Excused Lame

Jefferson for Goodthinkers

2009-11-10T20:47:00.002-05:00

The society at large, driven by the sermonizing of its elites, has come to an unstated conclusion that, unfortunately, a few Americans will have to be sacrificed from time to time, for the larger goal of establishing the fact that Americans in no way think Muslims are anymore likely than any others to commit either random or premeditated terrorist violence. I think that is the initial lesson of Fort Hood.

The tree of diversity must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of innocents.

Captain Courageous

2009-11-08T12:03:00.002-05:00

Apart from journalism, there's no profession as self-congratulatory as entertainment. I can't even turn on the TV without stumbling on some awards show.

Of course, part of what our actors, directors, musicians, etc. congratulate themselves on is taking a hard, honest look at the world around them, bravely risking the displeasure of the comfortable bourgeoise.

So it's with no small amount of amusement that I read this about 2012, the new movie by Roland Emmerich where damn near everything we recognize is shown getting wiped out. Well, not everything after all:

He razed Rio de Janeiro; Rome; California; Washington, D.C.; Tibet; Las Vegas; Yellowstone National Park; and more but decided against destroying Islamic symbols. “My co-writer, Harald” Kloser, “said, ‘I’m not writing this to get a fatwa on my head,’ ” Mr. Emmerich said. “We have Jesus falling apart in all kinds of forms. The Vatican falls on people’s heads, and we can do that because we’re a free, Western society, but if there would be, like, Mecca destroyed, there would be an outrage. And so you don’t do it. At the end of the thing it’s entertainment.”

Perhaps Mr. Emmerich and Mr. Kloser are a little more courageous than the above quote suggests. It may, after all, take a special kind of bravery to show how cowardly you are.

From Rural America

2009-11-06T22:59:00.002-05:00

Pembroke, Virginia. "Hey, gimme a ham and swiss on rye with mayo and ten-penny nails!"

Comment of the Day

2009-11-02T22:12:00.004-05:00

From Megan McArdle's blog, on the story of the State of California withholding more money because it needs it more than its citizens do:

Frankly, I think in this, as in so many other areas, California is providing a valuable example for other polities to follow.

In an ideal world, all income would be directed ("withheld" if you must straight to the government. Then, at an appropriate time, members of the public could petition for the return of funds they feel they are entitled to, within the limits of total allowable refunds as set by law.

This way we would never again run into the awful situation of the government having to go about groveling for extra money or engage in tedious debates about the "appropriate" level of taxation. The government would simply collect all money in the economy, decide how much it needed to perform all of its many vital functions and then determine how much of the remainder to return and to whom.

The whole system would be much more efficient and result in a significantly more just & rational final distribution of income. Thank goodness we have California to spearhead the first tentative steps towards the kind of bold, new thinking on government's powers of taxation that we so desperately need in this country.

It's just part and parcel of the semi-conscious notion on the part of the bien pensants that all the money belongs to the government, which graciously allows you to keep part of it. The sort of thinking that calls tax cuts "giveaways" or that they'll "cost the government" something.

Next step: in 2010, the State of California will issue more IOUs, or figure out some other way not to give it back. Why have a messy debate on raising taxes when things can be done by administrative fiat?

Better Remakes, the Opera Version

2009-11-02T14:55:00.003-05:00

A discussion at The Corner deals with movie remakes, both good and bad. What about operas that turned out much better the second time around?

Iphigenia en Tauride: Niccolo Jommelli (1771) vs. Christoph Gluck (1779)
The Flying Dutchman: Pierre-Louis Dietsch (1842) vs. Richard Wagner (1843)
Manon Lescaut: Daniel Auber (1856) vs. Giacomo Puccini (1893)
Ariadne auf Naxos: Georg Benda (1775) vs. Richard Strauss (1912)
Faust: Louis Spohr (1816) vs. Charles Gounod (1859)
The Barber of Seville: Giovanni Paisiello (1782) vs. Giacchino Rossini (1816)
Alceste: Georg Frederic Handel (1750) vs. Christoph Gluck (1767)
Falstaff: Antonio Salieri (1799) vs. Giuseppe Verdi (1893)
Romeo and Juliet: Vincenzo Bellini (1830, as I Capuleti ed i Montecchi) vs. Charles Gounod (1867)
Fidelio: Pierre Gaveaux (1798, as Leonore) vs. Ludwig van Beethoven (1805)

Dopey Letter of the Day

2009-10-30T06:09:00.003-04:00

Where else but the New York Times?

To the Editor:
The hubris destroying this country comes from the private sector, not government. Constitutional safeguards protect us from the abuse of government power.
Executives exercise unchecked power not only to pay themselves confiscatory sums but also to use corporate assets to finance enormously expensive campaigns of lobbying, donations and relentless, outrageously dishonest propaganda — all for the enhancement of their personal power and wealth while impoverishing the rest of us and undermining our rights.
The central tenet of the post-cold-war Republican Party — the transfer of power from the public sector, where it is subject to constitutional protections, to a private cabal — is as profoundly anti-American as it can be.

"... But don't question my patriotism!"

What!

2009-10-09T12:05:00.002-04:00

The Nobel committee has awarded the 2009 Peace prize to Our President, the Rt. Hon. Abraham Delano Fitzgerald Mahatma Obama for... what exactly? When Charles Ives won the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for Music he gave away the money, making the eminently wise statement, "Prizes are for boys and I'm grown up."

Next step: the United Nations makes Our President a god, allowing him to be addressed as "The Divine Obama."

How's That Civility Stuff Working Out, Tom?

2009-10-01T12:53:00.002-04:00

The American political system was, as the saying goes, “designed by geniuses so it could be run by idiots.” But a cocktail of political and technological trends have converged in the last decade that are making it possible for the idiots of all political stripes to overwhelm and paralyze the genius of our system.

Those factors are: the wild excess of money in politics; the gerrymandering of political districts, making them permanently Republican or Democratic and erasing the political middle; a 24/7 cable news cycle that makes all politics a daily battle of tactics that overwhelm strategic thinking; and a blogosphere that at its best enriches our debates, adding new checks on the establishment, and at its worst coarsens our debates to a whole new level, giving a new power to anonymous slanderers to send lies around the world. Finally, on top of it all, we now have a permanent presidential campaign that encourages all partisanship, all the time among our leading politicians.

I would argue that together these changes add up to a difference of degree that is a difference in kind — a different kind of American political scene that makes me wonder whether we can seriously discuss serious issues any longer and make decisions on the basis of the national interest.

We can’t change this overnight, but what we can change, and must change, is people crossing the line between criticizing the president and tacitly encouraging the unthinkable and the unforgivable.

Thomas Friedman, New York Times, September 30, 2009

The Republicans' health care plan for America: Don't get sick. That's right. Don't get sick. If you have insurance, don't get sick. If you don't have insurance, don't get sick. If you are sick, don't get sick. Just don't get sick. That's what the Republicans have in mind for you, America. That's the Republicans' health care plan.

But I think that the Republicans understand that that plan isn't always going to work. It is not a foolproof plan. So the Republicans have a back-up plan in case you do get sick. If you get sick in America, this is
what the Republicans want you to do. If you get sick, America, the Republican health care plan is this: Die quickly. That's right. The Republicans want you to die quickly if you get sick.

Hon. Alan Grayson (D.-FL), September 29, 2009

The Arch of a Career

2009-09-26T19:41:00.008-04:00

A few milestones on our girl's career:

First show: June 25, 1998, Warren County Kennel Club of Ohio, judge Roy Holloway

First points/first major: April 18, 1999, Delaware, Ohio KC, judge Jon Thompson

Championship: May 26, 2000, Winners Bitch for 5 points, Borzoi Club of America National Specialty, judge Christine Rafton

First Best of Breed: August 20, 2000, Muncie KC, judge Virginia Hampton

First Group placement: March 3, 2001, Belle-City KC, judge Pete Dawkins

First Group 1: August 26, 2001, Owensboro's River City KC, judge Dr. Ron Spritzer

First Best in Show: November 17, 2002, Danville KC, judge Susan St. John Brown

First Specialty Best in Show: February 15, 2003, Rocky Mountain Borzoi Club, judge William Paul Shelton

Last Best in Show (her fifth): September 18, 2005, Butler County KC, judge Susan St. John Brown

Last Group 1 (her 31st): November 27, 2004, Kankakee River Valley KC, judge Luc Boileau

Last Group placement (her 127th): August 21, 2005, Anderson KC, judge Robert Forsyth

Last show (her 388th)/last Best of Breed (her 269th)/last Best in Specialty show (her fourth): May 27, 2006, Borzoi Club of America National Specialty, judge Espen Engh.

Lacey

2009-09-25T18:31:00.003-04:00

MBIS MBISS Ch. Soyara's Chantilly Lace JC ROM-C (nominated)

December 17, 1997 - September 16, 2009

The morning was silver, the noontime golden and the evening bronze. But each was polished until it shone after its own fashion.

She was our heart. She was magic.

Thoughts of a Liberal Justice

2009-08-27T18:09:00.005-04:00

Retired Supreme Court justice David Souter has cached his apparently extensive diary with the New Hampshire Historical Society with the stipulation that it remain under wraps for 50 years. Too bad! I was looking forward to reading something like this:

July 25, 1993
Came across a book at a second-hand store entitled "The Constitution of the United States." I'd never seen it before. I flipped through it and found nothing relevant to my present job.

It would certainly explain a lot.

Senator Kennedy is Dead

2009-08-26T06:35:00.001-04:00

Senator Edward M. Kennedy is dead.

Edward Kennedy will be remembered as a man who overcame an impoverished, hardscrabble upbringing to matriculate at Harvard, where he soon established a reputation for extraordinarily original thinking. Before his election in 1962 he had complied such a record of accomplishment that the voters of Massachusetts were impatient at the Constitutional age limit of 30 for senators.

When faced with a great personal crisis, Kennedy acted with such straightforward candor and courage as to embody that old adage, "Let justice be done, though the heavens may fall."

In his only run for the presidency, he laid out such a coherent vision of his reasons for seeking that office that it was only through the machinations of his opponent that he was deprived of it.

In his 45 years as a Senator, Kennedy's green-eyeshade approach to spending and careful appreciation of the Constititional restraint on the reach of the Federal government earned him the affectionate title of "The Taxpayer's Friend."

A faithful husband as well as the father of another upstanding legislator, Edward Kennedy was the embodiment of his Catholic faith. We will not see his kind again.

The Progressive Dictionary of Received Ideas

2009-07-13T12:37:00.004-04:00

Abortion: Refer to as "choice." Women should always have a right to this.
Anti-Communism: Always couple this term with "hysteria."
Arms Race: Speak in superior tones about "apes on a treadmill."
Arts: Should be supported by the government.
Assassin: All corporations have at lease one of these on the payroll.
Bedroom: The governement should stay out of it.
Bush: The worst president in the history of the country. "Chimpy."
Canada: Threaten to emigrate there when a Republican is elected president. Tell people you pretend you’re Canadian when traveling abroad.
Carter: Our greatest ex-president.
Christian: Hypocrites. Always trying to establish a theocracy.
Clinton: Impeached for lying about sex.
Cold War: Unnecessary. Expensive. Reagan had nothing to do with ending it.
Communism: Has never really been tried. We were in inordinate fear of it.
Constitution: Must be a living document.
Defense: Its budget is always bloated.
Dissent: The highest form of patriotism.
Eisenhower: Lazy. Presided over the conformist 1950’s.
Europeans: Wiser than Americans. When criticizing the US, always preface it with "My European friends ask me..."
Fascism: What the country is threatened with in a Republican administration.
Ford, Gerald: Klutz. "Whip inflation now."
Fox News: "Don't you mean 'Faux Noise?' Ha! Ha!"
France: The country we ought to emulate.
Global Warming: A settled science. We only have a few years to act. Anyone who doubts it is in the pay of oil companies. Caused by suburban Republicans driving SUVs.
Health Care: A fundamental right.
Hiroshima: Unnecessary war crime. Japan was ready to surrender anyway.
Hoover: The worst president in the history of the country. Did nothing about the Depression.
Iraq: The greatest foreign policy disaster in the nation’s history.
Israel: Has too much sway in Washington. Should be boycotted.
Journalists: If it wasn’t for them, we’d be living in a dictatorship. Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
KKK: See "Republican." Be sure to refer to “AmeriKKKa.”
Mainstream: The editorial policy of the New York Times.
Mass Transit: Gasoline taxes should be raised to pay for it.
McCarthy: Defined the darkest era in our history. Be sure to say, "Have you no decency, sir?" when mentioning his name.
Media: Preface with "corporate-controlled."
NASCAR: Let your voice drip with contempt when pronouncing it.
National Anthem: Unsingable. Celebrates bombs and violence. Stay seated while it’s played.
New York Times: The exemplar of a great newspaper.
Nixon: The worst president in the history of the country. Proudly claim you were on his enemies list.
Oil Companies: Gouge the consumer. Earn obscene profits. Bought up all the patents for clean energy and buried them.
Palin: Quitter. Stupid. Creationist. Anti-intellectual. Unqualified.
Patriotism: Always mindless when it’s not jingoistic.
Poor: The Republicans make war on them.
Reagan: The worst president in the history of the country. "Ronald Raygun." Be sure to mention "Bedtime for Bonzo" when his name comes up.
Republican: The stupid party. The party of greed. Stole the 2000 election. Say "Rethuglican" or "Repiglican" instead.
Right Wing: Always say "reich wing." Preface with "far" or "extreme."
Roe v. Wade: Sacrosanct. Always under threat. If it’s repealed, no woman can choose.
Schools: It will be a great day when our schools have all the money they need and the government will have to hold a bake sale to buy bombs.
Second Amendment: Should be repealed. Only applies to militias.
Soldiers: Commit atrocities when they’re not victims of their own government.
Tax Cuts: Only go to the rich. Cost the government money.
Taxes: The price we pay for civilization. The rich do no pay enough of them.
Vietnam: An unwinnable war.
War Crime: Military action by the United States or Israel.
Zionism: When accused of anti-Semitism, always say, "I’m not anti-Semitic, only anti-Zionist."

The Kindness of Strangers

2009-07-04T12:09:00.003-04:00

Thursday was a very rough day for our household. Poor Titan! I didn't think that his age, condition, and general aversion to travel boded well for his making it down to Texas and, sadly, he died along the way and not peacefully.

If something good came of this tragedy, it was seeing how well perfect strangers went out of their way to help us in any way they could. When Prudence let me know the air conditioner went out in the car, I called a Honda dealership near Jackson, Mississippi and explained that my wife was traveling with three heavily-coated dogs and no AC. The gentleman I spoke to said to come on in and they could look at the situation.

When Titan began to fail, it seemed like the whole service department mobilized itself to help. A couple of the ladies held Lacey and Silver while Prudence tried to revive Titan. When it was clear that veterinary intervention was necessary, a driver - who was terrified of dogs - drove her and the three Borzoi to a nearby clinic.

At the vet's, while Prudence and the vet were putting Titan to sleep, two technicians were checking over a nervous and trembling Lacey and Silver to make sure that they themselves weren't overheated. Apart from the euthanasia and disposal, they waived any further charges.

Meanwhile, the service department was doing everything it could to get Prudence and the girls back on the road. Someone rushed across town to get a needed part and the technicians worked past closing time to get the car repaired. They then delivered the van - chilled to Antarctic temperatures - to the vet's office so that the sadly depleted party could continue on their way.

Sure, lots of people are rude and unhelpful. But I've traveled quite a bit around this great nation - I've spent a night in every state but Hawaii - and for the most part I've found nothing but kindness, helpfulness and friendliness among my fellow citizens. On Thursday, even in tragedy, we saw a ray of comfort.

The Glorious Fourth

2009-07-04T09:58:00.002-04:00

Happy Independence Day! The United States: for all its faults, for me the most dear.

And let us not forget one of the grievances in the Declaration of Independence:

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

Remember, when our multitude of new Czars need the money, you'll be rich enough.

Goodbye to a Good Guy

2009-07-02T19:17:00.004-04:00

Titan died this afternoon.

Prudence was driving him, Lacey and Silver down from Cincinnati to Houston. They reached Mississippi when the air conditioner in the van went out, punctured by a foreign object. Prudence stopped, got ice and a cooler, opened all the windows and continued down to Jackson and a Honda dealership to have the AC repaired.

While she was there, Titan's larynx became paralyzed. He began choking and, despite Prudence's frantic attempts to massage it into relaxing, he got worse and worse. The dealership rushed her and the dogs to a nearby vet, where Titan was euthanized in her arms. We knew that he was an old dog and wouldn't last much longer, but we're saddened that he didn't go from this world peacefully.

Titan finished his championship as a puppy at the age of 11 months, very rare in a slow-maturing breed like Borzoi. He, and not Lacey, was destined to be our special for campaigning but a foot injury suffered in a coursing event left him with a very slight limp. He was retired to stud duties, which he performed with gusto, earning him the name of "The Love Dog." Two of his children are group winners.

Rest well, big guy. Don't go chasing all the girls at the Rainbow Bridge.

Ch. Soyara's Titan of Blackmoor JC

April 14, 1998-July 2, 2009

An Idiot Speaks

2009-07-01T21:01:00.007-04:00

Silly expatriate Gwyneth Paltrow disses her native country once more:

In a new interview which is sure to irk her best friend Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow has criticised Americans for allowing their Blackberries to interfere with family life.

Hailing her 'second home' of Spain for putting family first, Gwyneth complains her native New Yorkers are too concerned with their work to fully immerse themselves in their family.

Her comments come a year after her close friend Madonna admitted she sleeps with her Blackberry beside her.

Gwyneth compared Spanish culture to American during a recent interview she conducted in fluent Spanish.

In a new interview which is sure to irk her American fans, Gwyneth belittles her native country's 223 years of history compared to the older nation of Spain.

The Oscar winner fell in love with the country when she spent a month living with a family in Talavera de la Reina in central Spain when she was 15.

Speaking in Spanish, she said: 'When I was 15, I went to a small town outside Talavera de la Reina and I had the most wonderful experience. It really changed my life.

'Spain became a second home. It is so different from the United States. It seemed to have a history, and the buildings are years and years and years old.
'Here in the United States an old building is about 17 (years old), and over there it's from 500 B.C., it's incredible.

Oh the poor United States! It's only had its stupid Constitution since 1787, while Spain's historic constitutional monarchy stretches back to 1975.

But wait, there's more:

'Also, the way people live over there. They seem to enjoy life a little bit more. They aren't running around as much as in New York. They enjoy time with the family. They don't always have their Blackberries on.'

With 18.1% unemployment, of course, many Spaniards have a lot of time to spend with their families. Apart from this, there are other places in the United States besides Los Angeles and New York. In some of them, people actually relax and spend time with their families too. Perhaps she should visit them sometime. But I doubt that Miss Paltrow, the daughter of actress Blythe Danner and director Bruce Paltrow, knows those Americans except as insignificant insects her bodyguards push out of the way for her.

This isn't the first time that Fishstick has complained to the foreign press that her fellow citizens aren't to her taste. In 2006 she told a Portugese newspaper that "I don't fit into the bad side of American psychology. The British are much more intelligent and civilized than the Americans. I love the English lifestyle. I'm not as capitalistic as America." She later backtracked, but said, "I always say in America, people live to work and in Europe, people work to live," revealing more ignorance about anyone outside her select milieu.

Well, at the age of 36, Miss Paltrow is past her shelf life as a Hollywood actress. She'll have plenty of time to relax in her Iberian paradise. Enjoy yourself, Gwynnie. Don't call us and we'll forget about you.

The World Suddenly Gets Quieter

2009-06-28T16:22:00.000-04:00

Billy Mays is dead at the age of 50.

The Horse, the Saddle, the Man

2009-06-25T19:25:00.003-04:00

A sad and avoidable tragedy:

Seven high-priced show dogs, including one of the top Akitas in the country, are dead after being left by their handler for several hours in a hot van in Jefferson County.

Police say Mary Wild, a 24-year-old woman who was caring for the dogs, left them in a cargo van early Monday and went to bed after returning from a dog show in Iowa.

The dogs likely died of heat stroke, a veterinarian said, although autopsies are pending. The purebreds included three golden retrievers, a dalmation, a Siberian Husky, a Malamute and the top-ranked Akita
named Jersey.

"I’ve never seen such a horrific act in my lifetime," said Dr. Laura Ivan, the veterinarian in House Springs whose office Wild brought the dogs to on Monday. Ivan is now caring for the lone surviving dog. "This was not intentional, but a horrible, tragic accident."

Wild, who is paid to handle the dogs at shows, did not return repeated phone and email messages from the Post-Dispatch requesting comment. She told police that, after returning from her Iowa road trip, she started to transfer the dogs in kennels into the garage of a home on Kroeck Drive in Arnold. But it was so hot, she later told police, that she instead decided to leave them in their portable kennels in the van.

She told police she put six electric fans in the van to keep the dogs cool. She also left a door open to the van and the van’s windows partly open, said Capt. Ralph Brown of the Jefferson County sheriff’s office. The van was apparently parked in the driveway, Brown said.

She left them in the van about 1 a.m. Monday and went inside the home to sleep. She told police that, three hours later, she went outside to check on the dogs. They were fine, she told police. Then, about 6:30
a.m., all eight dogs were in distress. She found five of the dogs breathing, but not responsive. The other three were clearly in distress, but could at least raise their heads.

She tried reviving the dogs, by hosing them down, then took them to a veterinarian in House Springs. Only one of the eight survived.

I've traveled enough with dogs to know never to leave them in a van, even with fans, when it's hot. Indeed, when we stop for the evening, whatever crates, food and equipment the dogs may need are moved into a comfortable and secure place, most often a motel room. The dogs are then exercised before they're put up. Only then do we attend to our own needs.

The lateness of the hour, the exhaustion that might be felt, the apparent safety of a situation can't be an excuse for not looking after the welfare of the dogs first. Negligence, "an error in judgment, a lack of common sense" in this case, led to tragedy.

Sad, and Sad, but...

2009-06-25T18:52:00.003-04:00

Farah Fawcett died today, a long anticipated event after her long illness. The term "icon" is badly overused nowadays, but in her case it's quite apt.

Much more suddenly, Michael Jackson died this afternoon, apparently from cardiac arrest at the age of 50. I may not be the only one to think that it may have been merciful.

Jackson the musical talent died many years ago; the husk of the mortal form decayed into financial distress and increasingly bizarre appearance and behavior. A "comeback" tour was planned for this summer; it probably would have been pathetic.

We make the mistake of thinking that performers like Judy Garland, Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson were taken from this world too soon. Really, they lived too long. Dead, they are or will be more valuable commodities than if they had survived.

Update: Well, now I'm hearing on CNN speculation that like with Garland and Elvis, pharmaceuticals may have been involved.

Sad News

2009-06-16T22:06:00.003-04:00

Dorothy Nickles, the great and apparently ageless and tireless all-rounder AKC judge, passed away this afternoon at the age of 99.

My lovely bride spoke with her at a show just a couple of years ago. Miss Nickles was complaining that she didn't have enough judging assignments to keep herself busy. Another time, a fat, loudmouthed steward was complaining that her knees hurt. Dorothy, well into her 90s and having spent all day on her feet, snapped, "Oh, just get them operated on!"

Quite a woman. Quite a life. Try to get some rest, Dorothy.

That Can't-Do Spirit

2009-06-14T10:20:00.002-04:00

A plan is being bruited to knock down portions of cities in the Rust Belt:

The government looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature.

Local politicians believe the city must contract by as much as 40 per cent, concentrating the dwindling population and local services into a more viable area.

The radical experiment is the brainchild of Dan Kildee, treasurer of Genesee County, which includes Flint.

Having outlined his strategy to Barack Obama during the election campaign, Mr Kildee has now been approached by the US government and a group of charities who want him to apply what he has learnt to the rest of the country.

Mr Kildee said he will concentrate on 50 cities, identified in a recent study by the Brookings Institution, an influential Washington think-tank, as potentially needing to shrink substantially to cope with their declining fortunes.

Most are former industrial cities in the "rust belt" of America's Mid-West and North East. They include Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Memphis.

In Detroit, shattered by the woes of the US car industry, there are already plans to split it into a collection of small urban centres separated from each other by countryside.

"The real question is not whether these cities shrink – we're all shrinking – but whether we let it happen in a destructive or sustainable way," said Mr Kildee. "Decline is a fact of life in Flint. Resisting it is like resisting gravity."

I lived in Houston in the mid-1980's when it was devastated by the collapse in oil prices with all the attendant ecomonic problems: high unemployment, negative equity in housing, migration to other cities. Yet the political leadership of the city didn't give up then and hasn't given up now. Even with the present recession, driving around I see construction projects, new businesses, commericial vehicles on the roads, trains carrying goods to and fro. The region didn't give up then and isn't surrendering now.

Really, if Mr. Kildee wants to raze dilapidated portions of these cities, he could always start with the political classes whose policies have led to their continuing depressed estate.

The Future of Our Past

2009-06-04T19:15:00.004-04:00

I came across this lovely site, featuring magazines from years long ago. As I'm a sucker for old articles about the cutting edge of future technology, the ones from Modern Mechanix, Popular Science and Popular Mechanics are a particular delight.

One thing I noticed: they really had a thing for death rays back in the '30s:

Popular Science, February, 1940

Modern Mechanix, October, 1936

Modern Mechanix, August, 1935

Modern Mechanix, August, 1936

Modern Mechanix, September, 1934

Dopey Letter of the Day

2009-06-03T07:14:00.005-04:00

Where else but the New York Times?

Bill O’Reilly’s statements exemplify the zealotry that infects too many in the anti-abortion movement, as well as highlight why President Obama’s call for finding common ground on abortion is so misguided.
I would remind the president that this country already found common ground on abortion in 1973, when the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade. That compromise is between the right of individuals to determine their own reproductive destinies and the interests of the state. It is settled law for all but the most determined opponents.
The simple truth that the president must realize is that these zealots don’t want common ground on abortion: they are committed and determined to end reproductive freedom in all its forms.
Deborah J. Glick
New York Assemblywoman, 66th Dist.
New York

Is it not amazing that when Muslim lunatics commit heinous and brutal acts of terrorism all the Goodthinkers tell us not to generalize, Islam is a religion of peace, nothing to worry about here, no siree, but when a domestic white, male lunatic commits a heinous and brutal act of terrorism against a "progressive" symbol, no extrapolation is too tortured for these same Goodthinkers to smear their opponents?

Nightmare Journey

2009-06-02T20:21:00.001-04:00

My lovely bride and I are in the process of relocating. I am in our new house near Houston (about which more in the future) while she’s in our old house in Ohio. The work we had to do on the old place is nearly finished, but before we are able put it on the market we had to get the dogs relocated, the reason we’re reluctantly holding two houses right now.

So we were faced with the problem of transporting 20 large, heavily coated Borzoi - plus Talker, the Whippet and Fluffy, the cat (God, what a name!) - from Ohio to Texas. Shuttling the dogs down didn’t seem realistic; the best thing, we decided, was to get them all down at once. This, we felt, would be most efficient and less expensive than the alternatives.

We settled on using a horse-transportation company to assist us. They move horses from one end of the country to another; why not our dogs? We made arrangements with one and were led to believe that they would provide an enclosed air-conditioned semi trailer to transport the dogs comfortably. My lovely bride asked for them to come the week of May 25th, most preferably Wednesday the 27th. We also sent them a picture of eleven of the dogs lined up in their crates, to give them an idea of their size.

Our plans were this: The three oldest dogs – Lacey, Silver and Titan – would be staying with my lovely bride in Ohio until the household goods were transported. Titan would be boarded at the vet’s because of his age and poor tolerance for long-distance travel. Lacey and Silver would ride to Texas (their native state) with my lovely bride in the minivan and return with her to Ohio. Stanley, a poor traveler, would also ride in a crate in the minivan. I would be taking Fluffy (God, what a name!) and whatever dog-related items in the (non-air-conditioned) conversion van. The remainder of the dogs would be riding in the (we supposed) air-conditioned trailer.

Three days beforehand, the transportation firm called to tell us that they would be arriving on Monday the 25th. This wouldn’t do from our end, as the vet was coming out that day to inoculate the whole crew of four-legged creatures. They said that they wouldn’t come out on the 27th as we requested and that they would be fulfilling their end of the contract if they came on Monday. My lovely bride, a skilled negotiator, bargained for Tuesday the 26th. Unfortunately, this was also the day that workmen would be coming to remove the asbestos from some of the old ductwork.

On Tuesday, the asbestos-removing workmen and the transportation truck arrived at nearly the same time. To our horror, the transportation firm sent us not the air-conditioned trailer we’d been led to believe we’d be provided but an ordinary goose-neck open-slatted horse trailer, still liberally garnished with old straw and horse manure. The bloody thing wouldn’t fit through our gate and had to be parked in a neighbor’s driveway a hundred yards down the road, requiring us to shuttle the dogs’ wire crates and the dogs down there.

First things first, the house dogs had to be gotten out before the asbestos removal could begin. Then my lovely bride and I slogged away at gradually moving crates and dogs down the road to the trailer and getting them loaded. The driver insisted on balancing the load, so they had to go on the two sides of the trailer. Unfortunately, the trailer was too narrow for any walkway between the crates on one side and those on the other. My lovely bride finally got them all fitted in, but to get to some of the dogs, others would have to be removed and their crates lifted out of the way. Needless to say, we prayed there wouldn’t be any emergencies.

Finally, after six hours on an increasingly hot day, we got underway on our 1200 mile trip. Despite having some 2000 pounds of dogs and their associated crates, the trailer was underweight and bounced badly on an uneven road. Dutch and Ilya, who were riding in the very back, were particularly badly shaken and Dutch had stress diarrhea. At a stop some 100 miles down the road, we found that almost everyone’s water had either sloshed out of their buckets or had dirt and straw floating in it. We had thought that the 50 gallons of water we brought with us would be more than enough, but between the heat, the stress and the ride, the poor dogs were going through it at a prodigious rate.

We got to Memphis at about 11:00 PM. My lovely bride and I got everyone exercised, took Lacey, Silver and Belle to the motel room with us and fell into bed for a couple of hours. At 4:00, we got up and did some rearranging of dogs and equipment to empty out the rear of the trailer to the extent possible. Dutch and Ilya were crated in my van, where they could ride less uncomfortably, and Faith and Belle went with my lovely bride, who now had five dogs with her. At 6:00 AM, we all departed.

The drive from Memphis to Houston, down through Mississippi and through Louisiana, seemed to take forever and the day got hotter and hotter. At a rest stop, we exercised the dogs and soaked everyone to the skin with water from a hose outlet before reloading them. Finally, after 7:00 PM, we arrived at our destination south of Houston. This time, the driver was able to get his rig through the gate and we unloaded the dogs and their crates as quickly as possible into their temporary home, the garage.

Within a couple of hours, Ilya fell very ill. Had not my lovely and very perceptive bride not noticed the symptoms immediately, poor Ilya would have gone past the point of no return. Luckily I had made contact with a vet clinic before the move and even more luckily they had a vet on call. We rushed Ilya to the clinic, where he was very expensively treated for a life-threatening disorder. He’s now convalescing here and, God willing, should make a full recovery.

A terrible, depressing, expensive experience. Never, never will we do anything like this again. But it’s over. The other dogs are settling in well and enjoying their new homestead. Within the month, the household goods (mercifully inanimate), my lovely bride, and the three remaining dogs will make their way down to Stately Hlatky Manor South. And, after seven months, we’ll all be a family again.