And Another Thing . . . on National Review Online

Mark Levin links to Go Right Ahead – Tread On Us, an editorial at Investor's Business Daily.

The Corner: The Black Watch

re: Scottish snatch team grabs terrorist godfather and some of his henchmen in Iraq...

Brandywine Books: Romper Room wonks

re: Lars Walker on adults who are still mentally back in grade school, trying to impress the teacher by giving him his favorite answers on what to do about current events...

Brandywine Books: The quest for Grandma's Donuts

re: Lars Walker on his brother, trying to create donuts like his Grandmother used to make, and surviving after a feminist walked out to go do her own thing...

ADF: ADF allied attorneys contact nearly 11,500 school districts regarding Christmas expression - Alliance Defense Fund - Defending Our First Liberty

re: pushing back against the disinformation campaign that has people/schools/cities needlessly afraid to celebrate Christmas publicly (the law is on the side of Christmas)...

Townhall.com::Reflections on the prospect - reality? - of a third great awakening::By Ross Mackenzie

re: Ross Mackenzie wonders if the schisms in 'mainstream' (my scare quotes) Protestant denominations are triggering a Third Great Awakening in America. He provides historical background...

Let's Say Thanks

re: Xerox-sponsored site to send free printed postcard to someone serving in the U.S. military overseas...

FIRST THINGS: On the Square

re: William Saletan, author of Bearing Right: How Conservatives Won the Abortion War, is calling on Democrats to capture values voters, i.e., to go back to being 'the party of responsibility,' but Elizabeth Powers has her doubts...

Here in the Bonny Glen: Hanna and Me

re: the story behind her book Hanna's Christmas, now out of print...

Stones Cry Out: Ten Ways Media Leaders Can Keep Media Ethics from Becoming an Oxymoron

re: suggestions for ways the national media could restore its reputation...

Power Line: The ISG Report: Still A Mystery

re: wondering why Syria and Iran would change their policies in line with what the Iraq Study Group wants...

Betsy's Page: How an advisory commission should have been conducted

re: "Eliot Cohen, who wrote a superb book on civilian leadership in wartime, Supreme Command, puts his finger on exactly what was wrong with the Iraq Study Group..."...

Phi Beta Cons on National Review Online

re: David French on the University of Georgia trying (unsuccessfully) to shut down a Christian religious fraternity...

...In reality, universities are not interested in protecting students from religious discrimination (if they were, they would seek to protect the hundreds and sometimes thousands of Christian students who belong to Christian organizations from the disruption and harm of derecognizing their groups). Instead, they are striking at the heart of what these Christian groups teach and believe. The universities want to “protect” their student bodies from dissent — especially on matters of personal morality. And it is so much easier to silence dissent when that speech and the groups that support that speech are branded as “discriminators.”

Tornado hits London

re: A twister roared through north-west London streets...

Get Involved in the Conservative Movement by Nathan Tabor

re: suggestions for websites to visit, groups to join...

At A Hen's Pace: Virtual Prayer Books

re: online Christian resources...

Charis Connection: Ask the Authors: Wednesday

re: "Do you have a special process for naming your characters?"...

Strand Magazine:: Interview with Michael Bond

re: undated interview. "Since 1983 mystery fans have enjoyed Michael Bond's series of detective comedies featuring retired Sûreté member Monsieur Pamplemousse and his dog Pommes Frites, and since 1958 children have been delighting in Bond's books chronicling the very funny adventures of Paddington Bear—one of the most beloved children's characters of all time./ The Monsieur Pamplemousse series is a unique blend of comedy and mystery. As an inspector for the prestigious restaurant rating directory Le Guide, Monsieur Pamplemousse (along with Pommes Frites) travels around the country sampling the finest cuisine and wines at the best restaurants in France, while stumbling into one hilarious mystery after another. Mr. Bond has recently completed another novel, Monsieur Pamplemousse on Probation. He spoke to us about his early writing career, the inspiration behind his two most famous characters, and the state of writing in general..."...

HUGE Anti-Chavez Rally In Venezuela « Daily Inklings

re: November 26 post showing crowds as far as the eye can see...

Books & Culture Corner: Mr. Wilson's Bookshelf - Books & Culture Magazine

re: "The Top Ten Books of 2006 and the Book of the Year"... John Wilson's list... "Still, it's worth saying that these are simply the titles that came most readily and insistently to mind over the last couple of weeks as I thought about the books I've read this year..."...[snip..."And now to the Book of the Year: Crisis of Doubt: Honest Faith in Nineteenth-Century England, by Timothy Larsen (Oxford Univ. Press). You know the familiar story, according to which virtually every thinking person in late-Victorian England either lost his faith or maintained a pale simulacrum of genuine belief. While Timothy Larsen acknowledges that there were of course plenty of instances of deconversion, in his new book he draws attention to a counternarrative that has been widely overlooked, embodied in the experience of men and women who moved from doubt or resolute skepticism to Christian faith. In chapter after chapter of brilliantly condensed biography, he tells the stories of individuals whose lives followed this second course. This is a book that will force honest scholars to reconsider what they thought they knew."...

NWCN.com | Amazon adds new presses for on-demand books

re: will use HP Indigo presses at fulfillment centers and BookSurge to improve quality in POD offerings...

NWCN.com | Oregon sailor pleads guilty to espionage charges

re: Salem man has pleaded guilty to several charges related to passing classified information to a foreign government...

FLW Outdoors - Leader in bass, walleye, redfish, kingfish and striped bass tournament fishing.

re: July 20, 2006 press release "Wal-Mart FLW Series forms divisions, eight $1 million televised events for 2007"...

FLW Outdoors - Leader in bass, walleye, redfish, kingfish and striped bass tournament fishing.

re: a history of the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, through the lead-in to the 2005 professional bass fishing season...

Kids don't get building blocks of learning from high-tech play - The Boston Globe

re: interaction builds social skills - and compassion - so don't swamp the wee ones with electronic toys...

NWCN.com | Story of survival shared in Boise

re: Aron Ralston, the man who cut off his own arm with a pocket knife after being pinned by a boulder in a remote area of Utah, now gives inspirational speeches around the country. He recently spoke at a fundraiser for the Idaho Youth Ranch...

Top Stories | NWCN.com | Family missing on return from Seattle trip

re: family of four last seen Nov. 25, last heard from when they told a Gold Beach motel they'd be arriving late and asked for key to be left for them...

Top Stories | NWCN.com | Drug bust nabs 26 in Skagit County

re: Mexican based drug ring run mostly by Mexican nationals in the U.S. illegally...

The Dynamo and the Jeweler by Stefan Kanfer, City Journal Autumn 2006

re: George and Ira Gershwin, Fred and Adele Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Danny Kaye, music, theater, movies...

CNN.com - The Marquee: Why DO we care?

re: the fascination with celebrities, etc. "...But there's also the matter of what writer Maureen Orth calls the "celebrity-industrial complex," the endless machine made up of the news media, entertainment companies, performers, handlers, advisers and consultants (and, yes, consumers) that's dependent upon such stories for its daily fuel -- and, like any capitalistic enterprise, only exists as long as interest continues. Which means there's a great deal at stake to keep the machine running..."

Includes recommendations for these books: "The Image" by Daniel Boorstin, "Amusing Ourselves to Death" by Neil Postman, and "Life: The Movie" by Neal Gabler.

hat tip: Kay S. Hymowitz/ CJ in the News/ City Journal

OpinionJournal - Taste: Single Mothers, Many Problems

re: unwed motherhood and unstable families, with a nod to the book "Marriage and Caste in America: Separate and Unequal Families in a Post-Marital Age" by Kay Hymowitz ...

OpinionJournal - Taste: The Limits of Tolerance

re: Naomi Schaefer Riley on a talk given by liberal priest Andrew M. Greeley, in which he let a few things slip in the Q & A: "...Then a middle-aged woman in the back of the room asked Father Greeley about the changing face of the Catholic Church. The greatest growth in the world-wide Catholic population, she noted, has been coming for some years from new believers in South America and Africa, and the trend shows no signs of abating. What effect would this have on the church? / "We will depend on them for vitality," Father Greeley predicted. "But they will continue to depend on us for the ideas."...

List of Classics

re: book list for people who want to understand conservatism...

Iraq is Dems’ tar-baby

re: David A. Keene has been watching Democrats come to grips with the fact that now that they've got a majority, they'll be held responsible for what they do about Iraq, etc...

hat tip: Best of the Web Today

After surprisingly dull hurricane season, experts debate why they were wrong | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

re: forecasters didn't come close on predicting this year's mild hurricane season, and they didn't see El Nino coming either...

A Different Kind of Christmas Poem « A Rose By Any Other Name

re: a soldier's gift...

Mater Magistra: Library Day

re: tips for getting kids and library books - choosing a wider selection, not letting the books get overdue or lost, etc...

hat tip: Rocks in My Dryer

Braille Institute of America | Home

re: "Braille Institute is a private non-profit organization whose mission is to eliminate blindness and severe sight loss as a barrier to a fulfilling life."...

open book: Your read of the day

re: link to (UK) Times article by Simon Barnes on being a father of a boy with Down Syndrome...

FIRST THINGS: On the Square

re: another parent, a father this time, writes in defense of raising a child with Down Syndrome...

abc13.com: Fight brewing between mosque and pigs

re: man in Texas being shoved by people planning to build a mosque shoves back by scheduling Friday night pig races on his property...

hat tip: Rush Limbaugh

OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today

re: more responses to Rangel's disrespect for people serving in the military (see halfway down post). Also has links to earlier responses...

The Common Room: Good Stewardship Does Not Mean What She Thinks it Means

re: more on Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church Katharine Jefferts Schori's ideas of stewardship (in which she tries to explain away the declining membership of her denomination by noting that Episcopalians are 'better educated' and are encouraged to not use up the Earth's resources by having children). Includes Mark Steyn commentary...

Plymouth Adventure (1952)

re: cast list, etc., for the movie starring Spencer Tracy, based (loosely, to all appearances) on the Ernest Gebler novel. The movie's lead romance storyline is manufactured out of thin air, but it is a Spencer Tracy movie...

Plymouth Adventure (1952)

re: Elsie W. Hamel, Graduate Student at Lehigh University, briefly compares Ernest Gebler's book The Plymouth Adventure and the movie based on it. Includes this short note about the novel: "This, it seems to me, is the truest picture that we could have of the Plymouth adventure, the more remarkable in that it was written by a man of mixed Czech and Irish ancestry who has never been in this country." Chicago Sun Tribune (April 30,1950): 3

The Gift of Language by Theodore Dalrymple, City Journal Autumn 2006

re: attacking the silly (and harmful) notion that language skills don't have to be - or in some cases shouldn't be - taught...

hat tip: Bookworm

Mesohippus 1

re: Florida Museum of Natural History page on the "middle horse" in horse evolution...

NASA - Historic Volcanic Eruption Shrunk the Mighty Nile River

re: major eruptions in Iceland in 1783-84 might have contributed to record low water levels in the Nile, plus other examples of how high latitude volcanic eruptions might have significantly affected monsoons, droughts, etc...

NASA - CALIPSO

re: "...one of NASA's newest satellite missions. CALIPSO, or Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations, seeks to reveal the secrets of clouds and aerosols, tiny particles suspended in the air, enabling scientists to study how they form, evolve and interact and how they affect our air quality, weather and climate..."...

How the media loses the war « Bookworm Room

re: the media passing along false stories spun by America's enemies...

OpinionJournal - Featured Article: New York, New York

re: a series of books on New York City's architecture and history, by architect and historian Robert A.M. Stern...

Robin Hood

re: information on the 1950s television show The Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Richard Greene...

The Scotsman - Business - At 30% cheaper, self-build is on the rise

re: more people are buying land and building homes in Scotland. Also notes that a lot of the cheap housing from the 1960s and 1970s is being bought and demolished by people who want to start from scratch rather than renovate...

Fossil research suggests 'mass dying' triggered teeming oceans | The Guardian | Guardian Unlimited

re: discovering the obvious, scientists 'discover' that the mass extinctions at the end of the Permian not only caused - but made possible - the rise of new and vastly different ecosystems...

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Wheat's lost gene helps nutrition

re: after research pointing to which crosses to try, plant scientists are crossing domesticated wheat with wild wheat to boost nutrition...

OpinionJournal - Taste: Funny Money

re: Preston Sturge's romantic comedies of the 1940s are now available in a DVD boxed set, and provide a nice contrast with most of today's romantic comedies...

I’m not the only grammatical voice in the wilderness « Bookworm Room

re: fighting the notion that people don't need to be (or shouldn't be) taught to communicate well...

The Point: Sage words

re: ..."Do not pray for easy lives; pray to be stronger. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you yourself shall be a miracle. Every day you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life which has come to you by the grace of God. -- Phillips Brooks"

The Blessing of a Father's Grace - washingtonpost.com

re: Sally Quinn on saying grace, even if you're an atheist...

hat tip: Gina Dalfonzo (The Point)

Minnesota Mom: Happy Anniversary! (I think)

re: a nice essay on how blogging has changed her life, etc....

hat tip: Here in the Bonny Glen

The first remarkable close-up pictures of animals in the womb | the Daily Mail

re: elephant, dog and dolphin babies in the womb...

hat tip: Best of the Web

OpinionJournal - The Desolate Wilderness

re: annual reprinting of Nathaniel Morton's descriptions of what the Pilgrim's saw in 1620...

OpinionJournal - Extra: The Stuff of Democratic Life

re: Allen Guelzo writes about Lincoln, Gettysburg, Thanksgiving, and the fundamental challenges of democracy...

Gardeners cultivate hope in battered New Orleans | In Depth | Reuters.com

re: thousands of people living in FEMA trailers after Katrina have planted gardens...

Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Arts & Entertainment

re: AP story on cancellation of OJ project. Some Fox affiliates had refused to carry show, Borders had announced it would donate profits to charity, etc...

Captain's Quarters : Hydrogen Isn't Green

re: BMW's new hydrogen-gasoline car, the Hydrogen 7 or H-7, gets poor mileage and its fuel goes bad in a matter of days... The first one hundred are reportedly going to be sold to "celebrities"...

Captain's Quarters: Read Between The Lines (Updated and Bumped)

re: the hurricane season disappointed the global warming folks, bigtime (plus info on the global cooling scares of a couple/three decades ago, plus scientists who are currently predicting a little ice age soon)...

Joust The Facts: Milton Friedman Passes At 94

re: more on Milton Friedman (and his wife Rose)...

BrothersJudd Blog: O HOLY NIGHT, INJUNCTIONS FLY THROUGHOUT YOU

re: Muslim leaders in UK stump for public Christmas celebrations, and somebody else noticing that PC drives not just religion but history and heritage from the British public sphere...

CNS STORY: Peruvian parish fights malnutrition with high-protein cookies

re: Catholic parish won government bid to fight malnutrition high in the Andes by baking and distributing high-protein cookies (sometimes by truck, but some places by mule)...

hat tip: Open Book

poultryOne.com Guide to Raising Poultry | The Ultimate Resource for Raising Chickens and Poultry Care - Chicken Articles, Links, Tips, and More!

re: online community for chicken hobbyists...

Keeping Chickens or Poultry at Home, Backyard Poultry Keeping and Laying Hens

re: uk look at dreams of smallholding, getting an allotment, battles with local council over whether poultry was allowed...

Tsunami hits Crescent City / Series of 5- to 6-foot surges wrecks docks, sinks ship hours after 8.1 quake in Japan

re: "A tsunami generated by a powerful earthquake in Japan struck the small Northern California fishing port of Crescent City Wednesday, destroying docks, sinking a boat and fraying nerves./Bill Steven, a commander with the Del Norte County Sheriff's Department, said the tsunami was "more a series of big surges rather than waves," but he said the damage to the town's harbor was significant. /The surges were reported at 5 to 6 feet high. /"The water surged back and forth like a river, and our docks aren't designed to handle swift water," Steven said. "About 50 percent of the harbor was affected. There's a lot of torn-up foam, wood and concrete. We know at least one boat was sunk, and we had to round up about 12 more that were torn from their moorings." /Steven said no fatalities or injuries were reported.
Crescent City residents are particularly sensitive to tsunami threats. The town was struck by a 21-foot-high tsunami in 1964 that killed 11 people and destroyed most of the town center. /Steven said Del Norte County officials received a notification from the National Weather Service Wednesday morning that a 3- to 5-foot surge resulting from an 8.1 magnitude quake in Japan would hit the Crescent City region at about 11:40 a.m. "We did have a very small surge at that time, and then everybody went back to business as usual," Steven said. /Then at around 2:30, Steven said, residents noticed an ominous sign -- water started running out of the town's harbor, a classic indication of an approaching tsunami. /"You don't like to see that," Steven said. "It looked like a very fast river." /But instead of a large wave, Steven said, the tsunami was manifested as another large surge flowing back into the harbor./"It went on like that until about 5 p.m., maybe later," Steven said. "Just like a big river surging back and forth. It really hammered our docks. Pieces had to be tied off, whole sections disappeared."..."...

CurryPilot.com: TSUNAMI CAUSES DAMAGE AT CRESCENT CITY

re: "A tsunami caused damage in the Crescent City harbor this afternoon, but apparently no injuries, according to initial reports from the newsroom at the Daily Triplicate in Crescent City. /The wave was reported by national authorities as 35 inches, larger than any other reports on the Pacific Coast of the U.S., according to the National Weather Service Tsunami Warning Center's Web site. The reported height at Port Orford was 15 inches. The Web site is available at http://WCATWC.ARH.NOAA.GOV /Witnesses said boats were broken loose from their moorings, rammed into docks and even toppled onto each other. /No reports of initial damage were reported in the Port of Brookings-Harbor, Gold Beach or Port Orford. There were no warnings or evacuations in Curry County, according to the Curry County Sheriff's Office. /Brookings-Harbor Harbormaster Mike Blank said he noticed "unusual tidal occurences" just after 2 p.m., but had no reports of any damage or problems caused by the wave. /The wave was generated by an earthquake overnight near the Kuril Islands, off the northern coast of Japan. /The Triplicate is preparing a full report for its Web site, www.Triplicate.com, later this evening. A full report and photos will be published in the Thursday, Nov. 17, edition of the Triplicate and the Saturday, Nov. 18, edition of the Curry Coastal Pilot..."...

AP Wire | 11/16/2006 | Crescent City harbor suffers up to $700K in damages from tsunami

re: "CRESCENT CITY, Calif. - Two docks were destroyed after a five-foot surge rolled into the Crescent City Harbor on Wednesday afternoon and caused up to $700,000 in damages. /The surge was the result of an undersea earthquake with a magnitude of 8.1 that struck earlier in the day near Japan, prompting tsunami warnings for Japan, Russia and Alaska, according to the National Weather Service...[snip]...In California, the weather service reported ocean surges as high as 6 feet and waves gusting up to 30 mph but did not call an official tsunami warning or watch. /Surges were observed from Port San Luis on the Central California coast to the Oregon border, but were too small and concentrated to prompt a tsunami warning, said Sten Tjaden, an NWS forecaster in Eureka. /"They don't want to put a warning out if the impact is going to be so localized," Tjaden said. "And I haven't heard of damage elsewhere. The only place I've heard of damage is at Crescent City at the harbor." /Harbor workers at Crescent City - about 20 miles south of Oregon's state line - noticed a fast-moving current around mid-afternoon that harbor master Richard Young described as a "river within the ocean."/As the surge rushed out of the harbor, workers noticed that two floating docks in the inner basin were destroyed, Young said. Another surge followed, severely damaging a third dock, he said. The harbor can accommodate up to 200 boats up to 75 feet long. /No injuries were reported, and the surge did not sink any boats. But several vessels attached to the destroyed docks bobbed away from their anchorage and likely received dings and possibly greater damages, the harbor master said. /Young said the replacement costs of the docks could range from $300,000 to $700,000. /Rain pounded the harbor after the surge, but crews were able to secure the loose boats and stabilize the damaged dock and the six remaining floating docks in the inner harbor.
"We're secure for the night, and we're going home after a long day," Young said Wednesday after sunset. "We've done our best to stabilize things." /Small surges of 1 to 4 feet continued to hit the California coast into the evening, and boaters, beach goers and others near the shore were advised to use caution, according to NWS...."...

MercuryNews.com | 11/15/2006 | 6-foot wave surge damages Crescent City harbor

re: "Wave surges related to the magnitude 8.1 undersea earthquake near Japan, the largest of them six-feet high, caused ``extensive damage'' this afternoon at the Crescent City harbor, according to the National Weather Service. /The surges were so powerful that docks and boats were damaged, forcing police to close it down. Several boats broke loose from their moorings, but no one was injured, Crescent City police dispatcher Julie Shafer said..."...

The Kitchen Madonna: Culinary Quote #33

re: "'Never grow a wishbone, daughter, where your backbone ought to be." Clementine Paddleford"...

Sovereignty Blog » HUMANS MATTER LESS THAN THEY’D LIKE TO THINK:

re: 22 of the world's 50 most forested countries have been increasing the amount of woodland...

Has excerpt from Planet 'winning the battle against deforestation' (The Scotsman, Nov. 14, 2006)...

ADF: Federal appeals court upholds federal protection for pro-life medical professionals - Alliance Defense Fund - Defending Our First Liberty

re: "WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court today upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by a pro-abortion group challenging the “Weldon Amendment.” The Weldon Amendment is a federal statute that prohibits the federal government or state and local governments receiving certain federal aid from discriminating against medical professionals who refuse to perform or refer for abortions. /“Doctors and nurses should not be forced to participate in abortions against their religious beliefs or conscience. Under the banner of ‘choice,’ the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association asserted a supposed right to do this, but the court didn’t buy it,” said Casey Mattox, litigation counsel for CLS’s Center for Law & Religious Freedom. “This decision turns back the effort to enshrine abortion as a right above even the First Amendment.”..."...

WorldNetDaily: Ten Commandments stunner: Feds lying at Supreme Court

re: "...Todd DuBord, pastor of the Lake Almanor Community Church in California...[snip]... was most disturbed by what appears to be revisionism in the presentations given to visitors at the Supreme Court. There, he said, his tour guide was describing the marble frieze directly above the justices' bench. /"Between the images of the people depicting the Majesty of the Law and Power of Government, there is a tablet with ten Roman numerals, the first five down the left side and the last five down the right. This tablet represents the first ten amendments of the Bill of Rights," she said..."...

hat tip: The Alliance Alert, Nov. 14, 2006

Shielding Our Children

re: Emuna Braverman on the virtue of learning to not rescue or shelter a child too much. Book mentioned in passing: "The Blessing of a Skinned Knee" by Wendy Mogel...

OpinionJournal - Federation: Moral Purification

re: Josh Manchester discusses 'why intellectuals love defeat'...

FIRST THINGS: On the Square/ Elizabeth Powers

re: finding a neglected war memorial in Central Park, and comparing Americans of the World War I era with Americans of today who make pacts with the party of the safety net...

Brandywine Books: Call me Cassandra

re: Lars Walker featuring in his near-future novel Wolf Time a news reporter proud of having pushed the idea that nothing is worth dying for and America can't afford honor...And Walker wanting to be proved wrong, but feeling his prediction has held...

Brandywine Books: "If a conservative order is to return . . ."

re: the need to learn tradition attached to conservative ideas, plus books that shaped America's Conservative Renaissance (list courtesy isi.org)...

lines... in pleasant places: Lake Martin

re: a book about the history of the reservoir Lake Martin in Alabama...

Mom 2 Mom Connection » Blog Archive » Starting the Novel Writing Journey

re: NaNoWriMo update, plus info/links on bestselling Christian fiction author Brandilyn Collins and her years-long road to first publication...

Allthings2all: Let's Dance!

re: living in a place with different cultural traditions, such as when and how to dance...

magistramater's Xanga Site - Fine Art Friday - Briton Rivière

re: three dog-with-person paintings...

The Golden Road to Samarqand: :The Age of Homespun

re: "The Age of Homespun: Objects and stories in the Creation of an American Myth by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich has to be one of the most interesting books about early American history that I have ever read. I like it even more than A Midwife's Tale..."...

hat tip: The Saturday Review of Books

Power Line: Three reviews

re: reviews of Mark Steyn's America Alone, Michael Lewis's The Blind Side, and Art Buchwald's "deathbed memoir" Too Soon to Say Goodbye...

Related: Art Buchwald column from Sept. 21, 2006

The Scotsman - Business - Parents splash out to fill void after children flee nest

re: noticing the obvious, i.e. parents tend to make changes - sometimes drastic ones - after their kids grow up and go away. The news is that today's empty nesters are collectively spending more, and more. "...Dr Hodson's comments were echoed by analysts at Datamonitor, which said empty-nesters spent £38.4 billion on consumer goods in 2003, but were forecast to splash out as much as £46 billion by 2008. It said their annual disposable income is expected to have risen 8.5 per cent to £17,872 from less than £14,000 a year ago, and that sudden increase in wealth often sparked some highly indulgent spending on everything from travel, new homes and new cars, to high quality food, fine drinks and pampering personal care..."...

Betsy's Page: Will the House increase?

re: Nancy Pelosi is supporting a bill that would increase Congress from 435 to 437 by adding a seat from D.C. and a statewide seat for Utah (never mind that an at-large seat in Congress isn't supportable)...

Captain's Quarters: Still not biting

re: advising fellow Republicans to be a good example of "the loyal opposition"...

Episcopal parish, diocese reach accord - The Washington Times

re: "...The leaders of All Saints, a 500-member congregation, announced Thursday they will cede the church's property to the diocese, which will pay the remaining $188,000 mortgage. /Then, All Saints will rent the property from the diocese for $1 a year for five years while it builds a new 800-seat church on a $2.7-million piece of property it bought in 2001. The site is on 28 acres near the Potomac Mills shopping mall in Prince William County. / "This is very, very encouraging for us," said the Rev. John Guernsey, rector of All Saints. "It helps us move forward." /Although Virginia Bishop Peter J. Lee has said that he will sue any church trying to leave his diocese, this agreement releases All Saints from further legal obligations. / The congregation will vote Dec. 10 on whether to ratify the agreement. Its vestry, or leadership council, is unanimously recommending the church adopt the agreement and separate from the diocese..."...

Update: Nov. 9, 2006, news release from the Diocese of Virginia

Marines, Bush dedicate museum - The Washington Times

re: "President Bush yesterday attended the dedication ceremony for the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Va., an event nearly 20 years in the making..."...

Portrait: The Girl From Schindler's List | Europe | Deutsche Welle | 27.01.2006

re: Stella Müller-Madej, who was a Jewish girl saved by Oskar Schindler during World War II, wrote a book about her family's ordeal and rescue...

American Battle Monuments Commission

re: "The American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) was established by Congress in 1923 to commemorate the service, achievements, and sacrifice of U.S. armed forces where they have served overseas since 1917, and within the U.S. when directed by public law./ The ABMC commemorative mission is reflected in 24 overseas military cemeteries that serve as resting places for almost 125,000 American war dead; on Tablets of the Missing that memorialize more than 94,000 U.S. servicemen and women; and through 25 memorials, monuments and markers./ We invite you to explore the information and databases available on this web site, and to visit our cemeteries and memorials..."...

hat tip: Expat Yank

Memorial Dedicated to the "Oskar Schindler of China" | Germany | Deutsche Welle | 08.11.2006

re: "John Rabe was an ordinary German businessman in China when the Japanese invaded Nanking in 1937. Nearly 70 years later, a memorial was dedicated to the "Good German" who saved thousands of Chinese lives...[snip]...A member of the Nazi party in Germany, Rabe sold turbines and telegraph equipment for Siemens, and rose to become the German company's chief trade representative in the Chinese wartime capital of Nanking, now called Nanjing. /His career in China from 1908 to 1938 would have been unremarkable, except for one thing: the meticulous 1,200-page diary he kept that chronicled daily life during a nearly forgotten chapter of the second Sino-Japanese war.../ During the Japanese occupation, however, Rabe did something else that influenced more lives than a journal ever could: He used his Nazi credentials to rescue thousands of Chinese from certain death..."...

Memory of Spiritual Leader in German Resistance Lives On | Germany | Deutsche Welle | 21.10.2006

re: Father Laurentius Siemer, a spiritual leader of the German resistance movement during World War II...