KAL/The EconomistTuesday, July 20, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
Dick Cheney's House Of Horrors Legacy
Dick Cheney, more reviled than any American politician of recent memory, has been a dead man walking for years in the eyes of many historians.
He is worshiped only by right-wingers, the Fox News crowd and the other usual media hacks.
He has no hope of vindicating his own vice presidential legacy, which began with him ignoring warning signs of an impending attack on the homeland as George Bush's national security adviser because he was still fighting the Cold War, then lurched through eight years of executive excess, serial lying, obfuscation and occasional naps during Cabinet meetings, and ended his interregnum by being outted as the dungeon master of a vast secret apparatus that routinely tortured suspected terrorists, many of them innocents.* * * * *The news that Richard Bruce Cheney's 69-year-old heart may be in the last stages of congestive failure got me to wondering if a man whom foes and even friends alike fear might have a deathbed catharsis.
Since I have never read an account -- not one single account -- of a kinder, gentler out-of-the-limelight Cheney, I suppose that he will not, but that's between he and the Maker.
After all, Cheney always has been wound tight.
Power for Cheney always has been more personal than political.
Grudges for Cheney always have been something to be harbored indefinitely, whether the post-Watergate constraints placed on executive power or the revelation that one of his justifications for the Iraq war was a lie by the husband of a CIA operative.
Failure for Cheney always has been something deeply felt, and no failure has been greater than his not anticipating the 9/11 attacks.
Destruction of evidence for Cheney always has been preferable to public accountings.
And finally, Cheney always has put himself first and country and party second and third.
Wanted: Your Golden Retriever Stories
Golden retrievers have been a huge part of our life at Kiko's House.
But as I have written here, many American golden retrievers are also ticking time bombs because an extraordinarily large number of them -- perhaps one in four -- succumb to cancer well before living to the once typical 12- to 16-year life expectancy.
I know this all too well. I have lived with and been acquainted with a dozen or so goldens over the years, most of them pictured in the photo montage above. I have midwifed their births, taken them to the vet, helped breed them and cradled them in my arms as they drew their last breaths.
Prompted by the continuing stream of heartbreaking comments from readers who lost their goldens long before their time, we're researching a story on what work is being done to try to breed cancers out of goldens, as well as put unscrupulous breeders on notice who fail to alert buyers to the high risk of cancers and other fatal diseases in the breed.
To that end, we welcome your personal stories about your goldens -- or those of family members or friends. Photographs in the form of .jpgs also are most welcome.
Please send them to kikokimba@gmail.com
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Science Sunday: Stargazing & Realizing That You're A Pimple On The Ass Of Time
THE MILKY WAY IS JUST THE STARTMy younger brother has always been the most scientifically minded -- which is to say most curious about how things work -- in our family.
He figured out how to take apart our front door lock set when he was four, but not how to reassemble it, thereby locking out our parents. He figured out how to hot wire a bulldozer when he was six, but not how to drive it, which resulted in a perilous but short ride into a sewer excavation behind our home. And so you might say that he was given a telescope as a Christmas present when he was 10 or so as a form of self defense. And neighborhood safety.
It was through that modest Fisher Scientific telescope that I first saw the craters of the moon, the rings of Saturn and Jupiter's Great Red Spot. I was soon hooked on stargazing, and eventually what I consider it's "twin" -- navel contemplation. This is because many hours of looking through the eyepieces of telescopes over the years has given me a perspective, as well as a sense of awe, about our world and the greater universe around it.
As Marcia Bartusiak notes in her wonderful The Day We Found the Universe, because of the stunning telescope images of the cosmos, we now take the extraordinary for granted. That is if you're not of the God made the world in seven days persuasion.
Indeed, there is nothing quite like realizing that you are a pimple on the ass of time.THE PIMPLE IS PUSHEDA confluence of circumstances pushed this pimple to write about stargazing and the telescope.
First, the rare book and manuscript library where I labor has the only collection of the notebooks of Thomas Harriot outside of the British Library. In fact, we havephotocopies of the originals, which were found by a distinguished faculty member of my university in, believe it or not, a big trunk in the dank cellar of a castle on a moor after having gone missing for centuries.
Harriot (right), who is considered the English Galileo, was the first person to make a drawing of the Moon through a telescope -- actually a spyglass converted to a telescope -- in July 1609, over four months before Galileo Galilei did the deed with a telescope of his own invention.
Harriot was a true Renaissance man. He founded the English school of algebra, was the first mathematician to set an equation equal to zero and then factor it, the creator of modern algebraic symbols such as "greater than" and "less than" signs, and the first to explore the potential of binary numeration. He also dabbled in navigationand physics and discovered the sine law of refraction, which explains the bending of light, sailed to the New World with Sir Walter Raleigh, and spent quality time in the Tower of London when he was on the outs with the crown.
Secondly, among my library's many holdings is the first edition a book by Galileo (left) that was loaned to the Franklin Institute for its amazing exhibition -- "Galileo: The Medici & The Age of Astronomy" -- celebrating the 400th anniversary of the Venetian's first telescope.
Thirdly, I just finished The Day We Found the Universe.
And finally, the wonderful website Ars Technica has done much of my work for me in a riveting essay on the evolution of the telescope. I urge you to read it.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Is The Speed Camera Tide Turning?
Although not as bad as state-sponsored casino gambling -- which disproportionately hurts the people least able to keep their heads above water -- speed cameras are a close second. They exist not to enforce speed-limit laws, but to raise revenue.
The experience of the Dear Friend & Conscience is typical. She was driving through a construction zone at a downtown speed-monitored intersection when the light turned yellow. It was a short yellow, probably intentionally so, and the light apparently turned red before she cleared the intersection.
While she was not speeding, she got a citation. Fighting it was hopeless because it was obvious that the speed camera court deck was stacked against her with the judge declaring in no uncertain terms that if she did not pay the fine her credit rating would be affected and she could lose her car insurance.
Got that?
Credit rating.
Car insurance.
Crock of shit.
Speed cameras have spread like wildfire in recent years, but now the tide may be turning -- in Arizona, of all places, and because of privacy concerns, of all things.
Alas, that is no reason to ban the cameras. Civil libertarian that I am, surveillance cameras have an important place, notably in urban settings where there typically is more crime, but not as a way to soak people as those state-sponsored casinos do.
Friday, July 16, 2010
America's Twin Beacons Of Racism
The dust-up between the Tea Party and the NAACP proves three things yet again:
* Racists in contemporary America have become extraordinarily adept as casting themselves as the victims, and the news media dutifully plays along, including pundits who call the NAACP's criticism of the Tea Party a "stunt."
* The Republican National Committee, instead of seizing on an opportunity to put some daylight between itself and the Tea Party's pushback against the civil-rights organization, dove into the deep end of the pool head first in siding with wingnuts over an historically aggrieved minority that has fled from the GOP in droves.
* Despite the Tea Party's ejaculations to the effect that it is nonpartisan, the latest to-and-fro shows that it and the GOP are joined at the hip, and so brazen have they become that dog-whistle code words cloaking their disdain for blacks aren't even used.
Yes, the NAACP has in some respects outlived its usefulness. Many of its historic goals have been accomplished. A black man occupies the Oval Office. But racism is alive and well in America and the Tea Party and the Republican Party are its twin beacons.
Wanted: Your Golden Retriever Stories
Golden retrievers have been a huge part of our life at Kiko's House.
But as I have written here, many American golden retrievers are also ticking time bombs because an extraordinarily large number of them -- perhaps one in four -- succumb to cancer well before living to the once typical 12- to 16-year life expectancy.
I know this all too well. I have lived with and been acquainted with a dozen or so goldens over the years, most of them pictured in the photo montage above. I have midwifed their births, taken them to the vet, helped breed them and cradled them in my arms as they drew their last breaths.
Prompted by the continuing stream of heartbreaking comments from readers who lost their goldens long before their time, we're researching a story on what work is being done to try to breed cancers out of goldens, as well as put unscrupulous breeders on notice who fail to alert buyers to the high risk of cancers and other fatal diseases in the breed.
To that end, we welcome your personal stories about your goldens -- or those of family members or friends. Photographs in the form of .jpgs also are most welcome.
Please send them to kikokimba@gmail.com
Thursday, July 15, 2010
What Has That Barry Obama Done In 18 Months? A Lot More Than You Think
The prez and prezette also brought some much needed fashion senseIn fact, you probably have to go back to the first 18 months of the accidental presidency of LBJ to come even close to the sheer volume of accomplishments.
For openers, the dude did avert a complete economic meltdown, in part through a $789 bill economic stimulus package.
For another, he enacted the most sweeping health-care reform since forever.
For yet another, and these are especially near and dear to my heart, he extended veterans' health-care benefits, returned the GI Bill to its former robust self and most recently reformed the ridiculously arcane regulations that have prevented many veterans from getting disability payments for post traumatic stress disorder.
Meanwihle, courtesy of Ugandans at Heart, he also:
* Began the draw down of U.S. troops from Iraq.Oh, and he had a swing set built on the White House lawn.
* Ended the Pentagon's media blackout on war casualties.
* Increased pay and benefits for military personnel.
* Phased out the beyond expensive F-22 warplane and outdated weapons systems.
* Ended the no-bid defense contract policy.
* Ended the Bush administration's torture policy.
* Instituted enforcement for equal pay for women.
* Expanded the SCHIP health-insurance program for children.
* Increased vaccination programs.
* Lowered drug costs for seniors.
* Limited lobbyist's White House access.
* Removed restrictions on and increased federal support for embryonic stem-cell research.
* Permitted states to enact fuel efficiency standards above federal standards.
* Considerably increased infrastructure spending.
* Funded new school construction.
* Increased college student loans.
* Rescued the domestic auto industry.
* Restarted nuculer . . . er, nuclear nonproliferation talks.
* Reengaged in global warming and greenhouse gas emissions talks.
* Launched the enormously successful Cash For Clunkers program.
* Increased tax write-offs for hybrid vehicles.
* Instituted a new policy on Cuba, including allowing Cuban families to return home to visit loved ones.
* Authorized talks with North Korea and Myanmar.
* Closed offshore tax havens.
* Ended tax benefits for corporations who outsource America jobs.
* Cracked down on the credit card industry.
* Appointed the first Latina to the Supreme Court.
Hat tip to BooMan at the Booman Tribune
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
You Know That Society Is Doomed . . .
When President Obama is blamed for causing the BP oil spill because he dissed Israel.
When a man takes his mother hostage for not ironing his clothes.
When a woman crashes her car into a liquor store -- for the second time.
When General Motors employees are told to no longer refer to Chevrolets as Chevys.
When a six-year-old girl is on the U.S.government's "no-fly" list.
When parents brawl at a kindergarten graduation.
When voters tend to support political incumbents more when their local football team is winning.
When a restaurant serves food only from countries that the U.S. is inconflict with.
When a veteran editor covering the Middle East is canned for tweeting that she admired a Lebanese cleric with ties to militants who had passed away.
When a woman blames a vampire for a car crash.When a state releases a training video for its police offices on how to act like they're not racial profiling when they racial profile.
When a couple tries to sell their baby at a Wal-Mart for an "every day low price."
When Apple censors a version of Joyce's "Ulysses" for being too graphic.
When a candidate threatens her opponent with a lawsuit because she claims her published opinions on policy issues are protected by copyright.
When Wal-Mart spends over $1 million in legal fees rather than pay a $7,000 fine.
When a tween star's fan base becomes alienated because their idol is growingup.
When Republicans support higher unemployment.
When siblings fight over whether to put butter or margarine in a macaroni and cheese casserole.
When a priest steals $1 million for male escorts and nice clothes.
When a man shows a woman and daughter his "grape nuts" in a supermarket cereal aisle.
When Subway changes the way it puts cheese on subs.
When a crossing guard beats up a boy for calling him "fatso."
When a man steals a tractor from aconstruction site to go on a beer run.
When a woman intentionally shoots herself in the shoulder so she can get emergency room treatment.
When a guy tells police that Hitler made him grow pot plants.
When LeBron James' move to the Miami Heat helps the Tea Party.
Click here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here for previous installments of You Know Society Is Doomed.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Keep Your Hands Off My Constitution!
NOT A BAD JOB FOR A BUNCH OF WHITE DUDESThe United States Constitution is a remarkable document. Yes, it does not explicitly acknowledge the rights of women, as well as avoids addressing slavery, which was the political third rail of the era. But beyond the original Bill of Rights it has been amended a mere 17 times in 227 years, including two amendments that redress slavery, and five of those 17 amendments are technical fixes.
This did not deter tireless Republican Party culture warriors who spent much of the last decade unsuccessfully trying to pass amendments banning abortion, same-sex marriage and flag burning, establishing English as the "official" language, permitting prayer in public schools, and so on and so forth. But now, in a reversal of field, Republicans are trying to get rid of amendments that don't pass their political purity test.
Three amendments are currently in the crosshairs of the Iowa Republican Party -- the 14th (on birthright citizenship), the 16th (a progressive federal income tax), and the 17th (U.S. senators elected by the public).
Like the initiatives to pass new amendments, the efforts of right-wing Republicans generally and the Iowa GOP in particular to abolish amendments will go down in flames.
The biggest reason is that there are too many issues that transcend tinkering with the Constitution, besides which most of us have the good sense to know that if it ain't broken then there's no reason to fix it.
It's just that good sense does not apply to too many Republicans these days.
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