Reverse Blogwhoring: Arizona Blues, Part 1

I've been spending a lot of time on Pharyngula since the shootings in Arizona Saturday, and I thought I might post versions of a couple of my longer comments there as blog posts here... which is a turnaround on the usual blogwhoring practice of commenting at some other blog for no reason other than to redirect traffic to your own. So here's the first comment, in response to another commenter who had objected to a plan from Rep. Robert Brady (D-PA) to criminalize "language or symbols that could be perceived as threatening or inciting violence against a Member of Congress or federal official," in part on the grounds that it was cowardly of a congressman to attempt to safeguard himself and his federal colleagues when others had been injured and killed. I said...

I agree that Brady's proposal may be wrongheaded — credible threats of violence against public officials are (AFAIK) already illegal, and Brady's proposed change would put protected political speech at risk of prior restraint on the basis of what is effectively subjective literary analysis — but to suggest his motivation for making it is cowardly personal self-protection is, you'll pardon me for saying so, foolish on your part.

The security of our elected representatives is an important issue not because they're too cowardly to face the risk, but because they're our elected representatives! They deserve extra protection under the law not because they're more valuable as individuals than "regular people," but because, in addition to their value as individuals, they represent the rest of us. When the gunman fired a bullet into the brain of Gabby Giffords, he was not only attacking a daughter, a wife, a sister-in-law, a respected colleague, and no doubt a friend to legions; he was also attacking every citizen in her district by proxy, and attacking the very concept of representative government¹. When you target a public figure for violence, you're doing violence not only to a person, but also to everything the office that person holds stands for... and thus to everyone that office represents.

The tragic price paid by others in that crowd should make us more determined, rather than less, to stand up for the personal inviolability of those individuals willing to take on the grave responsibility of public service.

My own congressman is also a friend; in fact, I was talking to him at a local event Saturday morning, perhaps at the time this was happening in Arizona. When I got home and saw this news, my blood ran cold. I don't need to think my congressman is a coward — in fact, he is the polar opposite of that — to be desperately concerned for his safety. If some deranged right-wing gun nut comes for him at a public event, there's a chance I'll be there, and at risk... but it's certain he'll be there. I need him to stay safe, and we all need an environment in which it's safe for our leaders to lead.


¹ Please note: I'm not making wild suppositions about his motivations here; I'm making observations about the impact of his actual acts.

My Letter to Senator Mark Warner

It's been a long time since I've posted here, and I really wasn't sure I'd ever return to this blog, but I had something I wanted to get off my chest, and it didn't fit in my newer foodie blog: Yesterday I noticed a Huffington Post story in which Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia is quoted as equating the "super left" of the Democratic Party and the "MoveOn.org crowd" with the extremists of the Tea Party movement.

As it happens, Sen. Warner spent part of his young life in my home town of Vernon, CT, and graduated from the local high school. I've met him on a couple occasions at fundraisers for Vernon resident, Congressman Joe Courtney, and I cheered as loudly as anyone when Warner was elected to the Senate in 2008, replacing the retiring Republican John Warner (no relation). I knew he was more conservative than I am, and that Virginia is more conservative than Connecticut, but his attack on Democratic progressives saddened me, and I felt I had to respond. Here is the text of the letter I just posted to his Senate website:

Dear Senator Warner:

I am not a Virginia constituent, but I am a proud resident of your old home town of Vernon, Connecticut. I’ve met you on a couple occasions when you’ve been gracious enough to lend your presence to fundraisers for my congressman, Joe Courtney, and I had a brief friendly chat with your father at the polls this year on primary day. Vernon and Rockville High School are proud to call you our own.

So it was with more than a little dismay that I read your recent comments equating the “super left” of the Democratic Party and the “MoveOn crowd” with the Tea Party movement on the right. Obviously I don’t have the inside knowledge you do, but to a relatively well informed, engaged layperson like myself, this comparison smacks of the very same sort of false equivalency that has folks claiming Rachel Maddow is a mirror image of Glenn Beck, and that leads the media to treat paranoia about “death panels” and birth certificates (or, more recently, assertions that the president is spending $200 million per day to travel to India) as if they were legitimate news stories, on the same level as stories based on actual facts.

I recognize that both your state and you personally are relatively conservative, and there are surely factions of the Democratic Party that are well to your left. I don’t think MoveOn is really as far to the left, ideologically, as the Tea Party seems to be to the right, but even if we stipulate that it is, there’s a world of difference between rational, principled advocacy of an ideological position, on the one hand, and the sort of inchoate rage and fact-free fearmongering I have personally witnessed from the Tea Party.

Last summer I attended several of Congressman Courtney’s Town Hall meetings on the topic of health care reform, at which the crowds were dominated by self-identified Tea Party activists. I’m quite sure you would have been shocked to see the rage and personal insult directed at your friend Joe Courtney, who is as thoughtful and principled a man as I have yet met in public life. These remain the only political events I’ve ever attended at which I have been nervous about my physical safety; these crowds were much ruder – and much less rational or well informed – than anything I’ve ever witnessed on the left… including several passionate anti-war rallies hosted by MoveOn and similar groups during the Bush administration. And based on what we witnessed during the run-up to the recently completed elections, the Tea Party has gotten worse rather than better since those angry summer days.

Clearly you have philosophical differences with some Democrats to your left (including, no doubt, me), and more power to you for speaking out. But please refrain from making sweeping equations between our party’s left and the craziest elements of the American right; such comments can’t possibly add anything useful to our already severely challenged political discourse.

Thank you for your attention…

I actually agree with Sen. Warner that extremism in our political discourse can be toxic, but I think we far too frequently mistake strong ideological differences with extremism, and we too quickly judge the worth of ideas by their distance from the ideological center rather than by their rationality, humanity, and basis in fact.

No doubt there are thoughtful people in the Tea Party movement, but that doesn't mean it and MoveOn (for example) are comparable: The most "extreme" progressives and liberals I know are by no stretch of the imagination equivalent to the hateful, rude, and stubbornly ignorant people I have personally met and experienced among self-proclaimed Tea Partiers. I respect Sen. Warner's opinion, but there really aren't always two equal sides to every contest.

Call Your Representatives To Support Healthcare

I've been meaning to resuscitate this blog for a while, now, and as before, it's a political imperative that's gotten me off the dime. This coming week, the U.S. House of Representatives may finally take the crucial step in getting healthcare reform passed. While you may have already registered your support with your members of Congress, it's important that you do so again: The opponents of reform are more active and vocal than ever, and your representatives need to know not only what your opinion is, but that their constituents have their backs on this. It's personal for me, but it's also an important step forward in this nation's public policy.

At the risk of repeating myself a bit, here's the text of an e-mail I've just sent to my local political friends and associates:

It looks like the U.S. House of Representatives may take the crucial votes on passing healthcare reform sometime in the coming week. I've just called Joe Courtney's district office in Enfield (860-741-6011) to register my support for passage, and I'm writing to urge you all to do the same.

Many, if not most, of you know Joe and have spoken to him on this issue, but while Joe already knows where we stand (and we know where he does), he's mentioned to me in the past that numbers of phone calls, letters, and e-mails -- for and against -- matter, because his office gets requests for the tallies. So even though this is something that ought to "go without saying," it's important that we call and actually say it. And please pass this reminder along to your other friends within the 2nd CD, post it to your Facebook page or blog, or do whatever else you can to get the word out. It's important that our representatives hear from all of us.

You can call the Enfield office any time -- no need to wait for business hours -- and leave a voicemail. And while the action this coming week will be in the House, it wouldn't be a bad idea to also call our senators (Sen. Dodd's CT office phone number is 860-258-6940 and Sen. Lieberman's is 860-549-8463), and to remind the White House that it's crucial the President continue to lead on this issue.

Healthcare reform is a vital issue for all Americans; we need to be sure the voices of the naysayers don't drown ours out.

If you're reading this from somewhere other than the 2nd Congressional District of Connecticut, here's a tool to help you contact your own congressperson and senators. Please do it today!

My Letter to the President

Well, I've been meaning to reanimate this blog (again), and today's news that Barack Obama plans to announce a multiyear freeze on much of the discretionary federal budget has sufficiently pissed me off to finally prompt a new entry. Actually, it prompted me to write a letter to the White House, already delivered through the online system, with a signed paper copy going in Wednesday's mail. Rather than reinvent the wheel, let me just tell you what I told the president:

Dear Mr. President:

My name is Bill Dauphin, and I’m proud to be your constituent and your supporter. You called the nation to hope, and I responded with time and treasure, phonebanking and canvassing for you in the Hartford, Connecticut, area during both the primary and general election campaigns. When I stood on the Mall, just over a year ago, and watched you sworn into office, it was one of the proudest moments of my nearly 50 years of life.

In today’s news comes word that you plan to announce a long-term freeze on discretionary nondefense federal spending. As I write this, of course, you have not yet given your State of the Union Address or announced the details of your proposal; perhaps the final plan will not terrify and disappoint me as much as what I have heard today does. But for today, I am both disappointed and terrified: At a time when we desperately need a robust government, acting in meaningful and sustained ways to reform our healthcare system, create new jobs, develop new green energy technologies, address climate change, rebuild our infrastructure, reform public education, end our wars and bring our troops home, and rebuild the shattered trust of the world… at a time when we so urgently need to move forward on all of that, an a priori promise to freeze the budget seems instead like a retreat into the pernicious Reagan-era falsehood that “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”

I beg you, sir: don’t give in. I know the American people seem angry, but surely you realize much of that anger is born of manufactured fear, the result of deliberate and cynical manipulation on the part of the enemies of progress. You must not let your policies mirror the people’s fear: This is a moment instead for leadership. Where federal programs are truly ineffective or wasteful, by all means you must cut them. But you also know that much of what the government does, it does better, and more efficiently, than the private sector can, and much more of what government does is that which the free market would never provide at any price. To accomplish the things you dared us all to hope for will require investment, not parsimony. Raise taxes if you must – raise my taxes – but do not abandon our nation’s future, my daughter’s future, for the sake of a superficial veneer of “fiscal responsibility” and a brief moment of political calm.

You called your book The Audacity of Hope. Well, we’ve had the hope; it’s time for the audacity.

As I say in the letter, maybe it'll all look better after the big speech... but frankly, I ain't waitin' underwater. For all that some have been frustrated with him, Obama represents the best combination of intelligence, progressive ideals, and political pragmatism we've had since the 60s; if he can't outwit, outlast, or outplay the lies and fearmongering of the nattering antigoverenment mob, we are well and truly hosed.

Anybody know if they sell a Rosetta Stone program for New Zealandish?

Oh, No You Don't

I know lots of folks on the left are somewhere between disappointed in and royally pissed off at Chris Dodd, but we Democrats here in the 2nd CD of Connecticut worked too hard, too recently, to get rid of Rob Simmons to let this happen.

My first real active involvement in politics began in 2006, and one of the key elements in waking me up was a (then) high school kid who put up a blog called Bye Bye, Rob, devoted to helping Joe Courtney take Simmons' place in the House. Having successfully said bye bye, I'm not inclined to say howdy to Simmons in 2010.

This is just the beginning, of course, but unless someone can show me a Democrat who can beat Dodd, and beat Simmons, and deliver more for progressives than Dodd has over the years, I know who I'll be supporting for Senate in 2010.

First Drugs, Now Sex; Can Rock and Roll Be Far Behind?

After yesterday's revelation that federal agents would no longer raid medical marijuana distributors that are operating legally under state law, now comes word that talks have begun on ending the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy regarding gays in the military.

It's like I said: Quietly, without fanfare, we're seeing the basic attitudes of our government change for the better. Republicans may fear an activist government; I cheer one that increasingly treats me like an adult.

Is It Polite To Say "No Shit, Sherlock!" to the SecDef?

Because that's the only response I can think of to this headline:

Gates: Obama is ‘more analytical’ than Bush.

Nice to have a master of understatement leading our forces, eh? Actually, now that I think about it, it is nice to have a master of understatement leading our forces.

Not With a Bong, But a Whimper

The Michael Phelps/bong hit story broke during my recent blogging interregnum, so I haven't had a chance to favor you with my thoughts on the matter. I don't actually have a dog in this fight: I don't smoke pot, and with the exception of a tiny handful of furtive, youthful experiments, I never have. That said, I thought all the hoohaw over the picture of Phelps with a bong was ridiculous.

Understand: Pot is not a performance-enhancing drug (maybe for archers or biathletes, but not swimmers!), nor (by all accounts) is it banned by FINA outside of competition... so there was no issue of "cheating," a la the steroid and human growth hormone revelations in baseball or the blood doping and erythropoietin (EPO) scandals in cycling. Further, while I doubt anybody would claim with a straight face that the infamous picture doesn't show Phelps actually smoking pot, it certainly doesn't constitute clear evidence that he was: There's no way to prove, from the photo alone, that there was pot (or anything, for that matter) in the bong. So it's not surprising that authorities declined to prosecute him.

In fact, it's shocking that they would even think about it: Under South Carolina law, possession of an ounce or less is a misdemeanor. I would never argue that Phelps should get special favors because of his fame, but he shouldn't be harassed because of it, either... and when was the last time you heard of a "regular person" being prosecuted because a photo of him possibly committing a simple misdemeanor showed up on teh intertoobz months after the fact? Let's be serious, shall we?

Ahh, but the Richland Country sheriff apparently has a rep to maintain as a Miami Vice-style crusader against "drug crime." Not for nothin', but haven't we had about enough of law enforcement from the Carolinas trying to make a name for itself on the backs of prominent athletes? And isn't calling this a "drug crime" a bit hyperbolic anyway? What Phelps did was partake of a mild intoxicant while enjoying himself at a party. If it had been a beer or a glass of wine (or a Sardonic Buddha), nobody would've thought a thing of it. And if we had halfway rational laws on this point, the law would treat it just as if it were a beer or a glass of wine.

Well maybe, just maybe, we're getting a little more rational. In the wake of the Phelps story, Rob Kall of the Huffington Post suggested that it might hint at a turning point in drug policy; today, relatively quietly amid the continuing cacophony of economic woes and the gathering budget battle, comes word that the federal government will no longer raid distributors of medical marijuana in states where it is legal. It's not legalization, nor is it exactly an earthshattering shift in policy... but I think it represents a shift in attitude, a move away from the stern-daddy disapproval of conservative rule, that will eventually lead to liberalization of social policy on many fronts. Every journey begins with but a single step, after all.

To paraphrase T.S. Eliot, "this is the way a policy ends."

Funny How Time Slips Away

I really don't have much to say about the passing of Paul Harvey... but it was a shock, when I heard the news tonight, to realize how long it's been since I last actually heard that iconic voice. I still hear it in my head, and have often imitated it, when promising to tell someone the rest... of the story.

Calhoun Agonistes

Today the UConn men's basketball team won its last home game of the regular season, ensuring that it will be ranked No.1 in the next national rankings and leaving only the season's final game between the team and its 11th Big East championship. Three seniors were honored, and a banner was unfurled celebrating Jim Calhoun's 800th career victory as an NCAA Division I head coach, achieved in the previous game at Marquette.

Calhoun, already enshrined in basketball's Hall of Fame, is only the 7th men's basketball coach in NCAA history to reach the 800 wins milestone. He's won 2 national championships at UConn, and this year's team, which Calhoun has said he loves coaching, appears well positioned to make a serious run at another title. So everything in Jim Calhoun's life must be just great, right?

Not so much.

You see, a week ago, at a postgame press conference, Calhoun had a testy exchange with local blogger, photojournalist, and political activist Ken Krayeske, who asked Calhoun how much of his $1.6 million state salary he planned to give back to help ease Connecticut's budget crisis. "Not one dime" was Calhoun's emphatic response, and the circus was on. A week later we've heard from everyone and his half-brother, up to and including members of the Connecticut legislature and even our Grandma Governor herself... and it doesn't look like the story is going away any time soon.

So here are my thoughts, for whatever they're worth:

• Even before this incident I knew, from various news coverage and sports columnists, that Calhoun had the potential to, on occasion, Not Be a Very Nice Man™. But if you only listened to the reactions, and didn't see the video, you'd think he'd thrown a Bobby Knight-style tantrum. In fact, he doesn't say anything obscene or abusive or threatening; he doesn't throw anything or make any threatening gestures or leave the podium; and while he raises his voice, it would hardly qualify (at least on the video I've seen) as screaming or even really yelling. He gives a combative, rude answer to what was frankly a combative, rude question; as Hartford Courant "On the Fly" sports columnist Don Amore said in Friday's paper, "Reporters do get yelled at once in a while." (Print only, apparently; sorry for the lack of link.) It's part of the job.

• There may be a serious conversation to be had about why we pay coaches so much money in this society, but ambushing Calhoun in public about his salary probably hasn't started that conversation, or really shed any light on the underlying issue, as the Courant's Jeff Jacobs (no Calhoun lapdog) pointed out recently. $1.6 million in salary (and much more in ancillary income) may seem like a lot of money for teaching kids to play ball, but by the standards of his profession, Calhoun is not overpaid... especially when you consider he's arguably one of the 7 best ever to do what he does.

• It bothers me to single out folks and ask them to give back money they've legitimately earned just because they earned it working for the public. It seems reasonable when we're talking about highly paid public employees like Calhoun, who could seem to spare a dime or two... but it's all too easy to apply the same logic to rank-and-file public employees, who are already underpaid and underappreciated even in the best of times. Indeed, by some accounts, it was Krayeske's concern over proposed cuts to lower-level state employees. I salute that concern, but I fear that telling Calhoun "your money comes from the state, and the state needs it back" risks setting a precedent that will ultimately harm all public employees, rather than helping the less fortunate ones.

• More broadly, it doesn't strike me as fair to single out individuals for systemic social problems. I'm a progressive: I support more progressive taxation, and I believe that the huge disparity between the poorest and wealthiest among us is a problem that urgency requires solutions. But it requires systemic solutions; just singling out wealthy individuals for demonization takes us farther from, not closer to, sustainable answers to this issue.

• Finally, many of us think the UConn basketball program is a good investment. Not only does it create countless jobs far beyond the borders of the Storrs campus, but it makes countless Connecticut citizens happy. Not just the coaches and players, and the players' fellow students, but also people like me, who have no personal connection to the university but cheer its teams as our own. At UConn, due in large part to the personal efforts of Jim Calhoun and his fellow Hall of Famer, women's coach Geno Auriemma, basketball is a source of pride throughout the state. It's easy to say that times are hard, and some luxuries need to be discarded... but its just as true that in hard times, people need even more desperately to have things to cheer for, and to help them stave off the despair they can too easily fall into. Entertainment — including sports — has a long history of helping see us through dark times; we should remember that when we're tempted to demonize it as wasteful or frivolous.
  

Zounds!

Wow. Get a little busy at work, have a couple weeks of inexplicable sore neck, and somehow, before you know it, your $100 tennis racket needs to be restrung. And I haven't just been neglecting this blog, I've also been ignoring my Facebook page and commenting less than usual at Pharyngula. The truth is, I just haven't been spending much time at my home keyboard; the scary thing is how quickly a temporary lull can turn into weeks.

It's not that I haven't had things to say; I've just lacked the energy, or maybe the presence of mind, to say them. Starting this evening, I'm going to try and turn that around. More latersoon.

A Bit Early for Cherry Blossoms

A while back I mentioned that I was interested in experimenting with a martini-like cocktail using kirschwasser in place of the dry vermouth.

A couple days ago, I gave it a whirl. Starting with the extra-dry (8-to-1) martini recipe from Mr. Boston Platinum, I simply replaced the 1/4 oz of vermouth with an equal quantity of kirsch, and then added a dash of orange bitters, per the classic original martini recipe described in the guide's introduction. In this first try, the cherry flavor of the kirsch was virtually undetectable, so I tried again, doubling the amount of kirsch and leaving everything else the same.

Honestly, this drink still tastes mostly like gin (I used Hendricks), but that's the way of all martinis, isn't it (and hardly a bad thing, I might add)? It does have a somewhat brighter flavor than a martini made with vermouth; while I wouldn't encourage anyone to run out and buy kirsch for this purpose, it might make an amusing variation if you have some at hand:

Martini Blossom

• 2 oz gin
• 1/2 oz kirschwasser
• dash orange bitters
• garnish w/twist of lime

BTW, if you don't already have orange bitters in your liquor cabinet, it can be hard to find in stores, but you can buy it online.

A President I Can Get Behind

Noted without comment:

Last Dance in DC

I realize the shelf-life of "what I did at the inauguration" posts is just about expired, but I did promise I'd post my pictures from Monday. I started out by volunteering at the MLK Day of Service event at RFK Stadium, assembling care packages for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan (does anyone else recall that "CARE package" used to mean something more specific?). Also helping us pack goodie bags were (during my shift) incoming Attorney General Eric Holder, incoming VA Secretary Gen. Eric Shinseki, incoming Homeland Security Secretary Gov. Janet Napolitano, and Senator Chris Dodd (with his kids). Plus, I gather, my group just missed seeing Michelle Obama. As far as I could see, these worthies were actually taking turns working; not just gladhanding and talking to the press.

After my shift was up, I headed over to the Cannon House Office Building to visit the office of Joe Courtney. I didn't have tickets to pick up, but I thought it would be fun to see the office, and to say hello to some Courtney staffers I'd met in the course of a couple campaigns (including John Hollay, the first person I met who knew not only that Obama would be president someday, but that 2008 would be the time). I should've thought harder about this: It turned out that the very many people who did have inauguration tickets to pick up accounted for lines, at each of the public entrances, stretching halfway around the building. I decided it would be the better part of valor to leave the congressional offices to those with actual business there.

So I wandered over to the Capitol, to look at the preparations underway for Tuesday's ceremony, and then down the Mall, checking out street vendors' wares (don't let anyone tell you Obama is bad for entrepreneurship!) and stopping in to visit several museums. The U.S. Botanic Garden was a particularly welcome island of warmth on a frigid day, and I also stopped in at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (as it turned out, my spot on the Mall Tuesday would be adjacent to the Hirshhorn). And, of course, the space cadet in me finds it impossible to visit DC without at least poking my nose into the National Air & Space Museum.

Frozen but well satisfied, I headed back to the Metro, and out to the friends I was staying with in Virginia. As for Tuesday's event, until I'm able to upload my handful of cellphone images, all I can offer are my handsome commemorative tickets from the very excellent Virginia Railway Express commuter train. VRE is selling the leftover tickets to collectors, but mine are legitimately "game used":

The Department of Unintended Truth

Is is just me, or does the masthead/logo for Sarah Palin's new political action committee betray her true intention: to blow an Alaska-sized hole in the country:



Jus' sayin'...

(h/t HuffPo)

Has It Really Been a Week?

OK, I stupidly lost most of my pictures from DC, and the ones I managed to salvage weren't great, but I've finally got what I do have sorted out. Here I am on Sunday, at the We Are One event at the Lincoln Memorial (click here to go to my album from Sunday):


And if my bad photos aren't enough, here's my bad, handheld, movie-clip video of a wonderful moment from Sunday's concert:



Oh, and by the way, in case you missed it amid all the excitement about Tuesday's swearing in, the (then) President-elect gave a great speech on Sunday:



As I noted, I've lost all my pictures from Tuesday's event (except for a few in my cellphone, if I can ever figure out how to download them), but I did get some from my wandering around town on Monday. I'll post those tomorrow.

My Letter to the White House

PZ Myers, Cephalopod Overlord of Pharyngula, noticed a certain lightness of being in the air yesterday, and I couldn't agree more.

In fact, I was moved — for the first time in my life — to actually write a letter to a sitting president:

Mr. President: I want to thank you for moving quickly on closing Guantanamo and CIA black sites, on lifting the global gag order and endorsing stem cell research, and on committing your administration to transparency and openness. I knew these were your values and goals when I was knocking on doors and making phonecalls, but it's gratifying to see them so decisively reaffirmed in your first days in office. I know there will inevitably be setbacks, but I look forward to great things ahead.

I could've gone on at greater, more effusive length (no big surprise to those who know me), but the contact form at the White House website has a 500 character limit.

Oh, well... suffice it to say that Obama's first 50-some hours in office show him to be a man who knows there's work to be done.

An Epic Celebration... and an EPIC FAIL!

The absence of posts for almost a week isn't a sign that I've fallen back into my previous bloglazy habits, it's just that I've been ramblin'. I traveled to our nation's capitol for the inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama II as the 44th President of the United States (FSM, that sounds great!). The whole thing was wonderful, from the Sunday concert at the Lincoln Memorial to the inaugural ceremony itself.

Now for the EPIC FAIL part: I'd post pictures, but somehow I managed to either hash or accidentally delete about half of my digital photos, including all of what I shot on inauguration day. Of what's left, about half are still stuck in the camera (don't ask how electrons can get stuck, either... just know that I can see them on the camera's screen, but I can't get them to my computer). I am, as they say,"working the problem," and I'll have some pictures to post soon, I hope. In the meantime, here's a transcendent (and unexpected) moment from Sunday:



...and another moment of blinding beauty from Tuesday:



Watch Yo-Yo Ma's face as he plays: The joy you see there is some hint at what I was feeling, standing proudly with my fellow citizens at the third Jumbo-Tron back from the platform.

More later...

Update, 5:33 pm: Apparently the quartet employed a prerecorded hedge against the cold. Doesn't diminish my admiration at all: They were really playing, and what we in the crowd heard was really them... even if it was an earlier "take."

I Won't Be Doing Field Research... I Promise!

I'm getting ready for my trip to Washington, DC, to party like it's 2009, so imagine my bemusement when I saw this story in the Huffington Post!

Establishing a Prostitution-Free Zone (PFZ) strikes me as somewhat strange in a city (and nation) where prostitution is already illegal. Are they saying that in the Zone it's "not only merely illegal; it's really most sincerely illegal"? Will they set up Prostitution Benignly Neglected Zones (PBNZs) in other parts of the city, far from the tremulous gaze of the gathered multitude?

Enquiring minds want to know!

Ahh, but this enquiring mind intends to stay out of trouble. I expect to post plenty of interesting tales and pictures when I return, but none of them will be about this topic. Honest. ;^)

Have A Cocktail!

I may have mentioned it here before, but my devotion to Air America's Rachel Maddow Show has driven me to drink!

Actually, it's just that Rachel is a cocktail enthusiast... and since I've been listening to her, I've become one, too. Last year I got a couple bartender's guides for Christmas, and this year my daughter gave me a cool cocktail chemistry set.

So I figured it was time to go into the lab and cook something up. Flipping through my books, I hit upon a drink called Everybody's Irish, made with Irish whiskey, green creme de menthe, and green Chartreuse. It was a good drink but the creme de menthe made it too sweet for my taste (ironically, since I love mint, and it was the creme de menthe that initially drew me to the recipe), so I tried a version replacing the creme de menthe with Zen green tea liqueur, which tasted much better.

That version, which I called an Irish Buddha, turned out to be a transitional form, though: No sooner had I finished the first one than I started to think it might be even better if I made it with rye (I like Michter's Single Barrel), and finally the Sardonic Buddha was born:

• 2 oz Rye Whiskey
• 2 tsp Zen Green Tea Liqueur
• 1 tsp Green Chartreuse

The mossy green color of the final drink may take some getting used to, but the earthy rye blends exceedingly well with the green tea liqueur, and the herbal Chartreuse adds just the right amount of complexity and bite. I didn't think the green olive garnish specified in the original Everybody's Irish recipe would match, so I omit it. I think the right garnish will turn out to be a bit of sushi-style pickled ginger, but I haven't had a chance to try that yet.

Enjoy!

Next Up: I had the kirschwasser out over the holidays, because we were making fondue... and the odd thought hit me of trying some sort of martini, using kirsch in place of vermouth. It might be horrible, but if it turns out OK, you'll read about it here.

Who Says Government Can't Get Anything Right?

I'm planning to travel to Washington, DC, for the inauguration, and I've been getting my travel ducks in a row. In the process of researching Metro schedules and costs, I discovered that they're selling commemorative farecards. Well, I fired off an online order, somewhat worried that it wouldn't reach me before I had to leave, but thinking it would be a nice souvenir in any case. This was late Thursday evening.

Well, my card...
...arrived in Saturday's mail! I confess to being flabbergasted that the order was filled so quickly. OK, so a metropolitan transit authority is only quasi-governmental, but still, you gotta be at least a little bit impressed, no?

In other inauguration-trip news.... I'm planning to travel on Sunday, and I had been debating with myself over whether it was worth trying to get there in time for the free Sunday evening kickoff event at the Lincoln Memorial. Well, if the entertainment roster hadn't already made up my mind for me, I think this would have: I had tired of the kerfuffle over Rick Warren's participation in the swearing in, but surely a gay Episcopal bishop is as close to a Warren antidote as you can get!

A Reason To Spend Thursday Evening Bowling

This is about as far as I can imagine from being Must See TV! I can only wonder whether the networks will give this lamest of lame ducks the time he requests. If this were The West Wing, probably not, but in the real world I suspect they'll acquiesce out of "respect for the office"... as if its current occupant had shown any!

Normally a president's farewell address is something I wouldn't miss, but in this case I hope someone will fill me in if he happens to say something interesting. Unless he's promising to fly directly to the Hague to turn himself in, I don't want to hear it.

Welcome to My $100 Tennis Racket

OK, it's my main New Year's resolution to resurrected this blog (again), and keep it alive this time. To that end, I'm revisiting a little mind trick I played on myself when I was much younger.

As a college student, I took up tennis... but with one thing and another, I found I was rarely making time to actually play. I didn't want to give up — not only did I enjoy the game, but I needed the exercise it provided — but willpower alone didn't seem to be driving me to the court. So I bribed myself: I went out and purchased a $100 racket (at a time when that was a huge sum for me), knowing that I wouldn't be able to ignore that level of (to lean on an overworked phrase) skin in the game.

And it worked, at least for a while: For several years (and through a couple additional, better rackets), I continued to play tennis.

So recently, I've announced to my Facebook friends, and to the commenter community at Pharyngula, that I'm back in business. Of course, unlike with the tennis racket, it doesn't cost me any money to invite people here to read my plastic dimestore pearls of wisdom, but it will cost me a nontrivial portion of my self-respect if I fail to hold up my end of the bargain.

So maybe this time I'm blackmailing myself instead of bribing. Either way, welcome, one and all. I don't promise to post several times a day like the big-deal bloggers (I do have a day job, after all), but I'm going to shoot for 4 to 5 updates per week, and we'll see how it goes from there. In the coming days, I'm going to review and update my links, and see what else I can do to dress the place up.

Enjoy!

Things That Make You Wonder Why

There's absolutely nothing surprising about this story of a conservative effort to overturn perfectly reasonable and — from any reasonable point of view — inoffensive provision of Gainesville, Florida's, antidiscrimination ordinance (h/t HuffPo). The fact that there's nothing surprising about it is what makes it so damn depressing.

Being reminded that the world is full of people who would rather punish difference than understand it or have compassion for it is one of those thing that always shocks me, even though it no longer ever surprises me. I'm broadly hopeful about the future these days, but it makes me sad to be reminded that there are still so many of my neighbors who are so unneighborly.

Just what's so terrible about allowing public restroom choice for transgendered citizens? Well, apparently it's very scary:

"Cain Davis, chairman of Citizens for Good Public Policy, said the issue is about regulating a "government gone wild" and ensuring public safety, charging that sexual predators could now simply enter a women's restroom claiming to be a transgender individual.

"We know when men go into women's restrooms, bad things can happen," Davis said.

Leaving aside the chilling fact that Davis apparently thinks taking away rights from strangers who've done no harm counts as Good Public Policy, that last statement is bizarre. Of course, when traditionally gendered men go into women's restrooms, they're probably there specifically with "bad things" in mind (at least if they've gone in there on purpose)... but when transgendered people go into whatever restroom best fits their identity, they're probably there just to pee!

Not for nothin', but aren't all the Bad Things™ that might happen in a public restroom illegal in their own right, regardless of whether or not everyone's in the "right" restroom?

In actual fact, these bad things seem to be limited to Davis's perverse nightmares:

Since the ordinance took effect [last year], police have reported no problems in public restrooms stemming from the law.

Ahh, but why let the facts stand in the way of perfectly good intolerance, eh?

In practice, I'm sure transgendered folk regularly use public restrooms without anyone else ever suspecting that they're anything other than what they appear to be... but for people who are just trying to get on with their lives in a sensible, law-abiding way, the uncertainty around this issue has real consquences:

Computer programmer Clare Holman, who was born male but now lives as a female, said she simply stays away from public toilets.

"I don't want to run afoul of the law by using the wrong restroom," Holman said.

I'm crossing my legs just thinking about it.

Separated At Birth?

OK, one of my New Year's resolutions is to revive this blog, but that comes in the next day or two; this is just a quickie post. This afternoon, we were watching Singin' in the Rain, which was one of Brilliant Daughter's Christmas gifts, and I had a nagging feeling that one of the characters looked familiar. You be the judge:

Donald O'Conner (aka Cosmo Brown):

Kent Jones (aka Kent Jones), of the Rachel Maddow Show:

I'm jus' sayin'... Vigilance!

Our Generation's Tom Lehrer

'Nuff said:

Are You as Smart as an 8th Grader?

Oh, yeah? Prove it! Take the quiz:

OnePlusYou Quizzes and Widgets

Off To Meet the Mysterions

I'm intensely proud to note that my daughter has been accepted to Yale, and will enroll there in the fall. Tomorrow, she, her mother, and I will be heading to New Haven for Bulldog Days, a 3-day "preview" for admitted students and their families.

I have no doubt that my daughter will have a wonderful time at Yale, and I don't doubt for a second that she deserves to be there. There's another question, though, that hadn't occurred to me 'til just the last couple days: Is my little 'ol middle-class, middle-brow self up to the role of Yale Parent???

Guess I'll start finding out tomorrow; I'll let y'all know...

But Will They Know It's a Joke?

I just saw this posted on MyLeftNutmeg and couldn't stop laughing.

My only concern is that some folks might miss the irony and take the faux argument seriously!

I Write Letters

So I got a letter "printed" here, at Altercation, in response to Eric Alterman's comments about the Randi Rhodes/Air America Radio dustup.

The thing is, Altercation cut the letter for length, which I completely understand... but in doing so, they put more emphasis on my comments about Rhodes and less on my appreciation of Rachel Maddow, which was my main point in writing, and completely eliminated my shout-out to former Air America host and (FSM willing) future U.S. Senator Al Franken.

Happily, I never seem to throw away my own words, so here's the rest of the letter as originally posted:

When Rhodes moved to Air America, I tried to listen, but eventually just couldn't take her anymore. Dr. Maddow (she was, amusingly enough, a Rhodes Scholar) is the perfect antidote: No less passionate about liberal ideals, she's brilliant, and tireless in her studies of issues, and brings a focus and rationality to her commentary that's the polar opposite of Rhodes' messy rants.

Oh yeah, she's really funny, too.

IMHO, the best thing that could happen to Air America is something I can't root for: The return of Al Franken. His show was the highlight of my day, and I miss it constantly... but I fervently hope Al will be busy with a much more important job for some multiple of 6 years.

Never let it be said that I don't love to hear myself talk, eh?

And Soon No Drinking and No Talking

I thought Eddie Izzard was joking in his Dress to Kill show when he teased San Franciscans about smoking bans in bars. "No smoking in bars now, and soon," he said, "no drinking and no talking!" (see ~5:02)

As always, the real world turns out to be stranger than comedy, at least in St. Charles, MO, a St. Louis area town where a proposed bill would ban "indecent, profane or obscene language, songs, entertainment and literature" in bars. And table dancing and drinking contests!

I'm imagining taverns full of people eating air-popped popcorn and drinking distilled water, while listening to children's choirs sing hymns.

At least they apparently haven't banned darts. Say, how many points is that boy soprano over there worth?

New Year's Resolution

Aside from yet another promise to keep up with this lonely blog, there's at least one resolution that will be easy to keep: I really need to drink more!

Yet another new study touts the health benefits of moderate alcohol consumption. This study found that people who drink 1 to 2 drinks a day (i.e., up to 14 drinks a week!) and put in moderate exercise can reduce their risk of heart disease by 30 to 49 percent compared to couch-bound tea-totalers... but even better, it found that drinking alone provides more risk reduction than exercising alone.

I knew I put that Mr. Boston Bartender's Guide on my holiday wishlist for a reason. I wonder if Bombay Sapphire is included on my drug insurance?

Cephalopoetics

Often enough I've used this space to discuss ideas and opinions I've encountered while reading the wonderful science blog Pharyngula. The founder of the Pharyngula feast, PZ Myers (don't spell it Meyers!), shares with many of his readers a fascination with cephalopods: Squids, octopi, and all things tentacly.

Well, recently an anonymous bard, using the nom-de-pixels "Cuttlefish," has taken to contributing his (or her?) comments in verse. At first it seemed just a novelty, but it's grown to a full-fledged poetry blog, touching on the themes found at Pharyngula and like-minded blogs: Promoting science, attacking anti-science, and always celebrating cephalopods. I'm adding the Digital Cuttlefish to my blogroll, and I encourage you to check it out on a regular basis. For starters, I particularly enjoyed this ditty, while my daughter (an aspiring poet herself) is partial to the double-dactyl at the end of this entry.

Enjoy!

Back Again Again

Well, the elections are over, and between that and some other changes in my personal schedule, I feel both ready to start blogging again and somewhat freer to post my own opinions about Vernon politics without fear of diluting the campaign's message.

The fact that my side lost matters to me, not mainly because of competitive pride or partisanship, but because I genuinely think Democratic government would've been better for the town. Ellen Marmer has accomplished wonderful things here, despite dealing with a majority Republican town council and a determined anti-budget (which is to say, anti-government) advocacy group. At a time in her life when she really didn't have to, Ellen put herself squarely in the path of a whole lot of tsuris, solely because she cared about making Vernon a better place to live.

Community First was Ellen's motto, and it's instructive that new mayor Jason McCoy's first act was reportedly to remove a sign in Town Hall proclaiming that noble sentiment. As a political matter, it would be easy to hope McCoy and his new council would fail miserably, so we could beat them in the next election... but I can't indulge myself in hoping for that, because I believe in Community First, too, and I can't hope for anything that would harm my community.

I'll have more to say about my hopes (and fears) for our town's future in the coming days and weeks; in the meantime, I urge any Vernonites (or Rockvillians) reading this to keep a weather eye on the new administration: If they can keep their "free lunch" promises, so be it... but let's not let them get away with mortgaging the town's future to do so!

Wicked Awesome Bread Upon the Waters

I've been helping out a friend I met through town politics, who occasionally needs rides and other favors because he's disabled and has recently lost his longstanding support network. I'm not always able to help, but it's been a privilege to do so whenever possible.

Today I was rewarded for this very modest casting of bread upon the waters in a way I can only describe as wicked awesome:

That's right: I got to attend ALCS Game 6 in Fenway Park! I just got home and I'm fried and wired and tired, but the short version of the story is... Sox Win!

I took a bunch of pictures, which I'll post when I get a chance, but now I'm going to bed. If the Sox win tomorrow, and if the World Series goes at least six games, I'll have an even more ecstatic post in a week and a half... because the same friend has tickets reserved for Game 6!

Long, Long Ago...

...well, a couple weeks ago, actually. I wasn't going to post the X-wing rocket video, because everyone else in the blue-eyed world had. But then I found out [PaulHarvey]the rest... of the story[/PaulHarvey]:

What Might Have Been...

h/t to Maura @ MyLeftNutmeg:

Daily Chuckle

In another context on another blog, my online acquaintance (I would say "friend" if I weren't afraid it would be presumptuous) Saramerica asserted that nothing informative rhymes with Harvard. Ironic if true, eh? But I had Tom Lehrer's The Elements to offer as refutation. When I went looking for a suitable YouTube version to post, I found this, which made me smile:

Why the President Wants Children To Sicken and Die

I've been more or less sputtering incoherently at the president's veto of the bill to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program. It's one thing to send criminals to the death house by the carload, but I would've thought, despite his veto threats, that even this craven, heartless man couldn't really look the country in the eye and condemn large numbers of innocent children to sickness and death.

Even large numbers of Republicans (though, sadly, apparently not quite enough to override the veto) saw the human necessity of this measure, and in any case, I wouldn't have thought the lives of our children (actual children, that is, as opposed to the just-barely-not-children we're sending to die in Iraq) would be beyond political posturing. But Eric Alterman saw the issue more clearly than I did. He understands that "Bush's argument is explicitly ideological. He wants children to get sick and die in order to prevent what he believes will be a slide toward what he calls 'socialized medicine.'" At some level, I know the right is all about ideology, but it's hard for me to hold in my head just how important ideological purity is to them. It's because I'm a liberal, I suppose, and somewhere in my heart is the ineradicable notion that my counterparts on the other side are more or less like me, and have merely somehow (innocently, no doubt) ended up believing differently than I about public policy. I think I fall into this trap &mdash and other liberals and progressives do, too &mdash because, as Alterman points out, liberalism itself is not "self-consciously ideological" in the way conservatism is:

Liberals are often understood to be "pro-government" or even "pro-taxation" but this reflects a fundamental confusion between ends and means. Liberals believe in "government" only insofar as it is necessary to achieve necessary goals, including public welfare, investment, redistribution, defense etc. Conservatives, on the other hand, argue against government as a matter of principle: the less government involved, the better, period.

Even, it seems, when less government translates directly into less health care for children who need it.

Of course, even a cursory look at the Bush (or Reagan or Bush 41) budgets will instantly reveals that the right doesn't really want less government; they just want less of the parts of government that actually help people. That stuff is socialism, don't you know? But when government spends untold billions in support of policies that kill people or rape the environment, that's just good old-fashioned American capitalism.

Please, if you're reading this and you're represented by a Republican member of the House, call them and ask them to vote to override the president's veto. Surely some of them still have some shame.

Rocket Geek Stuff

OK, I promised I'd post about my return to model rocketry, in a contest held a week ago Sunday at my local rocket club, CATO. Well, I was waiting for the contest results to become official, but they still haven't been posted, so I'll go ahead and report what I think the results were. I competed in four competition events sanctioned by the National Association of Rocketry (NAR): Open Spot Landing, in which you try to land your rocket as close as possible to a predetermined spot in the field; 1/4A Parachute Duration, in which you try for the longest timed flight with a rocket launched on a 1/4A power motor and recovered using a parachute; 1/2A Streamer Duration, in which you try for the longest timed flight with a rocket launched on a 1/2A power motor and recovered using a streamer; and A Rocket Glider, in which you try for the longest timed flight with a rocket launched on an A power motor and recovered intact by gliding.

I competed representing my NAR team, The Tappet Brothers (yes, named after the Car Talk guys!), which consists of me and my buddy Andy Jackson, who runs his own small rocket kit company, Aerospace Speciality Products... but since we were the only team represented, we were (which is to say I was) combined into the division for individual adult competitors. Here's what I think our results were:

• Open Spot Landing: Last I checked, I was in second place... but there were other flights after that point, so who knows. Interestingly, the target spot was marked by a life-size cutout of Austin Powers, which randomly blurted out digitized Powers-isms like "Do I make you horny, baby?" Too cool!
• 1/4A Parachute Duration: These models are very small, and the trick is to get the parachute to open after having been jammed into such a tight space. I didn't master that trick: Both flight attempts came down with partially wadded up 'chutes. Even so, I think my total time was good enough for second place, or at least third.
• 1/2A Streamer Duration: I had two solid flights here, and I'm pretty sure I won this event.
• A Rocket Glider: The trick here is that what makes a rocket stable during boost is not the same as what makes a glider fly well... so the model has to change inflight to transition from stable rocket boost to good gliding flight. I used a model called the Xebec IIIA, designed by long-time competitor George Gassaway, in which an elevator tab pops up after the rocket motor burns out. I had one good flight (little over a minute) with this model, and needed only the shortest possible qualified flight on my second attempt to win the event. The second flight was great -- it disappeared out of sight after flying for over 5 minutes, and it was still up in a thermal (rising warm air), not coming down. But there was a problem: Because the second flight behaved differently in flight than the first, observers on the ground thought the motor might have been ejected from the model, which is grounds to disqualify the flight. In such cases, procedure is that contest officials request the model be returned to the judges for inspection. Since my model flew away (otherwise perfectly legal), I couldn't return it for inspection, and the flight was disqualified. I had to settle for second place.

All in all a great day. There's something really satisfying about returning to a cherished hobby after a long absence. I can't wait to go flying again!

Oh, Nooooo!!!

Say it ain't so! Today comes a Newsweek article (via MSNBC.com) about Democratic presidential candidates sucking up to evangelical Christian leaders. The very notion &mdash embodied in the accompanying photo of Barack Obama chatting with Rick Warren &mdash chills my blood.

I understand the tactical politics involved: Evangelicals are quite correctly disenchanted with the Republican frontrunners such as Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and Mit Romney, none of whom truly embodies evangelical values. Even the folksy Fred Thompson has a racy history, and is none to reliable (from the evangelical point of view) on abortion. So perhaps, with the right approach, Democrats can, if not win over evangelicals outright, at least persuade them to stay home in November. I get it.

But at what price is this tactical advantage gained? The alliance forged between evangelical Christians and secular conservatives since the Reagan administration is arguably what got us into the mess we're in... the mess some of us hope to at least begin reversing by sending a Democrat to the White House. However disaffected they may be with their erstwhile secular partners, it seems unlikely that evangelicals will suddenly align themselves with the public policies favored by most Democrats. Almost as an inherent consequence of their beliefs, it seems to me that evangelicals lean toward authoritarianism and away from personal liberty.

I understand that America is a religious country; I'm not suggesting it's possible (even if it were desirable) to run a completely secular political campaign. But if we must appeal to people of faith, let's appeal to those whose doctrines emphasize charity and social justice &mdash values that harmonize with those of liberals and progressives &mdash rather than people whose religious beliefs deemphasize "good works" in favor of biblical inerrancy, divine authority, and enforcement of Old Testament mores.

Noted Without Further Comment...

...because this speaks (or sings) for itself:



Update: Someone who read this post asked me if the singer was me. Would t'were I was that talented! No, that's Roy Zimmerman, whose work I've posted here before, and who I learned of through Pharyngula. I should've included a hat-tip in when I first posted this.

Rainy Day Thoughts

Well, the rocket contest I mentioned in Wednesday's post, which was scheduled for today, has been postponed due to iffy weather. With luck, it will happen tomorrow instead, and I'll surely post about it... but in the meantime I'm stuck at my computer desk, with a dreary view out the window.

I guess since I'm referencing Wednesday's posting, this is probably a good time to make a bit of a disclaimer: I mentioned that I'm involved in the ongoing municipal election campaign in Vernon. Well, I want to make it clear that this is my personal blog, and is in no way connected to the campaign. I'm going to generally avoid talking about the Vernon elections here directly, but in any case I want to make it clear that whatever I do say here is strictly my own thoughts and words. You won't find campaign announcements here, or press releases, and I will never use this space to speak for the campaign or the Democratic Town Committee. (I will, however, add some links to the DTC website, Mayor Marmer's site, and any candidates' blogs to my blogroll, or the convenience of any readers who might be interested.)

Now that I've gotten that off my chest, I'm going to get ready for tomorrow's rocket contest!

Watch This Space

A couple days ago I got notification that someone had actually posted a comment to this months-dormant blog, and it remind me that I've been meaning to restart my postings here. Or re-restart, I should say: This isn't the first time my online wordfield has lain fallow.

I'm going to have some things to write about: After laying off model rockets for a year or two, I plan to make my return next week at a contest being held my old club, CATO. This is in preparation for going to NARAM-50 next year, the national competition that marks the half-century anniversary of model rocketry as an organized hobby.

In addition, I've gotten involved in local politics in my hometown of Vernon, CT, trying to re-elect our excellent mayor and elect a Democratic Town Council and Board of Education... which should provide me with one or two things to say.

That's all for tonight... this time 'round I'm going to try again to master the art of the frequent short posting, as opposed to waiting until I have the time (and inspiration) to write long essays.

What I Did Over the Weekend

Connecticut Opposes the War Rally, Saturday, 17 March 2007.
Old State House, Hartford, CT:

Part 1...


...and Part 2:


It was, in a word, cool:


More pix here.

FlyingTubes

Way back when I started this blog, I mentioned (and stated in my profile) that I was into model rocketry. Well, I've been on a bit of a break from rocketry, but one of my goals for this year is to get back into the hobby. Soooo... I'll likely be adding some rocketry sites to my blogroll, and posting on rocketry topics, including my projects.

As an icebreaker, here's my "music video" iMovie from the 2004 National Finals of the Team America Rocketry Challenge:



Cosponsored by the Aerospace Industry Association (AIA) and the National Association of Rocketry (NAR), TARC is an annual contest intended to get students excited about careers in aerospace. It's also a heck of a lot of fun. I volunteered for the range crew in 2004 and 2005 (I couldn't make it last year), and I'm going back in May of this year. Maybe I'll bring back another movie.

And Now for Something Completely... Irrational

Pi Day... or should I say π Day?... is almost over. What's that? You've never heard of π Day? Neither had I until I read Alan Boyle's MSNBC.com CosmicLog science blog for today.

Strictly speaking, you should celebrate π Day at exactly 1 minute before 2:00 (am or pm will do, unless you're on a 24-hour clock).

3/14 1:59

Get it?

Do check out the link to CosmicLog; in addition to linking the official Pi Day site, there are a plethora of interesting π-related links to dig through. One I found especially interesting was this one (though linking it from a π Day post rather gives away the puzzle).

Anyone want to help me organize a π-mile run next year (see #5 here)?

Unanimous Consent To Revise and Extend?

Yesterday's riff on the Nixonian resonances of Alberto Gonzales' statements about the political purge of U.S. Attorneys was a quick blast that barely scratched the surface. This probably won't get much deeper, but I can't let the subject go so easily. This is not just about the current scandal; it's about an administration that has consistently put its own interests above those of the nation and the people. It's about the unitary executive and the intimidation of U.S. citizens in the service of not only a so-called New American Century but a permanent Republican majority. It's about rewarding friendscronies and punishing political enemies and, in this case apparently, about turning the nation's "legal department" into a personal political dirty tricks unit the likes of which we haven't seen since Tricky Dick climbed aboard that helicopter.

In the stories and discussion over the last few days, much has been made over the fact that U.S. Attorneys "serve at the pleasure of the president." Well, a West Wing fan like me can't help but have a soft spot for that phraseology...

"At the end of another episode, the young staffers sipped beer on the stoop of a D.C. brownstone and marveled at the honor of working in the White House. One by one they repeated, with hushed reverence, their swearing-in pledge: 'I serve at the pleasure of the president.'"

...and I do understand that when the people vote for the president, they are, in part, voting for the people they expect him to appoint. Any president must, of course, have the ability to bring in his (or, someday, her) "own people." But staffing up at the beginning of an administration or a term with people dedicated to supporting administation policies is a whole 'nother kettle of horses of another color from purging your "own people" either because you want to open up resume' buffing slots for unqualified cronies (the marginally least awful of the various reasons suggested) or because they've prosecuted members of your own party or because they've (in your view) failed to prosecute members of the opposition party vigorously enough.

I'm not naive: I know that the executive branch is political, and that even the position of U.S. Attorney is a political one. Using the tools of office to vigorously pursue the policies on which he campaigned is not only a president's right; it is his duty. But there's a difference between pursuing legitimate policies and turning the nation's law enforcement agencies into political enforcers for the party in (executive) power. So far, the president has been happy to let Gonzales and Sen. Pete Domenici (who, along with Rep. Heather Wilson, made pressuring phone calls to former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias regarding prosecutions of Democrats) take the heat for the purge scandal, and FBI Director Robert Mueller has taken responsibility for the Patriot Act abuse (not that the Patriot Act itself isn't abuse), but anyone who doesn't believe this stuff is coming right from the White House just hasn't been paying attention for the last 6 years.

20 January 2009 can't some soon enough!

Testing, Testing... Is This On?

"Mistakes were made" was Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' comment today on the brewing scandal over the "Justice" Department's apparently political purge of U.S. Attorneys. If you're of a certain age, that particular passive-voice clause can't help but evoke chilling memories of the Nixon administration; it's a tactic straight out of their playbook.

Of course, you didn't need to wait to hear Gonzales to know that Bush is the new Nixon: The president himself sounded the same note in his January speech on the Iraq surge, and the U.S. Attorney purge is just one more piece of evidence -- on top of the Plame case, the NSA spying, FBI abuses under the Patriot Act... Hell, the Patriot Act itself -- that this president and his minions have no shame when it comes to using the instrumentalities of government to reward cronies, punish enemies, and spank those insufficiently vigilant in the pursuit of the administration's political aims.

Nixon famously said "when the president does it that means that it is not illegal," and no president since -- maybe not all the presidents since, combined -- has done as much to convert that bit of arrogance into actual policy than George W. Bush.

I wonder if those Nixon-era tape recorders are still in the Oval Office? But no... surely W has his own Rose Mary Woods.

Secular Humor! Arr Arr!

(h/t to Pharyngula... I steal from PZ shamelessly!)

Shake It Like a Polaroid, Scooter!

Just a little happy dance to celebrate a tiny shred of justice being done:

How Many Years Does This Teacher Get?

Well, middle school was never like this when I was a student! (h/t to the Education Wonks via Pharyngula)

My mind immediately flashed to the Julie Amero case when I read this story of 10 Indiana sixth-graders watching as two of their classmates performed a live sex show ("completed the act of intercourse," in the quaint language of a "disturbed resident" who reported the case to a local TV station) while their teacher was in the room!

If Amero's students were so terrifyingly endangered by a mere glimpse of digital porn that their unfortunate teacher is guilty of multiple felony counts, surely this teacher is ticketed for lethal injection, right? Well, not so much: Apparently "Warren Township School Police were not aware of the incident and say no report was made even though the children were recommended for expulsion." Hmmm... expel the preteens, but as for the teacher... no harm, no foul, I suppose. No need to even bother the cops with a report. Move along, folks; nothing to see here.

Mind you, I'm not after the teacher's scalp: Apparently the students conspired to hide this illicit activity, and the teacher took action as soon as he (or she; the news story studiously avoids "outing" the teacher's identity in any way) discovered something inappropriate was going on. But what kind of upside-down, inside-out world is it when Amero sits branded a sex offender and waiting to learn how much time she'll spend in prison while this teacher is happily making up next week's lesson plans?

Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign...

OK, maybe this isn't "blockin' out the scenery," but it sure is "breakin' my mind"! [1] I was just sitting here peacefully listening to Rachel Maddow's Air America Radio show from last Friday (I listen by podcast, so I'm always one weekday behind). In the course of discussing who did and didn't vote against the recent anti-Iraq War resolution in the House, Rachel mentioned that the Washington Post website, which she uses to check congressional vote roll calls, offers readers the ability to display votes sorted by astrological sign! Huh?!? Well, I had to see it for myself, and sure 'nuff:




Alright, I don't know whether to be more discouraged by the idea that people who care enough about politics to look up vote totals actually want to know about legislators' signs, or by the fact that WaPo would cater to their bizarre superstition. Either way, I think I have to make this a short post, so I can go pour cool water over my steaming brain....

[1] If this reference is too ancient/obscure for you, look here.

UPDATE: I e-mailed PZ Myers, Rationalist-in-Chief at Pharyngula, about this and he very flatteringly linked to this entry. A couple of commenters noted that the intention was just to have some lighthearted fun and attract readers to the (admittedly very cool) Votes Database. Well, that makes me feel better... but only a little bit better. I used to be firmly in the it's-harmless-fun-as-long-as-you-don't-believe-it camp regarding astrology and such, but I'm increasingly concerned that even such benign bemusement gives aid and comfort to the all-too-numerous inhabitants of the demon-haunted world we live in.

Besides, are astrology believers really the voters we want to be enabling?