Bush's Legacy?

I can't decide whether this USA Today article, titled, Bush's Legacy: Faithful Conservatism, is snide and condescending, neutral, or supportive. Clearly, a lot of folks don't like the colleges that educate young people who are evangelical Christians as well as conservative in their politics. The press has recently uncovered a nefarious and troublesome plot - a true conspiracy - that some colleges (even law schools, heaven forbid) seem to have an agenda that includes graduating politically conservative, evangelical students with goals that include influencing government. Imagine! The message is clear: if you're a conservative evangelical Christian, you need to shut up and get in the corner while the grown ups - Methodists, Presbyterians and Catholics - handle the hard stuff.

I certainly don't want to be overly suspicious, but it seems to me an effective way to discredit someone or some group right now is to show them as aligned with President Bush, or worse yet, as potential Bush torchbearers (ie, "Legacy"). Bush Derangement Syndrome will only be cured by a government-wide purging of Bush hires - a Bush enema, if you will - just as soon after Jan 20, 2009 as humanly possible, so it's not too soon to begin identifying those to be flushed.

It's a short article, so read it. McLean Bible Church even gets a mention,

Among themselves, evangelicals at the White House would joke about "outing" each other. You only knew about another evangelical, one Patrick Henry intern at the White House told me, if you ran into him on a Sunday morning at McLean Bible Church in Northern Virginia, a fancy megachurch attended by prominent conservative lawmakers. I once heard a Patrick Henry senior who had just finished a White House internship explain testily to a sophomore that no, he should not write on his application that the Bible was the book that had influenced him the most.

A Proper Dog...

Misterrrr Mayor!

So I got to go hear Mayor Giuliani speak today, front row. No big deal :].
He was actually really good though--well spoken and humble. He did the whole baseball bit and moved right into keeping the country safe and turning around the economy, with some hillary bashing along the way. He really broke down basic republican economic theory, explaining how cutting taxes actually leads to higher revenue and pointing out that for the leading dems, this stuff is all theoretical because none have even had to balance a budget, in comparison to his successful fiscal policies in NYC. He did an extended critique of Hillary's latest "baby-bond" idea, using it as a case study in the difference between the way he and she think. Interesting stuff!
I also found out that one of my roomates, featured in the above picture, is the niece of the mayor of Houston, who apparently won with like 90% of the votes and is thinking of running for governor, then president. I smell a potential internship/job?

Da Lions

So, are the folks in Michigan all a'buzz about the lions this year? I mean, they beat the Bears, but will they actually be good this year? I still can't bring myself to believe....

British insight on OIF

Very detailed, well researched article that covers most of the major contributers to the current Iraq. Interesting read, albeit a little long.

Much of this information I have learned through independent research and through the ins and outs of my job... (sorry, lowly serfs... no details for you) But there is still a lot of really great info in this article and it is all presented in a logical, well-thought out fashion.

really, quite a breath of fresh air from the normal "ZOMG!! %&$# BUSHITLER!!"

"vast celebrations of solipsism..."

An interesting and well-written article on social networking; well worth the 30 minute reading time. There is a lot of food-for-thought here, with an eye toward what kind of a culture are we creating via Facebook, Myspace, etc.

Because friendship depends on mutual revelations that are concealed from the rest of the world, it can only flourish within the boundaries of privacy; the idea of public friendship is an oxymoron.

There is something Orwellian about the management-speak on social networking sites: “Change My Top Friends,” “View All of My Friends” and, for those times when our inner Stalins sense the need for a virtual purge, “Edit Friends.” With a few mouse clicks one can elevate or downgrade (or entirely eliminate) a relationship.

“There is a sense of, ‘if I’m not online or constantly texting or posting, then I’m missing something,’” he said of his students. “This is where I find the generational impact the greatest—not the use of the technology, but the overuse of the technology.”

Some pictures from our Canada trip......eh

Who do you trust?

In research published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, a team of scientists from Britain, the US and Germany (including a Nobel Prize recipient for work on ozone) are reporting

Measurements of emissions from the burning of biofuels derived from rapeseed and maize have been found to produce more greenhouse gas emissions than they save.

Yea, like rapeseed and maize produce

up to 70 per cent and 50 per cent more greenhouse gases respectively than fossil fuels.

How many of you knew that burning corn-based ethanol actually produces 50 percent more greenhouse gases than fossil fuels?

Perhaps we've jumped the gun a bit in our Al Gore-led march against global warming? Perhaps all those corn-state Senators who turned on the dollar-spigot for their maize-producing states while proposing to further penalize fossil fuels with higher tariffs and taxes were a bit hasty in their initiatives?

The findings illustrated the importance, the researchers said, of ensuring that measures designed to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions are assessed thoroughly before being hailed as a solution.

Or, could it be that concern for emissions and clean air are in fact secondary to their primary concern for power, wealth and control? Could it be that there are those in our society who would capitalize on fear to build their own power-base?

Just who do you trust to tell the truth? Can you trust what you read in any newspaper? Or what you hear on the radio or see on the TV? Can you trust what you hear from our government? How do we function as a society if we have to always begin from a position of skepticism? Do we even punish those who are purposefully deceptive anymore?

Avast, me hearties!

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me!
We pillage, we plunder, we rifle and loot
Drink up, me hearties, yo ho!
We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot
Drink up, me hearties, yo ho!

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me!
We extort, we pilfer, we filch and sack
Drink up, me hearties, yo ho!
Maraud and embezzle and even hijack
Drink up, me hearties, yo ho!

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me!
We kindle and char, inflame and ignite
Drink up, me hearties, yo ho!
We burn up the city, we're really a fright
Drink up, me hearties, yo ho!
We're rascals, scoundrels, villains, and knaves
Drink up, me hearties, yo ho!
We're devils and black sheep, really bad eggs
Drink up, me hearties, yo ho!

Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me!
We're beggars and blighters and ne'er-do-well cads
Drink up, me hearties, yo ho!
Aye! But we are loved by our mommies and dads
Drink up, me hearties, yo ho!

Today is Talk Like a Pirate Day!! ARRRRRRR!!!

Brothers, care for your sisters...

In Tales from Shakespeare, the Puffin Classic from 1807, the preface reads, in part:

It has been wished to make these Tales easy reading for very young children. To the utmost of their ability the writers have constantly kept this in mind; but the subjects of most of them made this a very difficult task. It was no easy matter to give the histories of men and women in terms familiar to the apprehension of a very young mind. For young ladies, too, it has been the intention chiefly to write; because boys being generally permitted the use of their fathers' libraries at a much earlier age than girls are, they frequently have the best scenes of Shakespeare by heart, before their sisters are permitted to look into this manly book; and, therefore, instead of recommending these Tales to the perusal of young gentlemen who can read them so much better in the originals, their kind assistance is rather requested in explaining to their sisters such parts as are hardest for them to understand: and when they have helped them to get over the difficulties, then perhaps they will read to them (carefully selecting what is proper for a young sister's ear) some passage which has pleased them in on of these stories, in the very words of the scene from which it is taken; and it is hoped they will find that the beautiful extracts, the select passages, they may choose to give their sisters in this way will be much better relished and understood from their having some notion of the general story from one of these imperfect abridgments;...

One pines for those good ol' days...