This one applies to me.
"Dear Miss Manners:
How can I, a person with a number of food allergies, politely ask what is in an appetizer, meal, dessert, etc., in social situations?
I have tried the 'Oh, it looks delicious . . . what's in it?' approach; however, this does not always work. 'Trust me, you'll love it,' says a host eagerly waiting for me to take a nibble and agree.
As an advocate of discretion on the part of guests with food restrictions, Miss Manners has to admire your subtlety. She hates to admit that there is such a thing as being too subtle, but you seem to have achieved it.
The goal is to avoid undue demands on the host as well as medical emergencies, religious and ethical transgressions and, not least, excessive talk about food. Your host could have supposed that you were acting from mere culinary curiosity, which he is not obligated to satisfy.
The succinct response to 'Trust me . . . ' should have been a pleasant but firm 'Trust me, I do need to know. I'm allergic to . . . ' Followed, if necessary, by an equally pleasantly delivered, 'You really don't want me to spoil this lovely party by your having to call the rescue squad.'"
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Salon.com - Daou Report
Salon.com - Daou Report:
Muslim congressman more dangerous than 9/11 hijackers? So says right-wing hatemonger Dennis Prager -
"In a recent Townhall article Conservative Talk Show Host and Columnist Dennis Prager states that Congressman-elect Keith Ellison (MN 5) should not be allowed to take the oath of office on the Koran because "he will be doing more damage to the unity of America and to the value system that has formed this country than the terrorists of 9-11." Besides playing on the racist fears of his readers by comparing taking the oath of office on the Koran to "a racist elected to Congress" being allowed to "choose Hitler's 'Mein Kampf,' the Nazis' Bible," Prager is completely wrong when he states that "all elected officials take their oaths of office with their hands on the very same book."
Monday, November 27, 2006
Video game makers are worse than dope dealers
A local columnist. All I can say is "AMEN BROTHER." I have had a read time trying to convince John that I am not being mean because we haven't been able to find a PS3 or a Nintendo Wii. Not that I was necessarily going to buy him one.
COMMENTARY: JOHN KELSO
These video game manufacturers ought to be taken out back and fed to the virtual hogs.
Last Sunday, my daughter, Rachel, 15, asked if we could go to Best Buy so she could check out a video game she loves called "Zelda."
"I just want to hold it," she said.
That sounded to me like a plea from a kid who really wants to own this game. So I suggested to my wife, Kay, and Rachel that we go to the store and just buy "Zelda."
Not that I understand the frenzy here. I'm so low-tech I can limbo under a gigabyte. I don't know "Zelda" from "Alice in Wonderland."
But I figure if a kid wants a $50 game bad enough to just "hold it," I could spring for that.
That's when I was told the game needed a $250 game system, something mysterious called a Wii.
Undaunted, I figured, what the heck, let's go for it. To make a kid happy, I can get out the checkbook.
So on Sunday afternoon, the three of us headed off to the store to buy "Zelda" and Wii, or so I thought.
We hit about half a dozen South Austin stores and couldn't find either the game or the system.
Seems like the miserable creeps at Nintendo, the video company that makes both the game and the system, had sent out just enough Wiis to create what is known as market interest.
When we left the house, Rachel was bubbly and happy. Heck, she even voluntarily cleaned her room, the biggest upset I'd seen since the Red Sox won the World Series.
But by the time we found out the Target on Ben White Boulevard had run out of Wiis, Rachel was in tears. I felt like a bag of ham.
They were out at Best Buy, too. The clerk told us that there was a guy lurking about the floor, offering to sell his Wii for $450 to distraught customers who couldn't find one. He suggested we track him down.
This attempt by the toy manufacturers to turn our children into emotional wrecks began in the '80s with the Cabbage Patch doll.
My idea of Cabbage Patch Doll aerobics would be to drag one behind a truck.
But American grandmothers didn't see it that way. Oh, no, the old birds loved this doll because their grandkids wanted one.
So the long gray line would form outside the store at 6 a.m. Then, when the doors sprung open at 7, these old women would beat each other over the head with their handbags to get their wrinkled fingers on a doll.
This tradition of rioting over polyurethane products continues today with video games. Last week, a man was shot while standing in line for a Sony PlayStation 3.
Sony ought to make an action game out of that: a bunch of cartoon shoppers in line waiting to buy toys while the bad guy on the screen guns them down for points.
Why can't you greedy buzzards at the game companies send out enough of your product to start with so we don't all go crazy? Or is that just too much to ask?
COMMENTARY: JOHN KELSO
These video game manufacturers ought to be taken out back and fed to the virtual hogs.
Last Sunday, my daughter, Rachel, 15, asked if we could go to Best Buy so she could check out a video game she loves called "Zelda."
"I just want to hold it," she said.
That sounded to me like a plea from a kid who really wants to own this game. So I suggested to my wife, Kay, and Rachel that we go to the store and just buy "Zelda."
Not that I understand the frenzy here. I'm so low-tech I can limbo under a gigabyte. I don't know "Zelda" from "Alice in Wonderland."
But I figure if a kid wants a $50 game bad enough to just "hold it," I could spring for that.
That's when I was told the game needed a $250 game system, something mysterious called a Wii.
Undaunted, I figured, what the heck, let's go for it. To make a kid happy, I can get out the checkbook.
So on Sunday afternoon, the three of us headed off to the store to buy "Zelda" and Wii, or so I thought.
We hit about half a dozen South Austin stores and couldn't find either the game or the system.
Seems like the miserable creeps at Nintendo, the video company that makes both the game and the system, had sent out just enough Wiis to create what is known as market interest.
When we left the house, Rachel was bubbly and happy. Heck, she even voluntarily cleaned her room, the biggest upset I'd seen since the Red Sox won the World Series.
But by the time we found out the Target on Ben White Boulevard had run out of Wiis, Rachel was in tears. I felt like a bag of ham.
They were out at Best Buy, too. The clerk told us that there was a guy lurking about the floor, offering to sell his Wii for $450 to distraught customers who couldn't find one. He suggested we track him down.
This attempt by the toy manufacturers to turn our children into emotional wrecks began in the '80s with the Cabbage Patch doll.
My idea of Cabbage Patch Doll aerobics would be to drag one behind a truck.
But American grandmothers didn't see it that way. Oh, no, the old birds loved this doll because their grandkids wanted one.
So the long gray line would form outside the store at 6 a.m. Then, when the doors sprung open at 7, these old women would beat each other over the head with their handbags to get their wrinkled fingers on a doll.
This tradition of rioting over polyurethane products continues today with video games. Last week, a man was shot while standing in line for a Sony PlayStation 3.
Sony ought to make an action game out of that: a bunch of cartoon shoppers in line waiting to buy toys while the bad guy on the screen guns them down for points.
Why can't you greedy buzzards at the game companies send out enough of your product to start with so we don't all go crazy? Or is that just too much to ask?
Friday, November 24, 2006
Buffalo News - Christian Coalition loses leader in dispute
God forbid that all the time and money put into this groups activities would actually go towards something Jesus preached about.
Buffalo News - Christian Coalition loses leader in dispute: "The Rev. Joel Hunter, of Northland, A Church Distributed, in Longwood, Fla., said he quit as president-elect of the group founded by evangelist Pat Robertson because he realized he would be unable to broaden the organization's agenda beyond opposing abortion and same-sex marriage.
He hoped to include issues such as easing poverty and saving the environment.
'These are issues that Jesus would want us to care about,' Hunter said."
Buffalo News - Christian Coalition loses leader in dispute: "The Rev. Joel Hunter, of Northland, A Church Distributed, in Longwood, Fla., said he quit as president-elect of the group founded by evangelist Pat Robertson because he realized he would be unable to broaden the organization's agenda beyond opposing abortion and same-sex marriage.
He hoped to include issues such as easing poverty and saving the environment.
'These are issues that Jesus would want us to care about,' Hunter said."
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Just in time for Thanksgiving: Top 10 Grossest Urban Legends Ever Told
The thankful part is that none of them are true.
Here is one example. Interestingly enough, there was a link to McDonalds on the page below.
(Originally published 12/06/00)
This week's most frequently asked question: "Is the chicken head story true?"
This week's most frequently given answer: Apparently so. Let's see what develops.
What's the chicken head story, you ask? Here's the gist of it, as first reported in the Newport News, Virginia Daily Press on November 30, 2000:
On the night of November 27, Mrs. Katherine Ortega bought a box of fried chicken wings at a local McDonald's restaurant and took it home to her family. While dishing it up to feed her children, Ortega noticed that one of the pieces looked, well ... funny. Examining it more closely, she saw it had eyes and a beak.
It sounds like an urban legend, sure enough, which is why some people have expressed skepticism. The story has earned column inches in newspapers all across the United States -- even finding its way into the esteemed Washington Post -- but who trusts the media to give us the facts anymore?
Plus, parts of the story beg for further explanation. Why did Ortega go straight to a local TV station with her find, while refusing to allow the owner of the accused restaurant to examine it? How did a chicken head find its way into box of wings in the first place?
USDA inspected ... NOT?
"I've never heard of anything like it," a USDA officer told the Daily Press. He was also quick to say he's not dismissing Ortega's claims.
From a poultry processing standpoint, there are two reasons why the incident seems unlikely. One, the very first step of the process -- even before de-feathering -- is beheading. And the heads are always discarded then and there. Two, the presence of unwanted parts ought to have been detected during later steps in the processing: the evisceration, which requires the active participation of a human operator, and the bird-by-bird inspection that's supposed to be conducted by an onsite USDA employee.
If the story is true, one obvious explanation could be pranksterism, a possibility investigators have so far neither accepted nor rejected.
Grist for the rumor mill
Meanwhile, Ortega's story is undergoing another kind of processing as it grinds its way through the rumor mill on the way to becoming an urban legend. As often as not, legends are inspired by real-life events, departing gradually from the facts as the story is told and retold and takes on a life independent of the original inspiration. Once upon a time, when rumors and legends were primarily transmitted by word of mouth, this could take months or years, but in the Internet age it can happen overnight. For example, one of the texts now circulating with a photo of the chicken head fround in Newport News claims the object was discovered "by a woman in her Chicken Nuggets in Portland, Oregon."
Whether it proves to be true, false, or in-between, Ortega's story has the makings of a classic urban legend in the mold of the "Kentucky Fried Rat." Folklorist Gary Alan Fine, who has probably written more about this genre than anyone else, observes that the victims in food contamination stories are always female. Why? Because one underlying theme of such tales is that modern mothers are endangering their families' well-being by forsaking the duties of their traditional role, such as preparing homecooked meals. The discovery of a rat, chicken head or what-have-you in a container of fast food, explains Fine, is punishment, in effect, for exposing one's family to the ravages of "amoral, profit-making corporations."
This moral message was clearly not lost on Mrs. Ortega, who expressed chagrin that her five-year-old could have bitten into the chicken head had she not encountered it first. "I will probably cook at home from now on," she told reporters.
Lesson learned, and duly passed along.
Here is one example. Interestingly enough, there was a link to McDonalds on the page below.
Woman Finds Fried Chicken Head in Box of McDonald's Wings
(Originally published 12/06/00)
This week's most frequently asked question: "Is the chicken head story true?"
This week's most frequently given answer: Apparently so. Let's see what develops.
What's the chicken head story, you ask? Here's the gist of it, as first reported in the Newport News, Virginia Daily Press on November 30, 2000:
On the night of November 27, Mrs. Katherine Ortega bought a box of fried chicken wings at a local McDonald's restaurant and took it home to her family. While dishing it up to feed her children, Ortega noticed that one of the pieces looked, well ... funny. Examining it more closely, she saw it had eyes and a beak.
It sounds like an urban legend, sure enough, which is why some people have expressed skepticism. The story has earned column inches in newspapers all across the United States -- even finding its way into the esteemed Washington Post -- but who trusts the media to give us the facts anymore?
Plus, parts of the story beg for further explanation. Why did Ortega go straight to a local TV station with her find, while refusing to allow the owner of the accused restaurant to examine it? How did a chicken head find its way into box of wings in the first place?
USDA inspected ... NOT?
"I've never heard of anything like it," a USDA officer told the Daily Press. He was also quick to say he's not dismissing Ortega's claims.
From a poultry processing standpoint, there are two reasons why the incident seems unlikely. One, the very first step of the process -- even before de-feathering -- is beheading. And the heads are always discarded then and there. Two, the presence of unwanted parts ought to have been detected during later steps in the processing: the evisceration, which requires the active participation of a human operator, and the bird-by-bird inspection that's supposed to be conducted by an onsite USDA employee.
If the story is true, one obvious explanation could be pranksterism, a possibility investigators have so far neither accepted nor rejected.
Grist for the rumor mill
Meanwhile, Ortega's story is undergoing another kind of processing as it grinds its way through the rumor mill on the way to becoming an urban legend. As often as not, legends are inspired by real-life events, departing gradually from the facts as the story is told and retold and takes on a life independent of the original inspiration. Once upon a time, when rumors and legends were primarily transmitted by word of mouth, this could take months or years, but in the Internet age it can happen overnight. For example, one of the texts now circulating with a photo of the chicken head fround in Newport News claims the object was discovered "by a woman in her Chicken Nuggets in Portland, Oregon."
Whether it proves to be true, false, or in-between, Ortega's story has the makings of a classic urban legend in the mold of the "Kentucky Fried Rat." Folklorist Gary Alan Fine, who has probably written more about this genre than anyone else, observes that the victims in food contamination stories are always female. Why? Because one underlying theme of such tales is that modern mothers are endangering their families' well-being by forsaking the duties of their traditional role, such as preparing homecooked meals. The discovery of a rat, chicken head or what-have-you in a container of fast food, explains Fine, is punishment, in effect, for exposing one's family to the ravages of "amoral, profit-making corporations."
This moral message was clearly not lost on Mrs. Ortega, who expressed chagrin that her five-year-old could have bitten into the chicken head had she not encountered it first. "I will probably cook at home from now on," she told reporters.
Lesson learned, and duly passed along.
Play Station 3
I have been following all the hype about the new game box from Sony. So has John, he made Barbara go to several stores yesterday looking to see if they had one available or not. Of course they don't, and even if they did, I don't think we are going to pop $500+ for one.
Click here to see a video of folks lining up, some for over 40 hours, to get their hands on a PS3.
Which brought to mind something that happened when John was maybe four or so. We were at Best Buy and he saw a game box he wanted but we were not going to buy for him. So he just picked up the box (like we wouldn't notice) and said 'go home' or something like that.
I am sure that John will continue to want a PS3 regardless, so it will be an interesting several months. Russell on the other hand wants Santa to bring him the much more affordable Nintedo Wii, which will probably be difficult to find.
Time Magazine had the following to say about the PS3.
Click here to see a video of folks lining up, some for over 40 hours, to get their hands on a PS3.
Which brought to mind something that happened when John was maybe four or so. We were at Best Buy and he saw a game box he wanted but we were not going to buy for him. So he just picked up the box (like we wouldn't notice) and said 'go home' or something like that.
I am sure that John will continue to want a PS3 regardless, so it will be an interesting several months. Russell on the other hand wants Santa to bring him the much more affordable Nintedo Wii, which will probably be difficult to find.
Time Magazine had the following to say about the PS3.
Look at what you get. The Playstation 3 is expensive: $500 or $600 bucks, depending on which version you buy, plus $60 for each game. (An Xbox 360 only costs $400 max, and Nintendo's Wii — yep, that name, still funny — is only $250.) For that kind of scratch you want the deluxe treatment, and the PS3 simply doesn't deliver it. It's got some good-looking games, but unless you have a top-notch TV, the difference isn't mind-blowing. (And even if you do have a fancy TV, Sony makes you supply your own HDMI cable. Stingy.) And Sony's launch line-up just isn't that interesting. Almost all the PS3's outstanding games — F.E.A.R., Madden NFL '07, Need for Speed: Carbon, Call of Duty 3 — are available on the Xbox 360, and most (all except F.E.A.R.) are out for the Wii, too. There just isn't the leverage there to make buying a PS3 de rigeur.
Friday, November 17, 2006
This American Life available as a Podcast
This is a big deal (at least to me). TAL is a big favorite of mine but I almost never get a chance to hear it. Up until now it is something you have to pay to download to your MP3 player but now they are offering the podcast for free for one one week only after the broadcast.
Will be interesting to see if ITunes automatically deletes the previous weeks episode from my hard drive or not.
Will be interesting to see if ITunes automatically deletes the previous weeks episode from my hard drive or not.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Fox isn't the only "fair and balanced" one
Who needs Fox News when you've got CNN's Headline News?
In an interview this week with Minnesota Democrat Keith Ellison, who was just elected as America's first-ever Muslim member of Congress, Headline News' Glenn Beck actually asked the following question:
"OK. No offense, and I know Muslims. I like Muslims. I've been to mosques. I really don't believe that Islam is a religion of evil. I -- you know, I think it's being hijacked, quite frankly. With that being said, you are a Democrat. You are saying, 'Let's cut and run.' And I have to tell you, I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, 'Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.' And I know you're not. I'm not accusing you of being an enemy, but that's the way I feel, and I think a lot of Americans will feel that way."
In an interview this week with Minnesota Democrat Keith Ellison, who was just elected as America's first-ever Muslim member of Congress, Headline News' Glenn Beck actually asked the following question:
"OK. No offense, and I know Muslims. I like Muslims. I've been to mosques. I really don't believe that Islam is a religion of evil. I -- you know, I think it's being hijacked, quite frankly. With that being said, you are a Democrat. You are saying, 'Let's cut and run.' And I have to tell you, I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, 'Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.' And I know you're not. I'm not accusing you of being an enemy, but that's the way I feel, and I think a lot of Americans will feel that way."
Scared Into Being Christian?
I caught these letters to the editor in the latest issue of Newsweek Magazine. A few weeks previous they had run an article about so-called Christian Hell Houses. I am glad to see that I am not the only one to take offense.
I feel sick and sad after reading about Hell Houses in your Nov. 6 issue ("Visions of Hell"). As a small-town pastor, I cannot fathom why religious people, in the sweet name of Jesus, would drown out the truth of God's love with visions of blood and violence to frighten the searching and vulnerable into seeing God as persecutor rather than Savior. So often Christ's message is twisted into an ugly either/or formula based on human terms. Fortunately, God still brings life from death, and our salvation has more to do with his willingness than our worthiness.
Rev. Marie Duquette
Faith Lutheran Church
Baltimore, Ohio
What if next year's hell house dramas include a family-values senator beaten to death by five juveniles he enticed on the Internet, a pro-life fanatic sentenced to eternity in hell for murdering an abortion-clinic doctor and a televangelist who contracts syphilis from a male escort in the front seat of his car? It seems a shame to limit victims of the Devil to those the radical right sees as evil, while ignoring worthy candidates from its own ranks.
Philip D. Gross
Sonora, Calif.
Hell houses are nothing new to me. We had six here in Chattanooga just this year, and I wince in shame every time I hear about them. For every soul they might save, surely many more souls react with disgust and annoyance that whatever vague appeal Jesus Christ's example held has been doused in a "Carrie"-esque bloodbath. I'm left to pray that the one recent example of true Christ-like behavior—the Amish community and its inspirational response to horror and tragedy—is enough to overcome the embarrassments that are Hell Houses.
Billy Faires
Chattanooga, Tenn.
I feel sick and sad after reading about Hell Houses in your Nov. 6 issue ("Visions of Hell"). As a small-town pastor, I cannot fathom why religious people, in the sweet name of Jesus, would drown out the truth of God's love with visions of blood and violence to frighten the searching and vulnerable into seeing God as persecutor rather than Savior. So often Christ's message is twisted into an ugly either/or formula based on human terms. Fortunately, God still brings life from death, and our salvation has more to do with his willingness than our worthiness.
Rev. Marie Duquette
Faith Lutheran Church
Baltimore, Ohio
What if next year's hell house dramas include a family-values senator beaten to death by five juveniles he enticed on the Internet, a pro-life fanatic sentenced to eternity in hell for murdering an abortion-clinic doctor and a televangelist who contracts syphilis from a male escort in the front seat of his car? It seems a shame to limit victims of the Devil to those the radical right sees as evil, while ignoring worthy candidates from its own ranks.
Philip D. Gross
Sonora, Calif.
Hell houses are nothing new to me. We had six here in Chattanooga just this year, and I wince in shame every time I hear about them. For every soul they might save, surely many more souls react with disgust and annoyance that whatever vague appeal Jesus Christ's example held has been doused in a "Carrie"-esque bloodbath. I'm left to pray that the one recent example of true Christ-like behavior—the Amish community and its inspirational response to horror and tragedy—is enough to overcome the embarrassments that are Hell Houses.
Billy Faires
Chattanooga, Tenn.
Friday, November 10, 2006
Sioux City Journal: Local GOP chairman blasts own party
It is hard to feel sorry for the Republicans. There were using the so-called conservative Christians for years to get votes. Payback as they say, is a bitch.
Sioux City Journal: Local GOP chairman blasts own party: "A day after the Democratic sweep of the midterm elections, Woodbury County Republican Chairman Steve Salem had harsh words for his own party, lambasting the influence of the conservative Christian right wing.
Salem said he coined a new phase: 'You've heard of IslamaFascists -- I think we now have Christian fascists. What is the definition of a fascist? Not only do they want to beat you, but they want to destroy you in the process.'
Salem said 'if things keep going the way things are going locally and statewide, it is going to be more and more difficult for Republicans to recruit candidates. We have elements of the party who are moral absolutists, who take the approach that if you don't take my position every step of the way, not only will I not support you, but I will destroy you.'"
Sioux City Journal: Local GOP chairman blasts own party: "A day after the Democratic sweep of the midterm elections, Woodbury County Republican Chairman Steve Salem had harsh words for his own party, lambasting the influence of the conservative Christian right wing.
Salem said he coined a new phase: 'You've heard of IslamaFascists -- I think we now have Christian fascists. What is the definition of a fascist? Not only do they want to beat you, but they want to destroy you in the process.'
Salem said 'if things keep going the way things are going locally and statewide, it is going to be more and more difficult for Republicans to recruit candidates. We have elements of the party who are moral absolutists, who take the approach that if you don't take my position every step of the way, not only will I not support you, but I will destroy you.'"
War Room - Salon.com
War Room - Salon.com:
I'm a majority leader 4 U
Is it proof that the Democrats have their fingers on the pulse of the American people -- or just the strangest thing any man has ever said on the day of the election that made him the next Senate majority leader? From Mark Leibovich's profile of Harry Reid in today's New York Times: "'Britney Spears,' Mr. Reid said, shaking his head. 'She loses a little weight, and now she's getting all cocky about things ... Britney has gotten her mojo back.'"
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Is Joe Lieberman still a Democrat? - By Daniel Engber - Slate Magazine
This has been a hot topic in the office today...
Is Joe Lieberman still a Democrat? - By Daniel Engber - Slate Magazine: "What will happen to the Senate if he gets re-elected."
Is Joe Lieberman still a Democrat? - By Daniel Engber - Slate Magazine: "What will happen to the Senate if he gets re-elected."
Monday, November 06, 2006
Sunday, November 05, 2006
College Urging Use Of Euthanasia For Sick Newborns | Health
Not a good week for newborns, in the US or the UK.
College Urging Use Of Euthanasia For Sick Newborns | Health: "Doctors should consider euthanasizing the sickest newborns which can disable healthy families.
The Sunday Times newspaper reported on the proposal made by Britain's Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecology."
College Urging Use Of Euthanasia For Sick Newborns | Health: "Doctors should consider euthanasizing the sickest newborns which can disable healthy families.
The Sunday Times newspaper reported on the proposal made by Britain's Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecology."
QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
"Emily Post might not approve, but I believe in sending replies to everyone who 'warns' me about something that's actually a hoax. When I get an email telling me Walt Disney wants to make me rich, I believe the person who thoughtlessly passed that email to me should be told three things: first, that it's a hoax; second, that Walt Disney has been dead for 40 years; and, third, that a mind is a terrible thing to waste." -- Al Fasoldt, columnist
Saturday, November 04, 2006
So, Does This Go Under Compassionate Conservatism or Christian Values?
No easy answers to this one. We all want better lives for our children of course.
Newborns must now apply for Medicaid
WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- Under new federal regulations, children born to undocumented mothers in the United States must apply separately for Medicaid.
Under the previous policy, all children whose mothers received emergency Medicaid coverage for the delivery were automatically entitled to insurance for their first year. The new policy would require that parents prove the newborn is a U.S. citizen, The New York Times reported.
All children born in the United States are automatically eligible for citizenship. But doctors and state welfare officials say many undocumented parents would be afraid to submit applications.
"The federal government told us we have no latitude," said Marilyn Wilson of the Tennessee Medicaid Program. "All states must change their policies and practices. We will not be able to cover any services for the newborn until a Medicaid application is filed. That could be days, weeks or months after the child is born."
Federal officials say the Deficit Reduction Act, which included tighter requirements for Medicaid applications, made the change necessary.
Newborns must now apply for Medicaid
WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- Under new federal regulations, children born to undocumented mothers in the United States must apply separately for Medicaid.
Under the previous policy, all children whose mothers received emergency Medicaid coverage for the delivery were automatically entitled to insurance for their first year. The new policy would require that parents prove the newborn is a U.S. citizen, The New York Times reported.
All children born in the United States are automatically eligible for citizenship. But doctors and state welfare officials say many undocumented parents would be afraid to submit applications.
"The federal government told us we have no latitude," said Marilyn Wilson of the Tennessee Medicaid Program. "All states must change their policies and practices. We will not be able to cover any services for the newborn until a Medicaid application is filed. That could be days, weeks or months after the child is born."
Federal officials say the Deficit Reduction Act, which included tighter requirements for Medicaid applications, made the change necessary.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Balloon Juice
Interesting blog from a man who went from being a Republican true believer.
Balloon Juice: "I don’t know when things went south with this party (literally and figuratively- and I am sure commenters here will tell me the party has always been this bad- I disagree with that, and so do others), but for me, Terri Schiavo was the real eye-opener. Sure, the Prescription Drug Plan was hideous and still gets my blood pressure pumping, and the awful bankruptcy bill was equally bad, and there were other things that should have clued me in, but really, it was Schiavo that made me realize this party was not as advertized. And it is frustrating as hell.
What makes this even more frustrating is that not only do I feel like I have been duped, but I established a lot of friends in the right wing of the blogging community- and now I read their pages and I can’t believe what I am reading, even though I know that five years ago I probably would have been saying the same or similar things. I know many of them as people- and not just GOP parrots- having spent time working on collaborative projects with them, serving on the editorial board at Red State, appearing on radio shows with them- you name it. I have, at one point in time, defended many of them from what I perceived to be unfair attacks. So I know that by and large they are not bad people (Dan Riehl is an unmitigated asshole, however). Yet I read their pages now, and through my eyes,"
Balloon Juice: "I don’t know when things went south with this party (literally and figuratively- and I am sure commenters here will tell me the party has always been this bad- I disagree with that, and so do others), but for me, Terri Schiavo was the real eye-opener. Sure, the Prescription Drug Plan was hideous and still gets my blood pressure pumping, and the awful bankruptcy bill was equally bad, and there were other things that should have clued me in, but really, it was Schiavo that made me realize this party was not as advertized. And it is frustrating as hell.
What makes this even more frustrating is that not only do I feel like I have been duped, but I established a lot of friends in the right wing of the blogging community- and now I read their pages and I can’t believe what I am reading, even though I know that five years ago I probably would have been saying the same or similar things. I know many of them as people- and not just GOP parrots- having spent time working on collaborative projects with them, serving on the editorial board at Red State, appearing on radio shows with them- you name it. I have, at one point in time, defended many of them from what I perceived to be unfair attacks. So I know that by and large they are not bad people (Dan Riehl is an unmitigated asshole, however). Yet I read their pages now, and through my eyes,"
Monday, October 30, 2006
Mainframes making a comeback
Good news for me since I am a mainframe dinasor.
BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- Cheap little servers handle so much of the Internet's dirty work that giant computers known as mainframes, which debuted 50 years ago and often cost more than $1 million, are supposed to be passe.
When Hoplon Infotainment, a startup video game company in Brazil, let it be known that it uses a mainframe to operate its signature online game, "People would actually take a step back and say, 'What? Did I hear correctly?"' said Tarquinio Teles, Hoplon's CEO.
Yet mainframes are inspiring new ways of doing things at organizations like Hoplon. The trend is driven by and anxiously watched at IBM Corp., which makes the vast majority of the world's remaining mainframes and continues to be hugely reliant on them.
After dropping nearly 8 percent in 2005, IBM's mainframe revenue is up 10 percent this year. That includes a 25 percent gain in the most recent quarter.
Mainframes were IBM's fastest-growing hardware segment after the microchip division, which is enjoying a nice ride making microprocessors for the top three video game consoles.
IBM does not release precise figures, but analysts estimate mainframe revenue at roughly $2.3 billion in the first nine months of 2006. While that is a small chunk of IBM's overall sales of $65 billion so far this year, mainframe revenue is especially precious because the machines drive huge software and maintenance deals, making them IBM's most profitable line of hardware.
Of course, the huge third-quarter boost is unlikely to be sustained. IBM is benefiting from having released two new mainframes in the past year, and sales eventually should taper until an upgrade comes, at least a year from now.
Such ups and downs are typical: Unisys Corp., a much smaller vendor, has seen mainframe sales drop this year, but spokesman Brian Daly said the numbers strengthened in the third quarter with the release of a new model.
Still, for IBM to be having success with mainframes at all is somewhat surprising. Because if you were to break modern computing history into its simplest terms, it would go something like this: There was the centralized-mainframe era, and then there was the distributed-computing era. And the former ended a while ago.
Mainframes emerged in the 1950s as room-sized hubs that did it all. They crunched numbers, administered transactions, ran simulations and stored data.
By the 1980s and '90s, however, information technology was flourishing with flexible and smaller pieces of hardware that took on traditional mainframe duties.
Cheaper server computers could calculate stuff and serve up Web pages. New communications gear ferried information around networks. Separate storage machines made more efficient use of memory. Millions of desktop computers flowered.
Sun Microsystems Inc., a leading maker of servers, denigrated mainframes as "dinosaurs," prompting IBM to call its next mainframe line the "T-Rex."
As mainframes ceased to be the center of gravity, they mainly lived on in government agencies, banks or complex networks like airline travel systems.
Many such places needed mainframes' heavy-duty security and processing ability, but others were locked into the specialized programs they had written in mainframes' unique language.
"Where the mainframe still has a long-term home is running long-term code," said John Parker, chief information officer for A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc., a financial services firm that recently dropped its French-made mainframe but still runs key functions on a mainframe operated by a third-party hosting service. "Every industry has it, in my experience."
Since inertia is not growth, the market for mainframes and servers costing more than $500,000 dropped from $19 billion in 2000 to less than $12 billion last year, according to analysts at IDC.
One huge challenge has been the machines' old-school reputation. Programming mainframes still involves typing code on a green screen, much like early versions of DOS, the operating system that dominated PCs before the visual "windows" approach.
To try to encourage younger software developers to write programs for the machines, IBM recently announced a $100 million effort to simplify and modernize mainframe programming. Earlier it began encouraging customers to run Linux, Java and other low-intensity software on mainframes, in hopes of keeping the machines from falling deeper into specialized niches.
IBM also is trying to get creative in luring customers. In April it launched a "business-class" mainframe that costs $100,000 and up, targeted at smaller companies that want mainframes' high level of security and reliability.
One key pitch is that mainframes can do so many tasks at once that they are more energy efficient and take up less space than a comparable cluster of smaller servers.
"For every application, many times it takes five servers in a distributed environment," said Jim Stallings, who runs IBM's mainframe division. "Many customers are saying, 'I can't deal with the complexity."'
The University of Toronto recently bought a business-class mainframe to manage enrollment and other administrative functions. Eugene Siciunas, director of computing services, said the main attraction was flexible pricing.
The university saved money upfront by selecting a mainframe that runs at less than top capacity. Then on days when computing loads are heavier, the school can buy a short-term boost of extra processing power. Network managers call IBM, which remotely tunes the mainframe to deliver better performance.
Hoplon, the Brazilian company, is using a mainframe's processing might to build a complex "massively multiplayer" online game. But rather than shelling out precious startup capital to own a mainframe, Hoplon is remotely accessing one stashed in an IBM data center in Brazil. The same machine manages a retirement fund for IBM's Brazilian employees and handles operations for a building-tools manufacturer.
Charles King, an analyst with Pund-IT Inc., said IBM has had to adopt such sales methods to "maintain the platform's viability."
"The company has done a good job of continuing to gain leverage out of the mainframe," King said. "For a platform that a lot of folks have claimed is essentially moribund or headed into a very dark, bad future, it's got remarkable legs."
BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- Cheap little servers handle so much of the Internet's dirty work that giant computers known as mainframes, which debuted 50 years ago and often cost more than $1 million, are supposed to be passe.
When Hoplon Infotainment, a startup video game company in Brazil, let it be known that it uses a mainframe to operate its signature online game, "People would actually take a step back and say, 'What? Did I hear correctly?"' said Tarquinio Teles, Hoplon's CEO.
Yet mainframes are inspiring new ways of doing things at organizations like Hoplon. The trend is driven by and anxiously watched at IBM Corp., which makes the vast majority of the world's remaining mainframes and continues to be hugely reliant on them.
After dropping nearly 8 percent in 2005, IBM's mainframe revenue is up 10 percent this year. That includes a 25 percent gain in the most recent quarter.
Mainframes were IBM's fastest-growing hardware segment after the microchip division, which is enjoying a nice ride making microprocessors for the top three video game consoles.
IBM does not release precise figures, but analysts estimate mainframe revenue at roughly $2.3 billion in the first nine months of 2006. While that is a small chunk of IBM's overall sales of $65 billion so far this year, mainframe revenue is especially precious because the machines drive huge software and maintenance deals, making them IBM's most profitable line of hardware.
Of course, the huge third-quarter boost is unlikely to be sustained. IBM is benefiting from having released two new mainframes in the past year, and sales eventually should taper until an upgrade comes, at least a year from now.
Such ups and downs are typical: Unisys Corp., a much smaller vendor, has seen mainframe sales drop this year, but spokesman Brian Daly said the numbers strengthened in the third quarter with the release of a new model.
Still, for IBM to be having success with mainframes at all is somewhat surprising. Because if you were to break modern computing history into its simplest terms, it would go something like this: There was the centralized-mainframe era, and then there was the distributed-computing era. And the former ended a while ago.
Mainframes emerged in the 1950s as room-sized hubs that did it all. They crunched numbers, administered transactions, ran simulations and stored data.
By the 1980s and '90s, however, information technology was flourishing with flexible and smaller pieces of hardware that took on traditional mainframe duties.
Cheaper server computers could calculate stuff and serve up Web pages. New communications gear ferried information around networks. Separate storage machines made more efficient use of memory. Millions of desktop computers flowered.
Sun Microsystems Inc., a leading maker of servers, denigrated mainframes as "dinosaurs," prompting IBM to call its next mainframe line the "T-Rex."
As mainframes ceased to be the center of gravity, they mainly lived on in government agencies, banks or complex networks like airline travel systems.
Many such places needed mainframes' heavy-duty security and processing ability, but others were locked into the specialized programs they had written in mainframes' unique language.
"Where the mainframe still has a long-term home is running long-term code," said John Parker, chief information officer for A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc., a financial services firm that recently dropped its French-made mainframe but still runs key functions on a mainframe operated by a third-party hosting service. "Every industry has it, in my experience."
Since inertia is not growth, the market for mainframes and servers costing more than $500,000 dropped from $19 billion in 2000 to less than $12 billion last year, according to analysts at IDC.
One huge challenge has been the machines' old-school reputation. Programming mainframes still involves typing code on a green screen, much like early versions of DOS, the operating system that dominated PCs before the visual "windows" approach.
To try to encourage younger software developers to write programs for the machines, IBM recently announced a $100 million effort to simplify and modernize mainframe programming. Earlier it began encouraging customers to run Linux, Java and other low-intensity software on mainframes, in hopes of keeping the machines from falling deeper into specialized niches.
IBM also is trying to get creative in luring customers. In April it launched a "business-class" mainframe that costs $100,000 and up, targeted at smaller companies that want mainframes' high level of security and reliability.
One key pitch is that mainframes can do so many tasks at once that they are more energy efficient and take up less space than a comparable cluster of smaller servers.
"For every application, many times it takes five servers in a distributed environment," said Jim Stallings, who runs IBM's mainframe division. "Many customers are saying, 'I can't deal with the complexity."'
The University of Toronto recently bought a business-class mainframe to manage enrollment and other administrative functions. Eugene Siciunas, director of computing services, said the main attraction was flexible pricing.
The university saved money upfront by selecting a mainframe that runs at less than top capacity. Then on days when computing loads are heavier, the school can buy a short-term boost of extra processing power. Network managers call IBM, which remotely tunes the mainframe to deliver better performance.
Hoplon, the Brazilian company, is using a mainframe's processing might to build a complex "massively multiplayer" online game. But rather than shelling out precious startup capital to own a mainframe, Hoplon is remotely accessing one stashed in an IBM data center in Brazil. The same machine manages a retirement fund for IBM's Brazilian employees and handles operations for a building-tools manufacturer.
Charles King, an analyst with Pund-IT Inc., said IBM has had to adopt such sales methods to "maintain the platform's viability."
"The company has done a good job of continuing to gain leverage out of the mainframe," King said. "For a platform that a lot of folks have claimed is essentially moribund or headed into a very dark, bad future, it's got remarkable legs."
Friday, October 27, 2006
PATS BROTHER
Saw this on Rosie O'Donnell's blog. Remember when she was nice and uncontroversial? I like her a lot better now.
Much has happened since we handed over our voice:
Somehow we were sent to invade a nation because it was a direct threat to the American people, or to the world, or harbored terrorists, or was involved in the September 11 attacks, or received weapons-grade uranium from Niger, or had mobile weapons labs, or WMD, or had a need to be liberated, or we needed to establish a democracy, or stop an insurgency, or stop a civil war we created that can’t be called a civil war even though it is. Something like that.
Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is.
Somehow our elected leaders were subverting international law and humanity by setting up secret prisons around the world, secretly kidnapping people, secretly holding them indefinitely, secretly not charging them with anything, secretly torturing them. Somehow that overt policy of torture became the fault of a few “bad apples” in the military.
Somehow back at home, support for the soldiers meant having a five-year-old kindergartener scribble a picture with crayons and send it overseas, or slapping stickers on cars, or lobbying Congress for an extra pad in a helmet. It’s interesting that a soldier on his third or fourth tour should care about a drawing from a five-year-old; or a faded sticker on a car as his friends die around him; or an extra pad in a helmet, as if it will protect him when an IED throws his vehicle 50 feet into the air as his body comes apart and his skin melts to the seat.
Somehow the more soldiers that die, the more legitimate the illegal invasion becomes.
Somehow American leadership, whose only credit is lying to its people and illegally invading a nation, has been allowed to steal the courage, virtue and honor of its soldiers on the ground.
Somehow those afraid to fight an illegal invasion decades ago are allowed to send soldiers to die for an illegal invasion they started. Somehow faking character, virtue and strength is tolerated. Somehow profiting from tragedy and horror is tolerated. Somehow the death of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people is tolerated. Somehow subversion of the Bill of Rights and The Constitution is tolerated. Somehow suspension of Habeas Corpus is supposed to keep this country safe. Somehow torture is tolerated. Somehow lying is tolerated. Somehow reason is being discarded for faith, dogma, and nonsense. Somehow American leadership managed to create a more dangerous world. Somehow a narrative is more important than reality.
Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is.
Somehow the most reasonable, trusted and respected country in the world has become one of the most irrational, belligerent, feared, and distrusted countries in the world.
Somehow being politically informed, diligent, and skeptical has been replaced by apathy through active ignorance.
Somehow the same incompetent, narcissistic, virtueless, vacuous, malicious criminals are still in charge of this country.
Somehow this is tolerated. Somehow nobody is accountable for this.
In a democracy, the policy of the leaders is the policy of the people. So don’t be shocked when our grandkids bury much of this generation as traitors to the nation, to the world and to humanity. Most likely, they will come to know that “somehow” was nurtured by fear, insecurity and indifference, leaving the country vulnerable to unchecked, unchallenged parasites.
Luckily this country is still a democracy. People still have a voice. People still can take action. It can start after Pat’s birthday.
Brother and Friend of Pat Tillman,
Kevin Tillman
It is Pat’s birthday on November 6, and elections are the day after. It gets me thinking about a conversation I had with Pat before we joined the military. He spoke about the risks with signing the papers. How once we committed, we were at the mercy of the American leadership and the American people. How we could be thrown in a direction not of our volition. How fighting as a soldier would leave us without a voice… until we got out.
Much has happened since we handed over our voice:
Somehow we were sent to invade a nation because it was a direct threat to the American people, or to the world, or harbored terrorists, or was involved in the September 11 attacks, or received weapons-grade uranium from Niger, or had mobile weapons labs, or WMD, or had a need to be liberated, or we needed to establish a democracy, or stop an insurgency, or stop a civil war we created that can’t be called a civil war even though it is. Something like that.
Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is.
Somehow our elected leaders were subverting international law and humanity by setting up secret prisons around the world, secretly kidnapping people, secretly holding them indefinitely, secretly not charging them with anything, secretly torturing them. Somehow that overt policy of torture became the fault of a few “bad apples” in the military.
Somehow back at home, support for the soldiers meant having a five-year-old kindergartener scribble a picture with crayons and send it overseas, or slapping stickers on cars, or lobbying Congress for an extra pad in a helmet. It’s interesting that a soldier on his third or fourth tour should care about a drawing from a five-year-old; or a faded sticker on a car as his friends die around him; or an extra pad in a helmet, as if it will protect him when an IED throws his vehicle 50 feet into the air as his body comes apart and his skin melts to the seat.
Somehow the more soldiers that die, the more legitimate the illegal invasion becomes.
Somehow American leadership, whose only credit is lying to its people and illegally invading a nation, has been allowed to steal the courage, virtue and honor of its soldiers on the ground.
Somehow those afraid to fight an illegal invasion decades ago are allowed to send soldiers to die for an illegal invasion they started. Somehow faking character, virtue and strength is tolerated. Somehow profiting from tragedy and horror is tolerated. Somehow the death of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people is tolerated. Somehow subversion of the Bill of Rights and The Constitution is tolerated. Somehow suspension of Habeas Corpus is supposed to keep this country safe. Somehow torture is tolerated. Somehow lying is tolerated. Somehow reason is being discarded for faith, dogma, and nonsense. Somehow American leadership managed to create a more dangerous world. Somehow a narrative is more important than reality.
Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is.
Somehow the most reasonable, trusted and respected country in the world has become one of the most irrational, belligerent, feared, and distrusted countries in the world.
Somehow being politically informed, diligent, and skeptical has been replaced by apathy through active ignorance.
Somehow the same incompetent, narcissistic, virtueless, vacuous, malicious criminals are still in charge of this country.
Somehow this is tolerated. Somehow nobody is accountable for this.
In a democracy, the policy of the leaders is the policy of the people. So don’t be shocked when our grandkids bury much of this generation as traitors to the nation, to the world and to humanity. Most likely, they will come to know that “somehow” was nurtured by fear, insecurity and indifference, leaving the country vulnerable to unchecked, unchallenged parasites.
Luckily this country is still a democracy. People still have a voice. People still can take action. It can start after Pat’s birthday.
Brother and Friend of Pat Tillman,
Kevin Tillman
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Halloween Joke
A man was walking home alone late one foggy night,
when behind him he hears:
BUMP...
BUMP...
BUMP...
Walking faster, he looks back and through the fog he makes out the image of an upright casket banging its way down the middle of the street toward him.
BUMP...
BUMP...
BUMP...
Terrified, the man begins to run toward his home, the casket bouncing quickly behind him
FASTER...
FASTER...
BUMP...
BUMP...
BUMP...
He runs up to his door, fumbles with his keys, opens the door, rushes in, slams and locks the door behind him.
However, the casket crashes through his door, with the lid of the casket clapping
clappity-BUMP...
clappity-BUMP...
clappity-BUMP...
on his heels, the terrified man runs.
Rushing upstairs to the bathroom, the man locks himself in. His heart is pounding; his head is reeling; his breath is coming in sobbing gasps.
With a loud CRASH the casket breaks down the door.
Bumping and clapping toward him.
The man screams and reaches for something, anything,
but all he can find is a bottle of cough syrup!
Desperate, he throws the cough syrup at the casket...
and,
(hopefully you're ready for this!!!)
The coffin stops
when behind him he hears:
BUMP...
BUMP...
BUMP...
Walking faster, he looks back and through the fog he makes out the image of an upright casket banging its way down the middle of the street toward him.
BUMP...
BUMP...
BUMP...
Terrified, the man begins to run toward his home, the casket bouncing quickly behind him
FASTER...
FASTER...
BUMP...
BUMP...
BUMP...
He runs up to his door, fumbles with his keys, opens the door, rushes in, slams and locks the door behind him.
However, the casket crashes through his door, with the lid of the casket clapping
clappity-BUMP...
clappity-BUMP...
clappity-BUMP...
on his heels, the terrified man runs.
Rushing upstairs to the bathroom, the man locks himself in. His heart is pounding; his head is reeling; his breath is coming in sobbing gasps.
With a loud CRASH the casket breaks down the door.
Bumping and clapping toward him.
The man screams and reaches for something, anything,
but all he can find is a bottle of cough syrup!
Desperate, he throws the cough syrup at the casket...
and,
(hopefully you're ready for this!!!)
The coffin stops
Joke - not for the easily offended
The wife came home early and found her husband in their bedroom making love to a very attractive young woman. And was somewhat upset.
"You are a disrespectful pig!" she cried. "How dare you do this to me -- a faithful wife, the mother of your children! I'm leaving you. I want a divorce straight away!"
And the husband replied "Hang on just a minute love, so at least I can tell you what happened."
"Fine, go ahead," she sobbed, " but they'll be the last words you'll say to me!"
And the husband began --
"Well, I was getting into the car to drive home and this young lady here asked me for a lift. She looked so down and out and defenseless that I took pity on her and let her into the car. I noticed that she was very thin, not well-dressed and somewhat dirty. She told me that she hadn't eaten for three days! So, in my compassion, I brought her home and warmed up the enchiladas I made for you last night, the ones you wouldn't eat because you're afraid you'll put on weight. The poor thing devoured them in moments.
Since she needed a good clean up I suggested a shower, and while she was doing that I noticed her clothes were dirty and full of holes so I threw them away. Then, as she needed clothes, I gave her the designer jeans that you have had for a few years, but don't use because you say they are too tight. I also gave her the underwear that was your anniversary present, which you don't use because I don't have good taste. I found the sexy blouse my sister gave you for Christmas that you don't use just to annoy her, and I also donated those shoes you bought at the expensive boutique and don't use because someone at work has a pair the same."
The husband took a quick breath and continued! - "She was so grateful for my understanding and help and as I walked her to the door she turned to me with tears in her eyes and said,
Please ... do you have anything else that your wife doesn't use?"
"You are a disrespectful pig!" she cried. "How dare you do this to me -- a faithful wife, the mother of your children! I'm leaving you. I want a divorce straight away!"
And the husband replied "Hang on just a minute love, so at least I can tell you what happened."
"Fine, go ahead," she sobbed, " but they'll be the last words you'll say to me!"
And the husband began --
"Well, I was getting into the car to drive home and this young lady here asked me for a lift. She looked so down and out and defenseless that I took pity on her and let her into the car. I noticed that she was very thin, not well-dressed and somewhat dirty. She told me that she hadn't eaten for three days! So, in my compassion, I brought her home and warmed up the enchiladas I made for you last night, the ones you wouldn't eat because you're afraid you'll put on weight. The poor thing devoured them in moments.
Since she needed a good clean up I suggested a shower, and while she was doing that I noticed her clothes were dirty and full of holes so I threw them away. Then, as she needed clothes, I gave her the designer jeans that you have had for a few years, but don't use because you say they are too tight. I also gave her the underwear that was your anniversary present, which you don't use because I don't have good taste. I found the sexy blouse my sister gave you for Christmas that you don't use just to annoy her, and I also donated those shoes you bought at the expensive boutique and don't use because someone at work has a pair the same."
The husband took a quick breath and continued! - "She was so grateful for my understanding and help and as I walked her to the door she turned to me with tears in her eyes and said,
Please ... do you have anything else that your wife doesn't use?"
How would Jesus vote?
Tennessee Democrat Harold Ford Jr. goes after the GOP's faithful base in the state with the most white evangelicals in the nation. Polls show his campaign is resonating in the pews.
By Michael Scherer
Oct. 26, 2006 Pastor Chris Stephens runs his church services like a rock show. Colored strobes dance across the stage, electric guitar solos punctuate the hymns, and his sermons are filled with exhortations like, "We need a God explosion." The roughly 2,000 worshipers who belong to Faith Promise Church know to expect a blunt-talking believer when they come to Sunday services, a man unafraid to take a stand for Jesus.
So it was no surprise two years ago when Stephens devoted a sermon before the presidential election to a discussion of God's hopes for the ballot box. "If you are a Democrat or a Republican before you are a Christ-ocrat, you are an idol worshiper," he told his congregation. As he explained it, God cared most about just a few core issues in 2004: ending abortion, opposing gay marriage, appointing conservative judges and ensuring the freedom to pray in the public square. Christian voters, he told his congregation, ignore these issues at their own peril. "If you reject Christ, if you have never been born again, you are not going to heaven," he said at the end of the sermon.
Pastor Stephens' message did not endorse any candidate or party, but it clearly pushed a platform more closely associated with Republicans than with Democrats. And versions of that message were repeated at born-again churches across the Bible Belt state of Tennessee, along with Sunday morning voter registration pleas. The effect was spectacular. Among the 51 percent of registered voters who identified as white evangelical Christians in exit polls, the highest percentage of any state in the nation, President Bush won by a margin of 3-to-1, allowing him to carry Tennessee by 14 points.
But visit Stephens this year, and he will freely admit that many of Tennessee's evangelical voters are more ambivalent about voting for Republicans in this election. The biggest reason, he believes, is the deteriorating situation in Iraq. "So many people are angry at the president," he said last Sunday, after inviting this reporter into his office after services. Polls nationwide have shown that evangelical support for Republicans is slipping. But in Tennessee a second big reason is the public message of Rep. Harold Ford Jr., the Democratic candidate for Senate, who hopes to become the first black senator from the South since Reconstruction by appealing to religious voters. "The church advertising has been brilliant," Stephens said. "He presents himself very well."
Stephens was referring to a 30-second television spot that shows Ford strolling through the pews of his childhood church. "Here, I learned the difference between right and wrong," Ford tells the camera, explaining that he is glad his family forced him to worship as a child. "If advertising didn't work, Madison Avenue wouldn't be spending billions of dollars," Stephens said of the ad. "And those folks sitting there listening to Harold Ford sit in the pew and talk about his grandmother taking him to church and all that, I think it can be effective for him."
The church spot is just one part of a campaign by Ford to make his faith a central issue in the campaign, breaking with recent Democratic tradition in the hopes of helping to tip the balance of power in the Senate. On the campaign trail, Ford portrays himself as a moderate, saying he opposes the politics of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, endorses the House Republican immigration plan, and supports a state ban on gay marriage. To prove his point, Ford's get-out-the-vote rallies often double as prayer meetings. During a recent debate with his Republican opponent, former Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker, Ford repeatedly asked state residents to give him their prayers along with their votes. On his Web site, under the banner "My Faith Is My Guide," Ford writes that he is running for Senate "to put my faith and beliefs into action."
There are signs that Ford's decision to wear his religion on his sleeve is having an effect. At the end of September, a statewide poll showed that just 47 percent of white evangelicals supported Bob Corker, Ford's Republican opponent, while 28 percent supported Ford and 25 percent were undecided. The poll results broke a long-standing maxim of state politics: Churchgoing whites reflexively side with the Republicans by overwhelming margins. "In the Senate race that pattern is completely gone," said Ken Blake, who oversaw the poll for Middle Tennessee State University. According to Blake, Ford's use of faith has "muddied the waters" for white evangelicals. "It makes them not quite so sure that he is the bad guy and Corker is the good guy." Among all of the state's likely voters, numerous recent polls show that the race remains a statistical dead heat.
Outside the University of Tennessee football game on Saturday, Ford had no problem explaining the inroads he appears to be making among evangelical voters compared to 2004, when he worked on the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, who lost the state by double digits. "Kerry and I are very different people," Ford said, as he hurried toward the gates of Neyland Stadium, having arrived at the game against the University of Alabama deep into the second quarter. "I serve a big God, he gives me strength every day, and I go to work. I am not that smart. I don't try to outsmart him. I just go to work every day."
Just hours earlier, Ford's opponent, Corker, had taken direct aim at those bona fides as he worked the crowd of thousands who had gathered in orange T-shirts and parkas to tailgate the game. In the mountainous eastern end of Tennessee, football games at Neyland Stadium have an importance that rivals Sunday church, and come with just as many unique rituals. Grown men dressed in incandescent orange will wait for hours in the hopes of bumping chests with University of Tennessee players as they make their way into the stadium, which has enough seats for 104,000 spectators, or about 60 percent of Knoxville's population. For statewide political candidates, it is not an occasion that can be missed. Both Corker and Ford camps came equipped with signs and stickers. Ford's supporters gave out free chili. Corker's offered bottles of water and candy.
"I am more fully representative of Tennessean values," Corker claimed, as he made his way through the orange-clad masses, with Fred Thompson, the former Tennessee senator and television actor. "I mean, we are so different on those issues. I mean, it is like worlds apart." A short man with a frenetic need to shake hands, Corker came to politics after making millions in construction and real estate, and has earned the support of many in the business elite and the state party establishment. But along the way he has struggled to shore up the support of the Republican evangelical base, having burned many bridges over his past support for abortion. He is uniquely vulnerable to Ford's attempts to peel off religious voters. "You come across folks who are disenchanted, who feel like they have lost their voice because their candidate wasn't elected," explained Jennifer Little, the first vice chairman of the Hamblen County Republican Party, who is working for Corker's victory. She was referring to the bad blood that remains from Corker's hotly contested Republican primary, in which he beat out two other candidates with superior credentials among the pro-life community, Ed Bryant and Van Hilleary.
In fact, there are clear signs of strife within the state's evangelical base. Tennessee Right to Life, the state's largest pro-life lobby, has declined to endorse Corker because in 1994 he refused to say life begins at conception and in 1995 he opposed a state budget amendment that would have limited state funding for abortions. "That energy certainly is not there for Mr. Corker," said Brian Harris, the organization's president. "I think there is a broad sense that Republicans have squandered the opportunity." But Harris does not stop there. When asked if he is concerned about a Democratic Senate possibly blocking pro-life Supreme Court justices, he said there are risks that the state group will take to stand up for its principles. "I think there could be something gained for the pro-life movement, even if the Republicans have to lose a majority in the House or the Senate," Harris continued. "I think there is going to have to be a lot of work after the election to see if the Reagan coalition can be put back together in Tennessee."
Corker blames his lag in the polls among churchgoers less on his own record than on pressures from outside the state. "The national climate, no doubt, is affecting a lot of things," Corker said, as he walked the crowd. "I would be remiss not to acknowledge that." There is some evidence to back him up. A Newsweek poll last week found that the GOP's religious base is badly eroding outside of Tennessee as well, amid concerns about Iraq and the recent Republican page scandal. Only 60 percent of white evangelicals said they planned to support Republican candidates, down from 74 percent nationwide who supported Bush in 2004. Other national polls by the Pew Research Center have tracked steep declines in evangelical support for Republicans ever since Hurricane Katrina.
The GOP seems to believe that Ford's appeal to its most reliable voters is working. In recent days, the Republican National Committee has attempted to reverse the troubling polls in Tennessee with a television ad that both attacks Ford's religious credentials and invokes that old standby of American politics, racial fear. The ad attempts to tie Ford to pornographers and Playboy playmates based on rather thin circumstantial evidence. The ad also plays on racial prejudices by showing a fictional white woman asking Ford, a bachelor, to call her for a date. The tactic has earned the condemnation of both the NAACP and Corker himself, who claimed he was unable to convince the party to take it down. (An earlier ad by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, called "What Kind," attacks Ford over a soundtrack of funk music for a number of votes in Congress.)
The RNC has now announced it will no longer air the Playboy spot, but the message has already sunk in. Ford has been forced to admit attending a 2005 Super Bowl party sponsored by Playboy. At Neyland Stadium, as they waited for their candidate to arrive at the Tennessee game, Ford supporters were taunted by apparently inebriated fans in orange who shouted, "Hugh Hefner and Harold Ford," and "Ford for senator? How about Ford for Playboy?"
For his part, pastor Stephens says he is still skeptical of Ford's message, even as he admires his style. As a policy, Stephens does not endorse any particular candidate, or turn away those parishioners who support Democrats. But he says he has heard from churchgoers about concerns over Ford's record on abortion, which includes several votes against banning so-called partial-birth abortion, a position Ford says he has since abandoned. He also worries that even a conservative Democrat would find himself unable to buck his party on crucial issues in such a polarized political climate. "A senator can't vote his conscience. He's got to vote party line," Stephens said. "That's what is going to hurt Harold Ford Jr."
But those concerns have not stopped Stephens and others from paying attention to Ford's religious message. Blake, the Tennessee pollster, points to recent surveys that describe the large value evangelical voters place on politicians who simply speak about their faith. "What evangelicals really want out of a political leader, in addition to policy, is a leader who will be bold about their faith," he said. In February of 2005, a statewide poll of white evangelicals found that 54 percent believed Bush could increase belief in God around the country, compared to just 37 percent who thought he could end prayer in public schools or 31 percent who believed he could outlaw abortion.
Even if Ford does not win a majority of Tennessee's white evangelical vote in two weeks, he will at least have proved that churchgoing voters are willing to look again at Democratic candidates who are proud of their Christian values, a tidal-wave shift from 2004. "Jesus, he doesn't ride a donkey, nor does he ride an elephant," Stephens explained, adding that he will probably not devote an entire sermon this year to the election. "He just doesn't." For the moment, that may be all Harold Ford Jr. needs to hear.
By Michael Scherer
Oct. 26, 2006 Pastor Chris Stephens runs his church services like a rock show. Colored strobes dance across the stage, electric guitar solos punctuate the hymns, and his sermons are filled with exhortations like, "We need a God explosion." The roughly 2,000 worshipers who belong to Faith Promise Church know to expect a blunt-talking believer when they come to Sunday services, a man unafraid to take a stand for Jesus.
So it was no surprise two years ago when Stephens devoted a sermon before the presidential election to a discussion of God's hopes for the ballot box. "If you are a Democrat or a Republican before you are a Christ-ocrat, you are an idol worshiper," he told his congregation. As he explained it, God cared most about just a few core issues in 2004: ending abortion, opposing gay marriage, appointing conservative judges and ensuring the freedom to pray in the public square. Christian voters, he told his congregation, ignore these issues at their own peril. "If you reject Christ, if you have never been born again, you are not going to heaven," he said at the end of the sermon.
Pastor Stephens' message did not endorse any candidate or party, but it clearly pushed a platform more closely associated with Republicans than with Democrats. And versions of that message were repeated at born-again churches across the Bible Belt state of Tennessee, along with Sunday morning voter registration pleas. The effect was spectacular. Among the 51 percent of registered voters who identified as white evangelical Christians in exit polls, the highest percentage of any state in the nation, President Bush won by a margin of 3-to-1, allowing him to carry Tennessee by 14 points.
But visit Stephens this year, and he will freely admit that many of Tennessee's evangelical voters are more ambivalent about voting for Republicans in this election. The biggest reason, he believes, is the deteriorating situation in Iraq. "So many people are angry at the president," he said last Sunday, after inviting this reporter into his office after services. Polls nationwide have shown that evangelical support for Republicans is slipping. But in Tennessee a second big reason is the public message of Rep. Harold Ford Jr., the Democratic candidate for Senate, who hopes to become the first black senator from the South since Reconstruction by appealing to religious voters. "The church advertising has been brilliant," Stephens said. "He presents himself very well."
Stephens was referring to a 30-second television spot that shows Ford strolling through the pews of his childhood church. "Here, I learned the difference between right and wrong," Ford tells the camera, explaining that he is glad his family forced him to worship as a child. "If advertising didn't work, Madison Avenue wouldn't be spending billions of dollars," Stephens said of the ad. "And those folks sitting there listening to Harold Ford sit in the pew and talk about his grandmother taking him to church and all that, I think it can be effective for him."
The church spot is just one part of a campaign by Ford to make his faith a central issue in the campaign, breaking with recent Democratic tradition in the hopes of helping to tip the balance of power in the Senate. On the campaign trail, Ford portrays himself as a moderate, saying he opposes the politics of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, endorses the House Republican immigration plan, and supports a state ban on gay marriage. To prove his point, Ford's get-out-the-vote rallies often double as prayer meetings. During a recent debate with his Republican opponent, former Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker, Ford repeatedly asked state residents to give him their prayers along with their votes. On his Web site, under the banner "My Faith Is My Guide," Ford writes that he is running for Senate "to put my faith and beliefs into action."
There are signs that Ford's decision to wear his religion on his sleeve is having an effect. At the end of September, a statewide poll showed that just 47 percent of white evangelicals supported Bob Corker, Ford's Republican opponent, while 28 percent supported Ford and 25 percent were undecided. The poll results broke a long-standing maxim of state politics: Churchgoing whites reflexively side with the Republicans by overwhelming margins. "In the Senate race that pattern is completely gone," said Ken Blake, who oversaw the poll for Middle Tennessee State University. According to Blake, Ford's use of faith has "muddied the waters" for white evangelicals. "It makes them not quite so sure that he is the bad guy and Corker is the good guy." Among all of the state's likely voters, numerous recent polls show that the race remains a statistical dead heat.
Outside the University of Tennessee football game on Saturday, Ford had no problem explaining the inroads he appears to be making among evangelical voters compared to 2004, when he worked on the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, who lost the state by double digits. "Kerry and I are very different people," Ford said, as he hurried toward the gates of Neyland Stadium, having arrived at the game against the University of Alabama deep into the second quarter. "I serve a big God, he gives me strength every day, and I go to work. I am not that smart. I don't try to outsmart him. I just go to work every day."
Just hours earlier, Ford's opponent, Corker, had taken direct aim at those bona fides as he worked the crowd of thousands who had gathered in orange T-shirts and parkas to tailgate the game. In the mountainous eastern end of Tennessee, football games at Neyland Stadium have an importance that rivals Sunday church, and come with just as many unique rituals. Grown men dressed in incandescent orange will wait for hours in the hopes of bumping chests with University of Tennessee players as they make their way into the stadium, which has enough seats for 104,000 spectators, or about 60 percent of Knoxville's population. For statewide political candidates, it is not an occasion that can be missed. Both Corker and Ford camps came equipped with signs and stickers. Ford's supporters gave out free chili. Corker's offered bottles of water and candy.
"I am more fully representative of Tennessean values," Corker claimed, as he made his way through the orange-clad masses, with Fred Thompson, the former Tennessee senator and television actor. "I mean, we are so different on those issues. I mean, it is like worlds apart." A short man with a frenetic need to shake hands, Corker came to politics after making millions in construction and real estate, and has earned the support of many in the business elite and the state party establishment. But along the way he has struggled to shore up the support of the Republican evangelical base, having burned many bridges over his past support for abortion. He is uniquely vulnerable to Ford's attempts to peel off religious voters. "You come across folks who are disenchanted, who feel like they have lost their voice because their candidate wasn't elected," explained Jennifer Little, the first vice chairman of the Hamblen County Republican Party, who is working for Corker's victory. She was referring to the bad blood that remains from Corker's hotly contested Republican primary, in which he beat out two other candidates with superior credentials among the pro-life community, Ed Bryant and Van Hilleary.
In fact, there are clear signs of strife within the state's evangelical base. Tennessee Right to Life, the state's largest pro-life lobby, has declined to endorse Corker because in 1994 he refused to say life begins at conception and in 1995 he opposed a state budget amendment that would have limited state funding for abortions. "That energy certainly is not there for Mr. Corker," said Brian Harris, the organization's president. "I think there is a broad sense that Republicans have squandered the opportunity." But Harris does not stop there. When asked if he is concerned about a Democratic Senate possibly blocking pro-life Supreme Court justices, he said there are risks that the state group will take to stand up for its principles. "I think there could be something gained for the pro-life movement, even if the Republicans have to lose a majority in the House or the Senate," Harris continued. "I think there is going to have to be a lot of work after the election to see if the Reagan coalition can be put back together in Tennessee."
Corker blames his lag in the polls among churchgoers less on his own record than on pressures from outside the state. "The national climate, no doubt, is affecting a lot of things," Corker said, as he walked the crowd. "I would be remiss not to acknowledge that." There is some evidence to back him up. A Newsweek poll last week found that the GOP's religious base is badly eroding outside of Tennessee as well, amid concerns about Iraq and the recent Republican page scandal. Only 60 percent of white evangelicals said they planned to support Republican candidates, down from 74 percent nationwide who supported Bush in 2004. Other national polls by the Pew Research Center have tracked steep declines in evangelical support for Republicans ever since Hurricane Katrina.
The GOP seems to believe that Ford's appeal to its most reliable voters is working. In recent days, the Republican National Committee has attempted to reverse the troubling polls in Tennessee with a television ad that both attacks Ford's religious credentials and invokes that old standby of American politics, racial fear. The ad attempts to tie Ford to pornographers and Playboy playmates based on rather thin circumstantial evidence. The ad also plays on racial prejudices by showing a fictional white woman asking Ford, a bachelor, to call her for a date. The tactic has earned the condemnation of both the NAACP and Corker himself, who claimed he was unable to convince the party to take it down. (An earlier ad by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, called "What Kind," attacks Ford over a soundtrack of funk music for a number of votes in Congress.)
The RNC has now announced it will no longer air the Playboy spot, but the message has already sunk in. Ford has been forced to admit attending a 2005 Super Bowl party sponsored by Playboy. At Neyland Stadium, as they waited for their candidate to arrive at the Tennessee game, Ford supporters were taunted by apparently inebriated fans in orange who shouted, "Hugh Hefner and Harold Ford," and "Ford for senator? How about Ford for Playboy?"
For his part, pastor Stephens says he is still skeptical of Ford's message, even as he admires his style. As a policy, Stephens does not endorse any particular candidate, or turn away those parishioners who support Democrats. But he says he has heard from churchgoers about concerns over Ford's record on abortion, which includes several votes against banning so-called partial-birth abortion, a position Ford says he has since abandoned. He also worries that even a conservative Democrat would find himself unable to buck his party on crucial issues in such a polarized political climate. "A senator can't vote his conscience. He's got to vote party line," Stephens said. "That's what is going to hurt Harold Ford Jr."
But those concerns have not stopped Stephens and others from paying attention to Ford's religious message. Blake, the Tennessee pollster, points to recent surveys that describe the large value evangelical voters place on politicians who simply speak about their faith. "What evangelicals really want out of a political leader, in addition to policy, is a leader who will be bold about their faith," he said. In February of 2005, a statewide poll of white evangelicals found that 54 percent believed Bush could increase belief in God around the country, compared to just 37 percent who thought he could end prayer in public schools or 31 percent who believed he could outlaw abortion.
Even if Ford does not win a majority of Tennessee's white evangelical vote in two weeks, he will at least have proved that churchgoing voters are willing to look again at Democratic candidates who are proud of their Christian values, a tidal-wave shift from 2004. "Jesus, he doesn't ride a donkey, nor does he ride an elephant," Stephens explained, adding that he will probably not devote an entire sermon this year to the election. "He just doesn't." For the moment, that may be all Harold Ford Jr. needs to hear.
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Cute and Clever Song from Australia
From a dear friend:
This is worth a watch
This clever piece originated in Australia. It's also very informative.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Rare Gorilla Problem
A small zoo in Oklahoma had a very rare species of gorilla. Within a few weeks the gorilla, a female, became very difficult to handle. Upon examination, the veterinarian determined the problem. The gorilla was in season. To make matters worse, there was no male gorilla available. Thinking about their problem, the Zoo Keeper thought of Bobby Lee Walton, a redneck part-time worker responsible for cleaning the animal cages. Bobby Lee, like most rednecks, had little sense but possessed ample ability to satisfy a female of any species. The Zoo Keeper thought they might have a solution.
Bobby Lee was approached with a proposition. Would he be willing to mate with the gorilla for $500.00? Bobby Lee showed some interest, but said he would have to think the matter over carefully. The following day, he announced that he would accept their offer, but only under four conditions:
1. "First", Bobby Lee said, "I ain't gonna kiss her on the lips." The Keeper quickly agreed to this condition.
2. "Second", he said, "You can't never tell no one about this." The Keeper again readily agreed to this condition.
3. "Third", Bobby Lee said, "I want all the chil'drun raised as Baptist." Once again it was agreed.
4. "And last of all", Bobby Lee stated, "You gotta give me another week to come up with the $500.00
Bobby Lee was approached with a proposition. Would he be willing to mate with the gorilla for $500.00? Bobby Lee showed some interest, but said he would have to think the matter over carefully. The following day, he announced that he would accept their offer, but only under four conditions:
1. "First", Bobby Lee said, "I ain't gonna kiss her on the lips." The Keeper quickly agreed to this condition.
2. "Second", he said, "You can't never tell no one about this." The Keeper again readily agreed to this condition.
3. "Third", Bobby Lee said, "I want all the chil'drun raised as Baptist." Once again it was agreed.
4. "And last of all", Bobby Lee stated, "You gotta give me another week to come up with the $500.00
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Brain Study Sheds Light on Autism - Forbes.com
More about autism. So much research, there is always hope.
Brain Study Sheds Light on Autism - Forbes.com: "MONDAY, Oct. 16 (HealthDay News) -- In adults with autism, various brain regions do not communicate as efficiently with one another as they do in normal people, U.S. researchers report.
Researchers used high-resolution electroencephalography (EEG) to examine the brains of 36 adults, ages 19 to 38. Half the study volunteers had autism. The researchers focused on connections in the cerebral cortex, the part of the brain that deals with higher cognitive processes.
The study found that the volunteers with autism had abnormalities, including both over- and under-connectivity between neurons in different parts of the cortex.
'Our findings indicate adults with autism show differences in coordinated neural activity, which implies poor internal communication between the parts of the brain,' study leader and postdoctoral researcher Michael Murias said in a prepared statement.
These abnormal brain patterns are a potential biomarker of autism and may help define the major characteristics of the disorder, Murias said. It may also be possible to use EEG to detect autism in young children, the researchers said. Early detection is crucial in providing interventions for the disorder.
The findings were presented Saturday at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, in Atlanta.
More information
The U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke has more about autism."
Brain Study Sheds Light on Autism - Forbes.com: "MONDAY, Oct. 16 (HealthDay News) -- In adults with autism, various brain regions do not communicate as efficiently with one another as they do in normal people, U.S. researchers report.
Researchers used high-resolution electroencephalography (EEG) to examine the brains of 36 adults, ages 19 to 38. Half the study volunteers had autism. The researchers focused on connections in the cerebral cortex, the part of the brain that deals with higher cognitive processes.
The study found that the volunteers with autism had abnormalities, including both over- and under-connectivity between neurons in different parts of the cortex.
'Our findings indicate adults with autism show differences in coordinated neural activity, which implies poor internal communication between the parts of the brain,' study leader and postdoctoral researcher Michael Murias said in a prepared statement.
These abnormal brain patterns are a potential biomarker of autism and may help define the major characteristics of the disorder, Murias said. It may also be possible to use EEG to detect autism in young children, the researchers said. Early detection is crucial in providing interventions for the disorder.
The findings were presented Saturday at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, in Atlanta.
More information
The U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke has more about autism."
Monday, October 16, 2006
Progress
Barbara got a phone call from a family friend from church who is a real champion for John. She is also a pediatrician so she has been professionally very handy also. She knows about John's new treatment, she came by a few days ago and checked out his new medications.
Apparently they have made John a part of their regular family prayer. The youngest child asked after prayer one night how long they were going to be praying for John. She didn't know how long it would be before we saw results so she called to ask. I was really touched that they would include him in their prayers. Very considerate people.
I guess I have become so used to not getting any support from my ward that this kind of took me by surprise. Very grateful.
Many years ago when John first went through auditory training we asked the bishopric if we could be included in the ward's monthly fast and we were turned down. I guess it is stupid to nurse a grudge that long. For whatever reason the bishop at the time left it up to one of his strange counselors.
Apparently they have made John a part of their regular family prayer. The youngest child asked after prayer one night how long they were going to be praying for John. She didn't know how long it would be before we saw results so she called to ask. I was really touched that they would include him in their prayers. Very considerate people.
I guess I have become so used to not getting any support from my ward that this kind of took me by surprise. Very grateful.
Many years ago when John first went through auditory training we asked the bishopric if we could be included in the ward's monthly fast and we were turned down. I guess it is stupid to nurse a grudge that long. For whatever reason the bishop at the time left it up to one of his strange counselors.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Sunday
A couple of things. First I have been on a steroid dose pack for the last few days and my sciatic nerve isn't bothering me quite so much, but I have been eating like there is no tomorrow.
Second, I have been listening to what John says much more attentively and have noticed that he is putting words together a little differently. Today at Frys he said "Baby is crying" instead of his usual "Baby cries."
This the stuff that drives me nuts. I don't know if things are changing for John or if I am just trying to see things that aren't there. I have to keep remembering "One day at a time" to get through this.
In years past I would have probably asked people to pray that this work or would suggest he get a priesthood blessing from his general authority uncle. I guess with experience we have lowered expectations. It is either going to work or it isn't.
Second, I have been listening to what John says much more attentively and have noticed that he is putting words together a little differently. Today at Frys he said "Baby is crying" instead of his usual "Baby cries."
This the stuff that drives me nuts. I don't know if things are changing for John or if I am just trying to see things that aren't there. I have to keep remembering "One day at a time" to get through this.
In years past I would have probably asked people to pray that this work or would suggest he get a priesthood blessing from his general authority uncle. I guess with experience we have lowered expectations. It is either going to work or it isn't.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Truthdig - Reports - Molly Ivins: Dear Leaders
I have been reading Molly for more years than I care to remember. She had GW figured out years ago.
Truthdig - Reports - Molly Ivins: Dear Leaders: "Always a top diplomat. But I warn you, when Bush makes reference of this, as in “my gut tells me,” we are in big trouble. By any measure, North Korea continued to be more dangerous than Iraq.
I don’t see how this mess can be blamed on anyone but Bush, but I notice that a few Republicans have dragged out the shade of Bill Clinton because he tried to deal with North Korea. I would have thought there wasn’t much water left in that bogeyman, but I guess he is the straw man for all seasons among Republicans. Why doesn’t someone on Fox News ask him about it?
Meanwhile, our fiendishly clever president has dragged his daddy’s old family consigliore, James Baker, out of retirement to think of something to do about Iraq. A three-part partition is mentioned. History Professor Juan Cole on his blog explains why that’s a disaster, but I suspect that’s where the poor Iraqis end up anyway, followed by war with Turkey and Saudi Arabia. "
Truthdig - Reports - Molly Ivins: Dear Leaders: "Always a top diplomat. But I warn you, when Bush makes reference of this, as in “my gut tells me,” we are in big trouble. By any measure, North Korea continued to be more dangerous than Iraq.
I don’t see how this mess can be blamed on anyone but Bush, but I notice that a few Republicans have dragged out the shade of Bill Clinton because he tried to deal with North Korea. I would have thought there wasn’t much water left in that bogeyman, but I guess he is the straw man for all seasons among Republicans. Why doesn’t someone on Fox News ask him about it?
Meanwhile, our fiendishly clever president has dragged his daddy’s old family consigliore, James Baker, out of retirement to think of something to do about Iraq. A three-part partition is mentioned. History Professor Juan Cole on his blog explains why that’s a disaster, but I suspect that’s where the poor Iraqis end up anyway, followed by war with Turkey and Saudi Arabia. "
War Room - Salon.com
I guess I should be surprised but I am not. Church for fun and profit. And votes apparently.
War Room - Salon.com: "If the Republicans were losing the religious right already, this certainly isn't going to help: David Kuo, who worked as second in command in George W. Bush's Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, is out with a new book in which he says that Bush administration officials shined on the faithful for political gain.
As 'Countdown' producer Jonathan Larsen reports, Kuo says that top evangelical leaders were known as 'nuts' in Karl Rove's office. 'National Christian leaders received hugs and smiles in person and then were dismissed behind their backs and described as 'ridiculous,' 'out of control,' and just plain 'goofy,'' Kuo writes.
Goofy, but useful. Kuo says that RNC chairman Ken Mehlman, who was then Bush's political director, used the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives to sponsor 'nonpartisan' events that were, in fact, designed to motivate religious voters in close congressional races. 'Ken loved the idea and gave us our marching orders,' Kuo writes."
War Room - Salon.com: "If the Republicans were losing the religious right already, this certainly isn't going to help: David Kuo, who worked as second in command in George W. Bush's Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, is out with a new book in which he says that Bush administration officials shined on the faithful for political gain.
As 'Countdown' producer Jonathan Larsen reports, Kuo says that top evangelical leaders were known as 'nuts' in Karl Rove's office. 'National Christian leaders received hugs and smiles in person and then were dismissed behind their backs and described as 'ridiculous,' 'out of control,' and just plain 'goofy,'' Kuo writes.
Goofy, but useful. Kuo says that RNC chairman Ken Mehlman, who was then Bush's political director, used the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives to sponsor 'nonpartisan' events that were, in fact, designed to motivate religious voters in close congressional races. 'Ken loved the idea and gave us our marching orders,' Kuo writes."
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
The all-time worst president | Salon.com
The all-time worst president | Salon.com:
Look around today and you will find the Viking descendants, a calm and stoical and somewhat formal people, by and large, not given to extremes of fashion or chanting "We're Number One" or writing memoirs that hang out the family underwear. Walter Mondale is pretty much the prototype. He lost the presidency by one of the biggest landslides in history to an aging actor whose grip on reality, never firm to begin with, was becoming hallucinatory. Mr. Reagan was sort of the Columbus of our time, a better P.R. man than sailor, but so be it. Mr. Mondale is a buoyant man with a sense of humor who enjoys his life in Minnesota, where people are happy to see him, and when you do, you see that losing is far from the worst thing that can happen to a man. Far from it.
What's worse is the likely fate of the Current Occupant, who is contending with Pierce, Buchanan and Warren G. Harding for the title of All-Time Worst President. He's got a good shot at the title if only because he's had so much more to be worst with. (Any young persons who have been inspired by Mr. Bush to take up public service should be watched very closely.)
I propose that we change Columbus Day to Bush Day, a cautionary holiday, like Halloween, a day to meditate on the hazards of ambition. We could observe it by going through the basement and garage and throwing out stuff we don't want or need. Also by not mortgaging the house to pay for a vacation, and not yelling at the neighbors, and not assuming that the law is for other people. A day to honor kindness, industriousness and modesty
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
CDC Plans Largest-Ever Study on Autism
Associated Press
October 7, 2006 12:13 a.m.
ATLANTA -- The largest federal study to date into the causes of autism was
announced Friday -- a multi-state investigation that will involve 2,700
young children.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and five other research
centers will study the youngsters over five years. The research is designed
to ferret out any genetic and environmental factors that may contribute to
autism.
"The CDC hasn't funded a study like this [before]," said Diana Schendel, the
CDC lead health scientist who is overseeing the Georgia research.
But some parents of autistic children say the CDC -- which promotes
childhood vaccinations -- is not interested in fully exploring vaccinations
as a potential cause.
"We don't want the CDC to do anything. We don't trust them," said Wendy
Fournier, president of the National Autism Association.
Autism is a complex disorder usually not diagnosed in children until after
age 3. Symptoms can include repetitive behaviors such as head-banging,
avoiding physical or eye contact with others, and communicating with
gestures rather than words.
In 2000, Congress directed federal health officials to increase research
into autism. The law prompted a series of CDC studies, including prevalence
research released in May that found 300,000 U.S. children have been
diagnosed with autism.
The new study will recruit 900 children diagnosed with autism, 900 with
undefined or other developmental problems, and 900 randomly selected
youngsters.
Those studied will be ages 2 to 5, in part because health records and
memories will be more complete, Dr. Schendel said.
That decision will limit the study's ability to assess the past impact of
vaccinations that contain the mercury-based preservative thimerosal, she
acknowledged. Since 2001, thimerosal has been removed from shots recommended
for young children.
Ms. Fournier's group suspects that ingredient is a leading cause of the
disorder, although past research suggests it is not.
Researchers will examine the medical records of the children and their
parents, and will take cheek swabs and blood and hair samples, Dr. Schendel
said.
The CDC awarded the other participating institutions $5.9 million for the
study. They are the Kaiser Foundation Research Institute in California, the
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Johns Hopkins
University in Maryland, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and
the University of Pennsylvania.
Until Friday's announcement, the largest federal study to focus specifically
on autism's causes was research sponsored by the National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences, looking at 1,000 California children ages 2
to 5. That study is still in progress.
October 7, 2006 12:13 a.m.
ATLANTA -- The largest federal study to date into the causes of autism was
announced Friday -- a multi-state investigation that will involve 2,700
young children.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and five other research
centers will study the youngsters over five years. The research is designed
to ferret out any genetic and environmental factors that may contribute to
autism.
"The CDC hasn't funded a study like this [before]," said Diana Schendel, the
CDC lead health scientist who is overseeing the Georgia research.
But some parents of autistic children say the CDC -- which promotes
childhood vaccinations -- is not interested in fully exploring vaccinations
as a potential cause.
"We don't want the CDC to do anything. We don't trust them," said Wendy
Fournier, president of the National Autism Association.
Autism is a complex disorder usually not diagnosed in children until after
age 3. Symptoms can include repetitive behaviors such as head-banging,
avoiding physical or eye contact with others, and communicating with
gestures rather than words.
In 2000, Congress directed federal health officials to increase research
into autism. The law prompted a series of CDC studies, including prevalence
research released in May that found 300,000 U.S. children have been
diagnosed with autism.
The new study will recruit 900 children diagnosed with autism, 900 with
undefined or other developmental problems, and 900 randomly selected
youngsters.
Those studied will be ages 2 to 5, in part because health records and
memories will be more complete, Dr. Schendel said.
That decision will limit the study's ability to assess the past impact of
vaccinations that contain the mercury-based preservative thimerosal, she
acknowledged. Since 2001, thimerosal has been removed from shots recommended
for young children.
Ms. Fournier's group suspects that ingredient is a leading cause of the
disorder, although past research suggests it is not.
Researchers will examine the medical records of the children and their
parents, and will take cheek swabs and blood and hair samples, Dr. Schendel
said.
The CDC awarded the other participating institutions $5.9 million for the
study. They are the Kaiser Foundation Research Institute in California, the
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Johns Hopkins
University in Maryland, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and
the University of Pennsylvania.
Until Friday's announcement, the largest federal study to focus specifically
on autism's causes was research sponsored by the National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences, looking at 1,000 California children ages 2
to 5. That study is still in progress.
Sciatic nerve - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sciatic nerve - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "The sciatic nerve is a large nerve that runs down the lower limb. It is the longest single nerve in the body. Pain caused by a compressed or damaged sciatic nerve is called sciatica."
I went to visit my orthopod today and had x-rays taken. When I was recovering from my broken pelvis some 32 years ago they told me that I might have some residual pain when I got older. Since I didn't really expect to age back when I was in my 20s I didn't pay much attention. Now that I am half way through my 50s I realize that time marches on for all of us.
Anyhow, I have been in pretty severe pain the last several weeks. My doctor thinks I may being having problem with my Sciatic nerve. Who knew?
I went to visit my orthopod today and had x-rays taken. When I was recovering from my broken pelvis some 32 years ago they told me that I might have some residual pain when I got older. Since I didn't really expect to age back when I was in my 20s I didn't pay much attention. Now that I am half way through my 50s I realize that time marches on for all of us.
Anyhow, I have been in pretty severe pain the last several weeks. My doctor thinks I may being having problem with my Sciatic nerve. Who knew?
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Me and Baby Harris
Nice surprise to see this pic, haven't seen it before. Such a gorgeous grandson even then. Even then he had more hair than his grandpa.
This picture was taken a couple of months after Harris was born. My first visit with my first grandchild. I do wish I could see my grandsons more often though.
Funniest Video Ever
Every parent (my dad will be quick to point out I was the kid in that video also) has been there.
Friday, October 06, 2006
Is the Bush administration manipulating oil prices to win elections? By Daniel Gross - Slate Magazine
I am not much on conspiracy theories but I thought this was interesting. I was in the break room at work and overheard something on Fox News saying that there was absolutely no relationship between gas prices and the upcoming election. So, there might be something to the theory after all.
Is the Bush administration manipulating oil prices to win elections? By Daniel Gross - Slate Magazine: "The 2006 theories are more subtle. The administration has taken steps recently to remove a marginal, but important, buyer from the marketplace. After having delayed the summer's deposits to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve until the fall, the Wall Street Journal Monday reported that, 'The Energy Department will hold off purchases of oil for the government's emergency reserve through the upcoming winter.'
And then there's the strange case of how Goldman Sachs, the investment firm formerly run by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, this summer shifted the weighting of gasoline in the Goldman Sachs Commodities Index in such a way that forced investors to dump speculative positions in gasoline, hence pushing down prices. It's a convoluted story, but this article from last Friday's New York Times lays it out pretty well. (Blogger Tim Iacono makes the case here, and University of California, San Diego, economist James Hamilton provides his own description and debunking here.)"
Is the Bush administration manipulating oil prices to win elections? By Daniel Gross - Slate Magazine: "The 2006 theories are more subtle. The administration has taken steps recently to remove a marginal, but important, buyer from the marketplace. After having delayed the summer's deposits to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve until the fall, the Wall Street Journal Monday reported that, 'The Energy Department will hold off purchases of oil for the government's emergency reserve through the upcoming winter.'
And then there's the strange case of how Goldman Sachs, the investment firm formerly run by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, this summer shifted the weighting of gasoline in the Goldman Sachs Commodities Index in such a way that forced investors to dump speculative positions in gasoline, hence pushing down prices. It's a convoluted story, but this article from last Friday's New York Times lays it out pretty well. (Blogger Tim Iacono makes the case here, and University of California, San Diego, economist James Hamilton provides his own description and debunking here.)"
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Miracle drug of anger | Salon.com
Thank you Garrison.
Miracle drug of anger | Salon.com: "Five vexations. There are others. Pick up a newspaper and read about Congress and you will find yourself yelling at walls and terrifying the cat. Last week, Congress moved to suspend habeas corpus, one thing that distinguishes a civil society from a police state. Reaction was muted.
Then the Party of Family Values was revealed to have protected a sexual predator in its midst until finally a reporter asked some pointed questions and the honorable gentleman resigned and ran off to recovery camp: This level of hypocrisy takes a person's breath away. You thought that Abramoff, Norquist, Reed & DeLay had established new lows, but the elevator is still descending.
The power of righteous vexation is what keeps so many old Democrats hanging on in nursing homes long past the time they should have kicked off. Ancient crones from FDR's time are still walking the halls, kept alive by anger at what has been done to our country. Old conservationists, feminists, grizzled veterans of the civil rights era fight off melanoma, emphysema, Montezuma, thanks to the miracle drug of anger. Slackers and cynics abound, not to mention nihilists in golf pants and utter idiots. Time to clean some clocks. As Frost might have written, 'The woods are lovely, dark and thick. But I have many butts to kick and some to poke and just one stick.'"
Miracle drug of anger | Salon.com: "Five vexations. There are others. Pick up a newspaper and read about Congress and you will find yourself yelling at walls and terrifying the cat. Last week, Congress moved to suspend habeas corpus, one thing that distinguishes a civil society from a police state. Reaction was muted.
Then the Party of Family Values was revealed to have protected a sexual predator in its midst until finally a reporter asked some pointed questions and the honorable gentleman resigned and ran off to recovery camp: This level of hypocrisy takes a person's breath away. You thought that Abramoff, Norquist, Reed & DeLay had established new lows, but the elevator is still descending.
The power of righteous vexation is what keeps so many old Democrats hanging on in nursing homes long past the time they should have kicked off. Ancient crones from FDR's time are still walking the halls, kept alive by anger at what has been done to our country. Old conservationists, feminists, grizzled veterans of the civil rights era fight off melanoma, emphysema, Montezuma, thanks to the miracle drug of anger. Slackers and cynics abound, not to mention nihilists in golf pants and utter idiots. Time to clean some clocks. As Frost might have written, 'The woods are lovely, dark and thick. But I have many butts to kick and some to poke and just one stick.'"
Monday, October 02, 2006
This Mom Wants Tony Snow Fired
As Spock from Star Trek would say, fascinating. I am sure the demos will manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory once again, but it is nice on the warm October evening to at least hope for a big change next month.
By my mother calculations...Foley's investigation, prosecution, etc. should cost this country at least triple. I mean...we're talking about kids here. We're talking about protecting our kids, right? If you spent millions on the Lewinsky/Clinton affair, surely you'll spend millions MORE on something involving participants that are UNDER age. Because I know, in my heart, you moral Republicans will take care of my family, right? You'll make sure that MY family and this country's children are taken care of...at least more than some consenting tryst between adults, right? You've certainly been protecting my family and me like crazy against that gay marriage thing. Lord knows if the gays marry, my family will fall apart. So certainly, you'll protect my wee little offspring from predator Congressmen with a knack for inappropriate behavior around pages, right?
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Murdocks And Sons: General Conference
Murdocks And Sons: General Conference: "You will often hear people talking about how they play for God or implying that God wanted their team to win or something along those lines and Elder Eyring played off of that in his talk. He said that in 20 years you won't remember the score of a Teacher's quorum game but if you include someone who wouldn't otherwise have been they will remember that and you will all remember whose team it was."
I wrote a comment but it didn't take so I will post it here.
And no one will care about this but me, but one of the reasons I took a vacation from church when I was a teenager was because of church basketball. Back in my day a good youth team could make it to all church playoffs. Basketball was taken very seriously, so me and my less athletic friends would spend the evening watching Star Trek.
I still think that Eyring missed the point. Not every kid aspires to play on the teacher's quorum basketball team, whether or not they play well. For a lot of men of my aquaintance, that was the first clue that they did not fit and there was no place in the church for them. Apparently to make it to the celestial kingdom one needs to have a love and talent for basketball. Otherwise, why would all of the chapels come equiped with basketball courts.
Feel free to delete this comment if you like James.
I wrote a comment but it didn't take so I will post it here.
And no one will care about this but me, but one of the reasons I took a vacation from church when I was a teenager was because of church basketball. Back in my day a good youth team could make it to all church playoffs. Basketball was taken very seriously, so me and my less athletic friends would spend the evening watching Star Trek.
I still think that Eyring missed the point. Not every kid aspires to play on the teacher's quorum basketball team, whether or not they play well. For a lot of men of my aquaintance, that was the first clue that they did not fit and there was no place in the church for them. Apparently to make it to the celestial kingdom one needs to have a love and talent for basketball. Otherwise, why would all of the chapels come equiped with basketball courts.
Feel free to delete this comment if you like James.
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Me and John
Barbara is off to Salt Lake City for a long weekend of General Conference and family. On Saturday she and her sisters are throwing a baby shower for one her nieces between sessions of conference. Should be a busy day at the Walkers.
John and I are on our regular routine during her absence. We have already been to the mall today and made purchases at the regular stores. I like shopping with John, we go into the store, he finds what he likes, and is ready to go. For instance, at the GAP today he found two new shirts that were on sale. We were in and out in less than five minutes.
I doubt if anyone actually reads my blog, and if they do if they click on the read more link.
I think a lot of people feel sorry for me when I am alone with John, but I actually enjoy the experience. For some reason he is much easier to handle when the two of us are alone. No head banging, crying fits or public displays. We had dinner last night at IHOP and had an enjoyable dinner. It helps that our favorite server has switched over to evenings on the weekend, we might end up there again tonight.
We are totally accepting of each other, faults and all. Plus we never have to worry about keeping our end of a conversation, so we both are alone in our thoughts a lot.
It hasn't always been this way. I don't if it was because of the times I was raised, or the influence of the church where you always had to look good and in control, but the first several years with John were a real challenge. I still have nightmares of trying to keep John quiet at church. I would take him out during services and walk him up and down the hall. Invariably someone from another ward would come out and tell us to be quiet. I would then end up taking him for rides until church was over. As time went on, it was just easier to stay home from church.
One year Christmas fell on a Sunday and I thought it would be nice for the entire family to go to church. I figured that we could keep John under control for an hour service. We sat down, and John started getting noisy. A man a few rows in front of us turned around and gave us the evil eye. Barbara took John out and they tried to get the nursery open so he could play during church. Being Christmas, the classroom doors were locked, so I ended up driving John around in the van looking for something that was open while he screamed. We went back to church when services were supposed to be over. We ended up waiting in the van in the cold for another 30 minutes because the speaker decided that the best way to spend Christmas for was for him to talk. It didn't occur to anyone in my family to leave even though we were waiting outside.
I guess I sound bitter. The last straw was when Barbara was called to be the Relief Society president in our ward. The bishopric called me in to get permission. I told them that they could call her but that meant I would not longer be able to attend church. They said they could live with that.
The bishop was later excommunicated and one of the counsels a few years later shot himself in the head when he had been stopped by police. It turns out that he was a collector of child porn.
I belonged to a men's therapy group, and among other issues I worked on dealing with being the parent of a child with autism. One week I brought John in, thinking that one session with John present would be worth many hours of explanation. It was a turning point for me. First, the group told me how much they liked John. Second, they told me that they thought I was doing a great job with him. Â That was a very big contradiction from what I had been hearing from people at church, and from family members. To be fair, it was what I was hearing, not necessarily what was being said.
Another turning point was when I started taking John to church at University Baptist Church here in Austin. For decades they have had a mission of reaching out to everyone. I had mentioned to the associate pastor that John and I were not comfortable attending services in our own church, and she insisted that we bring him to services there. Over the next couple of weeks, countless members of the congregation and all of the ministers made a point of welcoming us to the services. The funny thing is that for the most part John was, for lack of a better phrase, very reverent in the services.
If anyone is actually reading this, especially members of the church, I hope I haven't offended you. But these are my experiences. I suppose a better person would have found a way to stay active in the church.
According to LDS thelogy, when we are all gone John will be among those in the celestial kingdom. I guess my mission in life is to take care of him while I can and hope that he visits me in one of the lesser kingdoms from time to time.
John and I are on our regular routine during her absence. We have already been to the mall today and made purchases at the regular stores. I like shopping with John, we go into the store, he finds what he likes, and is ready to go. For instance, at the GAP today he found two new shirts that were on sale. We were in and out in less than five minutes.
I doubt if anyone actually reads my blog, and if they do if they click on the read more link.
I think a lot of people feel sorry for me when I am alone with John, but I actually enjoy the experience. For some reason he is much easier to handle when the two of us are alone. No head banging, crying fits or public displays. We had dinner last night at IHOP and had an enjoyable dinner. It helps that our favorite server has switched over to evenings on the weekend, we might end up there again tonight.
We are totally accepting of each other, faults and all. Plus we never have to worry about keeping our end of a conversation, so we both are alone in our thoughts a lot.
It hasn't always been this way. I don't if it was because of the times I was raised, or the influence of the church where you always had to look good and in control, but the first several years with John were a real challenge. I still have nightmares of trying to keep John quiet at church. I would take him out during services and walk him up and down the hall. Invariably someone from another ward would come out and tell us to be quiet. I would then end up taking him for rides until church was over. As time went on, it was just easier to stay home from church.
One year Christmas fell on a Sunday and I thought it would be nice for the entire family to go to church. I figured that we could keep John under control for an hour service. We sat down, and John started getting noisy. A man a few rows in front of us turned around and gave us the evil eye. Barbara took John out and they tried to get the nursery open so he could play during church. Being Christmas, the classroom doors were locked, so I ended up driving John around in the van looking for something that was open while he screamed. We went back to church when services were supposed to be over. We ended up waiting in the van in the cold for another 30 minutes because the speaker decided that the best way to spend Christmas for was for him to talk. It didn't occur to anyone in my family to leave even though we were waiting outside.
I guess I sound bitter. The last straw was when Barbara was called to be the Relief Society president in our ward. The bishopric called me in to get permission. I told them that they could call her but that meant I would not longer be able to attend church. They said they could live with that.
The bishop was later excommunicated and one of the counsels a few years later shot himself in the head when he had been stopped by police. It turns out that he was a collector of child porn.
I belonged to a men's therapy group, and among other issues I worked on dealing with being the parent of a child with autism. One week I brought John in, thinking that one session with John present would be worth many hours of explanation. It was a turning point for me. First, the group told me how much they liked John. Second, they told me that they thought I was doing a great job with him. Â That was a very big contradiction from what I had been hearing from people at church, and from family members. To be fair, it was what I was hearing, not necessarily what was being said.
Another turning point was when I started taking John to church at University Baptist Church here in Austin. For decades they have had a mission of reaching out to everyone. I had mentioned to the associate pastor that John and I were not comfortable attending services in our own church, and she insisted that we bring him to services there. Over the next couple of weeks, countless members of the congregation and all of the ministers made a point of welcoming us to the services. The funny thing is that for the most part John was, for lack of a better phrase, very reverent in the services.
If anyone is actually reading this, especially members of the church, I hope I haven't offended you. But these are my experiences. I suppose a better person would have found a way to stay active in the church.
According to LDS thelogy, when we are all gone John will be among those in the celestial kingdom. I guess my mission in life is to take care of him while I can and hope that he visits me in one of the lesser kingdoms from time to time.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
With the Party of Dobson
Another example of the wit and wisdom of Dr. James Dobson.
With the Party of Dobson: "But as Allen sought to dampen the public controversy over his mishandling of his Jewish heritage, his association with these 'Four Horsemen' simply called attention to Dobson's and Perkins's problematic utterances. Dobson's Focus on the Family, for example, published an article in its Citizen magazine last February attacking the parents of federal judge Stephen Reinhardt (whose step-grandfather was a Holocaust survivor) for telling their son 'tales of horrific violence' about the Holocaust 'that lacked the redemptive power of Christ's atonement.' The Anti-Defamation League has repeatedly condemned Wildmon for his conspiratorial diatribes against 'secular Jews.' And Perkins, for his part, paid $82,500 to former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke for his phone-bank list and then spoke at a 2001 fundraiser for the Council of Conservative Citizens, America's largest white supremacist organization. (When I asked Perkins about his links to Duke and the CCC, he replied tersely, 'There are no links.')"
With the Party of Dobson: "But as Allen sought to dampen the public controversy over his mishandling of his Jewish heritage, his association with these 'Four Horsemen' simply called attention to Dobson's and Perkins's problematic utterances. Dobson's Focus on the Family, for example, published an article in its Citizen magazine last February attacking the parents of federal judge Stephen Reinhardt (whose step-grandfather was a Holocaust survivor) for telling their son 'tales of horrific violence' about the Holocaust 'that lacked the redemptive power of Christ's atonement.' The Anti-Defamation League has repeatedly condemned Wildmon for his conspiratorial diatribes against 'secular Jews.' And Perkins, for his part, paid $82,500 to former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke for his phone-bank list and then spoke at a 2001 fundraiser for the Council of Conservative Citizens, America's largest white supremacist organization. (When I asked Perkins about his links to Duke and the CCC, he replied tersely, 'There are no links.')"
Picture show | Salon.com
Picture show | Salon.com:
Another great column from Garrison Keeler.
Another great column from Garrison Keeler.
But the camera can be fearfully truthful. Look at the picture of the Current Occupant, reading a speech to the troops at Camp Pendleton, wearing a zip-up jacket with little epaulets on the shoulders, a presidential seal sewn on the right breast, and on the left breast the words "George W. Bush, Commander in Chief." Is this for his benefit or that of the troops? No president ever needed to wear a name tag before. He is the first. Insecurity is written all over him. Look at Dick Cheney. No need for a name tag there.
Clinton vs. Bush: A foolish fight for the GOP to pick
There is a disturbingly strong willingness on the part of many Bush supporters to refuse to recognize even indisputable facts if those facts undermine their desire to believe that something is true. That is how, to cite just a few examples, they continue to believe that things are going well in Iraq, that Saddam Hussein really did have WMD, and that their unpopular views on war and terrorism are shared by a majority of Americans. But it is difficult to recall anything that more vividly illustrates this fact-denying dynamic than the reaction of Bush supporters to Bill Clinton's now-famous interview with Fox News' Chris Wallace.
One right-w festivals, Snowdown in the ...
Dodge - Durango
Explains how this vehicle attempts to balance size and power based on the specifications and images presented. Find a dealer or obtain a quote.
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Dodge - Durango
Explains how this vehicle attempts to balance size and power based on the specifications and images presented. Find a dealer or obtain a quote.
Monday, September 25, 2006
Sunday, September 24, 2006
This American Life - Autism story
A difficult segment for me to listen to. See act two below.
Stories of unconditional love between parents and children, and how hard love can be sometimes in daily practice.
Prologue. Hard as it is to believe, during the early twentieth century, a whole school of mental health professionals decided that unconditional love was a terrible thing to give a child. The government printed pamphlets warning mothers against the dangers of holding their kids. The head of the American Psychological Association and even a mothers' organization endorsed the position that mothers were dangerous – until psychologist Harry Harlow set out to prove them wrong, with a series of experiments with monkeys. Ira talks with Deborah Blum, author of Love at Goon Park, a biography of Harlow. (10 minutes)
Act One. Love is a Battlefield. Alix Spiegel tells the story of a couple, Heidi and Rick Solomon, who adopt a son who was raised in terrible circumstances in a Romanian orphanage, unable to feel attachments to anyone, and what they do about it. (27 minutes)
Song: "Loveless Town," Sarah Blust
Act Two. Hit Me With Your Best Shot. Dave Royko talks about the decision he and his wife faced recently about his autistic son's future, and whether he should continue to live with the family. (19 minutes)
Stories of unconditional love between parents and children, and how hard love can be sometimes in daily practice.
Prologue. Hard as it is to believe, during the early twentieth century, a whole school of mental health professionals decided that unconditional love was a terrible thing to give a child. The government printed pamphlets warning mothers against the dangers of holding their kids. The head of the American Psychological Association and even a mothers' organization endorsed the position that mothers were dangerous – until psychologist Harry Harlow set out to prove them wrong, with a series of experiments with monkeys. Ira talks with Deborah Blum, author of Love at Goon Park, a biography of Harlow. (10 minutes)
Act One. Love is a Battlefield. Alix Spiegel tells the story of a couple, Heidi and Rick Solomon, who adopt a son who was raised in terrible circumstances in a Romanian orphanage, unable to feel attachments to anyone, and what they do about it. (27 minutes)
Song: "Loveless Town," Sarah Blust
Act Two. Hit Me With Your Best Shot. Dave Royko talks about the decision he and his wife faced recently about his autistic son's future, and whether he should continue to live with the family. (19 minutes)
Five years later, Richards' reflections ring true
Interesting article from today's Austin American Statesman."It's the first thing I thought of. The very first thing," Richards told "Eklektikos" host John Aielli that day. "This thing, (this attack), is so awful, so anxious-making, it's going to be used to (do) some things people would have liked to have gotten done a long time ago. That is: to be able to do wiretaps at will, to be able to interfere with immigration. They're going to be questioning a lot of people because of the color of their skin, or their national origin.
"Yeah, that worries me to death. I think we need to be super vigilant that we do not destroy the very tenants that this country was created for."
Just eight weeks after the attacks, Richards was thinking about what many Americans are discussing today — a governmental wiretap policy, the longterm effects of the Patriot Act, the right of Americans to speak freely in dissent.
Ann Richards and guns
One of the points in the earlier post didn't ring true so I did some research and found the following article. I clearly remember seeing pictures of Ann Richards going dove hunting.
http://www.nyu.edu/classes/siva/archives/003539.html
I learned something new about the late Gov Richards...
http://www.nyu.edu/classes
I learned something new about the late Gov Richards...
Then came the anti-gun stuff. Of course, the smear machine contended, what else would this drug-addicted, feminist do, if elected, but take away Bubba's guns. So, on Labor Day 1990, capital press corps in tow, Ann Richards trekked into East Texas to a lease rented by a state senator to put everyone's mind at ease by killing some birds.
It was a charade, and everyone including Ann knew it. But she never complained. She was in the race to win, and she embraced it every day, one day at a time. Whatever came her way, she did what she had to do.
I wasn't along on that trip, but it has been recounted hundreds of times. Celia Morris gives a great recap of it in her book, "Storming the Statehouse: Running for Governor with Ann Richards and Dianne Feinstein."
The hunt was successful, meaning Ann actually fired the gun and didn't shoot anyone; she wore the appropriate clothes and refrained from doing anything too feminine like giggling. The Dallas-Ft. Worth and Houston television stations showed film of the trip, and the statewide papers wrote it up dutifully.
Later in the day, something much more important happened. Something that told many of us much more about how tough Ann Richards was than whether she could fire a gun. A woman who later became a judge in Dallas County told me about this much later in casual conversation.
The last stop Richards made that day was at a mega flea market near the tiny town of Canton. Ann and the group were drawing a crowd that kept growing as they walked though the cars and tables shaking hands with voters.
As always, young girls flocked to see her. At one point she stopped to talk to them. Ann told the girls – about a dozen of them, all grade school age - that she had been Dove hunting; and that afterward, she had cleaned a few birds. One of the girls asked, "Cleaned the birds?"
Ann said something like, "Yeah, after you kill the birds, you have to pluck out all the feathers. Then, you cut them under their rib cage and stick your hand in there and pull out all the guts, so you can cook them."
The girls let out a near simultaneous cry of "EWWWWWWWWWWWWW. EWWWWW. EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW."
Then came the Richards magic, as always at the most unexpected moment. Dropping to one knee, looking them in the eye, Ann responded. "EWWWWWWWW???!?! EWWWWWW?????!?"
She paused. Then, the silver-haired, bee-hived grandmother in hunting fatigues told these girls something she wanted them to remember all their lives. Ann wasn't sure if she was going to win that race, so she wanted every moment to count.
"Well," she said slowly, lovingly, "if you can't put your hand in the EWWWWWW, you can't be governor."
And she stood up, put her arms behind two of the girls and kept walking. Right into the history books.
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Ann Richards on How to Be a Good Republican:
From Rosie O'Donnell's blog. Remember when she used to be nice? I like her better this way.
No telling if Ann Richards actually ever said this though. I do remember that she was someone who would go hunting for instance.
1. You have to believe that the nation's current 8-year prosperity was due to the work of Ronald Reagan and George Bush, but yesterday's gasoline prices are all Clinton's fault.
2. You have to believe that those privileged from birth achieve success all on their own.
3. You have to be against all government programs, but expect Social Security checks on time.
4. You have to believe that AIDS victims deserve their disease, but smokers with lung cancer and overweight individuals with heart disease don't deserve theirs.
5. You have to appreciate the power rush that comes with sporting a gun.
6. You have to believe…everything Rush Limbaugh says.
7. You have to believe that the agricultural, restaurant, housing and hotel industries can survive without immigrant labor.
8. You have to believe God hates homosexuality, but loves the death penalty.
9. You have to believe society is color-blind and growing up black in America doesn't diminish your opportunities, but you still won't vote for Alan Keyes.
10. You have to believe that pollution is OK as long as it makes a profit.
11. You have to believe in prayer in schools, as long as you don't pray to Allah or Buddha.
12. You have to believe Newt Gingrich and Henry Hyde were really faithful husbands.
13. You have to believe speaking a few Spanish phrases makes you instantly popular in the barrio.
14. You have to believe that only your own teenagers are still virgins.
15. You have to be against government interference in business, until your oil company, corporation or Savings and Loan is about to go broke and you beg for a government bail out.
16. You love Jesus and Jesus loves you and, by the way, Jesus shares your hatred for AIDS victims, homosexuals, and President Clinton.
17. You have to believe government has nothing to do with providing police protection, national defense, and building roads.
18. You have to believe a poor, minority student with a disciplinary history and failing grades will be admitted into an elite private school with a $1,000 voucher.
No telling if Ann Richards actually ever said this though. I do remember that she was someone who would go hunting for instance.
1. You have to believe that the nation's current 8-year prosperity was due to the work of Ronald Reagan and George Bush, but yesterday's gasoline prices are all Clinton's fault.
2. You have to believe that those privileged from birth achieve success all on their own.
3. You have to be against all government programs, but expect Social Security checks on time.
4. You have to believe that AIDS victims deserve their disease, but smokers with lung cancer and overweight individuals with heart disease don't deserve theirs.
5. You have to appreciate the power rush that comes with sporting a gun.
6. You have to believe…everything Rush Limbaugh says.
7. You have to believe that the agricultural, restaurant, housing and hotel industries can survive without immigrant labor.
8. You have to believe God hates homosexuality, but loves the death penalty.
9. You have to believe society is color-blind and growing up black in America doesn't diminish your opportunities, but you still won't vote for Alan Keyes.
10. You have to believe that pollution is OK as long as it makes a profit.
11. You have to believe in prayer in schools, as long as you don't pray to Allah or Buddha.
12. You have to believe Newt Gingrich and Henry Hyde were really faithful husbands.
13. You have to believe speaking a few Spanish phrases makes you instantly popular in the barrio.
14. You have to believe that only your own teenagers are still virgins.
15. You have to be against government interference in business, until your oil company, corporation or Savings and Loan is about to go broke and you beg for a government bail out.
16. You love Jesus and Jesus loves you and, by the way, Jesus shares your hatred for AIDS victims, homosexuals, and President Clinton.
17. You have to believe government has nothing to do with providing police protection, national defense, and building roads.
18. You have to believe a poor, minority student with a disciplinary history and failing grades will be admitted into an elite private school with a $1,000 voucher.
Friday, September 22, 2006
Great expectations | Salon.com
Great expectations | Salon.com: "But the deeper truth is that Clinton's tireless worldwide outreach to the business, nonprofit and government sectors -- many of whose most important players showed up for the second CGI gathering this week -- represents a profound rebuke to the policies and priorities of the Bush administration. That became obvious on the morning after the first lady's appearance, when Clinton introduced Richard Branson to make an extraordinary promise. Over the next 10 years, Virgin Airlines and Virgin Rail will devote all corporate profits, estimated at $3 billion, to research and investment in technologies that have the potential to mitigate global warming"
Thursday, September 21, 2006
War Room - Salon.com
War Room - Salon.com: "Clinton on Clinton, the war and Karl Rove
David Remnick profiles Bill Clinton in this week's New Yorker. You'll have to kill a tree or two to read the entire 23-page production, but a press release from the magazine offers up some of the choicest bits from the former president:
On his role in his wife's presidential campaign: 'If she decides that's what she wants to do, I'll be for it, and I'll work for it, and I know what the deal is.'
On whether he'll be a negative factor: 'Only if people thought she wouldn't be her own person, and I don't think that will be a problem.'
On upstaging Hillary at the funeral of Coretta Scott King: 'I read about that, and I said, 'Hillary, if we both spoke at the Wellesley reunion, you'd probably get a better reception.' I said, 'You can't pay any attention to this.' I said, 'This is my life. I grew up in these churches ... You don't have to be better at this than me. You got to be better than whoever.''
On Democrats, like Hillary, who voted to authorize the use of force in Iraq: 'This deal with Iraq makes me want to throw up. I'm sick and tired of being told that if you voted for authorization you voted for the war. It was a mistake, and I would have made it, too.'
On the Bush administration's plan for 'postwar' Iraq: 'The sort of thing two students of international relations could have thrown together in forty-five minutes. They were arrogant. They thought it would be easy, and they thought there would be no terrorism, that everyone would be on their side.'
On Democratic losses in 2000 and 2004: 'I'm sick of Karl Rove's bullshit.'"
David Remnick profiles Bill Clinton in this week's New Yorker. You'll have to kill a tree or two to read the entire 23-page production, but a press release from the magazine offers up some of the choicest bits from the former president:
On his role in his wife's presidential campaign: 'If she decides that's what she wants to do, I'll be for it, and I'll work for it, and I know what the deal is.'
On whether he'll be a negative factor: 'Only if people thought she wouldn't be her own person, and I don't think that will be a problem.'
On upstaging Hillary at the funeral of Coretta Scott King: 'I read about that, and I said, 'Hillary, if we both spoke at the Wellesley reunion, you'd probably get a better reception.' I said, 'You can't pay any attention to this.' I said, 'This is my life. I grew up in these churches ... You don't have to be better at this than me. You got to be better than whoever.''
On Democrats, like Hillary, who voted to authorize the use of force in Iraq: 'This deal with Iraq makes me want to throw up. I'm sick and tired of being told that if you voted for authorization you voted for the war. It was a mistake, and I would have made it, too.'
On the Bush administration's plan for 'postwar' Iraq: 'The sort of thing two students of international relations could have thrown together in forty-five minutes. They were arrogant. They thought it would be easy, and they thought there would be no terrorism, that everyone would be on their side.'
On Democratic losses in 2000 and 2004: 'I'm sick of Karl Rove's bullshit.'"
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Fine dining at IHOP
Had a milestone of sorts tonight. I had dinner with a friend and took advantage of the senior citizen early bird special tonight, I got my entree for free. I felt funny about it so I tipped the server the difference.
I saw the son of one of the servers I have know for years. The kid is cute, around 3, and is a failure to thrive kid. The server told his wife that I am an inspiration because of the way I handle John. Nice to be an inspiration to someone. For me it is the opposite, I am not a waiter making minimum wage and tips so it is much easier to provide for John and the rest of my family than it is for him.
I guess we all have our own challenges, some of which are self inflicted.
I saw the son of one of the servers I have know for years. The kid is cute, around 3, and is a failure to thrive kid. The server told his wife that I am an inspiration because of the way I handle John. Nice to be an inspiration to someone. For me it is the opposite, I am not a waiter making minimum wage and tips so it is much easier to provide for John and the rest of my family than it is for him.
I guess we all have our own challenges, some of which are self inflicted.
No Spinach
I eat a lot of fresh spinach so I am having trouble with the current embargo. Don't want to get sick of course.
Friday, September 15, 2006
AlterNet: Remembering Ann Richards
I am really going to miss Ann Richards. I saw her in person twice, once flying in coach a few rows ahead of me on a flight from Phoniex to Austin (you could not miss her white hair), and another time standing behind her at the concession stand at a local movie theater.
AlterNet: Remembering Ann Richards:
AlterNet: Remembering Ann Richards:
At a long-ago political do at Scholz Garten in Austin, everybody who was anybody was there meetin' and greetin' at a furious pace. A group of us got the tired feet and went to lean our butts against a table at the back wall of the bar. Perched like birds in a row were Bob Bullock, then state comptroller, moi, Charles Miles, the head of Bullock's personnel department, and Ms. Ann Richards. Bullock, 20 years in Texas politics, knew every sorry, no good sumbitch in the entire state. Some old racist judge from East Texas came up to him, "Bob, my boy, how are you?"
Bullock said, "Judge, I'd like you to meet my friends: This is Molly Ivins with the Texas Observer."
The judge peered up at me and said, "How yew, little lady?"
Bullock, "And this is Charles Miles, the head of my personnel department." Miles, who is black, stuck out his hand, and the judge got an expression on his face as though he had just stepped into a fresh cowpie. He reached out and touched Charlie's palm with one finger, while turning eagerly to the pretty, blonde, blue-eyed Ann Richards. "And who is this lovely lady?"
Ann beamed and replied, "I am Mrs. Miles."
One of the most moving memories I have of Ann is her sitting in a circle with a group of prisoners. Ann and Bullock had started a rehab program in prisons, the single most effective thing that can be done to cut recidivism (George W. Bush later destroyed the program). The governor of Texas looked at the cons and said, "My name is Ann, and I am an alcoholic."
From my dad
Montana Cowboy
Montana Cowboy A Montana cowboy was overseeing his herd in a remote mountainous pasture when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of a dust cloud towards him. The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and YSL tie, leans out the window and asks the cowboy,
"If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?"
The cowboy looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, "Sure, Why not?"
The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his Cingular RAZR V3 cell phone, and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite navigation system to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo. The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg , Germany . Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored.
He then accesses a MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response. Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turns to the cowboy and says, "You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves."
"That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves," says the cowboy.
He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on amused as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.
Then the cowboy says to the young man, "Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give my back my calf?"
The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, "Okay, why not?"
You're a Congressman for the U.S. Government", says the cowboy.
"Wow! That's correct," says the yuppie, "but how did you guess that?"
"No guessing required." answered the cowboy. "You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You tried to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don't know a thing about cows...this is a herd of sheep.
Now give me back my dog
Montana Cowboy A Montana cowboy was overseeing his herd in a remote mountainous pasture when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of a dust cloud towards him. The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and YSL tie, leans out the window and asks the cowboy,
"If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?"
The cowboy looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, "Sure, Why not?"
The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his Cingular RAZR V3 cell phone, and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite navigation system to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo. The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg , Germany . Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored.
He then accesses a MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response. Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turns to the cowboy and says, "You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves."
"That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves," says the cowboy.
He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on amused as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.
Then the cowboy says to the young man, "Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give my back my calf?"
The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, "Okay, why not?"
You're a Congressman for the U.S. Government", says the cowboy.
"Wow! That's correct," says the yuppie, "but how did you guess that?"
"No guessing required." answered the cowboy. "You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You tried to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don't know a thing about cows...this is a herd of sheep.
Now give me back my dog
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