2021 Why Mrs. Alito cried

Imagine having a gas-bag, womanizer, alcoholic, bantam rooster-brained killer, still living on his father's ill-gotten wealth, who never worked a day in his life, questioning your husband about his character.

Alito hearings
Senator Ted Kennedy

2020 Was thinking the same thing

Beth and I are on the same wave length today about Teddy. "I can't hear him speak, especially in such a condescending and morally superior manner that I don't think about Chappaquiddick Island." Blue Star Chronicles

2019 Couldn't figure out why

the Dems were peeing in their pants with excitement about the Abramoff scandal. According to Don Surber, who usually has things pretty straight, "He steered $1.5 million to Democrats in Congress and $2.9 million to Republicans in recent years." All campaign finance reform did for us was make it possible only for rich guys with lots of personal wealth to run for office, and increase the power of the lobbyists.

(Pause for a group sing-a-long)
Step up, step up, step up
and take some blame,
John McCain, McCain, McCain.

Surber's comment with dollars and sense, here.

2018 Please write to me, I’m a locked up bad guy

Have you ever seen one of these cyber prison sites, where inmates plead for pen pals and tell how lonely they are? “It’s really lonely here at Christmas. I haven’t had a visitor in 15 years.”

Why are we giving criminals access to the internet? Why do they have e-mail accounts? Who is paying for the phone lines and broadband and dsl lines? Who is providing the computers? Do they have printers? Do the prison staff and legislators think these guys will get jobs using computers if and when they finish their sentence (for murder, rape, robbery, fraud, etc.).

If librarians want to worry about their records getting into the hands of the wrong people (the FBI), maybe they should check to see if these guys can hack their library websites and get the patron records. The photo and house plan of your home and street are on your county web site. Think they haven’t got oodles of time to figure out how to use that information?

I just picked a name at random from one of these lists, and looked up his crime with Google. Seems he’s recently been up for parole. I don’t think he got it, but could the next time. Do you really want him out looking for you, or your bleeding heart teen-ager who thought it might be kind to “visit someone in prison.”

“Last week, the board heard requests by STUV and WXYZ, both convicted in FFFFF County.

STUV was sentenced to death for the [month and year] murders of xxxxxxx, a 48-year-old farmer, and xxxxxxx, 18.”

So I looked up STUV’s appeal. It was a brutal crime--like the ones you see on The Closer or Law and Order reruns. The 18 year old apparently just walked in on it. Seems there was supporting testimony during the trial on his behalf that he had a terrible childhood, was abused, had a long juvenile record before turning to adult crime, and had an alcohol and drug problem. I don’t know how much you know about the criminal justice system, but prison isn’t the place to go to get help for a life time of wretchedness.

Tookie found the only solution for his sin, and it wasn’t a computer.

2017 Daring to find our names

Although it's possible that gay cowboys have been in the closet until the recent much heralded movie Brokeback Mountain, gay and lesbian librarians sure haven't been. That's why I was a bit surprised when browsing my honorary's website (Beta Phi Mu) to find that a book had been published, "Daring to find our names" which chronicles their gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender/queer history and careers (their words, not mine). Not that I pried into people's private lives, but I always knew my profession was heavily homosexual. I didn't know much about transgender until one of my staff members changed sexes and thus was part of a legally married female couple, although neither one were lesbians. I knew who the guys' partners were, who had died of AIDS--even went to the memorials and funerals, and who was being unfaithful to whom. My very favorite boss of all times, Jay Ladd, was a very popular librarian at Ohio State. He was a "company man," but knew how to treat his own staff fairly. His research field was a gay writer, and his partner was a gay artist. No big deal. So where's the daring?

Although I wasn't aware of it for a number of years, I worked for several women librarians who not only were lesbians, but were abusive to each other. I never suspected, because of their antipathy, that they were anything but old maid housemates. But I also knew lesbian secretary/professor couples. Hey, we weren't THAT protected in the 1950s and 1960s in academe.

The problem today is not sexism, homophobia, and discrimination, but a sluggish, overarching, stuck-in-the-70s liberal bureaucracy, particularly in ALA, that can't get down to library business. And a coming out book that costs $106.00 for 272 pages.

2016 Don't walk and talk on your cell phone

The Illinois Alumni magazine arrived yesterday, and when I opened it I saw a small article that the family of a student killed when hit by a bus has sued the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District. But when I read a little further I just shook my head. It's not that I don't sympathize with her parents. . . but the 18 year old was talking on her cell phone crossing the street at Sixth and Chalmers. I used to work and live in that area and I suppose they could have created curb cuts in the last 40 years, but I'm surprised a bus can even navigate that area. We always, always had to use all five senses to avoid the bicyclists and mopeds. But what phone call is so critical that you need to talk while walking--anywhere, let alone in the street shared with cars, bikes and buses. Yet how often have we seen people doing just that--not paying attention to other pedestrians, or uneveness in the pavement, or not watching for bikers, and certainly not paying attention to cars as they cross the street.

The article says the university has launched an investigation into traffic and pedestrian safety and is improving safety programs that are already in place. A stop sign has been added and speed limits lowered. Students held a candlelight vigil and cried.

But has anyone instructed the students in how to use cell phones and be safe?

cell phone safety
University of Illinois

2015 When does pregnancy begin?

"Judge Alito's writings include remarks that suggest he believes pregnancy begins at the fertilization of an egg, rather than when a fertilized egg implants itself in the wall of the woman's uterus." [I think this was USAToday quote on Jan. 9] Medical textbooks also say that, at least they did when I worked in a medical library.

I don't know when you started your life journey, but I know I started mine when the egg in my mother was fertilized. And according to a Zogby poll, almost 50% of women believe pregnancy starts with fertilization. It's only been within the last 20 years or so that physicians, geneticists, medical organizations and feminists have declared that pregnancy doesn't begin until implantation in the uterus. Interesting timeline. Seems to be a political decision, doesn't it, based on wishful thinking, not science. Some things not based on sound science, like intelligent design, can't even be hinted. I wonder how this slipped through?

We all started somewhere, mostly likely at the beginning.

2014 He's white, he's old, he's sick

No celebrities are rushing before the cameras to save Clarence Allen from execution in California. A legally blind diabetic, Allen is confined to a wheelchair, and has had two heart attacks and a stroke while he sat on death row. I'm against the death penalty because I am pro-life; I'm also against people who show up to protest only when it suits their own agenda.

Story in USAToday.

death penalty

Happy Birthday Cathy

I'm a few days late, but I know she had a big one. She said I could move her to another link category, but for now I'll just let her stay with the Ladies. So stop by and wish her a happy birthday.

2012 No sir, the evidence isn't clear

Robert Reich was interviewed for the Wall Street Journal Supplement about "Guns, Butter and Retired Boomers" yesterday. In "Debating the issues," as a follow up to concern about the cost of entitlements with Medicare bypassing the cost of Social Security by 2025, Reich skips it and flits on over to early childhood education (and that drum beat for compulsory early ed was repeated today in an op-ed in the WSJ by James Heckman in "Catch 'em Young").

"The evidence is clear and compelling that these expenditures provide very large social returns. . . I'd have the government spend more on K-12 in poor communities. . .I'd even be in favor of a progressive voucher system if it was inversely related to family income."

No, Mr. Reich, there really is no evidence that we can compensate for unmarried mothers, who haven't finished high school and had their first child before 20 by sending the kids to an enriched pre-school for socialization and health care.* Head Start gains are lost by about age 7 or 8 because the children live in the environment that produced them. By then, Mommy may be on the second or third boyfriend, and more children are vying for her time.

Head Start, our government's early childhood education plan, has done a good job of employing adults, bloating state and local agencies' budgets, giving legislators a "feel good" bi-partsan vote, and providing safe day care and health benefits to poor children, but it has never been able in 40 years to do what a father in the home and married parents committed to their family well-being can do.

Whenever Head Start is criticized, some sort of "ideal" program is trotted out that no large number of poor children attend, and it certainly isn't administered by a federal bureaucracy. When tests show that early progress is short-lived and the children fall back, the blame is put on the controls or the test design, or not enough money, not enough programs, not enough incentives for workers, or not enough children enrolled--never the concept.

About a million children a year are served by Head Start and I think the cost is up around $7 billion. With the money we spend, it should be a first class education. But no matter. In the 90s the progressive experts were saying it was the welfare reform that was making children poor, and now it's probably that mean old Mr. Bush. If you want the real reason Head Start doesn't work, just look at FEMA in the rebuilding of Louisiana and then ask yourself why you think the government will turn this around for poor children.

The gap will never be closed because poor children from single parent poor families with early education will be attending school with children of in-tact families, higher incomes and well educated parents. And it is the gap, unfortunately, that concerns the educators and politicians.

*William Galston, once an assistant to President Clinton, put the matter simply. To avoid poverty, do three things: finish high school, marry before having a child, and produce the child after you are 20 years old. Only 8% of people who do all three will be poor; of those who fail to do them, 79% will be poor. And their lives did not improve if their mother had acquired a stepfather for them.

Maggie Gallagher, president of the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, says that children raised outside marriage are more prone to poverty, substance abuse, school failure, delinquency and adult crime.

Head Start
early childhood education

2011 Every school needs one

A website to expose the radicals on campus. This one is for UCLA, but they are every where (the profs, not the sites).

2010 Word of the Year

Is there more than one panel for "word of the year?" I thought podcast made it, but on the list from the American Dialect Society, it is a runner up to "Truthiness." Not once have I ever heard anyone use "truthiness" but frequency doesn't seem to be the call here.

Word of the Year
WINNER truthiness: the quality of stating concepts or facts one wishes or believes to betrue, rather than concepts or facts known to be true. First vote: 32. Run-off: 66

Katrina: all Katrina-related words. First vote: 36. Run-off: 22

podcast: a digital feed containing audio or video files for downloading to a portable MP3 player. From the brand name MP3 player iPod + broadcast. 2

intelligent design: the theory that life is could only have been created by a sentient being. Often acronymized and pronounced as ID, the theory is being pushed by explanations of evolution. 5

refugee: a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war,
persecution, or natural disaster. 2

Cruiselex: Cruiselex is not itself a nominated word, but the term refers collectively to all the other Tom-Cruise-related words of the year in the special category below. 0

Heck of a job: catch phrase coined by President Bush. 5

brown-out: the poor handling of an emergency. 1

disaster industrial complex: the array of businesses which make profit from by providing emergency services, especially those that result from no-bid government contracts. 3

Podcast did make some of their other lists, and so did intelligent design (I believe it made the "most outrageous" list, but lost to Crotchfruit).

Intelligent merchandise

I not a huge fan of Intelligent Design in the schools and don't keep track of all the arguments, but I can certainly enjoy their merchandise--the t-shirts, coffee cups, book bags, etc. Here is Intelligently Designed Apparel and Merchandise. Each individual design then has its own page which includes some cute explanations:

"The sensory and motor mechanism of the E. coli bacterium consists of a number of receptors which initially detect the concentrations of a variety of chemicals. Secondary components extract information from these sensors which in turn is used as input to a gradient sensing mechanism. The output of this mechanism is used to drive a set of constant torque proton-powered reversible rotary motors which transfer their energy through a microscopic drive train and propel helical flagella from 30,000 to 100,000 rpm. This highly integrated system allows the bacterium to migrate at the rate of approximately ten body lengths per second. Would you please find out who filed the patent on this thing?"

Of course, if you're not open minded and believe everything you were taught in elementary school, skip it.

intelligent design

2008 Winning the genetic lottery

On January 3 USAToday ran a story which followed up on 19 years of winners of the "High School Academic Team." The group selected in 2005 represents the 20th year the paper has featured this program which includes a scholarship, a trophy and a story in the national newspaper.

Although the winners came from many different backgrounds, they often shared certain things in common: "educated, committed parents, some wonderful teachers and mentors, high expectations and the opportunities to pursue their passions." Of the 72% of the 378 winners who responded to the survey of the winners,

• 94% said they grew up in homes with both a mother and a father.

• 57% of their fathers had doctorates, and 58% of their mothers had a master's degree or doctorate.

More than 95% of the fathers and 91% of the mothers had at least a bachelor's degree, and 100% of the parents had at least a high school diploma.

• In 43% of the families, only one parent worked outside the home for the majority of the student's school years.

In the survey, parental involvement/influence was rated "very important" to their high school success by 81% of the respondents — slightly more than "personal work ethic" (79%), "finding an activity I was passionate about" (77%) and "a great teacher or mentor" (74%).

2007 Lucas, Brandon and Josh

On my way back from the Mill Run Church yesterday I was stopped at an intersection for a light and read for the first time what I thought was just a large Christmas greeting. There were three white Christmas trees with gold halos, and a large banner with photos of Lucas, Brandon and Josh, apparently killed by a drunk driver on Christmas Day, 2004. So I looked it up when I got home.

"Joshua Worthington, 19; Lucas Carmean, 19 and Brandon Kent, 21, all died instantly when the Jeep Wrangler they were traveling in was struck head-on by a man who was driving the wrong way on Interstate 71 in Columbus near the 17th Avenue exit.

According to Columbus Police reports, the accident occurred at approximately 3 a.m. Christmas day when a vehicle driven by 28-year-old Donald Lee Richardson of 2205 Dresden Street, Columbus, was southbound in the northbound lanes of I-71 between Hudson Avenue and 17th Avenue and struck the Jeep carrying the three Grove City men. All three were pronounced dead at the scene of the accident."

Richardson had already been convicted on two drunken driving charges and had been arrested for a third for a hearing in May. I followed up the story but lost track of it after June 2005 when he was out of the hospital and sitting in jail awaiting trial. Ohio has crappy drunk driving penalties.

2006 Where there's fire there's Morels

I'd never heard of Morels, a prized, spungy mushroom until 1993 when my cousin Mel Johnson of Byron, IL contributed a recipe for steak and mushrooms to a family cookbook I was compiling. He explained in it how and where to find Morels: "Morels can be found near decaying elms, south of Byron, Illinois in mid-April." That's a pretty big territory, so I suspect Morel hunters don't give up their secrets easily. Almost the entire state is south of Byron.

In the most recent (summer 2005) issue of Agroborealis (School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences, Univ. of Alaska, Fairbanks) it was reported that Alaskans were expecting a bumper crop of Morels because one to three years after a fire, they are abundant, and 2004 was the scene of many forest fires. This article, in pdf, has some very clear line drawings of Morels and the poisonous "false Morels." In addition to the scientific information, the article includes some recipes.

I'm just in love with agriculture magazines, and this one is always a delight. Not every article is on-line, but enough are that it's an interesting read.

Seven deadly sins in the workplace

This advice comes from an article on library managers, but I think they are universal--some even apply to volunteer positions or church committees. When I listen to complaints about the workplace whether it is a hospital, a ranch or a sales environment, I hear these same complaints. A list of sins and strategies are at FreePint Newsletter, a really neat newsletter just filled with bits of information on many topics, all focused on information providers.

Micromanagement

Lack of communication

Fostering divisiveness

Abusiveness

Failure to listen

Avoiding conflict

Taking credit for others' work

"FreePint is an online network of information searchers. Members
receive this free newsletter twice a month: it is packed with tips
on finding quality and reliable business information on the Internet.

Joining is free at <http://www.freepint.com/> and provides access to a
substantial archive of articles, reviews and events, with answers to
research questions and networking at the FreePint Bar."

HT Peter Scott.

2004 Bird feeder tid-bits

If you have a bird feeder in your yard and enjoy watching them from the window, here's a list of eight things you should do to keep it safe, including telling your neighbors what they should do. Good luck, especially with the one about keeping rodents away. Rodents love bird feeders. Excuse the pun, but I don't think it will fly.

It would be so much easier and safer if people just wouldn't feed the birds and ducks. Then the birds could return to eating natural food sources, helping the environment by controling insects and weeds, and you wouldn't be contributing to spreading Salmonellosis (a bacterial disease), Trichomoniasis (a parasitic disease), Aspergillosis (a fungus causing pneumonia and bronchitis), and Avian Pox (a virus causing warts).

Here's a neat, inexpensive contraption to keep birds away from a food supply, and I suppose it would work with a garden area too. It was designed by Janet Schmitz of Union Grove, WI and submitted to the National Hog Farmer for its Aug. 15, 1988 issue on Inventions. She says, "We were having problems with barn swallows and various other birds in our finishing barns and around feed bins. We were concerned about the potential for spreading disease. I took some aluminum baking tins and nailed and/or glued some wood lathe to the backs for support." These reflectors move in the air current and in the sunlight they are very irritating to the birds. But a side benefit writes farmer Schmitz is that it entertains the pigs. In 1988 this cost about $1.40. Probably $3.00 now. I like the little piggies she apparently painted on her invention. A very creative lady.

Even 18 years ago, farmers had an institutional memory, probably passed down from grandpa, that you don't want diseased birds around hogs (flu epidemic of 1918). But I don't think it's a good idea to have bird waste and rodent pests around your yard and patio either.

2003 I will not look in the free box

Reciting that mantra three times as I walked through the parking lot and into church yesterday didn't work. The service was fabulous--Pastor Jeff preached the best sermon on justification I've ever heard (this is my most favorite theme), so with donut hole in hand I headed for the library. Of course, I ate it first, since food isn't allowed. Just one peek in the box. How could it hurt?

And I came away with two fairly substantial books. Anne Graham Lotz' 2003 title, "My Heart's Cry," and "The art of reading scripture," an Eerdmans title, 2003. The Lotz book, in hard cover, I assume was withdrawn from the church library because several years ago the women's group used this and they may have bought multiple copies. She is Billy Graham's daughter and in my opinion, the best preacher in the whole family. The Eerdmans title is probably a donation, and the librarian didn't select it.

On the outside chance that someone donated it directly to the box and the librarian didn't see it, I'll take a look and suggest it if I think it is useful. I suspect they know their audience, and this isn't a book most will read. Looking inside at the acknowledgements I see it is a volume of essays of a "four year conversation," and one they DIDN'T include was on the visual arts (included a woodcut from the essay). So. . .

2002 Reinventing the image of God

Week-end edition of the Wall Street Journal has an interesting interview with Leon Kass, former chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics, by Bret Stephens. It begins with a discussion of Hwang Woo Suk, the South Korean researcher who has admitted to fabricating cloned stem cells. The media were complicit in the fraud, he believes.

"As far as Dr. Hwang is concerned, Dr. Kass is merciless, and he fires grapeshot: "Scientific fraud is always revolting, but it is fortunately rare and, in the end, truth will out. But in this case, American scientists and the American media have been complicit in the fraud, because of their zeal in the politics of stem-cell and cloning research and their hostility to the Bush funding policy. Concerted efforts have been made these past five years to hype therapeutic cloning, including irresponsible promises of cures around the corner and 'personalized repair kits' for every degenerative disease. The need to support these wild claims and the desire to embarrass cloning opponents led to the accelerated publication of Dr. Hwang's 'findings.' . . . We even made him Exhibit A for the false claim that our moral scruples are causing American science to fall behind."

The article also includes his concerns about performance enhancing drugs, psychotropic behavior modifying drugs, life-span increasing drugs, and living wills. Read the article here.