kiapita's midwestern paradise*

Haiti, good intentions, and the road to hell

2010-02-05T09:29:00.004-06:00

Like much of the country, I've been reading about the American missionaries arrested for their attempt to move 33 Haitian children into the neighboring Dominican Republic.

Charges of child abduction and criminal association were filed Thursday and were less serious than the charges that many Haitians have demanded: kidnapping and child trafficking. Many have had it with the unfortunately common problem of child enslavement in Haiti and want the government to use this case to make a stand on the issue.

According to relatives and friends of Laura Silsby, one of the charged, she was not intending to sell the children. Rather, she had hoped to open an orphanage in the Dominican Republic for up to 200 children, at least some of whom would have been placed for adoption. As The Wall Street Journal reported, "For Ms. Silsby it was the latest in a series of wrong turns on a road her parents and others who know her in Idaho say was paved with the best intentions."

It irked me as a kid when my mother would say, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." It spoiled the endorphin rush I got from planning grand, good things.

Later, as I got more theologically sophisticated and evaluated the statement from a faith-not-works Protestant perspective, I decided it was nonsense, since our going to heaven or hell is supposed to be determined by the condition of our heart, not anything we do.

I am afraid that the 10 missionaries share that faith-not-works perspective, because they clearly did not evaluate the consequences of their actions. I'm not talking here about the harm they've done to themselves; I'm talking about their inability to see a better alternative for these children because they were so caught up in the good feelings they got from their good intentions.

What has come to surface in this case is that many, if not all, of the children that the missionaries were trying to help have families. Silsby told her mother that parents signed over the children to her because they could not afford to care for them.

I don't want these children to starve to death, either. But there is a much cheaper way of saving children's lives than sending them to America for adoption: give their families money.

I used to work for an international development organization and "Homes, not orphanages," could have been one of our mantras. A home, in this case, almost always meant living with relatives or family friends in the child's community of origin. The job of international aid organizations is to help those caring adults raise the children - not to pay caring adults in an orphanage or find caring adults in some other country to do that work. For one, it's cheaper, so you can help more children. For another, it fosters stability in the child's life.

There are certainly cases where community support may not be viable - when a child's entire family or community has been killed in war or by disaster, when parents or guardians are abusive, or when a child has been exiled from a community because she is suspected of witchcraft, to name a few examples. But the overwhelming reason that children are placed in orphanages in developing countries is poverty.

To the well-intentioned missionaries, I say that taking children from their homes is not the proper response to an emergency. The proper response is to address the emergency.

Two months ago, The New York Times ran a story about a new effort in Malawi to keep orphans with their extended families by providing their caretakers with money to pay for each child's needs. The program can support 24 children for $1,500 a year; that's what it costs Malawi's Home of Hope orphanage, from which Madonna adopted a son, to care for just one child.

I am not against international adoption. As in the United States, parents everywhere should have the option of placing their children with adoptive homes if they feel incapable of raising their children. But they should not feel forced by circumstances to make this decision, and they should have the option of an open adoption process.

As I follow the trial of the ten missionaries, I'll be hoping that they and all who sympathize with them dwell on that old saying about the road to hell.

Or maybe, if it doesn't jive with their faith-not-works theology, they can think about it this way: "Don't automatically go with every heart-warming impulse. Think thoroughly about what the consequences of your actions might be. Reason must be the partner of compassion."

Vatican unfamiliar with religious history

2010-01-12T14:54:00.002-06:00

I couldn't help smirking when I read this article about reviews of the movie Avatar* by Vatican Radio and L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper.

It wasn't the predictable comments by the Vatican media (okay, except for maybe the use of "pseudo-doctrine" as an insult, which was pretty funny, considering its source). It was this:

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said that while the movie reviews are just that — film criticism, with no theological weight — they do reflect Pope Benedict XVI's views on the dangers of turning nature into a "new divinity."

A "new divinity"? Apparently the Vatican has forgotten that nature worship goes back thousands of years, which is surprising, given the number of nature worshippers and alleged nature worshippers that the Vatican and its adherents executed during the Middle Ages (and even before).

I thought the virtual elimination of paganism from Europe was supposed to be one of the Vatican's crowning achievements. Apparently it's too humble to remember its great deeds.

*which I have not yet seen, because my dad pretends that everything by James Cameron is below him so wouldn't go see it when I was visiting over Christmas

Polio explained

2009-12-10T13:13:00.003-06:00

I ran across this great comic book today that explains the rise and fall of polio. I'd like to share it with all my friends who are against vaccines, and also those friends who don't have an opinion either way.

I've been getting into lots of arguments about vaccination lately on Facebook. I know a lot of people who are wary of most or all vaccines, and many of these people are my friends. Alas, I have read the arguments against vaccination and I'm just not convinced. Most of them seem to be based on hypotheses that are unproven or, more often, proven false.

There are some vaccinations that I don't think people should get. Small pox vaccines carry a small risk of causing serious illness, and smallpox isn't found in the natural environment anymore, so I wouldn't recommend someone get a smallpox vaccine unless some asshole rereleases it into the human population.

The benefit-risk ratio is unfavorable for some other vaccines, as well, unless a person has a high risk of exposure. So I wouldn't get the anthrax vaccine unless I was in the military, or was a veterinarian treating anthrax-infected sheep.

Nonetheless, my anti-vaccination friends tell me it is very sad that I believe anything big pharma says (some put it more politely). If that's true, though, I can't figure out why I've concluded that a significant portion of prescription drugs on the market today are useless or harmful for most of the people who receive them. (See Worried Sick by Nortin Hadler for an introduction to this topic.)

Oh, well. Maybe the comic book will help to explain my crazy views. In any case, I am looking forward to reading more great stuff from The Science Creative Quarterly.

P.S. Thanks to the Science-Based Medicine blog for pointing me to the comic!

Now I'm waiting for Obama to come up with a really cool hairstyle

2009-12-08T08:48:00.002-06:00

After seeing this picture of Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenk, I've decided that Ukraine is a really cool country. Dude, the prime minister gets to wrap braids over the top of her head! I haven't worn my hair that way since I was a kid; I have a feeling that, even in a business casual environment, most American bosses would not tolerate this hairstyle. If I were allowed to, I just might grow my hair out again ...

(Apparently, I'm way behind the times. The New York Times wrote about her braids two years ago.)

More carnivorous plants!

2009-12-07T20:32:00.002-06:00

A few minutes ago, while washing my dishes, I caught the very end of a radio interview on As It Happens*, the daily news magazine from CBC. I didn't catch the species or genus they were talking about until after the interview, when one of the hosts commented that she was going to go have some fries and ketchup to reassert her dominant position on the food chain.

Nightshades! The discovery must be about nightshades!

Dishes be damned. I pulled off my rubber gloves and rushed over to my computer to do a Google news search on "nightshade carnivorous." The search brought up only one result, which was a bit of a disappointment -- hello, global media, this is world-changing news! Yes, yes, I know Copenhagen is interesting, but those bigwigs aren't actually planning to agree to any changes in their policies just yet, so can't you free up at least one reporter per venue to report on breakthroughs in botany?

Well, maybe there will be more news results tomorrow.

To be fair, a search of "potato carnivorous" brought up seven results, but don't get too excited yet. Three of these were just blog rehashes of a story in the Independent, which also showed up in the results. The remaining three were:

The Daily Mail story I found by Googling "nightshade carnivorous"
A press release
A story from The Telegraph

Note that all the newspaper coverage is from the United Kingdom. If this story makes it to the States, how much do you want to bet that newspapers will simply rehash those three articles (with an exception, perhaps, for The New York Times, which - bastion of secular liberalism that it is** - actually devotes an entire weekly section to science)?

*Spoiler Warning: If you listen to this show and have always imagined the hosts to look like an older version of Nurse Hathaway, as I have, linking to this Web site will present a challenge to the theater in your mind. A photo of Carol Ott and Barbara Budd is fetured prominently on the intro page.

**Yes, insert snicker here.

Who would be against compassion? Me, I guess.

2009-11-12T12:49:00.003-06:00

A friend of mine invited me to the Charter for Compassion - Madison inaugural event tonight. I thought: "Is that the Karen Armstrong thing? I'm not a big fan of Karen Armstrong." A month or so ago, she was on Here on Earth with Jean Ferraca - not a big fan of hers, either, you'll soon see why on both accounts - and they were going on about how true religion is peaceful and loving and non-dogmatic and doesn't make absolute claims about the character of God.

I am a linguist. Linguists describe language as it is, not as we want it to be. And in the English I know, religion refers to systems based on a belief in the supernatural and its relationship with the natural world. Some religion is peaceful. Some religion is loving. And some religion inspires people to fly planes into buildings, beat women for the sin of having been raped, jail and kill homosexuals, molest children, and murder relatives.

Not according to the Carter for Compassion Web site. It says

"The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions" (emphasis mine)

As I said to my friend via Facebook,

"That's ... rose-colored thinking. Compassion is important, and it may lie at the heart of most religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, but there are also those that reject compassion, and I don't want to blind myself or others to that tragic fact. If I don't acknowledge it, I can't help change it."

Sorry, we think you built that cave illegally

2009-11-12T12:02:00.002-06:00

I was surprised to see an article on the eviction of a Palestinian from his childhood home - a cave in the hills between Jerusalem and Bethlehem - prominently listed on the Yahoo! News homepage today. I don't think I've ever seen an article on this issue in the American press. And, technically, it's still not in the American press - Reuters is the article's distributor - but it's about as close as it can get without being technically American.

The man is being evicted to make room for Givat Yael, another Israeli settlement* in the West Bank - settlements that the U.S. government (along with Israeli groups like Peace Now, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions and Rabbis for Human Rights) says are an obstacle to peace and in violation of international law and common courtesy. (Although the U.S. government says it, the Israeli groups actually mean it.)

When I was in the West Bank a few years ago, I visited quite a few families who lived in such homes, all of which were either under threat of demolition or, just as often, had already been filled by the Israeli military with rocks, rubble and the trashed property of the homeowners. It goes like this: The occupying authorities say the people who live in the caves built the caves without permits, never mind that the caves are hundreds of years old. The homeowners go to the courts with papers showing that they own the land. The courts either tell them that the papers are worthless (perhaps because they predate the Israeli government), or they agree with the homeowners and issue an injunction to prevent the demolition of the home. Whatever the courts rule doesn't really matter, though; the military is still pretty likely to destroy the caves, because once you've created facts on the ground - a destroyed home, an eviction, and a nice new Jerusalem suburb with orange-tiled roofs - it really doesn't matter what the courts say.

It may sound like an oversimplification, but it really is a lot like Joseph Heller's Catch 22.

*Whether or not Givat Yael is a settlement is disputed by Israelis. Some say the land on which Givat Yael will be built - and I have no doubt that it will be, barring some miraculous new consensus within the Israeli government - is within the municipal borders of Jerusalem and therefore part of Israel. Others say that if that land were part of Jerusalem, the Palestinians who live there would have been given Jerusalem I.D. cards and be Israeli citizens. They have not and they are not, which of course makes it much harder to fight a case in Israeli court, since they are given no inherent legal right to travel inside Israel.

Aggregation vs. plagiarism

2009-11-04T09:05:00.004-06:00

Interesting New York Times article about Germany's attempts to protect and enforce the copyright of journalism that appears online. Unfortunately, it's a little skimpy on the details. As someone whose work has been plagiarized, I support the idea of clamping down on plagiarism, especially when people are making money through this unethical and illegal behavior. But I'm a little foggy on why publishers want the term "plagiarist" to apply to news feeds.

News feeds generally provide the title of an article and the first few sentences, then direct the reader to the Web site that originally published the article. What's the problem here? How is this substantially different from a library's book index?

If an aggregator reproduces the article in its entirety, that's a problem. But I have a hard time calling such a service an aggregator. It's really a publication of its own that uses aggregation technology to provide its content. You know, a "plagiarggregator." Don't you love how that flows off the tongue?

Repeat that word without attributing it to me, and I'll sue you!*

*Unless, of course, your use is in line with Fair Use laws, in which case I'll be proud of how my difficult-to-pronounce coinage is invading the English language.

Calling me unconventional

2009-11-04T06:43:00.000-06:00

You call me unconventional, and say it like I made a conscious choice to reject your conventions. No, I didn't. I don't even understand what your conventions are. If you took the time to explain them to me, then I could make the conscious decision to reject them. But you haven't, so I haven't.

Really, if you knew the conventions I've chosen to live by, and by which I wish others would live, you would see that I am utterly conventional.

When there's no more room in Hell ...

2009-11-03T14:42:00.004-06:00

Thanks to Fake AP Stylebook, which instigated my laugh of the day with this Oct. 30th addition to its e-edition: "When there's no more room in Hell, omit the final paragraphs to save space."

Manners

2009-11-03T12:37:00.001-06:00

I think good manners are very important. But I think my notion of what is polite separates me from most of the U.S. population.

For example, there is the class of people who think it is the height of rudeness to touch someone else's stuff without asking, unless that someone is a close friend with whom you have an agreement that doing so is okay.

Then there is the class of people who think that someone who doesn't want others to touch their things without asking is a selfish bitch or bastard.

I fall into the former category, but when I am at work, I feel myself to be in the distinct minority.

One of my co-workers is a particularly egregious toucher. Today he was in my office when my microwave popcorn popper caught his eye. But he couldn't simply ask me about it. No. He had to reach up to the shelf where I keep it, take it down, and gesture with it in his hand as he asked me about it. (Did I mention that this thing is made of glass?)

We have had this discussion before, so I cut to the chase. "I don't remember you asking me if you could touch that," I said. (In my camp, sarcasm isn't as rude as touching other people's things, but I know not everyone agrees with me.)

"No, I didn't," he said, and continued to manhandle it.

Back when I worked with a bunch of hippie types, the way we were supposed to bring up how we wanted to be treated was by saying, "I feel ___ when ____ happens. It reminds me of ____. In the future, I would feel more comfortable if we handled the situation this way: ________."

Maybe I should try it with this co-worker, but I'm not sure it would be any more effective than sarcasm. "I feel violated when people touch my things without asking. It reminds me of all the selfish prigs who have touched my things without asking - for example, that guy who ruined my cycling gloves by trying them on even though his hands are twice as big as mine, or the boss who picked up my pen while holding a used Kleenex in the same hand. But more important than reminding me of anything, such behavior is inimical to my understanding of how people ought to interact with one another. Individuals ought to have some degree of autonomy, and they ought to be free to decide whom to allow into their personal realm. When you touch what belongs to someone else, you are entering the personal realm. In the future, I would feel more comfortable if we handled the situation this way: please ask if you want to touch my things, and respect 'no' for an answer. I work with you; I am not obligated to be your buddy. And the more you impose buddiness on our relationship, the more I will think you are rude and the less likely I am to become your friend."

I guess that sounds meaner than what I actually said, since in our culture people tend to get offended if you state the obvious fact that you are not their friend. It's okay to know it, just not to say it.

Just like it's okay to know that there's something discordant about people who believe they're destined for heaven still fighting like hell to defeat a terminal illness, but it's not considered polite to point this out to them.

Country says goodbye to McDonald's

2009-10-27T08:31:00.001-05:00

Alas, it's not my country.

Iceland's McDonald's franchisee could no longer afford to import all the ingredients for products sold at the country's three outlets. So he's converting the restaurants to his own brand and sourcing local ingredients for the food he'll sell there. I don't know if that means more lamb burgers and fewer hamburgers, but if it does, cool -- I'll try them the next time I'm in Iceland.

The fires of hell

2009-10-22T10:16:00.002-05:00

Spanish farmers have succeeded in transforming a wetland into a place so dry that a fire has started underground. Didn't think fires could burn underground? Yeah, talk to Lucifer.

(Oh, and on a completely different note, I recently learned that Mormon/Latter Day Saints cosmology-theology teaches that Jesus and Lucifer were brothers. Then I realized I should have figured this out long ago since the Church teaches that all humans, angels and fallen angels spent their first life as the spirit children of God the Father. I am so disappointed in my powers of deduction!)

So ... incredibly ... bored

2009-10-21T13:55:00.000-05:00

Thanks for your concern

2009-10-09T18:54:00.000-05:00

I've had a migraine on and off since Wednesday morning, so did not go to work on Wednesday or Thursday. By the time this morning rolled around, I had decided to go to work, migraine or no. I mean, who's going to believe that you can have incapacitating head pain with no apparent cause for three days in a row? (Unless they, too, get those kinds of migraines.)

So I went to work and have been keeping the pain at bay with coffee and Tylenol. I was walking by a co-worker's* desk when she asked how I was doing and I told her, "Better than I felt yesterday, but I still have a bit of a headache."

Since this woman also gets migraines, one would expect her to have more sense than to do what she then did, which was to launch on a ten-minute excited monologue about the latest migraine miracle cure she read about on the internet. Being forced to stay standing while being exposed to agitated people is not the typical migraneur's idea of fun.

My co-worker kept waving her arms about and stepping closer and closer to me as she spoke to emphasize the break-through-iness of this news; for every step she took toward me, I took one back, but she didn't seem able to read the signal and just stepped forward again. I finally accepted the fact that I was cornered.

"Thanks for your concern," I said, "but the thing that would be most helpful for my current migraine is if you SHUT THE HELL UP."

Okay, I didn't actually say that.

*This is the same co-worker who hardly lets a day go by in winter without asking me, "Do you feel okay? You don't look so good."

My people make the news

2009-09-24T20:43:00.002-05:00

The Anglo-Saxons weren't just uncultured beasts who spent all day pillaging and all night reciting poems about tearing off the arms of monsters. They made jewelry, too - okay, yes, they did apparently then pillage it from each other.

Oh, the irony

2009-09-17T17:25:00.000-05:00

These articles about anti-nanny-state protesters complaining that the government didn't take good enough care of them last weekend during the 912 March in Washington, D.C., practically make me pee myself from hearty laughter:

Cue Up the World's Smallest Violin - The Moderate Voice
Tea Baggers Who Feel They’re ‘Taxed Enough Already’ Gripe About Inadequate Service In…Public Transit - Think Progress

Goodbye, Mary

2009-09-17T06:43:00.000-05:00

Mary Travers of Peter, Paul & Mary died yesterday in Connecticut. Thanks for bringing a bit more brightness to my childhood and beyond, and for showing the world that alto voices really are sexier.

Tell it like it is, Jimmy

2009-09-16T14:15:00.000-05:00

Just can't express my gratitude enough for what Jimmy Carter said about the racism that underlies the extreme disrespect being shown toward President Obama. Joe Wilson et al can argue that they, as individuals, aren't racist. Maybe so.

But if it's not societal racism, it's hard figure out where the most extreme of this crap is coming from: the unusual number of threats against President Obama, the questions about his citizenship (who was challenging Bill Clinton's citizenship - you sure he ain't Ukrainian?), the unprecedented interruption of his address to Congress, and the vociferousness of the rhetoric compared to what was said about our previous Democratic president (who was white and also tried to get universal health coverage). Maybe Wilson isn't personally racist, but if there weren't an existing racist milieu that foments distrust of black politicians and results in black people in public positions being put under unusual scrutiny, would he be as angry as he is about the proposed healthcare policy?

Pink grasshoppers

2009-09-16T09:24:00.002-05:00

This article about the discovery of a bright pink grasshopper in England was much too short. More pictures, I say!

Or maybe the article was too long, given that the unsubstantiated claim "Most people find insects annoying" should have been excised from the text, as it implies that most people find all insects as a class. The author cites no surveys. Yes, there is a vocal group of people who dislike all insects, but whether they are in the majority is questionable. Lots of people eat insects and would be dietarily deprived without them; lots of people love to watch butterflies and moths; and lots of people depend upon pollinating insects for their livelihoods. I find gnats and mosquitos annoying, but it would be misleading to say that I find insects annoying. And I love collecting dead insects and putting them in shadow boxes so I can admire them whenever I like. But I don't kill them for such purpose. They're too important.

A more even-handed article can be found here on the BBC.

Sometimes it takes a while ...

2009-09-11T17:57:00.001-05:00

So, after more than two years working at this place, I notice that everyone seems to bring treats in on their birthday. You know -- cake, brownies, muffins and other things that we probably don't need to eat. If people aren't in on their birthday, they bring it in their last day of work before the birthday or the first day after.

Well, everyone brings them in but me.

The last time I was in an environment like this was in elementary school. I suppose it shouldn't surprise me -- the place is like elementary school in other ways, too. But maybe it's a Wisconsin thing, and I was heretofore sheltered from it because I'd never worked in an office in Madison, unless you count my internship at that lefty rag, and I wasn't there for a full year, so how would I have noticed?

Now I'm wondering if this means that I should consider bringing in junk food on my looming birthday. I'd really rather not, because it smacks of drawing attention to oneself, and I really don't like to draw attention to myself at the office. My boss is already prying enough; she's always wanting to get to know me "on a personal level" and my natural response to that is suspicion and secretiveness.

And, on the mean side, I figure there are plenty of people in my office who really don't need the temptation.

Of course, if I don't bring anything in, there are some Nosy Nancys here who would be sure to note that and keep it in their files of reasons I am a horrible person. But I don't really care if they think I'm horrible; they've already told lies about me to my boss in an attempt to get me in trouble, if not fired, and so I know they can be quite horrid themselves, and thus I deem them not very good judges of such things.

If, however, they were more specific and accused me of being miserly, I would have to acknowledge they were right on that account, and perhaps gain new respect for them.

Moving glaciers

2009-09-11T08:18:00.003-05:00

When I was around 7 years old, we took a trip to the Swiss alps and my parents thought it would be a great treat to take the kids to tour a glacier. Unfortunately, my understanding of physics and chemistry, in particular thermodynamics, was just about nil. I decided I'd rather not go into the glacier for fear that it would undergo a catastrophic melting during the span of the tour. So my memory of the trip involves sitting in the car reading a book, although at some point my mom probably convinced me that the area was sufficiently safe to go for a short walk. Until I saw my siblings and dad exit the mouth of the glacier, though, I accepted the possibility that they could be crushed to death and/or drown at any moment.

So you can imagine how horror-stricken I was by the opening of this AP article: "Suddenly and without warning, the gigantic river of ice sped up, causing it to spit icebergs ever faster into the ocean off southeastern Greenland." Even though later text indicates that the glaciers' maximum speed (about four feet an hour) is one that most humans could probably outrun or outcrawl, it turns out they could cause a disaster much worse than an isolated, sudden collapse might.

If you didn't already think our healthcare "system" was screwed up ...

2009-09-10T08:09:00.001-05:00

... here's proof.

More faunal news from the British media

2009-09-08T15:14:00.004-05:00

From The Guardian, news of 40 species never identified before in modern science, including a rat that's the size of a large housecat. It's supercute and it doesn't eat babies, just tubers -- or so the scientists say.

The animals and plants reside in a volcanic crater in Papua Guinea that's difficult to get to no matter what form of transportation you use. The crater is also home to animals heretofore known to science but heretofore unknown to me, including the silky cuscus and the beautiful fruit dove. That "beautiful," by the way, is not just the opinion of The Guardian; it's part of the dove Ptilinopus pulchellus' common name.

Like a dachsund takes to water ...

2009-09-08T09:37:00.003-05:00

Dekalb sent me this article from The Daily Mail about a dachshund with back problems who recovered from surgery by swimming. It reminded me of our old family dachshund Duke, who loved to go down to Lake Anne with us and ride in the raft peering over at the water. He probably would have swum all day if we let him, but we didn't let him. We'd only let him go for a little bit in the shallow area for fear he would drown himself. Too bad they wouldn't let him in the baby pool at the local pool complex; he wouldn't have peed in the water nearly as much as the kids did.

Overheard in the office

2009-09-04T17:08:00.000-05:00

Featuring the woman who thinks she's the boss of everyone (henceforth TWWTSTBOE, or "twitsbow") and the woman who allows everyone to be her boss (we'll call her "pawn")

Twitsbow: "We have an unwelcome visitor."
Pawn: "Huh?"
Twitsbow: "A spider. It's up there. I don't like the looks of it. Kill it."

I felt like I was getting a privileged inside look into how our country makes its foreign policy decisions.

Baptist pastors

2009-09-04T16:24:00.003-05:00

I'm no big fan of Baptist pastors (except of course Martin Luther King Jr. and Marcus and ...) But please. Agents of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation fatally shot John Paul Ayres for driving away from them after they tried to shoot his passenger outside of a gas station.

Dude, I think anyone's first thought if a bullet comes through their car window from the gun of someone in street clothes who has just jumped out of an unmarked SUV is not, "Oh, the police must be trying to peacefully apprehend me," but rather, "What the fuck, some psycho is trying to kill me. Must flee fast."

And the reason they shot at the passenger? Because she was suspected of possessing cocaine. SUSPECTED. And there's no indication that she threatened them with a weapon. I realize that cars are weapons, but neither passenger nor driver appear to be using theirs as such. (There was one point where an officer jumped behind the car as it moved in reverse -- apparently in an effort to stop it -- and it didn't stop, so the officers could argue for assault with a deadly weapon, but it's by no means improbable that the driver did not see the officer in question. And people who know me know that it takes a lot for me to give a driver the benefit of the doubt.) You can watch the video (caught on the gas station's security cam) here.

Meanwhile, I'm staying the hell out of Georgia.

Looking for something new

2009-09-04T15:34:00.002-05:00

I ran out of cherries to pick on Wednesday -- at least, the sweeter ones. The tree with the more bitter cherries still had plenty, but I decided that it might be best not to pick them, as I then would feel obliged to juice them, and that could very well mean a most unpleasant drink.

With no cherries to pick, I spent yesterday's lunch break looking for a special woodworking fastener (failed mission) and buying batteries (most of which I will return, because they're way cheaper on Amazon than at Walgreens).

Today, I decided to head out to the elderbush behind the west side St. Vinny's and start the season's harvest of elderberries. But I got there only to discover that someone had mowed it down. Dude, what were they thinking? They didn't even plant anything in its place, and it's not like turf is going to plant itself there.

So I coasted up and down the path in search of something else. I found quite a few wild grape plants, but these too taunted me. The most prolific vine, full of fat, ripe fruit clusters, was located right behind an auto body shop where a chemical that smells like banana-flavored toffee was in use. A similarly scented chemical is a compound in one of my bike chain lubes, and it's not healthy stuff, I hear tell. So I was left to pick the punier vines while this nice healthy one sat basking in the sun, untouched.

Black cherry heaven

2009-08-24T08:18:00.004-05:00

Last week, I noticed a couple huge cherry trees on the edge of a park that on my route to work. The fruit hung down in racemes like chokecherries, and the ripe ones were very black. I had never seen a chokecherry tree that big (25 feet or so), plus the tree had rough and shaggy bark (chokecherry usually has smooth silvery bark), so there was a little room for doubt. I picked one and squished it and, indeed, there was a big pit in the middle. Then I tasted it, and it tasted right -- like a cherry, but a bit better and astringent. But I decided not to eat anymore until I could confirm the identity. I pulled a leaf off and got to a computer, where the beloved internet revealed to me that the tree fit the description of black cherry.

So Dekalb and I went back to pick some yesterday. We decided to go before church, since the tree is near church, and he could drop me off when we were done.

But I didn't look at my watch and we hit a really juicy patch and when I finally thought to ask the time ... well, church had started 45 minutes before. Given that we was borrowing the ladders of people I know from church, this might have been a tad embarrassing, if it weren't for the fact that one of the parents is an atheist and never goes to church, either.

People would walk by and ask what we were picking, and we told them, and they asked if they tasted good, and I would answer, "Well, some people like them." From my chokecherry experience, I added, "The are a bit bitter and astringent, but that goes away when you cook them." One woman who tasted them was convinced, because of the bitterness and astringency, that we had misidentified them and that they were indeed chokecherries, but I stand by my research.

I steam-juiced them last night and discovered I had been lying about the bitterness going away with cooking. The beautiful, deep purple gallon of juice I got was so bitter I wondered if any amount of sugar would rescue it for normal human consumption. It was a bit like cherry juice with 40 bags of oversteeped black tea in it. But then I threw in 2 loosely packed cups of brown sugar and about half a cup of honey and that raised it to the level of grapefruit juice - and I love grapefruit. I'll probably mix in some sweet yellow cherry juice that I canned last year so their flavors can balance each other out. The yellow cherry juice has a sweet and slightly musky flavor. I think they will be perfect together.

Dekalb and I left the low-hanging cherries in place so I can go back and pick more on my lunch breaks. What a good week this will be!

Hedgehogs!

2009-08-20T10:44:00.002-05:00

Dekalb sent me this article about orphaned wild hedgehogs who have taken to a cleaning brush as a surrogate mother. I don't know if I should weep because they are so cute or because it is a bit sad. Well, at least they found something that's comforting.

I had a roommate who bought an African hedgehog as a pet. The hedgehog was very cute, but the whole seem just seemed an exercise in cruelty. It clearly would have preferred not to be around humans and to stay in a nice nest in whatever part of Africa it hailed from.

Just to update

2009-08-19T08:50:00.004-05:00

My mom says I have been a slacker with blog updating. She is right. So here is a gift to her. I am not the producer. A friend posted it to Facebook.*

I think they should have included Peanut Butter JoJos in the "favorite products they don't have anymore" video medley, but the producer probably was as blindsided as all of us were by its removal and never thought to save his last box, because he didn't know it would be his last.

*By the way, if you are reading this on Facebook, you need to click on the note title to get to my blog so you can see the video embedded herein. Always a good idea to click on the note title when the note doesn't make sense; it probably means it's a blog entry with embedded links and/or photos that Facebook strips out.

Beware of Delta Post Haste rack

2009-08-06T14:24:00.004-05:00

So this is what happened to my bike rack when I went over a train track on the way to work Tuesday. No, the end is not supposed to look like an automobile exhaust pipe. That's just where the bulk of the rack broke off from the mechanism that attaches the rack to the seat post. You can see a before picture (not of my particular rack, but of a doppelganger for what it looked like pre-disaster) here.

I've had this rack for less than three years and would like to note that the track I went over yesterday is not a particularly heinous one. The engineers did a good job of keeping it at grade with the surrounding asphalt, so I go over it twice in a typical day, usually not even noticing it is there. I have been on paved roads that are much bumpier.

Aluminum is weaker than steel and more prone to cracking, but this is ridiculous.

Couldn't find any evidence that this model had been recalled. I e-mailed Delta about the problem, but have yet to hear back. I guess I could also contact the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Had there been a cyclist or ped behind me at the time that this thing flew off my bike, or had this thing come off in the middle of the road, the consequences could have been more complicated. I doubt I would have been hurt, but I can't say as much for the person standing in the wrong place.

As it was, the immediate consequence was having to unclip my bag from the rack, strap said bag over my shoulder, and attach the rack to the bag with the bungee cord that I had coincidentally brought along that morning.

Still, one feels a bit of a fool carrying a bike rack on one's back while riding a bike.

I didn't even bother to explain to my boss why I was ten minutes late to work. I thought too much would be lost in the translation. But I did walk around the office for a while waving the rack at my bike-riding coworkers. They understood.

Jesus: Mistreat your elders

2009-07-23T12:06:00.002-05:00

Apparently it's a Christian value to discriminate against people based on age. At least, that's what Coulee Catholic Schools and the Roman Catholic Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin, seemed to be teaching by example when they sued the state for holding them accountable to age discrimination laws. The schools had fired a teacher who was 53; she sued for age discrimination and won--until recently.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled earlier this week that the schools, being part of a religious institution, was not bound by anti-discrimination laws in the hiring, firing or treatment of staff whose jobs are somehow related to religion--because holding religious institutions to non-discrimination laws would violate their freedom of religion.

Somehow I must have misplaced the papal encyclical that older people are less qualified to teach. But it must be there. Age-based discrimination is now, by legal precedent, an essential tenet of the Catholic faith.

Actual conversation at work today - sort of

2009-07-22T14:01:00.005-05:00

Part 1: Actual conversation

H.U.: One place in the world I have never wanted to travel is Africa.

Kiapita: Really? I would think you'd love the Great Lakes region. There's so many kinds of flowers around there, and one of the highest concentrations of bird species in the world.

H.U.: Australia, New Zealand - not Africa.

Kiapita: Huh. That surprises me. I guess you have to get more vaccines.

H.U.: No, it's not that. I'm just not the safari type.

Part 2: Conversation as it continued in my head

Kiapita: Right, because the entire continent of Africa is one big savannah for safari-ing. I mean, there aren't even different countries in it with different topographies and climates. It's just - argh - one huge undistinguishable, tediously monotonous mass.

H.U.: Yeah. I'm not fond of lions and giraffes and half-dressed, dark-skinned savages.

Kiapita: Thank God there aren't many black people left in Australia.

Alternative Part 2: Conversation as it continued in my head, following a different stream

Kiapita: You do know that "safari" just means "journey," right?

H.U.: Oh, of course. I just meant that I don't like grasslands and native guides.

Kiapita: You do know that Africa has more than grasslands, right? I'll ignore the comment about native guides, because I've heard you swoon about your French guides every time you go to Paris.

H.U.: And I'll ignore your comment about native guides, too. But, no, I can't think of anything other than grasslands that Africa might have. Other than dengue fever.

Kiapita: Funny you mention dengue fever. Did you know it has epidemic status in northeastern Australia?

H.U.: Is that where all the black natives live?

Kiapita: They make up about 3.6% of the population in that area of the country. Less than a third of all Australian Aborigines live in the northeast.

H.U.: Huh.

Kiapita: Huh.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. arrested for entering his own home through a jammed door

2009-07-21T10:49:00.004-05:00

Technically, they said it was for "disorderly conduct," but I'm pretty sure Dr. Gates wouldn't have been arrested for getting upset with officers if they hadn't broken into his home to arrest him for no good reason and had apologized when they realized they were wrong:

Black scholar's arrest raises profiling questions

Post-racial America, my ass.

Fruity

2009-07-20T11:00:00.006-05:00

If you are attentive (as I am sometimes told I am not), you have noticed that I have not written much lately. I have tons of good reasons, including being too distracted; having only enough energy left after biking to do actual, productive work; and it being berry-picking season.

I was very excited a couple weeks ago when the black raspberries (aka black caps) began to ripen. They sell frozen black raspberries at Trader Joe's for filthily cheap, but I generally like picking the local ones and, in any case, the local ones seem to have a slightly different and more complex flavor. So, the day after picking a few on my way to work, I decided to take the long route home, which rolls through prairie, fields and woods. The plants really love those wood edges.

So do the mosquitoes, I discovered. Okay, I already knew that this was true in general, but I hadn't expected it to be true that particular day, as I hadn't seen any mosquitoes of consequence yet in the season. At my first berry stop, the mosquitoes were annoying, but I could pick a few and then run up the hill away from the trees to enjoy the raspberries without much bother.

The second stop, I was not so lucky. Those ladies were vicious, nipping at the rate of approximately 40 bites per minute. They were so relentless that I decided I needed to get out of there immediately, without pausing to reattach my bag and bungee net to my bike rack.

This was stupid. As I walked the bike toward the prairie, the bungee snapped down into the rear wheel cassette and got tangled in the derailleur. This meant my bike could no longer move forward. I couldn't stop to fix it, because the mosquitos were still biting. So I lifted the bike to carry it out of the woods and put it down when I was in open air. (By the way, this was my not-so-light commuter bike, with the added weight of a half attached and pretty full bag hanging on the rear rack.) The mosquitos caught up with me. I lifted the bike again and walked another dozen yards, stopped, and was attacked again. I lifted the bike again. A cyclist going in the opposite direction hollered, "Do you need help?" as he approached, to which I replied, "I'm just trying to get away from the mosquitos," by which I meant, "I don't know yet because I can't pause long enough to look at my bike because of these mosquitos." He did not understand the meaning behind my response and kept going, probably thinking that I was a little crazy for walking, not biking, away from the mosquitoes.

I repeated the walk-with-bike-on-shoulder-for-a-bit-then-stop process three times, but the swarm had still only decreased half bymy last stop. I decided that was as good as it would get, given that it was a cloudy and humid day, and proceeded to unwind the bungee from the cassette, chain and derailleur with one hand and slap myself (at points of attack) with the other hand.

The mother and daughter who biked by didn't seem to think my behavior unusual.

After that, I gave up on black caps. Mulberries have been much friendlier. We have an hour lunchbreak at work and not much to do with it, so lately I've been using the opportunity to pick mulberries. I'm told it would be more efficient if I put a sheet on the ground, shook the trunk, and let loose berries fall on the sheet, but efficacy is not so much what I'm going for. I just need a good way to kill the time. Anyway, walking into my office after lunch with a big bundled sheet might not get me the best reaction. Currently, I just come back with hands that are stained purple, and my coworkers think I had a misbehaving pen explode in my hands.

This weekend, Dekalb and I picked 10 gallons of sour cherries from a local public tree. It takes a long time to pit that many cherries. Listening to Harry Potter books on tape is a good way to pass the time, while listening to NPR talk shows and Douglas Adams' The Restaurant at the End of the Universe are acceptable, but less satisfying. We picked the first five gallons on Thursday evening and the second five yesterday. I stopped after two gallons, but Dekalb was unable to stop himself. I hinted that four gallons, which we had together collected, was enough, but he was having too much fun and picked another. He doesn't even eat them because he's allergic; he just likes picking them because they're free and it's like finding treasure. So he doesn't do pitting and he didn't quite understand why I would want to stop before all of our buckets and bags were full.

I'm freezing most of for now and will decide what to do with them later. Keep them frozen for making yogurt and ice cream or adding to oatmeal, or can them for pie filling or jam, or a little of all?

When N came over this weekend, I wouldn't let him look in the refrigerator. There were two bowls of pitted cherries in there, two gallons of unpitted cherries, 2 pounds of shard and four pounds of kale. It makes him panic to see that much food in the fridge, even if you tell him that most of it will be gone in a few days.

The collards and kale did not come from my own garden. There's a farmer at the Sunday market who sells his greens for ridiculously cheap, I guess because they need a little cleaning. I'll be steaming and freezing most of it tonight (and pitting the last two pounds of cherries), although I may set aside a pound of the kale for dinner. Sauteed onions and kale is my favorite.

-------------

On a completely different subject, my dad asked me when I was going to write about the manual transmission car I am learning to drive; I'll try to remember to go into that later. But I will mention for his sake that I'm apparently a quick study and that the car has not blown up.

Um, yeah ... whoops.

2009-07-01T16:37:00.003-05:00

So my boss comes into my office today to tell me that I don't have enough hours logged in for the week of May 25 and she wants to know why. We go to the computer time sheet and gaze at it and, indeed, it doesn't have any hours logged in for May 25.

I think about this. And then, in the most diplomatic way I know how, I say, "Um, yeah, May 25 was Memorial Day."

She straightens up and says perkily, "Oh, yes, a holiday!"

"I'm sorry I was late to work ...

2009-06-30T09:19:00.002-05:00

... but the black raspberries along the bike path have finally begun to ripen and it would have been a sin not to stop and eat them."

I still think someone's playing a joke on me

2009-05-08T08:16:00.002-05:00

Accuse me of being late to the party, but I just read this morning from more than one source that Bristol Palin is going to be promoting sexual abstinence on behalf of Candie's, the juniors shoe and clothing line. I kept checking the date stamps to make sure they didn't say April 1. And looking at the URLs to verify that I wasn't on The Onion Web site.

Whose phenomenally stupid idea was this? Wouldn't you want a spokesperson who had actually managed to remain sexually abstinent throughout her adolescence? There are a lot of such people, actually. I know I'm a little old for Candie's, but they could have called me, for one.

Maybe they did approach a bunch of sexually abstinent teens first, but the kids all gave the same answer I would have at that age, "I am totally into telling kids the benefits of not having sex, but they're not all going to listen, so I'd also want to tell them about preventing STDs and pregnancy if they are going to have sex. Go condoms!"

Job frustration

2009-05-05T15:34:00.002-05:00

I enjoyed this article I read today about another writer/editor's experience with job rejections. And I was impressed that she got 16 interviews. Clearly, she does not live in Madison.

Latest quilt

2009-04-20T18:51:00.006-05:00

I finished this quilt at the beginning of the month for my friend Tanya's baby. It's the first quilt I've completed since moving back to Wisconsin. I guess I was doing too much remodeling.

Slavery in the U.S.

2009-04-20T16:17:00.003-05:00

I was surprised and pleased to see Gourmet take a turn away from its usual food porn to talk about the enslavement of farm workers in the United States. Thanks, Gourmet, for explaining one of the real and worst costs of sinfully cheap tomatoes - or, rather, a sinfully profitable produce distribution system.

Unrequited high school crush

2009-04-16T12:33:00.002-05:00

If I read People, I may have discovered this earlier, but it turns out that my unrequited high school crush on Sara Gilbert (Little House on the Prairie's Melissa Gilbert's sister and the rebellious daughter on Roseanne) had the potential to be requited had we ever met. Just as well it didn't work out, though; she seems to be into the having babies thing. (Warning: The link takes forever to load; I'd suggest opening it in a new window while you continue your other Web browsing.)

I love Charlie

2009-04-16T08:21:00.004-05:00

My kindred spirit is Charlie the Unicorn. If you haven't met him, you should.

A liveable Tyson's Corner?

2009-04-13T08:17:00.006-05:00

One of my favorite things to during my high school years in Northern Virginia was to visit the wasteland known as Tyson's Corner. With two shopping malls and every big box store known to humankind except, perhaps, Walmart, it was a teenage paradise.

It's hard for me to imagine adults finding anything of interest there, since there were no residences, grocery stores or repair shops. Plenty of restaurants, though. And office buildings - although it seems to me that these were the kinds of workplaces where people ended up to their chagrin, not because they had landed their ideal jobs.

Now urban planners are trying to reincarnate Tyson's Corner as a livable, walkable city. (It feels strange to call Tyson's Corner a city or town; it was always just a place.)

Apparently, it is indeed changing. I just read in a Washington Post article that people actually walk to the new Harris Teeter grocery store in Tyson's Corner using sidewalks. This is very hard to imagine. In the Tyson's Corner of my youth, the only place you could walk was inside a store or mall or, if you were careful, from a store or mall to your car. But, apparently, some people now walk from one building to another in Tyson's Corner and live to tell the tale.

Ich möchte ein ErockIT

2009-04-03T12:12:00.003-05:00

Okay, at €30,000, it's a bit above my budget. And I suppose I could always worry about my feet flipping off the pedals, but ...

Isn't his accent sexy? I love the way he says "Kraft."

Auf Englisch:

White House greenhouse

2009-03-20T06:48:00.000-05:00

Michelle Obama puts a vegetable garden in the White House lawn. At 1,100 square feet, it's a lot bigger than anything I could handle, but apparently she'll have help.

Sorry, I can't shut up about Seattle P-I

2009-03-19T09:49:00.004-05:00

I guess it's a delayed reaction to the transition at the Cap Times. But I'm in good company.

Seattle P-I lists its own death

2009-03-19T06:29:00.001-05:00

Thanks to Seattle's The Stranger for posting a picture of the print version of the listing on its blog.

I guess whoever puts together the death listings for the newspaper - I'm sorry, news product - wasn't buying this stuff about Seattle P-I continuing its life, just in another format. It is a little difficult to keep living when you suddenly lose 87 percent of your body.

Yup, there go the journalists

2009-03-16T14:05:00.004-05:00

At The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, "Managers said the site will have an editorial staff of 20, down from more than 150." Also,

The site won't have specific reporters, editors or producers -- all staff are expected to write, edit, take photos, shoot video and produce multimedia, according to a statement from Michelle Nicolosi, who will lead the site as executive producer.

Wait a minute, sounds like my job. Hired as a writer and copyeditor, but generally not allowed to write or copyedit. Stuck doing video production all day, which I've never had much desire to do and for which I never received training. As a result, videos really not that good, but boy I've gotten fast at producing them. Want to hire me, Michelle Nicolosi?

Goodbye, Seattle P-I

2009-03-16T13:37:00.000-05:00

The Seattle Post Intelligencer ceases print publication tomorrow. The blame for its demise, I think, can be found in the last word of the third paragraph:

The company, however, said it will maintain seattlepi.com, making it the nation's largest daily newspaper to shift to an entirely digital news product. [emphasis added]

If the fourth estate is to be maintained, we need to stop thinking of the newspaper as a "product." ("Product," for those who haven't heard, is capitalist shorthand for any means to the end of making money.) As long as we view the conveyance of news as a "product" that the investor can interchange with any other "product" to make money – preferably bigger and bigger stacks of money – we run the risk of having no news at all.

People don't expect public broadcasting, Boys & Girls Clubs, or schools to make money. (Wait, forget I said schools. Let's recast that to to "Sane people don't expect ...") Can we build news organizations along similar lines?

As the article continues, it gets worse:

[Steven Swartz, president of Hearst Newspapers] continued: "The Web is first and foremost a community platform, so we'll be featuring new columns from prominent Seattle residents; more than 150 reader blogs, community databases and photo galleries. We'll also be linking to the great work of other Web sites and blogs in the community."

In other words, the Web site will be chock-full of content for which Hearst Newspapers pays absolutely no money.

The article doesn't talk about layoffs, but we can infer that they're planned, despite the printing costs that Hearst will be saving when it ceases print publication. Seattle P-I editor and publisher Roger Oglesby told staff this morning:

This is a hard day for all of us. We were fortunate to be part of a great newspaper with a great tradition, and we've been blessed to be part of a wonderful group of talented people. We all hate to see that end. [emphasis added]

Guess it's just as well I didn't go to J school for that master's.

Sadness, anger, rage, despair (it's much better than you think)

2009-03-12T18:03:00.003-05:00

Thanks to the time change and a migraine that had necessitated afternoon caffeine consumption, I had trouble falling asleep on Sunday night. I was also fretting about work, and how dreadful my job is, and wondering the likelihood of finding something that would both help me live and contribute to my reasons for living. I thought about how I used to try to start my day with a positive thought, but it didn’t really work for me in the long run, instead leading to dissatisfaction and frustration. Someone wiser than me may, one day, reveal to me that I was going about it the wrong way; certainly, fools will try to convince me of the same.

I have found that a certain level of discontent is more likely to lead to my happiness than a concerted effort at acceptance of life on life’s terms. I think this is one of those ironies that Zen teachers love. Allowing myself to be reasonably discontent is more accepting of reality than trying to become accepting of reality and, thus, content with it.

I wouldn’t feel right without a little discontent. The world is full of unfair things, like lupus, character assassination, war and genocide. I feel more balanced when I don’t only focus on the things that make me happy.

I was thinking about this Sunday night and I began to brainstorm about starting a blog called … Well, I won’t tell you the name now, since I still might start it, and I don’t want some Web crawler to snatch the name. But the basic gist was a sort of anger-positive daily meditation for those who find more fulfillment in discontent than in contentedness.

This idea gave me a good amount of hope and I fell asleep. The next morning, I told myself that I needed to finish another Web site I’m working on before I’m allowed to start the new project, and this would have proven great inspiration for me to finish that other Web site, had not life – or death, more precisely – intervened.

As I was walking out of the office today, it occurred to me that I haven’t experienced a moment of anger since Tuesday morning, when it hit me what might be happening with Elizabeth.

There was a time when I would have thought that this was a lesson from God to stop being angry, ever, and I would have pledged myself to become a different person, one who focused only on gifts like sunshine and crocuses and ignored gifts like poison ivy and news about financial embezzlement.

I used to think anger was a problem, because I seemed to be angry all the time and it interfered with my life. I talked with a therapist about this – the only therapist I have ever liked because he never once evinced a nurse-like sympathy for my pain or pressured me to discuss sadness – and two things became obvious. First, that my problem wasn’t anger; it was rage. Second, that I preferred rage to despair, which seemed to be my only other option at the time, and I was hoping that rage would displace despair. But what I said to him was, “If I stay angry enough, I won’t fall into sadness.”

It appears that the opposite is true, too – that if I’m sad enough, I’ll forget to get angry. If ever there was a sure sign of mourning, it’s when a career malcontent goes an entire day without making a snarky remark about her perceived political opponents, religious detractors, intellectual inferiors, or her less-preferred economic and social systems.

So I won’t be starting my malcontent’s daily meditation blog today.

This is not one of those ill-considered resolutions that one makes upon the death of a loved one to view life in a whole new way, to be positive and to love on everyone for the loved one’s sake. I am making no resolutions to try to love life like her or to become a Trappist monk, even though we’ve both admired the lifestyle. I am just, for right now, too sad to be dissatisfied.

Elizabeth was far more patient than me and, while people often boggled her as much as they did me, she was better at reserving judgment. As my first and long-time spiritual companion, she introduced me to the idea of “that of God in everyone,” and I think she was better at seeing it than I am – though I have gotten better at it over the years.

Patient or not, she definitely enjoyed my cynicism (as long as it was reasonable) and got laughs out of my snarkiness (as long as it wasn’t demeaning). I guess that’s part of seeing that of God in everyone: accepting that some of us express our love for life and humanity in contrary ways.

So I won’t feel any guilt when my vitriol begins its daily exercise again. Instead I will think of it as a little and paramount gift, one that Elizabeth’s companionship on my spiritual journey helped me to appreciate.

More thanks to Elizabeth

2009-03-12T16:49:00.002-05:00

Elizabeth posted this story to Facebook a few months ago. I share it because it says what I always mean to say; but I say it with anger, and this does not.

Sufi Tale: The Baby Elephant

Once upon a time there was a baby elephant who heard someone say: "Look, there is a mouse." The person who said it was looking at a mouse-- but the elephant thought that he was referring to him.

Now, there were very few mice in that country, and in any case they tended to stay in their holes, and their voices were not very loud. But the baby elephant thundered around, ecstatic at his discovery, "I am a mouse!"

He said it so loudly and so often, and to so many people that-- believe it or not-- there is now an entire country where almost everyone believes that elephants, and particularly baby elephants, are mice.

It is true that from time to time mice have tried to remonstrate with those who hold the majority belief: but they have always been put to flight.

And if anyone ever wants to reopen the question of mice and elephants in those parts, he had better have a good reason, strong nerves and an effective means of putting his case.

From "Wisdom of the Idiots" by Idries Shah

"From whom is any cyclist in his right mind going to accept a lift?"

2009-03-12T06:22:00.000-05:00

A fellow cyclist pointed me to this 1955 film by British Railways about London cyclists railroading to Rugby to continue their Sunday cycling tour. I love it. A hundred miles on those behemoths and they don't even look like they break a sweat. Equally endearing is the horror expressed at the thought of putting a bicycle in a car. If only the same horror were so pervasive today.

My new motto: "A cycling tour without a map is like new potatoes without mint."

In memorium: Elizabeth Lyzenga Waterman August 7, 1974 - March 10, 2009

2009-03-11T10:20:00.003-05:00

My friend and freshwomyn-year roommate Elizabeth died last night after a long and wretched illness. Here is an insufficient tribute to her.

Because I was a wannabe polyglot with a voracious appetite for learning how to say stupid and useless things in many languages, she taught me this song one evening when we were walking back to our dorm:

(Today is the first time I saw the video, and ain't it weird.)

Here's the words, if you'd like to learn it. I only ever clinched the first verse, but I sing it to this day when I want to annoy myself, annoy others, or entertain myself when I am experiencing the temperament of a 5-year-old child, which is often.

Qui a eu cette idée folle
Un jour d'inventer l'école ?
Qui a eu cette idée folle
Un jour d'inventer l'école ?
C'est ce sacré Charlemagne
Sacré Charlemagne
De nous laisser dans la vie
Que les dimanches, les jeudis
De nous laisser dans la vie
Que les dimanches, les jeudis
C'est ce sacré Charlemagne
Sacré Charlemagne

Ce fils de Pépin le Bref
Nous donne beaucoup d'ennuis
Et nous avons cent griefs
Contre, contre, contre lui

Qui a eu cette idée folle
Un jour d'inventer l'école ?
Qui a eu cette idée folle
Un jour d'inventer l'école ?
C'est ce sacré Charlemagne
Sacré Charlemagne

Participe passé
4 et 4 font 8
Leçon de français
De mathématiques
Que de, que de, travail, travail
Sacré sacré sacré sacré sacré Charlemagne

Il aurait dû caresser
Longtemps sa barbe fleurie
Il aurait dû caresser
Longtemps sa barbe fleurie
Oh oh sacré Charlemagne
Sacré Charlemagne
Au lieu de nous ennuyer
Avec la géographie
Au lieu de nous ennuyer
Avec la géographie
Oh oh sacré Charlemagne
Sacré Charlemagne

Il n'avait qu'à s'occuper
De batailles et de chasse
Nous n'serions pas obligés
D'aller chaque jour en classe
Il faut apprendre à compter
Et faire des tas de dictées
Il faut apprendre à compter
Et faire des tas de dictées
Oh oh sacré Charlemagne
Sacré Charlemagne

Participe passé
Participe passé
4 et 4 font 8
4 et 4 font 8
Leçon de français
Leçon de français
De mathématiques
De mathématiques
Que de, que de, travail, travail
Sacré sacré sacré sacré sacré Charlemagne

Car sans lui dans notre vie
Il n'y aurait que des jeudis
Car sans lui dans notre vie
Il n'y aurait que des jeudis
Oh oh sacré Charlemagne
Oh oh sacré Charlemagne
Oh oh sacré Charlemagne
Oh oh sacré Charlemagne
Oh oh sacré Charlemagne…

The first verse means:

Who had this stupid idea one day to invent school?
Who had this stupid idea one day to invent school?
It was bloody Charlemagne.
Bloody Charlemagne!

"Sacré" literally means "sacred," but can be used as a mild expletive, the way that "holy" is sometimes used in English. But although one might say "Holy crap!" or "Holy donuts!," I've never heard anyone say anything that would lead me to believe that "Holy Charlemagne" would be a fair translation.

"Bloody" may not be quite right, either, since no one says it in the United States and, in the United Kingdom, I understand that it's too foul to include in a children's song. But that's what Eliz and I settled upon, so that's what I'll stick with.

That's so kiapita

2009-03-09T16:51:00.000-05:00

I realize I'm not in the target demographic for these public service announcements, but they're freakin' hilarious.

Madison Metro joins the modern age!

2009-03-06T12:42:00.002-06:00

I now have a worthwhile excuse to get an iPhone.

Cool, improperly named rats

2009-03-02T17:17:00.000-06:00

I guess my mind has become an interesting place to dwell again, because I can't seem to stop blogging today. I ran across this article in the archives of The New York Times today. It's about Gambian pouched rats being trained to detect landmines. Although they are huge by rodent standards (up to 9 pounds, the size of a miniature dachsund), they are small enough that they don't set off the landmines. And they're more focused than dogs, so they do a better job than landmine-detecting dachsunds, which would get bored and start digging up the landmines, which would be an altogether bad scene.

They are supercute, but should not be used to detect landmines in Florida, where they're an invasive species. You can go here to learn more about the hero rats.

I got to the Gambian rats while looking up info about banana rats, which are also not really rats, but a variety of rodent that lives in Cuba. They are also pretty cute.

Bryn Mawr alumna in the news

2009-03-02T07:41:00.000-06:00

Somehow I don't think this notable Mawrter will make it into the newsletter for prospective students.

The Condition

2009-03-02T07:13:00.000-06:00

I recently finished reading The Condition by Jennifer Haigh, which I had picked up off the community bookshelf in the Amtrak station in Denver just after Christmas. I don't know if the book itself was pretentious, or just the picture of Ms. Haigh on the back jacket flap. That could have colored the whole reading.

Perhaps the problem lies with me, who doesn't have a lot of innate sympathy for the struggles of people who own vacation homes on New England beaches and can afford to spend their entire summers there. Not that I can't develop sympathy for them; I just don't naturally think, "Wow, those people must have a hard life."

It doesn't help that Haigh made the central character of the book -- the one around whom the entire plot twists -- the least sympathetic. One wonders if this was a natural aspect of the character's personality, as Haigh suggested, or whether it was Haigh's inability to fully sympathize with someone who is a statistical anomaly.

Just so you're not completely in the dark and wondering, you can read a preview of the book here, or I can explain to you that the central character has a genetic aberration known as Turner's syndrome, in which a woman has only one complete X chromosome. (She may have a second, incomplete X chromosome, but this isn't necessarily the case.) Everyone in her family treats her as if she's from another planet, and Haigh does, too.

I cared so little about the character Haigh painted that the only real reason I got through the book was that the train I was on between Denver and Chicago had an ice-storm-induced eight-hour delay. By the time I got off the train, I was far enough into it that I thought I should finish it. A completionist, I suppose.

I read most of the rest during a night of insomnia. But I found myself skipping chapters to find out whether her brother would get back with his boyfriend, and then I stopped a few chapters short of the end when I knew the answer. Once that was known, I felt no concern for the fate of the other characters. Their stories had stopped being compelling -- well, those that ever had been.

I went back and read the skipped parts and the last chapter last week when I had to stay up late drinking a gallon of horrible-tasting liquid in preparation for a colonoscopy. Everything that happened in those chapters is exactly what one would have expected, which is either to Haigh's credit for creating consistent characters, or to her detriment for creating a story that lacks dramatic tension. Book groups: Discuss!

Jaguar spotted in the U.S.

2009-02-24T06:16:00.000-06:00

Well, I suppose they're spotted wherever they are.

It's pretty cool, but I'm glad it only weighs 118 pounds and that I'm not in the wilds of Arizona.

Delightful religious commentary

2009-02-17T17:13:00.001-06:00

This blog entry by the Internet Monk made my otherwise grumpiness-filled (with cause!) day.

(You've got to follow the link within iMonk's post in order to get why this is so pleasing unto me. Otherwise, it makes no sense.)

Bike lanes are not snow storage areas

2009-02-10T10:41:00.005-06:00

But the municipalities to whom we pay our taxes are unaware of that. According to them, Fish Hatchery Road is apparently not a major vehicle route and the city of Madison is unable to communicate with Dane County. The primary reason that the bike lane on Fish Hatch is now clear-ish is because of the Great Melt of 2009.

So glad to be back on my road bike today. The melt has made it safe for this afternoon and possibly tomorrow. Must get studded tires -- maybe on my way home today. Otherwise, it's just the bus and the very heavy one-speed townie with two-inch-wide tires. Call me a wimp, but I'm just not up to riding 8.5 miles to work on that thing.

Just in case the fact that it's Monday morning wasn't enough to piss you off

2009-02-09T06:30:00.000-06:00

The Food and Drug Administration has found that Peanut Corp. of America knew in at least a few instances that its products were tainted with salmonella, but shipped them anyway.

The Plight of the North American Bipeds

2009-02-06T08:44:00.002-06:00

My friend B.C. made this video. Isn't she smart?

slow bicycling, yay!

2009-01-26T06:36:00.000-06:00

Speaking of non-sport-cyclists, a fellow bikie just brought The Slow Bicycle Movement to my attention.

When I lived in the Philadelphia suburbs, slow cyclists were few and far between. The area is not designed with transportational cyclists in mind, so the bike shop in my town mainly catered to aspiring Lance Armstrongs. I remember asking them about their weekly group rides, and they told me that the "casual" (i.e. "slow rider") rides averaged 15-18 mph. In a place with many hills of 20-degree grade. I remember wanting to laugh at them. The feeling went both ways, because when I said, "You call that slow?" the guy smirked at me and looked at my 20-year-old, 25-pound Schwinn. then back at me with a "Unless you buy something lighter from us, you are definitely not welcome" look.

Against my better judgment, I later went for a 15-mile spin with this guy and another bike shop employee. They kept chugging Gu. For a 15-mile bike ride. A bit excessive, really.

Olympic bicycling in Madison

2009-01-23T06:34:00.003-06:00

In it's bid for the 2016 summer Olympics, Chicago is proposing that Dane County serve as the cycling epicenter.

On the one hand, that would be cool.

On the other hand, does Madison really need any more sports cyclists with holier-than-thou-lowly-bike-commuter attitudes?

Well, some sports cyclists aren't a**holes, I suppose. (Don't get offended, sports cyclists, that I say only some and not many. If I said "Many sports cyclists are not a**holes," then I'd be implying that there's a lower proportion of a**holes in the sport cycling community than in the general population, in which, too, only some people are not a**holes. And I really have no basis on which to claim that sports cyclists are less a**holic than people at large. For what it's worth, I'm a sometime sport cyclist and I really don't think I'm all that nice.)

Despite my misgivings, it is possible that, by some amazing fluke, all the Olympian cyclists who showed up would be truly kind people. And maybe all the people who took up sports cycling in imitation of the Olympians would also adopt their unusual level of beneficence.

And I do like the idea of more people taking up cycling, even if not for transportation purposes. As a hobby, it sure beats other out-of-the-house pastimes like pleasure driving, ATVs, power lawnmowing, snowmobiling and motorboating.

(An aside to people who may find the lengthiness and comma-speckled state of some of my sentences: I've been reading lots of Dickens lately, and it just makes me feel so justified in letting my written sentences go on as long and in such a winding manner as my spoken ones.)

Oops

2009-01-15T08:10:00.001-06:00

It's going to be really difficult to make this look good.

A Jew's prayer for the children of Gaza

2009-01-14T22:21:00.000-06:00

Bradley Burston writes a blog called "A Special Place in Hell" for Ha'aretz, the Israeli daily. I love the name of the blog and have tried listing him in my Blog Roll (see right), but it doesn't work because he -- inscrutably -- lacks an RSS feed. Here's his unusually religious column from Jan. 7.

Those hilarious copyeditors

2009-01-11T20:12:00.002-06:00

After spending the entire weekend copyediting, I shall now relax to the dulcet tones of Old-Time Radio Drama.

One of my cohorts sent me this:

Would be funny, if it weren't so pathetic

2009-01-05T06:47:00.001-06:00

I read* Rickard Dawkins' God Delusion last week, and it was much better than I expected. Especially thought-provoking were the chapters on the religious indoctrination of children and the ways in which even non-fundamentalist religion discourages reason. I'm sure I'll have more to say about both subjects later.

Here's a link to a cartoon illustrating a non-reasoned approach to the disappearance of dinosaurs.

*For me, "reading" often means "listening to on CD."

Obama chooses Rick Warren to lead inaugural invocation

2008-12-18T06:25:00.001-06:00

That would be Rick Warren, founder of Saddleback Church, backer of California's Propostion 8 and comparer of committed, adult same-sex relationships to child abuse.

"Can you imagine if [Obama] had a man of God* doing the invocation who had deliberately said that Jews are not going to be saved and therefore should be excluded from what’s going on in America? People would be up in arms." -- Rick Jacobs, Courage Campaign

Just to be clear, I defend Warren's right to believe that Jews, queers, Muslims and various sorts of Christians are not going to be saved. What I object to is the conclusion that any of these individuals should be denied the right to legal protections that are permitted to "saved" American citizens. And I believe that anyone who promotes the use of religion-based litmus tests in determining the civil rights of individuals should not be invited to the government pulpit nee lectern.

(Whether religious invocations are appropriate at state ceremonies is a question for another day, but you can probably guess my answer.)

*I was tempted to insert a [sic] after "man of God," but refrained.

Evangelical politics

2008-12-17T06:28:00.001-06:00

Christianity Today posted an article yesterday about the effect on the Christian green movement of Richard Cizik's forced resignation from the National Association of Evangelicals.

For those who do not follow all the politicking of the NAE, Cizik -- former vice president of governmental affairs for the NAE -- was not forced to resign because he is gay. That was Ted Haggard, the former NAE president.*

Cizik, who appears to be heterosexual, was forced out because, as an intelligent person, he understands the difference between civil and religious law. He told Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air, "I would willingly say that I believe in civil unions. I don't officially support redefining marriage from its traditional definition, I don't think."

Okay, so the "I don't think" at the end is a little waffley, but maybe he's just trying to leave room to redefine marriage from certain traditional definitions -- like the ones that include having sex with your daughters (Noah), rapists purchasing their victims and making them their "wives" (the Law), and profligate polygyny (David and just about every other man mentioned by name in the first half of the Good Book). I would think any lock-step evangelical would be proud to redefine traditional marriage as between two, and only two, consenting adults, but apparently this is controversial.

Lock-step evangelicals don't want to heed Paul's advice to let government be government and church be church. Cizik, who apparently reads the Bible more carefully than those who purport to be the face of orthodox Christianity, understands the difference.

Cizik also figured that, if the Bible is true, then the Creator gave us brains to use and a responsibility to use them. This belief led Cizik to take a stand on global warming. But the large knee-jerk faction of the NAE did not like this. "If pagans are in favor of the earth, we have to be against it," seems to be their logic.

Reading the Christianity Today article reminded me why I stopped subscribing to that magazine. The writing is usually good, but it gives way too much ink to poorly thought-out, reactionary opinions that just don't require that many words to explain. I mean, do you really need two pages to say, "And then a bunch of reactionaries who'd like to bury their heads in the sand accused Cizik of being an unrepentant heathen"?

*Ted Haggard now claims to be "transformed" from his homosexual inclinations.

UPS Bike Drivers

2008-12-16T16:44:00.000-06:00

I was going to leave all mention of UPS deliveries by bike to my "Things I've read lately" column, but then I saw this blog entry in Gas 2.0. It's pretty cool. Dude, with the benefits that UPS offers, it may be time to move to Portland.

Question is, do they give the bicycle delivery drivers a food allowance? It would only be right -- UPS pays for the fuel the truck drivers use in their trucks -- but doing so might chip away at the money UPS is saving with this move.

Pee-wee

2008-12-16T06:23:00.000-06:00

On Friday I went to my friends' annual Pee-wee Herman Christmas Special party. This is the official beginning of holiday cheer in my book -- or perhaps the whole sum of it, since I'm not a big practitioner of cheer of any sort.

Among the party-goers were two Jambas, neither of which was able to sever his own head in order to provide bounce-along guidance to the dreidl song. (Fast-forward to 4:00 on the video if that sounds cruel and inhumane to you, and you will understand that it is just happy fun.)

No one came as Charo, perhaps because it was freezing outside. Fortunately, this did not prevent Charo from appearing again to sing "Feliz Navidad," which is always my favorite part. Look at those fingers move!

Knocked up? Eat mercury.

2008-12-12T06:23:00.000-06:00

At least, that's what you'll do if the FDA gets its way.

So you want a nativity on display at your government building?

2008-12-11T09:25:00.004-06:00

Olympia, Washington, is learning about the unintended consequences of allowing religious displays on government property. It allowed a realtor to erect a nativity scene at the state capitol. That was soon joined by a sign from the Freedom from Religion Foundation stating the there is no God.

Okay, no big deal, the Olympians are probably thinking, some may find it offensive, but the sign isn't impudent in phrasing the beliefs of a significant minority.

But now the Westboro (Kansas) Baptist Church is petitioning to add a sign that reads:

Santa Claus Will Take You to Hell

You'd better watch out, get ready to cry,
You'd better go hide, I'm telling you why
'cuz Santa Claus will take you to hell.

He is your favorite idol, you worship at his feet,
but when you stand before your God
He won't help you take the heat.

So get this fact straight: you're feeling God's hate,
Santa's to blame for the economy's fate,
Santa Claus will take you to hell.

Don't leave your kids with this red fright
Just like the priests he'll rape 'em at night
Oh Santa Clause will take you to hell.

You tell the children he is real,
You know that's just a lie,
To justify your own vile sins
That's the only reason why.

So get this fact straight, you're feelin' God's hate
Santa's to blame for the dead soldier's fate
Santa Claus will take you to hell.

Hmmm ... So maybe allowing religious displays isn't such a good idea after all. Or, in the words of a spokesperson for Washington's Department of General Administration: "Holy cow."

It's hard to see how Olympia would be able to justify a rejection of the sign. It can't argue that it doesn't accept displays from groups based out of state -- the Freedom From Religion Foundation is headquartered in Wisconsin. It could argue that the group needs to have members in Washington (the Freedom From Religion Foundation does), but I'm sure Westboro could scrounge up some local supporters. And it would be hard to argue that the Westboro sign is too offensive to display, since I'm certain the current displays have both offended their fair share of folks.

I am just giggling with delight.

Victory for the folks who brought you the weekend

2008-12-11T06:39:00.000-06:00

The Chicago factory sit-in has ended. The workers' demands have been met. All thanks to the labor movement -- the folks who brought you the weekend.

Dying culture, dying tongue

2008-12-11T05:25:00.001-06:00

I read an article this morning about the Kawesqar, a Patagonian tribe whose members are dying off. It discussed the ingenious way that Kawesqar would rub themselves in fat before diving for mussels, presumably to keep warm. But beware of romanticism. One of the members, estimated age 66, remarked, "I am not sad. Life is easier now." Also, beware of the annoying use of the phrase "pure-blooded" throughout the article. I found it irritating. It's a phrase that ought to be applied to dogs, not people.

Okay. I guess I'm a religious nut.

2008-12-08T18:08:00.002-06:00

I wrote this letter to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty today and, reading over it, realized that I am, indeed, a religious nut and Constitutional whacko:

Dear brothers and sisters at the Becket Fund and co-signers of the No Mob Veto public letter,

The inflammatory No Mob Veto letter drowned valid points about religious freedom in fiery and destructive rhetoric against detractors of the LDS Church. Some of these folks are bigots, but most of the ones I have heard simply have theological and doctrinal disagreements with the church and have differing interpretations of the role that religion ought to play in the drafting and passage of laws. This is America, and I would hope that people could engage in lively debates on religion without being tarred as "anti-religious bigots."

The tone of your letter causes me to think that it was not provoked by violence. In fact, it fails to mention a single incident of violence. I couldn't find any records of violence on the NoMobVeto.org Web site, either. (Intimidation, which you cursorily mention, is not inherently violence, and you fail to substantiate that it meets the violence threshold here; many people felt intimidated by Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry, but I don't recall Him ever condoning or committing an act of violence. Neither is disrupting a church service violence; it's not even inherently sinful. Christ caused plenty of disruptions at religious services and locations, and thank God He did so.)

Apparently, your real goal is as you state it at the end of the letter: "We commit ourselves to exposing and publicly shaming anyone who resorts to the rhetoric of anti-religious bigotry." Apparently the Christians among you have forgotten Paul's advice to bring a brother's or sister's faults to their attention personally and attempting to resolve disputes this way before bringing them to the public eye. I think Paul would be fine with public debate -- he did it in his letters -- but shaming is clearly against the spirit of what he writes

I also condemn anti-religious bigotry, but Americans are free to engage in it so long as they do not violate the law. Similarly, religious leaders are free to engage or choose not to engage in anti-homosexual bigotry as long as they do not violate the law. Why, it's the constitutional right of every American to be a bigot of whatever stripe he or she chooses, as long as no laws are violated. Of course, I don't think Jesus would advise any of us to be bigots, but my fellow believers are free to disagree.

My heart will be filled with joy when I can sign a letter with you all that condemns bigotry and violence in all forms, while defending the Constitutional right of every American to be a bigot. Naturally, this letter will also need to refrain from pronouncements in favor of public shaming. Please let me know when you want me to work with you to help draft it.

Reason for my silence

2008-12-08T17:24:00.000-06:00

I've had a sinus infection for two weeks.

No more dumping your teenagers

2008-11-21T17:08:00.002-06:00

Nebraska has put an age limit of 30-days for children who can be abandoned at hospitals under the state's safe haven law. That's because almost three-dozen children, mostly adolescents, have been surrendered to the state at Nebraska hospitals since July. The safe haven law allows parents to abandon their children at hospitals with no penalty. Some of the kids were driven or flown in from states as far-flung as Michigan and Florida. Can you imagine that vacation?

One wonders why states have made it so difficult to put children in foster care or mental health programs that parents feel compelled to rush the process by abandoning them.

The whole situation also reminds me of how our society -- human society in general -- has turned procreation into an idol. Even among people who don't buy into the anti-birth control teachings of various religions tend to talk about procreation as if it is the be-all and end-all of human existence.* I am at an age when many of my peers are procreating, or trying with all their might and the assistance of medical technology to procreate. In all but a few cases, they seem to be doing it with a vague, naive and unarticulated assumption that they will have wonderful, well-behaved, healthy children who will bring them joy that is, for the most part, uninterrupted by the selfishness, solipsism, and semi-sadistic tendencies that are a natural part of childhood -- not to mention the violence, mental illness, and chronic or fatal health conditions that, while not universal, are common risks of the human condition.

I'm not saying that every parent who dropped a kid off at a Nebraska hospital had this kind of naivete about parenthood, but it would be a statistical anomaly if none of them did. And so parents and children both become victims of the cult of family.

It's not that no one should ever have children. But I do wish parenthood were more often undertaken with the same forethought and weighing of pros and cons that other major decisions are. While a person can't anticipate every problem that might arise, I think it's important for potential parents to ask themselves how far they are willing and able to go in nurturing other human beings** from infancy to adulthood.

*It is, but only if you believe that our sole purpose on earth is to propogate the species at all costs; an extremely materialist and anti-spiritual argument if I've ever heard one.
** Because it could be triplets, even if you're only planning to have one!

What I've been saying all along

2008-11-21T17:03:00.001-06:00

At least ultra-conservatives and I agree on one thing.

Cool air bags

2008-11-21T06:50:00.001-06:00

Check out this cool exterior airbag a Swedish auto company designed to protect cyclists in crashes.

Quote of the day

2008-11-19T17:55:00.000-06:00

"It is easier to lead men to combat, stirring up their passion, than to restrain them and direct them toward the patient labors of peace." Andre Gide

Good chocolate

2008-11-19T17:48:00.001-06:00

A week or so ago I posted a New York Times article about a cocoa cooperative in Ecuador that is producing dramatic improvements in the member-farmers' community. Whole Foods now carries the chocolate, but it might be more apropos to search for it in your local natural foods co-op, should it have survived the Whole Foods onslaught.

Dick Cheney indicted

2008-11-19T12:32:00.005-06:00

Dick Cheney's finally been indicted, but not for Guantanamo or Iraq or handing the country over to fascism. He's charged with organized criminal activity related to for-profit prison companies that he has interest in.

New windows

2008-11-18T20:40:00.000-06:00

I got new, triple-pane windows on Friday. It's so strange going upstairs now. There's no longer a breeze blowing through.

Speaking of dignity

2008-11-10T18:52:00.005-06:00

In Madison last week, a man was murdered in a fight at a local park. He didn't have to die, given that two people called in noise complaints to 911 an hour earlier, and more than one noise complaint about the same incident is supposed to trigger the dispatch of police officers. Afterward, our only surviving print daily published a narrow-viewed article about the victim. To summarize: The guy was an unemployed drunk, so it wouldn't happen to you, a reader of newspapers -- and besides, he doesn't matter anyway.

I think I was more offended by the newspaper article than by the video of James Dobson speaking at an anti-gay rally in California two weeks ago. I don't expect newspapers to print reminder that each and every one of us is a child of God. But it certainly evaded its journalistic duties by defining this man as a stereotype.

The article fails to mention that Mark Gregory Johnson worked for the same employer for 14 years, until it went out of business two years ago. It fails to mention that he had friends, family, and a cat. It fails to mention that he was a human being, although I'm sure the reporter would argue that piece of information was self-evident.

It also fails to mention that, "dear reader, it could happen to you since virtually every Wisconsinite is a drunk by definition and the unemployment rate sure is rising, isn't it?"

I am appalled at the thought of his family opening the paper to read this crap. They had to place an obituary to get the rest of the story told.

Shame and regret

2008-11-10T06:10:00.002-06:00

I was glad today to read that 1,000 protestors gathered outside of Saddleback Church yesterday to express their disenchantment with Rick Warren and his support of Proposition 8, which revoked the right of same-sex couples to marry in California.

I hope Rick Warren, or at least some of his congregants who have agreed with him on the issue, are beginning to experience shame and regret* over how they have allowed themselves to be used as tools to promote a bigoted and worldly** agenda that seeks to rob people of their God-given dignity. Rick Warren obviously has a heart and wishes, inasmuch as a human being might ever wish, to serve the greater good. But he has certainly allowed himself to be misled on this one.

*Given Obama's election on Tuesday, I am re-inclined to believe that all sorts of good are possible this side of heaven.
**"Worldy" is the Christian's polite way of saying "Satanic" -- and, being a Midwesterner, I am inclined to be polite.

Better than morning coffee

2008-11-07T06:24:00.000-06:00

Dar Ward has a nice preview of the Victoria Policy Institute's “Transportation Cost and Benefit Analysis: Techniques, Estimates, and Implications.” It has inspired me to perhaps actually read the document, although I must admit I prefer watching videos of cyclists during Copenhagen's rush hour as inspiration. Alas, watching videos alone will not get us from here to there.

The Green Wave in Copenhagen from Colville Andersen on Vimeo.

(If you watch the video, here are my three comments: Notice how few stops signs and red lights the cyclist has to stop for. Notice that there is room to pass in the cycling lane. And how no one rides their bicycle on the sidewalk -- a better deal all around for peds and cyclists.)

Every cloud with a silver lining has a touch of grey

2008-11-05T06:23:00.003-06:00

I refused to watch television on Tuesday night, listen to the radio, or go on the Web. I didn't want election news interfering with my sleep, and one never knows when the results will come in or whether they will effect the future. After all, Gore won in 2000 but did not become president, and the final decision was not declared Tuesday night or Wednesday or Thursday or ... And I couldn't watch in 2004 without thinking "but the story could be different tomorrow." So I went on a news blackout.

On Wednesday morning, N told me that I would have to look at the paper sooner or later. I didn't want to, but I did. OBAMA NEXT PRESIDENT, it said.

Always one to look for the touch of gray, I immediately started flipping through the paper to confirm my prediction that California's Proposition 8 would pass. Alas, it was still undecided, so I didn't have that news to ruin my day, either.

So I quickly turned my thoughts to the current president and the likelihood that he would mark this historic occasion with a hissy fit before leaving office. I find that The New York Times editorial board thinks a lot like me.

Despite my best efforts at protective cynicism, I was prone to attacks of hopeful thought throughout the day. My mom was in the March on Washington with Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963 and even after the "I Have a Dream" speech never thought she'd see the day when Americans would elect a black president. Yet she has. And I fear that I will never see the day when the majority of evangelical Christians will reject idolatry and bigotry and instead embrace their neighbors in the humble way that Christ himself did, but maybe I will.

I imagine James Dobson has been sobbing on and off for the past day or so in fear that Proposition 8 has passed and the wrath of his god may be held back from California. But even he has some hope. The ACLU (may God bless them) is bringing the case to the California Supreme Court that the amendment process was not in accordance with California's constitution. According to that state's founding document, an amendment that substantially alters constitutional principals must be approved by the California legislature before it goes to ballot. The ACLU argues that, by removing civil rights from a minority group (marriage rights were recognized as civil rights by the California Supreme Court in May), the amendment alters the substance of the constitution.

A similar case succeeded in 1990. In that case, California voters had approved a constitutional amendment that limited the rights the state could grant to criminal defendants. The state's Supreme Court struck down the amendment because it altered the essential meaning of the Constitution and, as such, needed to go through the more rigorous process of legislative and popular approval.

If the ACLU succeeds, Dobson can have the glee of anticipating California's complete destruction. And, since he will die long before that happens*, he can enjoy the thought for the rest of his life.

*Yes, you read it here first. I predict that James Dobson will indeed die in the normal way that all humans, including Christ, have done, and not be part of a Rapture in which he is swept up into heaven without ever experiencing death. If I am wrong, I will undoubtedly be left behind in punishment for my detraction, and any of you who have not been swept up can gloat. Actually, those of you who have been swept up can gloat, too, as you watch me from up there on your clouds and spit on my head.

Home Demolitions at Um al Kher, South Hebron Hills

2008-10-30T10:13:00.004-05:00

The following is from Christian Peacemaker Teams:

AT-TUWANI URGENT ACTION: Home Demolitions at Um al Kher, South Hebron Hills
29 October, 2008

At 9:10 am on the morning of Wednesday 29 October, 2008, the Israeli military demolished 10 dwellings in the Palestinian village of Um al Kher, in the South Hebron Hills, leaving around 60 people, including young children, homeless.

The military arrived without warning shortly after 9am with a bulldozer. They gave the villagers little time to remove their possessions before demolishing four stone homes and six metal dwellings. Um al Kher is situated close to the illegal Israeli settlement of Karmel and the demolished homes were those closest to the settlement.

Palestinians and internationals from At-Tuwani attempted to reach Um al Kher in order to prevent or at least witness the demolitions. The Israeli military stopped their vehicle on Route 317, and told them the area was a closed military zone. However, Israeli vehicles were allowed to travel freely in both directions.

By 11 am the villagers were left with the wreckage of their destroyed homes. At 11:40 there was a heavy downpour of rain and the villagers rushed to move their possessions into the cover of their friends tented homes.

A villager told CPT, “The children are not here, they were frightened and ran away.” Another villager, a 21 year old social work university graduate, told how relieved she was that her mother had been out with the goats when her home was demolished. The young woman had complained to an Israeli military officer that a soldier threatened to hit her. The officer’s response was, “If he went to hit you that’s nice. If he hit you, it’s very nice.”

A young mother, holding her baby as she sat outside a neighbour’s tent, said, “My baby in rain. Where my baby sleep?”

Within an hour of the army’s departure assistance arrived in the form of CARE International, International Committee of the Red Cross and United Nations Works and Relief Agency. The latter will supply blankets and kitchen utensils. At present the villagers know of no organization able to help them rebuild their homes.

ACTION

These homes were demolished in violation of article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, to which Israel is a signatory. We urge you to write to the Israeli Embassy or Consulate in your home country to demand an
explanation of:

· Why were these homes demolished?
· Why did the military choose to demolish them at the start of the winter rainy season?
· Where will the young woman’s baby and the other villagers sleep?

Photos of the demolished homes can be viewed at http://cpt.org/ gallery/Israeli- military- demolish- Um-al-Kher- homes

Gator pics

2008-10-29T20:21:00.000-05:00

I have finally uploaded some of my alligator videos and photos from my trip to Louisiana. You can see them here.

Motorists impede cycling traffic

2008-10-28T17:53:00.000-05:00

I whipped off this weakly written missive today in response to an article in the Wisconsin State Journal about motorists who are impatient with child cyclists going to and from school in Cottage Grove:

I don't know if the writer or the editor was responsible for the oversight, but I was disappointed to see a list of complaints at the article's end that children should be riding on the sidewalk, while no mention was made that children are not required to ride on sidewalks according to Wisconsin law. (In many municipalities, they are forbidden from doing so.) Cyclists are always permitted to ride in the road unless the road specifically prohibits such traffic (such as marked highways).

In any case, sidewalks aren't actually safer than roads. In fact, they may be more dangerous because drivers are less likely to see them as they approach driveways and intersections. The League of American Bicyclists has a lot of info about this; here is one example from their "biking myths" list.

Not to mention that cycling on sidewalks presents a hazard to pedestrians.

Children certainly need to learn the rules of the road and how to conduct themselves safely and predictably in traffic. They also need their governments to build bike paths before their schools are built, just as roads are built before construction. Teaching kids to ride on the sidewalk is not the answer.

Apple craziness

2008-10-27T20:27:00.007-05:00

I am glad to report that I am finally done processing the 250 pounds of apples that Dekalb and I picked a week before my birthday. (I am sure that Dekalb would like me to note here that they were all free or he wouldn't have found any thrill at all in harvesting them.)

This is what 250 pounds of apples looks like. We crammed 50 pounds in each of two bushel boxes, 40 pounds in each of two 4/5-bushel boxes, and miscellaneous amounts in various sacks. The stuff that went in the bags was mostly Golden Delicious, while the stuff in the boxes was a small reddish-green apple of unknown name. The former made fabulous dried fruit and applesauce; the latter made good canned slice apples and (unprocessed) is an excellent accompaniment to peanut butter, but quite unimpressive dried.

N took this picture of me while I was processing apples. The bucket on the floor was for compost. I ended up filling three of those with seeds, rotten fruit and bruised bits over the course of processing. Closest to me on the stove top is my Finnish steam juicer, which consists of three stainless steel tiers, flexible tubing, and a lid. The bottom tier is a pot that holds water, the top tier is a steamer basket that holds the fruit, and the middle tier is a juice collector. You bring the water in the bottom tier to a boil, and the steam rises through an inverse funnel at the center of the juice collector, heating the apples. The heated apples exude juice, which drips into the collector. Once you have enough juice, you uncap and unclamp the flexible tubing at the side of the juice collector, empty is into sterilized jars and cap. In Scandinavia, they consider that the end of the process, but USDA guidline-abiding citizens of the United States then put the jars in a boiling water bath for the USDA-specified period.

The contraption at the far side of the stove is an aluminum pressure canner which some liken to a military tank. (If that be so, it is the only such tank that a respectable Amish or Mennonite will be caught using.) It is quite heavy, with solid walls about 1/2-inch thick and a lid that screws on with six separate nuts. Apples don't require pressure canning, but I use The Tank for boiling-waterbath canning, as well, because I gave my grannyware boiling-waterbath canner to someone who had no canning equipment (how could I let her be without?).

The box by the sink and the bag on the floor contain apples.

And now, the gallery of mutant apples:

Cod: love 'em.

2008-10-27T17:55:00.002-05:00

After reading that Atlantic cod have been endangered by overfishing, I started to feel bad about my daily dose of cod liver oil. I went to Community Pharmacy, which has a big-ass selection of fish oils, and found that you can also get fish oil from small and plentiful (for now) fish like sardines and mackerel, but all of it is in gelatin capsules -- not a liquid in capsules, which I prefer. I mean, do I really want to be ingesting a bone-marrow byproduct from cannibalistic cows? The USDA currently forbids processors to conduct broad-based routine tests for BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease), so it's hard to know if the bone marrow in a particular batch of gelatin is rife with BSE prions or not. Besides, I don't like the idea of eating factory-raised cows. Cruel and polluting.

Back to cod. Entrepreneurs in Norway are developing a way to farm cod. If this happens, would I have free license to suck all the cod livers I wanted, with no guilt? Would the quality of the livers be the same, given that farm-raised cod would have a different diet than wild cod? Would cod farms be as polluting as Chilean salmon farms? Should I just start eating six cans of sardines a day?

Good dog!

2008-10-27T17:08:00.001-05:00

A very cute Jack Russell mutt in Australia reached across party lines to protect a litter of kittens from a house fire. The link takes you to the video. Good boy!

The other California ballot measure

2008-10-26T18:34:00.000-05:00

The New York Times had a well-written article this weekend about the strategy of Californiai's Proposition 2, which would ban battery crates for hens, veal crates for calves and gestation crates for sown in the state of California. Interesting tidbit: the guy who currently heads the Humane Society of the United States founded the Student Animal Rights Coalition, which I remember from my Sassy-reading days. Except that I associate it with a black-and-white photo of a pale white girl with straight dark hair and dark lipstick (which could describe me too at the time, come to think of it). I think she was a Sassiest Girl in America finalist. I know she was a vegan. And I guess she started a SARC chapter in her school, or expanded it from colleges into high schools, or something of the sort. It was obvious that she was artsy and serious and she probably listened to the Cure a lot. Because back then, if you were a teenage vegan, these things were required.

Platypus power

2008-10-22T07:07:00.003-05:00

I so want this t-shirt.

At my last job, the picture on my computer desktop was of a mama platypus and her two pups, or hatchlings, or whatever they call those infants. To the untrained eye, it looked like a groundhog wearing a soiled Donald Duck souvenir beak over its snout and holding a jumbo shrimp in either hand.

I became totally obsessed with monotremes for a while, as much for there inherent interesting-ness as for the fact that I didn't have a whole lot of work to do at my job. My coworker Johnny Mumbles insinuated that my interest was peculiar. Clams Casino, a cohort known for her fondess of all non-human mammalian babies, had her reservations about the two pieces of shrimp. She argued that perhaps monotremes should not be classified as mammals for her purposes.