquarters, a clinic and housing.
In November, Cascade County commissioners passed a resolution calling for the county to be the home base of the tribe, even though that would mean the removal of 200 acres from the tax base.
"We support them moving forward with official recognition," said Commissioner Lance Olson. "But if they aren't going to recognize them, they should tell them."
Federal recognition would also allow the Little Shell to apply for minority contracts and to have a government-to-government relationship with Washington.
My Bountiful Life: Cold enough fer ya?!
On, amongst other things, being the victim of fashionable window treatments...
Abortions in Ill. hit 30-year low
Abortions in Ill. hit 30-year low Chicago Sun-Times article by Dave McKinney, Dec. 26, 2005, citing 2004 figures
Concerned Women for America - Skipping Christmas - by Official Order
Includes excerpt from The Story of the Trapp Family Singers (Image Books/Doubleday: 1957), by Maria Augusta Trapp, about how the Nazis moved quickly to de-Chrisitianize the public schools, and taught children not to tell their parents what they learned in school that day.
Suitably Flip: Terrorist Funpack Grows Legs
Four hundred pounds of high-powered plastic explosives have been stolen from a bunker in New Mexico. Includes 150 pounds of C-4 plastic, or "sheet explosive."
Not good.
The thieves cut through thick steel walls with blowtorches to get at the stuff.
Not good.
The thieves cut through thick steel walls with blowtorches to get at the stuff.
La Shawn Barber's Corner : Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's Unspent Funds
The CBCF has raised money for Katrina victims, but hasn't even begun distribution...
Slobokan's Site O' Schtuff : Federal Intelligence Security Act
...includes background and link for The Foreign Intelligence Security Act (FISA) and 50 USC 1801, et seq...
Monday, December 26, 2005
OpinionJournal - Extra
OpinionJournal - Extra Joseph Epstein is writing a book on Alexis de Tocqueville, and wonders what Tocqueville would have made of the war in Iraq.
Sunday, December 25, 2005
Blogs4Life
First annual conference coming Jan. 23 in Washington, D.C., the same day and city as the 33rd annual March For Life.
Thursday, December 22, 2005
Friday, December 16, 2005
The Scotsman - Business - Beef exports face ten-week delay
The Scotsman - Business - Beef exports face ten-week delay re: resumption of beef exports from the UK... unlikely before late March 2006, if then...
Thursday, December 15, 2005
YOU DUPED ME LORD: Prayers Please--Nigeria Plane Crash
YOU DUPED ME LORD: Prayers Please--Nigeria Plane Crash Many of the people who died in the plane crash in Nigeria were from a Jesuit high school.
Our Blue Castle: Schooling through the holidays...
Our Blue Castle: Schooling through the holidays... includes holiday reading for kids
The New Underground Abortion Railroad: Destination NYC
Article about women who host women (and children) wanting late term abortions.
hat tip: http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110007683 Best of the Web
hat tip: http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110007683 Best of the Web
CULTURE OF LIFE - Umbert 12.15.2005
CULTURE OF LIFE - Umbert 12.15.2005Umbert, his first Christmas tree, and the PC police...
Betsy's Page: Journalists and Iraq
A journalist admits that she had the Iraq situation pictured in her head - wrong.
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
A network of gangsters and Islamists dismantled
A network of gangsters and Islamists dismantled From the English version of Le Figaro. Suspects arrested throughout France in an anti-terrorist dragnet.
AMERICAN FUTURE � France: US Troops Should Stay in Iraq
Dominique de Villepin argues against haste, or a timetable, regarding US pulling its troops out of Iraq. From the English edition of Le Figaro...
Expat Yank: Widening the probe
re: the killing of and funeral for Gebran Tueni, an anti-Syrian member of the Lebanese parliament and head of a prominent newspaper who was killed Monday in a car bombing.
Grove City College - The Center for Vision and Values
Grove City College - The Center for Vision and Values Book review of Jimmy Carter's book, "Our Endangered Values" and a countering of Carter's lack of economic understanding.
Grove City College - The Center for Vision and Values
Link is to The Christmas Wars: A Christian Response to the Culture Wars [audio - 23 min.], by Dr. F. Stanley Keehlwetter.
Our Blue Castle: Celebrate Saint Nicholas' Eve with The Dutch Twins
Links to the children's classic The Dutch Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins, as reprinted by the Baldwin Project.
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Cafe Hayek: Property Rights Protect Trees
Much of Africa has been stripped bare of trees - but not where the trees are privately owned (and used for fodder, firewood, and building materials).
Cafe Hayek: Outrage at Arnold
re the death penalty, AP coverage of European reaction to California execution of a murderer.
A Rose By Any Other Name: "Second Handers"
A Rose By Any Other Name: "Second Handers"
A passage from 1943, Ayn Rand writing on "second-handers":
start quote///...They have no concern for facts, ideas, work. They're concerned only with people. They don't ask 'Is it true?' They ask: 'Is this what others think is true?' Not to judge, but to repeat. Not to do, but to give the impression of doing. Not creation, but show. Not ability, but friendship. Not merit, but pull...
[snip]
...Notice how they'll accept anything except a man who stands alone. They recognize him at once. By instinct. There's a special, insidious kind of hatred for him. They forgive criminals. They admire dictators. Crime and violence are a tie. A form of mutual dependence. They need ties. They've got to force their miserable little personalities on every single person they meet. The independent man kills them--because they don't exist within him and that's the only form of existence they know. Notice the malignant kind of resentment against any idea that propounds independence. Notice the malice toward an independent man...
///end quote///
A passage from 1943, Ayn Rand writing on "second-handers":
start quote///...They have no concern for facts, ideas, work. They're concerned only with people. They don't ask 'Is it true?' They ask: 'Is this what others think is true?' Not to judge, but to repeat. Not to do, but to give the impression of doing. Not creation, but show. Not ability, but friendship. Not merit, but pull...
[snip]
...Notice how they'll accept anything except a man who stands alone. They recognize him at once. By instinct. There's a special, insidious kind of hatred for him. They forgive criminals. They admire dictators. Crime and violence are a tie. A form of mutual dependence. They need ties. They've got to force their miserable little personalities on every single person they meet. The independent man kills them--because they don't exist within him and that's the only form of existence they know. Notice the malignant kind of resentment against any idea that propounds independence. Notice the malice toward an independent man...
///end quote///
open book: Storied Houses
open book: Storied Houses About older houses, where other people have lived, and which weren't built around television sets and people gathered to chat...
open book: In the Seminary
Vietnamese-American men are now the second-largest minority group in seminaries
open book: Canonically speaking
open book: Canonically speaking church law could have, and should have, dealt with abusive clerics; if only bishops had followed canon law there would have been no work for grand juries.
YOU DUPED ME LORD: Those Darn Jesuits . . . Baghdad College
The Jesuit legacy in Iraq... -- three alumni of the Jesuit-run Baghdad College in Iraq are vying for Prime Minister of Iraq.
Transatlantic Intelligencer :: Energy-"Hub" Germany?
by John Rosenthal
//start quote///Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s appointment as chairman of the supervisory board of the Gazprom-controlled North European Gas Pipeline Consortium has raised a number of eyebrows. Suggestions to the effect that the appointment reveals Schröder to be Vladimir Putin’s poodle, however, underestimate the importance of the German presence in the project and miss its strategic significance both for the German participants and Germany more generally. 49% of the consortium is, after all, controlled by the two German firms Eon and BASF....
//start quote///Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s appointment as chairman of the supervisory board of the Gazprom-controlled North European Gas Pipeline Consortium has raised a number of eyebrows. Suggestions to the effect that the appointment reveals Schröder to be Vladimir Putin’s poodle, however, underestimate the importance of the German presence in the project and miss its strategic significance both for the German participants and Germany more generally. 49% of the consortium is, after all, controlled by the two German firms Eon and BASF....
Cozy Reader: WOW....It's amazing what you learn when you just read!
List of blogs Jane has added to her 'favorites' list.
Kathryn's Reliquary: DO IT RIGHT NOW!
Kathryn's Reliquary: DO IT RIGHT NOW! The gift of being taught to work.
Delta Mike Charlie: Schroder's Dirty Deal
re former Chancellor Gerhard Schroder taking a high position with a Russian-goverment-owned gas and oil company.
Seraphic Secret: Ushpizin
Seraphic Secret: Ushpizin re: the Israeli movie Ushpizin, and about making a movie universal:
start quote///
When I worked with Sidney Lumet on A Stranger Among Us, the studio was pressuring us to water down the specifics of the Hasidic life and make the film more "universal." Sidney stepped up and told the executives: "The more specific you make the culture in a film, the more universal does it become."
Ushpizin is so specific, so dead-on in its depiction of life in B'nei Brak, the Hasidic neighborhood in Jerusalem where the film was shot, that all people will glimpse their lives in the faith and love exhibited between Moshe and Mali.
start quote///
When I worked with Sidney Lumet on A Stranger Among Us, the studio was pressuring us to water down the specifics of the Hasidic life and make the film more "universal." Sidney stepped up and told the executives: "The more specific you make the culture in a film, the more universal does it become."
Ushpizin is so specific, so dead-on in its depiction of life in B'nei Brak, the Hasidic neighborhood in Jerusalem where the film was shot, that all people will glimpse their lives in the faith and love exhibited between Moshe and Mali.
Seraphic Secret: We All Have The Stupids
Seraphic Secret: We All Have The Stupids re: glamorizing AIDS instead of preventing it...
Monday, December 12, 2005
LIFE DIGEST: British buying stem cell gift certificates for Christmas; pharmacists favor freedom on �morning-after� pill - (BP)
For Christmas presents in the UK, some parents and grandparents are buying certificates for the storage of an infant's stem cells collected from its umbilical cord blood - for possible use if that infant gets sick later in life. It's being promoted as a variety of insurance policy. Tom Strode reports.
Do not confuse this with embryonic stem cells, the collection of which kills the baby (using it only as a growing medium, in essence), and the use of which has caused tumors in lab animals without proving useful to humans.
Non-embryonic stem cells, on the other hand, have been used to develop several promising treatments for a variety of ailments.
Do not confuse this with embryonic stem cells, the collection of which kills the baby (using it only as a growing medium, in essence), and the use of which has caused tumors in lab animals without proving useful to humans.
Non-embryonic stem cells, on the other hand, have been used to develop several promising treatments for a variety of ailments.
Today in History: December 13
Today in History: December 13 Mostly about Dartmouth College, chartered December 13, 1769, and the Dartmouth College Case, in which Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that the college was a private, not a public, entity, and so was protected from the state's regulatory power because of the contract clause of the United States Constitution.
Delta Mike Charlie: If Democrats aren�t anti-Christian, then I�m not sure who is�
Delta Mike Charlie: If Democrats aren�t anti-Christian, then I�m not sure who is�
re: anti-Christian car magnet for sale by Washington State Democrats.
hat tip: http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110007670 Best of the Web
re: anti-Christian car magnet for sale by Washington State Democrats.
hat tip: http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110007670 Best of the Web
OpinionJournal - Featured Article
OpinionJournal - Featured Article ///start quote///None Dare Call It Conspiracy
We've been hearing variations on "BUSH LIED!!!!" for at least 60 years.
BY MORTON KELLER
Sunday, December 11, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST
Variations of "Bush lied" have been part of the political scene ever since America plunged into its permanent overseas embroilment in the Second World War. Reviewing that record won't settle the current dispute over how and why we got into Iraq. But it should remind us that George W. Bush's accusers are hardly walking in fresh snow....
We've been hearing variations on "BUSH LIED!!!!" for at least 60 years.
BY MORTON KELLER
Sunday, December 11, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST
Variations of "Bush lied" have been part of the political scene ever since America plunged into its permanent overseas embroilment in the Second World War. Reviewing that record won't settle the current dispute over how and why we got into Iraq. But it should remind us that George W. Bush's accusers are hardly walking in fresh snow....
OpinionJournal - John Fund on the Trail
OpinionJournal - John Fund on the Trail ///start quote///
Dr. Coburn, I Presume
Why does Barbara Boxer want to stop him from delivering babies?
Monday, December 12, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST
It is often said that Congress is disconnected from reality. No kidding. It funded a "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska to the tune of $225 million until Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma led a crusade to transfer the money to Katrina victims. His effort failed, but not before Alaska's Sen. Ted Stevens, a 37-year veteran, vowed to resign if his state was shortchanged. Still, Sen. Coburn's effort generated enough publicity that the bridge was quietly defunded last month, even though the money will go to other projects in Alaska.
But senators weren't happy about having their pork-addicted ways held up to ridicule. Few doubt that wasn't part of the motivation a couple of days later for refusing to allow Dr. Coburn, an obstetrician, to earn just enough outside income so he could pay the expenses he incurs in delivering babies one day a week back home. Meanwhile, other senators continue to have carte blanche to earn outside income by writing song lyrics and novels that few believe would see the light of day were it not that they were famous as elected officials....
Dr. Coburn, I Presume
Why does Barbara Boxer want to stop him from delivering babies?
Monday, December 12, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST
It is often said that Congress is disconnected from reality. No kidding. It funded a "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska to the tune of $225 million until Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma led a crusade to transfer the money to Katrina victims. His effort failed, but not before Alaska's Sen. Ted Stevens, a 37-year veteran, vowed to resign if his state was shortchanged. Still, Sen. Coburn's effort generated enough publicity that the bridge was quietly defunded last month, even though the money will go to other projects in Alaska.
But senators weren't happy about having their pork-addicted ways held up to ridicule. Few doubt that wasn't part of the motivation a couple of days later for refusing to allow Dr. Coburn, an obstetrician, to earn just enough outside income so he could pay the expenses he incurs in delivering babies one day a week back home. Meanwhile, other senators continue to have carte blanche to earn outside income by writing song lyrics and novels that few believe would see the light of day were it not that they were famous as elected officials....
The Common Room: Contradictory Textbooks (long post)
The Common Room: Contradictory Textbooks (long post) The Head Girl at The Common Room is having some "Gee whiz!" moments with the history textbook being used in her class.
Townhall.com :: Columnists :: Burt Prelutsky
Townhall.com :: Columnists :: Burt Prelutsky author of Conservatives are from Mars (Liberals are from San Francisco: A Hollywood Rightwinger Comes Out of the Closet.
Bio, credits, links to articles, IMDb listing.
Bio, credits, links to articles, IMDb listing.
Townhall.com :: Columns :: Protecting life by taking it away by Jeff Jacoby
Townhall.com :: Columns :: Protecting life by taking it away by Jeff Jacoby disagreeing with the US Conference of Catholic Bishops about the death penalty.
Note to self: check with Seraphic Secret, re Talmud/death penalty post.
Note to self: check with Seraphic Secret, re Talmud/death penalty post.
Sunday, December 11, 2005
Two Talent Living : Thoughts on Truths I've Reaffirmed Recently
Two Talent Living : Thoughts on Truths I've Reaffirmed Recently Quotes, and more quotes... Including one at the end by Dorothy Sayers:
I believe it to be a great mistake to present Christianity as something charming and popular with no offense in it….We cannot blink at the fact that gentle Jesus meek and mild was so stiff in his opinions and so inflammatory in his language that he was thrown out of church, stoned, hunted from place to place, and finally gibbeted as a firebrand and a public danger. Whatever his peace was, it was not the peace of an amiable indifference.
Dorothy Sayers
I believe it to be a great mistake to present Christianity as something charming and popular with no offense in it….We cannot blink at the fact that gentle Jesus meek and mild was so stiff in his opinions and so inflammatory in his language that he was thrown out of church, stoned, hunted from place to place, and finally gibbeted as a firebrand and a public danger. Whatever his peace was, it was not the peace of an amiable indifference.
Dorothy Sayers
Seraphic Secret: Orthodox Mystery
Seraphic Secret: Orthodox Mystery re Robert Krich's latest Molly Blume novel Now You See Me, going into a second printing.
E-nough!: The French not-working and working poor
Some background on homeless people, shelters, socialism, and trying to find a home in France...
Note: includes reference to an emergency shelter run by the Secours Catholique.
Note: includes reference to an emergency shelter run by the Secours Catholique.
Saturday, December 10, 2005
Elephants in Academia: The Town Crier, Saturday Morning style
Elephants in Academia: The Town Crier, Saturday Morning style Collection of links and commentary
South Dakota National Guard gets full-time chaplain
The Black Hills Pioneer, Newspapers, South Dakota, SDFrom AP:
///start quote///Maj. Lynn Wilson, who started his job last month as the South Dakota Guard's first full-time chaplain, was deployed in Iraq from December 2003 to February 2005 as part of the 147th Field Artillery's 2nd Battalion.
''Our duty was to provide security for transportation along the road and destroy enemy ammunition,'' Wilson said. ''It was amazing to see the sheer arsenals of weapons. Saddam Hussein was so paranoid about his neighbors that he accumulated enough arsenal for three lifetimes.''
[snip]
The hiring of full-time chaplains is a trend, Wilson said. ''With so many Guard deployments, there is a need for someone full time,'' he said. ''A lot of states are doing it now.''
///start quote///Maj. Lynn Wilson, who started his job last month as the South Dakota Guard's first full-time chaplain, was deployed in Iraq from December 2003 to February 2005 as part of the 147th Field Artillery's 2nd Battalion.
''Our duty was to provide security for transportation along the road and destroy enemy ammunition,'' Wilson said. ''It was amazing to see the sheer arsenals of weapons. Saddam Hussein was so paranoid about his neighbors that he accumulated enough arsenal for three lifetimes.''
[snip]
The hiring of full-time chaplains is a trend, Wilson said. ''With so many Guard deployments, there is a need for someone full time,'' he said. ''A lot of states are doing it now.''
AP Wire | 12/09/2005 | Johnson's office flooded with calls from abortion groups
AP Wire | 12/09/2005 | Johnson's office flooded with calls from abortion groups
hat tip: http://www.redstate.org/ (Joe Cella)
hat tip: http://www.redstate.org/ (Joe Cella)
They're desperate to kill the magic lion - Sunday Times - Times Online
They're desperate to kill the magic lion - Sunday Times - Times Online Minette Marrin commentary on liberal intelligentsia reaction to Narnia movie///
//start quote///
Above all, I can’t help wondering why the instincts of secular liberals should be so repressive. It is odd, when one considers that a major part of post-enlightenment secularism is supposed to be enlightened tolerance. Their response strikes me as similar to the response of the British Muslims who burnt The Satanic Verses or the British Sikhs who demanded that a play offensive to their religion be closed.
What both groups have in common — one extremely religious, the other extremely opposed to religion — is a reductive cast of mind. They all suffer from extreme literalism. This is perhaps understandable with religious fundamentalists, including Christians; they all see themselves as people of the book and of the literally true word. With secular fundamentalists it is harder to understand; they have no book or word to refer to; they have no cultural excuse.
///end quote///
//start quote///
Above all, I can’t help wondering why the instincts of secular liberals should be so repressive. It is odd, when one considers that a major part of post-enlightenment secularism is supposed to be enlightened tolerance. Their response strikes me as similar to the response of the British Muslims who burnt The Satanic Verses or the British Sikhs who demanded that a play offensive to their religion be closed.
What both groups have in common — one extremely religious, the other extremely opposed to religion — is a reductive cast of mind. They all suffer from extreme literalism. This is perhaps understandable with religious fundamentalists, including Christians; they all see themselves as people of the book and of the literally true word. With secular fundamentalists it is harder to understand; they have no book or word to refer to; they have no cultural excuse.
///end quote///
Two Talent Living : Some fun stuff for the weekend
Sallie at the Two Talent Living blog has some "fun stuff for the weekend".
No Left Turns : Calling all military geeks
No Left Turns Archive Link to lengthy article at Popular Mechanics, with a hat tip to Instapundit.
Mommy Life: My Christmas present to you
Mommy Life: My Christmas present to you Illustrations in the public domain.
Mommy Life: What I've been putting off for a week
Mommy Life: What I've been putting off for a week Barbara Curtis now gets to compare her ms of her new book with her editor's version, page by page, word by word...
This one, probably out next summer, has the working title of Reaching the Left from the Right: Talking About Social Issues with People Who Don't Think Like You.
This one, probably out next summer, has the working title of Reaching the Left from the Right: Talking About Social Issues with People Who Don't Think Like You.
Friday, December 09, 2005
Peggy Noonan: The American Way
Peggy Noonan brings something into focus that needs to be in focus - earning the right to live in a country means something to the human heart.
Amazon.co.uk: Simply Give This Christmas
Many moons ago I needed a really good UK-English dictionary, and couldn't find one this side of the pond. So, being resourceful and having the Internet, I went shopping online, and bought from amazon.co.uk.
That's all I've needed that they had (that I couldn't buy somewhere else with less shipping cost), but they keep sending me interesting e-mail offers (hope springs eternal in the marketer's breast... No, wait, that's not quite right somehow...).
Anyway, the PC-weary might like to know that amazon.co.uk is currently slathering its website with "Christmas" offers and references. No shyness and squeamishness there, apparently...
That's all I've needed that they had (that I couldn't buy somewhere else with less shipping cost), but they keep sending me interesting e-mail offers (hope springs eternal in the marketer's breast... No, wait, that's not quite right somehow...).
Anyway, the PC-weary might like to know that amazon.co.uk is currently slathering its website with "Christmas" offers and references. No shyness and squeamishness there, apparently...
A Lady's Ruminations: Narnia is Here
Lady Jane has more Narnia links, for anyone who isn't into Narnia-overload yet :-).
Independent Online Edition > Asia
Independent Online Edition > Asia //The elephant whisperer: A haven for mistreated animals//They are scarred by years of abuse. Their forest domain has shrunk, and their numbers along with it. But one woman has taken on the task of protecting the animals Thailand once held sacred///
The Daily Demarche: Change of Address
The Daily Demarche: Change of Address The explaining post at The Daily Demarche
AMERICAN FUTURE � Blog Archive � Don�t Call it a Comeback, or the Pinstripe-Wearing, Appletini-Sipping Wuss Who Came in from the Cold
While I wasn't looking, Dr. Demarche and Smiley both started doing an occasional post at American Future. OK, so Dr. Demarche has done two already, and Smiley one...
BrothersJudd Blog: COMEDY AND THE IDEA OF GOOD CITIZENSHIP:
BrothersJudd Blog: COMEDY AND THE IDEA OF GOOD CITIZENSHIP: Reprints a lengthy bit of An Essay on Comedy by George Meredith, 1897.
The Church of England Newspaper: Canadian Church loses half of members
The Church of England Newspaper The Anglican Church of Canada has lost 53 percent of its membership over the past 40 years.
hat tip: http://aacblog.classicalanglican.net/archives/001364.html
hat tip: http://aacblog.classicalanglican.net/archives/001364.html
Thursday, December 08, 2005
RealChoice: Words from Albert Camus
The American Thinker
The American Thinker Confession of a Crypto-conservative Woman (another article by Bookworm).
The American Thinker
The American Thinker Why the left fears Christmas (by Bookworm of the Bookworm Room blog)
Expat Yank: One American living in the south of England
Expat Yank: One American living in the south of England ANOTHER WITHOUT A TIMETABLE (How A.P. might have covered George Washington rallying troops to stay on another month.)
The Corner on National Review Online
The Corner on National Review Online by Andy McCarthy
re: state civil jury blames New Yorkers for 1993 World Trade Center bombings, sends bill to victims...
(OK, it's a little more convoluted than that, but that's what it amounts to...)
re: state civil jury blames New Yorkers for 1993 World Trade Center bombings, sends bill to victims...
(OK, it's a little more convoluted than that, but that's what it amounts to...)
World Magazine - Weekly News | Christian Views
World Magazine - Weekly News | Christian Views Creative ways to support—and reform—your alma mater
World Magazine - Weekly News | Christian Views
World Magazine - Weekly News | Christian Views Interview by Marvin Olasky with author Rodney Stark. Stark's latest book is The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success (Random House, 2005).
note: another ref. to "The Dark Ages" as a hoax.
note: another ref. to "The Dark Ages" as a hoax.
Secondhand Smoke: This Makes Sense to Me
Secondhand Smoke: This Makes Sense to Me re: "in-home hospitalization"
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
The Moral of the Story: An Interview with Ralph Winter
The Moral of the Story: An Interview with Ralph Winter
hat tip: http://www.acton.org/blog/index.html?/archives/612-RL-Autumn-Issue-Features-Winter.html
hat tip: http://www.acton.org/blog/index.html?/archives/612-RL-Autumn-Issue-Features-Winter.html
RealChoice blog: Don Ho
Don Ho gets stem cell treatment
from JAYMES SONG/AP/
///start quote///(from near end of article)
There were no other medical options for Ho and he did it as a "last resort," Brown said.
He called the singer's heart condition, "extremely serious."
"It wouldn't hurt if the millions of his fans would start to pray for him," Brown said. "Don, as do I ... believe in the power of prayer."
The "VesCell" technology Ho underwent was developed by TheraVitae Co., which has offices in Thailand and laboratories in Israel, where Ho's stem cells were sent to be multiplied.
Dr. Robb MacLellan, associate professor of cardiology at UCLA, said a similar stem cell procedure has been used in Europe for a couple years and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved studies are currently being conducted.
"The difficulty with any new therapy, no matter how promising it looks in animal models and even in small controlled human studies, we're never really sure if it's really safe or effective until rigorous controlled studies are done," he said.
Dr. Ralph Shohet, a molecular cardiologist at the University of Hawaii medical school, said there's a lot of excitement in the medical community surrounding stem cell therapy but the risks are not yet known.
"It's entirely an experimental procedure at present," he said.
Brown noted that Ho was not participating in controversial procedures involving embryonic stem cells.
"Don did not take stem cells from a fetus. He doesn't believe in that," he said. "He took blood from his own body and re-injected that into his heart."
from JAYMES SONG/AP/
///start quote///(from near end of article)
There were no other medical options for Ho and he did it as a "last resort," Brown said.
He called the singer's heart condition, "extremely serious."
"It wouldn't hurt if the millions of his fans would start to pray for him," Brown said. "Don, as do I ... believe in the power of prayer."
The "VesCell" technology Ho underwent was developed by TheraVitae Co., which has offices in Thailand and laboratories in Israel, where Ho's stem cells were sent to be multiplied.
Dr. Robb MacLellan, associate professor of cardiology at UCLA, said a similar stem cell procedure has been used in Europe for a couple years and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved studies are currently being conducted.
"The difficulty with any new therapy, no matter how promising it looks in animal models and even in small controlled human studies, we're never really sure if it's really safe or effective until rigorous controlled studies are done," he said.
Dr. Ralph Shohet, a molecular cardiologist at the University of Hawaii medical school, said there's a lot of excitement in the medical community surrounding stem cell therapy but the risks are not yet known.
"It's entirely an experimental procedure at present," he said.
Brown noted that Ho was not participating in controversial procedures involving embryonic stem cells.
"Don did not take stem cells from a fetus. He doesn't believe in that," he said. "He took blood from his own body and re-injected that into his heart."
Marlowe's Shade: Busy news day
Marlowe's Shade case of an 11-year-old comatose girl in Massachusetts, India and gender selection (and female infanticide), and a Ugandan official wondering why, when his country has reduced AIDS through a successful abstinence program, that the UN is trying to impose methods that have resulted in higher rates of infection elsewhere....
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Catholic News Agency
Catholic News Agency Catholics demand pro-abortion mayor disinvited from Christmas dinner (Boston)
BrothersJudd Blog: AND THEY WERE EXECS WHEN FOLKS ACTUALLY WATCHED TV (via mc):
BrothersJudd Blog: AND THEY WERE EXECS WHEN FOLKS ACTUALLY WATCHED TV (via mc): Network officials told Charles Schulz that Linus reading the Christmas story on network television wasn't going to fly...
BrothersJudd Blog: WHAT THE...?:
BrothersJudd Blog: WHAT THE...?: 'the right of children to have abortions'
ABC News: Iranian Plane Rips Into Building; 128 Dead
ABC News: Iranian Plane Rips Into Building; 128 Dead Trying to make emergency landing, hit apartment building.
Monday, December 05, 2005
open book: Closed for Christmas
open book: Closed for Christmas Several evangelical megachurches plan to close for Christmas so staff and volunteers can spend more time with their families... This in a year that Christmas falls on a Sunday, no less...
OpinionJournal - Five Best
OpinionJournal - Five Best 'Books that convey the tragicomic sense of life,' by John Simon
CULTURE OF LIFE - Umbert 12.04.2005
CULTURE OF LIFE - Umbert 12.04.2005 Umbert makes a snow globe...
Sunday, December 04, 2005
'Andy Griffith' fan snares squad car
NWCN.com | News for NW Cable News | Nation/World //start quote///By DONNIE JOHNSTON / The Free Lance-Star
WARRENTON, Va. — This story is hard to write without some whistling in the background and a freckled-faced, barefoot boy with a fishing pole throwing a rock into Myers Lake.
To get yourself in the proper frame of mind, first picture that opening scene from "The Andy Griffith Show" and then recall Gomer Pyle screaming "Citizen's arrest!" as Deputy Barney Fife makes an illegal U-turn on Main Street in Mayberry, N.C.
Finally, fantasize that you are actually behind the wheel of a black-and-white police cruiser ("This baby's a real emergency vehicle!") like the one America's best-loved deputy sheriff was driving in that classic episode.
Ricky Brown doesn't need to fantasize. All the Warrenton man has
to do is go into his garage, open the car door and crank the engine....
WARRENTON, Va. — This story is hard to write without some whistling in the background and a freckled-faced, barefoot boy with a fishing pole throwing a rock into Myers Lake.
To get yourself in the proper frame of mind, first picture that opening scene from "The Andy Griffith Show" and then recall Gomer Pyle screaming "Citizen's arrest!" as Deputy Barney Fife makes an illegal U-turn on Main Street in Mayberry, N.C.
Finally, fantasize that you are actually behind the wheel of a black-and-white police cruiser ("This baby's a real emergency vehicle!") like the one America's best-loved deputy sheriff was driving in that classic episode.
Ricky Brown doesn't need to fantasize. All the Warrenton man has
to do is go into his garage, open the car door and crank the engine....
United Press International�-�The Washington Times, America's Newspaper
United Press International�-�The Washington Times, America's Newspaper
start quote///Scientists are worried about the future of Philadelphia's Academy of Natural Sciences. The academy, which has been struggling financially for more than a decade, is the home of one of the world's most valuable collections of biological specimens, critical to understanding life on Earth, the Philadelphia Enquirer reports.///end quote///
start quote///Scientists are worried about the future of Philadelphia's Academy of Natural Sciences. The academy, which has been struggling financially for more than a decade, is the home of one of the world's most valuable collections of biological specimens, critical to understanding life on Earth, the Philadelphia Enquirer reports.///end quote///
Semicolon: Scandanavian Christmas on the Great Plains
Semicolon quote from book Hunter’s Stew and Hangtown Fry: What Pioneer America Ate and Why by Lila Perl, and invitation to share Christmas traditions...
WILLisms.com: Pundit Roundtable
WILLisms.com: Pundit Roundtable
start quote///
Hello hello, welcome back to PUNDIT ROUNDTABLE, our weekly gathering of perspicacious pundits. I am your host, Ken McCracken.
Our topics this week are these:
Topic 1: If you could go back in time to September 10, 2001, knowing everything you know today, how would you have prevented the hijackings that day? Who would you have told? How would you have warned the appropriate people without seeming like some sort of crackpot alarmist? Would your warnings have mattered, or would they have been drowned out in a vast sea of chatter?
Topic 2: We have not had a terrorist attack in the US since 9/11. Has this been due to luck, or is it due to improved countermeasures? Are we missing warning signs? Are our strategies and tactics solid? ///end quote///
start quote///
Hello hello, welcome back to PUNDIT ROUNDTABLE, our weekly gathering of perspicacious pundits. I am your host, Ken McCracken.
Our topics this week are these:
Topic 1: If you could go back in time to September 10, 2001, knowing everything you know today, how would you have prevented the hijackings that day? Who would you have told? How would you have warned the appropriate people without seeming like some sort of crackpot alarmist? Would your warnings have mattered, or would they have been drowned out in a vast sea of chatter?
Topic 2: We have not had a terrorist attack in the US since 9/11. Has this been due to luck, or is it due to improved countermeasures? Are we missing warning signs? Are our strategies and tactics solid? ///end quote///
Expat Yank: Various hobbies
Expat Yank: One American living in the south of England military history enthusiasts re-enact the Battle of Austerlitz... Robert wonders about the guys playing the guys who drowned in the lake...
Demolition plan collapses in S.D. - baltimoresun.com
The Zip Feed Mill tower in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, was stronger than it looked, and stayed standing when demolition crews tried to implode it. The tower was considered the tallest building in South Dakota. The demolition was set up as a fundraiser for the Dakota chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis Society, with tickets sold for $1 each for a chance to trigger the blast. The winner, a loan office, gave the honor to a man who suffers from MS.
The tower operated from 1956 to 2000.
The tower operated from 1956 to 2000.
Mere-Orthodoxy: ID the Missing Link?
Mere-Orthodoxy: ID the Missing Link? - to restoring relations between the Muslim world and the West?
FOXNews.com - The Big Story w/ John Gibson - Interview - Defending Christmas
FOXNews.com - The Big Story w/ John Gibson - Interview - Defending Christmas Comedian Jackie Mason is one of the founders of Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation...
Friday, December 02, 2005
Merry Christmas: Quote of the Day
Merry Christmas: Quote of the Day Winston Churchill on private enterprise
Star-Telegram | 12/02/2005 | Officer's funeral set for Monday
Star-Telegram | 12/02/2005 | Officer's funeral set for MondayFort Worth police officer Henry "Hank" Nava, shot Tuesday, died today.
From an article by Alex Branch of the Star-Telegram:
start quote///
...Dozens of officers were at the hospital when Nava died. Afterward, officers trickled out, some putting their arms around each other's shoulders or wiping tears from their eyes.
Police Chief Ralph Mendoza broadcast news of Nava's death to on-duty officers on a police radio channel with the declaration that officer Nava was "Signal 62" -- meaning "his unit is secure."...
From an article by Alex Branch of the Star-Telegram:
start quote///
...Dozens of officers were at the hospital when Nava died. Afterward, officers trickled out, some putting their arms around each other's shoulders or wiping tears from their eyes.
Police Chief Ralph Mendoza broadcast news of Nava's death to on-duty officers on a police radio channel with the declaration that officer Nava was "Signal 62" -- meaning "his unit is secure."...
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Two Talent Living � Merry Christmas, Darling
Two Talent Living � Merry Christmas, Darling about being single at Christmas time...
For all who have never climbed a tree | csmonitor.com
For all who have never climbed a tree | csmonitor.com
re: book Last Child in the Woods, by Richard Louv
hat tip: http://fromwomb2tomb.blogspot.com/2005/12/for-all-who-have-never-climbed-tree.html
re: book Last Child in the Woods, by Richard Louv
hat tip: http://fromwomb2tomb.blogspot.com/2005/12/for-all-who-have-never-climbed-tree.html
Catholic News Agency
Catholic News AgencyDefiant Michigan family wins fight to keep front yard Nativity scene
A Face Made 4 Radio, A Voice Made 4 the Internet
A Face Made 4 Radio, A Voice Made 4 the InternetTwo Columnists Support Jean Schmidt
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
A Rose By Any Other Name: An Interesting Comparison
A Rose By Any Other Name: An Interesting ComparisonRamsey Clark reminds Anna of a specific fictional character...
Upbeat Signs Hold Cautions for the Future - New York Times
Upbeat Signs Hold Cautions for the Future - New York Times
Synopsis: The economy looks great, but you should worry anyway...
hat tip: http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110007616
Synopsis: The economy looks great, but you should worry anyway...
hat tip: http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110007616
Wizbang: Ice Age Predicted, Blamed on Global Warming
Wizbang
Some scientists have noted that some recent data from the Atlantic Gulf Stream didn't match expectations, and now they're, uhm, reacting... Now they're predicting that Europe might suffer a mini ice age. (If drastic action isn't taken, of course.) Sigh.
Some scientists have noted that some recent data from the Atlantic Gulf Stream didn't match expectations, and now they're, uhm, reacting... Now they're predicting that Europe might suffer a mini ice age. (If drastic action isn't taken, of course.) Sigh.
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Kicking Over My Traces � Thomist or Augustinian?
Kicking Over My Traces � Thomist or Augustinian? re: book Aristotle's Children by Richard E. Rubenstein.
FOXNews.com - Foxlife - Stan Berenstain Dies at 82
The co-author/illustrator of the Berenstain Bears books has died.
NWCN.com | News for NW Cable News | NWCN Oregon News
NWCN.com | News for NW Cable News | NWCN Oregon NewsOregon legislative error weakens handgun law
(Well, yes and no.)
(Well, yes and no.)
The Weblog Awards: Get Your 2005 Weblog Award Logos Archive
The Weblog Awards: Get Your 2005 Weblog Award Logos Archive
Help. I don't know how to add a logo to a link.
Help. I don't know how to add a logo to a link.
Books & Culture Corner: Taize in the Fall - Books & Culture
An update on the Taize community, a few months after founder Brother Roger's murder, by a man who took students there this month.
Telfer: Young women have different outlook toward abortion
John "Jack" Telfer, editor of the Midland Daily News, notes that there seems to be a shift in attitudes of young women toward abortions. The trend has "pro-choice" supporters worried, if you're wondering. (Title link)
hat tip: http://www.covenantnews.com/abortion/archives/016485.html Pro-Life News via http://www.prolifeblogs.com/articles/aggregator.php?filter=1 ProLifeBlogs Aggregator
On the other side of that, I've seen several young women around here under pressure to have an abortion, if everything wasn't lined up just so. Mustn't have to change career plans or get married or be out of pocket on finances, you know. Mustn't be encumbered. (For that matter, a lot of guys seem to think that they should be able to avoid child support payment by any means at hand...) So I think we have a long ways to go - but that more and more young people are willing and able to see unborn children as unborn children even when they're seen as inconvenient for one or more of the baby's relatives, that women are seeing through the hypocrisy of a baby only having rights if circumstances are jolly or the mother has religious convictions - these I think are trends in the right direction.
See also http://themediansib.blogspot.com/2005/11/abortion-right-to-choose.html The RIGHT to choose? over at the Median Sib.
Carol at The Median Sib seems to be coming at this from a perspective with which I'm all too familiar. I was pro-choice, more or less parroting the party line - and then I stopped to think it through on my own. It was not a happy awakening, because I felt I'd been wrong, wrong, wrong. But it was an awakening, and I don't envision any way of going back.
hat tip: http://www.covenantnews.com/abortion/archives/016485.html Pro-Life News via http://www.prolifeblogs.com/articles/aggregator.php?filter=1 ProLifeBlogs Aggregator
On the other side of that, I've seen several young women around here under pressure to have an abortion, if everything wasn't lined up just so. Mustn't have to change career plans or get married or be out of pocket on finances, you know. Mustn't be encumbered. (For that matter, a lot of guys seem to think that they should be able to avoid child support payment by any means at hand...) So I think we have a long ways to go - but that more and more young people are willing and able to see unborn children as unborn children even when they're seen as inconvenient for one or more of the baby's relatives, that women are seeing through the hypocrisy of a baby only having rights if circumstances are jolly or the mother has religious convictions - these I think are trends in the right direction.
See also http://themediansib.blogspot.com/2005/11/abortion-right-to-choose.html The RIGHT to choose? over at the Median Sib.
Carol at The Median Sib seems to be coming at this from a perspective with which I'm all too familiar. I was pro-choice, more or less parroting the party line - and then I stopped to think it through on my own. It was not a happy awakening, because I felt I'd been wrong, wrong, wrong. But it was an awakening, and I don't envision any way of going back.
ADF: Swedish pastor beats "hate crime" conviction - Alliance Defense Fund - Defending Our First Liberty
///start quote////
STOCKHOLM, Sweden - In a unanimous 5-0 decision, Sweden's Supreme Court today acquitted a pastor of a "hate crime" for presenting the biblical view of homosexual behavior in a sermon.
"Voicing one's conscience is a fundamental human right," said Alliance Defense Fund Chief Counsel Benjamin Bull. "This is a huge victory for religious liberty everywhere. In this contest between religious freedom and the radical homosexual agenda, religious freedom prevailed."
The pastor, Ake Green, received a one-month jail sentence last year under a Swedish "hate crimes" law that forbids criticism of those who participate in homosexual behavior. In February, the Goeta Appeals Court overturned the decision. The government appealed the case to the Swedish Supreme Court, but today it ruled that Green did not break the law.
///end quote////More at link
STOCKHOLM, Sweden - In a unanimous 5-0 decision, Sweden's Supreme Court today acquitted a pastor of a "hate crime" for presenting the biblical view of homosexual behavior in a sermon.
"Voicing one's conscience is a fundamental human right," said Alliance Defense Fund Chief Counsel Benjamin Bull. "This is a huge victory for religious liberty everywhere. In this contest between religious freedom and the radical homosexual agenda, religious freedom prevailed."
The pastor, Ake Green, received a one-month jail sentence last year under a Swedish "hate crimes" law that forbids criticism of those who participate in homosexual behavior. In February, the Goeta Appeals Court overturned the decision. The government appealed the case to the Swedish Supreme Court, but today it ruled that Green did not break the law.
///end quote////More at link
Monday, November 28, 2005
Bruce Willis comes out fighting for Iraq�s forgotten GI heroes - Sunday Times - Times Online
Bruce Willis comes out fighting for Iraq�s forgotten GI heroes - Sunday Times - Times Online
hat tip: http://drsanity.blogspot.com/2005/11/quotes-of-day.html Dr. Sanity Quotes of the Day
hat tip: http://drsanity.blogspot.com/2005/11/quotes-of-day.html Dr. Sanity Quotes of the Day
Thomas Hibbs on Harry Potter & Virtue on National Review Online
Thomas Hibbs on Harry Potter & Virtue on National Review Online
hat tip: http://noleftturns.ashbrook.org/default.asp?archiveID=7704 Movies and moral education, which has some other links, too.
hat tip: http://noleftturns.ashbrook.org/default.asp?archiveID=7704 Movies and moral education, which has some other links, too.
OpinionJournal - John Fund on the Trail
OpinionJournal - John Fund on the Trail
///start quote///
Power to the People
Washington policy makers stand in the way of sensible energy policies.
Monday, November 28, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST
After Hurricane Katrina temporarily knocked out 30% of America's oil refinery capacity and caused gasoline prices to spike, it became dramatically obvious that the nation needed to build more refineries away from the vulnerable Gulf Coast. But when a bill to streamline the permitting process and provide incentives to build refineries on closed military bases was headed for the Senate floor, Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R., R.I.) joined with every Democrat on the Senate Environment Committee and blocked the bill.
[snip]
But on other energy issues it's Republicans standing in the way of progress. This month, House leaders had to bow to the demands of some two dozen GOP moderates and strip a budget bill of provisions to allow exploration for oil on Alaska's North Slope and permit states like Virginia that wanted to opt out of moratoriums on oil and natural gas exploration off their coasts to do so. Sen. Judd Gregg, a New Hampshire Republican, has been touting a "windfall profits" tax, even though the net profit margin of oil and gas companies on the Standard & Poor's 500 is 9%, barely above the S&P average of 8%.
Some members of Congress still believe their demagoguery somehow restrains prices. Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) told CNBC's Larry Kudlow that "the energy companies push [prices] to the ultimate limit until Congress is raging mad on both sides of the aisle and then retreat with their prices."
In reality, high energy prices are often the direct consequence of misguided government policy. After House leaders were forced to remove natural gas drilling provisions from the budget, Jack Gerard of the American Chemistry Council said he was "flabbergasted that some in Congress continue to live in a fantasy world, in which the government encourages use of clean-burning natural gas while cutting off supply, and then they wonder why prices go through the roof." Natural gas prices recently spiked at $14 per million BTUs, the highest in the world and the equivalent of $7 a gallon gasoline.
Not only will such price spikes increase the cost of heating homes this winter, but they are already costing jobs. Andrew Leveris, CEO of Dow Chemical, testified before Congress this month that high energy prices were a major reason that Dow has closed 23 of its plants in North America, shedding 7,000 of its 25,000 U.S. jobs. Out of 120 chemical plants currently under construction around the world, only one is being built in the U.S. More than 50 are going up in China, where natural gas costs half of what it does in the U.S.
[snip]
///start quote///
Power to the People
Washington policy makers stand in the way of sensible energy policies.
Monday, November 28, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST
After Hurricane Katrina temporarily knocked out 30% of America's oil refinery capacity and caused gasoline prices to spike, it became dramatically obvious that the nation needed to build more refineries away from the vulnerable Gulf Coast. But when a bill to streamline the permitting process and provide incentives to build refineries on closed military bases was headed for the Senate floor, Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R., R.I.) joined with every Democrat on the Senate Environment Committee and blocked the bill.
[snip]
But on other energy issues it's Republicans standing in the way of progress. This month, House leaders had to bow to the demands of some two dozen GOP moderates and strip a budget bill of provisions to allow exploration for oil on Alaska's North Slope and permit states like Virginia that wanted to opt out of moratoriums on oil and natural gas exploration off their coasts to do so. Sen. Judd Gregg, a New Hampshire Republican, has been touting a "windfall profits" tax, even though the net profit margin of oil and gas companies on the Standard & Poor's 500 is 9%, barely above the S&P average of 8%.
Some members of Congress still believe their demagoguery somehow restrains prices. Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) told CNBC's Larry Kudlow that "the energy companies push [prices] to the ultimate limit until Congress is raging mad on both sides of the aisle and then retreat with their prices."
In reality, high energy prices are often the direct consequence of misguided government policy. After House leaders were forced to remove natural gas drilling provisions from the budget, Jack Gerard of the American Chemistry Council said he was "flabbergasted that some in Congress continue to live in a fantasy world, in which the government encourages use of clean-burning natural gas while cutting off supply, and then they wonder why prices go through the roof." Natural gas prices recently spiked at $14 per million BTUs, the highest in the world and the equivalent of $7 a gallon gasoline.
Not only will such price spikes increase the cost of heating homes this winter, but they are already costing jobs. Andrew Leveris, CEO of Dow Chemical, testified before Congress this month that high energy prices were a major reason that Dow has closed 23 of its plants in North America, shedding 7,000 of its 25,000 U.S. jobs. Out of 120 chemical plants currently under construction around the world, only one is being built in the U.S. More than 50 are going up in China, where natural gas costs half of what it does in the U.S.
[snip]
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Intelliseek's BlogPulse Newswire
Intelliseek's BlogPulse NewswireNovember 21, 2005
Call for Papers for Third International Workshop on Weblogging Ecosystems
Call for Papers for Third International Workshop on Weblogging Ecosystems
Escape to the past at Historic Barnsley Gardens | Georgia Backroads Magazine
Escape to the past at Historic Barnsley Gardens | Georgia Backroads Magazine actually should link to a story about "Doc" Holliday's early life...
Oops
I tried to delete something from my sidebar and add something else at the same time (will I never learn?) and wound up totally messing up both the sidebar and the bottom of the page...
So I decided to go with a new template, and see what I can learn from experimenting with it for a while. The links should be restored shortly...
So I decided to go with a new template, and see what I can learn from experimenting with it for a while. The links should be restored shortly...
adn.com | alaska : Cutter Storis to be decommissioned
///start quote/// this is article in full///
Cutter Storis to be decommissioned
Voyage comes to an end after six decade of service
By MEGAN HOLLAND
Anchorage Daily News
Published: November 27, 2005
Last Modified: November 27, 2005 at 07:35 AM
The Coast Guard cutter Storis is so old it was built with cork insulation instead of fiberglass. The tangle of pipes and wires wandering the 63-year-old vessel's hidden regions can pose a mystery to crewmen.
And if its engine were to break down, the only place to look for a replacement would be in a museum, the Coast Guard says.
The Kodiak-based Storis, the oldest ship in the service's fleet, will be decommissioned in 2007, the Coast Guard announced last week. The cutter Munro, currently homeported in Alameda, Calif., will fill in for it as a faster, better-equipped fisheries enforcement and search-and-rescue vessel until a new ship is built for Alaska waters, the Coast Guard said.
The upgrade is part of the Coast Guard's multiyear $19 billion to $24 billion modernization of its aircraft and cutters that began in 2002.
Retiring the Coast Guard's oldest ship does not come as a surprise to people who have served on it, including 71-year-old Gil Cragen, who was a gunner's mate on the Storis from 1954 to 1956 and who now lives in Anchorage. "A ship that old should be decommissioned," he said.
Cutters, which are what the Coast Guard calls its bigger vessels, have relatively long service lives compared to other military machinery and vehicles. According to a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office report, medium-endurance cutters like the Storis have average service lives of 30 to 49 years, depending on their size. But "The Queen of the Fleet," as the Storis is called, has been in service more than six decades.
No decision has been made as to what will happen to the 230-foot cutter after it is decommissioned, the Coast Guard said. The Storis could be mothballed, scrapped, sold or donated to become a museum.
In a press release, Vice Adm. Harvey Johnson, commander, Coast Guard Pacific Area, said, "Storis has been a gallant workhouse for the Coast Guard since World War II and has earned an honored place in Coast Guard history."
Launched in September 1942, the vessel played a role in World War II, and the stories accumulated in the decades since. Thousands of Coast Guardsmen have served on it.
"The Storis is one of a kind," said Cmdr. Jim McCauley, current captain of the ship, reached on phone while on patrol in the Bering Sea. "I've been on other boats built in the 1940s and '50s, but none like the Storis. Its rich history is unbelievable."
For nearly 50 years, the one-time icebreaker has patrolled thousands of miles from the Gulf of Alaska to the Bering Sea to the North Pacific Ocean.
"I sit around here and think, 'If only these walls could talk.' I'm sure there'd be some interesting stories," Ensign Andrew Munoz, currently serving on the Storis, said in a telephone interview from the vessel.
During World War II, the Storis guarded the coast of Greenland to keep the German military from establishing weather stations. In 1957, along with the Coast Guard cutters the Bramble and the Spar, it ended the 450-year search for a Northwest Passage, a route for large ships to cross the top of North America. Then, the Storis became the first U.S. vessel to circumnavigate the North American continent.
Cornelius Farley, 83, was an officer on the ship during the Northwest Passage trip. Now living near San Francisco, he said he remembers being stuck in ice near Canada for 2 1/2 days, cruising and sweltering through the tropics without a porthole in his cabin, and patrolling near the Arctic Circle to protect a radar system during the Cold War.
"If the Russkies flew a plane over, we'd know about it," Farley said.
But while the Spar was sunk off the coast of North Carolina to become an artificial reef and the Bramble became a museum in Michigan, the Storis has continued patrolling Alaska waters.
When the Storis is decommissioned, the Ketchikan-based Acushnet will be the oldest cutter in the fleet, having been in service since 1944.
But the GAO report notes that the Coast Guard fleet is aging. The service's cutters are approaching their maximum life expectancy, the report said.
The GAO report was in response to Coast Guard complaints over several years that the existing fleet, especially the cutters, has been failing at an unsustainable rate. In response, the report found, "cutters are generally declining" and "to help meet mission requirements, Coast Guard staff are performing more extensive maintenance between deployments, but even so, aircraft and cutters continue to lose mission capabilities."
On the Storis, replacement parts for the vintage equipment have been expensive and, sometimes, nonexistent, Munoz said.
"Sometimes, when things break, we have to fabricate it from scratch," he said. "Our engineers have to be a lot more resourceful in resolving problems, overcoming obstacles and finding spare parts."
Munoz said the technical manual used for the main motor is from 1941.
"You're holding a piece of history," he said. "For being 63 years old and being passed down by engineers, it is pretty clean and in good shape."
Munoz said parts of the motor are irreplaceable, except for parts that could be found in a museum.
"There would be no going out and getting a new one," he said.
The Coast Guard plans to save an estimated $4.7 million by decommissioning the Storis, it said.
While the Storis travels at top speeds of 14 knots, or about 16 mph, the Munro cruises at twice that, Munoz said. The Munro, with 20 officers and 150 enlisted people on board -- nearly double the personnel of the Storis -- also has a flight deck that can handle helicopters. The upgrades mean faster searches and rescues, Munoz said.
The Coast Guard said the Munro will be homeported in Kodiak until a new offshore patrol cutter in 2011 will replace it.
Both Farley and Cragen want to see the Storis turned into a museum.
"It would be nice if it was preserved someplace," Farley said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Daily News reporter Megan Holland can be reached at mrholland@adn.com.
Cutter Storis to be decommissioned
Voyage comes to an end after six decade of service
By MEGAN HOLLAND
Anchorage Daily News
Published: November 27, 2005
Last Modified: November 27, 2005 at 07:35 AM
The Coast Guard cutter Storis is so old it was built with cork insulation instead of fiberglass. The tangle of pipes and wires wandering the 63-year-old vessel's hidden regions can pose a mystery to crewmen.
And if its engine were to break down, the only place to look for a replacement would be in a museum, the Coast Guard says.
The Kodiak-based Storis, the oldest ship in the service's fleet, will be decommissioned in 2007, the Coast Guard announced last week. The cutter Munro, currently homeported in Alameda, Calif., will fill in for it as a faster, better-equipped fisheries enforcement and search-and-rescue vessel until a new ship is built for Alaska waters, the Coast Guard said.
The upgrade is part of the Coast Guard's multiyear $19 billion to $24 billion modernization of its aircraft and cutters that began in 2002.
Retiring the Coast Guard's oldest ship does not come as a surprise to people who have served on it, including 71-year-old Gil Cragen, who was a gunner's mate on the Storis from 1954 to 1956 and who now lives in Anchorage. "A ship that old should be decommissioned," he said.
Cutters, which are what the Coast Guard calls its bigger vessels, have relatively long service lives compared to other military machinery and vehicles. According to a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office report, medium-endurance cutters like the Storis have average service lives of 30 to 49 years, depending on their size. But "The Queen of the Fleet," as the Storis is called, has been in service more than six decades.
No decision has been made as to what will happen to the 230-foot cutter after it is decommissioned, the Coast Guard said. The Storis could be mothballed, scrapped, sold or donated to become a museum.
In a press release, Vice Adm. Harvey Johnson, commander, Coast Guard Pacific Area, said, "Storis has been a gallant workhouse for the Coast Guard since World War II and has earned an honored place in Coast Guard history."
Launched in September 1942, the vessel played a role in World War II, and the stories accumulated in the decades since. Thousands of Coast Guardsmen have served on it.
"The Storis is one of a kind," said Cmdr. Jim McCauley, current captain of the ship, reached on phone while on patrol in the Bering Sea. "I've been on other boats built in the 1940s and '50s, but none like the Storis. Its rich history is unbelievable."
For nearly 50 years, the one-time icebreaker has patrolled thousands of miles from the Gulf of Alaska to the Bering Sea to the North Pacific Ocean.
"I sit around here and think, 'If only these walls could talk.' I'm sure there'd be some interesting stories," Ensign Andrew Munoz, currently serving on the Storis, said in a telephone interview from the vessel.
During World War II, the Storis guarded the coast of Greenland to keep the German military from establishing weather stations. In 1957, along with the Coast Guard cutters the Bramble and the Spar, it ended the 450-year search for a Northwest Passage, a route for large ships to cross the top of North America. Then, the Storis became the first U.S. vessel to circumnavigate the North American continent.
Cornelius Farley, 83, was an officer on the ship during the Northwest Passage trip. Now living near San Francisco, he said he remembers being stuck in ice near Canada for 2 1/2 days, cruising and sweltering through the tropics without a porthole in his cabin, and patrolling near the Arctic Circle to protect a radar system during the Cold War.
"If the Russkies flew a plane over, we'd know about it," Farley said.
But while the Spar was sunk off the coast of North Carolina to become an artificial reef and the Bramble became a museum in Michigan, the Storis has continued patrolling Alaska waters.
When the Storis is decommissioned, the Ketchikan-based Acushnet will be the oldest cutter in the fleet, having been in service since 1944.
But the GAO report notes that the Coast Guard fleet is aging. The service's cutters are approaching their maximum life expectancy, the report said.
The GAO report was in response to Coast Guard complaints over several years that the existing fleet, especially the cutters, has been failing at an unsustainable rate. In response, the report found, "cutters are generally declining" and "to help meet mission requirements, Coast Guard staff are performing more extensive maintenance between deployments, but even so, aircraft and cutters continue to lose mission capabilities."
On the Storis, replacement parts for the vintage equipment have been expensive and, sometimes, nonexistent, Munoz said.
"Sometimes, when things break, we have to fabricate it from scratch," he said. "Our engineers have to be a lot more resourceful in resolving problems, overcoming obstacles and finding spare parts."
Munoz said the technical manual used for the main motor is from 1941.
"You're holding a piece of history," he said. "For being 63 years old and being passed down by engineers, it is pretty clean and in good shape."
Munoz said parts of the motor are irreplaceable, except for parts that could be found in a museum.
"There would be no going out and getting a new one," he said.
The Coast Guard plans to save an estimated $4.7 million by decommissioning the Storis, it said.
While the Storis travels at top speeds of 14 knots, or about 16 mph, the Munro cruises at twice that, Munoz said. The Munro, with 20 officers and 150 enlisted people on board -- nearly double the personnel of the Storis -- also has a flight deck that can handle helicopters. The upgrades mean faster searches and rescues, Munoz said.
The Coast Guard said the Munro will be homeported in Kodiak until a new offshore patrol cutter in 2011 will replace it.
Both Farley and Cragen want to see the Storis turned into a museum.
"It would be nice if it was preserved someplace," Farley said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Daily News reporter Megan Holland can be reached at mrholland@adn.com.
Playing by THE RULES
Evergreen Newspapers, Inc.Editorial by Steve Jackson of the Canyon Courier, Evergreen, Colorado. A bit whingey, but makes a few points in spite of that... on whether kids' extracurricular activities are more for the kids or for the parents, for one thing.
Anti-war and pro-Bush rallies round out Thanksgiving in Crawford
Anti-war and pro-Bush rallies round out Thanksgiving in Crawford Is it just me, or is it funny that so many in the press see people as "anti-war" versus "pro-Bush"? At least in headlines?
I hate to give Mrs. Sheehan any more air time, but some of this is interesting:
///start quote///
By Tim Woods Tribune-Herald staff writer
Sunday, November 27, 2005
CRAWFORD – The Thanksgiving weekend came to a close Saturday with opposing rallies in Crawford and a march through the town by a group seeking the United States' support in Africa.
Cindy Sheehan, the anti-war activist and mother of a fallen soldier, led a rally Saturday at Camp Casey II while a pro-Bush group held a rally supporting the president. Sheehan gained notoriety in August when she camped out in a ditch near President Bush's Crawford ranch, demanding a meeting with the president. Her 24-year-old son, Casey, was killed in Iraq last year.
Sheehan's afternoon “Bring Troops Home Now” rally drew about 200 people to the site – a one-acre plot donated by a sympathetic Crawford resident – and featured music, much of it anti-Bush, testimonials from people who have lost family members in the Iraq war, and an oration by Sheehan herself.
The gathering met resistance, however, as about 200 to 300 Bush supporters gathered in the middle of Crawford, about one block away from the Crawford Peace House, and held up signs of support for the president, his decision to stay the course in Iraq, and the troops.
[snip]
Gary Qualls, whose request to have a cross bearing his fallen son's name removed from a Camp Casey I memorial in August sparked a pro-Bush movement in Crawford, was on hand Saturday for the Bush supporters' rally.
“We're here for truth and justice,” said Qualls, whose son, Louis Qualls, was killed in Fallujah last fall. “To stand up for the difference between what is right and what is wrong. We just had a congressional vote, and the ones that (Sheehan supporters) thought were supporting them voted to stay the course in Iraq. The for (votes) was 403, the ones that voted against was only three. So, you have three for protesters, 403 for those that believe in truth and justice.”
Qualls also expressed disdain for the Gold Star Families for Peace, an organization founded by Sheehan and her sister, Dede Miller, composed of family members of soldiers killed in action that oppose the war in Iraq. He said that the organization disgraces members of the Gold Star Families organization and taints the memory of family members killed in battle.
“She's a pawn for all the people that don't really respect what America's all about. And yet, they say that they're representing our troops and our people,” Qualls said.
In addition to Sheehan's group and the Bush backers, a group of about 150 Ethiopians, many of whom came from Dallas, marched from Crawford High School through town to draw attention to their request for Bush to send troops to Ethiopia to stop the warring and bloodshed in their country. The group arrived on a charter bus and left peacefully shortly after their march through the town.
Despite the tension in Crawford between Sheehan supporters and the pro-Bush group, Sheehan said she had no choice but to remain upbeat.
After dancing to some protest music, Sheehan predicted that opponents would criticize her cheerfulness....
[snip]
I hate to give Mrs. Sheehan any more air time, but some of this is interesting:
///start quote///
By Tim Woods Tribune-Herald staff writer
Sunday, November 27, 2005
CRAWFORD – The Thanksgiving weekend came to a close Saturday with opposing rallies in Crawford and a march through the town by a group seeking the United States' support in Africa.
Cindy Sheehan, the anti-war activist and mother of a fallen soldier, led a rally Saturday at Camp Casey II while a pro-Bush group held a rally supporting the president. Sheehan gained notoriety in August when she camped out in a ditch near President Bush's Crawford ranch, demanding a meeting with the president. Her 24-year-old son, Casey, was killed in Iraq last year.
Sheehan's afternoon “Bring Troops Home Now” rally drew about 200 people to the site – a one-acre plot donated by a sympathetic Crawford resident – and featured music, much of it anti-Bush, testimonials from people who have lost family members in the Iraq war, and an oration by Sheehan herself.
The gathering met resistance, however, as about 200 to 300 Bush supporters gathered in the middle of Crawford, about one block away from the Crawford Peace House, and held up signs of support for the president, his decision to stay the course in Iraq, and the troops.
[snip]
Gary Qualls, whose request to have a cross bearing his fallen son's name removed from a Camp Casey I memorial in August sparked a pro-Bush movement in Crawford, was on hand Saturday for the Bush supporters' rally.
“We're here for truth and justice,” said Qualls, whose son, Louis Qualls, was killed in Fallujah last fall. “To stand up for the difference between what is right and what is wrong. We just had a congressional vote, and the ones that (Sheehan supporters) thought were supporting them voted to stay the course in Iraq. The for (votes) was 403, the ones that voted against was only three. So, you have three for protesters, 403 for those that believe in truth and justice.”
Qualls also expressed disdain for the Gold Star Families for Peace, an organization founded by Sheehan and her sister, Dede Miller, composed of family members of soldiers killed in action that oppose the war in Iraq. He said that the organization disgraces members of the Gold Star Families organization and taints the memory of family members killed in battle.
“She's a pawn for all the people that don't really respect what America's all about. And yet, they say that they're representing our troops and our people,” Qualls said.
In addition to Sheehan's group and the Bush backers, a group of about 150 Ethiopians, many of whom came from Dallas, marched from Crawford High School through town to draw attention to their request for Bush to send troops to Ethiopia to stop the warring and bloodshed in their country. The group arrived on a charter bus and left peacefully shortly after their march through the town.
Despite the tension in Crawford between Sheehan supporters and the pro-Bush group, Sheehan said she had no choice but to remain upbeat.
After dancing to some protest music, Sheehan predicted that opponents would criticize her cheerfulness....
[snip]
Saturday, November 26, 2005
The Weblog Awards: Nominations - Best of the Top 1751 - 2500 Blogs Archive
The Weblog Awards: Nominations - Best of the Top 1751 - 2500 Blogs Archive
Blush. Semicolon nominated Suitable For Mixed Company for Best of the Top 1751-2500 blogs back on November 15, 2005, and I just noticed it...
Blush. Semicolon nominated Suitable For Mixed Company for Best of the Top 1751-2500 blogs back on November 15, 2005, and I just noticed it...
Camp Katrina: An Interesting Omission
Camp Katrina: An Interesting Omission re NY Times coverage of bombign in Iraq
Friday, November 25, 2005
Melanie Phillips's Diary : Dark Days for Britain
Melanie Phillips's Diary Not safe to walk in Muslim section of London.
Go hang a salami, I'm a lasagna hog -
Go hang a salami, I'm a lasagna hog - referred to at A Constrained Vision... has some good posts...
Expat Yank: And they say Bush can't handle complexity?
Expat Yank: One American living in the south of England Background War on Terror, Iraq, etc., and media coverage. (Media not proving good at handling fairly straightforward stuff, much less more complex subjects...)
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