Colorado televangelist and fundraiser extraordinaire Marilyn Hickey has something she wants you to have. A ring, to be precise. According to Westword's Amy Haimerl:
Not a particularly valuable ring, either, but one of those 25-cent-turn-your- finger-green suckers prized by kids the world over. With Hickey's blessing, however, the simple band gains "magical" powers.
And, from Hickey's own mailer:
"I want you to wear this ring on your finger for AT LEAST the NEXT 24 HOURS. You may feel led to wear it longer and that's fine. It's yours to keep and use however you feel directed in your heart."
"I do feel directed to encourage you to SOW A SEED of FAITH! Make it a specific seed for the specific MIRACLE TURNAROUND HARVEST that you need. You may feel led to sow a seed with the number 7 in it ($27, $37, $57, $77, $107 or whatever). The amount doesn't matter as much as your OBEDIENCE to God's leading.
Zomby got a comment from an overtly racist and oddly pro gay rights ex-member of the Democratic party.
Wesley Clark is a cunning half-jew a--hole. The DLC is so scared that Howard Dean will win the nomination that they have nominated a anti-war, homophobic half-jew to get the Anybody But Dean vote.
I have decided to leave the Democratic Party because of the way that Howard Dean has been backstabbed by the party leadership. Howard Dean, despite his less than perfect stance on gay rights, is a target by the increasingly homophobic DLC wing of the party.
Wow. How messed up can one person be? I'd say those two paragraphs are hilarious except it's that sort of thinking that's lead to some of the greater bloodbaths of the last century.
The Denver Post reports the canceled Colorado Open still owes thousands of dollars to players and other creditors:
Jack Doak did more than cancel the Colorado Open last month. So far, he has refused to pay back the 156 golfers their $300 entry fees. Doak also owes at least another $21,000 for facility usage and goods and services, according to creditors...
[snip]
After failing to sign a title sponsor, he canceled the 2003 Colorado Open on Aug. 26, two days before the scheduled opening round of the 72-hole event at the Sonnenalp Golf Club in Edwards...
Many of the competitors already had arrived in the Vail Valley for practice rounds and to prepare for a pro-am.
A full field of 156 players means Doak received $46,800 from entry fees.
Well, this year being a lost cause I'd just like to play next year. That's not a certain prospect, either:
Scott Wellington, executive director of the Colorado PGA Section, said it will be almost impossible for Doak to continue and run the Colorado Open. Wellington has been besieged with calls from players inquiring whether the section office has heard anything from Doak about getting their entry fees returned.
"One way to regain the players' trust is to have operations of the Colorado Open taken over by the golf associations (Colorado PGA Section and Colorado Golf Association)," Wellington said. "I think something has to be done within 30 to 60 days to prepare for next year."
CGA executive director Ed Mate is convinced some form of a state open championship will be conducted next year, almost assuredly in the Denver metro area and likely for a much smaller purse.
Well, no one is trusted more than Ed Mate. I hope they can get it done.
I wrote about the whole mess back here, and here.
The Segway scooter, darling of gadget geeks everywhere, is being recalled. Reports say the Segway, when operated with the battery low, may pitch the passenger. So, instead of just reminding owners to keep the battery charged, they are recalling them all.
How many have been reported thrown off so far? Three. Not three thousand. Just three.
In the wake of the major earthquake which hit the Dominican Republic earlier this week comes a major revelation. According to Archbishop Juan Antonio Flores Santana the quake was a warning from God. [Original article in Spanish]
Let me offer a crude translation of parts of the Archbishop's remarks:
Flores Santana sustained that many times people get carried away with vice, egoism, spiritual blindness, ambition, avarice and sexual disorder... "We should give thanks to God that Santiago has had few disasters of this sort," declared Flores Santana.
Which must be very comforting to the survivors of the victms.
Let me say while I had a great time on my visit there, it didn't seem to be nearly as fun as the Archbishop implies.
Sure, we can have heated arguments with other nations about our farm subsidies which put the squeeze on third world farmers, or suffer from our own thick-headed steel tariff policy. But when really precious commodities are on the table, the debate becomes very heated.
I'm speaking, naturally, of tequila.
When government tries to prohibit or restrict the sale of an item there is a good chance a black market will emerge.
In case you ever wanted to know the benefits the Taxpayers' Bill of Rights (TABOR) has bestowed on the state of Colorado you can find the Independence Institute's study here, and Bill Hobbs' comments here.
Here's my simple analysis of TABOR: The most important and most productive legislation on the books in any state in the U.S. Any state or nation would do well to emulate it.
This 6.5 strength earthquake in the Dominican Republic is remarkable in that so few people were injured.
I spent a week on vacation there a couple of years ago. Beautiful place.
David Carr finds three prominent British leftists passed away recently and is annoyed that they are being referred to as 'liberals.'
...these men were not 'liberals' they were socialists.
I don't care if I am ploughing a lonely furrow, I am not going to stop campaigning against this gross distortion of language.
You're not alone, David.
Liberal = One who favors greater freedom in political or religious matters; an opponent of the established systems; a reformer - Webster's Unabridged
David rightfully describes the perverted use of the term as a euphemism. It would be poor strategy for for the leftists to describe themselves as 'Statists,' or 'People who are Much Smarter than You and Must Therefore Plan Your Life for You and Save You from Certain Self-Destruction.'
Idle hands are the devil's workshop, and some people in D.C. have way too much time on their hands. Columnist Linda Winer:
What's the matter, America? Worried about Iraq, Afghanistan, the Middle East, North Korea, terrorists at home and abroad, power blackouts, the sanctity of Alaskan wilderness, oil money, air quality at Ground Zero and the world, historic national deficits, unemployment, medicine for the elderly, AIDS in Africa and down the block, nukes, education, world trade, more hanging chads and the vagaries of the odd hurricane?
Hey, relax. Despite the distraction of such pesky irritations, you may rest assured that the government has not lost sight of the real threat to our country and our way of life.
I am speaking, of course, about the scourge of pornography.
No kidding. Although TV gets racier by the week and skin flicks can be rented in the best hotels, the Bush administration is launching a massive crackdown on porn. Late last month, John Ashcroft's Justice Department brought the nation's first case against pornographers under federal obscenity laws in a decade. Two movie producers from the porn capital, California's San Fernando Valley, were arrested Aug. 27 on 10 counts of producing and distributing obscene movies. Each man faces 50 years in prison and a $2.5-million fine.
-and-
Oh, and leaders of 100 anti-porn groups have asked President George W. Bush to make a presidential proclamation, setting aside Oct. 26-Nov. 1 as Pornography Awareness Week. Bush did that sort of stuff when he was governor of Texas.
Which prompts Arthur Silber to write, 'I would have thought that "awareness" of pornography is exactly what these folks didn't want.'
I don't know anything about the person involved here, so I won't comment beyond saying this must be a great personal tragedy for him. From the Jersey Journal:
WEEHAWKEN - Former Union City Police Chief Paul J. Hanak was among 15 people arrested Thursday after a series of police raids by a task force of local law enforcement trying to crack down on heroin and cocaine distribution, reports said.
Hanak, 60, was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia after officers searched his one-bedroom apartment on Dodd Street in Weehawken and found "crack pipes and vials with controlled dangerous substances in plain view," Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said yesterday.
Drug WarRant lists Walter in Denver as a 'Daily Read,' among a small, illustrious group of bloggers. Thanks, and likewise.
Glenn Reynolds got around to mentioning the Rocky article about blogs. He linked to the newspaper article, not this blog.
Anyway, welcome Instapundit readers!
This looks like so much fun. Write a novel, 50,000 words minimum, in 30 days flat. Andy says he's in, and Matt's a solid maybe. Zomby is committed to do it. I'd do it, too, 'cept I just started a new job, and it would be kind of an irresponsible time waster for me. Wait, didn't Andy just start a new job, too? That ruins my excuse.
Remember, "Aiming low is the best way to succeed."
Talkleft points to this letter from the Center for Consumer Freedom, re: MADD is not what you think it is pointing out some of the excesses of that organization:
A MADD billboard compares beer to heroin by depicting a beer bottle as if it were a syringe.
Another MADD billboard shows the following words around empty glasses of alcohol: assault, drowning, burns, rape, suicides.
A MADD television ad argues that "if you think there's a difference" between heroin and alcohol, "you're dead wrong."
The CCF calls MADD 'prohibitionists,' and that is precisely correct. The prohibitionist mindset reasons that the harm of (name your vice) outweighs the benefits, and then they presume to force that value judgement on everyone else. However, the decision to use alcohol or other intoxicant is very personal; the prohibitionist usurps the individual's right to make that decision.
You'd think after the lessons of last century we'd be entirely rid of these sort, but like fascism, socialism, and other failed philosophies they keep coming back, like b-movie zombies. I'm glad to see MADD meeting some organized resistance.
Update: I'm out of beer. Better walk to the store.
Steve Dasbach, one time National Director of the Libertarian Party, has parlayed that experience into a guest writing slot at Samizdata. That has to be an upward move for him.
His article points out how G.W. Bush is much like his predecessors - style over substance.
[George W. is] going to - drum roll, please - appoint a manufacturing czar [the proposed formal title: Assistant Commerce Secretary for Manufacturing and Services].
It's a classic political move. If a president wants to make it look like he's doing something, but has no idea what to do, he appoints a 'czar'. However, a 'Manufacturing Czar' will do nothing to help the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs.
President Nixon started the trend in 1973 by appointing John Love as Energy Czar.[...]
Since then, we've been blessed with Drug Czars, Heath Care Czars, Aids Czars, and Privacy Czars, to name just a few.
President Clinton even appointed a 'Counter-Intelligence Czar' just before he left office, charged with developing:
'a national counterintelligence strategy identifying and prioritizing the keys to American prosperity and security. Informed by such a strategic analysis, the czar will then coordinate the efforts of the intelligence, defense and law enforcement communities.'
We saw how well that worked on September 11, 2001.
Colorado public schools are doing fine, thank you. Just ask the bureaucrats who run the system. They'll tell you that 80% of their students graduate from high school, much better than the national average of 70%.
Wait, what's this? The Manhattan Institute finds that only 68% of Colorado public school students graduate. Why the discrepancy? The Rocky Mountain News thinks perhaps it's because the school officials lied.
Why would anyone trust these people in the first place?
I don't know how to say this, except there's a certain sort of people who don't mind controlling every minute aspect of your life. That thought occurred to me when I read T-Square's post about her car. She's a mom, she has a great vehicle, a 1999 Jeep Cherokee. But, with her growing boys, it's too small. So she wants a bigger truck. I'd hate to think that there are people who'd like to prevent her from improving her situation, but they exist. I don't know if she realizes it, but when T-Square goes out and gets that new truck she's making a political statement that says 'I alone am best able to decide what's best for me and my family. Busybodies stay out!.'
Zombyboy should count his blessings. Because while libertarians detest the slavery of income redistribution many of us still believe the rich guy should always pick up the tab.
I was going to write a little bit about the Sunday show, but I looked over at the official R.E.M. site and they already had an account of the show, here are some excerpts:
Red Rocks, as always, was exceptional. What a setting—many friends and family came in explaining, “I’ve never been to Red Rocks.” Everybody should--a truly magical, breathtaking place. The weekend marked Wilco’s last two shows with us, Ed Harcourt’s first. Other than the staples, completely different sets from the guys: “Sitting Still,” “Rockville,” “World Leader Pretend," “Nightswimming,” and “Pretty Persuasion” (for the first time)... The second night was thankfully warmer and highlighted by R.E.M. guesting on Wilco’s set-closer, Woody Guthrie’s “California Stars.” Then, all the Wilcos plugged in for the penultimate R.E.M. number “Country Feedback,” which, with twin guitar action (Peter and Jeff) at the break, was one of those spine-tingling moments. Very memorable… And a few days in some Denver sunshine in the fashionable LoDo district was a nice respite before the buzz through the mid-west we are now undertaking.
I have to say anyone who puts Wilco on the undercard is taking a risk - they might play better live than most any band in America. When R.E.M. came out and played with them on "California Stars" it was certainly a highlight.
The R.E.M. set was good, they're a better band than when I last saw them (gasp) 15 years ago. Their catalogue is so deep, you can never hear all the songs you'd like on a single night. Between those two bands they could stage an all-day show, and I'd never get bored.
Jesse Walker takes on the Academic Bill of Rights at Reason Online. I've been trying to sort through this issue for the last couple of weeks - no easy task with even mainstream media outlets resorting to over the top rhetoric when discussing the issue:
...the plan is to force the hiring of more conservative faculty members at the state universities through encouragement, mandate or extortion.
Sure it is. Walker's analysis is a little more, ah, reasonable.
Here's what I know: Certain academic fields are populated with a preponderance of leftists. This annoys many right-wingers. The Colorado legislature, controlled by Republicans, would like to get more conservatives into college faculties, and have proposed putting the 'Academic Bill of Rights' into law.
ABOR doesn't call for ideological quotas for faculties, which is the charge leftists have levelled. But obviously the Republicans in the lege think it will have some effect, why else would they propose it?
I'm imagining what ideology quotas would look like. Conservative pundits have suggested looking at voter registrations when surveying faculty members. I could see a bunch of leftist professors registering as Republicans to circumvent the quotas. So that won't work.
What they'll need are loyalty pledges to identify real conservatives. Here's a possible oath for conservative profs:
"I hereby swear I'm conservative. I watch Fox News. I own a gun. I have never driven a Volvo, except as an undergrad. I always knew Al Franken was a little 'off.' I believe life begins at conception, and ends somewhere around the Boulder city limits.
So help me Reagan."
Maybe we can get quotas for Libertarians. There's an idea!
You'll have to write your own oath for that.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, based in France, has released a report comparing educational spending and performance among various nations. Turns out the U.S. spends more than anyone. The A.P. notes:
But American 15-year-olds scored in the middle of the pack in math, reading and science in 2000, and the nation's high school graduation rate was below the world average in 2001.
Our educational system performance lags anyway. Here's the oh-so-predictable response:
Education Secretary Rod Paige said the results confirm that schools here have grown complacent and that a new law tying federal spending to school performance will help.
"I don't think we've come to grips with the urgency of this situation," he said.
Other education advocates said international spending comparisons can be misleading and contend that the federal government is shortchanging schools just as academic expectations soar.
More laws, a new federal program and more money! Why didn't I think of that? Of course it will work!
Here are the numbers:
The United States spent $10,240 per student from elementary school through college in 2000, according to the report. Average spending among more than 25 nations was $6,361. Turkey, Mexico, the Slovak Republic and Poland spent less than $3,000.
This makes no sense to me. As I noted here a couple of months ago, Denver school district spends about $7,180 per student annually. That's highest of any district in the state, but many cities in the U.S. spend more. So it looks to me like our spending is more like $70,000 to $80,000 per student from elementary school through college. Did the report mean $10,240 per year? If that's the case we're really getting ripped off.
TalkLeft alerted me to the latest inanity from the Office of National Drug Control Policy. They've released a report claiming 11 million people have driven while on drugs. Very scary! Except, as NORML points out, they have to fudge the statistics to back up that claim:
Keep in mind that the Drug Czar is treating any presence of THC, even inactive THC metabolites in the blood that may be left from marijuana smoking several days earlier, as evidence that the individual was driving stoned! The Drug Czar has been pressing for state legislation in almost all states that, if enacted, would legally treat any evidence of THC metabolites as proof of being impaired. This latest propaganda is clearly aimed at building support for these terrible laws.
I'd like to think that the use of such transparent scare tactics is evidence that the drug warriors are getting desperate. Maybe I'm too optimistic.
Update: Drug War Rant has much, much more on this subject, including useful information on actual studies on THC impairment and driving.
As a follow-up on the Denver Post story I wrote about here, this Online Journal article details the recent volcanic/hydro-thermal activity around Yellowstone:
Part of America's Yellowstone National Park was closed to visitors on July 23 this year and remains closed today due to high ground temperatures and increased thermal activity in the park...
Then, on August 24th, the University of Utah Seismograph Station reported that a magnitude 4.4 earthquake occurred just 9 miles southeast of the southern entrance to Yellowstone National Park. USGS scientists agreed that the earthquake was "uncommon" in that it was a very shallow earthquake, occuring just 0.3 miles below the surface...
This worrying situation was confirmed on September 8 by Dr. Bruce Cornet, a geologist and paleobotanist with the USGS, who explained: "Steam pressure is apparently building again in Yellowstone, and hydrothermal fluids and steam are working their way up through fractures and vents. If more steam vents appear, that means a continuous pathway for pressure release has been established to the magma chamber. If that happens, the pressure in the magma chamber will continue to drop until it reaches a critical stage when the superheated water within the magma explodes..."
That's only the beginning of what could happen. Read the article for a real doomsday scenario. Then relax because it's not likely to happen in our lifetime. Probably not.
I really ought to get over and visit Yellowstone Park on of these days.
Article via The Light of Reason and Ken Hagler.
My attitude toward my blogroll is a little different than most bloggers. I link to only a handful of sites and I read each of them daily. I'd like to think that since I have so few on the roll that I can lead significant traffic to each site; a longer blogroll would dilute the effect.
So here's the loose guidelines I consider when deciding whether to add a new site.
- A public affairs focus. Blogging about kids and pets is nice, but I want something more.
- A link to this blog. All but a couple of the sites listed on the left link back here. One of the ones that doesn't has long been promising a link. I'm very patient, Stephen.
- The new blog is worth de-linking an old one.
Usually when I add a new blog I take an old one out of the blogroll. Today I'm adding Drug War Rant. Whoever can guess which blog is gone will win a gold star.
As more blogs link to this one I may have to give in and expand the blogroll. I think some new blogs have linked here lately, and I'll have to do something about that.
RoverPundit Matt, patron saint of this blog, narrowly averted joining the rest of the saints. He's got photos, too.
The Rocky Mountain News published today a feature on local blogs and blogging. Here's the opening:
Welcome to the world of blogging:
• Walter in Denver takes a flawed drug test to task.
Wow. I'm quoted extensively later in the article. For the second time now, a widely read print news source has featured this blog prominently. (The first being 5280 Magazine) It's way more than I expected. The Rocky is a tabloid format paper, and the article is introduced by an eye-catching full page graphic on the cover of the Spotlight section.
Matt Moore has a good overview of the article. He's interviewed along with Jeralyn Merritt and a blogger I haven't met, Danelle O'Shea.
So, welcome Rocky readers! The drug study story is here, and a follow-up here, but please do scroll down and peruse some other entries, and feel free to add your opinion via the 'comments' feature.
Update: Danelle says:
I feel a silly kind of proud, like Navin Johnson in the movie The Jerk. "The new phone books are here! The new phone books are here!"
I'm in the paper!
REM and Wilco are playing at Red Rocks tonight. It's like they picked a double bill just for my benefit. I'll tell y'all about it later.
The Denver Post has started a number of blogs. Most are written by people who already have a public voice, IE radio talkshow hosts or writers who already write regular columns. At first glance, they look like regular newspaper columns, except more amateurish. Which is probably how the Post editors feel about blogs.
From a blogger's perspective, they look second rate. Not many (not one?) links to any other blogs, nor have they any in-text links. And if you publish your blog weekly, isn't that pretty much just a regular newspaper column? It's as if these were just articles that couldn't make the cut for the dead-tree edition of the newspaper.
The U.S. is back to shooting down civilian airplanes in Peru. The program had been suspended after a plane carrying Baptist missionaries was shot down, but it has resumed. I guess they think the American public has forgotten, and they're probably right.
Dan Scheltema used to fly there, on those missionary flights. His father still does. Dan has some opinions on the situation.
Arthur Silber has a very informative article detailing how U.S. intervention in Bosnia helped make Al Qaeda a global movement. Seems we could really help ourselves by confining our foreign interventions to matters of self preservation.
Here's the story. Only a handful of musicians can claim to have changed the course of popular music, and Johnny Cash was one. He didn't last long after June Carter Cash was gone, did he?
Living well is the best revenge.
-George Herbert, 1593- 1633
Blogs everywhere are marking the anniversary of 9-11, the sadness, the anger, the defiance. We will win is the common sentiment, but I have to wonder how many of the writers know how to win. Jim Henley has a contrarian take:
Soon the columns, weblogs and airwaves will be full of people instructing us that we must "never forget" what happened in New York City, Washington DC and the sky above western Pennsylvania two years ago. As if any of us could or would forget the despicable acts that took place that day, the heroism, the damage, the wasted lives. What they really mean is not "remember," but dwell. Obsess. Lingeringly finger the scab. And most of all, fall in line when assured that some grand policy, however wise or unwise, is put forth in the name of that day and the atrocities that marked it.
Don't listen to these people. You and I do not need their instruction in how to remember or honor our dead. Nor need we go veiled, cowed or enraged to the end of our days to prove our memories or honor.
This is important because the memory of 9-11 is used to promulgate all sorts of things, like this piece of Tom Tancredo nonsense. Many of these things, including security measures, are counterproductive. As this nation becomes less free, it becomes less able to fight the Islamists and other Luddite-style anti-capitalists.
Radley Balko does know what it will take to win. And he points out Bush administration policies that actually hurt the war against terrorism.
There is a foundation, then, for capitalism to carve out new niches in corners of the globe it’s never reached before. There is an opportunity for vast new swaths of humanity to part with hellish poverty, to reach subsistence, then comfort, and then, eventually, prosperity...
But instead we do things that keep poor countries out of the market:
Just last year, President Bush signed a $246 billion farm subsidies bill... These subsidies enable huge American agro-firms to sell grain on the world market at a fraction of what it costs them to actually grow it. This makes all of these products more expensive for American consumers, but more importantly, it proves to be absolutely devastating for Third World farmers (search), who simply can’t compete. If an American farmer can sell a bushel of corn that cost him $1 to grow for 80 cents, thanks to subsidy checks, he can effectively price a Nigerian corn farmer right out of the market.
Military solutions, although sometimes required, are short term solutions. The long term solution is to build, here at home, the most open, free society with the freest market economy possible.
Just waddled back from our favorite Ethiopian restaurant. The food is ... well we've been going to this place for a decade now. Family run, each dish is made to order. It takes about 20 minutes for the owner/cook to make the dishes for each table. If there are three tables seated ahead of you that means it will be about an hour before she even starts cooking your order. Well worth the wait.
I marvel at the irony, a place infamous for famine produces some of the richest cuisine on the face of the earth. And this place serves it all in gut-busting portions.
The Pixies. THE Pixies. The PIXIES. Pixiespixiespixiespixiespixies. (I'll believe it when I see it.)
The New York State Libertarian Party is doing something useful;
The state Libertarian Party, taking a page from the California recall, is beginning a statewide petition drive to repeal the New York smoking ban. The Libertarians say bar and restaurant owners should have the right to decide whether to permit smoking or not on their property.
Laws that impose a ban on restaurant smoking don't address a real problem - they merely address a perceived inconvenience to nonsmokers, said John Clifton, New York State Libertarian Party chairman. "The smoking ban is a petty infringement on recreational liberties, on behalf of a disputed dogma (the supposed health hazards of second hand smoke)."
You don't have to win elections to be effective. This action is a nice example of the beneficial activities minor political parties can sponsor. It's hard to get a mainstream political group involved with an effort like this. After all, it will be very unpopular in some circles, and politicians are loathe to alienate voters. Libertarians, however, have little to lose.
Good luck, people!
Certain ambitious politicians aren't above using the anniversary of 9-11 to promote distasteful policy goals.
Rep. Tom Tancredo has dropped a plan to commemorate ''victims of illegal immigration and open borders'' on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The event was to include relatives of those who died Sept. 11, as well as people who lost their jobs to illegal immigrants and people injured by illegal immigrant drunken drivers and criminals.
At least someone had the sense to tell Rep. Tancredo how bad the idea was.
The event, however, has been replaced by ''A Day of Remembrance for 9-11 Victims.'' It, too, is sponsored by the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus chaired by Tancredo.
In August, the Colorado Republican was asked if the original event might be seen as equating the Sept. 11 attacks that killed 3,000 people with the crime of crossing the border for a job.
Ya think?
Instapundit has more analysis of the flawed study mentioned here a couple of days ago. He points to an article by Mark Kleiman critiquing the study:
It is hard to escape the thought that many of the people involved were less cautious than they might have been because the results seemed to support their already strongly-held beliefs.
Recreational drugs are bad. Our study shows these drugs to be harmful. Therefore our study must be correct.
More Kleiman:
Even before the retraction, then, Ricaurte's work was under a cloud. One very senior figure in the field had said in an open scientific meeting "I will believe any result George Ricaurte comes up with as soon as it has been independently confirmed."
Yet our government is basing drug policy in Ricaurte's research.
I'm glad to see the Instapundit, 800 lb gorilla of the internet, is taking an interest in the story. Of course regular readers know Walter in Denver was on the story a good 15 hours before. (It matters! No, really!)
I found, online, the original script to the movie Kafka, one of my all time favorites. The script varies considerably from the movie in places, and makes for great reading, especially if you remember the movie. Oh, perhaps I'm the only one who remembers the movie.
The movie's dialogue, the terseness, the layers of meaning, is what makes me watch it again and again.
_________________________________________________________________
CHIEF CLERK
Have you never wondered -- and I
mention this only in passing --
(as he paces past and
Kafka turns his head)
why other clerks have advanced to
more responsible positions while you,
who have been here longer, have not?
KAFKA
No, sir.
CHIEF CLERK
Attitude, Kafka. It doesn't matter
how well you do your work -- you
still see it as something to be
gotten on with rather than something
to take an active interest in.
KAFKA
(leans forward in
rebuttal)
Well, I --
CHIEF CLERK
(keeps pacing)
Oh, I know you got along with that
poor fellow -- what was his name?
KAFKA
-- Eduard --
CHIEF CLERK
-- Yes -- Raban -- but he was too
much like you -- even more so
perhaps. He wasn't here as long as
you, so I didn't know him as well --
but I could see the influence he was
having. I simply want you to be
aware of this because you'll be
happier for it.
Kafka merely nods, starts to get up.
CHIEF CLERK
In any case -- don't ask me why --
the word has come down you're to
be promoted.
Kafka sits back down in the chair.
CHIEF CLERK
Your colleague's death has helped
precipitate the need, though I can
tell you it's been under
consideration for some time. You're
to be given two assistants and a
commensurate rise in salary.
(sits back behind
desk)
That's all.
Kafka nods once, starts to go again.
CHIEF CLERK
Kafka.
Kafka turns.
CHIEF CLERK
I understand you fancy yourself an
author.
KAFKA
(almost visibly
cringes)
In a small way.
CHIEF CLERK
You might find a more athletic
hobby -- put some color in your
cheeks.
________________________________________________________________
If, by rarest of chance, you are a fan of the movie you must read the script. The ending is quite different from the one you see on film.
Chris Matthew Sciabarra writes a tribute to the buildings themselves. Ayn Rand is mentioned.
The Light of Reason is one year old. Arthur has lots of new material to peruse, go ahead and look. It takes me a week to write as much as he produces on an average day.
...this time in Chicago, reported by the Chicago Tribune:
The Chicago Police Department calls it an unfortunate mistake. Earline Jackson, a widow whose address was mistakenly listed on a narcotics search warrant, calls it the scariest night of her life...
The incident unfolded at 3 a.m. Friday while Jackson, who lives alone, was asleep. She said police knocked open her wrought-iron gate, pried open her steel door, then rammed an ornate wood door with a heavy object--causing a glass window to pop out and break on the floor.
Jackson said she ran outside in her nightgown because she thought someone had broken in. She said this had happened before, though not while she was at home.
Once on her back porch, she ran upstairs and knocked at the flat of her daughter-in-law, Katherine Jackson. When both women noticed police cars in the street, they went downstairs again.
"I saw them going through all my personal belongings," Earline Jackson said. "One of them had some of my clothes in his hand, and another one was looking under my mattress."
Link via Jeff Trigg, who adds the perfect one-word synopsis - "Insanity!"
Next time the drug nannies sound the alarm about a recreational drug like ecstasy, telling you users are at great risk of horrible calamity, you might remember this.
Seems a highly touted study found that 20% of monkeys and other primates injected with ecstasy dropped dead after just one dose, and survivors suffered severe neurological damage.
Oops. Now we know the substance wasn't ecstasy at all. The researchers 'mistakenly' used a much more poisonous substance in the study. Ecstasy doesn't do those sorts of things at all. This faulty research was used to pressure congress to pass the abominable "Rave Act." Do you think congress will now change its mind?
Link via TalkLeft.
Update: Arthur Silber has already commented on this story, quoting from the Washington Post:
The error has renewed charges that government-funded scientists, and Ricaurte in particular, have been biased in their assessment of ecstasy's risks and potential benefits.
And adding:
Government-funded scientists biased? No! Say it isn't so!
"Could this election be any more fun?"
And it couldn't happen to a nicer state.
My blog reading, like my blogroll, is confined mostly to politics/public affairs oriented sites. The vast majority of blogs are devoted to other subjects, most mundane, but some fascinating. Take Graham, for instance. He's a first year med student at Stanford, just started classes a few days ago. His prose is more than adequate, and the results are very readable. Find out how he feels about dissecting a cadaver for the first time.
It's so interesting I can even forgive him supporting nationalized health care.
Let's take a short break from the serious stuff and talk sports. This Saturday Western New Mexico plays a football game at New Mexico State. WNM is a division II team, NMSU division I-A, two divisions better. El Paso (TX) Times reporter Darren Hunt interviewed Western New Mexico's coach Charley Wade, and posted this quote on an online college sports forum:
"I'm praying for the shortest game in the history of college football. We've just got to try and kill the clock the best we can. We'll show up, but you know, there's always the chance the bus will break down and we can't make it." Wade had the following response after a WNMU athletic deparment official pointed out to him that David beat Goliath in the bible: "I'm a religious man, and one thing I realize with David and Goliath is God had a reason for that. But I have never been convinced that God gives a flip about the outcome of a college football game. Besides, we've been trying to find slingshots, and we can't find the damn things. You ever tried to find a slingshot?"
A lawsuit against Bethlehem, PA police is asking for $1 Billion in damages for a drug raid that killed a young man. Some of the allegations from the suit:
The plaintiffs say an 11-man special operations team recklessly attacked the home April 23, 1997, and left Hirko's body to burn in a fire after Hirko was shot 11 times in the back. The home went up in flames after police tossed a "flash-bang" concussion grenade into the living room.
...
Hirko's fiancée, Kristin Fodi, barely escaped by jumping out a second-floor window after police refused to assist her, Karoly said.
...
Five months after Hirko died, state Attorney General Mike Fisher announced Bethlehem police acted in self defense because Hirko fired a handgun at police.
...
Insisting Hirko was unarmed, Karoly said evidence shows the gun was wrapped in a sweatshirt and had no trace of Hirko's skin on it. According to Karoly, all of the handgun's ammunition was intact, and no expended shell casings from the weapon were ever found.
Hopefully cases like this will cause police departments around the nation to carefully consider the way they conduct drug raids. The potential for innocents to be hurt is very high, and police departments should be held accountable.
We taxpayers should be very concerned that ultimately we will be paying for any screw-ups by our drug warriors.
This editorial from The Union Leader doesn't require any further comment:
HAD THERE been any doubts about the direction the Republican Party is headed, they vanished last week when Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie visited New Hampshire...
[T]oday the Republican Party stands for giving the American people whatever the latest polls say they want. The people want the federal government to tell states how to run local schools? Then that’s what the Republican Party wants, too. The people want expanded entitlement programs and a federal government that attends to their every desire, no matter how frivolous? Then that’s what the Republican Party wants, too.
The party’s unofficial but clear message to conservatives is: Where else are you going to go? To the Democrats? To the Libertarians? They don’t think so.
Via Arthur Silber, who does see fit to add a few comments.