THIS is CHANGE We can believe in????

Washington solutions of more money for more government, more power for politicians, more debt, and more bureaucrats will not lead to real growth in jobs and prosperity.

We need a clear and decisive alternative that creates jobs and rewards work, saving, and investment. What has passed Congress in this crazy "stimulas bill" is more expensive than WW2, Vietnam, Korea, both Gulf Wars, Iraq and Afganistan all Combined. THIS, is CHANGE we can believe in???? Mr. Newt offers a great alternative. The RINO's in the Northeast should take heed and listen. We don't need more Bush "conservative free-market" economics, we need more of Newt's.

THE MELTDOWN EXPLAINED. . .

A follow up on Dude's earlier Post:

You have two cows.

John Paulson borrows one cow so he can sell it for $100. He gives you $10 as collateral.

You buy your neighbors cow for $100, which you finance by taking out a $90 loan from the bank and use John's $10 to make up the rest.

You brag to everyone about your financial health. You have assets--two cows you own, plus one Paulson owes you--worth $300, and liabilities of just $100.

A third of the country goes vegetarian.

You thought your two cows were worth $200 and now they are worth $140.

You express confidence in your financial health. Your assets are now worth only $200--your two cows plus the one John owes you--but your liabilities are still only $100. If necessary, you could sell the assets at this distressed price and pay off all your loans.

You hold onto your cows because you are sure the market is "dislocated." Some day someone will want to eat beef again.

The rest of the country goes vegetarian. Your two cows are now worth $2 each to guys who want to make dog food.

John Paulson buys a cow in the market for $2 and he gives it to you as repayment of the loan. You now have three cows worth six bucks.

John wants his $10 back.

The bank calls. It wants its $90 back.

You call the Federal Reserve and ask for a bailout.

CELEBRITY SIGHTING

I work on the 10th floor of the 2000 Avenue of the Stars building in Century City. Several times a day, I have to come down to street level to go to the Photography pavilion, where I oversee the audio/visual setup. At street level, there are about a dozen valet guys who stand out in front of the building as cars are deposited in the loop. Just past the elevators at street level is the entrance to Creative Artists Agency. So, while I am walking from the elevators, often there are people walking towards CAA from valet and our paths cross.

I see doable babes often coming and going from CAA but if I don't recognize them, then I assume they are some sort of Kelly Preston character from Jerry Maguire. Most of the guys are handsome too, leading me to think they have strict hiring policies to weed out the uglies. A few days ago, I was emerging from the elevator area and made eye contact with a petite, unassumingly pretty girl on her way to CAA. I gave her the polite nod and it was only after we had passed that I realized it was Alyssa Milano, wearing no makeup and a ball cap.

To verify, I just cyberstalked her until I came up with contact info, and sure enough, her agent is Michael Katcher at CAA. I guess if you are an uberbabe going out in public, your best disguise is the lack of makeup and hair design. I would have never recognized her, even walking past her, unless we had made eye contact. It was that brief connection that sparked a hint of recognition. So now, in her honor, my relationship to Alyssa Milano over the years:

Of course, it all began with Who's the Boss. It was not a particularly good show, but neither was Charles in Charge, or Saved by the Bell, but I watched them all whenever I could and whenever nobody was looking, because of the mondo babe attached to all three shows. Milano was only 12 or so when she first appeared on that show, but I was only a couple years older, so she fit right into my wheelhouse. I watched the show here and there, party because I knew Tony Danza from Taxi, but mostly to enjoy the spectacle of watching Milano mature into a luscious babe as if in time lapse.

I guess our relationship pretty much ends there, except for her appearance in Commando as somebody's daughter in distress who needs rescued by Ahnald. Alyssa Milano was just a fond memory for many years, as I never got around to watching Melrose Place or Charmed. At some point, a couple of years ago, I learned that she was a huge Dodgers fan and maintained a web site where she expresses her opinions on the team. She is a knowledgable fan, a season ticket holder, and a babely 36-year-old in a ball cap, putting her once again on my radar as one of earth's finest specimens.

Last year, Alyssa appeared on My Name is Earl for half the season, but mostly I enjoy her now as a regular follower of her blog. She also models the sporty clothes she designs for her own Touch label, which fills the feminine sports apparel niche. Alas, I shall never fill Alyssa Milano's niche, but it's a dream I've held since my teen years, and I was never so close as the day our eyes met for that brief moment.

MENTAL FLOSS II

Thanks for pointing out this site Tom. Now how will I ever get anything done?

Name the Top 20 national US colleges and universities. I missed six: Duke, Washington University in St. Louis, Johns Hopkins, Emory, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt. Can you name the other 14 in five minutes? Additional hints: there are none in FL and one in TX.

UPDATE: Naming all 10 QBs who started in at least 2 Super Bowl wins was easy. Did so in 90 seconds.

I'm still not convinced that John Tyler was POTUS.

8 (Pointless) Laws All Comic Book Movies Follow

So true and fun to read.

A sample:

For some unknown reason, tradition states that the first movie must consist largely of something no one in the audience paid to see: The superhero as he lived before he could do any cool superhero stuff.

Other genres don't feel the need to do this; Die Hard didn't spend the first half of the movie with John McClane taking target practice, Rambo didn't spend an hour showing Rambo in basic training. Why can't we just jump in?

Instead we have to watch Peter Parker struggling as a photographer, and Bruce Banner quietly working as a scientist, as if we must first appreciate the tedium of their regular lives before we get to see them jump off an exploding building.

And to double the problem, they usually throw in an origin story for one or more of the villains, too. Behold! Here is the awesome badass supervillain, back when he was just a disgruntled dude in a lab coat!

ANOTHER VIEW OF WAL-MART

As I begin my second week here as a guest blogger, I'm going to risk venturing into a couple of contentious political areas. My aim is not to provoke dissent; I simply feel that some stories are not being told.

It started when I read Nickel and Dimed, in which Atlantic contributor Barbara Ehrenreich denounces the exploitation of minimum-wage workers in America. Somehow her book didn’t ring true to me, and I wondered to what extent a preconceived agenda might have biased her reporting. Hence my application for a job at the nearest Wal-Mart.

The job was as dull as I expected, but I was stunned to discover how benign the workplace turned out to be. My supervisor was friendly, decent, and treated me as an equal. Wal-Mart allowed a liberal dress code. The company explained precisely what it expected from its employees, and adhered to this policy in every detail. I was unfailingly reminded to take paid rest breaks, and was also encouraged to take fully paid time, whenever I felt like it, to study topics such as job safety and customer relations via a series of well-produced interactive courses on computers in a room at the back of the store. Each successfully completed course added an increment to my hourly wage, a policy which Barbara Ehrenreich somehow forgot to mention in her book.

My standard equipment included a handheld bar-code scanner which revealed the in-store stock and nearest warehouse stock of every item on the shelves, and its profit margin. At the branch where I worked, all the lowest-level employees were allowed this information and were encouraged to make individual decisions about inventory. One of the secrets to Wal-Mart’s success is that it delegates many judgment calls to the sales-floor level, where employees know first-hand what sells, what doesn’t, and (most important) what customers are asking for.

Several of my co-workers had relocated from other areas, where they had worked at other Wal-Marts. They wanted more of the same. Everyone agreed that Wal-Mart was preferable to the local Target, where the hourly pay was lower and workers were said to be treated with less respect (an opinion which I was unable to verify). Most of all, my coworkers wanted to avoid those “mom-and-pop” stores beloved by social commentators where, I was told, employees had to deal with quixotic management policies, while lacking the opportunities for promotion that exist in a large corporation.

Of course, I was not well paid, but Wal-Mart is hardly unique in paying a low hourly rate to entry-level retail staff. The answer to this problem seems elusive to Barbara Ehrenreich, yet is obvious to any teenager who enrolls in a vocational institute. In a labor market, employees are valued partly according to their abilities. To earn a higher hourly rate, you need to acquire some relevant skills.

As for all those Wal-Mart horror stories—when I went home and checked the web sites that attack the company, I found that many of them are subsidized with union money. walmartwatch.com, for instance, is partnered with the Service Employees International Union; wakeupwalmart.com is copyright by United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. Why are unions so obsessed with Wal-Mart? I'm guessing that if the more-than-a-million Wal-Mart employees could be unionized, they would be compelled to contribute at least half a billion dollars per year in union dues.

I'm a big fan of Wal-Mart. As I told a friend a few years ago, it's like they are paying you to go there. I use to go into Wal-Mart to get specific things and then I found myself buying groceries because I needed that too. What was always surprising was how little food cost there. Early on I would guess the bill would be $130 and I'd really be paying $92.

Wal-Mart has done more to raise the average standard of living than any government program. If you couple that fact with the union push, you can see why they are the scourge of the Establishment.

NOW I KNOW WHY DEMS LIKE HIGH TAXES. . .

. . . because they don't intend to pay them

“Like Chris Dodd and Barney Frank, he rails about corporate greed and Wall Street perks while he too is deep at the trough. If an administration is going to make a moral case against the pernicious role of D.C. lobbyists and insiders, for the moral need for taxes on the upper incomes, and for suspicion of perks and freebies—then why pick Daschle, whose free limo and tax evasion make all that look ridiculous?

Also, this gem this gem from the congressional record

“Make no mistake, tax cheaters cheat us all, and the IRS should enforce our laws to the letter.” Sen. Tom Daschle, Congressional Record, May 7, 1998, p. S4507.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Every Republican in America knows that if Mr. Daschle were a Reagan or Bush nominee he'd now be headed back to private life faster than you can say John Tower. That's the way Democrats have treated GOP nominees who were accused of far lesser transgressions than Mr. Daschle's tax, er, avoidance. The question is whether Democrats are going to treat Mr. Daschle according to the standard that Mr. Daschle set when he was running the Senate.

As a legal tax matter, this isn't even a close call. Mr. Daschle says he used the car service about 80% for personal use, and 20% for business. But his spokeswoman says it only dawned on the Senator last June that this might be taxable income. Mr. Daschle's excuse? According to a Journal report Friday, "he told committee staff he had grown used to having a car and driver as majority leader and did not think to report the perk on his taxes, according to staff members." How's that for a Leona Helmsley moment: Doesn't everyone have a car and chauffeur, dear?

Daschle has earned more than $5 million over the past two years, including $220,000 from the health-care industry he's been nominated to regulate. Capitalism is wonderful, but at the very least Mr. Daschle's record strips the veneer from President Obama's moralizing that lobbying and special interest pleading are the root of all evil in Washington. In appointing Mr. Daschle, Mr. Obama is showing that lobbying is fine as long as it is done by people who agree with him.

James Taranto has the best line of all:

If a certain sort of conservative tends to be moralistic about sex, liberals tend to be moralistic about money. That makes Tom Daschle the equivalent of a televangelist caught in a sex scandal.

Change we can believe in!

New GOP chair comes out swinging

FINALLY!!

A DIRTY HARRY MUSICAL?

So reports Big Hollywood. . .

Magnum Force, the 1973 sequel to the Clint Eastwood thriller Dirty Harry, is getting a musical makeover and may even be Broadway bound, according to The Guardian. English singer-songwriter Robyn Hitchcock, an admitted Magnum Force obsessive, will compose the score and intends to produce the show with MTV executive Bill Flanagan.

That's the half-baked apology for the classic and controversial original.

TO STIMULATE OR NOT TO STIMULATE

The question that the media refuses to ask Team Obama:

1. Where do you get $1 trillion in a shrinking economy amid layoffs and negative growth?
2. How does your $1 trillion spending plan differ from the spending that has bankrupted California?
3. If, like you say, the economy is going to take years to recover then why the rush to spend so much money for no net gain? Won't the economy just recover on its own is a few years anyway?

A moment of outrage. . .

Obama also said his plan would ensure corporate executives do not siphon away tax dollars to fund big bonuses, as he again expressed outrage at big Wall Street pay-outs in 2008.

Outraged enough that he'll return the Wall Street money he raised campaigning?

WOMAN WITH SIX KIDS DELIVERS OCTUPLETS

Note to fertility doctors: It's a uterus, not a clown car.

COINCIDENCE

Our solar system formed roughly 4.6 billion years ago. Earth formed 4.54 billion years ago and the moon arrived 4.53 billion years ago. The sun radiated energy to the earth, whose orbit was stabilized by the moon, allowing for life to emerge on the earth's surface within one billion years of its formation.

The moon is 400 times smaller than the sun, but at its current distance, it is 400 times closer. That is a unique relationship between any three bodies in our solar system, which is comprised of eight planets and 166 known moons.

Since the moon initiated its orbit around the earth, it has been steadily moving away from the earth at a rate of 3.8 cm/year. That means there is a "brief" window of less than 200 million years during which these two celestial bodies appear to be the same size when viewed from the surface of earth. As luck has it, the rise of a species with intellect suitable to appreciate such a harmony lives on the surface of the earth at the proper time to view such a singular phenomenon.

The dinosaurs would have seen a much larger moon totally block out the sun; our cyberprogeny will see a smaller moon passing in front of the sun, but only we can appreciate the corona effect with the sun illuminating a heavenly glow around the moon during a total eclipse.



Makes me want to propose a Junto Boys field trip to a location ripe for the viewing the next time the umbral shadow falls on the mainland USA.

CHANGE THEY CAN BELIEVE IN

Why Liberal Democrats Spend Your Tax Dollars So Merrily

Overall, given the choice between more government services and higher taxes, or fewer services and lower taxes, likely voters opt for the limited government/low tax option by the comfortable margin of 61% to 25%. That’s pretty much where Americans have been for some time now.

But the story is dramatically different when you break down the electorate by ideology and partisan affiliation. We all know these divides exist, but I, for one, was surprised at the extent of the chasm.

Ideologically, the breakdown looks like this:

Click the link to see the breakdown.

Note that the media said that Bush lied about going into Iraq because stockpiles of WMD weren't found.

Further note that the media doesn't seem interested in the "Tax Cut for 95% of Americans" promise now that he is set to spend out money.

REACTIONS TO THE NEWS

My first experience with John Updike was the short story "A&P" that Dude and I read for Momberger's class. It was on the strength of the short story that I eventually read the four Rabbit novels. The main character is a kind of lazy slobby lothario and yet you kind of root for him just the same. Baseball fans should enjoy his piece on Ted Williams. I read that a few years ago.

I'm not sure why I stopped with the Rabbit novels. It may have been the shock of seeing him kill off Rabbit in the last book. I think the main reason is that the descriptions of his other novels didn't seem all that interesting. But then again, the Rabbit novels didn't seems to interesting either until I read them. I have some more short stories sitting around and I wonder if it will be motivation to read them or if Updike will just drift away in my consciousness. Rick Rookhiser has a few suggestions.

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James Taranto likes to point out how the media loves to identify Republicans in ethics violations while ignoring the party when the person is a Democrat. Recent example has the Chicago Sun Times identifying a busted Prostitute as a Registered Republican while comparing the case with Governor Elliot Spitzer, a man with no party.

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Glenn Reynolds has some fun with this one:

HOPE AND CHANGE? New, Transparent WhiteHouse.gov Forgoes Press Briefing Transcripts? The obvious explanation: Bush wanted transcripts online because he expected the press to filter what he said. Obama doesn’t want transcripts online . . . because he expects the press to filter what he says.

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This takes a little more time to read, but it explains why the proposed stimulus is not a good idea.

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Joe Torre's revenge book comes out Tuesday. Here is the NYT review. Am I alone in thinking that a tell-all book is a little unbecoming a guy like Torre? I understand that he is angry and I agree that the Yankees were foolish to treat him so poorly, but what about George Steinbrenner's biography made Torre think that he would be different? George fired Yogi Berra the first month into a season.

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UPDATE: An Item that will interest Steve. Asimov's Foundation series is coming to the big screen.

The studio plans to develop the film for Roland Emmerich, the director of the cataclysmic sci-fi movies “Independence Day” and “The Day After Tomorrow.”

SUPPORT THE PRESIDENT

RWJ explains how much he supports the President:

1. I support him as much as Code Pink supports our troops.
2. I support him as much as N.O.W. supports Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
3. I support him as much as the Hollywood community supported Theo Van Gogh.
4. I support him as much as Nancy Pelosi supports the Catholic Church’s teachings on life.
5. I support him as much as Al Gore supports cutting down on his personal carbon footprint to save the world.
6. I support him as much as John Edwards supports The National Enquirer’s right to publish pictures of his girlfriend and baby.
7. I support him as much as Western gay rights groups support Mehdi Kazemi.
8. I support him as much as the Castro brothers support Oscar Biscet’s right to free speech.
9. I support him as much as Ted Kennedy supports renewable wind energy off the coast of his summer mansion.
10. I support him as much as Bill Clinton supports Hillary’s ambitions for higher office.
11. I support him as much as the National Education Association supports the rights of students and parents to get a quality education over the security of a teacher’s job.
12. I support him just as much as he supports the right of a baby who survives an abortion to not spend its only living moments waiting to die in a storage room.

Seems Fair

HE NEEDS A BEATING
(This will be a running commentary on who I think in pop-culture needs a beating, it's not to say that I myself which any harm or will actually cause harm to another, rather it is saying that person is so disgusting that if they did get a beating, it would cause me glee rather than angst).

If there is anyone in the World who should be taken out back and given the beating of his life, it is Keith Oberman of MSNBC Fame. What a Hack, Over Emotional, Histrionic, Idiot. Oberman say's Bush should be prosecuted for War Crimes. If Bush should be prosecuted, then so should FDR. He ACTUALLY illegally imprisoned American citizens. And let's prosecute Truman who set up War Tribunal's that prosecuted the Nazi's, in exactly the same way. And let's prosecute Clinton, who illegally, without cause, attacked a Religious organization for no reason, killed 100's and never actually charged anyone with a crime. And finally let's not forget Obama's favorite, Abraham Lincoln, let's prosecute him for violating the constitution and imprisoning members of the press who wrote bad articles about him without a trial or charge. Bush did what he swore an Oath to do (an Oath he only had to take once) which was protect and defend this country against all enemies. I can't wait until the Military captures Osama Bin Laden and Obama rushes to give him a comfy chair.

HE CAN'T EVEN GET THE BEGINNING RIGHT

Should Obama Retake the Oath of Office?

Carolyn Lochhead has an interesting story in the San Francisco Chronicle on the mixed-up oath at yesterday's inauguration:

The oath reads: "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

In giving the oath, Roberts misplaced the word "faithfully," at which point Obama paused quizzically. Roberts then corrected himself, but Obama repeated the words as Roberts initially said them.

A do-over "would take him 30 seconds, he can do it in private, it's not a big deal, and he ought to do it just to be safe," said Boston University constitutional scholar and Supreme Court watcher Jack Beermann. "It's an open question whether he's president until he takes the proper oath."

The courts would probably never hear a challenge, and some might argue that Obama automatically took office at noon because that's when President Bush left the office. But because the procedure is so explicitly prescribed in the Constitution, Beermann said if he were Obama's lawyer, he would recommend retaking it, just as two previous presidents, Calvin Coolidge and Chester Arthur, did under similar circumstances.

LOVE YOUR ENEMIES

Well, here we go. President Obama's first order of business was to undo Bush's efforts to bring prisoners at Guantanamo to justice. In a move applauded by the ACLU,

President Barack Obama's request to suspend all war crimes trials at Guantanamo was promptly accepted by military judges Wednesday in what may be the beginning of the end for the Bush administration's system of trying alleged terrorists.

The judges agreed to the 120-day halt the cases of five men charged in the Sept. 11 attacks and a Canadian accused of killing an American soldier in Afghanistan. Similar orders are expected in other pending cases before the Guantanamo military commission.

Obama intends to move the trials to the U.S. and grant the prisoners new rights. That does not sit well with relatives of 9/11 victims, but the Times and MSNBC approve, so there. I suggest we send the matter to Clint Eastwood for arbitration, with no cameras nor witnesses present.

OBAMA WITH MOST IMPORTANT ADVISOR

OBAMA AND CHENEY

More than one person told me that Obama was preferable to the other candidates because of his calm and thoughtful persona matched with his clear speaking will boost our stock in the world.

They should have loved Dick Cheney!

EASTWOOD READING

Clint was interviewed over at Esquire in November. Here are some highlights:

We live in more of a pussy generation now, where everybody's become used to saying, "Well, how do we handle it psychologically?" In those days, you just punched the bully back and duked it out. Even if the guy was older and could push you around, at least you were respected for fighting back, and you'd be left alone from then on.

You wonder sometimes. What will we do if something really big happens? Look how fast -- seven years -- people have been able to forget 9/11. Maybe you remember if you lost a relative or a loved one. But the public can get pretty blasé about stuff like that. Nobody got blasé about Pearl Harbor.

My father died very suddenly at sixty-three. Just dropped dead. For a long time afterward, I'd ask myself, Why didn't I ask him to play golf more? Why didn't I spend more time with him? But when you're off trying to get the brass ring, you forget and overlook those little things. It gives you a certain amount of regret later on, but there's nothing you can do about it. So you just forge on.

Children teach you that you can still be humbled by life, that you learn something new all the time. That's the secret to life, really -- never stop learning. It's the secret to career. I'm still working because I learn something new all the time. It's the secret to relationships. Never think you've got it all.

Eastwood was my dad's favorite actor. When he was stationed in Japan in the late 60s he watched "The Good, the Bad, and Ugly" ten times or more at the base cinema. He always thought it was the best movie ever made. It was the first movie I bought him when he got a DVD player.

POST-RACIAL

We need a black president to get to the place where the conversation can stop being about race. We had the first black football player, then the first black QB, then the first black QB in the Super Bowl, then the first black coach, then the first black head coach, then the first black head coach in the SB, then the first black head coach to win the SB.... until finally Mike Tomlin can coach in the SB and just be a coach in the SB. I would have preferred that our first black president be elected on merit, and be a conservative, but you can't have everything.

"A NEW ERA OF RESPONSIBILITY" by President Barack H. Obama

All the libs in my office are huddled around a small TV right outside my office, so I had no choice but to listen to Obama's empty platitudes, I mean soaring rhetoric, in his inaugural address. Quick hits:

This new era of responsibility translates I think into heavy federal regulations that will stifle the economy. Lawyers are giddy.

We must be citizens of the world, helping everyone everywhere. Free money for everyone. Maybe Biden can lead the charge on this, he who gave $900 to charity in his most generous year.

On defense, we must be grounded in humility and restraint. This of course was a swipe at Bush, not magnanimous to say the least. A good applause line though.

To our enemies: "We will outlast you and we will defeat you." How? "Because we are a melting pot, old hatreds will fade and peace will prevail." Oh. That's our new foreign policy. God help us. Lord, stay the hand of our enemies.

Obama promises big government. He hints at efficiency checks and accountability. That I will believe when I see it. I am eager to review his first round of cuts.

We need big government to make the playing field fair and equitable for the little guy. I am thinking about trading my sedan for a pickup truck so I can catch some of the free money that will be falling from the sky.

Overall, a grim view of the landscape. I am reminded how much liberals loathe America. Naturally the address was greeted by applause here in the office, and the requisite jabs at Bush's atrocious speechmaking skills. I too will be glad not to hear from Bush any more (which had become rare anyway, while he hid himself away and ceded the narrative to his opponents), but not so glad to hear President Obama taking my inventory and telling me how my behavior should improve.

Our system is set up so that no president can screw things up too badly in four years. Congress, however, will try. My expectations are low enough that there is the possibility of being pleasantly surprised.

If you heard/saw/read the Inaugural Address, I would like to hear your comments.

OBAMA ADMIRES THE ONLY AMERICAN DICTATOR

Obama to be sworn in on 'Lincoln Bible'

By Matt Kelley, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The Bible Barack Obama will use at Tuesday's swearing-in ceremony carries great historic and social significance. It was used by Abraham Lincoln at his first inauguration in 1861.

It's quite fitting that Obama so admires President Lincoln. The only American Dictator. As H.L. Mencken said of the Gettysburg Address, in which Lincoln absurdly claimed that Northern soldiers were fighting for the cause of self determination ("that government of the people . . . should not perish . . .": "It is difficult to imagine anything more untrue.
Lincoln was "Pro-Slavery" until it suited him to change it. Lincoln saw the England was inclined to intercede on the Southern cause and use their Naval power to stop the Northern blockade. So Lincoln, in a stroke of political (not humanitarian) genius, issued the "Emancipation Proclamation" which then later on, ended slavery (after the war of Northern Aggression had concluded and the occupation of a independent nation began for the next 10 years). Another Lincoln myth was that he "saved the Constitution." But this claim is an outrage considering that Lincoln acted like a dictator for the duration of his administration and showed nothing but bitter contempt for the Constitution. He suspended the "Writ of Habis Corpus", He jailed Newspaper reporters who wrote negative articles about him, he threatened to jail the Chief Justice when he was going to rule in Southern favor (that Succession was actually legal), and he invaded the South without consent of Congress to declare war. Yes, Lincoln= Obama? I couldn't agree more.

As Obama is sworn in today, ask yourself this over the next four years, "Am I more or less free?" This wonderful video below speaks eloquently about the "dual sovereignty" and the almost forgotten doctrine of "States Rights." The Federal Government expanded greatly under the Bush administration (via the so-called "Patriot Act"). Will Obama advocate MORE freedom for the "Common man?" Or will he advocate further expansion of an oppressive over-lord, central planning Federal Government? He has shown NO indication that he will ADD to our freedom. On the contrary, he plans the biggest erosion of your rights since Lincoln. This is why we all must realize that IDEAS matter, not Parties, not individuals. Freedom, liberty, and individual as well as States Rights, truly do matter.

McCAIN doesn't make you sad that he lost. . . Over the last three months, Mr. Obama has quietly consulted Mr. McCain about many of the new administration's potential nominees to top national security jobs and about other issues — in one case relaying back a contender's answers to questions Mr. McCain had suggested. Mr. McCain, meanwhile, has told colleagues "that many of these appointments he would have made himself," said Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and a close McCain friend. And maybe that is why he lost.

ORLANDO SENTINEL TACITLY ENDORSES 2ND AMENDMENT, GEE THANKS ALOT.

We think: It's risky, but citizens have right to fight back against criminals

With some criminals able to skate through the judicial system without major consequences, life on the streets is getting more and more dangerous.

For them.

Average Joes and Janes have served notice they don't intend to stand by and let crime spin out of control. In Central Florida, a series of recent incidents is proving that people are taking a proactive -- and perfectly legal -- approach to protecting themselves and others.

In Ocoee, a customer shot and killed a robber at a convenience store. The customer was leaving the store when he noticed someone suspicious. He went back inside when he heard a clerk screaming for help, and used a .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol to kill the thief.

What a ridiculous article. On the on hand Orlando Sentinel readership is so far down that they have stopped "endorsing Presidential candidates" and are tacitly endorsing the right of a law-abiding citizen to defend themselves, but on the other hand say "Leave it to the professionals" when using a firearm because "someone could get hurt." Yeah, the one to get hurt is the moron whose stupid enough to break into my house and face my giant German Shepherd then a 357 Magnum right between his eyes. Gee! Thanks a lot Orlando Sentinel for giving me permission to exercise my 2nd amendment rights. Why don't you now advocate for a genuine tax break for us all and an end of these stupid bailout plans.

HALL OF FAME HATS

Hey Baseball fans. Take this Quiz. I scored 12 of 14.

Here is info from the Annenberg Foundation website about the Annenberg Space for Photography, set to open in late March. I just came on as the Audio Visual Specialist. I'm still learning my way around the particulars of the gig but suffice it to say that there is some high-end machinery involved.

The Annenberg Space for Photography to Open in Century City, California in 2009
Free Community Center will Feature Both Digital and Print Photography

Los Angeles, CA: The Annenberg Foundation, one of the nation’s largest private family foundations, announced today plans to open a new community space dedicated to both digital images and print photography in Los Angeles, California.

The Annenberg Space for Photography will open in spring 2009 at 2000 Avenue of the Stars. Located on the former site of the Shubert Theater, the Photography Space will be a 10,000 square foot facility which will feature a state-of-the-art digital projection gallery along with a traditional print exhibit area. The combination of these galleries will enable the Annenberg Space for Photography to show an unprecedented number of images to the general public in a dynamic environment. General admission to the Annenberg Space for Photography will be free.

In addition to being a cultural experience that celebrates photography as an art form, the Photography Space will present images focused on the human condition as an expression of the philanthropic work of the Foundation and its Trustees. The Annenberg Space for Photography will be under the stewardship of the Foundation’s Los Angeles-based Trustees -- Wallis Annenberg, Lauren Bon, Charles Annenberg Weingarten and Gregory Annenberg Weingarten.

The Trustees will work directly with guest curators throughout the year on all exhibits and programming.

Work by photographers at all levels of expertise from around the world will be featured. The galleries will also exhibit often unseen photographic collections held by museums, galleries and media organizations.

“Photography is one of the most accessible and personal forms of art. We are thrilled about creating a space completely dedicated to it which will compliment the landscape of existing cultural institutions nationally and in Los Angeles. Our Foundation will continue its multi-million dollar grant support of the existing arts and civic life. We see the creation of the Annenberg Space for Photography as a service to the community where visitors can see the world through a different lens and leave feeling motivated to make positive change,” says Wallis Annenberg, Vice President and Trustee of the Annenberg Foundation.

Background
The Annenberg Space for Photography was conceived by the collective Board of Trustees of the Foundation. The original inspiration was sparked by Wallis Annenberg’s personal devotion to photography. A passion for the artform led Wallis to examine the challenges most traditional museums experience exhibiting photographic work. These museums have remarkable photography collections, and in many cases their archives are more comprehensive than exhibit space is available. This motivated Wallis and the Foundation Trustees to create a new paradigm for experiencing photography. A state-of-the-art digital presentation system will allow thousands of photographs to be readily accessible to the public in large and high resolution format.

When the Foundation announced its plan to move its administrative offices from Westwood to its current location at 2000 Avenue of the Stars, Los Angeles Councilmember Jack Weiss and real estate developers at Trammel Crow approached the Foundation with the opportunity to operate a community space on the property, providing the perfect location for the realization of the Foundation’s plans for the Photography Space.

Councilmember Weiss comments, “I am grateful that the Annenberg Foundation, with their vision and standards of excellence, is helping enrich the city by bringing world class digital art and photography to Los Angeles. This space will add cultural vitality and excitement to Century City.”

The creation of the Photography Space builds upon the Foundation’s long history of supporting visual arts. Most recently the Foundation demonstrated it’s commitment to the arts by giving a grant to help LACMA acquire the Marjorie and Leonard Vernon Collection, an important group of 19th and 20th century photographs, featuring more than 3,500 prints which include the work of Ansel Adams, Julia Margaret Cameron, Edward Steichen, W.H. Fox Talbot and Edward Weston. In recognition of this support, LACMA's Department of Photography is being renamed the Wallis Annenberg Photography Department.

Opening Exhibit
The Annenberg Space for Photography’s opening exhibit will be a group show of eight Los Angeles-based photographers in the genres of fine art, architecture, documentary, fashion, photojournalism and celebrity portraits. The show, soon-to-be-titled, will feature the work of John Baldessari, Catherine Opie, Greg Gorman, Douglas Kirkland, Tim Street-Porter, Julius Shulman, Lauren Greenfield and Carolyn Cole. All based in Los Angeles, these artists work in the city in which the Foundation has expanded its philanthropy in recent years. The exhibit will also include work from staff photographers at the Los Angeles Times. Anne Wilkes Tucker, renowned photography curator from the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, will serve as a Special Advisor for this inaugural exhibit.

Ms. Tucker comments, “The opening exhibit inaugurates an exciting new space with work by eight internationally recognized photographers. Their work represents richly diverse aspects of contemporary photography and of Los Angeles itself, from film and television celebrities to the Los Angeles Times coverage of international and local news, to city’s rich cultural scene. The multifaceted displays of prints and digital projection, along with interviews with the artists speaking about their projects and careers, are uniquely innovative. This exhibit should appeal to the public and to many artists who might participate in future programs in this new space.”

In addition to featured exhibits which will change several times a year, shorter weekly shows will enable visitors to have different daily experiences with multiple visits. Simultaneously, videos of photographers discussing their work will give guests the often rare opportunity to hear directly from the artists.

Workshops, lectures and discussions featuring artists will be a prominent part of the ongoing programming. Educational opportunities will be created for adults, children and teens. Guests of the Photography Space will have access to Century Park and its restaurants within steps from the Photography Space doors. The Photography Space is adjacent to 2000 Avenue of the Stars, the location of the Foundation’s Los Angeles headquarters.

The interior design by architects DMJM Design was influenced and inspired by the ergonomics of cameras and lenses. The building also includes a residential-style workshop area that will be used for intimate discussions with photographers. The technology of the Photography Space enables extreme digital clarity, sound and multiple image presentation --giving artists a wide range of creative possibilities for showing their work.

Photographer Greg Gorman comments, “I worked with film for decades before converting to digital. As the artform has evolved, I’m excited to see a space celebrate both. I expect that this will change the way we all think of a traditional photography gallery.”

Fulfilling a Mission
The Annenberg Space for Photography aligns perfectly with the mission of the Foundation -- to improve the well-being of the community through the exchange of ideas and new ways of thinking. The Trustees believe that the experience of this art form and images exhibited there will further their vision as philanthropists for a better world.

About the Annenberg Foundation
Established in 1989 by Walter H. Annenberg, the Annenberg Foundation provides funding and support to nonprofit organizations in the United States and globally through its headquarters in Radnor, Pennsylvania, and offices in Los Angeles, California and Washington, D.C. Its major program areas are education and youth development; arts, culture and humanities; civic and community life; health and human services; and animal services and the environment. In addition, the Foundation operates a number of initiatives which expand and complement these program areas. The Annenberg Foundation exists to advance the public well-being through improved communication. As the principal means of achieving this goal, the Foundation encourages the development of more effective ways to share ideas and knowledge.

DUDE'S REVIEWS

I have been lax on my reviews and now I've got a list of 35 titles going back half a year. I'm going to purge the list of films I saw in 2008 by listing all of them here with a quick impression of each:

five stars (loved):
TITANIC (1997) - The greatest film of all time? Still a treat.
ROMAN HOLIDAY (1953) - One of my faves, shared with the family.
THE QUEEN (2006) - Among the most well-written films I've ever seen.
YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU (1938) - Took me 70 years to discover this feel good film.
KING KONG (1933) - Dated effects but they're pretty good and the story is involving.

four stars (really liked):
JOHN ADAMS (2008) - Great period reconstruction with time to enjoy the intimate moments.
IN BRUGES (2008) - An overlooked gem with plot points you don't see coming.
THE PRINCESS AND THE WARRIOR (2000) - I was surprised how much I liked it.
INTO THE WILD (2007) - Penn crafts a pleasant journey towards preventable death.
THE DARK KNIGHT (2008) - Ledger wins an Oscar and joins the pantheon of great villains.
THE VISITOR (2007) - Involving tale about individual goodness vs the coldness of the state.
EL MARIACHI (1992) - Amazing film considering its $7k budget and definitely entertaining.
PICKPOCKET (1959) - The best part is the scholarly commentary explaining its importance.
THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (1972) - A childhood favorite shared with my children.
IRON MAN (2008) - Favreau has a nice touch for tone with just the right amount of levity.

three stars (liked):
THE SEA HAWK (1940) - Unlike Tom, I prefer CAPTAIN BLOOD.
THE COURT JESTER (1956) - I liked the intricate plot, thinking it ripe for retelling.
THE COUNTERFEITERS (2007) - The protagonist isn't really the hero but it is interesting.
I AM LEGEND (2007) - Loved it for awhile but it wrapped up before I was ready.
BLOCK HEADS (1938) - Classic Laurel and Hardy buffoonery.
BOLT (2008) - Follows the formula and produces solid entertainment.
FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL (2008) - Overrated but funny and charming enough.
DEATHPROOF (2007) - Tarantino delivers style over substance for a good throwaway film.
VANISHING POINT (1971) - The reference point for DEATHPROOF has not aged well.
THE HOST (2006) - Atypical creature feature about a kooky family rising to the occasion.
SUNSHINE (1999) - Loved it until the third act which ramps up the bizarro level to eleven.
WAY OUT WEST (1937) - Laurel and Hardy on a mission to be funny in western garb.
THE APPLE DUMPLING GANG (1975) - Enough Disney charm and Don Knotts to satisfy.
SEEMS LIKE OLD TIMES (1980) - Several gags I've never forgotten since first viewing.

two stars (didn't like):
NODODY'S FOOL (1994) - Sure Newman's great, but the story heaps on the blandness.
AMERICAN GANGSTER (2007) - So long and boring, I can't believe it was a critical darling.
PARIS WHEN IT SIZZLES (1964) - Watchable only because its stars are easy to admire.
JAMAICA INN (1939) - Hitchcock's British swan song is a bit of a stinker.
BABES IN TOYLAND (1934) - Laurel and Hardy once again but not as good.
WORD WARS (2004) - Predictably engaging, but not an impressive film.
THE SHAGGY DOG (1959) - Even with a dopey story it manages to be thoroughly lame.

AMAZON VINE

This is a pretty neat idea. I’ve reviewed 150 books on Amazon.com, but my interest in it has waned over the last few years. I had only reviewed two in 2007, two in 2006, five in 2005 after reviewing 30 in 2004. I hadn’t reviewed in anything in 2008 when I received the November invite so I reviewed the last two books I had read. One was Buckley’s last book a memoir of Reagan and Peter Fonda’s autobiography.

Since Dad went into the hospital the week before thanksgiving I have read quite a few books and even a few long ones. Rather than be distracted as I assume I would have been, books offered me a diversion where I had almost perfect concentration. Amazon Vine offered me a chance to review the upcoming Yogi Berra biography and considering what I was going through it was almost a perfect offer.

Growing up, dad still had all of his old baseball mits, one being a catcher's glove with the name "Lawrence Peter Berra" on it. Have you ever caught with a 1950s style catcher's mit? They were nothing like today's gloves. A 1950s catcher's mit is not for catching but for padding. The ball doesn't actually stop in the glove. It hits the glove and then falls downward to the meat hand ready to make plays on runners. Playing with it convinced me that I didn't want to be a catcher. As a kid, I had no idea that gloves had gotten easier to use.

My first baseball game was in 1975 at the old Commiskey Park. My dad, his older brother and two other rare Yankee fans from Northern Indiana made the trip. I was 6 years old and don't remember the game because I didn't understand the rules. It was a year before I played my first organized baseball and I only knew how to play whiffle ball in the yard with dad pitching.

What I do remember about that trip was eating popcorn that came in a cardboard container shaped like a megaphone. It didn't make megaphone noise, but as a kid it was just as alluring. When the popcorn was finished I safely put the megaphone in the empty seat next to me, making sure that it didn't get damaged before the trip home. To my utter dismay some punk little girl and her father eventually took up seats on the other side of my megaphone and the girl had the audacity to pick it up and yell through it. Her father that bum said nothing. I wasn't happy with the outcome cursing myself for letting it out of my grasp. As the game went on she manhandled the thing and even roughed up the mouth end. Near the end of the game she had finally returned the megaphone to the seat between us. Now it was the prized item she was saving for later. When dad said that it was time to go and we had to pass that little shrew and her father I grabbed the megaphone from the seat and she looked at me and started to protest, but I was through the aisle before the adults even knew what happened.

I remember being proud that I did the bold thing but I also felt bad like maybe I did something wrong. It must be my oldest memory of ambiguous morality. I thought justice was on my side but maybe with time the object was actually her's especially since she probably thought the item discarded and adults would have seen it as trash. I never got in trouble or even talked to about it because dad was unaware of the entire drama.

I remember two other things from that trip. I got carsick so bad that Uncle Larry had to stop the car. I also remember going to a steak place I think called "Lou Diamonds" or something close to that. They served these rare filet mignons and I remember it tasted great. Dad said that I ate the whole thing. He also told me that we went to a Greek place and I ordered chicken but I hated it expecting to get Colonel Sanders.

It would be about 6 years when we went to our next Yankees-White Sox game. Yogi was a coach at the time and we saw him in arriving at the ballpark in a cab. Dad said that Yogi was the best bad ball hitter he had ever seen. Yogi could hit a pitch over head hit or at his ankles for a home run. The last game I saw at the Old Commiskey Park was with dad, mom, and brother John in April of 1985. Yogi was now the manager and Joe Cowley was pitching for the Yankees that day. Don Mattingly went 1-4 with a single. Carlton Fisk hit a big home run to left field. It was the fourth baseball game I had been to and the first homer I had ever seen. The Yankees never trailed in the game and with the bases loaded in the 9th, Cowley walked rookie Ozzie Guillen, a guy that was always loathe to take a walk, and the White Sox won 5-4. Guillen walked 12 times all season and never more than 26 times in any of his 16 seasons.

We were still in the parking lot navigating traffic when the radio was reporting that Yogi Berra was fired as Yankees manager. Billy Martin would return. Yogi wouldn't return to Yankee stadium until 1999 for Yogi Berra day.

I knew I was going to New York in 1999 and decided to make the trip revolve around the Yankees schedule. When I saw Yogi Berra Day I bought tickets immediately. The best I could do even in January was the upper deck behind home plate. I was also able to buy lower level tickets to see the Yankees play the Braves on the Thursday night. Though I didn't see him, JFK Jr. was at the Thursday game, and it was his last appearance in public. The New York Post had a picture of him at that game a few days later when his plane disappeared. But the Sunday game may have been even more unusual.

Before the game Yogi was welcomed back into the Yankee family with gifts and appearances by his old teammates. Mickey was gone. Billy was gone. Joe had passed earlier that year. But there were still a lot of players on hand. Don Larsen was there and he threw out the first pitch to Yogi and then David Cone threw the 16th perfect game in MLB history. It was the last game I saw at the old Yankee Stadium. I never felt like I needed to go back after that.

Anyway, I didn't mean to go on and on, but I better write this stuff while I am young before the memories are lost forever. Here is the Yogi book review:



It would be easy to string together a biography of Yogi based on malapropisms with an occasional World Series heroic thrown in for good measure. In fact, I think I’ve read that book. Luckily, Allen Barra’s biography of Yogi is more interested in making known Yogi as the one-of-a-kind catcher. . . and an above-average manager.

What you get with Barra’s book is a real understanding of how Yogi rose from humble origins and had to fight everyone including his own parents to play baseball professionally. Most scouts thought he looked awkward so they wouldn’t sign him. Branch Rickey offered Joe Garagiola $500 to play baseball but would only offer Yogi $250 and Yogi declined out of principle.

After signing with the Yankees he made so little money he couldn’t afford to eat playing minor league ball. No one thought he looked like a ballplayer. The author explains that during his service in World War II people thought Yogi was putting them on when he said that he played in the Yankees organization. And it wasn’t until another team offered $50,000 for Yogi’s contract that the Yankees paid attention.

One of the most important questions that the author raises in the book is why 1947-1964 isn’t considered the Yogi Berra era despite the fact that he won the MVP three times and was the only guy around for the entire period. With DiMaggio in decline in the late 1940s, Yogi so often carried the team while playing the toughest position in the game. He continued to do so as Mickey Mantle established himself in the early 1950s. In the Appendix, Barra puts together a lengthy and persuasive argument that Yogi was the greatest catcher in baseball history by making his case as a hitter and showing how his pitching staff seemed to improve when he was behind the plate.

Yogi’s life doesn’t end after he retired in the mid 1960s. The author does a thorough job of explaining Yogi’s season as Yankee manager in 1964, his stint with the Mets including managing them in the 1973 World Series, and then back to the Yankees for coaching and managing before ending his career in Houston. In doing so he also recounts Yogi’s rift with George Steinbrenner and their eventual reconciliation.

In addition to the life of Yogi, you also meet some other interesting people along the way. For instance, I have never read so much about Elston Howard and now I wish I’d known him. We read about Whitey Ford here as you’d expect, but we also get to know Allie Reynolds, the best pitcher and during the 1949-1953 era. We get to see Casey Stengel up close by one of the few players that seemed to understand him. The author does a good job of recounting Yogi’s friendship with Phil Rizzuto including their business partnership and Yogi’s persuasive case to the HOF veterans committee to induct Phil. The reader also learn why Toots Shor was such a popular saloon with ballplayers and celebrities. There is also a thorough recap of the Copacabana incident with many details I had never read.

Simply put, if you are a baseball fan interested in the life of Yogi Berra and/or this era in Yankees baseball, this book is well worth your time.

BACK TO WORK

I miss the blog. For the last two months it has been hard to write anything because everything seemed trivial. My dad was such an important person in my life. He shaped me in a number of ways that influenced how I see the world and he introduced me to many of the things that I will enjoy until I leave this earth. I've been watching baseball, football, and golf from my earliest memories alongside my dad. No one was more happy with the Yankees resurgence in the mid 1990s than dad. And had he lived to see the Lions complete an 0-16 season he would have shook his head insisted that they find some linebackers.

The blog is already scattered with references to dad because of his influence on me and I suspect that will only increase over the next year. It is easy to write a tribute to people who have had an influence on you and I have done so many times here. But it's not easy to sum up a person who had the most direct and lasting influence. It's going to take time to do it right and I need time to get use to the idea before I can accomplish it.

Only a few weeks before dad's heart gave out I was asked by Amazon.com to join their Vine program. They let me choose free items and I agree to review them. Being responsible for reviews and writing them this past week got me going again with words and now I'm ready to re-join my Junto brethren. The timing of the invite is curious. John was asked to join Vine over a year ago. I thank the good lord for the timing of it and I will post my Yogi Berra review on the blog this weekend.

Thanks everyone for your emails and phone calls during this unexpected life changing time. John and I have probably spent more time together in the past two months than in the last year before that and he said he's ready to come back and contribute to the blog as well. You can find his early entries as far back as 2003. I'm looking forward to him participating in our dialogue.

PACMAN JONES RELEASED BY COWBOYS

But he is taking it well.

"If I beat myself up, who will take care of me?" Jones said, according to the report. "Football means a lot to me, but it's not everything. It's not like I'm taking it pretty good. I love me some me."

2008 MUSIC

I got home after midnight on New Year's Eve and decided that I was much too square and needed to buy some new music. Now that Billy Joel and Danny Elfman don't make records anymore, there are not many current bands that I keep up with. I do try to keep up with the new releases from The White Stripes, Coldplay, The Finn Brothers, and Beck. Other than that, 95% of my music is older than my kids and much of it is even older than me.

So, I spent the first few hours of the New Year researching some top 10 lists to point me towards some good contemporary music. I went to All Music and found 13 lists, which I cross-referenced, winnowing the titles down to only those that appeared on multiple lists. Next, I went to Metacritic, which has 47 lists and also a handy summary of which titles appear on mulitiple lists. They also have a list of the top reviewed albums of the year, which has little overlap with the favorite albums. I was mainly looking for music that people like and listen to, rather than just recommend and put on the shelf.

My final visit was to Rolling Stone, who have posted a list of the top 50 albums of the year. They seem to weight more towards the popular stuff rather than the avant garde or experimental. Ranking high are the new releases from Coldplay and Beck, which I will own soon enough, but not yet. I've had good luck finding those artists' previous releases at the public library so I'm willing to wait it out. I was aiming to discover new artists, and those still on the upswing rather than the established vanguard, so I discounted any bands with more than a few albums already. Of the remaining titles, I gave a listen to everybody at iTunes and then put my $100 budget to work. Here are the 2008 albums which I now own:

Dear Science by TV on the Radio - seemingly the top album of the year. Number one with a bullet at RS and one of only two albums to appear on all four sources I scoured.
Rolling Stone: 1
Metacritic: 4
Meta top: 26 of 47
AMG top: 3 of 13

Fleet Foxes by Fleet Foxes - the only other album to appear on all four lists. I haven't listened to it yet.
Rolling Stone: 10
Metacritic: 7
Meta top: 17 of 47
AMG top: 3 of 13

Santogold by Santogold - popular amongst some of the AMG editors. I have listened to it and like it. I can't understand the words, but I like the voice. I also like the melodies and grooves.
Rolling Stone: NR
Metacritic: NR
Meta top: 0
AMG top: 2 of 13

Vampire Weekend by Vampire Weekend - I recognized the name as a band that played on SNL last year. I always skip the music on that show, so it's new to me.
Rolling Stone: 6
Metacritic: NR
Meta top: 0
AMG top: 2 of 13

Third by Portishead - this sounds like good slow groove music for old guys like me. They have a fantastic reputation amongst critics. I also bought their first album, Dummy.
Rolling Stone: NR
Metacritic: 18
Meta top: 20 of 47
AMG top: 3 of 13

Midnight Boom by The Kills - wildy popular at AMG but non-existant everywhere else. I liked what I heard in the samples, so I bought it.
Rolling Stone: NR
Metacritic: NR
Meta top: 0
AMG top: 5 of 13

Robyn by Robyn - one of the top reviewed albums of the year, but nobody's favorite, maybe because it is the US release of a 2005 Swedish album. I liked the sound of it and bought the clean version.
Rolling Stone: NR
Metacritic: 11
Meta top: 0
AMG top: 0

A Little Bit Longer by Jonas Brothers - I didn't buy this, but I include it here since it made the RS list and I've been listening to it lately with Mason after finding it at the library last month. It's aimed at kids, but it's good enough that the parents won't toss it out the window.
Rolling Stone: 40
Metacritic: NR
Meta top: 0
AMG top: 0

I also purchased At Budokan by Cheap Trick (1979), which is now Mason's wake-up music entering the new year. We played Rock Band at his cousins' house over the holiday and he loves the song Hello There, which was made famous by this live album.

Now that I've got some new music, I am not only a little less of a dexter, but I've got some good grooves to enjoy during the commute to my new job (more on that soon).

EARTHQUAKE

Last night, just after midnight, a sudden boom rattled the house. We had no idea what it was, maybe a sonic boom caused by an aircraft returning to the military base northwest of here? The rumble lasted about ten seconds and seemed to be coming from that direction.

Turns out it was an earthquake about 15 miles from here measuring 3.3 on the Richter scale. Apparently there are a number of minor fault lines in this area, and people who have lived here a long time knew immediately what it was.

Our local newspaper was on the scene:

Quake shakes Lancaster County
By ANNE KOENIG, Staff Writer

Robert Kreider, of Ridge Road, Mount Joy Township, was in the bathtub when, "I felt it in my butt," he related. "It vibrated."

I suspect his buddies will remember that quote for a good while.

Krieder is planning to spend all of New Year's Eve in the tub hoping for aftershocks.

JURY DUTY

I registered for Selective Services in 1987 but the decades went by and I never got the call for jury duty. In Orlando, Marci got one summons after another, she would postpone her service, postpone it again, then finally go for the day, and come home saying she didn't get placed on a jury. I've been working freelance ever since we married, so I wasn't nearly as busy as she was, so I've always hoped that my name would get picked out of the hat and I'd get the nod.

It never happened until 2006, after we'd moved to LA, the world's largest court system. My first summons was to report if needed to the Malibu court. By this time, I wasn't working at all, so my fingers were crossed that I would get to sit in judgment of Robert Downey Jr, but I called in every day, and never did they need me. My name came up again in 2007, this time for Santa Monica, but again, I didn't have to appear. In 2008, third time was a charm and I got the nod to appear on the Thursday before Veterans' Day in November in Van Nuys.

I took a book and settled in for a long day in the Jury Selection room. There were about 80 of us and it was less than half an hour later when I was part of the first 40 to head next door to the criminal courtroom of Justice Steele. We all were assigned a number and mine was 4 which ensured that I began the selection process by sitting in the juror box. First, the judge had us introduce ourselves and say what we do for a living, or what we study in school, what our spouses do, how many children we have, what they do, etc. We had to disclose if we were familiar with any of the principles in the case, and if we had any prejudices which would preclude us from rendering an impartial verdict. Only jurors 1-24 spoke during this part, while 25-40 sat idly.

Then, the prosecuting attorney, Bollinger had a chance to ask the twelve of us some questions of his own devising. Next, the defense attorney, Halpern, asked us questions. The two attorneys then met with the judge in sidebar and when they came back, they took turns saying thanks but no thanks to whomever they wanted off the jury for whatever reason, which they need not state. Gone was the physician, gone was the pastor, gone was the lady whose brother was accused of murdering his wife. In all, ten jurors were dismissed. Finally, both attorneys were pleased with the composition of the jury and numbers 23 and 24 were seated as alternates. By this time, it was 1PM and we were dismissed for the day. We reappeared on Friday, but were immediately sent home for the weekend. On Monday, the judge read his instructions to the jury and we heard opening statements. Then we were done until Wednesday.

The defendant's name was Catherine, a 19-year-old Hispanic-Seminole blend from North Hollywood. She was being charged on two counts - simple battery and disturbing the peace. We had no way to know if this was her first brush with the law or merely the latest. The defense seated four witnesses. The first two were police officers and the latter two were dog owners who were at the park across the street from the incident. The basic timeline was this: one of the dog owners called the cops to report an act of vandalism after hearing a car window get broken by an unknown source. Officers Esturban and Tomlinson drove by in their patrol car and saw the defendant's younger brother, Danny, walking his dog on the sidewalk. The officers recognized the 18-year-old Danny because he is a thug with whom they've dealt with before. They decide to have a talk with Danny, and because he's rotten to the core, they handcuffed him first for their own safety.

Up to this point, Danny was perfectly compliant. Concurrent to this scene, Catherine and her friend, who have walked ahead of Danny, were alerted to the fact that Catherine's brother was being "arrested." Catherine is a big girl, and she came storming down the sidewalk shouting "What the fuck? You can't even walk down the street?" Tomlinson was acting as the contact officer, cuffing Danny, while Esturban served as the support officer, establishing a perimeter. With Catherine approaching in a belligerent and aggressive manner, Esturban held up his arm and ordered her to stop. She bitch slapped his hand away and barged past him, thus the battery charge. At this point, Esturban got Catherine against a tree and began to subdue and handcuff her. This treatment of his sister totally set off Danny, who immediately starts kicking and spitting on the officers. Tomlinson leads Danny over to the squad car and Danny uses his legs to push off against the car and take Tomlinson and himself to the ground.

At this point, Tomlinson activated a recording mechanism that he carries on his person and the next eight minutes comprise a recording that was played in the courtroom. Backup arrived almost instantly and soon there were at least a dozen cops and two helicopters on scene. On the tape, you don't hear any police brutality, only calming directives such as "Calm down! Stop resisting!" You hear Catherine only a few times in the background saying "I'm okay, Danny!" and such, in an effort to calm her brother. Danny, on the other hand, is out of control, kicking, screaming, spitting, and at one point even tells Tomlinson point blank that "You're a dead man." There's little doubt in my mind that Danny is already serving time, compliments of some previous jury.

The defense offered a gaggle of eyewitnesses before calling upon the defendant herself, all in effort to hint towards police brutality in hopes for enough of a sentiment for jury nullification that they can hope for at least a hung jury if not reasonable doubt. The story was pretty much the same, other than the cops were provoking the Latinos on the street for sport, needlessly harassing Danny and pushing around Catherine once they could legitimately claim in their police report that the situation had escalated. There was one witness who actually stated that the police told him to get off the street unless he wanted to get arrested. We pretty much disregarded that guy's testimony during deliberation, but he did provide the funniest moment of the trial.

The guy was scared to death to be in a courtroom because he most likely is not even in the country legally, and only appeared because he was subpoenaed by the defense. He brought his little daughter with him, who sat in the front row while he gave his testimony through an interpreter. When he was asked what the defendant had been shouting while she approached the scene, he replied "She was saying very bad things." The lawyer said "Can you give us your recollection of exactly what the defendant was saying?" The interpreter said "Da da da da da" and the witness said "Da da da da da" and the interpreter said "She was using some very bad language." Again, the lawyer asked for his specific recollection, again the "da da da, da da da" and the interpreter says "Do you want me to say the things?" Confirmation from the lawyer and another round of "da da da" and the interpreter says "It was bad things." At this point the lawyer asked for a sidebar, and everyone disappeared into the back hall for half a minute and when they came back, the judge had the baliff escort the little girl out of the room and out of earshot. The question was once again posed to the witness and in perfect English, without the aid of the interpreter, he says "She shouted 'what the fuck are you doing to my brother, you mutherfuckers!" Everybody busted up, including the judge.

There was another funny moment during the prosecution's closing argument. When Catherine had bitch slapped Esturban, she had called him Esturbitch. Bollinger had managed to use Esturban and Esturbitch each in their proper place until closing, when he referred to him as Officer Esturbitch. Again, the judge led the chorus of guffaws.

It was Tuesday, the week after Veterans' Day, when the jury was finally led to the deliberation room. The first order of business was to choose a foreman, and that was easy since I was the only person to volunteer. My pal Steve Whitaker sent out an email years ago to his fantasy baseball friends, directing us to be the foreman if we ever get the chance to serve on a jury. I might never get the chance again, so I was eager to volunteer. I thought it was going to be a slam dunk conviction, but once you get in that room, you realize that 12 random people have a way of hearing the same information 12 different ways. There were reasonable people who didn't have much to say other than 'guilty' but there were more than one unreasonable people who either wanted to stick it to the cops or who weren't even sure an offense was committed.

We only had 40 minutes or so on Tuesday before we were released, and I spent that night strategizing and forming mini-monologues for the next day, since I was assigned with the task of getting these random people to all agree in the end. I led off Wednesday morning by stipulating that we are all different and we have been thrown together at random to render judgment on an individual based solely on facts that were presented in the courtroom. I recommended that we in turn present our interpretation of the case to our fellow jurors, including our own prejudices and perceptions of the facts and how we would vote on each count. I went first and spoke for a long time, since I fielded everyone's questions and explained my position on everything and anything to do with the case.

My position was that disturbing the peace was a slam dunk guilty because everything was fine until the defendant started yelling at the cops and then all hell broke loose. So far as the battery went, Esturban says there was contact, Catherine says there was no contact, so they cancel out, because I don't inherently believe a man in uniform more so than anyone else. There were two ladies in the dog park, one of which had a good view of the initial approach of Catherine to Esturban. I didn't have in my notes exactly what this lady saw, but I considered her reliable, so I put the request in to have her testimony read back to us. Meanwhile, we argued on about this and that as the day wore on.

At some point, it occurred to me that everybody thought the defendant was guilty of something but we differed as to exactly what. I asked the group to raise their hand if they would like to see the defendant charged with one of the counts, regardless of which one. All 12 hands went up. Okay, now raise your hand if you think it should be disturbing the peace; 6 hands went up, leaving 6 voting for battery. We discussed each count and came to the general conclusion that even though both counts were classified as misdemeanors, battery sounded like the more serious offense. So, with the understanding that if we can't agree on a unanimous verdict, then the defendant is convicted of nothing and sent home, raise your hand if you would agree to convict her with disturbing the peace if the alternative was a hung jury. Eleven hands went up with the sole holdout adamant that the girl be convicted of battery to send a message that it is simply unacceptable to barge past the law.

When the same question was posed in reverse, ten jurors were okay with convicting of battery and not the other, but the two holdouts were not yet fully convinced that there was enough contact to legitimize the battery charge. At that point, the god in the machine, aka the court reporter, appeared to read back testimony from the dog lady. The testimony couldn't have been more clear: she heard commotion, she stood on a table, she saw the officer put his arm out and she saw the defendant slap away the arm and push past him. The court reporter left the room and the holdouts were convinced: guilty of simple battery. With that conviction settled, we revisited the disturbing the peace charge and came to a relatively quick decision that since Esturban himself said on the stand that Catherine's foul language, including her Esturbitch remark, had no effect on him and did not in itself escalate the situation, then we decided we could absolve her of the guilt that really lay with her brother in turning a routine stop into a full out police action.

Within five minutes of the court reporter leaving the room, the discussion was concluded, the paperwork completed, and I put a call in to the baliff to let him know we had reached a verdict. The principle players were gathered in the courtroom and I handed the verdict to the judge, who looked it over and handed it to the clerk to read. Unlike the movies, where the verdict is read in a manner to heighten suspense, the actual paperwork goes something like: The jury renders a decision of guilty (filled in blank) and then goes on into the legalese and minutiae. By the time the entire paper is recited, the defendant is already weeping and the mother is shooting death stares at the jury foreman.

So, in the end, the defendant got what she deserved for displaying thuggish behavior and I got a tremendous feeling of satisfaction not only for performing my civic duty in this ancient practice of trial by jury, but for serving as the foreman and using my negotiating skills to bring a room full of disparate personalities together for a just decision. Many people put a lot of energy into trying to avoid jury duty. I'm telling you, if you ever get the chance to sit on a jury, try not only to get on, but volunteer to be the foreman. It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

BUSH

I have gone cold turkey off all political news since Election Night, but I got an email pointing me to Jay Nordlinger's account of his hour recently with President Bush. The maddening thing about Bush has been that he is not a poor communicator per se but is a poor communicator qua President. I still believe that history will be kinder to him than the press and contemporary historians have been, but also that history will chronicle the erosion of America's moral superiority and Bush's futile fight against it.

"You know, I don’t follow these opinion polls. But I will tell you, people want to come to America. I will tell you, America is respected. Our values are cherished — because they’re not our values; they’re universal values.”

What should be watched “over these coming decades is the prevalence of moral relativism, which is manifested during my presidency, saying, ‘Bush is imposing his values.’ [He fairly shouts this.] Well, if you believe these are Bush’s values or American values, then you don’t believe in the universality of certain values. And so I firmly believe that our respect is strong in the world. I’d rather be respected than liked. And we are respected, and our values are cherished, and the lines are long to come to America.”

A word about popularity: You can be popular, but “at what price”? “You can get short-term popularity in the Middle East if you want, by blaming all problems on Israel. That’ll make you popular. You can be popular in certain salons of Europe if you say, ‘Okay, we’ll join the International Criminal Court.’ I could have been popular if I’d said, ‘Oh, Kyoto is the way to deal with the environmental problem.’ That would have made me liked. It would have made me wrong, however. And, ultimately, you earn people’s respect by articulating a set of principles and standing by them.

“You know, popularity comes and goes. It just does. It comes and goes for an individual or a nation [sing it, brother]. But principles are enduring.”

Nordlinger's recap is worth reading it its entirety.

On Harriet Miers:

“I think it was important to nominate, not only a person who’d be a great judge, but someone who was not a part of the judicial-nominee club. She went to SMU Law School. I recognize it’s not Harvard or Yale — those are great law schools — but you can also have great lawyers come from” other places. (It helps to have gone to Harvard and Yale, as Bush did — in the opposite order — if you want to talk this way.)

More on SCOTUS:

I mean, I think of Miguel Estrada, unbelievably brilliant, and it’s a fabulous American story . . .”

Me: “That’s why he had to be stopped.”

“Yes. Oh, absolutely. But I look at it from his perspective, not theirs. And his perspective is, I want to serve, I want to be in a position to exercise my intellect, I want to help my adopted country . . . And yet he just got hung out there. It was very discouraging, I’m sure, to him and to others who watched the process.”

On communication during war:

“When the president speaks during a time of war, I’ve found there to be four broad constituencies:

1. The people -- that this war is necessary in the interests of our national security.

2. The enemy -- that we will pursue them, find them, and justice will prevail.

3. The Iraqis -- that we are there as long as necessary, or they'll run to the nearest militia for protection.

4. The military -- that we will honor their service and sacrifice by winning the war.

I just sent this email to the author.

Thanks Jay for your Dec 10 Impromptus. I have gone cold turkey off all political news -- TV, radio, and print -- since Election Night. But I saw the link to your piece in yesterday's NRO Digest and knew you would be a reliable lift. You present Bush as the man I thought he was, the man so many of us thought he was before he disappeared, and you remind us why we voted for him, twice, and why we were right to do so, twice. Some future wartime President will have pictures of George W. Bush on his wall.

Merry Christmas.

WHY ISN'T MARVEL SMITH ON IR?

If you understand Ed's answer, please explain it to me.

ZYDECO SWEET POTATO CRAB CHOWDER

I made this for guests last weekend and it was a big hit. My local sausage vendor at the farmer's market came up huge with the turkey andouille.

Ingredients:
2 pieces bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
4 ounces andouille, ground or chopped (approximately two 4-inch links of andouille)
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/3 cup chopped shallots
1/4 cup chopped celery
1 tablespoon minced jalapeño, seeded
1 15-ounce can cream-style sweet corn
2 15-ounce cans low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon Creole seasoning
1/2 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
2 cups, drained and diced Princella cut sweet potatoes in light syrup
1 cup whole milk8 ounces cooked Louisiana lump crabmeat
2 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley, in all

Directions:
Cook the bacon in a large stockpot over medium heat until it begins to crisp. Remove bacon. Add the andouille to the bacon drippings. Sauté for about 3 minutes or until the andouille is crispy.
Remove 2 tablespoons of the andouille and set aside for garnish. Add the bacon along with the red bell pepper, shallots, celery, and jalapeño. Sauté for about 5 minutes or until fragrant and vegetables are tender.
Add the cream corn, chicken broth, Creole seasoning, and black pepper. Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes. Next add in the sweet potatoes, stir to incorporate and let simmer 5 minutes, then add the milk and all but 2 tablespoons of the crabmeat, let simmer another 5 minutes or until mixture is heated through.
Stir in 1 tablespoon of parsley. Adjust seasoning if necessary. In a small bowl toss the remaining parsley, crab, and andouille together and use as garnish.
Ladle into bread bowl, individuals bowls, or a soup tureen. Garnish with the reserved andouille/crab mixture. Allow guests to use hot sauce as desired.

PLAX BEING PLAX

I was glad when the Steelers got rid of Plaxico because of his attitude, personality, and off-field problems. The Giants won a Super Bowl with him, but the Steelers won a Super Bowl without him, the year after his release.

The Steelers have always been good about avoiding or dismissing people like him. People in the media this morning are calling the latest incident a "first-time offense" but those who followed his career with the Steelers know this is not his first run-in with the law. Every Friday night he is a police report waiting to happen.

Plax is not too bright. I remember one game where he caught a ball across the middle, fell to the turf without being touched, jumped up and spiked the ball to make a statement, the way sulking WRs do when you finally throw them the damn ball, which in this case was a fumble of a live ball and should have but didn't teach him a lesson.

His buddies are apparently not much smarter. Antonio Pierce, his partner in crime, when asked how Plax was recovering from his injury, replied,

“I went to school for four years at the University of Arizona, but I didn’t get a doctorate, so I don't have that answer."

. . .because, for any other of his friends who may be reading, you get a doctorate to become a doctor to be able to know how your wounded friend is recovering.

Mayor Bloomberg has been emphatic that persons carrying unlicensed concealed weapons in New York will do 3-1/2 years in the slammer, no exceptions. I guess we'll just see about that.

UPDATE: Plax reportedly laughed and joked with a teammate on the phone last night. Today not so funny. Mayor Bloomberg:

Bloomberg said anything short of at least the 3 ½-year minimum for felony gun possession would be "a sham, a mockery of the law."

"I think it would be an outrage if we didn't prosecute to the fullest extent of the law, particularly people who live in the public domain ... If we didn't prosecute to the fullest extent, then I don't know who on earth you would."

"It's pretty hard to argue the guy didn't have a gun that it wasn't loaded. You've got bullet holes in and out to show it."

When the mayor tells the D.A. (and all the papers) that you must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and your "not guilty" plea includes a bullet hole in the leg and any number of witnesses and co-conspirators eager not to pay for their own complicity, my guess is that Michael Vick is more likely to wear an NFL uniform next season than Plax. And I'm okay with that.