30 May 2005
The Hills Still Resonate

I watched this movie as a child, in the theater in 1965, and it remains a favorite of mine. Most folks who know me well still find this intensely curious ... I suppose that it's not the kind of film a guy like myself is "supposed" to like. But I still find it absolutely captivating, despite (or because of?) the heavy layer of sentiment.

Its director was the editor of "Citizen Kane." Its screenwriter was the author of "North by Northwest." Its composers were the most successful songwriting team in American theater history. And "The Sound of Music" was the movie that everybody hated but the people.

(link) [The New York Times]

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29 May 2005
Beer mat ads to recruit priests

What in the world is the good cardinal thinking? Heathens would have no problem with a 'beer mat' (we generally call them 'coasters' on this side of the Big Pond) depicting say, a Thor's Hammer, or a Raven or even a Valknut. Compared to the denizens of Yahweh's heaven, our guys (and gals) are positive party animals! But were I a Christian, especially one devout enough to be considering a priesthood, methinks I might be a trifle offended to lift my brewski only to reveal a crucifix and a come on for a seminary!

The Catholic Church is to address the problem of declining priest numbers by advertising on beer mats.

(link) [BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition]

00:00 /Asatru | 0 comments | permanent link

Sex Offenders Get Medicaid-Paid Viagra (AP)

Ah, bureaucracy at it's best! But perhaps there's hope after all: how many of these 800 will go blind?

AP - Nearly 800 convicted sex offenders in 14 states got Medicaid-funded prescriptions for Viagra and other impotence drugs, according to a survey by The Associated Press.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

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28 May 2005
Bolivia admiral denies coup plan

Bolivian Naval EnsignThis little piece caught my eye the other day, not because of a supposed coup plot, but because of the military rank designation of the alleged plotter. Why does landlocked Bolivia have an admiral, and therefore, a navy?

Not only does Bolivia have a Navy, it has a Naval Ensign (shown above), which flies on it's patrol craft plying Lake Titicaca and nearly 10,000 miles of rivers! But there's an even more interesting tale behind the scenes, so to speak:

This is a good example of a flag being used to maintain a geopolitical claim. Bolivia had access to the Pacific until 1884 and getting it back has been one of the dominant trends of Bolivian domestic and international politics ever since. To cut a long and complicated story short, in 1879 Chile declared war on Peru and Bolivia which had, in alliance, seized various territories, including valuable nitrate mines, along the Pacific coast. The Bolivians and Peruvians lost. In 1904 the Chilean control over the coastal access lost by Bolivia was confirmed by treaty, the deal being that Bolivia should have access to the port of Arica via a railway to be built at Chilean expense. This was completed in 1913, but the Bolivians renewed their territorial claim in 1918. In 1932, Bolivia tried to gain access to the Atlantic by going to war with Paraguay. (Quite how this was supposed to work, given that Paraguay is itself landlocked, is something I've not seen satisfactorily explained.) Anyway, Bolivia lost disastrously, and Paraguay annexed about a third of Bolivia’s territory. In 1962 the whole business flared up again and Bolivia broke off diplomatic relations with Chile. In 1975, Chile suggested a land swap as part of a package which would give Bolivia sea access, and a year later Peru came up with further suggestions. The stalemate continues, although discussions were held between Chile and Bolivia in 1991. The meeting, held between 18-22 March, coincided with Bolivia’s 'Day of the Sea' the timing and symbolism of which were fairly obvious.

from Flags of the World

The head of Bolivia's armed forces denies rumours of a coup plot, as protests over the new energy law continue.

(link) [BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition]

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Muslims denounce 'US Koran abuse'

Christopher Hitchens has a wonderful take on this brouhaha over at Slate. Here's an excerpt:

For whatever it's worth, I know and admire both John Barry and Michael Isikoff, and I can quite imagine that—based on what they had already learned about the gruesome and illegal goings-on at Guantanamo, Bagram, and Abu Ghraib—they found it more than plausible that the toilet incident, or something like it, had actually occurred. A second allegation, that a whole pile of Qurans had been stepped upon at Guantanamo, is equally credible. But mere objectivity requires us to note that this is partly because every prisoner is given a Quran, and that thus there are a lot of them lying around, and that none of this "scandal" would ever have occurred if the prison authorities were not at least attempting to respect Islamic codes. Do Christian and Jewish prisoners in Muslim states receive Bibles and Talmuds? Do secular detainees in Pakistan petition with success to be given Thomas Paine's Age of Reason? Isikoff told me recently that he'd been out to see the trial of a madrasah student in Virginia who was accused of terrorist recruitment and propaganda, and he had been somewhat shocked at the virulence of the anti-Jewish teachings on offer at that school. The school is almost certainly paid for by Saudi money. A Wahhabist version of the Quran, containing distortions of the original and calling for war against "unbelievers" of all sorts, is now handed out by imams in our very own prison system! Do we demand in return that Saudi Arabia allow churches and synagogues and free-thought centers on soil where the smallest heresy is punishable by death? No, we do not. Instead, we saturate ourselves in masochism and invent the silly, shallow term "Quran abuse."

Go read the whole thing.

People across the Muslim world protest against the alleged abuse of the Koran by US military personnel.

(link) [BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition]

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Brand Name Bullies

Spotted a short post on Brand Name Bullies, by David Bollier over at Overlawyered, and it's now on my must buy short list. Here's the cover blurb:

An impassioned, darkly amusing look at how corporations misuse copyright law to stifle creativity and free speech

If you want to make fun of Mickey or Barbie on your Web site, you may be hearing from some corporate lawyers. You should also think twice about calling something "fair and balanced" or publicly using Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. It may be illegal. Or it may be entirely legal, but the distinction doesn't matter if you can't afford a lawyer. More and more, corporations are grabbing and asserting rights over every idea and creation in our world, regardless of the law's intent or the public interest. But beyond the humorous absurdity of all this, there lies a darker problem, as David Bollier shows in this important new book. Lawsuits and legal bullying clearly prevent the creation of legitimate new software, new art and music, new literature, new businesses, and worst of all, new scientific and medical research.

David Bollier (Amherst, MA) is cofounder of Public Knowledge and Senior Fellow at the Norman Lear Center, USC Annenberg School for Communication. His books include Silent Theft.

00:00 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link

27 May 2005
J.F.E.

Just f**king exhausted.

asterisks in case my mom's reading...

00:00 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

26 May 2005
A&E doctors call for ban on pointed kitchen knives

For anyone who wonders about the real ends of the gun control movement, you need look no further. I wonder when they'll try to ban large rocks?

Long pointed kitchen knives should be banned to reduce violent crime and deaths from stabbing, say accident and emergency doctors in this week's BMJ.

(link) [EurekAlert! - Breaking News]

00:00 /Politics | 1 comment | permanent link

25 May 2005
Loud, Proud, Unabridged: It Is Too Reading!

I know Kris and I have certainly enjoyed a great many audio books on long car trips. They make the time go by so much faster. And some writings were meant to be heard rather than read, if that makes any sense. Beowulf is an epic poem, which is of course supposed to be recited.

In a more modern vein, The Silmarillion is a wonderful book, but an even better audio book. This is prose that is often difficult, awkward and seemingly repetitive when read, but suddenly springs to life when listened to as audio. No more struggles with antique spellings and foreign pronunciations - the tale shines so much brighter that it's hard to believe it's the same text.

The popularity of audio books is redefining the notion of reading, which, for centuries, has been centered on the written word.

(link) [NYT > Home Page]

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Does a family dinner guarantee slimmer kids?

Honestly, the thought that eating dinner as a family would keep my kids skinny never entered my mind, yet I insisted on eating together with them every night. It was a real hassle sometimes, especially when my youngest was at band practice until 9 or 10 pm, but snack a bit and we'd wait on her for dinner when she got home. We even made Hilary bring her dates home for dinner at least once before they could go out alone! The scandal! The shame! To hear my daughter tell it at the time, you'd think she was being raised in a concentration camp!

But just tonight on the phone, she was telling me how she fixed dinner for the grandkids ... the tradition got passed down, and I think she's a better mom for it.

Far be it for me to claim my children as perfect, but I do believe that eating together gave them an open channel to the parents, and over the long run encouraged the kind of character development that I wanted to see.

One trend that has paralleled the rise of obesity in the last two decades has been the decline in frequency of children eating dinner with their families. Elsie Taveras, instructor in the Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, and colleagues surveyed the frequency of family dinner among more than 14,400 9- to 14-year-olds and incidence of overweight.

(link) [EurekAlert! - Breaking News]

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24 May 2005
Congressmen Propose Steroid-Testing Bill (AP)

I wondered how long this was going to take ...

AP - Athletes in the four major U.S. professional leagues would be subject to two-year bans for a first positive drug test under legislation proposed Tuesday that would put the sports' steroid policies under the White House drug czar.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Court upholds 'Beef: It's What's for Dinner'

A tax by any other name ... and worse, one laid upon a specific group, supporting speech that many in the group find extremely distasteful. I am very disappointed with the Court on this - I wonder if they'd uphold a law forcing software developers to pay $1 from each retail sale to support an ad campaign along the lines of "Software - It's What Computers Eat for Dinner"?

If you happen to be one of the lucky few who's bought a quarter of one of my Highlands for your freezer, you paid approximately an extra $0.025 per pound to support this ad campaign - it ain't much, but you can bet that ultimately this cost is passed on to the consumer. They always are.

The justices rule that First Amendment protections don't apply to the beef campaign, alienating some ranchers.

(link) [Christian Science Monitor | Top Stories]

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

Minnesota court takes dim view of encryption

By this logic, having a lock on your door could be construed as evidence that you were hiding contraband.

Using PGP to encrypt files can be viewed as evidence of criminal intent, an appeals court rules.

(link) [CNET News.com]

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23 May 2005
Tinfoil Hat House

Silly people! All that effort, when all they really needed was a set of Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanies to ward off the evil!

A family in Sacramento has covered the side of their house with aluminum to keep the radiowaves from their neighbors at bay. The city has given them one week to remove the life saving shielding or face charges.

(link) [Slashdot]

00:00 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link

22 May 2005
New details about Soviet Cold War intentions

There's a very interesting tidbit in this article, one with almost universal applicability:

Penetration of the western military was unusually high, and they had a lot of very specific intelligence about NATO's thinking. That should have told them that NATO's planning was defensive, but their ideology predisposed them to assume that capitalist states were aggressive and that NATO was on the verge of a strike at any moment. Their ideology, in part, explains why they ignored the findings of their own intelligence establishment.

Would the Soviet Union have survived longer if it had heeded the wisdom of it's own spies? Would they have diverted spending from military to civilian purposes and staved off the collapse? Who knows? But Bush & Co. would do well to heed these words - allowing your politics to color the facts is the path of fools.

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Warsaw Pact. Newly declassified papers from former Communist states shed fresh light on the inner workings of the Soviet Union's Cold War alliance with its eastern European satellites and its plans for war. U.S. News spoke with Malcolm Byrne, coauthor of A Cardboard Castle? An Inside History of the Warsaw Pact 1955-1991, about the finds.

(link) [U.S. News & World Report]

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