940 A grim joke

Sometimes macabre humor says it best. Florida Cracker comments today:

"I'm kind of embarrassed about that whole giving to the tsunami victims thing. If I had known how painless death by dehydration and starvation was, I could have used the dough to get my car detailed instead. It's definitely the best way to die. Except for maybe freezing to death- that might be better.

In any case, I don't know what I was thinking keeping Indonesian kids from peacefully going off to heaven."

939 Let Grant Bondoc stay

With all the illegal aliens we have pouring into this country, I’m baffled that we’re trying to kick one out who has been here for 20 years, since he was a 15 year old child and who knows no other culture.

“Grant Bondoc and his family were members of the Marcos entourage that was evacuated to Hawaii under the Reagan administration after Marcos was ousted in 1986. But after Marcos died in 1989 in Honolulu and his widow, Imelda, returned to the Philippines three years later and ran unsuccessfully for president, the U.S. government ordered the remaining members of the Marcos group to return home, saying there was no longer a reason for them to remain.” LA Times

"A lot of stories we hear on the news are about persons who came to the United States illegally," said Elif Keles, Bondoc's lawyer. "They either crossed the border or came in on a tourist visa and stayed. Grant's case is different. He entered as a minor. He entered with the permission of the U.S. State Department. He was promised political asylum."

Now maybe there is a lot more to this story than what appeared in the LA Times, but I saw him interviewed on the Philippine broadcast of the International Channel last night. He still lives with his parents and according to the article looks after them. He works as a medical office manager and is pursuing a master's degree. He says he doesn't even remember life in the Philippines. I’m guessing he’d have a tough time making it there. The U.S. promised the family asylum and I think we should stick with that if the family doesn't want to return.

What to paint? What to paint?

Elaine from painting class was looking for capri pants for her upcoming trip to Costa Rica and I was looking for any kind of a navy blue top to wear with a new jacket/skirt outfit I bought for Easter before I remembered I'm serving communion and will be covered up with a white robe. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to find ANYTHING in navy these days? It's like the fashion police had decided to pull the plug on navy," I complained. As we stood at the racks ("My size 6 jeans are too big," she commented) she asked if I was going to painting class this Friday. "On Tuesday and Wednesday I always think I'm going to, but by Friday I can't think of anything to paint," I said.

What to paint is always a problem. It has to be small enough to schlep in my bag; can't be breakable; we need some sun for natural light which happens only 37% of the days in Ohio; and then it needs to be something that interests me. Two weeks ago I painted a man praying in a pew from a photo I saw in the Billy Graham magazine. Everyone thinks it is Fritz Hoffman (a local watercolorist), including Fritz.

What to paint? Some artists resort to painting pictures of paint brushes stuck in a jar, or their studio set up, or perhaps a bug that has strolled across the easle. Albrecht Dürer had this problem and here's how he solved it.

937 How to Escort a Prisoner

When I listened to the Atlanta police chief (not sure if that was his title) on TV last week explain why it was safe to have a small woman deputy in her 50s escort a strong, younger, male prisoner I was stunned. I'm sure his mouthing the PC-isms about gender and size were necessary at least until the law suits start hitting the fan and the lawyers for the families start hogging the spotlight. But in the meanwhile, Ann Coulter gets it right.

"I think I have an idea that would save money and lives: Have large men escort violent criminals. Admittedly, this approach would risk another wave of nausea and vomiting by female professors at Harvard. But there are also advantages to not pretending women are as strong as men, such as fewer dead people. Even a female math professor at Harvard should be able to run the numbers on this one." Coulter's article

936 Six dead cattle and the least of these

"In some cases, the food and water were just feet away." That was the opening line of the newspaper article in today's Columbus Dispatch. Writers are taught to put something compelling first, then the general story, then bury the details. This opening did catch my eye, and I thought about Terri. I thought about the outrageous behavior of a judge who decided to postpone his review of her case until 3 p.m. yesterday even though the President of the United States had returned to DC rather than go directly to AZ from his home in Texas. Think maybe the judiary is getting a bit arrogant? Do you suppose he thought she might just die if the judges wait around long enough? When the take abused and starving pets away from their owners do they not feed them while deciding whether to kill them or return them to the abusive owner?

In this case in Franklin County, six cattle starved or died of dehydration because the winter rains had made the pen so muddy, they couldn't get to the troughs. Whether or not the farmer will be charged remains to be seen. But imagine their struggle to get to the food. He apparently wasn't aware of their plight. And what's our excuse? Terri can feel hunger and pain. She's not aware in the same sense we are, but she knows what hunger is. Michael has tried unsuccessfully to kill her before.

Is there a person in the country who doesn't know food and water were close by, that she could actually be fed by mouth if her husband allowed it? That she was trapped in a room with no TV, no window, no stimulation? Sort of like those unfortunate cattle. Stuck and helpless. Matt. 25:42,45 (NIV) "For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink.. . .I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.""

935 The Right to Live vs. Deeply Held Prejudices

When she was admitted to the hospital for pneumonia last year, she found staff willing to "assist" her to death. Jane Campbell, a Disability Rights advocate, finds prejudice against the otherness of the severely disabled alarming. Cambell writes:

"When I was born, my mother was advised to take me home and enjoy me as I would die within a year. As can happen with the prognosis of terminal conditions the doctors got it wrong. Although I was often unwell, mostly with life-threatening chest infections, I thrived in a positive medical environment. Happily, some 40 years later, I remain very much alive.

So before we consider regulating the process of dying we need to deal with deeply held prejudices about the quality of life of people such as myself and those with a so-called terminal illness. When I was admitted to hospital with pneumonia I was viewed as someone near death, but I survived to carry on chairing the Social Care Institute for Excellence. “Terminal illness” is not easy to define. More than a quarter of doctors who authorise assisted deaths in Oregon said that they were not confident they could give an accurate six-month prognosis."

934 A Living Will Won't Settle It

There are two articles in the print Wall Street and one in the on-line version about Terri Schiavo today, all from a different view point. The editorial points out that this is a much larger issue than just Terri's right to live, supporters of Terri are stomping on another favorite cause:

"The "right to die" has become another liberal cause, part of the "privacy" canon that extends through Roe (abortion) and Lawrence (homosexuality) and the Ninth Circuit's views on assisted suicide that the Supreme Court is taking up this year. Of course, it gets a little messy when someone is actually being killed, and a husband with a conflict of interest is the one who claims she wanted to kill herself, but the left apparently believes these are mere details that shouldn't interfere with the broader cause. Thus the discovery of federalism."

Taranto at "Best of the Web" (on-line): "The grimmest irony in this tragic case is that those who want Terri Schiavo dead are resting their argument on the fiction that her marriage is still alive."

What isn't on-line is James O. Wilson's article. He points out the flaws in the hope that a DNR or "living will" will solve future cases. He says these are often ignored because situations or technology are unknownable. He recommends a durable power of attorney. He also has little faith in the courts.

"The moral imperative should be that medical care cannot be withheld from a person who is not brain dead and who is not at risk of dying from an untreatable disease in the near future."

The Netherlands model, he points out, has resulted in over 1,000 doctor-induced deaths among patients who had not requested assisted suicide.

So, regardless of what your opinion is of states' rights, these are issues that need to be out in the open. Also, if you are a Democrat, watch your back.

933 Almost 15,000

The site meter turned up this statistic from Technorati as it clicked into my site, "14,979 posts matching Schiavo sorted by most recent."

932 Florida Cracker warns Wasserman-Schultz

". . .one of the three Florida Reps who plan to oppose the bill [to help Terri], is my Representative, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz. I didn't say anything when her supporters stood with their signs directly in front of the doors of the polling place when I was trying to get through, but if she goes up there and embarrasses us, I'll be out there on the corner of Arvida and Weston with a "No Food, No Water, No Votes" sign the next time that fool runs for anything." Florida Cracker

931 How CBS handled the Smith story

I've been reading the various links that Ted Olsen's blog supplied to the Ashley Smith hostage story--CNN, LA Times, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Christian Science Monitor, and CBS News. Interestingly, only CBS chose to make her past a focus of the story. When I first heard the story, before we knew anything about her faith or the book she'd been reading, my first thought was that if she were a Christian, the media would go after her past, not her present. And CBS came through for me.

930 Learn English

You can learn English by watching British pop videos. Good luck. I didn't understand some of the words myself. But heard some really great songs.

929 Back when we were young and high-tech

We received a "portable" television set for a wedding gift from my in-laws. It weighed a ton, so only a hefty man could have lifted it, but it did have a handle. My father-in-law worked for RCA, so we were sort of up-to-date on sound and vision high tech doo-dads in 1960. It was also my first experience watching TV on a regular basis--my parents didn't own one, and I certainly didn't have any reason to go looking for one in college (there may have been one in the dorm lounge, but I don't remember). This is when I learned to sleep through football games on the couch with my head in my husband's lap. Even today, a pre-game interview will immediately cause me to look around for a place to nap.

What made our set unusual was that we had a remote control. Yes, in 1960. The wireless remote was invented in the 1950s, not too long after the 1939 launch of television. But sunlight made its photo cells malfunction.

"In 1956, a Zenith engineer named Robert Adler solved this problem by using ultra-sonic technology to create the Space Command 400 Remote Control. This remote, which Adler patented, used aluminum rods and tiny hammers to create the pitched sounds that the television set interpreted as “off” or “on” or “channel up” or “channel down.” The sounds emitted were inaudible to humans (although not to dogs, which were known to howl painfully as the Space Command went about its business) and the device itself required no batteries. The Space Command was the first reliable remote control device, convenient and well-designed, and Zenith had high hopes for its appeal to consumers. . . A slew of copycat devices soon followed, but the increased cost of fitting televisions to receive the remote’s signals kept the remote control from becoming immediately popular with consumers." New Atlantis article.

Our RCA probably had the copycat version, and as I recall, it worked just fine for channels and sound, although you had to either go forward or back. With only 3 major stations, plus a few locals, no one really needed a remote in 1960, which is probably why it didn't succeed the first time around. Today, 99% of TV sets have remotes, and according to the New Atlantis article before the era of cable, there really was no need for the remote. Choices, not need, created the modern remote.

Well, here's a shocker!

Why didn't I think of this research project when I needed something easy to add to the CV? Maybe because it was too obvious?

"A literature review suggests that there is, as might be imagined, an association between sexually transmitted diseases and alcohol consumption, according to Pennsylvania-based researchers."

Sex Transm Dis 2005;32:156-164. Summarized by Reuters Health at http://www.medscape.com.

927 Activities this week

My husband thinks he has too many shirts; this week that is good, because I'm behind in the laundry. Have you ever noticed that the more time you have, the less you get done around the house? In the bank of minutes and hours, I'm a millionaire. But I'm so far backed up on laundry, that today I'm doing a pile of blue hue shirts, a pile of green tones, and a bunch of brown/taupe/beige shade, and I've set the water level in the Maytag to "large" for each load. He's such a tidy person that he hangs up his shirts after wearing them, so that's how I get behind (ha ha, what an excuse--it's all his fault, right?).

So what else is going on around our fair city besides my laundry? Well, the activists are busy, busy. It's still cold despite Spring arriving tomorrow, and so they are congregating in meeting places planning events or listening to invited speakers. Here's the calendar for the week, as listed in Alive.

Democratic Socialists of Central Ohio discussing Irish Communist history
Progressive Libertarians
Ohio Medical Reform
Friends of Alum Creek Clean-up (FACT)
Interfaith Prayer Meeting observing the 2nd anniversary of the War in Iraq
Peace March (I think this is national and only for those who haven't heard the war is over and the Iraqis have installed their own government with a higher voting turn out than we had)
Central Ohioans for Peace--something about Israel and Palestine (one guess which side they are supporting)
Columbus Vegetarian Leafleting
Workshop for Social Activists
Stonewall Union
Green Party
Bicycle Advocacy Coalition
Progressive Alliance
Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE)
Earth Institute/Simple Living
IMPACT Safety programs (violence and abuse)
Jobs for Justice
NOW
Action Ohio (family violence)

Although I don't know if these groups ever accomplish their goals, they do provide friendship, camaraderie, a sense of purpose, snacks and protection from the weather for lots of people, and therefore are contributing to the betterment of the community. Sort of like churches who've lost their message.

926 Food phrases and foibles

Food writers have the best of both worlds--first they have to eat it, then write about it. In Alive, one of our local free papers that focuses on entertainment, the "Whine List" this week included restaurants in Clintonville, and most seem to be the small neighborhood, greasy spoon variety. Still, the phrases were creative even if the cuisine wasn't.

forgettable run-of-the-mill salads
stuffed with happiness
naughty sirens shimmering in the dessert case
petite primo pizza parlor
sex on the beach sorbet
Cowtown** champion
forks up champion chomp
you'll have the daily special or else
cooked-into-submission green beans
half pound burgers dressed in interesting fashions
down right evil wings
a touch of Youngstown**
small culinary bloom in a concrete garden

** Hometown people under 25 and non-natives of any age without children love to call Columbus a "cowtown"--even though you would never have enough time or money to attend all the art, music, theater and lecture events in the city. Now, you can actually see cattle in what is now the center of the the metropolitan area, because Ohio State has pasture land and barns for research on the west side of the campus (the city grew up around it). This slur is only neutralized by bringing Youngstown into the conversation, which then can qualifiy you as a local.

Last night we switched from "Old Bag of Nails" in the Tremont Shopping Center to "The Rusty Bucket" in the Lane Avenue Shopping Center for our Friday night date. Our suburb's recent non-smoking ordinance has moved all the smokers out of the Old Bag down to Grandview Heights, which means a lot of the alcohol sales are also gone. So in this one location, the owners have changed the menu and raised the prices, moving to more dinners. We like the "pub" atmosphere and seeing our friends and neighbors, so we decided to try Bucket, which opened about a year ago. The decor is just about the same with a little more of a sports bar feel (more TV screens than Old Bag), similar menu, and cheery young ladies to wait the tables. We thought the food was tasty, hot and well-prepared, and the noise level wasn't too painful. We'll probably go back--although we didn't see a soul we knew even though the two restaurants are within a mile of each other.

925 Peggy Noonan lays it down for Republicans

Ms. Noonan points out today that the Terri supporters are in the hundreds of thousands, and those who want to kill her number only one (or two if you count the judge). If her death is a mistake, it can't be undone, AND there will be a political price. To help Schiavo, she resorts to self interest.

"It is not at all in the political interests of senators and congressmen to earn the wrath of the pro-Schiavo group and the gratitude of the anti-Schiavo husband, by doing nothing.

So let me write a sentence I never thought I'd write: Politicians, please, think of yourselves! Move to help Terri Schiavo, and no one will be mad at you, and you'll keep a human being alive. Do nothing and you reap bitterness and help someone die.

This isn't hard, is it?"

The article.

Listening to radio talk shows on this subject all afternoon (Medved and Hewitt on News Talk 870 KRLA) I think many callers and the hosts are missing the point. Even in a diminished capacity, she has a right to live. Regardless if she will get better (and I don't believe she will), we don't kill people for being less than they were, or less than they could have been if the treatment had been better. We also shouldn't let a man decide AFTER his huge monetary award from a jury, that his wife wouldn't want to live this way, when "this way" is the reason he got the money.

Peter Jennings' coverage on ABC tonight was one of the worst, most biased I've seen. But then, I'm not surprised. If Bush is for it, it must be bad.

924 Mass transit, 35 years later

P.J. O'Rourke wrote about mass transit hysteria in the Wall Street 2 days ago, and as usual, was funny until he got ridiculous.

He reported some number crunching on Minneapolis' "Hiawatha" light rail: "The Heritage Foundation says, "There isn't a single light rail transit system in America in which fares paid by the passengers cover the cost of their own rides." Heritage cites the Minneapolis "Hiawatha" light rail line, soon to be completed with $107 million from the transportation bill. Heritage estimates that the total expense for each ride on the Hiawatha will be $19. Commuting to work will cost $8,550 a year. If the commuter is earning minimum wage, this leaves about $1,000 a year for food, shelter and clothing. Or, if the city picks up the tab, it could have leased a BMW X-5 SUV for the commuter at about the same price."

Then he goes on to say this would be unfair to the poor, who would then be contributing to environmental destruction by driving SUVs. A good point on cost, but stomping it to death.

Two of the earliest neighborhood meetings I attended in 1968 when I was a new homeowner and young mother were about 1) the need for mass transit (actually decent bus service with more lines) in Columbus, and 2) need for a teen center in our suburb (our daughter was 6 months old). We had focus groups, neighborhood meetings, ballots, time and again. Many, many years later and we have neither. People really didn't want them.

I really wish we had decent bus service--convenient, timely and cost effective. I live about two miles from the agriculture campus of Ohio State, but I could walk (not jog) there faster than I could take the bus (which stops literally at my door), then transfer when I arrive downtown to another bus up High Street to the OSU campus, where I would transfer to a campus bus to ride to the west side. I'm guessing it would take about 1.5 to 2 hours. And that's the problem. In our spread out metropolitan areas, there is no convenient way to get from point A to B with light rail, bus or trolley for everyone who needs to get to work, school, shopping or church.

I'd much rather throw my support to train service between cities, so I didn't have to park in Toledo in order to catch a train to Chicago or New York.

923 The Auto Show, or Men in groups

We went to the Columbus Auto Show this morning. Unlike the malls, where the women reign supreme, we saw 10 men for every woman. Groups. Bands. Herds. Packs. Old men. Young men. Hispanic men. Black men. White men. Dads with sons. Grandpas with sons and grandsons. Dads pushing baby strollers. Teen boys sitting in convertibles. Peeking into SUVs and Hummers. Men in wheelchairs. Men with canes. Men limping on artificial knees. Ah, they love their wheels.

I showed my husband the Dodge Magnum, my favorite, because the Bentley, the Rolls and the Lambourgini all had "sold" signs so we walked on by after gasping at the prices.

Then we returned to the Scion, a Toyota made car about $13,000, 5 door hatchback, and very comfortable with good leg and head room. Not the boxy, ugly, awkward doored XB but the XA.

"Evidently you don't have to wear hip-hugger jeans or a backwards baseball cap to appreciate a $12,995 car that's fun, frugal, eminently practical, and bulletproof. Warranty: 3 years/36,000 miles total car; 5 years/60,000 miles powertrain. . . Scion market research showed that buyers wanted simplicity, so that's what you get. The xA's base price includes power-operated windows, locks and mirrors, A/C, antilock brakes, and a CD/MP3 player. The only functional options are an automatic transmission ($800), side airbags ($650), and keyless entry/alarm ($459)."

The one we saw was sort of a purplish-red. Hmmm. I'll really have to think about this.

922 And they're probably not bloggers

This week I've seen two women at Panera's in the morning wearing pajamas. And possibly one man. I'm sure if I questioned them, they'd tell me to MYOB, or it's the style, or I forgot to dress. Still, it was a bit disconcerting to see a young couple sitting in the lounge chairs by the fireplace, drinking their morning coffee, wearing wrinkled pj's and winter coats. She was in pink, yellow and white stripe with pink rick-rack along the pant leg hem line. She carried a large purse in similar colors. His pj's were sort of a grey and white check.

Novelty pajamas were noted as a fashion trend 3 years ago. It's probably taken awhile for it to get to the Columbus suburbs, and for me to notice.

921 What's going on in Pennsylvania?

The price index for real estate in today's WSJ showed that the average sales in zip code 19085 has changed 72.8% in one year. I suppose it only takes a few sales at the high end to change the figures. That's going to make all the web-sites about Villanova out of date.