3696

Them bones, them dry bones

If Tyrannosaurus Rex is 66 million years old and related to the chicken, then it's easier to understand what happened to the British Navy. (story in USA Today).

3695

Our infectious lifestyle

Peter Huber wrote an essay for the Wall Street Journal called "The coming plague." I think it is from a work not yet published. The principles of privacy and personal autonomy combined with the resurgence of germs was a very interesting and . . .almost poetic motif. Here's my poem based on his essay. Please note: he didn't say anything about libraries--I took that from concerns I've read in the library literature and my own use of library terminals.


Ode to our infectious lifestyle
of freedom and privacy

I’m nimble on needles
enjoying the bathhouse
prisons and lockers,
on board for the fast louse.

I choose from the choicest
of pustule and sputum
then scan the horizon for
addict and meth bum.

I'll resist your meds while
with staph I’m cavorting,
on TB and syphilis
I’m munching and spawning.

I’ll take guts, skin or marrow
Although I prefer brain--
lungs and liver will do
while you look for my strain.

Faster than lawyers
Smarter than scientists,
I’m brighter than interns,
ahead of hospitalists.

At your library keyboard
I arrive safe and hardy
on the street person who
just wants me to party.

Update: Here's Huber's article on germs that appeared in Spring 2007 City Journal. He has incredible phrases--if you love words, or hate germs, be sure to catch this one. "It was the demise of a germ-hating culture that had helped clear the way for new epidemics of venereal disease". . . "A legal system that affirms the individual’s right to do almost everything at the germ-catching end now struggles to decide when, if ever, we can force the Typhoid Marys of our day to stop pitching what they catch." . . . "In the pantheon of disease and death, lifestyle and genes have completely eclipsed germs." . . . "nature designed an “immunodeficiency” virus—an all-purpose anti-vaccine, so tiny, quiet, slow, methodical, and gentle that it spread unnoticed for decades, and so innocuous that it never quite gets around to killing you at all. It leaves that to the old guard—the bacteria, protozoa, and viruses that invade when your immune system shuts down,. . ."

The title tells all

I just noticed this, and the title certainly reflects my views--Crazies to the left; Wimps to the right.

Poetry Thursday

Today I am poemless, rhymless, and without meter. I'm seeing nothing in syllables, no images in words, no sound in the rain and wind--except rain and wind. No canto or calligramme. I've locked my muse in the hall closet and she can't get out even by being coy. Not even by slipping Shakespeare or Shelley under the door.

The prompt for this week is, "we want Poetry Thursday participants to be inspired be one another’s work. The idea is that you leave a line from one of your poems in the comments, knowing that other participants might use that line as a jumping-off point for a new poem of their own." This is not that. I participated the last time. For today, I've looked through a thoroughly disappointing February issue of Poetry, a journal I usually devour. None of the poems made much sense--well, Billy Collins' was OK, but you'd expect that from a poet that famous. Therefore, I'm submitting the first line of each poem--thinking this accumulation makes about as much sense as anything else in that issue.

February rolls out its first lines
lifted, fitted, mixed and matched by Norma

If Parmigianino had done it. . .
Having failed for a third time to witness
Starlings’ racket; the straining redbud,
a red-feathered bird on a fence post
cooked by crooked
flames from the burn barrel
in the lost city of gold that was Oroville
I see you in your backyard’s lavender.

If they’re right, the whizkid physicist-theorist think tank guys,
She could be any woman at all.
In this sentimental painting of rustic life
A guitar has moved in across the street
Of course nostalgia Of course brooding
The world is wasted on you. Show us one clear time
You can tell by how he lists
That greasy letter into which my legs entered.

3692

Peace Democrats

We've been chasing around this Bush before, haven't we? In a review of Jennifer Weber's Copperheads, the rise and fall of Lincoln's opponents in the north, American Thinker finds some similarities and differences to today's Democrats.

"There is a long history of comfort provided to the enemy by the "peace" advocates in their very public undermining of the war effort. Copperheads consistently worked against what they saw as Lincoln's war. "Confederate confidence soared while Northern partisans bickered." (p. 45), Ms. Weber tells us. Robert E. Lee regarded the Copperheads as allies. He told Jefferson Davis that the best way to weaken the enemy is to give all support "to the rising peace party of the North." (p. 99). One can easily imagine similar encouragement today that is given to the Islamists by our Neo-Copperheads by calls for deadlines, the "peace" rallies, the constantly negative press, and the fatuous recommendations of the Iraq Study Group.

Because history does not repeat itself in the way that Santayana suggests, there are interesting differences as well. For instance no where does this book mention any Copperheads who tried explicitly to redefine "patriotism" as citizens undermining their own elected government's foreign policy. None in the North seemed to have had the nerve to call advocacy of Southern victory "patriotism." It would take the twentieth century triumph of the Orwellian manipulation of language, and the victory of postmodernists in today's trendy colleges and universities to bring about this sort of degradation of language and meaning."

3690

Terrorism, war, pestilence and immorality

OK. That's out of the way. How about global warming? When BP starts running full page ads in the Wall Street Journal about energy by the bushel, it's time to stockpile some food. We have perfectly wonderful stores of decayed vegetation called petroleum, coal and shale which will do fine while entrepreneurs are encouraged and given a chance to wean us off the gas tank and fuel oil. But no, through the hysteria of ALarmist Gore, a political has-been looking for another run at the White House, in combination with global energy companies who see a cheaper way to stick it to us, we're going to plant oceans of corn and burn that. Maybe this is a good case for evolution--we're on our way to the amazing shrinking human brain with the help of liberals, greenies, fanatics and global capitalists.

Did the media front the Don Imus story?

Did you see any of the major papers today? The Imus "nappy headed Ho" story is getting more ink than the finding that the Duke University lacrosse players' rape story was a complete hoax from start to finish. That works well for the MSM because they bought right into the outrageous railroading of those kids. Even good old (and I do mean old) Lionel Tiger got into the fray in WSJ today, scolding Imus, pointing out how this is street language regularly applied to black women by black men, but then excusing them because (shock and horror), during slavery times, black men weren't allowed to protect and marry their women. Well, what about the late 19th century and early 20th century Professor Tiger? Black men had no problem doing the right thing then, and black women were probably even stronger then. That is such an old, limp, tired academic excuse. Plus, white guys are following right along, shacking up, dissing women, and buying the music that makes rappers worth only 50 cents rich. What's their excuse?

Don Imus can't steal anyone's joy, not for a minute or a lifetime, and those young ladies better get a bit tougher. Their coach did them a terrible disservice--she could have been strong, but she was a sucker for the media. She could have been bigger than Imus. ("Don Who? Don Ho?") But an out of control prosecuter can certainly steal the life and reputation of anyone falsely accused with the help of bench warmers like the Duke faculty, and "leaders" like Jesse Jackson who offered the accuser a college scholarship. I hope the Duke trustees and alumni shake up those faculty cowards and administrators, and parents boycott the school so that no decent young adult enrolls there.

A new conspiracy machine is at work, of course. 1) Seems Imus has been extremely unkind to Hillary Clinton (particularly in his ridiculing of her body and plumbing, as well as her politics), so the Clinton machine is said to be at work bringing him down. He's small potatoes compared to some of the pols who appeared on his show--now they've been given notice. This can happen to you.

Another conspiracy theory: 2) this is really the back door for liberals to get conservative talk radio closed down. Not that Imus was conservative, by any stretch of the imagination, but we'll be hearing chatter that it needs to be regulated (even though he's been a shock jock for years). Silence the right, even if you've got to kill off one of your own. I've never heard Rush Limbaugh make a racist slur, unless he was repeating one made by the MSM and commenting on it, or ridiculing Kennedy for messing up Obama's name, but a liberal was whining that he leads the way in this degrading language. He'd better be prepared to listen to some tapes.

My vote goes for #2. How about you?

Update: Another conspiracy theory: 3) This Don Imus thing is all about Al Sharpton grabbing the spotlight from Jesse Jackson and trying to be the big negotiator and go-to guy for getting more blacks on TV (will he want them to have proportional representation on athletic teams or continue to dominate the boards and fields because they are better than the other players?). Hip Hop and Rap. Should blacks be proportional in popular culture? Tell us, Big Al, what exactly do you want?

3689

Katie Couric

The other day I realized I'd almost completely stopped watching TV. I used to catch Book-TV on week-ends, Fox News occasionally in the evenings, HGTV once in awhile. Boston Legal if I was up late. Maybe 10 minutes of Dancing with the Stars. WOSU Antiques Roadshow.

Gone. The thrill is gone. I think it is Katie. I really do. Tonight I walked into the living room as she was interviewing the parents of one of the young men from Duke who've just been through the worst nightmare a parent could imagine. I almost gagged. I whined. Complained. She and the other talking heads contributed to this mess. Stalked out of the room. Then it hit me. She's the reason. Katie has permanently turned me against TV.

She always looks like she's sincerely speaking at a wake; she asks asinine questions; her voice is like fingernails on a blackboard; her wardrobe looks like they dressed her from my own closet. Please. Send her home.

3688

I felt the same way about the Master's

""Who are all these people?"

"All very bad Jews," he told me.

It was, afterall, the first night of Passover. But for about 300 of New York's fanciest (plus a few book types), yesterday evening was also time to gather. . ." rest of the story here.

As the men in my family gathered around the TV on Easter Sunday to watch the Master's, I said, "Why are they playing on Easter?" My husband said something about the dates are set way ahead, to which I replied, "So are the dates for Easter."

3687

Let me spell it out for you

When the year end annual reports drop through the slot I'm always a bit surprised to find out what we own. I love those AFLAC commercials but didn't really know what it is, so was surprised to learn I own it (well, me and a lot of others). Now known by its acronym (and the duck), it used to be American Family Life Assurance Company. It's an insurance company to help workers meet their bills in times of crisis started by the Amos brothers, and I see there is an Amos who is Chairman and CEO.


Anyway, the report explains that the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a safe harbor to encourage companies to provide prospective information, but it has to have meaningful cautionary statements so that investors don't misunderstand that these are projections. So, the report lists the words to watch for in "forward looking statements." I think you'll find this helpful, in case you need to write something forward looking with no guarantees.

• expect
  
• anticipate
  
• believe
  
• goal
  
• objective
  
• may
  
• should
  
• estimate
  
• intends
  
• projects
  
• will
  
• assumes
  
• potential
  
• target

And then there is a long list of events to watch for which could screw up your forward looking words making results different than hoped for. I won't repeat all of them, but they include. . .

• legislative and regulatory developments
  
• changes in U.S. and/or Japanese tax laws or accounting requirements
  
• catastrophic events
  
• general economic conditions in the U.S. and Japan

There. CYA. Done.

3686

McGrorty vs. County of Los Angeles Public Library

Although I've never heard of a person being denied a job in a library because he is a military veteran (we had to give them--especially Vietnam vets--preference when I was interviewing), I suppose that is possible in California where "patriotism" can't even salute the flag and conservatives can be shouted off podiums on campuses. Still, it is one of the oddest employment cases I've read, because usually librarians are very liberal (223:1) and in favor of all the knee deep employment regs that the left uses to keep people out of jobs. Especially if they have one of their own waiting for it. I'm guessing, just from his name, that he's the wrong ethnicity for the positions he wants. Or maybe he's straight. Or not transgendered. Who knows. Maybe he's over 45?

McGrorty is one of the best writers you'll ever find on the internet, no matter the topic. I have no idea what sort of librarian he is, because I'm not sure he's ever been one.

3685

Hamburger Helper

Professor Paul Apostolidis of Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington (isn't that a tongue twister) published an article "Hegemony and Hamburger" in 2005 that points out the obvious--organized labor depends on a ready source of new workers and can manipulate the Mexican immigrant story to its advantage. So while I was googling this academic to see what else he'd written, I discovered he'd published a book in 2000 titled, "Stations of the Cross; Adorno and the Christian Right." Hmmm. Have no idea who Theodor Adorno is (was), but this certainly sounds like a PhD thesis being shopped around for a bookshelf on which to gather dust. So I poked around in some book reviews and read some sections online. It's a "nuanced, dialectical study," apparently linking James Dobson, an American Christian psychologist who has a radio show, to a German anti-semite about whom Adorno wrote in 1943. Nuanced. Well, you bet! Isn't that a word for "no one knows what I'm talking about but me?"

I read Dobson when my kids were little. He was a voice of reason in the midst of all the hysterical academic child writers of the era who appeared on Phil Donahue and Merv Griffin. I was a Democrat at the time and pretty liberal on just about everything. Don't remember when Dobson got political, but I know Phil Donahue threw him in head first by muzzling him on air when he was a guest, and he decided he needed to go on the offensive.

Apostolidis, like many left wing academics, gets his shorts in a knot when Christians speak up about anything. They can't get it figured out that Christians aren't some sort of monolithic block--they can't agree on how or when to baptize, how many days or eons God took to create the world, what exactly did Jesus mean in the parables, or which version of end-times to promote. I've seen Christian websites where they listed all the modern heretics, and I think Billy Graham and James Dobson are both listed.

Apparently the conservative Christians didn't have all the power the U.S. socialist professors thought, because Republicans were roundly defeated in 2006, although I personally think it had nothing to do with religion, unless of course, your religion teaches you to tell the truth and not go on wild spending sprees with other people's money. Republicans were tossed out because they refused to be the conservatives they pretended to be when they ran for office. I'd hardly call George W. Bush a stellar conservative on immigration, would you? The only religious change that came out of that election is that the liberal Democrat candidates worked very hard to sound more interested in family values and the welfare of children. They learned to talk the talk. So if all the liberal posturing and publishing that has poured forth since Bush got in office (most of which is on my public library shelves) did nothing else, it at least was successful in turning the issue upside down, so maybe next time the Democrats will be tossed for pretending to be something they weren't.

At the moment, conservatives do "own" talk radio. But it is a competitive medium and liberals just haven't done well getting their ideas across and attracting sponsors. Liberals don't do well with facts--and feelings do better on TV (like Rosie saying absurd hateful things with a sneer) than on radio which is more a thinking medium. Most of the national conservative talk hosts don't do religion--they may occasionally mention it, but their audience is too varied to risk it. Dr. Laura is a Jew, Glenn Beck is a Mormon, Laura Ingraham is a Catholic (I think), and the other big names I don't know. And Dobson I'd call a pretty small fish in a big pond. Is that nuanced enough?

3684

It keeps the money coming in

Because I worked in academe and was required to publish (actually I liked that part of my job), and purchased for my library publications paid for by government grants and foundations with an axe to grind, I should know better than to be surprised by "research studies." Still, some are so obvious, you just have to hope that the P & T committee saw through them. Here are two, one in the social sciences, one in medicine:

"Who evaluates a presidential candidate by using non-policy campaign messages?" by Marisa Abrajano, Political Research Quarterly, Vol. 58, No. 1 (March 2005): pp. 55-67. Apparently Ms. Abrajano discovered this no-brainer, which will allow her to be cited in the literature. When candidates give out non-policy campaign messages (my brother is married to a Mexican (Bush), or my son was born on Cinco de Mayo (Gore)), the less education the Latino voter has, the more likely he is to fall for it and think favorably of the candidate. Imagine this break through. The candidate needs to give different campaign messages depending on the age, education level, ethnicity, sex, and income level of his audience.

I remember chatting with a salesman in the Chef-o-Nette (my coffee spot) thirty five years ago who was always a snazzy dresser. One day he came in wearing khaki slacks and open collared shirt, but no jacket. "What's up? Got the day off?" I asked. "No, I'm going to my southern Ohio territory today, and you don't want to look like a city slicker with the good-old boys down there. You'd be laughed out of town." See? Didn't even need a government grant or a voter survey--he knew his product and his customer.

But here's my favorite. There's a study in the Archives of General Psychiatry (2004; 61:73-84) which uses PET scans and glucose monitoring to show that methamphetamine users lose their ability to control negative emotions, and so that might be why they are involved in so many serious crimes that involve violence. I'll bet you are surprised by that one, aren't you? Meth users out of control? I'm thinking there are a few cops on the street who could have put this one together without PET scans or glucose monitoring.

One of the big dangers from the meth users is their toxic "footprint." The walls, carpet and drapes of their "labs" are a toxic waste dump for the next tenant. You don't need to be a user in the traditional sense of the word to have your brain damaged. Here's a 59 page guidebook for cleanup (including sheetrock, plaster, counter tops, fabric) from Minnesota.

3683

Mike Bassett wants to give you a house

Mike Bassett owns a supermarket and hardware store where I often shop in the summer near Lakeside, OH. Nice guy--his family has been in the grocery business for over 100 years. He used to own a house on our street. He must be expanding in Bellvue, OH because he owns a very nice home there and will give it away, but you have to move it. I saw the item in the Columbus Dispatch, but when I googled it for a link, I see it was in a lot of papers and on several TV shows--even in Canada. AP must have picked up the story. I couldn't find a photo on the web, but it has 3600 sq. ft., lovely wood work, beveled glass windows, big porch of natural stone and a fireplace. I would judge it to be (from the Dispatch photo) built around 1910-1920 because it sort of has an Arts and Crafts look with maybe a touch of Green and Green or early Frank Lloyd Wright influence. You'd need a really big lot and probably about $80,000 to move it. Bellvue is 45 miles south of Toledo.

3682

Is it safe to let kids read?

We've all heard about librarians who don't want filters to protect children. What about books? Who's watching the publishers? Greg Smith's blog notes that recently he looked through a publisher's catalog at the YA titles and found:

A book on paralysis
A book on death of a parent, alcoholism, and unwanted pregnancy.
A book on death of a parent through cancer
A book on alcoholism
A book on armed assault with a deadly weapon
A book on death of both parents in a car crash
A book on death of both parents in a car crash and an unwanted pregnancy
A book whose catalog copy is vague, but appears to involve at least armed robbery and child abandonment
An historical book on suicide
A contemporary book on suicide
A book on death of a parent and economic hardship
A book on censorship. And sex.
A book on death by accidental shooting (or general stupidity)
A book on child abandonment, alcoholism, and an accident of indeterminate nature (resulting in, possibly, death)
A book on divorce
A book on death of a parent, economic hardship, robbery, and risking death.
Two books on (1960s) sex, drugs, and rock & roll (and therefore, at least metaphorically, death)

I'm glad I read only horse and dog stories when I was a kid (and Laura Ingalls Wilder); a lot of them were sad, but at least they didn't commit suicide or steal.

3681

It works in academe, too

Jared Sandberg in Cubicle Culture (WSJ) today listed a guide for horn tooters, gas bags and self-promoters. I recognized all of them, although I've spent most of my professional life in libraries not in business.

1. Move on to another job before the project fails.

2. Copy the boss with all your e-mails.

3. E-mail late at night to suggest you haven't left work.

4. During meetings, reinforce the boss' position with "Wouldn't you agree that. . . "

5. Cut down your colleagues or competition with, "You're saying what exactly. . . "

6. Wrap a self-serving argument in the flag of moral principle.

7. Be the ventriloquist's dummy, "What a great idea."

8. Speak first and often.

9. Distribute minutes or notes of the meetings, even if you aren't the one appointed.

10. Make the toasts at the office parties and social gatherings.

3680

Here we go again!

We're closing in on the last room of the home we moved into five years ago. The gay decorators who lived here in the 90s were fabulous and successful, I'm sure, but the brown living room, orange dining room, red family room, and dark hunter green and black guest room (all with a faux glaze with ceilings to match the walls) were a bit over the top for us, especially with enough yards of heavy drapes at the windows to canopy Scioto Downs. Now we're about to tackle the master bedroom which is dark blue with a lighter comb glaze, or maybe it is gray with a dark blue glaze.

This is the new bedspread--sort of a blue and creamy ivory and pale green
It's never easy, is it? There are light fixtures that should be replaced, holes in the walls that will need to be patched from the removed drapery rods, a medicine cabinet that must have cost all of $10 when new, and bathroom marble tile that won't exactly work with the paint I've picked out. I'm guessing the patching and light fixtures and new mirror will run us $1,000, and that's before we even buy the primer. To make matters more complicated, the comb faux glaze has a texture that may not cover properly.

When the painter (recommended by a friend) came by to give us an estimate, he brought his tiny, preemy baby (I weighed more than he does when I was born). Originally, he and his wife were in this business together, but now she has a "regular" job and the baby was a surprise. Then the mother-in-law from out of state to help out until July, but she got sick and was hospitalized and is now in a local nursing home.

Goodness. I guess funny wall colors isn't much of a problem to have, is it?

3679

Poverty stories--unintended consequences

The Columbus Dispatch a few weeks ago reported on the front page the sad story of a "Decade of Gains Dissipating." A decade ago the Ohio Supreme Court issued four rulings that the state funding system for schools was unconstitutional, and there were dramatic changes in the Appalachian areas of southern Ohio.

In "Southern Local" new schools replaced the old, the high school was renovated, special teachers were hired, science labs opened, and computers brought in. Graduation rate went from 88% in 1997 to 94% in 2006. Spending went from $4,780 per student 10 years ago to $10,043 today, and teachers with 20 years + an MS are getting $51,686.

Now salaries have been frozen, and special programs are being dropped. What happened? Life. The local property taxes can't keep up with costs, like benefits. The district has many expensive students--two thirds qualify for free breakfast and lunch, one fourth have special needs. Once the children are educated, many move away for better jobs. The young man whose parents brought the law suit against the state went on to college, is married and lives in a city in central Ohio and is considering private school for his kids.

Do these stories help or hurt? I think a 94% graduation rate is pretty spectacular--in fact, 88% is waaaaaaay above Cleveland's and Columbus' graduation rate, which have much higher costs per student, nicer buildings and better paid teachers.

I think we need to send a few administrators to southern Ohio to find out how they are doing a better job with less money and poorer facilities. I think I know the answer. Do you?

3678

Lest we diverge from the evolution party line

The Feb. 15 issue of Nature (445/7129) has an interesting article on the plants native to South Africa's Cape region. There are more than 9,000 plant species, 6,000 found in no other country in the world, and most of those are in the western region. Compare this to the entire area of the British Isles which is home to about 1500 plant species.

There seems to be some fear by the author that a person might conclude such fantastic variety, beauty and diversity were designed by a mind larger and more complex than ours rather than just happening by accident over a few million years. The terms "evolutionary approach," "evolutionary isolation," "evolutionary tree linking," and "bouts of evolution," appeared once; "evolutionary heritage," "evolutionary radiations," "evolutionary tree," and "evolutionary diversity," appeared twice; but the phrase "evolutionary divergence," (which reminds me of idiopathic, meaning "we don't know why this happened") appears 10 times in the article. And it isn't even a very long article!

3677

Maybe it's time to reread

All the King's Men. Sherry at Semicolon is one of my favorite book reviewers. Today she's taken another look at this 1947 novel by Robert Penn Warren whose character Willie Stark appears to be Huey Long, Governor of Louisiana in the 1930s.

"Willie has a gift for making the poor white hicks of rural Louisiana feel as if they’re an important part of the power structure. He’s one of them, he says, a hick, too, raised up by God to lead them on to good roads, decent sanitation, free education, and universal health care. And he’ll pay for it all by taxing the rich. Gee, haven’t we all heard that speech before? Maybe old Huey/Willie has been reincarnated several times since the 1930’s."

Read it here. She hosts an interesting Saturday Review of Books where you can contribute one of your own book reviews from your blog. I don't read enough books to participate, but it sure looks like fun.

3676

Imus or Rappers?

If I had to choose which insults black women more to more people, it would be the black rappers. Black performers making millions from the white kids buying their music regularly demean and objectify black women, calling them stupid Hos. You can dress it up with bling, but it doesn't change the meaning.

African American "leaders" in the media or entertainment world who are acting holier than thou need to make a stop at a music store, or where that filth is sold. I think Don Imus is disgusting and always has been; politicians who make nicey-nice on his show should look for cleaner streets for their soapboxes. Sponsors who have paid him to insult people need to find adults for their marketing departments who have vocabularies beyond four letter words.

"Who ever corrects a mocker invites insult; whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse. Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you; rebuke a wise man and he will love you." Proverbs 9:7-8