This would be bad because?

The screen writers are threatening to strike? Well, goodie.

The Writers Guild of America wants studios and networks “to take a serious look at the Guild proposals — which seek a doubling of DVD residuals, spelling out terms of new media work and broadening WGA jurisdiction over new media, reality and animation,” wrote Dave McNary of Variety. Reported in NYT

It won't affect movies much because of the long lead time, but could hold up some TV shows. Whoop de do. That would be such a loss.

Mike Huckabee for President

Could Hope do it again? Send this man to the White House. Check out the issues here.

Keep the Clintons from doing more damage in DC. We need a very clear alternative, and I think Mike is the guy who does that.

Mike Huckabee

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Librarian's call

His North Carolina National Guard unit will be called up in January, and he's relieved to finally have something concrete rather than rumors. "Please note that I don't mean that in a "gung-ho" or false bravado sense. I'm fully aware of the risks and have no wish to be killed or maimed. I will be the last one to complain if this turns out to be a thoroughly boring and uneventful tour. However, the cause of defeating both al Qaeda and Iran and its surrogates, while helping the Iraqi people build a country that can become a decent, pluralist model for the rest of the region, is important enough that I'm willing to take the risk. We have to win this fight, and I'm ready to do my part to help us do so."

He also says librarianship is a job; the Guard is a calling. David Durant

Monday Memories--Dad's VCR

My father had no mechanical ability, and he passed it along to me. My mother knew it all, so why should he learn--carpentry, plumbing, wallpapering, gardening, etc. We used to joke that he'd trade cars rather than change the oil. After my Mom died and he moved from the retirement apartment into the Lustron (which had been built by his parents in 1949), someone, probably a grandchild, decided he needed a VCR to keep him company. He probably had a few movies and some homemade videos, like my sister in concert, or a family event. Keeping in mind that he would probably never learn to record anything, he was given a Daewoo play-only VCR [if he bought it himself, I'm sure someone will know]. Somehow, we ended up with it when his home was cleared out after his death in 2002. Two weeks ago I rediscovered it in its hiding place under the TV and decided to take it to Lakeside to see if it would work with our broadcast-only TV up there. I took along the movie "Dirty Dancing" as a test tape.

Keep in mind my technical knowledge and ability. Although I noticed every light on its tiny dashbroad came on when I attached it, and I couldn't find any play or eject buttons, I put the tape in anyway. By the time I found the buttons (lift the little lid, dummy), the tape was stuck. Smacking it didn't work (which was probably dad's method). So I brought it back home.

Last Tuesday evening we were looking at our 3 remotes, the TV and the DVD player, clueless how to play the DVD of Ireland photos we'd been sent, so our daughter came by after work to explain it for the umpteenth time. After rereading the instructions she told us we'd have to use a newer TV. Fine. But then I told her about daddy's Daewoo. It will never work again, but after about 30 minutes, she did get it to give up the tape. She's a genius with a screw driver, having rewired ceiling lights and installed an attic fan for her in-laws; however, there were two screws left over when she finished.

Bobby Jindal--Hope for Louisiana

Thank goodness. He'll be the next Governor of Louisiana, beating out 11 others.

"Jindal, whose given name is Piyush, is the American-born son of Indian immigrants; his parents moved from New Delhi to Baton Rouge so his mother could take graduate classes at Louisiana State University.

But the son charted a new course in the new country.

When he was 4, he decided to call himself Bobby -- after the youngest son on the "Brady Bunch" television show. In high school, he gave up Hinduism and became a Christian; and during his first year at Brown University, he was baptized as a Roman Catholic. His wife, Supriya, is also a Catholic convert." WaPo story here.

Times of India story.

The trees are preparing for a long sleep

From a review of Republic of Shade by Thomas J. Campanella, Yale University Press, 2003 which includes the following:

"In typological terms, trees in Scripture act like giant words, expressing not only the general glory of God but also more specific themes. Both trees and saints come out of the ground. Both grow on riverbanks (Ps. 1) and bring food and medicine to the world; "their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing" (Ez. 47:12; cf. Rev. 22:2). Jotham preached "the trees once went forth to anoint a king over them," and the blind man healed began to see men as trees walking. Trees are images of humans, and they reflect our own fruitfulness, hubris, and decay.

Lakeside, OH, October 2007
And God manifests himself at trees—"arboreal theophanies," [James] Jordan says—like those in Eden and in front of Moses but also in the careful wood of the Tabernacle and Temple, which create grand images of God's people gathered around him. The entire Davidic line is pictured as a tree, a root, a stump, a branch (Is. 42; 6:13; 11:10) that ultimately develops into Christ, the vine, the tree of life, executed on a tree, having threatened fire to "every tree which does not bear good fruit" (Mt. 3:10). Christ Himself doesn't hesitate to urge us to read trees wisely: "Now learn this parable from the fig tree" (Mt. 24:32).

Our condo yard today
Learn from the tree? Why does that directive not show up regularly in seminary hermeneutics courses? We go to great pains to teach seminary students about exegeting Scripture and secret Foucauldian power structures, but we leave them largely clueless about exegeting nature." Douglas Jones, Reviewer

OSU golf course maple

It may be vegan, but it's delicious

Oddly, it was given to me by a veterinarian. Alternative Baking Company of Sacramento, CA, makes a fabulous cookie with no dairy, no eggs, no honey, no hydrogenated oils, no cholesterol, no preservatives, no artificial ingredients or refined sugars. Wow. If this catches on, some food animal vets will be out of work, to say nothing of farmers. Right now I'm eating the peanut butter chocolate chip cookie. Yummy. I thought there were 2 others--they seem to have disappeared from the kitchen.

4240

Damages

is a first season thriller series on FX cable with a stunning cast and a heart in your throat story line that is as current and biased as today's headlines. I saw it for the first (and I hope last) time on Oct. 20 when the entire season was on a marathon, with the final episode next Tuesday. The cast includes Glenn Close and Ted Danson, both at their evil best. I've seen both of them in TV series and movies, and they've never been better.

This Saturday, FX is running the entire first season (up to now) of its legal thriller Damages as an all-day marathon, which means theoretically there will be viewers who will get to experience this show the way it might work best: as a rock ’em, sock ’em miniseries, compounding all of the story’s elaborate and sometimes preposterous shocks and twists into a roller-coaster ride that doesn’t require waiting a week between chapters. TV Guide blog

Yes, I tuned in during the episode where one of the main characters (also evil) blows his head off. Messy stuff, both his personal life, and what the make-up guys had to do. So of course, I had to google it and watch the next episode. But it did cause me to do some heavy thinking about how we use our leisure time in our comfortable living rooms or home theaters.

This may be the one area where I agree with the fundamentalist Muslims--our entertainment culture (TV, music, gaming, movies, theater) in the west is the most God-awful, slime pit you can imagine, and it is addictive, sucking in even those who know it is bad and soul-rotting--people like me, little old ladies who grew up in the 50s without a television set and never missed it. The sides of this pit are cascading body fluids, diseases, feces, drugs, money, evil intentions, violence, putrid souls and blood, a thick goo that has been building up well over 50 years on walls sloped to make it impossible to climb out or return to a safer era. Even a terrifically performed ensemble cast like "Ugly Betty" filled with surprise and charm, and a delightfully innocent and pure main character, has at its base wild sexual escapades and power-driven, one-dimensional characters, formed by their own excesses, but with enough redeeming qualities that the viewer soon gets sucked into the story line. All the versions of the decade old "Law and Order" feature not only incredible violence and evil, but the most evil characters are often those most religious or most loving, such as a parent, spouse, or child--a poster for family violence and evil Christians.

So today, in my One Year Bible, October 21, I read in Paul's letter of advice to Timothy, a young pastor:

"But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. . ."

All Christians, whether baptized as infants and confirmed before witnesses later, or baptized as a believer before witnesses, have made a confession to follow Jesus' teachings. This trash we call entertainment could not survive without the support of Christians (however they call themselves--liberal, conservative, evangelical, main-line, fundamentalist). We make another confession to the entertainment god when we tacitly and often eagerly agree to worship heaps of stinking garbage on a daily basis.

Damages FX

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Fun with Al

From a commenter at Tim Blair's blog.

Dear Meester Gore,

As chairman of de Nobel Peace Prize Committee, I haff de unpleasant dewty to inform yew dat, because of certain errors and inaccuracies in yur movie, An Inconvenient Truth, ve are havin’ to cancel yur avard. Ve are distressed at de necessity of doin’ dis, but, yumpin’ yimminy, Meester Gore, yew really stepped in de cow pewp dis time, vit all dem mistakes.

Ve hope yew vill take some comfort in de Committee’s decision to gib de avard, instead, tew dat Iranian feller, Ahmadinejad, in token of hiss not yet blowin’ de beyibbers out of de whole goldurn vurld.

However, ve don’t vant yew do go avay mad, so ve are sendin’ yew a consolation prize – a maus pad vit a picture of a reindeer on it.

Ve be seein’ yew sometime, I bet. In de meantime, “Ha det bra!” from yur friends in Norvay.

Sincerely,

Ole Danbolt Mjøs

4238

Can't blame MRSA on illegal immigrants

That's not a rumor you want to start, but I heard Laura Ingraham mention it right after talking about the TB guy who's made a number of flights legally from Mexico into the U.S. A whole alphabet soup of government agencies have dropped the ball on this one, and it's not an illegal immigrant issue.

Neither is MRSA (what I heard: as an aside she asked where these germs were coming from right after talking about the TB infected Mexican . . . like we can't grow our own!). It's a problem which started in the 1970s with hospitals overusing antibiotics, patients having shorter stays, and the staph bug moving on out to the community. In 1998, the CDC reported on the problem with nosocomial infections (infections that originally preyed on the weakest and sickest in hospitals)

By the late 1980s and early 1990s, several different classes of antimicrobial drugs effective against gram-negative bacilli provided a brief respite. During this time, methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) emerged, signaling the return of the "blue bugs." In 1990 to 1996, the three most common gram-positive pathogens—S. aureus, coagulase-negative staphylococci, and enterococci—accounted for 34% of nosocomial infections, and the four most common gram-negative pathogens—Escherichia coli, P. aeruginosa, Enterobacter spp., and Klebsiella pneumoniae—accounted for 32%

The most recently updated MRSA page at CDC was done this week--the earlier one was from 2005, but the recent concern apparently caused them to revise it.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) is a type of staph that is resistant to certain antibiotics. These antibiotics include methicillin and other more common antibiotics such as oxacillin, penicillin and amoxicillin. Staph infections, including MRSA, occur most frequently among persons in hospitals and healthcare facilities (such as nursing homes and dialysis centers) who have weakened immune systems (see healthcare-associated MRSA).

MRSA infections that are acquired by persons who have not been recently (within the past year) hospitalized or had a medical procedure (such as dialysis, surgery, catheters) are known as CA-MRSA infections. Staph or MRSA infections in the community are usually manifested as skin infections, such as pimples and boils, and occur in otherwise healthy people.

The most recent guidelines run to 219 pages, but to sum it up, WASH YOUR HANDS, PEOPLE, and don't let a medical staff person touch you until they do. "Improved hand hygiene practices have been associated with a sustained decrease in the incidence of MRSA and VRE infections primarily in the ICU (p. 49)"

4237

The Democrats' Hissy Fit

Although I'd never thought about it, I didn't know southern girls had hissy fits, too. Kyle-Anne Shiver describes what she saw the Democrats doing about SCHIP in Congress on C-SPAN as a "Southern belle hissy fit," or taking the argument to a level of pure emotion:

deceitful
underhanded
below-the-belt
used when the opponent held a significant power advantage
perfectly acceptable because
it is used when you don't get your way with facts
or with reasoned argument,
totally unencumbered by rational thought
afflicted can accuse the opponent of being “vicious,” “mean,” “unreasonable,” “vile,” “cruel,” “a bully,”
and ride the emotional wave of perfected guile to victory

In other words, you get your own way in the matter.

The female hissy fit--is definitely national, and obviously not limited to women.

Shiver concludes: "When the leaders of Congress wish to propose a socialist encroachment upon another segment of the private economy, it would serve them well to abandon the tactics of emotionalism and deceit. If they are the stalwart proponents of the free-will, free-thought democracy that they incessantly claim to be, then there should never be just cause for the kind of emotional trickery demonstrated by a parade of the victims* of American “injustice.” A straightforward argument based upon sound reason is what a free people should demand from her leaders. In every instance."

*I can't be sure, but this may be a reference to one Graeme Frost, the 12 year old boy the Democrats used to plead their case for expansion to the president. However, he was already on SCHIP, middle class and attending private school--which is the direction the Democrats are going with this. When bloggers and conservatives pointed this how, they were accused of cruelty, harassment, and God knows what else.

4236

Subprime late payments

A chart in today's WSJ showed the number of people keeping up with mortgage payments on subprime loans is improving. During the last quarter about 7.6% were late and that's dropped to 7.2% (this compares to .8% and .6% in prime). Missed payments were high in mid-1999, then dropping way down to under 2% in mid-2003. Obviously, the reasons for this have yet to be sorted out. But it must not be the economy, or how much was loaned to poor people vs how much to speculators. Subprime loans went to low income people who were poor credit risks and to high income people with high debt in relation to their income. The rest of us went the standard route--10 or 20% down and fixed rates.

But here's what's interesting. After 9/11 there was a drastic drop in late payments for both types of loans. As the economy soared, so did late payments. Seems to be psychological, not financial.

4235

When will Harry tie up the Senate complaining about Stark?

Congressman Stark (D-CA) says, "Ladies and gentlemen, the axis of evil is not just in the Middle East, it is right down here on Pennsylvania Avenue" and that the President of the United States, the man we elected, wants to blow people up for his own amusement. Harry, I think that's a bit more serious, and tougher on the troops than a private citizen calling a guy who didn't make it past basic training but who poses as a veteran, a 'phony soldier."

"You don't have money to fund the war or children. But you're going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the president's amusement."

One thing about Democrats, they are hell bent on losing this war. I tried to send Stark an e-mail, but his contact page won't take messages from Ohio. Old Pete's a chicken as well as a traitor. All this because he didn't like the President's veto on the expansion of health care to 25 year old, middle-class children who already have private insurance.

4234

Jessica Seinfeld on feeding kids

Maybe I should've written a book. Although since some other author (Missy Lapine) whose book is further down the best seller list is crying foul, I think it has a bit to do with being Jerry's wife, and sitting in on the Oprah show. Do you think? Anyway, I never had a problem getting my kids to eat, or to go to bed at a decent hour. Most of my tips for eating don't involve food.


1. Eat as a family--this is the key.

2. Set a nice table, both attractive and easy for children to use.

3. Have regular meals--my husband was usually home by 5:30 or 5:45, so this wasn't hard for us. We still eat early.

4. When children are small, use a booster seat, or put them on their knees on a regular chair, but put them at the table with the adults. Counters and stools are death to good eating habits, in my opinion.

5. Eat out only occasionally and/or for special events. You just can't compete for their taste buds with the high fat, high salt, high crunch of fast food.

6. Don't tolerate misbehavior at the table which spoils everyone's dinner, including the kid's.

7. Let the children help--but not too much. You want them to see that food preparation is an adult task--a big deal!

8. Clean plates are optional, but whining, complaints and dessert aren't.

9. Children in Haiti get beans and rice every day at school (according to my husband who has been there). Don't give very young children so many choices that you confuse them and numb their taste buds, which are much more sensitive than yours.

10. Desserts should be occasional and can be fresh fruit or yogurt to be special (it's a mind game, folks).

11. Don't be coy. We used to have mystery vegetable night, but really, the kids didn't like it. However, it makes for great family stories 30 years later.

12. I never snuck vegetable puree into anything (probably didn't have a blender then), although today I put pumpkin into peanut butter pie and you can't tell the difference. My children learned to appreciate vegetables for what they are, and usually raw. Raw carrot slices or cabbage was a BIG treat, as it was in my home when I was growing up. Raw potato slices were another big favorite.

13. My kids loved casseroles. However, my son-in-law (family of 7) hates them, so I think you need to go lightly here. Lasagne, spaghetti, mac and cheese--all that stuff we like, he will only have 2 helpings. He doesn't want his food "to touch."

14. Good luck keeping the sugary, high fat, high chemical and colored food away from your kids--as soon as they do an over-night or an after school play date at a friend's home, you've lost that battle. I baked whole wheat bread and lasagne with spinach noodles, but you can't fight the whole neighborhood unless you want your kid to have no friends.

Note to purists: No one seems to know where the word "sneak" came from, but its past tense "sneaked" is rarely used in the U.S. Most Americans (unless they majored in English or are over 65) use "snuck," but all forms sound pretty silly.

4233

Thursday Thirteen To-Do List

Last week I mentioned I'm not a good list maker, which is why TT works for me--sometimes. Here's my TT, and I only cheated a little, but it's finished.

1. Clean my office. It was out of control. In order to do #4, I needed to find the insurance papers which were at the bottom of the pile, but I found them.

2. Finish the laundry. I even did the ironing--what's one or two fewer blog entries?

3. Clean the bathrooms. Sort of--did one. In doing #8 I did wonder what 60,000 people gathered to watch the King did for restrooms in the 18th century. Do you ever think about that?

4. Make an appointment for the dentist. It's been almost 2 years since I fired my dentist, so I'm trying a new one. 8 a.m. Friday--must have had a cancellation--wasn't expecting it would be so soon.

5. Make an appointment at the vet for the cat. 9:45 Monday. She's a "cats only" vet, but kitty still doesn't appreciate it. She becomes 7 lbs of irritability.

6. Mail run for the church. We have several locations and on Thursday it's my turn to deliver the inter-campus mail. Fortunately, there were no heavy boxes this time and the wind wasn't blowing. At Mill Run there are usually gale force winds.

7. Flu shot--at the church next door. I was the only one at my time slot, so there was no wait. Pleasant young lady who caused no pain.

8. Read a few chapters of David McCullough's 1776. I'm leading the discussion for bookclub in November and need to refresh my memory and write up the questions. I only reread 2 pages, though, stopping at the amazing description of the London opening of Parliament and George III in 1775, which sets the symbolic stage for the hopelessness of the battle the Americans were in for. Hint: The Americans win, but it takes many years and a huge loss of life.

9. Write up the Visual Arts Ministry minutes. It would be a lot easier if I'd do this immediately (like last Friday), but a week late is better than the night before the next meeting.

10. Walk a mile. Counting walking to get the flu shot, I probably got 1.5 miles. Beautiful day--should have done 5.

11. Get prescription refilled. Not on that $4 list that all the big stores are offering. Wal-Mart started it, and now Target, Kroger, etc. have followed.

12. Buy my son-in-law's birthday present. He always gets the same thing. A gift card for Best Buy because then he can go wild buying movies he likes. They have a fabulous collection.

13. Buy snacks for Sunday's meeting. Didn't get this done, but did try a new recipe (the one with peaches that I noted in my blog in September), that I might make with apples for Sunday.

Visit or join other Thursday Thirteeners.

Another great line

Good thing an Obama aide said it. Democrats have no sense of humor and would have sought an impeachment. "Every family has a black sheep." Obama and Cheney share a 17th century French ancestor and are 8th cousins.

Here's a great line

Randall Bloomquist of WGST, Atlanta, reviews Graig Havighust's book, "Air Castle of the South," (U. of I. Press) in today's WSJ. It's about the rise and fall of WSM, an AM station in Nashville, which was created by National Life and Accident Insurance Company in 1925 to sell insurance to rural folk and ended up creating and spreading country music and the Nashville sound. I'll probably never read the book, but I loved this line:

"As history it is engaging but less than definitive. . . demanding that WSM [now owned by Gaylord Entertainment] live or die by the media economy's new rules feels a bit like asking your grandmother to work at Burger King to make ends meet."

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Totally Optional Prompts

Alumni of Poetry Thursday have started up Totally Optional Prompts, 1) the prompt will be posted on Saturday evening, 2) you write/post a poem at your own blog, and 3) the following Thursday you submit a link to that poem only (not your blog site URL) at T.O.P., 4) you leave comments (not criticism) after visiting/reading the poems of other T.O.P. participants.

The prompt for Saturday, Oct. 13, was from a Chinese poem, translated into English, "On Hearing a Lute-Player," and I selected one line for my prompt, "Singing old beloved songs." The back story: I'm a member of a Christian congregation with multiple worship styles (4 in 10 services) swinging from liturgical to beat driven rock. I wrote this in a few minutes after reading the prompt. I probably won't polish it--it's a bit cranky. Just needed to unload.

Singing old beloved songs

There was a day, maybe twenty years ago
(and I miss those times)
when we could quibble
about end times
or transubstantiation,
the length of sermons
or gay marriage,
paraphrases of Holy Scripture
or what happens to
the real presence when
the wine isn't consumed.

That was a simple time, light years ago
(I miss the challenge)
when we could argue
with Presbyterians
or Roman Catholics,
Pentecostals, Baptists
or Missouri Synod Lutherans,
children of the Puritans
(what happened to them?)
Now fights are in house . . .
worship form and music.

Totally optional prompts

4229

Use of the word "elite"

Nonfiction Readers Anonymous (a terrific blog by the way) thought it was amusing that Laura Ingraham, a conservative talk show host who has a law degree, has clerked at the Supreme Court and graduated from Dartmouth, would use the word "elite" when writing about agenda-driven liberals who look down on the little guy in fly-over country (her audience). Perhaps she thinks Laura is a member of "the elite." Not according to the dictionary, or the way conservatives use the word.

Here's the meaning of elite, from Webster's 9th:

the choice part or segment; especially a socially superior group; a powerful minority group, as inside the government;

Today, the elite may be "new money," or "land rich, piss-poor," but they are more likely to be academics who have tenure but not much else, or Congressmen who have been strapped onto the Beltway longer than most voters have been alive, or they may be a spouse of a former President (now making millions), accustomed to a sense of entitlement, or journalists making $40,000 a year and all the turnips they can eat, or former Presidents wandering lost around the world, or fabulously rich entertainers and celebrities who believe their own press, like the Dixie Chicks or Barbra Streisand. Attending Dartmouth and being a lawyer, gets you no points at all, near as I can tell. Nor does writing a few books, even those that get to the best seller list. Nonfictionanon, a librarian, even admits she'd never heard of her.

The word elite has little to do with wealth or where you sat out your 4-6 years of undergrad work. The way conservatives use the word, the elite may have no family pedigree at all, or they may have bunches, like John Kerry a man with a genealogy who married a widow with money. Today's elite are smug, self-appointed divas and web-site owners, some immigrant millionaires or billionaires like Soros and Huffington, or place holders on boards of NGOs who are massaging their guilt because they have so much money, or formerly useful people who have outlived their usefulness.

The elite used to have class; now they are just crass.

Good for you, President Carter!

The former President of the United States, Jimmy Carter (who sometimes forgets he has no authority, moral, symbolic or otherwise), didn't back down and act like a doormat in a recent incident in Sudan. 200,000 have been killed in western Sudan since 2003, African Arab on black African, Muslim on Muslim. Why would he think they'd respect an elderly white Christian they didn't even recognize?

Unfortunately, forgetfulness, fantasy and combativeness are all signs of early dementia.